Ole Miss basketball coach Andy Kennedy speaks during basketball media day in Oxford, Miss., Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014. (Photo/Thomas Graning)
The Ole Miss men’s and women’s basketball seasons are just around the corner as they will both host exhibition games Friday night. The women will play Christian Brothers University out of Memphis at 5 p.m., while the men will take on Delta State at 7 p.m.
The men’s team is coming off a disappointing 2013-2014 campaign, where they finished with a 19-14 overall record, going 9-9 in SEC play and failed to make the NCAA Tournament or the NIT. The Rebels lost sharpshooter Marshall Henderson over the summer, who is now playing professional basketball in Qatar.
Head coach Andy Kennedy said he will allow Bob Cousy Award Watch List member senior guard Jarvis Summers to have more control of the offense with Henderson gone.
“We’ll put the ball in Jarvis’ hands and let him make a lot of reads,” Kennedy said. “We’re going to play to the strengths of this team.”
With Summers penciled in as the only starter, Kennedy says that there’s a lot competition for the remaining starting spots.
“The other four spots change day-to-day, and we’ll continue to mix and match until we find the right group,” Kennedy said. “There’s the least amount of separation between the first unit and the second unit.”
Last season, some of the Rebels’ biggest deficiencies were rebounding and scoring in the paint. This year, coach Kennedy believes that Ole Miss should be much better in those areas.
“We feel that we’ve gotten a little bit better low-post presence. (Sophomore forward Sebastian) Saiz and (sophomore center Dwight) Coleby have both taken that next step,” Kennedy said. “We’re still trying to create angles to throw it close where we can be able to score.”
That production most assuredly will have to come from Coleby, who Kennedy believes has shown a lot of progress in fall practices.
“I think Dwight has made the biggest step forward physically and, from an endurance standpoint, is able to sustain things longer,” Kennedy said. “He was probably our most productive guy from a rim-protection standpoint and as well as rebounding the ball at the rate we’re going to need.”
The Rebels welcome five new faces to the team this season with junior college transfer guards Roderick Lawrence and Stefan Moody, Tennessee State transfer senior forward M.J. Rhett, U.T. Martin transfer senior guard Terence Smith and freshman forward Marcanvis Hymon. Kennedy doesn’t see chemistry as an issue with this new group.
“When you bring in two post grads (Rhett and Smith), and two junior college kids (Lawrence and Moody), you expect a little bit more of a maturity level,” Kennedy said. “We really haven’t had any issues so far as it relates to fitting all the pieces together.”
With all of the new faces, the media projected the Rebels to finish sixth in the conference at SEC Media Days last month.
The Ole Miss Women’s Basketball Team is coming off a rebuilding season where they finished with a 12-20 overall record, going 2-1 in SEC play. This season won’t get any easier as the Rebels lost starting point guard Valencia McFarland, who is now playing professional basketball in Romania.
With eight newcomers to the team, head coach Matt Insell believes that the new point guards will be the most important addition to the club.
“Freshmen (guards) Toree Thompson and A’Queen Hayes are having to replace a very good player in Valencia McFarland,” Insell said. “And so you’re asking two freshmen to be what Valencia was as one, and so hopefully, they can do that.”
Another notable newcomer is Oxford native and Murray State sophomore transfer guard Erica Sisk, who will add athleticism and length to the shooting guard position.
“I like her athleticism running the floor out on the perimeter, and I like that she will be the point for us defensively,” Insell said.
Ole Miss returns senior power forward Tia Faleru, who led the Rebels in scoring (16.4) and rebounding (9.4) last season. Insell believes that she has improved in a variety of ways over the offseason.
“She has improved in the mental aspect of the game, how she approaches practice and how she approaches film sessions,” Insell said. “Tia (last year) had a great year, but one thing I told her she had to get better at if she wants to be a professional is to learn how to approach the game mentally and learn more about the game, and she’s done that. She’s starting to see different things about her game and how people are guarding her.”
Junior guard Gracie Frizzell adds much needed shooting to the roster but also added more to her game over the offseason.
“Last year, I was just seen as a shooter, and coach challenged me to expand my game a little bit,” Frizzell said. ”I’ve worked on getting stronger and getting better defensively, so hopefully, I’ll be able to impact the team that way.”
Closing out games remained a problem last season for the Rebels, and Insell wants that to change this season. In multiple heartbreaking efforts, the Rebels lost four games last season by three or less points.
“We were playing really well last year. We went back this offseason, with our present team and showed them six or seven games where we had chances to win those games in the last minute and what went wrong. We’re going to try to fix what went wrong in those games.”
With the young roster, the media projected the Rebels to finish last in the SEC this season.
