Photo by Ignacio Murillo I The Daily Mississippian
The spring semester is just getting started, but Ole Miss basketball season is in full swing. Here’s a recap of the top stories so far this season.
Jarvis Summers
Ole Miss needed to find a second scorer opposite senior guard Marshall Henderson, and they have that in junior guard Jarvis Summers.
This production has come out of nowhere. Summers is eighth in the Southeastern Conference, averaging 18.1 points per game; he’s nearly doubled his average from last season of 9.1.
The amazing part of Summers’ season is that he has been asked to do more offensively and has responded with his most efficient season at Ole Miss.
He is attempting a career-high 10.9 shots per game and making a career-high 51.6 percent of his shots. His 3-point percentage of 53.4 leads the SEC. With his usage rate increasing from 19.1 percent to 27.1, his offensive rating has climbed nearly 16 points to 122.4. It is not often a player is asked to carry a heavier load and produces at a career-best efficiency.
Summers has done his damage with the dribble and attacking the basket. Summers leads the SEC in isolation efficiency, as he is scoring 1.21 points per possession on isolations, per Synergy Sports. He’s also second in the SEC in efficiency on the pick and roll. Summers is scoring 1.13 points per possession on pick and rolls and shooting 56 percent, while getting to the free-throw line on 25.4 percent of possessions.
Rebel head coach Andy Kennedy has called Summers the MVP of the team multiple times this season. Ole Miss needed someone to step up and help Henderson carry the load on offense, and Summers has been the lone consistent scorer with Henderson.
If his current play continues, Summers will be a lock for second team All-SEC and will make a strong push to be on the first team.
Frontcourt absence
It was going to be difficult to replace Murphy Holloway and Reggie Buckner in the Rebel frontcourt, but Ole Miss has gotten next to nothing from its post players this season. It is a major factor in Ole Miss’ bumpy start.
Freshman Sebastian Saiz scored 20 points on 8 of 11 shooting against LSU, but that was the only performance from a big man that has made a major impact since November.
Ole Miss is also one of the worst rebounding teams in the SEC. The Rebels’ rebounding percentage is 48.8, second worst in the conference. That means Ole Miss is grabbing less than 50 percent of available rebounds; the last time Ole Miss didn’t grab at least half of the rebounds was the 2006-07 season. In conference games, Ole Miss’ opponents are grabbing 41.9 percent of their own missed shots, second worst in the SEC.
Apart from the rebounding problems, Ole Miss hasn’t gotten any scoring from the post. This year the four big men are scoring 19.6 points per game, 24.9 percent of the team’s points. Last year, Holloway and Buckner scored 23.9 points per game, 30.1 percent of the team’s points.
The drop-off was expected, but Ole Miss figured to get some production from returning forwards Aaron Jones and Demarco Cox and from incoming three-star recruits in Saiz and Dwight Coleby. Coleby has been injured for part of the season, Saiz has shown promise and Jones and Cox combine to average 3.9 blocks per game, but Ole Miss needs consistent play up front to win consistently in the SEC.
Close games
Nine of the last 12 Ole Miss games have been decided by single digits, and two of the three that were decided by double digits went into overtime. The Rebels are 7-5 in those 12 games.
“There’s been a pattern that’s been formed,” Kennedy said after the loss to Mississippi State. “We’re not going to blow many people out, and we haven’t been blown out. Our guys scrap and fight. It’s not always the most pleasing to watch from any vantage point, but we stay in games. Then, it comes down to the stretch, and you have to make plays.”
Ole Miss took a top-15 Oregon team into overtime — the Ducks have fallen just out of the top 25 now — and also squeaked out a 1-point win against SEC bottom feeders South Carolina.
It hasn’t mattered who Ole Miss plays, the games come down to the very end. Ole Miss has fallen twice at home on a 3-pointer that went through the net with less than a second on the clock – Mercer and Dayton.
While Ole Miss hasn’t been in the highest-quality matchups, the games have been entertaining until the very end, and we all know how much joy — or hate — Henderson evokes during intense games. The Rebels will have to win a lot of these close games late for a run at returning to the NCAA tournament.
For continuing coverage of Ole Miss men’s basketball, follow @Tyler_RSR and @thedm_sports on Twitter.
