McCready: 10 Weekend Thoughts, presented by Harry Alexander

1. Fans on message boards were frustrated with Ole Miss on Saturday afternoon, but I caught myself agreeing with SEC Network analyst Daymeon Fishback.

The former Auburn guard, easily one of the brightest and most personable people I’ve ever covered, was impressed with the Rebels’ 75-71 win over Missouri Saturday.

“Ole Miss showed some resiliency,” Fishback said.

Indeed. Look, Missouri is horrible. The Tigers have now lost 10 games in a row. Ole Miss knew that, and following a trying week, it would’ve been easy to have a letdown. Ole Miss didn’t. Instead, a tired, undermanned Ole Miss team took Missouri’s best shot on the road and won.

“It’s a battle, man,” Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. “You’re talking about two teams that have certainly had their share of adversity. …I knew this was going to be a battle. We certainly have had our fair share of adversity. …I thought (Saturday) was a good team effort. We certainly did not play our best game of the year but we did what we needed to do to win an SEC road game.”

2. Ole Miss got 36 minutes from guard Deandre Burnett, playing for the first time in a couple of weeks after suffering a high ankle sprain in a loss to Georgia on Jan. 11.

“I was really proud of Deandre Burnett,” Kennedy said. “Honestly, he was a game-time decision, and you can tell I was just going to ease him back in with 36 minutes. We’re just looking for bodies. We’re just trying to play our guys. I thought we made some plays down the stretch which allowed us to get a road win and move forward.”

Ole Miss trailed by one late in the second half before going on an 8-0 run to take some semblance of control back.

“I thought our effort was outstanding for most of the game,” Kennedy said. “We challenged our guys. We were down six on the glass at the half and we knew we were not going to win if we didn’t correct that. We ended up even.

“I challenged our guys, (saying), ‘We’ve got to make some plays.' Sebas (Sebastian Saiz) made a big hook in the lane. Cullen Neal made a huge three. Then Dre (Burnett) hit a big three. You have to make SEC plays to win SEC games. Thankfully, we made enough.”

3. Ole Miss made the trip to Columbia without guard Rasheed Brooks, who remained in Oxford after being released from the hospital. Brooks was stretchered out of The Pavilion at Ole Miss last Tuesday after suffering a seizure in the second half of the Rebels’ win over Tennessee.

“It was the scariest moment of my head coaching career seeing that young man go down and the way that he was responding in that timeout,” Kennedy said. “Thank God everything is coming back great from a neurological standpoint, from a cardiovascular standpoint. Now it’s just a matter of seeing how he progresses moving forward. We’re expecting him to rejoin the team. When that happens, we don’t know. We’re just pleased that he’s come out of this with no permanent damage.”

4. Ole Miss can get to .500 in the Southeastern Conference with a win over Texas A&M Wednesday in Oxford. A victory would be Ole Miss’ fifth against top-100 RPI teams. The Aggies, thanks to a win over Georgia Saturday in College Station. If Ole Miss can beat the Aggies, it would set up a tremendous resume opportunity on Saturday afternoon against Baylor.

The Bears, as of Sunday afternoon, are No. 1 in RPI. A win over Scott Drew’s team would be a beautiful topper for Ole Miss’ tournament resume. Say what you will about Ole Miss’ team, and at times it’s remarkably difficult to watch, but the Rebels are still very much in the NCAA tournament mix.

As of Sunday, Ole Miss is No. 45. It has top-100 wins over Tennessee, Auburn, Memphis and St. Joseph’s. All seven of the Rebels’ losses _ Creighton (neutral site), Middle Tennessee, at Virginia Tech, Kentucky, at Florida, Georgia and at South Carolina _ are to teams ranked between Nos. 3 and 47 in RPI.

5. Ole Miss entertained a handful of official visitors over the weekend. We have a ton of content on the front page and on our nugget thread, which is sponsored by the Oxford Krystal. I talked to several visitors as they left Oxford Sunday. My thoughts:

Kaleb Oliver — the four-star defensive back from Tennessee is torn between Ole Miss and Georgia Tech. I think he hit it off with Ole Miss defensive coordinator Wesley McGriff and loves the idea of playing early in the SEC. He’ll visit Georgia Tech next weekend. The Yellow Jackets would be wise to play up the academics and the networking opportunities in Atlanta.

