Report Card is Back!

OLE MISS REPORT CARD
What a game to grade. We finally put it all together in the same game. A 20 point blow out of the #15 team in the nation. We played great offense, great defense, sharp, crisp passes and as a team, good free throw shooting. I feel that the greatest compliment Charles Rhodes has ever gotten came from Andy Kennedy when he said, “Charles Rhodes told us what he was going to do and he did it.” But Charles wasn’t the only one that did great. The no look, back of the head pass to Rhodes from Gordon was a thing of beauty and brought everyone in the house to their feet yelling. I even think a few of the Ole Miss fans may have applauded that basket. We’ll share more on others below.
OFFENSE A
This is the game where just about everyone on the bench made some type of contribution. Everybody that dressed out got to play. TF Benock coming off the bench for 21 minutes made up for the lost production of Ben Hansbrough (out with mono) hitting 4 of 5 from behind the arc. Bailey and Johnson both getting 11 minutes while resting our starters played well. Combined they pulled down 6 rebounds and scored 10 points. In fact, Bailey took a sharp pass near the floor, caught it and stuffed it for two. Before hand, I would have sworn he could never make that play. This turned out be a game where the starters didn’t really have to play the whole game for us to win. Stewart was the only starter that played more than 30 minutes and that was for 33. In this game, our bench players outscored the Rebels 25 to 16. I feel there were so many superlatives by our team in this game that it would take several pages pointing them all out.
DEFENSE A
As a team, our guys turned in a stellar performance. Gordon’s harassment of Chris Warren held him to 5 of 20 shooting, which included on 2 of 10 from behind the arc. We were able to get Ole Miss’s big men in foul trouble which also limited their scoring and rebounding production. Because of our defense, the Rebs had to play 3 of their starters for over 30 minutes including Warren playing for 35 minutes. The way our defense chased him around, he probably needed that 5 minutes of breathing time. Shot blocking also came into play in this game with our blocking 8 shots to the Rebs 5. “Swat” Varnado had 4. Bailey had 2 blocks, Gordon and Augustus picking up the other two.
ASSIST TO TURNOVER RATIO A
On average this was our best of the year. We ended the game with 15 assists and 11 turnovers. Gordon ended the game with 6 assists to 1 turnover. In fact, it this area, our bench players did well also with 5 assists and 2 turnovers. I sincerely hope this is a continuing trend. As a comparison, Ole Miss had 8 assists and 6 turnovers.
REBOUNDING A
Again, we out rebounded our opponent 40 to 39. Curtis was a hoss for the Rebs with 11 rebounds. However Curtis and Williams (starters) combined for 14 rebounds. But, Varnado and Rhodes teamed up for 14 also. Surprisingly, Phil Turner pulled down 6 rebounds in this contest. We could probably have done just a tad better on offensive rebounds, but that’ll come as the season goes on.
3 POINT SHOOTING A
Although we were only 7 of 19 from behind the line, they were timely and help knock the wind out of the Rebels. TF Benock was 4 of 5 from behind the line. Overall, we 36.8% from behind the line. But in the second half of the game, we were 4 of 8 for 50%. I think Rhodes has found his scoring zone because he didn’t attempt the first 3 pointer in this game.
FREE THROW SHOOTING A
In some respects, I suppose we will always criticize this area of the game until they are consistently hitting 100%. In this game we were 7 of 10 in the first half for 70%. In the second half, we were 6 of 9 for 68.4%. But if we could have made just one more of those misses, we would have been 14 of 19 for 73.7% as a team. I think we would all feel more comfortable with us consistently shooting FTs in the 70’s.
OFFICIATING A
I thought the officiating in this game was pretty decent. They may have missed some calls and they allowed the players to play and I don’t feel they showed any bias in their calls. To me, that is all you can ask for.
OVERALL A
What more can be said. I graded out all categories with A’s. They played a complete game against a very good opponent and blew them out. GO DAWGS!!!-001