In the course of one weekend, Ole Miss Basketball coach Chris Beard added a pair of athletic big men than can score buckets out of the Transfer Portal.
Malik Dia and Mikael Brown-Jones add long, athletic scorers to the roster as both of these guys after scoring in the upper teens per game.
After finishing the weekend with a series victory over Mississippi State, Ole Miss maintained a Top 30 RPI at No. 29, which is 9th in the SEC.
Not terrible for a team that currently sits 20-16 (5-10 SEC).
The Rebs are getting some benefit of the doubt due to their strength of schedule. Eight of the 10 SEC losses are to teams in the Top 10 of the RPI (Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee).
I’ve added the NCAA RPI link to the We Run the Sip hub so we can monitor it over the next four weeks.
Ole Miss run-ruled Mississippi State 14-2 on Sunday to claim its first series win over the Bulldogs since 2015 (that’s a crazy long time).
It was the second walk-off win over State in as many days.
The weekend could prove to be a huge pendulum swing for the Rebels, who had lost 8 straight after dropping the series opener on Friday.
But the tide changed on Saturday night when a fiery Mike Bianco came undone after the umpire blew what should have been an ejection of State catcher Johnny Long when he tossed his bat after a home run.
Instead, Bianco was the one that was ejected.
The Rebels seemed energized and determined to get the win after their coach went to bat for them.
And they did.
This could prove to be a season-turning weekend for Ole Miss.
Three of the next four conference opponents have losing records. That certainly doesn’t guarantee anything, but Ole Miss has a realistic chance to win some games in the back half of the season. Make no mistake, the Rebels have a looot of work to do to have a chance to sniff the postseason, but at least now there’s a glimmer of hope and a satisfying series win over Mississippi State to savor in the meantime.
Ole Miss (20-16, 5-10 SEC) is at Arkansas State on Tuesday and travels to Georgia on Friday.
The Grove Bowl looked like a good time. That’s about all there is to say about that.
Hot dog eating contests, tug-of-war and dunk contests were probably fun for the players and hopefully the vibe was good for any recruits in attendance.
Hey, it’s always a party in the Sip, right? That’s part of the package Lane Kiffin is selling and I’ve got absolutely no problem with it.
Some even call it genius on Kiffin’s part. Again, no argument here.
I was watching on television and switched back to the Masters after the first twenty minutes when I figured out that the 7 on 7 drills would do nothing to enlighten anyone about the 2024 Rebs.
I get it. Everybody thinks spring games are irrelevant now, thanks to the Transfer Portal, and because the games do little in the way of preparing the team for next season. And the injury risk is real with a spring game. I get all of that.
And I’m sure the Grove Games were a good time for the folks in the stadium.
But if spring games are so irrelevant and unimportant, frankly, I don’t see the point of the Grove Games – unless the players loved it and it’s good for recruiting – in which case have at it.
I’ll probably be doing something else.
You must be logged in to post a comment.