Postgame Quotes vs. Southeastern Louisiana

OLE MISS HEAD COACH KERMIT DAVIS

Opening statement…
"In college basketball, we talked about it today, every game has a life of its own. You play a well-coached team, like Jay (Ladner's) team, ww are all very familiar with Jay, he was an outstanding high school coach in this state. A team that won their league championship last year, got two first team all-league players back, and we didn't have our best stuff offensively, but I thought we guarded. We had the least amount of defensive breakdowns this year. The ball, we kind of dribbled it a little bit too much tonight. It was a good night. The biggest thing about coming to Jackson is win the game. We did that, but understand we have a lot of things to clean up over the next two days before we play Chattanooga."

On team's 3-point defense tonight…
"Devontae Shuler did a great job on Marlain Veal. He's good. He makes hard shots, and we made him even take harder shots. We did a great job there. I think they missed some open shots, they haven't shot the ball from three well this year, so some maybe just attribute those guys are open at times and missed some open shots. I thought defensively it kind of saved us. Second half we just started dribbling the ball way too much, reverted back to some things. But defense rescued us tonight, so it's a good win."

On Devontae Shuler's offense…
"He looks so athletic at the rim now. He finishes the ball, obviously him making two or three three's like that was good. He played against Cincinnati like that, so when he gets going, it seems tonight he really got going, Breein (Tyree) and TD (Terence Davis) too, having all three of them all going at the same time, when they do those are three really good SEC guards that can impact the games at a high level."

On atmosphere in Jackson…
"It was great, I want to thank everybody that came. It was the first time we've done it since 2007. I thought the crowd was a great start for our crowd. You see a lot of children here lined up that got to see our players. It's something no doubt, talking to Ross (Bjork) and Keith (Carter), we're going to do, start working on an opponent for next year. I think this game will continue to grow. We had a really good day and a half, from the Batson Children's Hospital to a great alumni event last night, obviously winning the game so it was a good day and a half for Ole Miss here."

On bench play tonight…
"I liked what Luis Rodriguez did, I was going to try to play Zach Naylor. He did fine, but I just think that probably before the end, Luis Rodriguez (played more) because of his athleticism, toughness, and strength. He's an SEC athlete as a freshman. I think he and Zach Naylor are the two guys that will help us the most."

On the offense' play tonight…
"They did some good things to change up some defenses against us. We missed a lot of easy buckets. That game, we could've easily gotten out of here with 44 or 45 points at the rim. The ball didn't move like it has moved, but we still shoot 52 percent so I think that's what we're capable of. The ball, especially in the second half, back-to-back trips, Breein (Tyree) dribbles into a turnover, Terence Davis turnover and the ball just didn't move. I told our guys, I said, 'the ball will always find the best players.' We kind of got out of rhythm tonight."

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Players Mentioned

Terence Davis

Zach Naylor

Luis Rodriguez

Devontae Shuler

The University of Mississippi Athletics