1. Ole Miss’ basketball team went into the 2013 SEC tournament needing wins to get to the program’s first NCAA tournament since 2002. The Rebels had placed themselves squarely on the bubble and needed to make an impression. Andy Kennedy’s future in the program was in limbo.
“People want results, and the NCAA tournament is the only result in basketball,” former forward Murphy Holloway said. “So, yeah, I felt pressure for AK.”
Mississippi head coach Andy Kennedy reacts during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Southern in Oxford, Miss., Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014. (Photo/Thomas Graning)
The Rebels came into the SEC tournament as a three seed and earned a bye in the first two rounds before a Friday night match up with Frank Haith and the six-seed Missouri Tigers. Ole Miss struggled early, and went into halftime trailing by seven.
The second half was much of the same; the Rebels trailed by 13 points with 13 minutes to play. With their NCAA tournament hopes hanging in the balance, they proceeded to erase the deficit and used a 10-1 run to tie the game with 2:44 after a Reginald Buckner-put back dunk completed the comeback.
The game went back and forth for the next two minutes. The Rebels trailed by three with 30 seconds left before an unlikely hero saved their season. Backup point guard Derrick Millinghaus, playing in place of an injured Jarvis Summers, hit a three to tie the game at 62.
“When Jarvis went down, my first thought was ‘I’m gonna have to make sure I take care of the ball and get my teammates involved,’” Millinghaus said. “After I made the 3 to tie it back up, I felt that I was in a groove to carry the team.”
After a Missouri turnover on the next possession, the Rebels found themselves with a chance to win the game, and yet again Millinghaus came up with a big shot. With five seconds remaining, the freshman from Brooklyn split two defenders and got into the lane before launching a floater over a defender that found its way inside the basket with under a second left, giving the Rebels the victory.
Ole Miss would go on to win the SEC tournament two days later, and clinch their first NCAA tournament berth in 12 years. Without Millinghaus’s heroics, the SEC Championship and NCAA tournament win wouldn’t have been possible, and it was indeed one a crucial moment in program history.
“I think that shot was huge for the program, but I also think my play before that shot was huge too,” Millinghaus said. “If it wasn’t for the rest of the team, I wouldn’t be able to be in that position to make that play.”
2. After Ole Miss beat Vanderbilt on Saturday in the 2013 SEC Tournament, the Rebels had to knock off Florida to win the SEC Tournament and guarantee the Rebels and NCAA tournament berth.
“Coach was just like ‘Hey man, go make a memory,” Murphy Holloway, senior forward, said.
Andy Kennedy led Ole Miss to its first SEC tournament title in 32 years as the Rebels knocked off 13th-ranked Florida 66-63. The Rebels struggled early, shooting just 43 percent from the field in the first half, and found themselves trailing 38-26 at halftime. The Rebels and their NCAA tournament hopes were still very much in question.
“AK said ‘We’ve been here before. We live here,” Holloway said. “We’re always down at half. We play our best basketball in the second half.”
Led by a 23-point and 10-rebound performance from Holloway, the Rebels mounted an enormous comeback and outscored the gators 40-25 in the second half. Florida had a chance to tie the game, but Kenny Boynton’s three point shot rattled out as time expired.
The win secured Ole Miss’ first NCAA tournament appearance since 2002.
3. A few hours after the Rebels defeated Florida to clinch the automatic berth from the SEC in the NCAA tournament, the Rebels learned they would play Wisconsin. The Badgers were known for their slow play and ball possession offense. The 12-seeded Rebels came into Kansas City as a big underdog against Bo Ryan’s 5-seeded Wisconsin Badgers.
“We didn’t let them control the game,” former forward Murphy Holloway said. “They didn’t have great shooters.”
Ole Miss went up against two future NBA first-round draft picks in Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker. A lot of brackets didn’t have the Rebels advancing past the Badgers. Marshall Henderson started off very slow, hitting just one of his first seventeen attempts. Henderson rallied to score 19 points, while Reggie Buckner added 9 points and 10 rebounds, as the Rebels outscored
Wisconsin 35-21 in the second half to come away with the 57-46 win.
“We just had to get out and run. They weren’t very talented,” Holloway said. “We out-toughed them and got the win.”
4. The Rebels barely snuck in the NCAA Tournament in 2015 after an embarrassing loss to South Carolina in the second round of the SEC Tournament. BYU shot lights-out in this game as they hit fifteen three-pointers and even held a 17-point halftime lead. However, the Rebels didn’t quit as they stormed back in the second half to knock off the Cougars 26-20. Stefan Moody led the way with 26 points, while senior forward M.J. Rhett racked up 20 points.
5. Trailing 69-68 with five seconds left, senior point guard Chris Warren lifted up and hit a three to defeat No. 10 Kentucky in the 2011 season. The Rebels had led the whole game but squandered the lead with minutes remaining. The 5-foot-10 point guard made sure that the Rebels would go home with one of the biggest wins in his coach’s tenure.
“It’s just so much fun,” Warren said after the game. “Winning is fun and we haven’t been doing that much lately. We called the play, ran it the right way and it felt good when it left my hand. We needed this really, really bad.”
