Early in the SEC season Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy was campaigning for Murphy Holloway as SEC player of the year.
The coaches’ All-SEC teams and individual awards will be announced next week. With all but one game now in the books, I wouldn’t say Murphy Holloway is a player of the year candidate. He had a difficult stretch after the 6-0 SEC start. Holloway had put up double-figure rebounds for three straight games before getting just six Tuesday night against Alabama.
Marshall Henderson
Coaches who don’t see Holloway every day may be more influenced by how he performed against them or by his numbers, which are still impressive. He’s averaging almost a double-double and at nearly 15 points a game it’s not just barely a double-double.
I suspect Henderson, as the SEC’s leading scorer, will find a place on the team. I suspect some voters will be turned off by his 3-point percentage, some by his antics.
Presently, Henderson leads the SEC in scoring at 19.6 points a game, a full 1.6 points ahead of Georgia guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, considered by many the league’s top pro prospect.
Henderson is almost two full points ahead of Texas A&M’s Elston Turner and more than three points ahead of Tennessee’s Jordan McRae.
Henderson leads the SEC in made 3-point field goals at 3.9 per game. He has attempted 327 3-point shots, well ahead of Caldwell-Pope, who has attempted 196.
Murphy Holloway
Henderson ranks sixth in 3-point percentage at 35.8 percent, behind Caldwell-Pope and Turner, both of whom are slightly ahead of 37 percent.
Henderson is second in free throw percentage at 87.2.
Holloway is the league’s No. 8 scorer at 14.7 points a game, the league’s top rebounder at 9.6 a game. Kentucky freshman Nerlens Noel, injured and out for the year, averages 9.5, and Tennessee’s Jarnell Stokes is third at 9.3.
In conference only play, Henderson leads the league with 20.8 points a game. He also leads in 3-point field goals made at 3.8 but ranks seventh in percentage at 34.4. That percentage ranks behind Caldwell-Pope, who is shooting 41.8 percent against the league, but ahead of Turner, who is shooting 33.3 percent.
Holloway in league play is the No. 3 rebounder with 8.6 a game behind Stokes and LSU’s Johnny O’Bryant, both sophomores.
Denham Springs, La., native, Mississippian since 1989 with a stop in Meridian before arriving in Tupelo. Daily Journal beat writer since 1996, covering Ole Miss since 2002. Proud Northeast Louisiana alum. Follow me on Twitter @parrishalford and listen to Kory Keys and myself daily with The Ole Miss Beat on Rebel Sports Radio.
