Rebels Battle Butler in First Road Test Friday Night

			OLE MISS (1-0, 0-0 SEC) at Butler (2-0, 0-0 Big East) Friday, Nov. 16 • 7 PM • Indianapolis, Ind. Hinkle Fieldhouse (9,100)
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GAME 2
Date: Friday, Nov. 16, 2018
Time: 7 p.m. CT
Location: Indianapolis, Ind.
Arena: Hinkle Fieldhouse (9,100)
Television: FS2
   Shane Bacon, play-by-play
   Jordan Cornette, analyst
Radio: Ole Miss IMG Sports Network (XM-389)
   Eli Savoie, play-by-play
   Marc Dukes, analyst
Series: First Meeting

TIPOFF TIDBITS
- Ole Miss leads the SEC in three-point field goal percentage (45.5), steals per game (15.0), turnovers forced per game (24.0) and turnover margin (12.0).
- The Rebels rank top five nationally in turnover margin (third), steals per game (fourth) and turnovers forced per game (24.0).
- The matchup with Butler is the first of a home-and-home series; the Bulldogs will come to Oxford in 2019.
- Ole Miss is coming off a 90-64 season-opening win over Western Michigan, the first game under new head coach Kermit Davis.
- The Rebels flipped 24 WMU turnovers into 39 points, the most turnovers forced since Nov. 28, 2015.
- Ole Miss set Pavilion records in steals (15) and field goal percentage (54.1) in Saturday's win; the 15 steals were the most by the Rebels in a single game since 2012.
- After scoring only five points all of last season, D.C. Davis recorded 12 in the season opener.
- Blake Hinson made his collegiate debut by starting for the Rebels on Saturday, becoming the first Rebel freshman to start in a season opener since Terrance Henry to tip off the 2008-09 season.
- Kermit Davis, a native of Leakesville, Mississippi, comes to Oxford after spending the last 16 seasons at Middle Tennessee and becoming the winningest coach in school history as well as Sun Belt Conference history.
- With 404 career Division I wins, Kermit Davis ranks 124th all-time and 45th among active head coaches.
- Terence Davis, who led the Rebels with 17 points vs. WMU, was named Preseason Second Team All-SEC.
- The Rebels return three double-digit scorers (Terence Davis-13.8 ppg, Breein Tyree-10.8 ppg, Bruce Stevens-10.8 ppg) for the first time since 2012-13, a season that resulted in an SEC Tournament title and NCAA Tournament berth.
- Terence Davis ranks 39th in Ole Miss history with 1,028 career points.
- On National Signing Day Wednesday, Ole Miss landed a top 25 class with the addition of four future Rebels; it's the first full recruiting class for Kermit Davis and his staff.

A NEW ERA OF OLE MISS BASKETBALL
The 2018-19 season is the dawn of a new era for Ole Miss Basketball. A new head coach took the reins of the program when Kermit Davis was hired on March 15, 2018. Davis, the winningest coach in Middle Tennessee history, returns to his home state with years of success. A native of Leakesville, Mississippi, Davis guided the Blue Raiders to league titles in seven of his last nine years in Murfreesboro, between Conference USA and the Sun Belt. Middle Tennessee was one of five programs he led to conference championships in 36 years as an assistant and head coach. An eight-time conference coach of the year, Davis is 45th among active Division I head coaches with 404 career wins, including stints at MT, Idaho and Texas A&M. He ranks 11th nationally in winning percentage over the last three years and 13th over the last seven.

SCOUTING BUTLER
Receiving votes in both national polls, Butler enters Friday night's matchup with a 2-0 record. The Bulldogs began the season with a 90-68 win over Miami (OH) before cruising past Detroit Mercy 84-63 on Monday night. The matchup with the Rebels will wrap up Butler's three-game homestand to start the season. Next week, the Big East member travels to The Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis. Butler returns three starters from last season's NCAA Tournament team, including Kamar Baldwin. The junior guard is averaging a team-high 23.5 ppg after scoring 15.7 ppg a season ago. Joey Brunk (15.0 ppg) and Paul Jorgenson (14.5 ppg) also average double figures. As a team, Butler has shot the ball well through the first two games, leading the Big East at a 56.1 percent clip that ranks 12th nationally. LaVall Jordan is in his second season as the head coach of his alma mater.

BATTLING THE BIG EAST
Although this is the first meeting between the Rebels and Bulldogs, Ole Miss is no stranger to facing the Big East. The Rebels have played eight of the 10 current members of the Big East Conference, holding a 5-7 all-time record: Creighton (1-1), DePaul (2-1), Georgetown (1-0), Marquette (0-1), Seton Hall (0-1), St. John's (0-1), Villanova (1-1), Xavier (0-1). In the last contest versus a Big East foe, Ole Miss fell to then-No. 12 Creighton in the finals of the Paradise Jam (Nov. 21, 2016).

SEC LEADERS
With an impressive performance in the season-opening win over Western Michigan, Ole Miss leads the SEC in several categories that also rank towards the top in the country. Forcing an SEC-best 24 turnovers (fourth nationally) and only committing 12 turnovers themselves, the Rebels' +12.0 turnover margin is third in the nation. Most of those turnovers were courtesy of steals, and with a conference leading 15.0 steals per game, Ole Miss ranks fourth in that category. Going 10 of 22 from beyond the arc (45.5 percent), the Rebels top the SEC in three-point shooting.

