1. Ole Miss lost its NCAA Super Regional to Arizona, 2-1.
The Rebels fell one win short of the College World Series, which is set to begin Saturday in Omaha, Nebraska.
That’s the hard-news version of the weekend, but there’s so very much more to the story. There are a myriad of ways to look at Ole Miss’ season, its program and what happened in Tucson. Then there’s the future, including a vacancy at LSU that could impact what ultimately happens at Ole Miss.
2. I’ll start with what happened. This Ole Miss team, one that started so promising, had severe weaknesses by the end. Those weaknesses got exposed in the postseason. That always happens for virtually every team, but Ole Miss’ flaws — a lack of dependable arms and an offense that relied far too heavily on the home run — were too much to overcome in Arizona.
Ole Miss opened the season with a 3-0 tournament in Arlington, Texas, getting wins over Texas Tech, TCU and Texas. The Rebels went on to have a strong Southeastern Conference season, never getting swept and recording impressive series wins Alabama, South Carolina and Vanderbilt, to name a few. Ole Miss had a strong showing in Hoover, Alabama, at the SEC Tournament, ultimately winning a total of 21 league games, and earned a regional host site in Oxford last week.
The Rebels had to scratch and claw to a regional title, but Ole Miss held off Southern Miss a week ago today to earn the trip to Tucson. After losing 9-3 on Friday night, Doug Nikhazy led the Rebels to a Saturday night win, forcing a deciding Game 3 Sunday. The Rebels couldn’t keep up with the Wildcats on Sunday, losing in blowout fashion.
It will be Arizona, with its prolific offense, facing Vanderbilt on Saturday in Omaha. While the Wildcats prepare for Kumar Rocker, Ole Miss, presumably, has some soul-searching to do.
3. First, we have to be fair. Ole Miss lost a potential starting outfielder before the season ever began when two-sport star Jerrion Ealy elected to have off-season surgery to clean up his shoulder. Ealy is a potential first-round draft choice in football, and getting ready for his junior season with Lane Kiffin’s team was a no-brainer, but he would’ve helped Mike Bianco’s baseball team.
Then there were injuries to Max Cioffi and Gunnar Hoglund, costing the Rebels a versatile arm in Cioffi’s case and a staff co-ace in Hoglund’s. First baseman Tim Elko tore his ACL midway through the season. He heroically returned, hitting memorable home runs in Oxford and Hoover, but he was relegated to designated hitter duties, forcing Bianco to scramble at first base down the stretch.
“A lot of high expectations going in, and this team won 45 games and one game from getting to the College World Series, 12th national seed,” Bianco said late Sunday night. “This team had a terrific year. We had a bad day but a terrific year. What this team went through and the adversity, and we kept our heads above water. This team did some things no one expected.”
That’s true. It is. By any reasonable standard, this team, with all that happened to it, had no business getting as close as it did to Omaha.
4. But, and this is a big but, there’s an inescapable pattern to Ole Miss baseball seasons under Bianco. The Rebels are consistently good, usually very good. They make the NCAA Tournament with a regularity that would make many programs — hell, maybe most programs — jealous. In 10 of Bianco’s 20 seasons (I’m throwing out the COVID-shortened 2020 season, as there was no postseason), Ole Miss has hosted an NCAA regional. Ten of 20. Do the math. It’s a strong metric that speaks to consistency and excellence.
However, Bianco is 7-13 in NCAA Super Regional games, 1-5 in deciding Game 3s and 1-8 in games that, if won, would have resulted in a trip to the College World Series. Do that math, too. That’s one CWS in 20 seasons. That’s a metric that speaks to something, also.
5. But what? See, this is where the numbers become open to interpretation. Yes, Ole Miss packs Swayze Field each and every year. It’s the place to be in Oxford in the spring and early summer, and while not all the attendees are there for the baseball, it’s a testament to the program Bianco has built.
