TJ’s Takeaway’s: A look at Ole Miss’ Sweet 16 Loss to Michigan State; Rebels’ Culture Helps Build a Strong Foundation in Oxford

Editor’s Note: In our ongoing series, “TJ’s Takeaways,” we give readers an in-depth look at the latest Ole Miss men’s basketball game, as our TJ Oxley offers his thoughts, analysis, and insight. This series 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. And if you’re also looking for a recap of the game, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Check it out HERE.

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OXFORD, Miss. — The Ole Miss men’s basketball season came to a close on Friday night in Atlanta in front of a strong Ole Miss crowd. In a highly-anticipated coaching rematch between Tom Izzo and Chris Beard, it was Izzo who came out victorious this time around as Michigan State defeated Ole Miss, 73-70, to clinch their spot in the Elite Eight.

While Michigan State came out on top, the Rebels played a strong, physical matchup that saw Ole Miss carry the lead for over thirty minutes of gametime. Ole Miss built its lead up to nine in the second half before a 14-2 Michigan State run saw the momentum swing to the Spartans. After that moment, the contest became a back-and-forth battle leading into the game’s final minutes with several big plays and noteworthy heroics from both sides.

Ole Miss guard Sean Pedulla continued his outstanding postseason run, as the senior scored 24 points — including 16 in the second half. Pedulla made several tough shots to either tie the game or bring it back to within one possession down the stretch. Matthew Murrell (13) and Malik Dia (11) each also scored in double figures.

Those are the numbers, but let’s take a deeper dive into what happened Friday and what it really meant.

These takeaways are going to have a bit of a different structure to them. The first takeaway will be set up to dive into the game itself, like a normal takeaways article would. The second, however, will be focused on the Ole Miss team, while the third will be more of a focus on the overall state of Ole Miss basketball.

Ole Miss Took Away a Lot but Not Enough

Give credit where credit is due, this contest featured two of the best coaches in NCAA basketball going toe-to-toe. Ole Miss, in similar fashion to the Iowa State game, dictated the flow and pace of this game. There were three things that Ole Miss needed to do on the defensive end, in order to control this game in it’s entirety.

1) Take away post touches. For the second straight game, hats off to every player on the Ole Miss team. Michigan State went with a shorter rotation that didn’t feature starting Center Szymon Zapala. That did not mean the Spartans didn’t play with size, th0ugh, as Jaxson Kohler and Carson Cooper both looked to make impacts. These two helped aid a Michigan State offense that was top-20 in the nation in two-point field goals made and top-15 in rebounds.

In the same way the Rebels did against Iowa State, kudos need to be given to made to Pedulla,  Jaylen Murray, Davon Barnes, and Murrell for limiting any sort of post feed action with good post fronting defense. Jaxson Kohler struggled to receive any post feeds and finished the contest without a field goal attempt. Carson Cooper, a center for the Spartans, finished with five attempts.

2) Win on the Glass. What was once a core weakness for Ole Miss, rebounding, became a strength for the Rebels in the NCAA tournament. With arguably their largest task yet (in terms of the prestige of the opponent physically), the Rebels once again came away as the winner in the rebounding category. Jaemyn Brakefield grabbed 7 rebounds off the bench to headline a group of six Ole Miss players who finished with 3+ rebounds. The team rebounding effort created a +6 second chance points margin to Ole Miss.

Michigan State is a team whose offense likes to get to the basket, so it’s natural that they could have players crash to for offensive rebounds compared to a spacing team that may run five-out. Izzo’s squad ranked 2nd in the Big Ten in offensive rebounding and averaged 12.1 offensive rebounds.

The Rebels won the rebounding battle, 33-29. More impressive is that Ole Miss only let Michigan State grab five offensive rebounds. The margin could be considered closer due to the overall number of shots by each team. Ole Miss ended the contest with 16 more field goals than Michigan State.

3) Eliminate drives off MSU screen action. A tale of two halves for this one. Michigan State is a team that doesn’t make a ton of three pointers. That plays into Ole Miss’ defense that forces teams to keep the ball on one side of the court often ending in either tough mid-range twos or threes. Michigan State likes to utlize action to create mismatches or motion that it can attack off of. There is also secondary motion to this as well. It has some weave to it with other elements.

