Ole Miss is off to a good start in playing the way head coach Chris Beard wants his team to play.
The Rebels (2-0), who face Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday night in Oxford, Miss., are forcing turnovers and sharing the basketball the way Beard emphasizes.
“Defense is not guarding them until they shoot and hoping they miss,” Beard said. “It’s trying to get the ball before they shoot.”
Ole Miss has done a very good job of taking the ball away in lopsided home victories against Alcorn State (99-58) and Central Arkansas (92-60). The Rebels are forcing an average of 22 turnovers per game, which includes 12 steals, and they’re averaging 29.5 points off turnovers.
Once Ole Miss has the ball, whether by turnover or not, it’s sharing the basketball efficiently. In each of their first two games, the Rebels had six players who finished with two assists or more.
Adam Clark has a team-leading 6.5 assists per game.
“We’re a team that is going to get our assists from different positions,” Beard said.
One of the beneficiaries of the ball movement is Patton Pinkins, who leads the team with an average of 17.5 points and has made 7 of 9 shots from 3-point territory.
“We want him to shoot the ball every time he’s open,” Beard said.
The game against Ole Miss is the third of eight consecutive games away from home to start the season for Southeastern Louisiana (1-1). The Lions opened with a 92-59 loss at Auburn, then won at Little Rock (83-79) on Saturday.
“I’m excited about our unselfishness and guys competing and having fun,” Southeastern Louisiana head coach David Kiefer said. “We’re seeing some guys really start to come together.”
The Lions also have road games against Texas A&M and Kennesaw State, two tournament games in Cancun, Mexico, and another road game against George Washington before finally playing their first home game in the Southland Conference opener against Incarnate Word on Dec. 5.
“We’ve got to have a tough-minded, resilient basketball team that competes every single day,” Kiefer said.
Jackson Furman, who averaged 8.9 points for Army as a freshman last season, leads the Lions in scoring with 13 points per game through the first two games.