COLUMN: Injury-Riddled Rebels Keep Fighting Despite Season's Adversity

Ole Miss can't catch a break on the hardwood.

The Rebels fell to Alabama 97-83 on Wednesday night, but it felt like the Crimson Tide were going to hit 1,000 points with the way they were shooting. Their 63.6 percent from three was otherworldly in the win, and Ole Miss just didn't have an answer defensively for that kind of effort.

The problem is, Ole Miss shot it well themselves. That 83-point performance was the most the Rebels have mustered in SEC play and the most since scoring 93 against Charleston Southern on Nov. 12. For a team where offense has been lacking this season, its best scoring performance this season came in a 14-point loss.

That's the way the proverbial cookie has crumbled this season for the Rebels.

Say what you want about Kermit Davis, but despite a plethora of injuries throughout the season, his Ole Miss team keeps fighting. It could have rolled over after its best signee in school history, Daeshun Ruffin, went down the first time. It could have curled up when Robert Allen was sidelined for the season. It could have imploded when Jarkel Joiner had back surgery. It could have been blown away when Ruffin went down again, this time for the remainder of the year.

Instead, it keeps finding a way to play with intense effort despite some frustrating breaks so far this season.

There are some who would say that Kermit Davis' tenure in Oxford will never work. Maybe they're right. Davis has been to one NCAA Tournament since he arrived, and it was with players he inherited. This is now his team, but fans need to pump the brakes when considering this season a nail in his administration's coffin.

Jarkel Joiner, despite dropping 33 points against Alabama on Wednesday, is likely not 100 percent after his back surgery a few weeks ago. Daeshun Ruffin and Robert Allen, both of whom were expected to be big pieces on this year's team, are done for the year with their own injuries. Those kinds of blows are tough to weather, and the Rebels are likely not going to reach the postseason as a result, barring some unforeseen turnaround.

Still, the effort is there. This team hasn't given up as of Wednesday night, and that says something. Again, Davis' time in Oxford may not be as successful as some might have originally thought, but maybe it will be. Maybe this team continuing to play for him despite haymaker after haymaker is a sign that things aren't as dire as they may seem.

I'm not inside the locker room, so I don't know, but this doesn't appear to be a team who has given up on its coach or its season despite the adversity that has come its way.

If you're one who is calling for Davis to be done after this year, give pause to that thought and consider all that this team has been through since the beginning of the season. Losing one key player to injury is hard enough, but the Rebels have lost three at some point this season, and although Joiner has returned, he probably won't score 33 points each night for the rest of the season. Even so, this team still plays with evident effort in the midst of this losing campaign.

The wins may not come in bunches this season, but considering the circumstances, that should be taken with a grain of salt once the book closes on 2022.

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