Jordan Geist sizes up Devontae Shuler

COLUMBIA, Missouri — Devontae Shuler tasted blood.



Literally.

The bullish sophomore Ole Miss guard wasn’t going to give anything to star Missouri guard Jordan Geist. The Rebels were playing for an NCAA Tournament berth in Mizzou Arena. Geist had double-digit points in 21 of his previous 25 games, including 23 in the Rebels’ win over the Tigers at home in February. He averaged 14.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists in the 11 games prior to Saturday.

So Shuler stayed in his hip pocket. He hard-contested everything. He frustrated him. He altered his shot attempts.

Geist, in return, busted his lip.

It was an accident. Shuler’s aggressiveness got the better of him. Early in the first half in an eventual 73-68 Ole Miss win, Geist pump-faked Shuler into the air. As Shuler was coming down, Geist went up. His knee connected with Shuler’s chin, one of Shuler’s top teeth driving through his lip and opening up a gaping, bloody hole.

The officials stopped play. The trainer, however, couldn’t stop the bleeding. Shuler had to retreat to the tunnel. Ole Miss led at the time. When he came back in, at 5:53, the Rebels trailed, ultimately settling for an eight-point halftime deficit.

“When I busted my lip, I felt like the team wasn’t there,” Shuler, who had five points at the break, said. “At halftime, we were so quiet and nobody was really being a leader. So I came out and I told coach we weren’t going to lose this game. When I tell someone I’m going to win this game, I’m going to keep my word. And that’s what we did.”

He kept his word.

“When I came back out, I didn’t talk to anyone,” he said. “I was meeting Geist and (Xavier) Pinson at half-court and I was just into the game. I was locked in. I know once I lock in, I’ve got control of the game.”

Ole Miss outscored Missouri 47-34 in the second half, all but punching its ticket into the NCAA Tournament. Shuler’s 18 points (13 of which came in the frame) are the most he’s scored in an SEC game in his career.

The former four-star point guard has never lacked confidence. He’s never shied away from providing an emotional lift for his team, either. It’s a trait he picked during his high school days at Oak Hill (S.C.) Academy. His head coach, the legendary Steve Smith, described Shuler as the best on-ball defender he’s ever coached. Smith has coached 28 McDonald’s All-Americans and 17 of his former players were drafted into the NBA.

He was the sixth man for Smith. It was strategy. When Shuler subbed in, he mixed things up, pushing tempo and causing havoc for opposing teams. He went 100 miles per hour. He always has, just as he did against Missouri.

“His toughness to play in that game and the way he played,” head coach Kermit Davis said, “he kind of spearheaded our comeback.”

“I thought Devontae Shuler was the spark of the game,” Ole Miss junior guard Breein Tyree, who scored a team-high 21 points, said. “He came in, lip busted, playing as hard as he could. He gave our team a spark. I know myself, I was trying to play off his energy.”

Ole Miss scored six-straight points after Missouri opened the first half with a field goal, including a Tyree dunk off a Shuler assist after he beat Geist to an attempted long inbound. He sank a three with 14:50 remaining to bring Ole Miss to within five. He soared through the air for a thunderous one-handed dunk for a 62-59 lead. He tried for an encore a possession later but had to settle for a foul and 1 of 2 free throws.

His fast-break layup off a Missouri turnover gave Ole Miss a 68-66 advantage. His floater out of a timeout came over Geist, of course, and pushed the score to 70-66 with under a minute left. And all the while, his lip, black and bloody and stitched up, throbbed.

But Shuler is a man of his word. The pain didn’t matter, only a win, and a season-defining one at that. He smiled through his swollen lip, and bloody mouth, as he sat courtside postgame. He admitted to feeling relief, that the goal, while not official, was accomplished.

Ole Miss is an NCAA Tournament team again for the first time since 2015. The Rebels earned a winning conference record for the fifth time in the last seven years. They finished with a winning road record (5-4) in conference play for the first time since 2014-15 (6-3) and secured their 10th 20-win season in the past 13 years.

“I feel relief,” Shuler said .”We can start almost a whole new season because we’re going, hopefully, to March Madness. I came here because of T.D. I knew that me and T.D. were going to have a connection. This is his last year. I want the best for T.D. Us getting to the tournament and having this opportunity is great for me, for Kermit, my teammates and the whole university.”

Then the smile faded. He waved his arms as he talked and looked straight ahead, determined. If Tyree is the closer, Shuler, the adopted (figuratively) baby brother of Terence Davis, has morphed into team alpha. There’s work left to do, more scrapes and scratches and bruises and busted lips to endure.

March Madness is coming.

“We know what we got,” he said. “We can play with anybody in the country. We can play with anybody, flat out.”