Kermit Davis was on the Ole Miss sideline Saturday, watching a sold out, amped-up crowd at The Pavilion screaming for their Rebels as they took on archrival Mississippi State.

It was a low point in a difficult stretch of the season.

That’s because, when he looked at the team on the court, Davis didn’t see the Rebels responding to the atmosphere. It’s something he’s seen far too often lately, and it irked him enough to call a timeout less than two minutes into the game.

“I had to call timeouts early and coach effort in a rivalry game in front of a sold out arena and that’s inexcusable,” Davis said in his postgame press conference after the Rebels lost 81-75 to their in-state rival.

The lack of effort and toughness have been a regular theme for Davis lately. Ole Miss (14-7, 4-4 Southeastern Conference) has lost four games in a row and five of six.

The Rebels’ status as a Top 25 team was brief and now an increasingly distant memory as they simply try to stop the bleeding and salvage their chances of making the NCAA Tournament.

They’re about to hit a soft part of the schedule beginning Wednesday at home against Texas A&M (8-12, 1-7) — the next six games are all against teams that are .500 or worse in the SEC — but need to step up their own game to take advantage of it.

“We’re a first-year program now, we’re 14-7, we’re .500 in the SEC. We’ve lost to some really good teams. It’s just where we are, it’s no spiral here. Spiral is when we don’t practice. I’ll let you know if we’re in a spiral,” Davis said. “We’re going to go back and practice and get ready for a good Texas A&M team. Their talent level is going to be right at ours. It doesn’t matter what the records are, and we have to control what we can control. That’s it in a nutshell. There’s no panic here.”

No panic, but a bunch of frustration.

The Rebels have been outrebounded in three of their last four losses, twice by double-digit margins. Iowa State and Alabama outscored them by a combined 80-42 in the paint.
Mississippi State held a 15-6 edge in offensive rebounds. Ole Miss’ two centers, Dom Olejniczak and Bruce Stevens, had one rebound between them in 40 minutes of playing time.

Davis said it was all a sign that the Rebels aren’t being tough enough. Worse, opponents are noticing and taking advantage of it. Davis noted that Mississippi State was regularly sending its guards into the post.

“They were switching and putting their perimeter guys down there,” Davis said. “Obviously, they didn’t have any respect for our post. They were putting guards down there, and we couldn’t take advantage of it.”

Now they need to figure out an answer for it.

The Rebels are currently projected as a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament by ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi, which puts them on the bubble for the tournament.
The upcoming six-game stretch will be pivotal in securing that spot. Home games against No. 1 Tennessee and No. 5 Kentucky await afterward.

“We’ve got to move forward, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Davis said after Saturday’s game. “We’re not going to worry about freshman walls and spiraling and all that kind of stuff. We’re going to go out and try to be the best practice team we can be on Monday.”

TEXAS A&M AT OLE MISS
• Wednesday, 6 p.m.
• TV: SEC Network
• Radio: 107.7 FM/1490 AM