OXFORD — Lane Kiffin did not have Ole Miss advancing to the Sweet 16 in his bracket.
Wait, wait, wait. That’s not disrespect from the Ole Miss football coach toward Chris Beard and Co.
Kiffin didn’t fill out a bracket at all prior to March Madness. Kiffin said he finally did one, at the urging of his daughter, Ole Miss student Landry Kiffin.
“But then we were late so we do the 16-team (bracket) because the first round was already done,” Kiffin said, laughing. “We used to, but we lost track this year. Chris (Kiffin) and his kids did. I wasn’t paying attention.”
Kiffin’s X account showed him watching Sean Pedulla hitting a dagger in the final minute against North Carolina this past Friday in Milwaukee in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Two days later, the Rebels rolled past Iowa State to advance to the Sweet 16 Friday in Atlanta versus Michigan State.
Ole Miss’ women’s team is also in the Sweet 16. The Rebels face UCLA Friday night in Spokane, Wash.
Needless to say, hoops fever has taken hold in Oxford. Even though he’s busy with spring football and Ole Miss’ Pro Day on Friday — the Manning Center will be packed with NFL executives, scouts and head coaches watching Jaxson Dart, Walter Nolen and more than a dozen former Rebels bound for the NFL this spring — Kiffin has caught the basketball bug as well.
“I used to be a (college hoops fan) a long time ago, and I don’t know why, but I’ve really found myself outside of sports outside of football,” Kiffin said. “I don’t why that is exactly but I can’t say I’ve watched a whole lot. But Ole Miss playing so well has got me watching.”
Kiffin often references NBA free agency, comparing building chemistry on the floor to putting together a college football team via a combination of recruiting and the transfer portal. So I asked if he was an NBA fan.
“Not at all,” Kiffin said, though he admitted he was engaged in NBA conversation just recently.
“Cookie (Christian Kiffin, Chris’ son) said some player’s name that I should know that’s like an NBA All-Star and he said something the other day about him,” Kiffin said. “He said, ‘This guy’s got aura.’ I was like, ‘Who’s that?’”
I immediately asked if Cookie was talking about Oklahoma City star guard/MVP favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
“He used the initials and I didn’t know who that was,” Kiffin said, smiling.
Beard said earlier this season he learned a lot from a trip years ago to Tuscaloosa, Ala. He watched Alabama’s football team go through some practices and picked legendary coach Nick Saban’s brain about program-building. Asked if he had observed basketball coaches looking for things that might transfer to the gridiron, Kiffin said he hadn’t done that much during his career but it was something that had crossed his mind recently.
“It’s funny you say that, because I have thought about it because Beard’s done such a good job this year,” Kiffin said.
Kiffin attended two of Ole Miss’ games this season and noted that Beard has done a great job of keeping his team “together” through dips in the season “and then playing so well at the end.”
“He’s done a great job,” Kiffin said. “And it’s a different sport, too. You get to have those lulls a little more than in our sport. It would be interesting to pick his brain this offseason.”
While I had his hoops attention, I asked Kiffin the burning basketball question that is always debated. Who’s the goat?
Kiffin, a former USC assistant and head coach who was in Los Angeles during the peak of Kobe Bryant’s powers, didn’t hesitate.
“Michael Jordan,” Kiffin said, picking the former Chicago Bulls superstar over Bryant, LeBron James and other NBA greats.
“I think he had the ability to bring everybody up around him,” Kiffin said. “You watch him take the last shot and all that stuff, but he just was so competitive and so intense and I feel like he just found a way to rise to the occasion no matter what.”
