MOUNTAIN BROOK, Ala. — Ole Miss men’s basketball coach Kermit Davis said there’s “no question” the Rebels expect to make the NCAA tournament this season for the first time since 2019.
But it’s not exactly a question of “Big Dance or bust,” guard Daeshun Ruffin said.
“We just want to come out, win and compete every night, and hopefully that leads to us making it to the NCAA tournament,” the Callaway High School product said.
Ole Miss appeared confident during Wednesday’s session at Southeastern Conference media days in Mountain Brook, Alabama, that it has the roster to return to March Madness for the first time since Davis’ first season in Oxford.
The Rebels’ roster includes six returning players, four freshmen and four graduate transfers.
Two of those returners are Ruffin and guard Matthew Murrell, who both represented the Rebels on Wednesday.
“We’ve got a good mix of transfers, freshmen and returners,” Murrell said. “We’re all very excited to be here and to play with each other. I feel like we’re going to mesh well together.”
Having Ruffin back healthy will be a key for the Rebels to return to the postseason, a place they’ve been just twice under Davis. The stays weren’t long: Ole Miss lost in the first round of the 2019 NCAA tournament and again in the 2021 NIT.
Ruffin’s promising freshman season was cut short when he suffered an ACL tear against LSU on Feb. 1.
Ruffin said he was cleared for contact Oct. 10. He participated in an intrasquad scrimmage Tuesday.
“He’s got a lot of pop back,” Davis said. “I’m not saying he’s 100 percent, but I think his knee is better than it’s ever been.”
The 5-foot-9 point guard said he’s excited to hopefully play a full season for the Rebels. Asked what he could accomplish in a healthy campaign, Murrell paused and stared across the room at his teammate’s podium.
“I’m going to just wait for y’all to find out about that one,” Murrell said.
Murrell himself will be a big piece for the Rebels. With 12 points per game last season, he was the team’s third-leading scorer behind Jarkel Joiner and Ruffin.
Murrell connected on 39.2 percent of his 3-point attempts, the best rate on the team.
“I think Matt Murrell is one of the very best guards in college basketball, so we’re excited about having Matt back,” Davis said.
Guard Tye Fagan and forward Robert Allen will also return for the Rebels. Allen played just eight games last season, suffering a season-ending knee injury against Memphis.
Davis said Allen did not play in Ole Miss’ trip to the Bahamas back in August, which included a game against the Bahamian national team and two other clubs.
While Davis said the level of competition the Rebels faced wasn’t the highest, it still helped the team take strides in terms of chemistry.
“I feel like it was a good bonding trip,” Murrell said. “You go through the whole summer playing against just each other the whole time, so it was kind of nice to play against somebody else.”
The Rebels will get to repeat that Nov. 7, when their season opens at home against Alcorn State.
Ruffin said he’s excited to face the Braves because he is friends with several Alcorn State players, but the game is just the beginning of a nonconference slate Davis thinks will set up the Rebels well heading into SEC play.
Ole Miss will face Stanford and potentially Florida State in a Thanksgiving week tournament in Orlando. The Rebels will play at Memphis and host UCF and Temple in December.
“Now, there’s a lot of coaches in this league who think they’re NCAA tournament teams, too, but I think we’ve kind of set ourselves up with a good nonconference schedule,” Davis said. “We feel good about it.”
If Ole Miss can qualify for the field of 68, the Rebels will continue a successful stretch across the school’s athletics programs. Ole Miss women’s basketball made last year’s tournament, the baseball team won the 2022 Men’s College World Series, and the football team made the Sugar Bowl last season and is off to a 7-0 start to the 2022 campaign.
It’s up to Davis’ team to join the club.
“There’s a lot of winning going on at Ole Miss,” he said. “We hope to keep the Rebels hot, with football and baseball doing what they’ve done.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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