TJ’s Takeaway’s: What We Learned From Ole Miss’ 89-80 Loss at LSU

OXFORD, Miss. — On Wednesday night, Ole Miss suffered its second loss of the season. The Rebels traveled to Baton Rouge where a second-half comeback fell just a bit too short as LSU emerged victorious, 89-80. With the loss, Ole Miss now sits at 2-2 in SEC play and 15-2 overall. This is the second SEC loss on the road this season for head coach Chris Beard’s team.

In the first half, things seemed to be trending Ole Miss’s direction as they would take a lead as large as seven before LSU rallied back to take the lead right before the halftime break. A tough shooting stretch to start the second half, coupled with a hot start from LSU saw the Tigers extend their lead well into the double digits. Ole Miss wouldn’t go away quietly using a pair of larger runs that saw the Rebels cut the deficit down to five in the games closing minutes before ultimately falling short.

Ole Miss was led by the trio of Jaylen Murray, Allen Flanigan and Matthew Murrell. They combined for 62 of Ole Miss’s 80 points. Murrell would be the one to initially lead the charge as Ole Miss cut into the lead while Murray and Flanigan helped with scoring down the stretch. Murray scored a team-high 23 points while Flanigan added 20 and Murrell added 19.

LSU saw success from the perimeter as the Tigers shot 10-21 from deep en route to the win. Jordan Wright led LSU with 27 points as the Tigers improved to 11-6 and 3-1 in SEC play.

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.

For the second time in SEC play Ole Miss lost on the road…

So what does it mean?

Before this game I labelled this as “not a must win, but a can’t lose.” The reasoning behind this is that Ole Miss did not “have” to win this game to keep a season alive or anything extreme along those lines, but rather the Rebels couldn’t lose it so they wouldn’t fall into the national narrative. A little over a week ago, Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated wrote an interesting piece on the state of college basketball. (Click here to read Sweeney’s article.)

In his article, Sweeney discusses the recent trend of how ranked teams have struggled on the road as around a week ago, four of the top five teams in college basketball all lost — all lost, all on the road, all to unranked teams. Sound familiar?

At the time of its writing, Sweeney writes: “Per analytics expert Evan Miyakawa, home teams in the top seven conferences are winning 66% of the time in 2023–24, compared to around 61% in the past two seasons.”

With the loss to LSU, Ole Miss is now the latest in this trend. The reason this phenomenon is brought up is that for Ole Miss to take that next step, the group needs to be one of those teams who don’t lose at home, wins against a top-10 opponent, or wins on the road in conference play.

The first year of the Chris Beard era has largely been a success. However, that success can be elevated or it can be stunted. Games like these against teams likely in the middle of the SEC pack are quite valuable. As Ole Miss strives to elevate, games like Wednesday night’s in Baton Rouge need to be wins. They push your team farther and makes it battle-tested. With the SEC being the deepest conference in the NCAA (based on bracketology bids), there are a lot of good teams between 5-12 in the SEC but being near the top means a lot more.

Lessons Learned in the Second

In the second half, LSU went on a heater and after a small 7-0 run, the Tigers saw themselves jump out to a 16-point lead. While not in the same fashion as the Tennessee game, the Rebels saw themselves trailing heavily in a game they were very much in at the half. At this point in Wednesday’s matchup, Ole Miss trailed 64-48 with 9:48 left in the contest.

For a lot of fans it may have been deja vu to that Tennessee game in that moment. However, we saw a fight in Ole Miss last night. In a moment where things could’ve gotten worse, Ole Miss rallied and went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead down to six. This was largely in part because of a step-up from Matthew Murrell. Shortly after that run, LSU came back with a 9-0 run of its own to extend the lead back out.

Then facing the same situation again, Allen Flanigan was the one to step up. Contributing eight points in a 10-0 Ole Miss run, Flanigan was able to cut into the deficit and get it down to five points with 1:41 left. Twice Wednesday night the Rebels appeared to be out but found their way back into the contest.

The rally was “close but no cigar,” as they say. However, there is something to say for Ole Miss finding its way back into this. This was only the Rebels’ fourth true road game of the year and the second in a heavier environment. While a loss isn’t ideal, there is value in seeing how this team responds when it is down. Seeing them with their back against the wall, on the road, with shots not falling, how do they respond? Last night we learned that Ole Miss grew from that Tennessee game and made steps in the right direction — but there is still room for growth.

Who Is the One When They Need One?

This Ole Miss group has a lot of talent in it. Four players all have had big-time performances filling the stat sheet. One of the benefits of that when trailing in a game like this is that you have plenty of players from whom to choose who needs to get a look.

In the first run it was Matthew Murrell who took over. In the second, it was the downhill style of Allen Flanigan to make the 10-0 run. To start the game, it was Jaylen Murray who nailed two threes after three early turnovers stunted the start to this game for Ole Miss. He also got the bookends with two major threes to keep Ole Miss close as the Rebels began to foul down the stretch.

Despite multiple players taking that step, the question remains: Who will be the guy when Ole Miss has to have a bucket? Maybe there’s a go-to player, and maybe any one of the aforementioned could take the shot. In the second half, the Ole Miss offense wasn’t up to par and they needed someone to go get a bucket. In order for Ole Miss to limit these spells, the Rebels need to eliminate those stretches of being unable to find offense. So who will it be?

Next Up

The Rebels will remain on the road and face the other Tigers of the SEC, as they travel to Alabama to take on No. 11 Auburn on Saturday, January 20 at 7:30 p.m. on the SEC Network.