Thomas Johnston — the three-star linebacker from Spanish Fort, Ala., looks like a football player. He loved Ole Miss, and the word from sources was his family did as well. It sure sounded like he’s down to Ole Miss and Arkansas. He could play immediately in Oxford, and he knows it, but Bret Bielema and Co. have a relationship advantage and he has family in Iowa to cancel out the distance disadvantage for the Hawkeyes. It’s close. I think I’d bet on Ole Miss, but I’d hedge a little.

Cordarrian Richardson — The running back from Memphis is Ole Miss-bound, if you made me bet. If he qualifies _ there are real concerns _ he looks like a guy who could contribute quickly. Richardson said he’s up to 230 pounds, and he looked the part.

Mohamed Sanogo — The four-star linebacker from Plano, Texas, said he knows where he’s going but he needs time to make sure. My interpretation: Sanogo wanted to make sure his emotions weren’t just the typical post-visit high one usually gets after 48 hours of courtship. The Rebels are certainly a major player at the very least for Sanogo.

Chris Miller — The Denton, Texas, cornerback is committed to Colorado. While the Rebels made a strong impression, it kind of sounded like he was leaning towards sticking with the Buffaloes.

6. Ole Miss should have a long list of visitors in town for the weekend, the last weekend before the Feb. 1 National Signing Day.

Among those expected:

Eastside, Ga., CB Eric Stokes

Lakeland, Fla., WR James Robinson

Edmonds, Wash., DE Ali Bomaye

Jackson, Ga., LB Jeffrey Burley

Clinton, Miss., ATH Kam White

Mobile, Ala., RB Nicholas Sims

JUCO DL Larrell Murchison

Kings, Wash., RB Caleb Perry

Morton, Miss., WR D.D. Bowie

Hattiesburg, Miss., WR Jordan Murphy

Grayson, Ga., OL Tony Gray

Desert Pines, Nev., OL Poutasi Poutasi

American Heritage, Fla., WR Tedarrell Slaton

Peramus, N.J., DT Corey Bolds

Valor Christian, Colo., DT Noah Elliss

Lincoln, N.Y., DT Romello Martin

Park Hill, Mo., DE Chester Graves

Bob Hill, Ala., S A.J. Harris

My note: Expect this list to change quite a bit between now and Friday. There will be subtractions and additions. This late in the game, as much as people love to make fun of this word, recruiting gets pretty fluid.

7. It hasn’t been four months since Miami Marlins ace pitcher Jose Fernandez died in a boating accident. I was just thinking about Fernandez the other day, as Twitter accounts belonging to Major League Baseball teams made note of the fact that pitchers and catchers report to spring training in a month or so.

Now the Marlins won’t be the only team that reports to spring training with heavy hearts. Kansas City Royals ace Yordano Ventura was killed in a car accident early Sunday in his native Dominican Republic. He was 25.

Baseball, thanks to the Cubs’ talent acquisitions and subsequent renaissance, sucked me back in the last four seasons or so. The Royals have dominated during that time, and I’ve watched Ventura a lot the past three years or so. His arm was electric. He was passionate. Sometimes that came across as craziness, but damn, he was fun to watch. His loss, especially so soon after Fernandez’s death, is, as Jerry Crasnick said Sunday, “incomprehensible.”

8. So I thought I’d write about politics again this week.

Haha. I’m kidding. Hell to the no. I’m giving myself a break from political discourse.

On Friday, prior to the inauguration of Donald Trump, my daughters expressed disappointment that they would not be able to watch the ceremony. Keep in mind, they’re 15 and 13 respectively, meaning they really don’t remember a world in which Barack Obama wasn’t president of the United States. They’re not yet political, but they wanted to see an inauguration.

I was frustrated for them and a bit perturbed that their schools weren’t taking advantage of a ready-made civics lesson, not to mention a life lesson. America’s peaceful and bloodless transfer of power is a majestic thing. Further, sometimes in life, you lose. Sometimes in life, you have to work with those with whom you don’t agree. Sometimes in life, you have to be a good sport, take your medicine and return to fight another day.

Campbell, a sophomore at Oxford High School, texted to tell me some kids didn’t stand for the pledge of allegiance at the start of Friday’s school day. So I tweeted at the Oxford School District, saying I thought it was a mistake to not let Friday’s inauguration be a teaching moment, especially given the fact that eight years ago, the same school district essentially stopped everything to observe Obama’s historic inauguration (as it should have, mind you).