In the first half, Ole Miss did a really good job of switching and keeping perimeter attackers at bay. Michigan State finished the first half with 10 points in the paint, a low number compared to Ole Miss’ 18. The second half is where things took a turn. The Rebels gave up 26 points in the paint. This was accomplished as a result of a few things.

First, Michigan State had success attacking the baseline and Ole Miss was a hair late with help defense. Secondly, the Rebels found themselves in foul trouble that caused their defense to at times not be as aggressive/physical. Malik Dia recorded four fouls in the second half, while Dre Davis was limited by getting up to his fourth foul and Michigan State was in the bonus with plenty of time. This led to 13 made free throw attempts. Easy points and a continued attack allowed Michigan State to claw its way back into this game, with a 14-2 run that featured several free throws and eight points in the paint.

Ole Miss did a good job of taking away some of the Spartans’ strengths — so what caused the Rebels to eventually fall to Michigan State?

The Rebels found themselves in a favorable position at several points throughout this contest. In the first half, Ole Miss held a 10-point lead. In the second half, the Rebels boasted a 9-point lead with just over 12 minutes left in the game.

So what happened? To answer this, we start with Ole Miss lead guard Sean Pedulla. The senior played 35+ minutes in each of the first two rounds of the tournament.  A catalyst for the Rebels’ offense this year, Pedulla was limited to only 9 minutes of gametime in the first half Friday after drawing two fouls and exiting around the 11:00-minute mark. Ole Miss did well to extend on its lead initially, but this led to two scoring droughts. One of 4:00+ minutes and a final 2:15 drought to end the first half.

In previous series, we mention the middle ten (for this the last five minutes of the half), and a strong close could have made this a game a tough comeback situation for Michigan State. The Spartans saw opportunity with an Ole Miss offense that was just trying to close out the half on top, and they made four of their final six field goal attempts to end the half. Three of these were three-point attempts, allowing Michigan State to cut the lead down to two at the half.

As we get into the second half, Ole Miss received the boost from Sean Pedulla. Sixteen of his total 24 points came in the second half, with several key buckets to swing momentum made by Ole Miss’ Mr. Clutch. The problem for the Rebels is that the balanced scoring that had been a strength for Ole Miss struggled to get going. On paper, the Rebels shot 39.4% from the field in the second half. That number dips down to 31.8% without the play of Sean Pedulla. With Michigan State finding offensive success from the field and at the line, Ole Miss needed some offensive firepower to keep ahold of their lead — something that was a struggle in each of their NCAA tournament games.

That being said, the Rebels had their chances down the stretch, but they came up short in a game that somehow felt even closer than the score indicated.

Chris Beard Built a Team to Win

– Chris Beard

Ole Miss do not return six of the eight players who logged minutes in Friday’s action. At the beginning of the year, NCAA bracketologists predicted the Rebels would be an 8/9 seed. Chris Beard never believed that it was about making the tournament. Instead, to his team and him, it was about making a run in the tournament — sentiments Beard has echoed ever since his introductory press conference.

This group accomplished a run that had only happened once in Ole Miss’ history as a program. It was done with a roster full of talented players who adjusted to new roles in order for the Rebels to be successful. Two players, Jaemyn Brakefield and Matthew Murrell, were there to help create the turnaround in the program after a multiyear career in Oxford.

– Chris Beard 

The duo of Brakefield and Murrell deserves a lot of credit for ushering in the change in culture and helping Ole Miss build its program. Brakefield was also instrumental as a recruiter for the Ole Miss program. All in all, a moment to let these guys receive their flowers is in order. Credit to Pedulla, Murrell, Brakefield, Davis, Barnes, and Murray, who all saw the vision of what Beard was envisioning.

– Chris Beard

Ole Miss Basketball’s Culture has a Strong Foundation

– Matthew Murrell

While Ole Miss will feature a lot of unfamiliar faces in the future, the culture is here to stay – as long as Chris Beard stays, at least. Beard mentioned that what he was thrilled with isn’t necessarily the result of the season, but that this group raised expectations. This season saw another uptick in the play with upset wins, a tournament appearance/run, wins over top-five teams, and more, that Ole Miss basketball hasn’t seen in awhile.

– Chris Beard

Now the challenge becomes trying to figure out the puzzle pieces for next year. If there is one thing for certain, it is that the expectation is now set for Ole Miss to build on the success of this year and to keep moving forward. The Rebels’ staff will now turn its attention to the transfer portal and as they look to bring in another class of talented players set to compete for another tournament run.