OXFORD, Miss. — There were just two stats that explained No. 25 Ole Miss’ 98-84 win over No. 14 Kentucky on Tuesday night before a packed SJB Pavilion. It was also engaged, which is something relatively new for the Rebels’ fans.
The first was 24 assists, which is good, but not nearly the telling part until you see only one turnover as in 1. If I’ve seen that in 54 years of covering college athletics I can’t remember it. Ole Miss had never scored 98 points in a basketball game against the Wildcats, either.
Fans can’t get too carried away, though. This has ben going on all season long in the SEC that might actually have 13 teams in the NCAA Tournament. Jimmy Dykes on ESPN said the league will have 11 teams in the tournament at a minimum.
Apparently Mike Slive and the guys in Birmingham made a commitment several years ago to improve basketball and that has happened. Maybe better than they planned.
Now the Rebels just have to make sure they get an invitation to the party in March.
With Matthew Murrell apparently finally healthy from his injuries, he was moving better and put up 24 points with five rebounds and three assists. Dre Davis had 17 points, Malik Dia 16 and Jaylen Murray 15. Those four accounted for 73.46 percent of the Ole Miss scoring.
There is reason to enjoy this big win over Kentucky, but let’s not get carried away with it. There are still eight games left on the schedule, but only three will be at home (Mississippi State, Oklahoma and Tennessee). None of them are guaranteed.
The guess is this year just splitting those remaining eight games would give Ole Miss a 10-8 league record, good enough to get a mid-range seed in the NCAA Tournament.
But don’t count on anything and expect the wild ride through the league to continue. There are a lot of good teams.
And Ole Miss is among them.
