With Florida and Mississippi State headed to Oxford, the Junior Guard is poised to wreck havoc on their defenses.
University, Miss (TLV) – Can get Vertical. Automatic at the line. Separation. Drain the three.
A handful of NBA scouts watched Ole Miss play LSU recently and an Ole Miss player caught their attention.
In his first season at Ole Miss, Stefan Moody is wrecking havoc on opposing defenses. Fast, and determined, the junior guard has quickly become the hot handed shooter Coach Andy Kennedy needed this year to fill the Marshall Henderson void.
The Kissimmee, Florida native has been the talk of the SEC, scoring 99 points in his first five SEC games, an average of 19.8. He is solid at the line, hitting 90 percent of his free throws. He can hit the three, too. In SEC play, the Rebel guard hits 43 percent of his shots from behind the arc.
Moody takes an IV before each game to aid in his hydration and limit cramps, which apparently is working as his 15.6 points per game average for the Rebels this season leads the team.
“We gave Moody an IV before the game,” Kennedy said after Ole Miss beat South Carolina in Oxford on January 10. “He’s our playmaker. He has the gear to separate and we are just trying to put him in actions where he can get that separation. He made some huge threes for us down the stretch.”
Ole Miss (11-7, 2-3) will return home for two crucial and must-win SEC games. Florida visits Saturday at 5 pm and Mississippi State will travel to Oxford on the 28th. Tip off for that game is set for 8 pm. Both games will be televised by the SEC Network.
Winning at home hasn’t been easy for the Rebels at times. A loss to LSU and early non-conference games left many, including Kennedy, scratching their heads.
“We’ve been at Kentucky, at Arkansas, and at Georgia, three of the better teams in our league and three pretty tough environments to play in,” Kennedy said. We’ve been in every game and we’ve been able to win one. We have to a better job on our home court.”
As a team, Ole Miss is averaging 76.4 ppg, shooting 43 percent from the floor, 38 percent from behind the arc and an astonishing 84 percent from the charity stripe. Consistency has been the issue, and a loud crowd will certainly aid in the Rebels motivation.
This will be the last SEC season Ole Miss will call Tad Smith Coliseum its home court. The team will move into The Pavilion at the end of this year. The $95 million arena will seat 9,500 and will include a private concourse with courtside and baseline seating for students. Premium seating for non-students include three club areas and over 1,500 premuim seats.
Ole Miss will host some of the nation’s elite high school football players this week including DE CeCe Jefferson (unofficial), WR Demarcus Lodge, DE Rasool Clemons, OT Drew Richmond, S Armani Linton, and DE Austrian Robinson. Their attendance at the basketball game is likely.
Pack the Pad. We are Ole Miss. 
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This article was originally printed in The Local Voice #221 (printed January 22, 2015.)
To download a PDF of this issue, click here.
