Postgame Quotes vs. Mississippi College

OLE MISS HEAD COACH KERMIT DAVIS

Opening statement…
"First of all, I'd like to commend Mike (Jones) and Mississippi College. That team played Southern Miss to five points (73-68 loss) last week, and he's had an unbelievable career in Mississippi. I coached against him in junior college, 1984-1986, so it's good to see him back coaching."

On the exhibition…
"It was good for our team, you can tell we're a work in progress. It was great that we got a lot of guys a ton of minutes. Breein (Tyree) and Devontae (Shuler), guys that we're going to depend on, were good, not great. Devontae really competed on the ball. It's been our problem in the preseason, the ball has stayed on the floor way too much. We need to share the ball. We turn it over because the ball doesn't move, it sticks, so that's something that tonight with 13 assists, 20 turnovers, we've got to get so much better. We did that against Texas too, so we're really going to emphasize that during the next three or four days. I was proud of our effort. It was good to see Bryce Williams come in and play the way he did. We need some of those guys to kind of separate themselves when they get into the mix. KJ (Buffen) was really good in the first half."

On KJ Buffen's offensive play…
"He did better tonight physically, finishing the ball at the rim. We're going to have to get it to where he's going to trust his jump shot a little bit against bigger teams. He was aggressive, he's got a great skill level, and he's been playing that way. He played well against Texas and has had a really good beginning of practice until right now, so it was good to see him come out and play well."

On sharing the ball and chemistry tonight…
"Breein (Tyree) had four turnovers, and every one of them he over-dribbled. Franco Miller had two charges for over-dribbling. I took all five guys out at the end of the first half, we tried to go for one shot, had one freshman throw to another freshman to just shoot a Hail Mary shot six feet from the goal. We have a lot to learn, a lot of young guys are out there that are playing. When you get Sammy (Hunter) and Austin (Crowley), even Luis (Rodriguez) who had limited minutes last year, and KJ (Buffen) is still a sophomore. 'Dream' (Khadim Sy) was in better spots, fumbled the ball a bit in the second half. He's been in concussion protocol up until Friday, which is why Carlos (Curry) started."

On Khadim Sy…
"He's a good defender. He's an underrated defender. He's a good post defender. He's got good hands, he just fumbled the ball tonight. Maybe he was a little nervous, maybe just kind of coming off what he did. He just got cleared, but we have to have him good. He has got to be good. I thought we really struggled at that position in the first half. I thought 'Dream' (Sy) got going. We purposely went right at him a few times to try and get him the ball, get his head up, and score some points. I thought his second half was better."

Update on Blake Hinson…
"Right now, we think that Blake is going to be cleared for contact maybe on Friday the 16th of November. I know we play Seattle right after that. We are hoping that the 16th, maybe the 20th at the latest. During that week, we think we are going to get him back for contact, and you can see he is a huge part of what we will do."

On Khadim Sy and Carlos Curry providing matchup flexibility…
"I sure hope so. Bless Carlos' heart, he just wasn't very good tonight. He's practiced pretty well the last couple of days. He just fumbled some balls and couldn't get a stop (tonight). They went right by him. We just have to go back and keep working with him to get him better."

On Luis Rodriguez…
"He had zero rebounds. That's why I didn't start him in the second half, if he's going to lose his identity. He had zero rebounds for the whole game. He won't start Friday. He has to rebound the ball better than that. That's who he is. He is a physical defender, so he kind of lost his identity tonight, and hopefully he'll get it back the next two or three days."

On Austin Crowley…
"You can see he's athletic. He's fluid. He's a little soft with the ball right now. I like him, he just has to get physically tougher. You'll see it. I have great hopes for Austin (Crowley). He's going to be a really good player. I thought he had some open looks tonight that he missed. He guards at a good rate, he had two steals, he's going to really help us. He needs to be good this year."

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Players Mentioned

KJ Buffen

Austin Crowley

Carlos Curry

Blake Hinson

Luis Rodriguez

Khadim Sy

Bryce Williams

The University of Mississippi Athletics