Ole Miss men’s basketball only remaining unbeaten SEC team
OXFORD, Miss. — With South Carolina’s loss tonight to No. 24 Clemson, the Rebels will maintain sole possession of first place in the SEC. Ole Miss (8-0) is now the only undefeated team remaining with five non-conference games still to play before opening SEC play at Tennessee.
CLICK HERE FOR SEC MEN’S BASKETBALL STANDINGS
The Rebels’ next game is at Central Florida this Sunday at 3:00 CST, then they’re back home for their next four games. Ole Miss will be Central Florida’s second matchup against a Power 5 team since joining the Big 12, with the Knights having lost their first one to Miami-Florida, 88-72.
Coach Beard looking for more discipline from his team
Although Ole Miss is undefeated, you likely won’t catch head coach Chris Beard crowing about that. In fact, after his team’s 77-68 win over Mount St. Mary’s Tuesday night, Coach Beard was not at all pleased with his team’s performance.
Here’s what he had to say after the win.
“I think the biggest gift you can give somebody is to have high expectations…I have high expectations for our attendance, for our crowd, our season ticket holders, and our students…I have an expectation for Ole Miss basketball that there will come a day sooner than most people think that every game will be sold out, not just when we play a big team…And with our basketball team, I expect us to play Ole Miss basketball. I don’t expect us to make every shot…I don’t expect for everything to go our way…I just expect that we are all on the same page with what we’re trying to get done…and I didn’t think that was the case tonight. I am not going to change that (expectations). We came here to win at the highest level and nights like tonight weren’t the step forward that we needed. We had an opportunity to show we could respond from a a great week last week with two BCS wins, to show that we could overcome adversity this week….but we didn’t take advantage of the opportunity. We had chances to blow the game open, but again it just comes down to mistakes — and not basketball mistakes. A lot of our stuff right now is just lack of discipline. Before you can ever start talking about discipline, are we on the same page, do we all have the same expectations? These are questions you guys should ask the players. Maybe they’re happy winning games by 10 points. Maybe they’re happy beating teams at the buzzer. I’m not. I just have a ridiculous high expectation for these guys because I believe in them. To me it’s the biggest gift you can give someone when you expect their best and tonight was not our best. No disrespect to our opponent…that’s a good team. I have a lot of respect for their team. They played the game for 40 minutes.”
Coach Chris Beard
What’s next?
The remaining non-conference home schedule for the Rebels includes California, Troy, Southern Miss and Bryant. The SEC opener at Tennessee is scheduled for Saturday, January 6th.
David Walker
David is the consummate true-freshman quarterback, first pioneering the position only a year after college freshmen were given varsity eligibility by the NCAA in 1972. In 1973, the left-handed all-state gunslinger from Sulphur, Louisiana started for the Texas A&M Aggies and earned the All-Southwest Conference Freshman of the Year award as selected by the league’s coaches. David is the first college quarterback ever awarded Freshman of the Year in the NCAA. He was only 17, and still holds the NCAA record as the youngest starting quarterback in college football history. He wore No. 8 at A&M in honor of one of his football heroes, Archie Manning.
In becoming the winningest quarterback ever at A&M, David was converted from a dual-threat QB to a triple option trailblazer. The two-time team captain led three record-breaking offenses that changed the direction of football at A&M forever, establishing once and for all the winning tradition that the Aggies had so-long desired.
As a high school head coach in Houston in the late ‘80s, David stationed his quarterback in the shotgun formation, having him reading defenses and throwing hot routes at a time when such offensive schemes were frowned upon by traditional fans and coaches. One of his quarterbacks tossed 57 passes in a single game, which stood as the all-time Greater Houston Area record for many years.
As you can tell from his bona fides, David is extremely qualified as our expert on all things Quarterback at Ole Miss. Enjoy his exclusive analysis only here at The Rebel Walk!
