The Ole Miss Hoops Handbook: Allen Flanigan

OXFORD, Miss. — Today’s installment marks the fourth in our ongoing series “The Ole Miss Hoops Handbook” where we take a detailed look at one Ole Miss men’s basketball player per day as we approach the season tipoff.  The prior editions analyzed three returning players familiar to Rebel fans: Matthew Murrell, Jaemyn Brakefield, and TJ Caldwell. If you haven’t had the chance, you can take a look at those articles here.

Today, we get a look at our first newcomer to the group in Allen Flanigan.

This “Ole Miss Hoops Handbook” series is set to help the Ole Miss community get familiar with these players and to help build excitement for the upcoming season. Every day, The Rebel Walk will highlight an individual player to break down his game and describe what you can look forward to and where we can look for more growth this season.

Here’s the process for arriving at this point. Each player’s breakdown consists of notes from both the summer scouting and re-watch of film this fall. On top of watching game film, I formed an analysis along with a statistical breakdown from several different sources. I have watched multiple games for each player to help give an accurate picture of their game. In an effort to give a more comprehensive view, I tried to watch one game where a player had larger success statistically and one where his impact may have been overlooked by the box score.

With that being said, let’s take a look at Allen Flanigan.

Who is Allen Flanigan?

The story of Allen Flanigan is one of the more interesting in all of college basketball. In high school, Flanigan was a three-star recruit out of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock where his father, Wes, had been an assistant coach with current Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard. Coach Flanigan, who is now an assistant under Beard, recruited his son to play at Auburn for Bruce Pearl.

While at Auburn, Flanigan had a sophomore breakout season that firmly had him on the NBA radar. In his second season for the Tigers, Flanigan more than quadrupled his scoring production while displaying plus athleticism and good shooting indicators. His play from his sophomore year earned him preseason All-SEC first team honors from the league coaches ahead of the 2022-2023 season. Flanigan was the fourth-leading returning scorer in the SEC.

Leading up to the season, however, Flanigan suffered a partial Achilles tear from a non-basketball related event in late September. The injury required a procedure and held him out for 12-14 weeks. After an abbreviated rehabilitation, Allen joined an Auburn team that would rise to No. 1 in the polls and win an SEC championship.He would then return in late December and start 2o of the 22 games he played in that season. In that year, his overall production did dip in a reduced amount of time on the court. As he likely hurried back from injury to help and get back on the court right before conference play, it is understandable he wasn’t going to be at 100%.

This past season, however, Flanigan began to look like his old self again.

Despite the lower numbers in his sophomore year, Flanigan took the opportunity to test the NBA waters. He performed at the G League Combine before making the decision to return to Auburn for a final season. This past season, Flanigan played a different role for his Tigers team and started just over half the games. While his numbers weren’t as good as his sophomore year, he began to play like his old self again.

This offseason Allen’s father, Wes, took an assistant coaching position at Ole Miss and soon after Allen entered the transfer portal going to play for his father and Chris Beard in Oxford.

Allen Flanigan’s Numbers

’19-’20: 13.8 MPG | 3.2 PTS | 2.7 REB | 31 games | 3 starts

’20-’21: 3o.4 MPG | 14.3 PTS | 5.5 REB | 2.9 AST | 30 games | 30 starts

’21-’22: 24.5 MPG | 6.3 PTS | 3.5 REB | 1.3 AST | 22 games | 20 starts

’22-’23: 27.0 MPG | 10.1 PTS | 5.0 REB | 1.5 AST | 34 games | 19 starts

The Breakdown

In four years at Auburn, Flanigan played four different roles. Entering into a new situation at Ole Miss, there are questions present. First, how healthy is he? Second, how confident is he? Will he be the higher-usage wing that NBA scouts fell in love with his sophomore year? Or, will he be the role-playing forward like we saw last year. We won’t know until we see on Nov. 6th.

