Some times a tip is just enough. Just like that Ole Miss has gone from last in the SEC to tied for sixth with back-to-back important wins. The loss for Georgia dropped them 10 spots in the NET, down to 33. Ole Miss is inching their way back into relevance at 82, thanks to their first Quad 1 victory last night.
With football season concluded, the return of the 1-3-1 post game report is back. Here we will review the 1 players of the game, 3 key stats and 1 important observation. Sure Beard isn’t much of a 1-3-1 guy, but it’s my zone defense of choice, so we ride!
1 Player of the Game
The temptation would be to go with AJ Storr and his team high 27 points but this has to go to Patton Pinkins. The true freshman played 39 minutes, scored 18 points on 77% shooting, including 3-3 from deep. Not only did he score at a ridiculously efficient clip, he tipped in the game winner as time expired for the biggest win on the season thus far. The youngster is not afraid of the moment and has become more and more of an impact player as this season has progressed.
3 Interesting Stats
- AJ Storr is doing what he was brought here to do. The Kansas transfer has had a season high in scoring in back to back games. The Rebels needed every one of his 27 points against Georgia after dropping in 26 in the home victory over Missouri. You would like his efficiency to go up, but if he becomes a legitimate scoring threat going forward, it opens up this Ole Miss offense significantly more.
- The Rebels shot 45% from three. On the road. Where has this been all season? Pinkins and Travis Perry combined to go 7-10 by themselves. There is plenty of fire power on this team and perhaps this is when the Rebs start to get hot?
- Teams typically keep an eight man rotation. Beard has been trying all season to find what works and last night he played 12 guys, nine of them significant minutes. Hopefully this begins to dwindle downs to a permanent 8-9 rotation and momentum continues to build.
1 Important Observation
The beginning of the season was all about the outstanding play of Ilias Kamardine and rightfully so. That has slowed some and guys like Malik Dia and Storr have not been able to pick up his slack, until now. If Ole Miss is going to put themselves back in NCAA Tournament position, the Rebs are going to need Dia, Storr, Perry and Pinkins to pick up the scoring and take attention off of Kamardine. The makings of a really good team are there, can Coach Beard press the right buttons?
