TJ’s Takeaway’s: What We Learned in Ole Miss’ 77-68 Win over Mount St. Mary’s

OXFORD, Miss. — On Tuesday night, the Ole Miss men’s basketball team improved to 8-0 on the season. Following up the impressive win against Memphis on Saturday, expectations were high and rightfully so. Backed behind a second strong performance from the backcourt, Ole Miss bested Mount St. Mary’s in the Pavilion 77-68.

Things remained close in the contest until a 13-2 run midway through the second half pushed the Rebels too far out in front. With the win, Ole Miss is now one of thirteen undefeated teams remaining in college basketball. They are also the only undefeated team remaining in the SEC.

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! 

Jaylen Murray Has Taken a Step Forward and It’s Toward the Basket

Ole Miss needed someone besides just Allen Flanigan to really step up and create opportunities. Flanigan had one of his quieter days against Mount St. Mary’s, but that opened the door for someone else. Jaylen Murray has found that door and raced through it. Dating back to last year, Murray was on a tear to end the 2022-2023 season while at Saint Peter’s. Now, Murray is finding his footing at Ole Miss as a legit scoring threat at the point.

Murray finished the contest Tuesday night as Ole Miss’ leading scorer with 26 points. To go even further, he was 9-for-15 from the field and 1-for-2 from three. The Bronx native would also add a 7-of-8 line from the charity stripe as well. In the past couple of games, it almost feels as if Murray has solidified himself as a fan favorite.

How has Murray found this success lately?

The answer is in his aggression. To preface, I owe Murray an apology. In my preseason write-up I wrote that Murray was a guard who could score on the outer two levels, a guard who could craft his own shot in the midrange, hit runners and knock down open threes. I was wrong on that because Jaylen Murray has excelled mightily at getting to the basket. The first step has been very noticeable and gives part of the reason for his ability to get there. The other is due to his solid body control to attack different angles. Speaking of angles, the big men have also been providing solid screens to free up the space to attack.

Murray has been lethal in the paint. Last season at Saint Peter’s, he shot 40% at the rim on layups on a total of 85 attempts. This year, Murray has 25 layup attempts, where he is finishing at a blistering 64% rate, totaling 1.24 points per possession. His ability to get there has opened up other elements of his game and he’s been aggressive getting there as well. In 15.6% percent of his PNR opportunities, Murray’s possession has resulted in free throws and on a lot of those opportunities Murray has driven to the basket.

Some highlights to go along with your coffee ☕️#HottyToddy | #BuildTheCulture pic.twitter.com/hGRlQjMpbv

— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) December 6, 2023

Rebounding Woes Continue

At the tail end of the Memphis game, Ole Miss did a really good job at cleaning up the boards on the defensive end. Things took a turn back in the wrong direction as the Rebels lost the rebounding battle again in Tuesday’s contest, this time only narrowly as Mount St. Mary’s added one more rebound (37) than Ole Miss (36). More significantly is that Ole Miss allowed 15 offensive rebounds in this one. That led to 16 second-chance points and kept Mount St. Mary’s around.

It’s now getting to the point where the defensive rebounding is becoming alarming. The Rebels give up an average of 13.1 offensive rebounds per contest. That figure sets them in the bottom 20 teams of the NCAA. To give it credit, Ole Miss does force a lot of tougher shots and longer shots which do result in longer rebounds and those can help skew the number a bit. However, for Ole Miss to excel it needs to be able to take away these second chances so they can go on more runs, longer runs and help put away games earlier.

Ole Miss has the personnel to improve on rebounding. The guards are more physical and the depth on the bench also favors rebounding. Time will tell all, but Ole Miss can certainly benefit from better effort on the glass.

P.S.: Give credit to Jaemyn Brakefield here for recording a career high 13 rebounds in the contest.

Getting Out and Going

Now that we addressed a concern, let’s steer it back to a positive. Ole Miss is beginning to be an elite transition team. Against Mount St. Mary’s, the Rebels were brilliant at turning defense into offense. The defense created 11 steals and blocked 7 shots. Ole Miss dominated the transition game and outpaced the Mountaineers, 18-2.

On the year, Ole Miss has had success here and scored on 58.3% of transition possessions. The trifecta of Matthew Murrell, Allen Flanigan and Jaylen Murray all grade out as plus players in transition and the group together scores on 56.9% of their looks. Murrell’s been highly effective converting at a 70.6% clip. On Tuesday, Murrell threw down a couple monstrous jams in transition.

What’s better than one @matt_murre11 fast break dunk? pic.twitter.com/6qrtV1u04D

— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) December 7, 2023

As a whole, Ole Miss also has shown to run the lanes and not only score at the rim but also from the perimeter, as well, knocking down 37% of their three point attempts. This group can find success getting out and running, and with the speed and athleticism of this team they should continue to look to do so.

Bonus: TJ Caldwell Showing More Flashes

One of the brightest spots this year is how much TJ Caldwell has improved in year two. Caldwell has almost doubled his scoring and rebounding output from last year as he averages 8.9 PTS per game. He also has grown into being statistically the best knockdown three-point shooter on this roster at 43.5%. Early on this year there were flashes of shot creation in the mid-range and the baseline. However, I want to highlight another element of notice.

Caldwell is beginning to play with and use his verticality. At the 14:52 mark, Caldwell scored a bucket in transition and got fouled on the play as well. The interesting part was how high he gets up and gets that arm up. Seen below, this is one of a few plays that we noticed Caldwell really explode up. He is known for having one of the highest vertical jumps on this Ole Miss roster. We’ll continue to see growth along the way, but the use of verticality is a big step in the right direction for a player adding to his strengths.

The Steal: @Marshal1Rashaud
The Finish: @TjCaldwell9

Rebs on a 9-0 run#HottyToddy | #BuildTheCulture pic.twitter.com/XmfTev8WjU

— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) December 6, 2023

Next Up: 

Ole Miss will leave Oxford next for their second road game of the season, traveling to Orlando to take on UCF on Saturday, December 10 at 3 p.m. CT on ESPN+.