The Ole Miss Rebels Men’s Basketball team is in the midst of preparing for the upcoming season with a season and home opener against Morehouse on November 11. The team is led this year by the lone four-year veteran, forward Sebastian Saiz .
Sebastian Saiz runs down court during a game last season. Saiz, who missed six games last year due to eye surgery, is primed to have the best season of his career. (Photo by: Ariel Cobbert)
Saiz is primed to have the best season of his career as a Rebel after much improvement during the offseason offensively, defensively and with strength and conditioning. Head Coach Andy Kennedy had nothing but praise for the Spaniard.
“One of my favorite guys that I’ve had here. His energy is always right, positive, and he will put in the work,” Kennedy said.
Saiz is looking to improve from the previous season where he averaged nearly a double-double, averaging 11.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. He managed to produce these numbers despite missing six games to eye surgery to repair a partially detached retina.
When asked about his eye injury last year and the motivation that it gives him for this year, Saiz said it was one of the scariest things that has happened in his life.
“It’s one of the biggest reasons why I stayed at Ole Miss. I want to prove myself,” Saiz said.
The senior forward looks to be the leader of a Rebel team that includes 12 scholarship players of whom only six have been under the program and only five have game experience.
“I think if you polled the guys in our locker room and asked them to name the five starters, there’d only be one guy on every ballet. Sebas,” Kennedy said.
When asked about his focus for preparing the team this year, Kennedy said, “Toughness. It’s an approach day in and day out. I’ve thought about doing things that I’ve never done”.
This includes Kennedy’s plan to make Saiz the first option on offense for the Rebels through his work in the post. While Saiz is a proven post player, he has even begun extending his range through work behind the arc during the offseason.
“He’s going to make a lot of threes,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy said a lot of the scoring from deep that was provided by former Rebel star guard Stefan Moody and former forward Tomasz Gielo will need to be replaced by his guards and stretch forwards, and he envisions Saiz contributing to that as well.
With a Rebel lineup consisting of only five returning players, if Ole Miss hopes to make the NCAA Tournament, it will need to mesh quickly as it faces a tougher non-conference slate.
“That’s always the goal. My whole focus is on making Sebas (Saiz) and Sheed (Rasheed Brooks) leave here being successful,” Kennedy said. “When you look at our team, we have five to six guys who could average double figures”.
Both Kennedy and Saiz said they are excited for the new support down low with the “European twin towers” consisting of freshman big men Karlis Silins from Riga, Latvia, and Dominik Olejniczak from Torun, Poland.
“Last year, I was the biggest guy on the court, and I was getting away with things like you could stay behind someone on defense and getting offensive rebounds,” Saiz said. “But this year you’ve got to bust those guys every time on defense and stay in front of them.”
Saiz said the addition of the two has helped in practice by forcing him to adapt defensively now that he has two practice partners larger than him. He and Kennedy both elaborated on how Saiz has been beneficial in getting the new international players to understand and adapt to the culture.
“I’m trying to teach them things I’ve learned in the past three years,” Saiz said. “I talk to them every day.”
There is much anticipation for the Ole Miss Rebels basketball team this year, and Saiz is ready to assume a leadership role in his final year.
