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| Marshall Henderson leads Ole Miss in scoring. |
It's all over but the bowl invitation in football, and there's a Big East team (Rutgers to be precise) visiting Tad Smith Coliseum to take on the currently undefeated Ole Miss Rebels (5-0) today for a 1 p.m. match-up in the SEC/Big East challenge (ESPNU). It's time to put our basketball hats on and get ready for a few months of what should be an exciting season in Oxford, where the Rebels are everybody's favorite pick to be on that NCAA bubble that Andy Kennedy's teams so notoriously ride. For Kennedy to finally get his NCAA ticket punched Ole Miss can't afford a slip-up on its home court against a decent non-conference opponent the likes of Rutgers (4-1). So even though its only December 1, it wouldn't be a stretch to call this game important.
Rutgers is 4-1 with an early season loss to St. Peters and wins against Princeton, Boston University, and UNC-Greensboro. The Scarlet Knights are led by Eli Carter, who was named to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll on Monday after averaging 22.5 points, while shooting 56.0 percent (14-of-25) and a perfect 14-of-14 from the free throw line, to help Rutgers to a 2-0 record last week. He currently leads the BIG EAST and ranks 14th nationally in free throw percentage (95.7, 22-of-23), while also placing eighth in the conference in scoring (18.0) and tied for 10th in three-point field goals made per game (2.0).
If you haven't been paying attention yet because your head has been buried in football, there's something new and different you should know about this year's Rebels - they can actually shoot the basketball. Ole Miss has scored 90 or more points in four of its first five games and is averaging 88.4 points per game. By contrast, last year's Ole Miss team scored 90 or more points just once, in their season finale in the NIT, and averaged just 66.9 points per game. The difference is that Ole Miss is shooting better. The Rebels are shooting 46 percent from the floor and 68 percent from the free throw line.
The leading scorer is transfer journeyman Marshall Henderson who came to Ole Miss by way of Utah then a Texas junior college before being called upon by Kennedy to give the Rebels a desperately needed outside scoring threat. He's considered the possible missing piece by some who watched Ole Miss come oh so close last year, but lose games as a result of shooting struggles. Henderson is fulfilling his call so far, leading the team in scoring with 17 points per game and he is 20 of 56 from 3-point range. If Henderson has the rock and a look, Kennedy wants him to shoot. Watch for Henderson to take a bunch of shots against Rutgers.
In addition to Henderson the Rebels return current SEC Player of the Week Murphy Holloway (15.8 ppg, 9.4 rebounds pg), senior guard Nick Williams (10.2 ppg), shot blocking extraordinaire Reginald Buckner (9.8 ppg and 14 blocks), and sophomore guards Jarvis Summers and LaDarius White among others. New faces to watch include Derrick Millinghaus (out the next few weeks with a torn meniscus in his knee) and Martavius Newby. The early part of the schedule has been filled with cupcakes and Kennedy has substituted liberally. Against Rutgers we may get a closer look at the lineups Ole Miss will run when the action gets more fierce.