sportsmaniac10

For Ole Miss, I think you’re obviously happy with the start. But I have a huge concerns and think the top 10 ranking is way too high. We lucked up into having back to back weak opponents early in the SEC schedule. The road gets much tougher from here on out. The pitching is still a crap shoot. No idea what kind of outing you’re gonna get from a lot of the staff. Against Arkansas I wasn’t worried. Arkansas will hit everyone and they have. I was just happy that we were in the series and the games were competitive. You’re a routine grounder away from winning that one most likely. However the series against Missouri was the bigger issue to me. Yes you sweep but you also gave up 22 runs in 3 games to a really horrible Missouri team. Probably one of the worst if not the worst power conference team in the country this year. Then follow that up with giving up 25 runs in 3 games against a struggling Florida team at home. In our last 7 games, we’ve given up 52 runs. We are shockingly 6-1 in those games but any batting slump and the L’s will start to pile up. This weekend will likely be a better gauge for where this team is. Kentucky may be 4-5 in SEC play but their 2 series losses are Georgia and Auburn. So I expect them to be much better than their record or lack of top 25 ranking indicates. Hoping that we will start to see the pitching round into form and the bats stay hot. A series loss on the road to Kentucky doesn’t derail the season but a blowout tells you we probably aren’t finishing top half of the conference.

The issue today was not the bullpen. The short stop cost Ole Miss the game today in the 9th plain and simple. He should be taking 100% of the blame in the press conference.

Tough loss for Lady Rebs tonight. They looked like one of the top teams in the country tonight. Gave #1 Texas all they wanted. This was the team I think a lot of us expected to show up earlier in the season so hopefully Coach Yo has these ladies turning the corner just in time for the NCAAs. Theres definitely been a change since the loss to South Carolina. They aren’t coming out of the gate against these top 10 teams and spotting them a quick 10-15 point lead. Tonight they had every opportunity to beat Texas. Free throws and layups were both killers and you have to convert if youre gonna beat a Texas or South Carolina. Also kept absorbing punches from Texas. Would go down 8-10 then claw back and got the lead down to one possession multiple times but just were missing that one extra play to tie or take the lead. Will be a wait and see game now for Ole Miss. I agree State is probably one of the 8/9 games. Ole Miss is currently projected as the last 4 seed and host for the opening rounds. The loss tonight doesn’t hurt their chances at all, but I fear there are other teams that are going to win their way into the last host and push Ole Miss out. There are a lot of teams at the 5/6 line that are still playing conference tournaments and could knock Ole Miss out of hosting. Currently I’d say there are 14 Host Locks and 2 host spots up for grabs. Most recent projects had Alabama and Ole Miss in those spots. However, Alabama just lost to Florida (who had a losing record overall) so rough loss for Alabama. High possibility that pushes them out of hosting. Host Locks: Big 12 –2 (TCU, Kansas State) ACC- 4 (Notre Dame, Duke, UNC, NC State) Big East-1 (UCONN) Big 10- 2 (Southern Cal, UCLA) SEC-5 (Texas, S. Carolina, LSU, Oklahoma, Kentucky) So I think there are about 9 teams in the hunt for those 2 spots (Alabama, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Baylor, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Ohio State, Michigan, and Maryland). If you look at the resumes, I just don’t see how Ole Miss grabs one of those 2 spots. The non-conference schedule having 5 SWAC teams was really a killer. Also you still have 5 teams with additional opportunities to pick up ranked wins to pad their resumes and choosing Ole Miss would put the SEC with at least 6 hosts and I have a feeling they are going to want to throw some more love over to the Big 10.

Did not realize how bad Rice has gotten. They havent finished a season with a winning record since 2017. What happened to that program?

