Ole Miss men’s basketball vs. Missouri on Feb. 8, 2014 at the C.M. Tad Smith Coliseum.
OXFORD, Miss. – The Ole Miss basketball squad opened fall practice Friday at the team’s practice facility at the Tuohy Center.
Although this marked the Ole Miss’ first official practice of the season, the Rebels have worked together much of the off season, including individual work and the team’s trip to the Bahamas in August.
Head coach Andy Kennedy, the all-time winningest coach in school history, noted the team’s extra work is already paying dividends
“We’re so far ahead based on what we had the opportunity to experience in the Bahamas,” Kennedy said. “We have been with this team for 10 practices in July and August, and then we had two games in the Bahamas, so I feel much further along with this group.
“We already put in some of our baseline stuff so that we can start to make adjustments based on what we saw this summer. Our foundation is pretty much set. Now, we’re building off that based on the skill set of our players.”
The Rebels boast one of the most experienced teams in the SEC, with a league-high five seniors led by returning All-SEC performer Jarvis Summers. Summers is the SEC active career leader with 1,233 career points and 370 assists.
“This is the most-experienced team I have coached at Ole Miss, where nine of our 13 scholarship players are upperclassmen. I’m pleased with where we are and the prospects of this team.”
Ole Miss also added five newcomers to this year’s squad, highlighted by a pair of fifth-year transfers in M.J. Rhett and Terence Smith. A presence in the low post, Rhett ranked 18th in the nation last year with nine double-doubles at Tennessee State, while Smith was a career 1,000-point scorer and 40 percent 3-point shooter (101-253) at Tennessee-Martin, and averaged 14.6 points a game last year for the Skyhawks.
Stephan Moody, a junior college transfer, also joins the Rebels after being named the Sunbelt Conference Freshman of the Year at Florida Atlantic University, where he averaged 15.7 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.
Ole Miss tips off the 2014-15 season Nov. 14 with Charleston Southern and will play a nonconference slate that includes Cincinnati, Creighton, Dayton, Oregon and Western Kentucky. The Rebels open the conference play Jan. 6 on the road at Kentucky.