The response was typical. Many agreed. Others didn’t, saying Trump stole the election with the help of the Russians or won on a “technicality,” given Hillary Clinton won the popular vote.

On Friday night, I watched some of the inaugural balls and tweeted a joke (at least I thought it was a joke) about Karen Pence having to share the stage with the collection of supermodels that comprise the women in Trump’s family. I tweeted that it was akin to me taking the stage with actor Ryan Gosling, who is just a little bit better looking than I. It was meant as a joke about my total lack of good looks and a compliment of the beauty possessed by Trump’s wife and daughters and daughters-in-law.

There was some serious backlash, and even when I tried to explain the tweet was a shot at my horrible looks and not an insult of the vice-president’s wife, there was very little forgiveness to be had.

People are charged up; I get it. So I’ll back away. That said, I’ll cheer for Trump the same way I cheered for Obama and George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush and the first president I really remember, Ronald Reagan. When the president does well, we do well. I’m an American. I love my country. I want us all to do well.

So good luck, President Trump and please forgive me, Mrs. Pence. You looked beautiful in your dress, far better than I’ve ever looked in a tuxedo. God bless America.

9. It’s time, thank goodness, for the Drink of the Week (God, I still can’t get over my creativity with that name). So, here’s award-winning Nashville-based bartender Jonathan Howard:

With a rather quiet week from the Ole Miss sports world, I will take this week’s inspiration from the most significant event our country will see for at least another four years or so — the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States. Here’s the El Presidente Cocktail.

The drink was first found in an article in the New York Evening Telegram in 1919 article, which calls for a mixture of Bacardi, Grenadine, and French vermouth. The Drink was created to honor Cuban President Mario García Menocal, who was widely known for loving cocktails.

There are several recipes for the drink coming from Cuba in the 1910s-1920s. Some call for orange curacao, to help give the drink a bit more structure, while others called for Vermouth de Chambery, which is the key to the modern version’s success. So I will be explaining the El Presidente No. 2, which is the more modern version of the drink.

In vintage cocktail books when you see "French Vermouth" called for. That means a dry, white vermouth. When you see "Italian Vermouth" called for, it means a sweeter, red vermouth. Another type of French vermouth that is also white is Vermouth de Chambery, named for the French town from which it originates. This vermouth is a semi-sweet vermouth, and the exact one used by Cuban bartenders for the El Presidente Cocktail. Dolin makes a very good version that is a staple in my bars and makes the best expression of the cocktail.

I would only use Bacardi Gold in the recipe. The rum has all of the needed spice and vanilla custard flavors to give the drink a really nice starting point for flavors. The white is also too dry and Bacardi 8 is too rich, and the drink calls for Bacardi by name.

I would suggest any orange curacao, Bols makes a very good version, as does Pierre Ferrand. And for the grenadine, use a proper pomegranate-based grenadine. Jack Rudy makes a very good version, just as long as it is not the red roses kind, you should be just fine.

El Presidente No.2

1.5 oz. Bacardi Gold

3/4 oz. Dolin Vermouth de Chambery

1/2 oz. Orange Curacao

Bar spoon or 1/8 oz. Grenadine

Directions:

In a mixing glass, add all ingredients. Add ice and stir roughly 30-35 times. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a twist of lemon.

NEXT LEVEL TIP: Keep your vermouth in the fridge as it is a fortified wine. Also this is going to give you much more control when diluting your cocktail.

10. I'm pleased to inform you in this space that RebelGrove.com has been approved for membership into the Associated Press Sports Editors.

What does that mean for you, the subscriber? Nothing, really.

What does it mean for us? It means we have a better chance at being treated as legitimate media (and not a fan site) among our peers, which should enable us to be considered not only for awards inside our industry but also as voters in polls and such. In short, it's something we're excited about, both for the recognition of legitimacy and for some of the professional opportunities it might provide.

Anyway, we will have coverage of Ole Miss basketball and recruiting throughout the week. Until then, here are some stories and articles for your reading enjoyment. Have a great week.

The story of President Obama’s last ride

How Anthony Morrow turned Alex Abrines’ beard into a celebration

Joe Maddon isn’t perfect, but he’s the coolest manager in baseball.

Is Nashville in line for MLS expansion?

Joe Mixon fits into one of two categories for NFL scouts — too toxic or too talented to ignore.

Science has discovered why dieting is so hard.