Mississippi’s Murphy Holloway (31) shoots against Arkansas’ Marshawn Powell (33) and Arkansas’ Hunter Mickelson (21) during an NCAA college basketball game in Oxford, Miss. on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013.The Ole Miss Rebels never have won a Southeastern Conference regular-season championship in men’s basketball, and their six NCAA tournament appearances are the fewest of any league member.
Those facts don’t seem to matter these days, as Ole Miss is off to the best start in school history and boasts the league’s most talked-about player — junior guard Marshall Henderson. The cardiac Rebels are 17-2 overall and 6-0 in league play for the first time, having rallied for victories over Vanderbilt and Tennessee and surviving a 63-61 decision this past Saturday at Auburn.
“Sometimes you have those years where the close games seem to go your way,” Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said Monday. “We had a chance. Tennessee certainly had a chance, and Auburn had a chance for sure. Yet they keep coming up victorious. I think some of that is experience, because experienced teams tend to win more of those games, generally.
“I also think they’ve just got a feeling or vibe going that they believe they’re going to win.”
Stallings’ Commodores led the Rebels by 13 with 8:39 remaining Jan. 15 in Nashville, but a Henderson 3-pointer at the buzzer sent the game into overtime, and Ole Miss pulled away for an 89-79 win. The Rebels trailed Tennessee 46-40 with 8:51 left last Thursday in Oxford before Henderson rallied them to a 62-56 triumph, and his two free throws with 6.4 seconds to play were the difference at Auburn.