Rebels to face Arkansas at the post -season opener

Nashville – The post-season has arrived, and for the first time in 2021, when Ole Miss hobbled into the Nit, the rebels not only made a fleeting outcome of the Southeasters Conference tournament.

Instead, Ole Miss (21-10 total, 10-8 in the Sec) begins on Thursday after the season to set his game to the NCAA tournament in the next week.

“Let’s not forget what brought us here,” said Ole Miss trainer Chris Beard on Tuesday before the rebels left Oxford to Nashville. “The team, which took part in Houston (in a closed Scrimmage) and Illinois (in a pre -season exhibition), then defeated BYU and stepped with Purdue, defeated Colorado State (and) Louisville, a street victory in Alabama and a team with high -quality home gains like Tennessee at home. It is a memory that this is what has brought us here. This is us. This is our identity. You just want to be in the post -season game.

“What you don’t want to do are people who try to do things that you have not tried all year round, or the team that plays a different way than all year round. It was so easy for me to describe, but it is difficult to be done. I think if we bring Ole Miss’s best game in the offensive and defense that we saw throughout the season, we have the chance to be competitive this month. “

The rebels’ post -season run begins against Arkansas on Thursday at 12:00 p.m. The Razorbacks (20-12, 8-10 seconds) defeated South Carolina (72-68) in the opening game of the SEC tournament on Wednesday.

Arkansas flirted with a disaster and had a 17-point lead only worsened one point before the GameCocks were completed in the last few minutes.

“We are still doing better,” said Arkansa’s coach John Calipari. “We play our best basketball. We let teams in again, but we still win. … I’m proud of these children.”

Trevon Brazille led the Razorbacks on Wednesday with 16 points. Johnell Davis and Jonas Aidoo added 14 each. DJ Wagner Jr. had 13th Arkansas in the second half with up to 20 years before he became freezing cold. The pigs went without a goal for eight minutes, so that South Carolina could pull it in a striking distance.

Collin Murray-Boyles, a likely choice in the first round, which almost certainly played his last college game, led South Carolina with 20 points.

Ole Miss defeated Arkansas in the Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteeville on January 8, 73-66. Malik Dia led the rebels with 21 points that night. Sean Pedulla added 16 and Dre Davis 10. Adou Ihro led Arkansas with 17 points. Johnell Davis added 15, Boogie Fland 14 and DJ Wagner Jr. 11.

“My team is different,” said Calipari. “I have a completely different team and (Ole Miss) played well all year round. Chris did a fabulous job. It will be a hard game for us. That was a long time ago. That was the second game of the year.”

Both ito (knee) and Fland (hand) are not available on Thursday. Fland hopes to return for the NCAA tournament and the time of the Itho for a return is not known.

“It depends on how far we are progressing,” said Calipari with regard to the chances that she and Fland will return to the NCAA tournament.

In this game in Fayetteeville, Ole Miss Arkansas, 30-27, held the razor cheeks of 37.3 percent from the ground and only 21.7 percent from the 3-point line.

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Arkansas is now certainly in the NCAA tournament, regardless of what will happen in Nashville on Thursday or possibly later this week.

It didn’t always go in this direction. The razorbacks started to lose second games to lose five games in a row, including the defeat against Ole Miss. The pigs were won by injuries and a decision outside the season, which almost backfire, eight of their last regular games from season 13 – including four of their last five – to regain a post -season. With just a seven-member rotation and the team’s two best scorers with injuries, the Razorbacks won their season and won four of their last five games in the Sec tournament this week.

“I have been doing this for a long time and this may be the most worthwhile season for me because they are a few good children who have to fight early,” Cbs Sports told Brandon Marcello.

When Marcello recorded in an excellent dive in the Razibacks program at the beginning of this week, the Shorthanded Hogs No. 15 Missouri, a team against which they had lost by 18 at the beginning of this year, defeated Vanderbilt on the street at the beginning of this month. In February they threatened an Auburn No. 1 in a back and forth street and stormed back against No. 3 Alabama with a defeat of 85-81. Nevertheless, there were stinkers. The pigs lost in South Carolina 72-53 in a game in which they only scored 14 points in the first half.

“Here is what we know: we can lose against everyone, we can beat everyone,” Calipari told CBS Sports. “So what do you want to do? You can be miserable or win the game. “

“Six weeks ago, I was concerned about winning a few games in the league and not necessarily to get to the NCAA tournament,” Hunter Yurachek, athletics director of Arkansas, told CBS Sports. “The fact that we are sitting on the last Saturday of the regular season and, I think exactly in the NCAA tournament, is only a recognition for what he and his employees and these young men did.”

“We have always been together,” Wagner told CBS Sports. “I don’t think that was the problem. It was only how to play with many talented players. It is difficult to run sets, everyone is really talented and to get into the groove of things. I have the feeling that if it narrowed, and you don’t have to bring too many people into the rotation, then click to click.”

Interestingly, Calipari is already calibrating his approach to building up its second Arkansas team. The long -time coach of Kentucky with the help of the chairman of Arkansas Super Booster/Tyson Foods, John Tyson, plans to build a deeper team next season in Fayetteeville.

“He recognizes this philosophically,” said Tyson to Marcello. “So does that mean a newcomer or another portal?

“As soon as you go into nine, 10 or 11 in the players, the money changes a little. Ten or 11 may be the player who is still left in the portal for two years, and I can (develop) from there to here, or it is the newcomer that you can be here until your junior year, and I will put you in one position.

Meanwhile, Ole Miss gets his stay in Nashville without pressure. The rebels are firmly in the NCAA tournament and receive an offer on Sunday, no matter how well they appear in the Bridgestone Arena.

Ole Miss coach Chris Beard has spent part of this week to improve the defense of the rebels that was leaking on the track.

Ole Miss gave up 106 points in a blowout loss in Auburn, gave up 84 in a game 84 in the last second, allowed a dozen 3-point in a dramatic victory against Tennessee and then another 90 points in the regular season finale in Florida.

Against a team of Arkansas, which recently found his offensive groove, the rebels will probably have to improve defense to find ahead by Friday, where Auburn expects top seeds.

Team defense, it starts with the individual parts. Every player who is out there all five have to do his job. We really have to play for our strengths and improve our weaknesses. If you add the team aspect, there are five people here, so you have to play together. “Hey, you may be driven from the jump, so I will be there to help. You may need help with this rebound. You have one to one to one, so let me help this guy. ‘So it is like the individual defense piece where everyone does their job, and then they have five people who connect.

“It all starts with effort, attitude and body language,” said Beard on Tuesday before the rebels traveled to Nashville. “Some of our defensive mistakes, like many teams in the whole country, are effort. We talk about the transition defense, but if we are not ready to run from A-Zu-B as soon as possible, there is not much to talk about tactics. The re-bouncer is the same. If you are not ready to beat your husband, we cannot talk much about tactics.

“We were a good defense that was a good defense all year round, which was classified most of the season nationally defensively, although we are more competitive in the categories of the Sec. This is an improvement compared to the first year. But now it has to be displayed in March. It must be the best version for us to have a defense that can make this month here.”