Thursday, January 9, 2014

Rebels Win SEC Opener

Ole Miss beat Auburn 65-62 in its SEC opener, improving to 10-4 and 1-0 in the SEC.



Full disclosure: I listened to the radio broadcast on my iPhone app while traveling home from Disney World. With so many games on television now, it's not very often I get to listen to David Kellum call games, so listening was fun and a welcome distraction from the nonstop Disney movies playing in the back. There's still something fun about visualizing the game off the radio call, and Kellum does is so well.

The Good: 

1. Ole Miss is 1-0 in the SEC, and got the win without leading scorer Marshall Henderson, and without a huge performance from Jarvis Summers (14 pts). That indicates that Ole Miss is getting more production from the rest of the team, which is a good thing, and hopefully when Henderson is back and Summers is back in 20-point range the Rebels can make some hay in conference play. We'll see. Either way, an SEC win without Henderson is a good thing.

2. Aaron Jones stepped up and had a big game. The Rebels have struggled with rebounds and scoring underneath through the non-conference portion of the schedule. Andy Kennedy has been imploring his big men for more. Jones answered Thursday night with 12 points, 7 rebounds and 5 blocks. It was a solid conference performance.

3. Janari Joesaar, the freshman from Estonia who has played very little thus far this season, scored 5 points and hit a 3-pointer that gave the Rebels some offensive life.

"They were zoning us," Kennedy said, "and the one thing Janari can do is make open shots. He gave us great minutes and good energy. He was the MVP of the game because when we were really stagnant offensively. He gave us a big lift." 

Joesaar has some developing to do, but he is said to be an excellent long range shooter, and he would be a nice weapon to have as conference play progresses.

4. The Rebels shot 50 percent from behind the arc. They were 7 of 14.

The Bad:

1. Rebounding is still a problem. Ole Miss was out-rebounded 40-30 and gave up 19 offensive boards to Auburn. While Jones had a good night Kennedy will continue to look for more from he and Demarco Cox (4 rebounds, 4 points). This was Auburn. The Tigers aren't a great team, and it looks like rebounding will continue to be a weakness.

The Ugly:

1. Free throws, free throws, free throws. Ole Miss was just 12 of 21 from the free throw line (57 percent).

2. Defense. Ugh. Auburn's Chris Denson scored 28 points, and to hear Kellum call it, sounds like a few too many of Denson's shots weren't heavily contested. That's a nice way of saying he was wide open.

Up Next:

at Mississippi State (3 pm, ESPNU). Once again, the Rebels will be without Henderson, who will be serving the last game of his suspension (given before the season for violations of team rules over the summer). If Ole Miss could come out of Henderson's suspension 2-0 that'd be a heckuva way to start SEC play.