Rebel Spotlight: James White is on breakout watch for Ole Miss basketball. And he knows it.
James White might be on breakout watch for Ole Miss basketball.
The late-season emergence of the now-second-year Rebel guard was one of the few positives as a forgettable 2021-22 campaign limped to the finish line, and he’s only continued his strong run of on-floor work over a taxing summer.
Ole Miss was a perfect 3-0 on its recent foreign tour to The Bahamas. White averaged 23.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game. He also shot 64 percent from the field.
“What I see different (in the team) is more togetherness,” White exclusively told the Ole Miss Spirit. The full interview can be heard below. “We all want this together. Nobody has that whole, ‘I want to do this for me.’ We want to do it for each other.
“That plays a big part. You can’t do anything if you don’t want to do it with each other and have each other’s back. This year, we have that, and we have people that just want to fight for each other and do things as a team and put the team first before everybody else.”
White expects to get buckets.
Call it a summer directive handed down by now-fifth-year Ole Miss head coach Kermit Davis. A directive White took to heart for the short-handed Rebels over several games in Nassau and Atlantis.
Ole Miss was without lead guard Daeshun Ruffin, as well as true freshman guard Robert Cowherd, who Davis previously told the Ole Miss Spirit was one of the team’s very-best perimeter shooters.
White, in response, twice scored 23 points, with a game-high of 25 in game two, and he (23) was one of four Rebels to score double-digit points in a 121-75 beatdown of Raw Talent Elite in the tour finale.
However, White was most proud of how his hard work on his defense and rebounding showed up in game-like action. He’s trying to establish himself as a leader, too. White is refusing to let Ole Miss think anything less than the NCAA Tournament with the season opener steadily approaching in November.
Basically, James White is preparing for what could be his moment.
“We, the Ole Miss Rebels, are going to be back in the NCAA Tournament,” White said. “I’m telling you now.”
