TJ’s Takeaway’s: What We Learned From Ole Miss’ 88-78 Win Over Cal

OXFORD, Miss. — With the Rebels’ 88-78 win over Cal on Saturday in San Antonio, Ole Miss continues its undefeated season and improves to 10-0. They are now one of four remaining undefeated teams in college basketball. Head coach Chris Beard has done a tremendous job to start his Ole Miss tenure.

The win against Cal was the Rebels’ first neutral-site game of the 2023-2024 season. Despite playing in Texas, it felt like Ole Miss was at home as the team led for the entirety of the game. The Rebels were scorching hot as they shot a blistering 52.5% from the field and an even more impressive 57.1% from three. That includes 12 makes from the perimeter, as well.

Five Ole Miss players scored in double figures — Jaemyn Brakefield, Jaylen Murray, Allen Flanigan, Matthew Murrell, and TJ Caldwell — and the Rebs got key contributions from everyone in the rotation.

This series, TJ’s Takeaways, is here to help identify things that really stand out from the games, things you may not be able to find from a box score. If you’re looking for a recap of the game, don’t worry we’ve got you covered. Check it out HERE.

Let’s get to the takeaways! 

Paint Touches = Perimeter Points

Ole Miss lost the points in the paint battle tonight, 36-26. It didn’t matter as the Rebels used their paint touches to turn two points into three. Two players deserve major credit here: Jaylen Murray and Moussa Cisse.

Starting with Murray, the guard started the game by rejecting a ball screen, crossing back over into that direction and finding a path to the middle before skipping a pass over to Jaemyn Brakefield on the weak side for a wide open three. “JuJu” Murray was in control tonight and routinely found his way inside and that had the Cal defense sinking. Whether it was for his own shot or not, Murray commanded a lot of attention throughout the game.

Now to Cisse. Cal did use a lot of different defensive looks and some of those included zones. It felt like the following sequence was on repeat. Ole Miss feeds Cisse in the high post in the soft spot of the zone, Cisse swings to opposite wing, that wing swings to corner and open three. Cisse isn’t credited for an assist on plays like this, but he deserves credit for sitting in the open space and beginning that process to beat the zone. For a big to make clean, decisive passes like that isn’t a rarity but it’s a necessity for a good team. Ole Miss had that and it is a big reason why the Rebels converted 12/21 three point attempts.

Matthew Murrell (4-of-6) and Jaemyn Brakefield (5-of-7) both completed a high percentage of their looks. It was the quality of open shots that helped this duo excel on the court tonight.

Brandon Murray Makes His Debut

With the recent decision by the NCAA to allow all two-time transfers to play the 2023-2024 season, we were able to see the first action on the year of Brandon Murray. It didn’t take long for him to get into the game, either. Murray logged 17 minutes on the court today, during which he recorded four assists to only one turnover.

The most impressive part about Murray’s debut is that he didn’t try to do too much. Joining a team mid-season can be difficult to gel and find how you fit, not to mention on a team that has yet to lose a game. Murray showed, for the most part, smart passing decisions (minus one questionable turnover on a soft pass) and impressed on the defensive end as well. He showed a lot of energy on that side of the ball and really did good work helping on drives, limiting how far Cal attackers got into the lane.

It’s a Team Game and It Showed

This game shows a ten-point difference on the final box score. However, Ole Miss led for its entirety. The Rebel lead reached as high as 24 points nearly midway through the second half. One of the big reasons for it? Ole Miss assisted on 67.7% of their made field goals tonight.

There were extra passes galore as Ole Miss looked like a February or March offense tonight. Five players recorded multiple assists. A prime example goes to the aforementioned zone looks that led to corner three after corner three for Ole Miss tonight.

Another great example was late in the game, Brakefield received an open (swing/maybe a pop) at the top of the key and could’ve taken an open look to set a new career high. Instead, Brakefield attacks and dishes off an easy pass to a cutting Allen Flanigan for a layup down the stretch as Cal was trying to make a late game push.

On the other side, in the first half Cal only assisted on 6/16 attempts. It was a noticeable difference in the game, specifically in the first half where Ole Miss looked in complete control.

Big Game Brakefield

For the second time this year, Jaemyn Brakefield had a breakout game against a quality high major opponent. Earlier in the year, he set a career high in points with 25 in the ACC/SEC challenge against NC State. Tonight, Brakefield bested that career high, recording 27 points. This came on a night reminiscent of his 2022-2023 efficiency as Brakefield shot 8-11 from the field and 5-7 from three.

It felt like the phrase from last year for me was give Brakefield 10+ FG attempts and good things will happen. This year, in two out of three games with 10+ attempts he has set that career mark. Could this be a mini breakout for Brakefield who saw the rim grow three sizes that day? Despite some inefficient shooting this season, Brakefield has gotten quality looks and now has put together some confidence-boosting performances to try and turn that around.

Next Up: 

The Rebels return home for their next game on the schedule, hosting Troy on Tuesday, December 19 in the SJB Pavilion at 6 p.m.