Ole Miss was overwhelmed Tuesday night in Tuscaloosa, losing an 84-62 decision to No. 7 Alabama at Coleman Coliseum.

The Rebels fell to 8-6 overall and 0-2 in the Southeastern Conference. Alabama improved to 12-2 overall and 2-0 in the league.

Jaemyn Brakefield led Ole Miss with 14 points and nine rebounds. Daeshun Ruffin added 13 points and three assists. Theo Akwuba chipped in 11 points and eight rebounds.

Brandon Miller led a balanced Alabama attack with 17 points and five rebounds. Mark Sears had 16 points and six rebounds. Jaden Bradley had 14 points, three rebounds and three assists. Jahvon Quinerly had 11 points. Noah Clowney added 10.

"We got beat by a really good team," Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis said. "The first two teams played are obviously two teams that could win a national championship."

Here are 10 observations from the Rebels' loss to the Crimson Tide:

1. Alabama is just so very talented. The Crimson Tide is a national title contender. Nate Oats' team is deep and versatile. Ole Miss has opened the SEC slate with Tennessee and Alabama. It was a brutal assignment. Things only get easier from here.

2. That said, I have real concerns about this Ole Miss team. Are there enough playmakers? I don't think so. Is it athletic enough to play with the top half of the SEC? Again, I have doubts. Is the post defense good enough to handle the size Ole Miss will see in league play? I am skeptical.

Alabama is elite, so I'm trying to grade on a curve here. Still, Ole Miss' path to success is scary narrow.

3. Ruffin showed some flashes here and there of his old self, but there's still so very much rust in his game. He had two first-half air balls and his knee still appears to bother him on the defensive end. Against Alabama's quickness, Ruffin was a liability on the defensive end.

"He'll find his rhythm at some point," Davis said. "Tonight he looked more comfortable, had more pop than he's had. He had a lot of open shots from 3 that he's got to keep shooting. They were open."

Ruffin was 0-for-7 from the 3-point line.

4. Alabama pulled away midway through the first half. Sears hit a 3-pointer with 7:21 left to extend the Tide's lead to 31-16. SEC Network analyst Daymeon Fishback implored Ole Miss to "match the scoring," and the Rebels answered with a bucket on Brakefield's put-back after an offensive rebound. Still, it was emblematic of the night. For Alabama, scoring came easily. For Ole Miss, it was laborious.

5. Miller is just amazing. He's got size, length, athleticism, driving ability and more. The likely NBA lottery pick has an elite skill set.

6. Ole Miss just has to get so much more out of Murrell. He finished with nine points on 4-for-13 shooting.

"He's just got to keep going," Davis said. "He and Daeshun have got to start playing great together and when they do, then our team will have a chance to really, really compete at a high level in our league."

7. He didn't give the Rebels much, but I'd like to see more of Amaree Abram running the Ole Miss offense. He's more penetrative and he can create more offense for an Ole Miss team that desperately needs weapons on that end of the floor.

8. Speaking of, there were times when Davis called an offensive set and it was executed and the Rebels just missed the shot. It's just so difficult for this team to generate offense.

9. Ole Miss was 2-for-24 from the 3-point line. That's 8 percent. Eight. percent. Some of the misses were open looks. Some were just awful shots. Again, it's a broken record, but offense is just so difficult to come by.

Ole Miss shot just 35 percent from the floor. The Rebels forced just seven turnovers. They won the rebounding battle, 48-39, but the lack of offense and the lack of explosive defense are major issues.

"I thought we had a lot of step-in 3s, a lot of A-range shots," Davis said. "It's a pretty simple game of basketball. If you go back and look at it, we got just as good of shots as Alabama did. ...We have to make open shots. Offensively, I think what we're doing is good. We just have to make open shots."

10. Ole Miss travels to Starkville on Saturday to face Mississippi State. The Bulldogs were blown out at Tennessee earlier Tuesday evening.