Yes, Bianco’s $1.2ish million per year salary should lead to very high expectations, but his proponents would argue Bianco has built a program that is consistently ranked somewhere between Nos. 9 and 16 annually. And they would be able to articulate that argument.
His detractors, however, would argue the goal is Omaha. Period. And getting there 5 percent of the time, they’d tell you, is insufficient given the level of commitment the school has made to the sport.
His proponents would argue there are scholarship limitations that hurt Ole Miss on the recruiting trail. There is no state lottery that allows Bianco to play with money above the allotted 11.7 scholarships. There’s no bordering state program that significantly changes the math.
His detractors would point you to Starkville, where Mississippi State has overcome the same issues (one could argue MSU’s academic recruiting strategies in parts of Tennessee and Alabama are game-changers for baseball, but for now, let’s skip that) and plays host to Notre Dame today, needing just one win to return to Omaha yet again.
What does seem evident is the Ole Miss program has hit a ceiling. Is that a ceiling of the Rebels’ making? Or is it somehow tied to Bianco’s performance? I honestly don’t know and don’t feel remotely qualified to try to figure that out. I suppose it’s complicated.
However, Keith Carter gets paid to answer those questions, and I suspect it’s one that is rattling through his brain as he makes his way home to Oxford.
6. Adding drama to the plot lines, it’s possible, if not probable, Carter will have bigger issues in the coming days. LSU coach Paul Mainieri finished his tenure with the Tigers on Sunday in Knoxville, losing to upstart Tennessee 2-0 in an NCAA Super Regional. Unless the Tigers decide to make a run at Vols coach Tony Vitello, there’s nothing stopping LSU from moving to fill its vacancy forthwith.
“At this point, it’s either Bianco or (LSU athletics director Scott) Woodward has some incredible rabbit out of his hat,” ESPN Louisiana radio host Matt Moscona said Sunday during a live watch show as Tennessee finished off the Tigers. “I don’t know what that would be.”
Per multiple sources, LSU intended to hire Florida’s Kevin O’Sullivan until off-the-field issues prevented that from happening. LSU fantasized about luring Tim Corbin from Vanderbilt or Dan McDonnell from Louisville, but those pursuits went nowhere. The Tigers have some interest in East Carolina’s Cliff Godwin, who has ties to both the LSU and Ole Miss programs, but everyone I’ve spoken to in Baton Rouge believes the job is Bianco’s to turn down. They believe the LSU is superior to Ole Miss and would get Bianco over the hump. They also believe Bianco wants the job and will take it if it’s offered.
I have no idea. I don’t know if Bianco wants the job. I don’t know if he’s ready to leave something he built. I don’t know. I suspect we will find out sooner rather than later, one way or the other.
7. It’s not my beat, and I haven’t had conversations with Carter about it, but I doubt Ole Miss will engage in a bidding war. Just two years ago, after Ole Miss lost a deciding Super Regional Game 3 at Arkansas, Carter elected not to extend Bianco’s contract.
Bianco’s contract is incentivized for him to get to Omaha, not to get close to Omaha.
So, moving forward, assuming for the sake of assumption that Bianco leaves, that is presumably the goal for the new guy. That’s going to be the gauge — trips to Omaha. And that’s a tough grading scale. It’s a brutal league. Chris Lemonis will have Mississippi State on the national stage most years. Arkansas was No. 1 in the nation most of the year before losing Game 3 of its Super Regional to North Carolina State. Texas A&M just hired former TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle in College Station. LSU is a storied college baseball program. That’s just the West.
Vanderbilt is a perennial college baseball program. Florida has a fairly recent national title. South Carolina isn’t that far removed from national titles. Tennessee will play in Omaha this weekend. It’s tough sledding.
Bianco isn’t getting fired. Period. So if leaves, it’s on his own volition. And if that happens, perhaps Ole Miss can attract McDonnell. Godwin, I’m guessing, would certainly take the job. Perhaps Carter would look beyond those names. He hired Kiffin when others shied away, so he’s proven he’s not afraid to take chances.
