Content about Andy Kennedy

After a week off, the Ole Miss men’s basketball team will return to the court Saturday, traveling to Tuscaloosa to take on the Alabama Crimson Tide. In their last game this past Saturday, the Rebels held off South Carolina for a 66-62 win in Oxford. Head coach Andy Kennedy said he thinks the week off came at a perfect time for his team.

Just 48 hours after losing a heartbreaker to Florida, the Ole Miss men’s basketball team returned to the court to host the South Carolina Gamecocks. The Rebels (14-7, 4-3 SEC) led for much of the game, but the Gamecocks (9-11, 1-5 SEC) refused to go away, knocking down shot after shot to stay in the game. 

However, it was senior forward Terrance Henry who delivered the knockout blow in favor of Ole Miss. His three-pointer with 18 seconds left sealed the 66-62 win for the Rebels on Saturday night.

When the Ole Miss basketball team takes the floor Saturday afternoon to face South Carolina, one Rebel will be facing former teammates.

Murphy Holloway transferred from Ole Miss after his sophomore season and returned home to South Carolina, where he walked on and redshirted before returning to Ole Miss this past fall for his junior season.

While NCAA transfer rules prohibited Holloway from playing in any games for the Gamecocks, Holloway went through practice with the team.

Sparked by the return of junior Murphy Holloway, the Rebels bounced back from a disappointing 81-55 loss at LSU with a 71-63 win over Arkansas Wednesday night. 

Ole Miss improves to 11-5 and 1-1 in Southeastern Conference play, while Arkansas falls to 12-4 and 1-1. The Rebels also remain perfect at home with a 7-0 record at Tad Smith Coliseum.

"This is more of an indication of what the potential of this team is," Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. "I thought we took advantage of opportunities when we had them."

Freshman guard Maurice Aniefiok is a long way from home. Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, Aniefiok played soccer growing up before ever picking up a basketball. From that day on, though, Aniefiok knew basketball was his ticket in life. He soon realized, however, that he needed to come to America to take his skills to the next level.

The Ole Miss basketball team returns to action tonight for the first time since their 64-61 overtime victory this past Friday over Miami. The Rebels are set to face the DePaul Blue Demons in the Big East/SEC Challenge from Allstate Arena in Chicago Illinois. This is the second time Ole Miss has participated in this inter-conference competition. In 2008, the Rebels lost 77-68 to No. 9 Louisville on a neutral site in Cincinnati, Ohio.

For the offensive-minded basketball fan, Friday’s season opener between the Ole Miss Rebels and the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks was not an instant classic. 

Nevertheless, the Rebels (1-0) started the season with a 60-38 win over the Warhawks (0-1). The 38 point loss was the lowest scoring output allowed under head coach Andy Kennedy.

“I didn’t think they were going to be able to score at the rim because we’re bigger and a little more athletic inside,” Kennedy said.

The Ole Miss men’s basketball team tips off its season tonight, hosting Louisiana-Monroe at 6:30 p.m. at the Tad Smith Coliseum.

The Rebels were successful in their exhibition game this past Thursday, with a runaway victory against North Alabama 91-62.

While the Rebels have been watching film on Louisiana-Monroe, head coach Andy Kennedy, who enters his sixth season as coach, admitted the first game of the year is always hard to prepare for.

Men picked 7th by the media

Andy Kennedy’s Ole Miss men’s basketball team was picked to finish 7th in the Southeastern Conference in a voting by a select panel of both SEC and national media members, the SEC announced Monday. 

The Kentucky men’s basketball team was picked to win the SEC this year, earning 18 of the 23 first-place votes. Vanderbilt, who was picked second, earned four first-place votes, followed by Florida, who also earned a first-place vote. 

Kennedy excited to get started Friday

Ole Miss men’s basketball head coach Andy Kennedy met with the media Thursday afternoon, as the team prepares to begin the season with its first official practice Friday. 

The Rebels lost their two top scorers in Chris Warren and Zach Graham, but Kennedy is excited with what he has seen from his team this offseason and looking forward to seeing where this team can go in 2011-12. 

When the 2011-12 Ole Miss men’s basketball team takes the court in November, it will do so after a large shake up on the coaching staff and on the roster.

Andy Kennedy enters his sixth season as head coach at Ole Miss and feels like the turnover will be good.

“From a coaching standpoint, we had a big shake up this offseason,” Kennedy said last week. “We have 13 guys on the roster with seven getting experience last year.”