Ole Miss can’t help its NCAA Tournament chances on Saturday.
The Rebels can, however, kill Mississippi State’s.
Ole Miss and Mississippi State meet in Starkville at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Humphrey Coliseum. At stake for the Rebels: Not much. Ole Miss will be the No. 11 seed in next week’s Southeastern Conference Tournament in Nashville with a win over Mississippi State combined with an Alabama win at Missouri. If either of those occurrences don’t happen, Ole Miss will face Georgia in the 12-13 game Wednesday at 6 p.m. in Nashville.
Mississippi State, meanwhile, enters Saturday’s regular season finale 19-11 overall and 10-7 in the SEC. The Bulldogs’ all-important NET ranking is a 52. With a win over Ole Miss (15-15 overall, 6-11 in the SEC), the Bulldogs will head to Ole Miss on the NCAA Tournament bubble. With a loss, they’ll be in the same predicament Ole Miss faces when it gets to the Music City — win on Sunday afternoon or kiss March Madness goodbye.
Playing the role of spoiler isn’t what Ole Miss had in mind when the Rebels began practices in October, but it’s not a role they plan to shy away from in Starkville.
“That’s my biggest motivation — to go down there and win,” Ole Miss guard Breein Tyree said. “Mississippi State is always a game I get up for. I want to play great because it means so much to this school and the rivalry means so much to me and to everybody.”
Tyree, a New Jersey native, said he bought into the rivalry the first time he played in it. Then-Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy challenged him in the days leading up to his matchup with then-MSU guard Lamar Peters.
“The first time, you could just feel it in the arena,” Tyree said. “But it’s all love between the players, but on the court, it was pretty mean at times.”
Ole Miss popped the Bulldogs in Oxford last month.
“We played terrific,” Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis said. “Mississippi State wasn’t at their best. We understand in a rivalry game, that has no bearing on this one. I think our team has a lot of confidence. To me, that’s the most fun game on our schedule. When you can go to your archrival’s building and play. There’s nothing better than that, especially one that’s a rivalry like Ole Miss and State.”
Rivalry aside, Ole Miss has struggled away from The Pavilion. Ole Miss won a neutral site game in Jackson against Southeastern Louisiana, went 1-1 in a November tournament in Brooklyn and won a road game at Georgia. Otherwise, it’s been a slog away from Oxford for the Rebels.
“It’s been disappointing,” Davis said. “Most of my career, that’s what our teams have been known for — toughness on the road. We haven’t done it this year. We’ve had some chances — Auburn, Kentucky, Missouri. We had some chances at Memphis to close it out and we have not done that. So it’s going to take a great effort and defend like (the Rebels did Wednesday in a win over Missouri). Dribble penetration has really hurt us at the end of those games on the road so we’ve got to guard the dribble and rebound the ball. We’ve got to do better on the road. That’s for sure.”
Spring football begins in Oxford in about a week and a half. We are starting to get a little bit of an idea regarding what to expect.
On both offense and defense, the Rebels plan to get everything installed by the April 18 Grove Bowl. The staff plans to work on special teams but in more general terms. Specifics special teams strategies won’t be installed until fall camp in August.
The spring will also be used as an evaluation tool for the current roster. Ole Miss will dig into the grad transfer market and the general transfer market this spring, but no decisions will be made until after spring practices. In other words, the entire roster goes into that first practice on St. Patrick’s Day with a clean slate.
All four quarterbacks _ Matt Corral, John Rhys Plumlee, Grant Tisdale and Kinkead Dent _ will get reps while the coaching staff determines who is the best fit for the offense the Rebels will run. Speaking of, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin isn’t one to force a round peg into a square hole. As Alabama’s offensive coordinator, he directed offenses that were one year reliant on wide receiver Amari Cooper, another year dependent on running back Derrick Henry and then another year focused on the athleticism of quarterback Jalen Hurts.
In other words, Kiffin wants to see what he has before making decisions on how to best move forward.
The same applies on defense. Look for the Rebels to have a very multiple approach schematically while they evaluate the current roster.
The Rebels, like most programs, will also use spring practices as a recruiting tool. Prospects will be encouraged to attend practices, in large part, I suspect, so they can see for themselves the opportunity for immediate playing time in Oxford.
It should be an interesting month.
Of course, all of these plans _ tournaments, practices, etc. _ could potentially be altered due to the coronavirus. There are considerable rumblings that the NCAA is exploring moving tournament locations and/or hosting games without spectators.
Earlier today, Johns Hopkins University, based in Baltimore, announced spectators will not be allowed for this weekend's Division III men's basketball tournament. Simple logic tells one that first- and second-round games in Sacramento, Calif.; Albany, N.Y.; and Spokane, Wash., are likely in peril. Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games scheduled for Los Angeles and New York City are also probably being evaluated, depending on how much the coronavirus spreads.
There are already rumblings in baseball circles that the Chicago Cubs-St. Louis Cardinals series scheduled for London this summer is in jeopardy due to coronavirus-related concerns.
Many believe the way to beat the NCAA is to challenge everything and admit nothing. Kansas, very clearly, falls into that category. The Jayhawks are taking that strategy in response to a notice of allegations levied against the school, including charges against legendary coach Bill Self and a dreaded lack of institutional control tag. One can bet Auburn, LSU and others are following this case with a keen eye.
Because we all might need a laugh at some point today...
