Rebels' six-day wait ends with NCAA Tournament berth

While many Ole Miss players said they avoided baseball on TV and projections online leading up to Monday’s selection show, the head coach followed it, hoping for a chance and thinking the outcomes around the country weren’t doing the Rebels any favors.

“Me, personally, you look (at projections) because this is what we do,” Bianco said. “This is how you make your living. You try to follow it but not as much as everyone else because it’s exhausting to continue to look and the bubble shrinks. You get frustrated, frustrated at teams you don’t even know, never seen before.”

But the anxiety turned to excitement for his team around 11:30 a.m. on Monday, with Ole Miss (32-22) slotted as the No. 3 seed in the Coral Gables Regional. The Rebels open with No. 2 seed Arizona (37-23) at 6 p.m. CT on Friday. Host Miami and four-seed Canisius play earlier in the day.

The Rebels were the last at-large team into the field, one of nine SEC teams to make the tournament. Mike Buddie, Army athletics director and head of the selection committee, said the strength of Ole Miss’ series wins got the Rebels win over North Carolina State — the best resume left out of the field. The Wolfpack had 16 ACC wins and the No. 33 RPI. Ole Miss is No. 38 in the RPI and went 15-17 aggregate in the SEC.

Buddie, during the selection show, highlighted Ole Miss’ road series win at Auburn and road sweep at LSU.

Ole Miss took Wednesday off after falling to Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament late Tuesday night. The Rebels held intrasquads on Friday and Saturday to get live at-bats and keep pitchers on schedule. Practice is hard mentally for all teams as the postseason arrives but especially when there’s no guarantee that it’s for any purpose.

Kevin Graham said he told his girlfriend not to mention any projections or SEC Tournament games during the last week. He killed time deep-diving into Mario Superstar Baseball on the Nintendo GameCube — a video game console introduced in 2001 and discontinued in 2007 — with outfielder Banks Tolley.

Playing most often as Petey Piranha, a character on the Wario Greats team, Graham and Tolley found elaborate YouTube videos and researched how to play other people online with the game that was released just after Graham’s sixth birthday.

“We’re in deep with that,” Graham said.

Whatever distractions were necessary, the worry remained until Monday. For a team that was No. 1 nationally in March and seemingly left for dead in early May, there’s an opportunity ahead. Captain Tim Elko and his teammates have more baseball.

The Coral Gables bracket was one fo the final ones released. Graham took a bathroom break during the lone commercial timeout during the reveal. It was more out of nervousness than anything else, as he didn’t want to sit through the Rock Auto ad.

When Ole Miss popped on the screen, the players erupted from their seats inside the Dugout Club at Swayze Field. Elko pushed Graham and squeezed him against the table. Texts flooded into their phones. Bianco told them to get ready for practice.

For a program that’s hosted the last three postseasons, this wasn’t the goal to have to sweat it out. But it sure beat the alternative result. Ole Miss is in and gets a chance on Friday.

“The wait hasn’t been a whole lot of fun,” Elko said. “Waiting on the committee was anxious, but the feeling when got in trumped it all.”