Both women's teams get much needed wins. State destroys Texas A and M and Ole Miss escapes Missouri. Ole Miss goes 1-6 from the free throw line in the final 10 seconds to give Missouri a last second chance to tie or win. Would have been a disastrous loss for this team that is still predicted as a 5 seed today in the NCAAs. Win today guarantees Ole Miss finishes in the top 8. Currently 9-5 in SEC play with a home game against South Caroline and then finish conference play on the road at LSU. So 99% chance that Ole Miss loses both and will finish 9-7 and end up with the #8 seed in the SEC tournament. There will likely be a host of teams at 9-7 but Ole Miss has already lost to all of them so no way they win any tie breakers. First time in the Coach Yo era (at least that I can remember) that Ole Miss will finish worse than the preseason SEC predictions (preseason were predicted 5th). Disappointing after the top 4 finish last year. Ole Miss is likely gonna drop to a 6 seed in the NCAAs by the time selection Sunday rolls around. I'm guessing after finishing the regular season 0-2 and then likely 1-1 in the SEC tournament. State best case scenario finishes 7-9 in SEC play and grabs the 9 seed for the SEC tournament. They finish at home against Texas and then on the road against Auburn. So 1-1 is what should happen. Currently State is one of the last 4 byes and predicted #9 seed in the NCAAs. They can't afford to lose at Auburn or to whoever they will play in the opening round of the SEC tournament. Otherwise they're looking at a play in game and also praying no mid majors get upset.

Pretty disappointed in the loss by Ole Miss. Not because of NCAA tournament implications because Ole Miss is virtually a lock unless they lose out and start getting blown out of the gym. But disappointed from a stand point of you had a week off to prepare for this game and they came out flat with no energy and dug a 19 point hole. There's no reality where that's acceptable for a team with this much talent. The team is just so inconsistent, it's baffling to me. After 27 games, you think we'd have the basics down at this point. But I'm not worried about seeding for the NCAAs because Ole Miss has just as high of odds of grabbing a high seed and getting upset in the first round as they do of coming in as a lower seed and making a Sweet 16 run. Just depends if they decide to show up. Im not gonna say props for fighting back because we are beyond moral victories and shouldn't have been in that position to begin with. Plain and simple we played bad. Woke up. Got back in the game, then choked. Up 64-62, got 4 straight stops on defense, led to 4 straight possessions where we didn't call a play, didn't set anything up, just went one on one and chunked up a garbage shot. Call a time out. Do something. Don't just sit and shake your head Coach Beard. This unfortunately is a pretty common calling card for this team. 4th time Ole Miss has lost a game like this where they took a lead late, had multiple opportunities to build a lead, and then just completely self destructed and seemed like they had forgotten how to play basketball (the others were Purdue, @State, Texas A&M). And while the opponents were good and played hard, a lot of it was mental mistakes on Ole Miss. Guards freaking out trying to break the press, getting out of the offense and just playing one on one, or Sean Pedulla dribbling the ball off his foot or throwing an errant pass or just losing control of his dribble. He had 5 turnovers yesterday, at least 3 unforced TOs in the last 8 or so minutes. This shouldn't be happening to a team that is basically all seniors with the exception of Dia. The other thing that I felt like has become apparent is the Ole Miss as a team is physically soft and mentally weak. I feel like that's why State has beaten them both times. I don't think State is more talented. I do think State plays much harder, more physical, and has more fight. People were extremely upset at the blocking call late in the game against Pedulla. I watched it several times. I can see the case for the charge. I can also see the case for the block. Pedulla hesitated and you could see it in his body language and face , was scared to step up and take the charge. He did this weird chopping motion with his feet and it did look like they were still moving because of whatever that chopping of his feet was. Going to be a very tough finish, but this team seems to at least get amp'd up to play the top teams in the league. So we shall how it goes.

She did finally get that signature home win. Happy for her. Last night was an elite defensive performance by Ole Miss and a rebounding clinic. 27-28 offensive rebounds and +24 rebounding margin. Hope they celebrated and now are back to business because theres still plenty of work to do and this win doesn’t get her off the hook yet. Season picture that win puts them at 7-4 in SEC play with LSU, South Carolina, and Tennessee still to play in the last 5 games. Your worst case scenario should be they lose those 3 but win against Mizzou and Arkansas (the 2 weakest SEC teams this year) and finish 9-7. Probably get a single bye and end up 5th or 6th seed in the SEC tournament. i think maybe they have an outside chance at stealing a win from Tennessee “if”, and that’s a big if, they show up to play. Tennessee has been up and down this year, win over UCONN last week, but also loss to a Vandy team that Ole Miss beat 2x by double digits. So who knows but I think safe to chalk up at least 2 Ls for LSU and South Carolina. But win those other 2 and beat Tennessee that’s 10-6 and a slim chance depending on how other games shake out at grabbing the 4 seed and double bye. And believe it or not, they’re currently predicted to be a 5 seed in the NCAA tourney. Womens predicted seeding is pretty off from the national polls which isn’t unheard of but to the degree the seeds vary from the rankings this year is unusual. For example UK was ranked 8th in the polls but seeded a 4 in one prediction and a 5 seed in another. But based on the current predictions, it seems like Ole Miss could very easily play their way into hosting the opening rounds. NET ranking is 13 but what’s working against them is the very weak non conference schedule and 5-7 record in quad 1-2 games .

