By Brant Daughtry
Rebels, Bears, Sharks
Ole Miss is coached by Kermit Davis, but we’ll see how long that lasts. He’s been head coach for five seasons now, and it feels like the program is starting to slip away from him. He’s only made the NCAA Tournament once, and that was his first season with the program. He’s had Ole Miss on the bubble more years than not, and pulled in decent recruiting classes, but can’t seem to get over the hump to really compete.
This season, it doesn’t look like Ole Miss is going to make that leap. They’re 8-7 overall, and have yet to win a conference game. The most impressive game they have is a close loss to Tennessee, which they did play in their home stadium. But, other than that, they’ve been not very impressive this year. They’re built like Auburn, defense first, but so far they’re an even worse shooting team than Auburn has been. Unfortunately, that will make them desperate. A win over Auburn would go a long way towards turning this season around.
Players to Watch For:
Guard Matthew Murrell, #11- Pretty much everything runs through Murrell for the Rebs. He averages 33 minutes a game, best by seven minutes. He’s also the only player with a double digit scoring average.
Forward Myles Burns, #3- Burns is second in minutes for the Rebels, and is their leading big man. He’s a good athlete, and gets his at the offensive end. But he’s really out there to clean up the boards, leading the Rebs in rebounds with 6.7 a game.
This is a big game for Auburn. Certainly not the best team they’ll play, in fact it might be the second worst (sorry South Carolina), but if Auburn has any chance at a decent road record this year, you have to show it against this team. They’re winless in conference play, and have lost seven of their last nine games. Like I said earlier though, this will make them desperate, and winning on the road is so very hard in college basketball, as Auburn demonstrated against Arkansas. Honestly, if you can’t do it against this crew, you’re going to have a hard time doing it at all.
The good news is, Auburn has shown how it can hang with, and even beat, good teams when it’s on. That win over Arkansas was one of the more impressive wins Auburn Basketball has had in some time. The team played with more confidence and precision than it had all season, especially on offense. That was the Auburn team that we were promised this off-season: suffocating on defense, and efficient on offense. What comes next, is showing you can go and do it in a hostile environment.
