OXFORD - Ole Miss players graded their closed-door scrimmage with Tulane as average. They hope to kick it up a notch tonight.

It will be the first game action in almost a year for Eniel Polynice and Chris Warren, the first in more than a year for Trevor Gaskins. All three guards had knee surgeries to end their seasons last year.

Ole Miss is at home tonight at 6 in an exhibition game against Auburn-Montgomery. Admission is free. The Rebels open the regular season a week from tonight against Arkansas-Little Rock.

No official score was kept in the scrimmage with Tulane, but Ole Miss players left believing they won.

Warren missed some work earlier in the week after a slight ankle injury prior to the scrimmage. He practiced Wednesday and Thursday and is expected to play tonight.

"We want him to get game-time reps," Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said.

Simulated game reps against the Green Wave gave Kennedy and his staff some video to break down and showed the Rebels the areas in which they need work, the first being execution on offense.

Players were generally pleased with their defending and rebounding but not their shooting.

"Defensively our intensity was there. We stayed in the passing lanes," sophomore guard Terrico White said. "Offensively we missed open shots and didn't hit free throws. I probably missed 20 open shots."

On a team loaded with guards, a developing frontcourt has drawn a lot of attention early.

Sophomore Murphy Holloway graded the Rebels' big guys much like White graded the backcourt.

"I didn't think they had many touches. We did all right, but we didn't do our best," he said.

Kennedy didn't expect his team to open like a ball of fire, and the absence of Warren, who sat out with the ankle, disrupted rhythm on offense to some degree.

"We had our moments," he said.

One of the most important things Kennedy was looking for was effort, and he graded his players well in that category.

"Our attention to detail, execution, knowing the job and doing the job need work," he said.

More of that work will come against Auburn-Montgomery, an NAIA school.

Kennedy also wants to get his players the feel of a game - even those injured veterans, who have been through the SEC.

"They wouldn't want to admit it, but I'm sure there will be some nerves, and you want to get through that before the games start counting," he said. "And for the guys who have never been through it, there's something to be said for putting on the uniform and running out with people in the stands."