Jordan Ta’amu is training with a group of QB’s that includes Gardner Minshew, Trace McSorley and Nick Fitzgerald, and he’s got “the best arm of the group.” LINK

Behold D.K. Metcalf…the next Marvel super hero.

Does Ole Miss have its groove back?

Ole Miss beat Georgia 80-64, and enjoyed a big lead for the entire second half. It was a welcome change of pace from recent play.

Georgia isn’t very good, but it doesn’t matter. Ole Miss needed a game that would let it feel good about itself again.

This game did that.

Breein Tyree scored 31 points.

Bruce Stevens redeemed himself with 8 rebounds.

The Rebels got to experience a pull-away victory on the road.

It was just what the doctor ordered for a team that has been ailing.

Now the Rebels have that winning feeling again, two straight victories, and a 16-7 (6-4 SEC) record.

Ole Miss is still in striking distance of March Madness, and maybe just maybe we’re turning a corner here.

The Rebs visit Auburn on Wednesday.

Ole Miss (15-7, 5-4 SEC) plays at Georgia on Saturday. The Bulldogs are 10-12 (1-8 SEC) and losers of seven straight SEC games (yet somehow they beat Texas on Jan. 26).

Georgia doesn’t even play close, losing by an average margin of 16.5 points per game.

The Rebels, which have been teetering on the verge of collapse since a January 15 loss to LSU, losing five of their last seven, nearly lost to Texas A&M (another 1-8 SEC team) on Wednesday, but they didn’t. They won.

Ole Miss’ NCAA Tournament chances are still living off that 10-game winning streak and wins over Auburn and Mississippi State in early January.

Joe Lunardi has the Rebels as an 8 seed.

Ole Miss is still in this thing, but a loss to Georgia would probably be catastrophic.

Ole Miss just has to win in Athens.

 

In losing to Florida, Ole Miss has gone from a 10-game winning streak to losing 4 of its last 5.

I wish I had something reassuring to say here. That would mean that I, too, was reassured. But it’s hard to find reassurance in anything when four of the last five games were losses. That 10-game winning streak might as well have been five years ago.

The Rebels are in a nosedive and it’s up to Kermit Davis, Terence Davis and Breein Tyree to figure out a way to pull them out of it.

The altitude of this season is getting dangerously low.

State visits Oxford Saturday. It’s time to pull up or perish.

Godspeed, Rebels. Godspeed.

RECAP

Ole Miss couldn’t shoot, and Iowa State couldn’t miss.

The Rebels have dropped two straight and could play themselves right out of NCAA Tournament contention if they don’t get their act together soon. That is all. Enjoy your Saturday.

College Basketball expert Jay Bilas ranked teams 1-68, and Ole Miss is in the mix.

I know none of this really matters. With 12 SEC games remaining, the Rebels still have plenty of chances to play themselves in or out of the Tournament. But perception does matter. There have been years when Ole Miss was perceived as not worthy and when Selection Sunday rolled around, the Rebels found themselves on the wrong side of the bubble.

Thus, what people think today does matter somewhat. Ole Miss is viewed as a Tournament team right now. That perception could help if the Rebels start to play their way down close to the bubble, which could happen over the course of a rigorous SEC schedule.

LINK

Former Ole Miss pitcher Drew Pomeranz, who is trying to get back to the form and health that helped him to 17 wins for the Boston Red Sox two seasons ago, just got a 1-year deal with the San Francisco Giants. It’s hard to believe, but Pomeranz is 30 years old already. It seems like just yesterday that I was watching him pitch for the Red & Blue.  LINK

Ole Miss still has an outside shot at getting Jerrion Ealy (I’ll believe it when I see it).

Ball control an issue for Ole Miss in losses

Check out this very sharp Ole Miss duffle bag

A third win against a Top 25 team would go a long way toward erasing that Alabama stinger.

There are about 9 SEC teams that would love to trade places with Ole Miss in the SEC standings right now. SEC STANDINGS 

Although it’s really easy to get down on Ole Miss after watching it get taken to the woodshed by the Alabama Crimson Tide on Tuesday night, I’m not going to do that. I’ve seen too much evidence of what the Rebels can be when they’re playing well.

Terence Davis and Breein Tyree both had a bad night. Really bad. Davis fouled out earlier than I’ve ever seen a player foul out before. I’m betting the both of them no-showing at the same time won’t happen too often this season.

Plus, if Kermit Davis is the coach we think he is then he will be able to take the abysmal performance in Tuscaloosa and use it to make his team better. That’s the hope.

And let’s also not forget that Alabama is a better basketball team that it’s 2-3 conference record reflected. The Tide owns a win over Kentucky and took No. 1 Tennessee to the wire in Knoxville last weekend. Losing to Bama isn’t going to be a huge black eye for Ole Miss in the long run, but in the near term, expect the Rebels to fall from the Top 25 rankings and in the bracket predictions.

The good news is that there is still a lot of basketball to play, and 14-4 (4-2 SEC) isn’t a terrible place to be.

Kermit Davis was not pleased with Terence Davis