To say the 2025-26 season for Ole Miss men’s basketball isn’t going well, is an understatement.
The Rebels began the season receiving votes in the preseason AP Poll and won five-straight games, including a six-point win against Memphis.
But then things went south. Fast.
Ole Miss lost four-straight games with lack of effort as most common criticism leveled at the Rebels. That came to a head after third-straight loss to Miami, 75-66 in the ACC/SEC Challenge in Oxford.
AJ Storr was asked about what can be done to fix the lack of effort shown by the Rebels.
“You can’t really do too much,” Storr said as he began to answer the question. But Ole Miss coach Chris Beard cut him off mid-sentence.
“Yeah, we can. We can play different players,” Beard said sitting next to Storr. “That’s what we did in the second half when we won the second half by seven points. We can play different players. We can fix effort and it will be fixed.”
The Rebels have gone 2-2 since that press conference and, based on Sunday’s performance against NC State, the effort woes haven’t been fixed.
However, while it may appear to be all gloom-and-doom for Ole Miss, there’s enough time to turn things around. SEC play is right around the corner.
But finding a cure to their woes during this Christmas break wouldn’t be a bad idea for the Rebels.
As they rest, let’s take a step back and look at where Ole Miss stands.
Big Picture
If the ultimate goal is to play in the NCAA Tournament in March, the Rebels have a lot of work to do.
Ole Miss is ranked No. 98 in the latest NCAA Men’s Basketball NET Rankings, the third lowest ranking amongst SEC teams. The only SEC teams ranked lower are South Carolina (108) and Mississippi State (124).
Here’s the Rebels’ NET rankings breakdown:
- Overall: 7-5
- Road: 0-1
- Neutral: 2-3
- Home: 5-1
- Q1: 0-1
- Q2: 0-3
- Q3: 3-1
- Q4: 4-0
Schedule
Ole Miss can’t say it’s played an easy schedule. The Rebels have played four teams from Power 4 conferences, plus No. 22 St. John’s and Memphis. But they’re only 1-5 in those games.
The four-game losing streak was especially telling. Those losses came against Iowa (74-69), Utah (75-74), Miami (75-66) and St. John’s (63-58). Those are all close losses. So, an argument can be made the Rebels aren’t far from being in a much better position in the Christmas break.
But they’re not and have just one game against Alcorn State before beginning SEC play with a road trip to Oklahoma.
Player Highlights
We won’t ask Beard for his picks for this section. Based on Sunday’s game against NC State, he’s not happy with several players.
Two regular starters weren’t benched against the Wolfpack, Malik Dia and Travis Perry. Dia has clearly established himself as the best player with a team-high 14.7 points per game and 6.8 rebounds per game.
Perry has started six games this season and got his bump after the effort woes began to appear. He’s averaging 5.6 ppg, 1.3 rpg and has a 2:1 turnover ratio.
Other than Dia the only Rebels with more than 10 ppg is Storr and Ilias Kamardine. Both of them were benched for most of the second half against NC State and played just 15 minutes.
Storr is averaging 12.3 ppg and Kamardine is at 11.6 ppg. Both are averaging 3.3 rpg and have a combined 46 turnovers.
Next Up
Ole Miss’s final non-conference game before SEC play begins is set for 7 p.m. Monday against Alcorn State. The game will air on SEC Network.
