Don’t look now, but Mississippi boasts two superb college basketball teams.
State and Ole Miss both have won 10 of their first 11 games. Both are nationally ranked. Both are exceptionally well-coached. In their backcourts, where postseason basketball games are won and lost, they are remarkably proficient.
They better be.
In modern parlance, things are about to get real. That goes for every team in the Southeastern Conference.
For years – no, for decades – we have heard the same old song and dance, season after season, about how the SEC hoops is better, deeper, than it has ever been. Guess what? This season, it is true. This season, the SEC is the best league in college basketball. It isn’t close.
Ole Miss is 16th and State 25th in this week’s coaches poll. But consider this: Five of the top seven are SEC teams. Six of the top 11 are SEC teams. Half of the top 16 and nine of the top 25 are SEC teams.
Better yet, consider: The worst record of any SEC team as this is written belongs to South Carolina. The Gamecocks are 8-3. On Tuesday night, they defeated Clemson, a top 25 team from the Atlantic Coast Conference, 91-88.
After Tuesday night’s games, the SEC’s cumulative record stands at 154-20. That’s astounding. That’s also a winning percentage a tad under 90 percent. And yes, many of those victories were over bad teams. But many weren’t.
State slaughtered Pitt of the ACC. Ole Miss cold-cocked Louisville, also of the ACC, at Louisville. Furthermore, Missouri knocked off then-No. 1 Kansas, and Auburn has four victories over ranked teams and hammered Ohio State by 38 points. Undefeated Tennessee won at Illinois. Undefeated Florida boasts victories over North Carolina, Arizona State, Virginia and Wake Forest. Alabama has toppled North Carolina and Houston, among others. Vanderbilt, picked last in the SEC preseason poll, has won nine of its first 10. We could go on and on and on, but surely you get the idea.
Tuesday night, after Mississippi State polished off Central Michigan 83-59 in the Bulldogs’ annual visit to Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson, Chris Jans was asked if his team was prepared for the SEC season. It begins Jan. 4.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Jans answered. “But ready or not, we’re gonna find out soon enough. I love it. We’re excited.”
Beard, a guest on Mississippi Today’s Crooked Letter Sports podcast this week, said much the same.
“All the leagues say, ‘We’re the best,’ but this year it’s undeniable,” he said. “All you have to do is turn on the TV and watch. … It’s daunting, but it’s gonna be a lot of fun competing in this league. … If we play Ole Miss basketball, we can win any game on our schedule.”
Yes, and if they have an off night, they can lose any league game as well. Same goes for State.
What I like most about both teams are their backcourts, their guard play. While big men – centers and power forwards – often get the most attention, really good guards are what you must have to win in March in college basketball. Both Ole Miss and State are terrific in the backcourt.
Ole Miss point guard Jaylen “Juju” Murray, one of the best largely untold stories in college basketball, has been phenomenal. He has averaged 4.7 assists and just 1.3 turnovers per game. That’s better than a 3-to-1 ratio, which is outstanding. He can score, too, shooting nearly 50 percent from three-point range and hitting 96 percent of free throws. He grew up not much more than a pop fly from Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, and, as a freshman, helped St. Peters reach the Elite Eight.
Shooting guard Sean Pedulla, a transfer from Virginia Tech, is his team’s leading scorer at 14 a game. Matthew Murrell, another off guard, is in his fourth season in Oxford. A second team All-SEC pick last year, Murrell is steadily moving up the Ole Miss career scoring list. In those three guards, Beard has 12 years of invaluable, high level college basketball experience – and is why Ole Miss has turned the ball over about half as many times as its opponents.
State’s backcourt is likewise exceptional starting with home-grown Madison Ridgeland Academy guard Josh Hubbard, who won the Bailey Howell Trophy as a freshman and averages 18 per game this year. Jans added transfer Claudell Harris to his guard mix this season, and he’s special as well. A Louisiana native, Harris began his college career at Charleston Southern and then transferred to Boston College where he averaged 14 points a game as a junior. Harris had scored more than 1,300 points before he ever got to Starkville. In today’s basketball parlance, he can evermore shoot that rock.
Another common superlative: Both State and Ole Miss are balanced, scoring-wise. The Bulldogs feature seven players who average seven points or better per game. The Rebels have five players who score in double figures per game, and eight who average seven or more.
The teams share at least one more similarity. Both have at least one more huge test – and excellent preparation – before the brutal SEC schedule that awaits.
State plays at Memphis this Saturday. One week later, Ole Miss plays at Memphis. Penny Hardaway’s Tigers are ranked No. 21 and will provide a talent level and atmosphere quite similar to what the Bulldogs and Rebels will face in the SEC.
For a welcomed change, both teams open SEC play at home on Jan. 4, when Georgia plays at Ole Miss and State plays host to South Carolina.
Ready or not, here it comes.
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