Ole Miss men's basketball set to open 2021-22 season with New Orleans on Tuesday
The fourth season of the Kermit Davis era begins on Tuesday for the Ole Miss men’s basketball team, as the Rebels tip off the 2021-22 season against New Orleans.
Coming off an 83-76 exhibition win over Trevecca last Friday, Ole Miss will need more than the play of Jarkel Joiner to have success moving forward. The senior guard finished with a game-high 26 points along with 6 rebounds and 3 assists.
Entering the season, Davis has spoken highly of Joiner’s progress in the offseason and following the Trevecca game, continued that praise.
“It’s (Joiner’s) team,” Davis said. “We have some other really good leaders, but the basketball gods honor toughness and competitive people like that, it just does all the time. And if it does, boy he’s going to have a great year. He’s the first one there and just tries to lead.”
With the start of any new season, the anticipation of seeing newcomers out on the floor for the first time is high for Ole Miss fans.
McDonald’s All-American Daeshun Ruffin, the program’s first player in history with that distinction, is one that fans are anxious to see perform.
Against Trevecca, Ruffin finished with only five points in just over 17 minutes on the court. Duke transfer Jaemyn Brakefield recorded over 20 minutes of playing time on Friday but the forward finished with only 6 points and 4 rebounds.
Defensively, the Rebels switched up to a 1-3-1 scheme in the second half and found success down the stretch. Something to look for in the season opener against New Orleans is which defense will Davis start off with.
Another key, in Joiner’s eyes, is setting a tone early and not letting the Privateers find a rhythm like Trevecca did on Friday.
“We let them get too comfortable, I feel like,” Joiner said. “Not just underestimate them, but let them get too comfortable. So, we gotta bring it every night on the defensive end.”
Despite the struggles in the exhibition, Davis also remained positive about his roster.
“It’s college basketball,” Davis said. “We didn’t have the greatest practice (on Thursday). We go and scrimmage a great team two weeks ago and it looked like a top-15 game. It’s just college hoops. There’s just good players all over the place. Am I concerned with what I saw tonight? I sure am, but I still like our team. I’ve gotten beat in an exhibition game before by 20 and then came back and should have been an NCAA Tournament team.”
New Orleans is coming off a season where they went 10-15 and failed to make the postseason after playing two games in the Southland Conference Tournament. The Privateers fell to Loyola 80-72 in an exhibition game on Saturday.
Game time for Ole Miss and New Orleans is set for 6:30 p.m. CT at the SJB Pavilion on Tuesday. The game will air on SECN+ and ESPN+.