Lady Rebs miss a big opportunity to get a signature home win in what has become Coach Yo’s calling card. Post on social media for the crowd to come and support and then the team comes out and lays an egg. Then she usually follows up with some post like “stick with us. We will learn from this”. Safe to say that in year 7 we have yet to learn from this. Lady Rebs dug themselves into a hole early trailing 24-9 after the first quarter but fought back and took a 2 point lead going into the 4th. Early in the 4th, Lady Rebs built a 7 point lead with about 8 minutes to go and that is when the wheels came off and they imploded. Got out scored 24-7 to close the last 8 minutes and lost by 10. Now losing to Oklahoma isn’t a bad loss. All of Ole Miss’s losses this year are to top 20 teams (except the Texas A and M loss) This Oklahoma team is solid and will likely have a shot at the elite 8 this year. But again it’s the manner in which Ole Miss lost and continues to lose games (now 10-42 vs top 25 in the Coach Yo era). Offense continues to struggle and show no positive signs of improvement against any team that is remotely competent. 7 seasons and we still have no one that’s a threat from behind the arc and struggle protecting the ball against the better teams. The only reason this teams stats don’t look abysmal is due to the fact that she scheduled 6 SWAC teams and a few other mediocre non conference games. Tonight’s showing: 56 points 34% from the floor 0-12 from 3 11-20 from the free throw line 22 turnovers *Also Oklahoma’s star all American post player didn’t play tonight due to illness. I don’t really care how good your defense is. When your offense is this weak, you won’t be able to beat an elite team. And the worst part is that coach Yo says this is one of her best offensive teams she’s coached at Ole Miss. I could rant for a while on this but I’ll save everyone the time. I think we’ve seen about all we’re going to get out of Coach Yo.

Tough day for state . Missouri is a much better team than I expected . I still think both Ole Miss and State did miserably against them defending the 3. Neither seemed prepared to guard Grill which is a head scratcher since he’s the top 3 point shooter in the SEC and shooting almost 50% from behind the arc for the season. You’d think both teams would have been better prepared for that. Ole Miss loses a tough one to Auburn. Nothing bad about losing to them overall. I thought Auburn played very well. I heard many say that was Auburns best game of the season. Honestly I don’t feel that way. Ole Miss just continues to make the same glaring mistakes and Auburn (like any quality team) punished them for it. There’s nothing special about that. That’s what good teams do. Overall it was the same old song and dance…rebounds and free throws. The offensive rebounds were back breakers. At least 4 different possessions with Ole Miss chipping into the lead and Auburn comes down and grabs 2-3 offensive rebounds after missed shots and eventually drains a 3. Free throws were an issue again. Overall they shot better in the second half but the missed free throws in the first half really changed the trajectory of the game in my opinion. Instead of tying the game or taking the lead , you miss those 6 first half free throws and allow Auburn to weather the storm and keep 2-3 possession cushion. And Brakefields first half play really hurt as well, 1-4 from The free throw line (tech call 1-5 because of the 1 and 1) and 4 turnovers. And Malik Dia has to decide what kind of player he’s gonna be. We need the beast that grabbed 19 rebounds against Alabama, not the guy that he’s been since who grabs 2-3 rebounds, struggles with the physicality, and overall is a non factor. Half way thru SEC play and Ole Miss is 5-4 and State is 4-5. I think Ole Miss will struggle to get to 9-9 in SEC play by the end. Still have to go to Auburn, Vandy, and Florida and home games against UK, Tennessee, and State. That Texas A and M game is going to haunt us later I fear. State I see a path to 10-8. Still got some of the bottom half of the conference and some of the tougher games left at home. Not at easy path but 10-8 and I think you go into post season very pleased and chance to get a very strong seed in the NCAA.

