Mississippi guard Marshall Henderson reacts after a teammate was called for a foul.
Ignacio Murillo I The Daily Mississippian
It has been the same story all season. The post play for Ole Miss has been subpar. Outrebounded, missed layups, and opponent alley-oops; the frontcourt has been embarrassing.
This time, it resulted in an 84-70 loss to No. 18 Kentucky Tuesday night in Tad Smith Coliseum, the Rebels’ third consecutive Southeastern Conference loss.
“We just can’t get anything at the basket,” Rebel head coach Andy Kennedy said. “We’re 26 games into this, and it has not changed. Our frontcourt field goal percentage is around 40 percent in league play. Sobering.”
As the bubble drifts out of view, the frontcourt continues to fail Ole Miss, and that was on full display against Kentucky, one of the longest teams in the country.
The Wildcats grabbed 39 rebounds to the Rebels 23. Kentucky grabbed 10 of their 26 missed shots. Kentucky’s star freshman, forward Julius Randle, had 25 points and 13 rebounds. He only missed two shots all night, as he was 6 of 7 from the field and 13 of 14 from the free throw line.
The three Kentucky big men that played over 10 minutes were 10 of 12 from the field, 17 of 20 from the free throw line, grabbed 22 rebounds and blocked four shots. Ole Miss’ four frontcourt players combined for seven points and 11 rebounds.
“We’re just not tough enough, physically, to put our nose in there and battle,” Kennedy said. “As a coach, when you’re saying that at the end of February, it’s pretty sobering, pretty disappointing. (It’s) my fault.”
Kentucky’s defensive scheme against Ole Miss was to switch every screen, which prevented junior guard Jarvis Summers from turning the corner on the pick-and-roll and kept senior guard Marshall Henderson from getting free for a three. But it should have resulted in the next option — the screener — getting space to operate. But Ole Miss couldn’t cash in.
“We hit the slip guy a number of times, but we can’t score at the basket,” Kennedy said. “Sometimes, it is even a victory to get a shot. We fail. How many layups have we missed?”
Ole Miss missed six layups against Kentucky; the Wildcats made 16 dunks or layups in the game. As Kennedy referred to, junior Aaron Jones, freshman Sebastian Saiz, freshman Dwight Coleby and junior Demarco Cox have made 40.9 percent of their shots this season.
Ole Miss is second to last in the SEC in rebound percentage. The Rebels grab just 47.9 percent of missed shots. They are last in the conference in defensive rebounding, as they grab just 63.9 percent of opponent misses.
Kennedy is obviously aware of the problems, but given the personnel and the pattern that has developed this year, there isn’t much more that can be done. Ole Miss is who they are.
“The rebounding woes, I’m really at a loss,” Kennedy said. “You’d be amazed at the emails I get. People ask, ‘Do you guys do block out drills?’ Actually, we do. I realize what the problem is. My problem is, I can’t do much about it right now.”
Tyler Bischoff. The Daily Mississippian
When asked about the future, if he had to correct the woes in recruiting, Kennedy said, “Thank you. You said it.”
But after the game, Saiz walked on to the court to get some shots up. Soon after, Jones joined him. As Ole Miss has eliminated any margin for error this season, at the very least, the frontcourt hasn’t given up.
For continuing coverage of Ole Miss men’s basketball, follow @Tyler_RSR and @thedm_sports on Twitter.