DEFENSE AND DAVIS TRIO LEAD REBELS TO SEASON-OPENING WIN
Converting 24 turnovers into 39 points, a scrappy defense lifted Ole Miss to a 90-64 victory over Western Michigan in the 2018-19 season opener at The Pavilion (Nov. 10). Four Rebels recorded double figures, including a combined 29 from seniors D.C. Davis and Terence Davis, as Ole Miss won its first game under new head coach Kermit Davis. Western Michigan turned the ball over in eight of its first nine possessions, and the Rebels took advantage to jump out to a 20-4 lead that they would never surrender. Terence Davis led all scorers with 17 points, all coming in a first half in which the senior guard was 7 of 9 from the floor. Breein Tyree followed with 14 points, while Devontae Shuler tallied 11 of his 13 points over the final 20 minutes. Off the bench, D.C. Davis provided a spark with 12 points on a perfect shooting display.

STEALING THE SHOW
While the Rebels put up 90 points in the season opener, the story of the game was the team's tenacious defense. Ole Miss registered 15 steals throughout the contest, the most in a game in six seasons. The last time the Rebels recorded at least 15 steals in the game, they tallied 20 in a win over Lipscomb (Nov. 23, 2012). The 15 steals in Saturday's win also set a new record in the three-year history of The Pavilion.

NEW SEASON, NEW D.C.
Last season, his first as a Rebel, D.C. Davis appeared in five games and scored a total of five points. In 61 seconds Saturday, he surpassed his total from the 2017-18 campaign. With the help of two steals, Davis used a pair of threes and a transition layup to score eight points in just over a minute. His performance led to a career-high 12 points. The Purvis, Mississippi, native went 4 of 4 from the field, 2 of 2 from beyond the arc and also made both of his free throw attempts. On the defensive side of the ball, he tied a team high with three steals.

LIGHTING UP THE PAVILION
In the season opener, Ole Miss boasted a 54.1 field goal percentage (33 of 61), tying its best ever in the three-year history of The Pavilion. The Rebels also went 33 of 61 on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14, 2017) in a win over LSU and haven't shot that well prior to Saturday's game. No opposing team has shot better than 53 percent in The Pavilion, and Western Michigan was held to 40.8 percent (20 of 49) from the floor.

FRESHMAN STARTER
Earning a start on Saturday, Blake Hinson became the first Rebel freshman to start a season opener in 10 years. Terrance Henry, a seven-year pro in Europe, scored 1,095 points over his Ole Miss career and was the last Rebel to start a season opener as a freshman (2008-09 season).

REBEL DEBUTS
Five Rebels made their Ole Miss debuts in the win over Western Michigan: junior college transfers Brian Halums and Zach Naylor as well as freshmen KJ Buffen, Blake Hinson and Luis Rodriguez.

OLE MISS HOOPS LANDS TOP 25 RECRUITING CLASS ON SIGNING DAY
Ole Miss head coach Kermit Davis announced the addition of four standouts on National Signing Day. Antavion "Dude" Collum, Rodney Howard, Sammy Hunter and Bryce Williams all signed their National Letters of Intent on Nov. 14 and will join the Rebels for the 2019-20 season. After being named the 22nd head coach in Ole Miss Basketball history last March, Davis and his staff quickly completed a recruiting class by signing five players within the first two months on the job. This 2019 class, Davis' first full class at Ole Miss, is one of the best in school history coming in at No. 25 in Rivals' national rankings. Collum is a Rivals150 recruit, ranked No. 139 nationally. Howard, the No. 10 player out of the state of Georgia according to 247Sports, adds size to the team with his 6-foot-10 frame. As a senior in his third year in Canada, Hunter is averaging a whopping 30.8 ppg to go along with 7.2 rpg, 1.2 bpg, 1.2 spg and 0.5 apg. Williams, a 4-star junior college guard out of Tampa, Florida, is averaging 18.5 ppg and helped the Falcons win their first four games.

A LATE START
With the season opener on Saturday, Ole Miss joined Butler as one of the last teams in college basketball to start its season. The Rebels were the last SEC squad to tip off the campaign. In fact, Ole Miss joins Vanderbilt as the only two SEC teams to play just one game entering Friday.

CLIMBING THE CHARTS
Senior Terence Davis has 1,028 points to rank 39th in Ole Miss history. He is on pace to crack the top 20, and with a big year, could find himself in the top 10 to end his Rebel career. Next on his chase up the chart are Todd Abernethy (1,036), Denver Brackeen (1,040) and Ron Coleman (1,046). John Stroud is the Rebels' all-time scoring leader with 2,328 points.

NEXT ON THE HARDWOOD
Following the first road game of the season, Ole Miss returns to the friendly confines of The Pavilion. In a campus game as part of the Emerald Coast Classic, the Rebels host Nicholls (Nov. 20) on SEC Network (6 p.m. CT). Later in the week, Ole Miss heads to the for beach two Emerald Coast Classic games, beginning with a matchup against Baylor (Nov. 23). Tipoff is slated for 8:30 p.m. CT on CBS Sports Network. The Rebels will wrap up their trip south by facing either Cincinnati or George Mason.

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Players Mentioned

KJ Buffen

D.C. Davis

Terence Davis

Brian Halums

Blake Hinson

Zach Naylor

Luis Rodriguez

Devontae Shuler

Bruce Stevens

Breein Tyree

The University of Mississippi Athletics