Ole Miss Men’s Basketball Welcomes Alabama State to Open the Season
OXFORD, Miss. – The Ole Miss men’s basketball season opens up the 2023-24 regular season against Alabama State tonight. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. inside the SJB Pavilion and the game can be seen on the SEC Network +.
Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard is in his first season at the helm in Oxford.
The Rebels defeated Tusculum last Monday night, 85-44. A total of four Rebels scored in double figures: Jaemyn Brakefield (13), Matthew Murrell (19), Jamarion Sharp (10) and Allen Flanigan (12).
After the exhibition game, Coach Beard talked about his team’s preseason preparation.
“I think we are like most teams this time of year. We have proven over practices, scrimmages and exhibition games that we can do a lot of good things. We just haven’t gotten to where you can trust the consistency is going to be there time and time again.”
Head coach Chris Beard
Beard discussed consistency and the positives following the game against Tusculum.
“We played some really good basketball at certain times, balanced scoring and took care of the ball after the first four minutes,” Beard said. “I think it was a twelve-turnover game with four or five in the first four minutes. Take that out and we played 36 minutes of basketball with five or six turnovers and that is good.
“We didn’t play the scoreboard with six minutes left, we still played with effort so lots of positives,” he said.
A look at Alabama State
Alabama State opens its season with this matchup as well, having played an exhibition match on Monday, October 30 against LaGrange. In their preseason game, the Hornets defeated LaGrange 90-69, with four players scoring in double digits led by Sean Smith with 17.
“I think Alabama State is an NCAA Tournament team. They are a team that could win their conference. They are an older team, and they don’t rely on a lot of younger guys. This is the classic portal division I team when you look up and man it is a good team.”
Chris Beard on Alabama State
Beard added that the Hornets have four returning players with the addition of pieces that fit in the system.
The Hornets are coming off of an 8-23 season a year ago, having gone 6-12 in SWAC play and missing the conference tournament. Last year’s leading scorer, Isaiah Range, returns to the roster for 2023-24, averaging 14.0 points per game a season ago. Range lived up to his last name and led Alabama State in made three-pointers with 53, shooting a blistering 42.7 percent from beyond the arc. The senior guard added 3.7 rebounds per game and finished second on the team with 31 steals.
Alabama State loses its leading rebounder from a year ago in Jordan O’Neal (transfer to Jackson State), but returns the second-best in guard TJ Madlock. Currently a junior, Madlock averaged 6.1 rebounds per game last year, and was the team’s second-leading scorer with 11.1 points per contest. Madlock earned a spot on the Second Team Preseason All-SWAC list.
Alabama State’s head coach Tony Madlock is entering his second season with the team. Coach Madlock arrived at Alabama State after spending the 2021-22 season at South Carolina State where he won 15 games. He is no stranger to Ole Miss as he served five games as the head coach in the 2017-18 season following head coach Andy Kennedy’s resignation in February, 2018.
“They have a really good coach and we will welcome him back to Ole Miss,” Beard said. “We appreciate what he did in his time in Oxford.”
Monday night will be the eighth matchup between Ole Miss and Alabama State, with the Rebels having won each game.
“This going to be a challenging first game for us” Beard added.
(Feature image courtesy of Ole Miss Athletics)
Adam Brown
Adam Brown joins The Rebel Walk as the Managing Editor after being on the Ole Miss beat as a Sports Editor for over 11 years. He is a lifelong Oxford resident. Brown graduated from the University of Mississippi with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
Prior to The Rebel Walk, Brown was the sports editor of HottyToddy.com covering every Ole Miss sport and local high school sports in the community.