If Ole Miss can’t fix the rebounding issue, they’re doomed and going to have some ugly losses ahead. You’re not gonna beat many teams losing the rebounding battle by 15-20 every night. A lot of it is just ball watching and bad effort (I’m talking to you Mr. Pedulla). The state loss didn’t hurt. I thought State was phenomenal crashing the boards and was very disciplined in their game plan. Ole Miss got the 1 point lead in OT and lost its composure. Started forcing shots and got out of the game plan and State took advantage. The Texas A and M game was ugly, but somehow we found ourselves up late. The last 90 seconds was about as disastrous of a performance as I have seen in D1 power conference basketball game. Zero composure. Just like someone let the 3 stooges (well 5 in this case, 6 if you count beard) on court. That loss was tough to swallow even though you had a feeling most of the game that we were gonna find a way to blow it. The Mizzou game was the back breaker but not even because it was the third straight loss. Technically nothing to be ashamed of losing in the road to a top 25 team. But it was just the way Ole Miss lost. You never really felt like they were in the game and Mizzou figured out the Ole Miss defense and Beard didn’t change a thing. Gave up the corner 3 all night and Mizzou feasted on it. Offense was abysmal. Looked a lot like we did against Memphis. It’s up to Beard to figure things out and make adjustments now because everyone saw the Alabama game, took notes, and has figured out ways to beat Ole Miss. Also for the love of god , this team has to try to get in the paint and draw a foul. Besides getting destroyed on the boards, all 3 losses, Ole Miss’s opponents shot double the amount of free throws as the Rebs did. Fingers crossed that the man being paid millions can figure out a way to make this happen.

Safe to say the shine is wearing off of Coach Yo in Oxford. And not to say that I’m not appreciative for what she has done in Oxford. She really did inherit a dumpster fire. But 7 years in, you can’t keep saying “tough loss, we will learn from this” especially since its apparent you are not learning. Lady Rebs blow another lead and lose at home to Texas. 8-point lead with about 5 minutes to go and Ole Miss doesn’t score a bucket the last 5 minutes. Still despite the awful play down the stretch, Ole Miss had the ball with 2 seconds to go and a chance to tie to go into overtime. Coach Yo calls a timeout to advance the ball and draw up a play. In typical Ole Miss fashion, we throw the ball away on the inbounds and get no last shot. This is the second time this year we’ve had a chance to win and force overtime and failed to inbound the ball. Its seeming more and more like Coach Yo has a high floor but low ceiling and we’ve reached the ceiling. This is year 7 and things have plateaued if not gone a bit backwards in Oxford. Coach Yo is 9-41 vs top 25 teams in her 7 seasons as head coach. 4-19 in the first 3 years (the rebuilding years) and 5-22 in the next 4, including 0-5 last season and 0-5 this current season. So definitely not making any progress becoming an actual contender for any type of post season run. She may be a decent defensive coach but offensively, they’ve never looked worse under her tenure. All you have to do is run a zone and our offense implodes. 7 years and not one solid 3pt shooter. And before someone mentions Snudda Collins, she was as consistent as the weather man. Hard to see why there’s not been more success. It’s not talent. She’s currently got 4- 5th year players plus one true senior in her rotation. 5 players in the rotation that have All conference honors from a power 5 conference and a freshman that is currently in the running for SEC freshman of the year. The results right now just aren’t good enough especially considering Coach Yo is the 14th highest paid coach in the women’s game right now at ~$1.08 million per season and she has the largest incentives package in the women’s game with a max of ~$900k. I think it’s reasonable to expect more at this point. In Starkville, I know some fans are pretty upset with Purcell…. I’m undecided. Is he a Vic Schaefer…absolutely not. But let’s be realistic, the odds of Ole Miss or State attracting an already established coach like Schaefer are low (unless he comes with baggage like Beard did). Also, Schaefer came in and the stars aligned as far as there were some very talented in state players, he was able to recruit (Vivians) and his long time coaching in Texas gave him key connections to getting McCowan. Plus, his daughter, while not an all American, was a sharpshooter and picture-perfect role player that is so difficult to find these days. The man won the lottery in terms of how the recruiting dominoes fell. That’ll probably never happen for either program again. Best shot would be grabbing a young, up and coming coach but even Schaefer needed 3 years to get State into the NCAA tournament. Also, Purcell hasn’t been bad and given the unfortunate events of the prior coaches after Schaefer, I’d say quite an accomplishment that he managed to keep State from losing a bunch of players and falling off the map. You gotta remember when Schaefer left, he took the top 3-4 recruits he had already signed for Mississippi State that year, in what would have been a top 5 recruiting class. Then the coaching changes that occurred as well, State really should have dropped off more. Yet Purcell came in and made the NCAAs his first season (got to the 2nd round and lost a close game to Notre Dame) and he’s got State in position to get back to the NCAAs in his 3rd year. State is outperforming Ole Miss this year. Ole Miss only has a better conference record because Ole Miss hasn’t had to play a majority of the top teams this year and State’s front half of the schedule was loaded. So, I’d say give him a few more years.

