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McCready: 10 Observations from No. 7 Tennessee 73, Ole Miss 71

Ole Miss' Blake Hinson (0) and Bruce Stevens celebrate during the Rebels' SEC clash with No. 7 Tennessee Wednesday. The Rebels lost, 73-71.
Ole Miss' Blake Hinson (0) and Bruce Stevens celebrate during the Rebels' SEC clash with No. 7 Tennessee Wednesday. The Rebels lost, 73-71. (Josh McCoy/Ole Miss Athletics)
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OXFORD — Ole Miss lost an absolute heartbreaker to No. 7 Tennessee Wednesday, 73-71.

Trailing 71-68 with 33 seconds left, the Volunteers scored the game’s final five points, taking the lead for good on Grant Williams’ inside bucket with 4.3 seconds left.

Ole Miss’ Devontae Shuler was called for a charge some 25 feet away from the basket with one second left.

Kermit Davis was whistled for a technical foul, putting Williams on the line. He made one free of the two free throws and Ole Miss never got another shot.

Tennessee improved to 25-3 overall and 13-2 in the Southeastern Conference. Ole Miss fell to 19-9 overall and 9-6 in the league.

Here are 10 observations from the Rebels’ near-miss against the Volunteers:

1. First and foremost, Ole Miss looked like an NCAA Tournament team Wednesday night. Tennessee is fighting for an SEC title and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Vols have lost in overtime to Gonzaga and LSU and at Kentucky. They’re a legitimate national title contender and Ole Miss went blow-for-blow with them. Period. As Kermit Davis said, there’s work to be done still for the Rebels, but if there was any internal doubt regarding the potential of this team, it got erased Wednesday night. Again, there are no moral victories in big-boy basketball, but Ole Miss knows now, beyond a shadow of a doubt, how good it can be.

2. Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said as much afterwards, echoing what Georgia’s Tom Crean said Saturday. No one is going to want to face Ole Miss in the NCAA Tournament. Here’s that quote from Barnes.

3. Ole Miss flirted with free throw disaster on Saturday. It got overshadowed by the kneeling stories and by the fact that the Rebels held on for a one-point win, but Breein Tyree missed a front end of a one-and-one in the final seconds that gave Georgia a chance at a game-winner. The Bulldogs’ final shot missed, so it wasn’t costly. On Wednesday, Tyree missed the front end of a one-and-one with 18 seconds left. Admiral Schofield got the rebound and Tennessee made Tyree and the Rebels pay on the other end with Williams’ game-winner. Ole Miss was 14-for-15 from the free throw line, but wow, the one miss hurt.

4. OK, the elephant in the room demands to be addressed. Here goes:

SEC officiating is bad. It’s so bad that something must be done about it. That said, and I know this won’t be popular, I didn’t think it decided Wednesday’s game. Now, Tennessee is a super-aggressive team, and the Volunteers had to foul three times in the final minute just to put Ole Miss into the bonus. That’s a joke.

However, I’ve talked to people tonight who are pretty objective, basketball-savvy folks, and they have cloudy opinions on Williams’ game-winner. One said it appeared Williams shuffled his feet, but he said it was “iffy” regarding whether he traveled. Another said Williams bunny-hopped, but he noted that’s Williams’ signature move and it never gets called.

“The SEC player of the year isn’t getting called for that there,” he said.

Schofield, as everyone, including Barnes, noted, shouldn’t have gotten into a spot to force a block/charge call in the final seconds, but everyone I talked to said it was definitely a charge. Kermit Davis conceded as much afterwards. Ole Miss should’ve gotten one final possession with about .5 or .6 seconds left at the very end. I have no idea why that didn’t happen, but the Rebels would’ve been dependent on a miracle.

Tennessee shot 16 free throws. Ole Miss shot 15 and it would’ve been 16 had Tyree made the front end. Poor officiating doesn’t equate to rigged officiating.

5. Ole Miss tied Tennessee in rebounds, 32-32. Ole Miss committed just 10 turnovers, one more than the Volunteers’ nine. Ole Miss was 9-for-23 from the 3-point line. Tennessee was just 3-for-13. Every metric the Rebels needed to go their way did. They just came up short.

6. Terence Davis was brilliant. He really was. In 37 minutes, Davis scored 16 points, grabbed three rebounds and dished out three assists. He played beautiful defense. Hell, his defense on Jordan Bowden’s jumper with 20 seconds left to cut Ole Miss’ lead to 71-70 was perfect. Bowden just made a big-time bucket.

7. Bruce Stevens was terrific. In 31 minutes, Stevens had 10 points and 10 rebounds. He added three assists. He missed all three of his 3-pointers, but he played his tail off against Williams. That game was too athletic for Dominik Olejniczak, who scored two points and blocked a shot in nine minutes. Stevens has to be that guy for Ole Miss. When he is, the Rebels are a potential giant-killer in the NCAA Tournament. It’s a simple as that.

8. I thought Ole Miss’ freshmen, KJ Buffen and Blake Hinson, were just superb in the biggest game of their young careers. Hinson scored 14 lints and grabbed three rebounds in 21 foul-plagued minutes. Buffen went for five points and four rebounds before fouling out in 22 minutes. Their futures are so bright.

9. The Pavilion at Ole Miss was rocking. It was an incredible atmosphere. Kudos to everyone involved. That was a fun game to cover.

9b. If you watched the post-game press conference video (linked at the top of this content item), you noted a lot of questions about the kneeling before Saturday’s Georgia game. Here’s the deal: The Ringer, The New York Times and ESPN (and maybe others) sent reporters to Oxford this week. They were working on stories. They asked lots of questions, as did the Associated Press’ David Brandt (almost certainly on orders from New York). They thought there was a big story. There isn’t. As we and others reported Saturday, the kneeling was a reaction to the Neo-Confederate rally in Oxford and at Ole Miss that same day. It appears Shuler was the ring-leader, if you will, but Ole Miss has 100 percent supported the players’ actions. Nothing happened before Wednesday’s game. Nothing is going to happen on Tuesday when the Rebels play host to Kentucky. Still, welcome to modern journalism.

10. Ole Miss plays at Arkansas at noon Saturday. I’ll be there and we’ll have full coverage on RebelGrove.com. The Rebels need to win. If they do, they can relax a bit heading into the final week of the season. If they lose, things get tight. Ole Miss probably needs another win to feel great heading to Nashville for the SEC Tournament next month. The Razorbacks, who lost in Oxford in January, gave Kentucky all it wanted Tuesday night before losing (on a controversial call, no less). It’s difficult to believe there’s a lot left in the Hogs’ collective tank.

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