Notes: Homecoming for Shuler, Rebels rested, ready for Sooners

COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Devontae Shuler already had one homecoming this season.

On Sunday afternoon, he learned he was having another.

Shuler, Ole Miss’ starting point guard, lock-down defender and third-leading scorer, grew up 10 miles from Colonial Life Arena, where the Rebels will face Oklahoma Friday (11:40 a.m. CDT, Tru TV) in a second-round NCAA Tournament game.

He had a family reunion of sorts on Feb. 19, when Ole Miss lost to South Carolina, 79-64, in the same arena. Friday, however, will be more celebration than family gathering.

“It was just an opportunity for me to come back home and play in front of my family and friends and also for me to have a better chance to play better in my home state,” Shuler said. “I have plenty of family and friends coming, of course. This is like right in the middle of where I'm from. For the most part, for me just to come back and stay focused and just for me to come back and get the win, that's the main part of me coming back home and playing in this. That's really it.”

Shuler might be underplaying the significance of returning to South Carolina, but his teammates and coaches don’t do anything to minimize his importance to the Rebels’ resurgent season, one that saw Shuler move to the point and average 10.2 points, 4.2 rebounds and three assists per game for an Ole Miss team that went 20-12 overall and 10-8 in the Southeastern Conference.

Shuler’s backcourt mate, first-team All-SEC shooting guard Breein Tyree, cited Shuler’s “tremendous growth” as a main reason the Rebels are in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015.

“Even from his freshman year, when I was playing point and he was playing the two guard, he grew tremendously in that year,” Tyree said. “But just from freshman year into his sophomore year, just leadership qualities has grown tremendously, to handling the ball, making better decisions, getting the team in the right sets. I don't want to say taking a backseat to me and T.D., but not taking as many shots and maybe not even getting the spotlight at all times, but he just keeps it going, and he's a major part of our team. Without him, this train doesn't go. His growth has been tremendous, and he's still not done yet. We've got a long way to go as a team.

“It's freed me up to just be a lot more aggressive offensively. That's what Coach (Kermit Davis) wants me to do, assert myself on the offensive end and take better shots than I did last year, and Devontae's helped me do that a lot this year. Just getting me open because he's such an aggressive guard. A lot of help will come and kick outs to me and (Terence Davis) on the wings, and then it's time for us to make a play and try and get the ball in the basket.”

“To be a freshman and play key roles last year and then to play a whole 'nother role, point guard, never played the position ever, it just tells you how good of a player you are,” Terence Davis said. “Just to play a whole different position and be good at it, get his team to March Madness just tells you everything.”

Tyree leads Ole Miss with 18.2 points per game. Davis averaged 15.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists. Still, it’s Shuler, Kermit Davis said, who is engine that makes the Rebels go.

“He's probably been the key to our team,” Davis said. “He got nicked up for five or six games after the Mississippi State game, and he's now back healthy. He didn't even play point guard at Oak Hill for Steve Smith. He kind of played off the ball all the time and played off the ball as a freshman. We really met in the spring, and I really think he understood.

“The biggest thing he's done, he's valued the ball. He's a tough, competitive guard on the ball defending. He really has. Breein and T.D. have had these great All-SEC years, but Devontae Shuler has been maybe our most valuable player on the floor.”

Friday will mark the first NCAA Tournament experience for any player on Ole Miss’ roster. Oklahoma, meanwhile, has players with Final Four experience. The Sooners, led by former Oklahoma star Trae Young, also made the NCAA Tournament last season. Still, the Rebels don’t believe that will be a major factor Friday.

“I do feel like experience is a big thing in anything you do,” Tyree said. "We’re experienced guards, and we played a lot of college basketball, but this is our first time in the tournament. This will be a new experience for us, but on the other side of it, we'll be just as excited as any other person would be for this major opportunity.

“We have no experience in the NCAA Tournament, but we do have experience together with this team,” Terence Davis said. “So we'll be okay along the road.”

“I just think that, when you play in leagues like ours, when you've played in those kinds of games every night,” Kermit Davis said. “I told our team yesterday, I said, ‘Guys, you've been tested in every way possible a college team can get tested by what you went through in an 18-game schedule in this league.’ So they've been in these big environments and big arenas. Do you have a little nerves, probably a little jitters first when the ball's tipped and you get it going? Sure. But the biggest thing is just stay true to yourself, do what you do, don't try to go out of character, and just be who we are, the best version of our team, and hopefully they'll do that tomorrow.”

Kermit Davis and Lon Kruger have known each other for decades. However, the veteran coaches will be squaring off for the first time Friday.

“I guess I've just always admired Lon and followed him when he was at Florida and Illinois and obviously at Oklahoma,” Davis said. “We both had the same assistant, a guy named Greg Grensing that I hired when Lon was at Vegas fixing to go to Oklahoma and Greg was a great assistant of mine at Middle Tennessee. Just as a coach and one of his peers, I've admired him for what he's done. The main thing is how he's gone about his business for so long in his career.

“They've guarded at a high level, and just the way the ball moves offensively, I think he's just always had great spacing. He was one of really the first guys. I mean, I know the dribble drive, the spacing and driving balls, and I just think their best players shoot it. He puts them in spots to catch and score, and he's done that his whole career.”

Ole Miss hasn’t played since losing to Alabama in the second round of the SEC Tournament. The Rebels took last Friday off, worked hard Saturday and Sunday and then began scaling back this week before traveling to Columbia Wednesday.

“It's been really good,” Davis said. “I wanted to get that out of our system and back playing. We needed to go up and down some. So I think our attitude and energy level has been really good this week.

“You know, I think mentally, nobody wants to get beat in their conference tournament by any means. Obviously, we were disappointed, but probably in the end, I think mentally, it's been really good for our team, a team that, like I said, went to Canada, had extra days of practice. So we have really stuck to about an hour, hour and 10 minutes this week at most. So I do think I saw it with Breein and even T.D. the last couple days, a little fresher legs and fresh minds. I hope it does help.”