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| Marshall Henderson |
by Jake Adams
It was the season's first road game for Ole Miss (6-1), and it didn't go well. Jarvis Summers got in early foul trouble, forcing Andy Kennedy to use Derrick Millinghaus and LaDarius White at point guard. The two players weren't ready for the tenacious Blue Raider defense and they combined for 7 turnovers. As a team the Rebels had 18 turnovers, compared to Middle Tennessee State's 14. It was the enough to be the difference in a 3-point game.
But there were other differences, too.
Shooting guard Marshall Henderson had nine chances to make it a completely different ball game. If any one those 3-point misses had fallen this story would probably read completely different, but Henderson couldn't get one to drop, finishing the night just 3 of 12 from behind the arch. As a team Ole Miss was just 23 percent from the 3-point line. In big contests against 20-win teams like MTSU, Henderson will have to do a little better if Ole Miss hopes to get over the hump this year. Henderson is now just 26 of 80 (32 percent) from 3-point range on the season and 10-for-46 in his last four games. By comparison, Henderson shot 41 percent from 3 point range in junior college last season. If the shots had fallen at that rate against MTSU Ole Miss would be 7-0.
Instead the Rebels are 6-1 and very much back in reality. They are a team that must do more things right than they did again the Blue Raiders if they want to sniff the NCAA Tournament. A win against a quality non-conference opponent like MTSU would have looked nice on the resume. Now Ole Miss has to make up for a loss that'll be used against them by the selection committee if it's another one of those "first-team-out" kind of years.
IMPROVEMENT: The Rebels were 13 of 16 from free throw range. Specifically, Reginald Buckner shot 6 of 8, a marked improvement from a week ago.
NEXT UP: East Tennessee State, Oxford, 7 p.m.