With their Friday night season opener just around the corner, the Ole Miss Rebels are ready to make a statement. Following an exhibition win over Morehouse College, the Rebels, led by Andy Kennedy, look to build upon previous success and make a run at the NCAA tournament. Junior Cullen Neal, a 22-year-old transfer from the University of New Mexico, believes this season has the potential to be special.
“I love how everything’s coming together,” Neal said. “I think we have a bunch of unique pieces and a bunch of different pieces that will help us be a great team.”
Getting those pieces to fit together, however, won’t happen overnight. With just two returning seniors, getting everyone up to speed on Kennedy’s game plan is a top priority. Neal, who led New Mexico in assists last year, knows that as with any young team, there will be growing pains.
“We did have a lot of turnovers the first game, I think we had 20 turnovers exactly,” Neal said. “Definitely taking care of the ball is something we’re going to work on.”
The problem with turnovers did not go unnoticed by the Ole Miss staff. Returning for his 10th season at the helm of the Rebels, Kennedy acknowledged that nerves will be a problem that plagues his younger players throughout the preseason and into regular season play, but that the turnover problem will smooth over with time.
“We got a lot of guys handling the ball. We got a lot of guys that are probably going a little too fast. We had two guys with three (turnovers) each. Breein had three at eight minutes, and Carlos had three at 18 minutes. Two freshmen had six of our 20,” Kennedy said.
Looking ahead to UT Martin on Friday, the Rebels cannot afford to make nearly as many mistakes as they have in the preseason. Kennedy is aware of the threat the Skyhawks possess.
“We’ve won 41 games in the last two years; they’ve won 41 games in the last two years, and they made the postseason,” Kennedy said. “They return a pretty solid nucleus from a group that’s had expectations of winning at their level.”
With a full roster at his disposal, barring Nate Morris and his shoulder injury, Kennedy is ready to keep experimenting with different line-ups and rotations until he finds the right fit. One thing he can’t control or experiment with is the environment. Playing at the brand new Pavilion in front of thousands of screaming fans can be quite the crucible.
“You go to the Pavilion and put a few fans out there and the lights and everything. It speeds guys up and gets them out of their comfort zone. So we’ll see a lot of that on Friday night when, obviously, the stakes are raised,” Kennedy said, “It’s just part of maturation of a group, and especially with how many new guys we have, it’s a work in progress.”
