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Ole Miss Faces Drake In Paradise Jam First Round On Friday
• Ole Miss has held each of its first two opponents under 40 points for the first two times in the Andy Kennedy era.
• Ole Miss returns six lettermen and three starters from last year’s team that went 20-14 and played in the NIT.
• Head coach Andy Kennedy boasts a 107-64 record in his sixth year at Ole Miss.
•
Kennedy is the first Rebel coach to lead the program to four 20-win
seasons and the second to guide Ole Miss to four postseason appearances.
• Ole Miss is making its first ever trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands for men’s hoops.
• The Rebels are 67-17 in non-conference games under Kennedy.
• Ole Miss has gone 9-3 in early-season beach tournaments over the past four years.
• Ole Miss and Drake have never met on the hardwood.
•
Junior forward Murphy Holloway, who has transferred back to his
original school from South Carolina where he sat out last season, leads
the SEC in rebounding (13.5/game) after two games.
• Ole Miss enters
its first season in four years without the services of departed guards
Chris Warren and Zach Graham, who finished as the third- and
18th-leading scorers in school history, respectively.
REBEL DEFENSE DOMINATES FIRST TWO GAMES
Ole
Miss has held each of its first two opponents under 40 points (defeated
Louisiana-Monroe 60-38 and Grambling State 69-39), which marks the two
lowest scores by a Rebel opponent in the Andy Kennedy era. The
Warhawks’ 38 points are the fewest by a Rebel opponent since giving up
38 to Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Dec. 28, 2002. The Rebels top the SEC in
scoring defense (38.5) and field goal percentage defense (28.3) heading
into the Paradise Jam.
KENNEDY ADMINISTRATION BEGINS SIXTH YEAR
In
five seasons under Mississippi native Andy Kennedy, Ole Miss won 105
games (most by an Ole Miss coach in a five-year period), two SEC West
championships, four 20-win campaigns and four postseason berths, which
includes a pair of trips to the NIT Final Four. The Rebels have their
sights set on challenging for the program’s first SEC regular-season
championship and the first NCAA Tournament bid since 2002, as Kennedy
enters his sixth year at the helm.
NEW LOOK IN 2011-12
The
Rebel bench has several new faces in 2011-12, including three new
assistant coaches. Former FIU head coach Sergio Rouco, former Middle
Tennessee assistant Al Pinkins and former Ole Miss Coordinator of
Basketball Operations Bill Armstrong were hired in the offseason to
replace departed Michael White, Owen Miller and Torrey Ward.
Among the team’s nine freshmen and transfers is Memphis transfer Jelan
Kendrick, a 6-foot-7 redshirt-freshman guard who is the first
McDonald’s All-American in Ole Miss history. Also back is junior
forward Murphy Holloway, who was a two-year starter for the Rebels
before sitting out last year at South Carolina and then returning to
Oxford. Other scholarship players joining the program are freshmen
Maurice Aniefiok, Aaron Jones, Jamal Jones, Jarvis Summers and Ladarius
White.
RETURNING PLAYERS
Ole Miss returns six lettermen and
three starters from last year’s team that went 20-14 and played in the
NIT. Returning starters are junior forward Reginald Buckner, senior
forward Terrance Henry and junior guard Nick Williams. Henry is top
returning scorer (9.7 ppg), Buckner the top returning rebounder (6.4
rpg) and Williams the top returning assists man (1.5 apg). The other
returning lettermen are sophomore center Demarco Cox, sophomore guard
Dundrecous Nelson and senior forward Steadman Short.
BIG SHOES TO FILL
Ole
Miss lost its top two scorers from last season to graduation in Chris
Warren (19.1 ppg) and Zach Graham (14.2 ppg). Warren, a four-year
starter at point guard, was a first-team All-SEC selection last year,
the SEC’s second-leading scorer and the fourth player in league history
to amass 2,000 points and 400 assists in his career. Graham increased
his production each year of his four-year stay and finished with more
than 1,200 career points.