Back to his best shape

What I can say is that barring any unforeseen injuries or issues, Flanigan should be back to his best shape. Last year after one full offseason to heal up and get back to himself, Flanigan thrived physically at Auburn’s Pro Day in front of 28 NBA Scouts. The explosiveness had begun to come back as Flanigan posted a 39″ running vertical, a 3.2 3/4 court sprint and a 2.99 agility reaction shuttle.

Offensively

As a player, Flanigan fits in best as a secondary slashing wing archetype who can affect the game and is at his best when he can attack closeouts, knock down open shots on the perimeter and stay in the flow of the game using his physical gifts to his advantage.

On first watch, the athleticism can pop on film with the explosive verticality, burst, first step, almost as if he glides around the court.

ALLEN FLANIGAN ON YOUR HEAD
pic.twitter.com/ArIAjrDL03

— Barstool Gambling (@stoolgambling) February 15, 2023

With the amount of experience Flanigan brings, his athleticism, and the knowledge that comes with having a father who is an assistant coach, Allen should be a major presence on the court for a team trying to establish a culture of winning. Many times on film, Flanigan can be seen directing traffic, pointing where to go and communicating with teammates.

Flanigan is at his best in transition. Transition plays were his most common play type per Synergy Sports Technologies with 89 possessions. He rebounds well defensively for a wing and loves to start his own break. As a sophomore he had some experience leading the offense and thrives better out of that role.

In the halfcourt Flanigan moved around a lot on the offensive end, setting up various cuts to keep Auburn’s motion going. With the ball in his hand, you can see a very confident player who will try a couple of things. The first is trying to get to the rim. As a senior, he had 96 possessions at the rim compared to 36 two-point FG attempts off of jumpers. Flanigan’s burst, explosiveness and body control allow him to maneuver and find ways to get to and finish around the rim.

The confidence Flanigan possesses shooting the ball could really impact his role this season. As a sophomore, Flanigan was ready to shoot on a given notice — in transition, from range, and out of step backs (especially to the right). Last season, Flanigan hovered back to near his sophomore numbers.  He showed good, not great, touch indicators with a 75% free throw percentage and 33.3% from deep. However, he was lethal when left open for catch-and-shoot opportunities where he shot it at a 52.5% clip.

Allen Flanigan is on a totally different level from last year 😤🔥pic.twitter.com/UppOv2MsFd

— Auburn DieHards (@DiehardsAuburn) August 2, 2022

The last point on offense I want to make is that the personnel surrounding him at Ole Miss has the potential to really open the court up for Flanigan. Having quality shooters around him in Murrell, Brakefield, Austin Nunez, and Caldwell can really open up space for him. A small ball lineup of Nunez, Caldwell, Murrell, Flanigan, and Brakefield could leave ample space for Allen to attack with the perimeter presence of those guys aiding him.

Defensively

Defensively, it will be fun to watch Flanigan as he does possess the physical tools to stay with guys; although, some of the more finer things were a bit of a struggle at times. He graded really well against spot-ups, isolation, and movement possessions. Auburn played a lot of switching, so I am curious to see where he really is having to navigate screens better when not necessarily icing. He also ranked in the 84th percentile on C&S attempts, defensively. Players shot 27.5% in those situations on Flanigan last year.

Some areas that will be worth monitoring are the turnovers. His shooting form at times can be narrow and how consistent will that be? We’ll also watch how often he tries to attack the rim versus pulling up for an open mid range and if he goes right more frequently.

Final thoughts

Overall, Flanigan can be a very dynamic piece who when he plays with confidence. He can lead, shoot, attack and put pressure on the defense, and is really the guy who can break the defense down and get all the way to the rim from the perimeter. Flanigan is an athlete who can improve the ceiling of this team with the ways he can help this group.

Ole Miss will host Tusculum for an exhibition in the SJB Pavilion on Monday, October 30 at 7 p.m., before beginning their regular season the following Monday, November 6 at 7 p.m. against Alabama State.