McCready: White gives Rebels toughness, momentum and hope

On Friday, around 10 a.m., Ole Miss basketball took a major leap forward.

Romello White, a 6-foot-8, 235 pound forward who scored 10.2 points and grabbed 8.8 rebounds last season, announced his intention to transfer to Ole Miss.

The fallout from that decision should take an Ole Miss team searching for an identity to one that is a legitimate contender to make noise in the NCAA Tournament.

"We are extremely excited to welcome Romello to the Ole Miss family," Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis said in a statement released by the school. "Romello is a very accomplished player that impacted winning at a high level at Arizona State. He finished second in the Pac-12 in rebounding last year and became one of the all-time shooters in conference history in terms of field goal percentage. Romello is extremely tough, fits very well in our system of play, and we can't wait to get started this summer. He has such a high ceiling in front of him that can impact the SEC in a great way.”

That feeling, from talking to White, was mutual.

“I’m so excited,” White said Friday morning in a phone interview from his home in Atlanta, where he’s been for the better part of two months since the coronavirus pandemic shut down college campuses, including the one in Tempe, Ariz. “Actually being able to showcase my game even more excites me. When I was in high school, I was a 4, not a 5-man. At Arizona State, I got stuck as a (center). Now I have freedom and they’re going to develop my shot. I feel like it’s smart.”

Give a ton of credit to Ole Miss assistant Levi Watkins, who recruited White to Arizona State three years ago. White never cut off ties with Watkins, who joined Kermit Davis at Ole Miss in March 2018.

“Me and Levi have a strong relationship,” White said. “We are real close. When he was with me at Arizona State, he was my favorite coach. He was a mentor to me. I was in a bad place my freshman year and he kept my spirits up.”

White is also friends with rising Ole Miss junior forward KJ Buffen. The two met on the AAU circuit in Georgia — Buffen is from Gainesville, Ga. — and have kept in touch over the years. That helped as well, as Ole Miss battled Vanderbilt and Georgia for White’s services.

White’s conversations with Davis over the past few days and weeks sealed the deal.

“We’ve been talking about his plans for me,” White said. “I know when something is a good fit for me and I just knew it. The facility (The Pavilion at Ole Miss) is crazy and I’m closer to home. It just made a lot of sense. It all came together.

“What the SEC likes a lot of is toughness. That’s what (Davis) said he likes about me — my toughness, my aggressiveness. He said that’s the main thing they’ve been missing. That fits right down my alley.”

At Ole Miss, Davis has built offenses around guards, as former Rebels coach Andy Kennedy left a roster full of talented backcourt players but lacking in production closer to the basket. At Middle Tennessee, where Davis coached 16 seasons, he developed a reputation for building offenses around forwards, especially stretch-4s like White.

“He was just showing me the guys he had at Middle Tennessee,” White said. “ could tell their style of play was similar to mine — the way he developed and the way they could do more than put their back to the basket. I haven’t been able to show that to NBA scouts. The guys he was showing me were dribble-handoffing, pick and pop, getting trail-3s and that kind of thing. Those are things I have in my game that I haven’t been able to showcase.”

Over three seasons at Arizona State, White started 92 of the 95 games he played for the Sun Devils. He tallied 927 points during his ASU career, averaging 9.8 points per game and shooting 60.5 percent from the floor (second on the program's all-time list). While also brought down 7 rebounds per game, leading the team in offensive rebounds in each of three seasons, to go along with 16 career double-doubles.

During the 2019-20 campaign, White ranked second in the Pac-12 with 8.8 rebounds per game and produced eight double-doubles. On the offensive end of the court, he made 112 of his 197 attempts for the ninth-best field goal percentage in school history (56.9 percent). Defensively, he produced a team-high 35 blocks. In a 79-59 win over Georgia on Dec. 14, White put recorded a double-double with 18 points and a career-high 17 rebounds.

White, who is eligible to play immediately, contemplated making himself eligible for the NBA Draft, whenever it is held this summer. However, with COVID-19 shutting down the sports world, including NBA Summer League, evaluation camps and more, White decided to transfer to another college.

“Once I found out there was no draft combine, there was no sense for me to do it,” White said. “I know I have to showcase what I can do.”

So back to how White’s decision impacts Ole Miss’ roster:

— First, let’s touch on the roster itself. My educated guess is Ole Miss will look to place high school signee Marcus Niblack at a prep school or junior college. Further, I’d look for junior guard Bryce Williams to go elsewhere for his final season. The same likely applies to rising sophomore forward Antavion Collum.

— White’s presence balances Ole Miss’ lineup and gives it options. A likely starting five would be Devontae Shuler and Jarkel Joiner at guard, Khadim Sy at center and Dimencio Vaughn and White at forwards. That would leave a bench of Matthew Murrell and Austin Crowley in the backcourt, Blake Hinson and Luis Rodriguez on the wings and Buffen and redshirt freshman Shon Robinson in the frontcourt.

— White’s addition could allow Ole Miss to redshirt rising sophomore forward Sammy Hunter, who had an up and down freshman season and likely needs some time to develop.

— With White joining the roster, Ole Miss no longer has to sweat the NCAA’s decision on the one-time, no-penalty transfer rule. It’s likely to pass at some point, but it does not appear to be on the verge of happening this summer. Samford transfer Robert Allen, who has three years to play two, can now sit the 2020-21 season and develop his game working against players like White and Buffen in practice every day.

In short, White gives Davis his most versatile, balanced roster during his time at Ole Miss. He gives the Rebels another player with NBA potential and he turns the Rebels into a legitimate NCAA Tournament contender, if not a top-tier Southeastern Conference club.

Two months after Ole Miss’ season ended in Nashville with a quiet thud, the Rebels’ program once again has momentum.