This just feels like a crossroads. As crazy as it sounds, LSU likely offers Bianco more stability than Ole Miss does at this point. He can start anew there, enjoy the honeymoon phase. At Ole Miss, if next season is a step backward, his job might very well be in jeopardy.
The choice, I suspect, is his, and if I’m right, he’s on the clock starting at some point today or Tuesday.
8. Bianco’s future is the headline, but before we put this baseball season to bed, kudos to Nikhazy and Elko.
The left-hander is simply the best big-game pitcher in recent Ole Miss history. Only Drew Pomeranz is in his league. Week after week, especially after Hoglund went down with his elbow injury, Nikhazy stepped up. “Doug Day” became a thing, and his competitive spirit was something to behold. I don’t know what the future holds for Nikhazy, but Major League success depends on competition, adaptability and courage. He’s got those traits in spades.
Elko, meanwhile, became a legend this spring. Returning from a significant injury to lead his team, spiritually and offensively, was spectacular theatre. His grand slams in the Oxford Regional will go down as folklore. It was a combination of Kirk Gibson beating the A’s in real life and Roy Hobbs homering for the Knights on the big screen.
The season didn’t end where they wanted it to end, but they achieved legendary status at Ole Miss trying to make it happen.
9. While baseball just wrapped up, basketball season, in some ways, just began last week in Oxford.
All of Ole Miss’ newcomers are in town, acclimated and now working out with the rest of the Rebels’ roster.
“They’ve been terrific,” Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis said. “We’ve had more guys just in the gym, on their own and away from our four-hour limitation that we have, than we’ve ever had, so it’s been good. We’re off to a good start.”
Due to the restrictions on recruiting that lasted from March 2020 through May 2021, there’s still some catching up happening between coaches and players.
“It’s funny,” Davis said. “The first day they came back, it was the first time I ever met two or three families. We were giving them tours. Their families got here a couple of days early, just to look around Oxford. We had some families that stayed the whole week, just to see where their son was going to school. They’ve loved it, so that was fun.”
One of the newcomers on campus is Jaemyn Brakefield. The former Jackson, Miss., native was one of Davis’ first phone calls when he got the job three years ago. Brakefield played at a West Virginia prep school and signed with Duke before transferring to Ole Miss in time for this summer.
“We were in that process for a long time,” Davis said. “One of the very first calls I made was to him when I got the job. …What’s good is to see him. He’s so excited about being here. He’s glad to be back in Mississippi. He’s got so many pals here. That part’s been really good.”
10. Let’s eat. Here’s our resident Parisian chef, Burton Webb, with Taste of the Place, Lessons 90 and 91.
Cheddar and Chive Biscuits
What is there to be said about biscuits that haven’t already been said? They are great and even better when you add shredded cheddar and chives to them.
Tidbit #1: Use whatever size drinking glass you prefer for the size of the biscuits. Just dish the rim in flour after every 3 cuts.
Tidbit #2: Whenever you are making the dough, make sure to rub the flour and butter in your fingertips until it looks and feels like sand. This way everything is incorporated fully.
Tidbit #3: If you want to substitute another cheese, try goat cheese, widely good. When the biscuits come out of the oven, drizzle honey over them.
Tidbit #4: You won’t need a rolling pin to roll them out. Use your hand to make a big circle. Also, use one of your fingers as a guide for the thickness of the biscuits. I usually go for “1 thumb”. Measure this by going along the outside of the dough.
Tidbit #5: What biscuits you don’t need, place them in a ziplock bag and freeze them. This is very easy to pull out the night before and place on the counter for the next day.
Things you will need:
4 People
Glass of milk
Preparation time - 10 minutes
Cook time - 15 minutes
Utensils needed:
Worksurface and pairing knife
Measuring cups
Bread scrapper
Drinking glass
Baking tray
Parchment paper
Oven
Ingredients needed:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
10 tbsp butter
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 tbsp chopped green chives
Butter for rubbing
Make the dough
Step 1: Place your flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt on your work surface. Mix with your hands to incorporate and then make a well in the center.