Tough night. You knew you were gonna get a tough Kentucky team after less than stellar showing at Georgia. I’ve seen Kentucky play a few times this year and that was best they’ve looked offensively and arguably the best they’ve looked all season. They just werent missing from 3. I think still a good sign for State. By far the best team they’ve played this year and they showed they can compete and importantly score with one of the best teams in the country. Going to be tough but State has the pieces for a top tier finish in SEC play and solid sweet 16 pick. I expect the top 7 to be Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, State, Tennessee, and TAMU. No idea on what the order would be but those teams look like they’re a level above the rest of the conference. 8th -10th place looks like Ole Miss, Oklahoma, and Georgia. Georgia has surprised me. They did not look great against Ole Miss but now back to back upsets against Kentucky and Oklahoma. Then the level drops and the bottom 6 will be Arkansas, LSU, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas, and Vandy.

Ole Miss is 3-0. But the play has been very uninspiring in my opinion. They are very solid on defense but against a team with solid bigs then offensive rebounds become a big issue. the offense is spotty against teams with a pulse. They go through long spells on the offensive end where when 3s aren’t falling the offense goes stale and falls apart. The lack of true post players is going to make it very difficult to compete with the top 5 in the SEC. From what I’ve seen they’ll be 3-3 heading to Mizzou. Zero signs that they have the ability to beat Bama, State, or TAMU.

A win is a win but dang that Ole Miss game was ugly. They had about a 7 minute stretch in the second half of decent basketball and that was it. No offense to Georgia but they aren’t good and will be bottom 4 in the SEC. They’ve got a decent record because most of their non conference slate has been against bad teams. Offensive struggles continued for the Rebels. A little more understandable against Memphis as Memphis played a great game. But today offense just looks so out of sync. It’s either 1 v 1 and go to the bucket or jack up a terrible shot from 3. Even Pedulla who is normally consistent looked bad today. Rebs may be ranked but they don’t look like a top 25 team at the moment. Coach Beard has some serious work to do or it’s gonna be an awful conference season.

First half was definitely rough on the offensive side of the ball and shooting was horrendous but they found a rhythm in the second half. I was happy to see us truly compete with a top 5 team on the court. We unfortunately had a signature WAOM moment as we should’ve closed this game out but we beat ourselves. But on a positive note outside of the Stanford upset in the NCAAs a few years back and despite the progress Coach Yo has made, we’ve rarely (basically never) been competitive with the elite teams under her tenure. Today was a much different look. We looked ready to compete. Hope this fearless attitude continues. The big questions will be can we consistently shoot the 3 well enough on offense to make teams come out and guard us. KK Deans showed today how much we missed her last season. And how will we match up with teams that have some height as we are a little shorter in the post than years past. As we saw today Southern Cal definitely took advantage of this and pounded us in the paint. I also like that Coach Yo made a tougher non conference schedule this year. Will likely play UCONN in the thanksgiving tournament assuming we take care of business in the first round and also a road game against a top 10 NC State team. its a long way to March but optimistic with what I saw today.