PARADISE JAM
Ole Miss is competing
in the U.S. Virgin Islands for the first time in its history at this
weekend’s Paradise Jam. The winner of Friday’s game between Ole Miss
and Drake will advance to play the winner of the Marquette-Winthrop
matchup on Sunday (9:30 p.m. AT, FSN). The losers of those games will
face each other on Saturday (7 p.m. AT). In the winner’s bracket, the
championship (9:30 p.m. AT, FSN) and third-place (7 p.m. AT, FSN) games
will be held on Monday. The eight-team tournament field also includes
Drexel, Norfolk State, TCU and Virginia on the opposite side of the
bracket from Ole Miss.
OLE MISS VERSUS PARADISE JAM FIELD
• vs. Drake: Never played
• vs. Drexel: Never played
• vs. Marquette: Never played
• vs. Norfolk State: Never played
• vs. TCU: Ole Miss leads 2-1
• vs. Virginia: Tied 1-1
• vs. Winthrop: Ole Miss leads 1-0
TOTAL: Ole Miss has a 4-2 all-time record against the Paradise Jam field.
REBELS AT THE BEACH
Ole
Miss will participate in a tournament in a sunny, beach locale for the
fifth straight year when it plays in the U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise
Jam this weekend. The Rebels’ record at the beach over the past four
years is 9-3, including a championship in the 2007 San Juan Shootout.
In 2008, Ole Miss won two of three at the Glenn Wilkes Classic in
Daytona Beach, Fla. In 2009, the Rebels went 2-1 at the Puerto Rico
Tip-Off with wins over Indiana and Kansas State and a loss to No. 5
Villanova in the title game. In 2010, Ole Miss beat Texas State and
Saint Louis, but lost to Colorado State, at the Cancun Governor’s Cup.
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
Drake
enters the Paradise Jam with a 2-0 record following wins over Upper
Iowa (83-58) and Iowa State (74-65). Mark Phelps’ team returned four
starters and 11 lettermen from last year’s team that went 13-18 overall
and 7-11 in the Missouri Valley Conference. After two games, Ben Simons
and Rayvonte Rice lead five players averaging double figure points with
an 18.0 scoring average each. Jordan Clarke tops the squad with an 8.0
rebounding average, and Karl Mdison leads the team with 3.5 assists per
game.
OLE MISS-DRAKE SERIES
The Rebels and Bulldogs will meet for the first time in Friday’s first-round matchup at the Paradise Jam.
OLE MISS VERSUS MISSOURI VALLEY FOES
Ole
Miss owns a 7-6 all-time record against teams that currently comprise
the Missouri Valley Conference. The Rebels’ most-played MVC opponent is
Wichita State (Ole Miss leads 3-2). The last meeting against an MVC
team was versus Illinois State on Nov. 16, 2004 (Ole Miss lost 70-52).
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS
The
Rebels boast a 67-17 record (.798 win pct.) against teams outside the
SEC since Andy Kennedy took over in 2006-07, including a 47-2 mark at
home. The Rebels went 12-4 against non-league foes a year ago,
including a 12-3 mark during the regular season.
HOLLOWAY RETURNS WITH BIG NUMBERS
Junior
forward Murphy Holloway has posted some big numbers in his first two
games back as a Rebel. In the season opener, he pulled down a whopping
17 rebounds against Louisiana-Monroe, the most boards by an SEC player
so far this year. Against Grambling, he posted his 15th career
double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds), which is second-most among
active SEC players. In what is believed to be the first situation of
its kind, Holloway transferred away from Ole Miss, attended South
Carolina last year, and then returned to his original school this
summer. After Ole Miss submitted waiver appeals of the year-in
residency requirement for transfers, both the NCAA and SEC accepted
Holloway’s request to compete in the 2011-12 season.
BUCKNER NEARS ALL-TIME SCHOOL BLOCKS RECORD
Junior
forward Reginald Buckner needs just 20 blocks to set the all-time
school career record. In just 65 games, the Memphis native has
accumulated 161 blocks. The school record is held by Sean Murphy, who
had 180 blocks in 117 games from 1988-91. Last year, Buckner tied Ansu
Sesay’s school record for blocks in a game with eight at Arkansas. He
also surpassed his own single-season record from his freshman year (64)
with 95 as a sophomore (ranks 16th in SEC history).
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