Step 2: Turn your oven to 425°F. Then slice your butter into small cubes and place it in the well of the flour.
Step 3: Using your finger, massage and incorporate all of the butter into the flour using your finger. Keep working it between the fingers until you have a sand-like texture.
Step 3.1: At this point, add in your cheddar and chives. Mix to combine and then again, make a well in the center of the flour.
Step 4: Add your buttermilk to the well and work slowly to make a paste with the flour and finally work the entire dough until it is thoroughly combined. About 1 minute.
Cutting and baking
Step 5: Pat the dough out into a disk and measure using your finger around the edge for evenness. Now place your parchment paper on your baking tray. Cut out the biscuits and place 1 beside the other on the baking tray. Continue with the leftover dough.
Step 6: Bake for 12 -15 minutes depending on the size. You are looking for a golden brown. After, pull from the oven and let cool for 2 minutes. Rub butter over the top and enjoy!
Thai Cabbage Salad
When I was living in Nashville, I had dinner one time with my mom at a restaurant in the Gulch area. This salad was on the menu and to my surprise, I was able to get the recipe after. Passing on information is the best and here you are to have something not only light during the heat but also very tasty.
Tidbit #1: Whenever you work with purple cabbage, wear a plastic glove when cutting it. The juice will stain your hands a little purple if not.
Tidbit #2: You will need to blanch the snow peas in salted water for only 1 minute. After, place in ice-cold water. If you have leftovers because of the quantity of the salad, save them and make a little bit more sauce for a simple snack in the afternoon.
Tidbit #3: Peel ginger using the backside of the spoon and then to grate it, use a box grater with the smallest holes.
Tidbit #4: For the dressing, it is best to warm up the peanut butter in the microwave to make it more liquid, aka, easier to whisk.
Things you will need:
4 People
Singha Beer
Preparation time - 15 minutes
Cook time - 8 minutes
Utensils needed:
Work surface and chef’s knife
2 Sauce pots
Strainer
Measuring cups
2 large mixing bowls
1 medium mixing bowl
Box grater
Salad spoons
Whisk
Microwave
Ingredients needed:
Salad
4 cups shredded purple cabbage
2 cups carrots, grated
2 cups of snow peas sliced thinly
½ cup chopped cilantro
½ cup sliced green onions
½ cup chopped roasted peanuts
2 cups cooked quinoa
Sauce
½ cup peanut butter
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp grated ginger
Juice of 1 lime, zest before!
2 pinches of red pepper flakes
6 tbsp soy sauce
Mise en place
Step 1: Go ahead and blanch your snow peas. Once they have cooled in the ice bath, take and chop them into 3rds. Set to the side.
Step 2: Place all of the cabbage, carrots, and quinoa in the large mixing bowl. Mix. With the other ingredients for the salad, just add 1/2 of the quantity of each. Mix.
Sauce time
Step 3: With the honey and peanut butter in the small mixing bowl, place in the microwave for 30 seconds.
Step 4: After, add the rest of your ingredients and whisk until combined. Set to the side.
Final step
Step 5: Now toss the sauce with the cabbage mixture in the large bowl. Add the other half of the ingredients to the top to show a colorful salad. Serve up with fresh pan-seared fish and you will be in a great place!
From the Mississippian in Paris, Bon Appétit!
We’ll have coverage of Ole Miss football recruiting, the Bianco saga (assuming there is one) and whatever else may come up this week. Until then, here are a few links of interest to me — and hopefully, to you — for your reading pleasure:
Inside Nikola Jokic's path from Serbia to the Nuggets to NBA MVP. 'Just kind of lucky scouting'
Inside Long Island Youth Baseball's Famous Dad-On-Dad Rivalry
Buzz builds around Birmingham G League franchise and its new digs | New Orleans Pelicans
PURSUIT OF A BIG BLUE CHIPPER - Sports Illustrated Vault | SI.com
