For 20 unbelievable minutes, Ole Miss was one of the best basketball teams in the country last night. At one point they led No. 13 Florida 20-4. At halftime they were 10-for-10 from 3-pt range. It was incredible, but you knew it couldn't last. You knew that didn't you? You knew. 

And it didn't. The Rebels were the opposite of hot in the second half, returning to the form we saw in previous games against the likes of LSU and Auburn. Billy Donovan's Gators were too good to be held down forever. They eventually started making their shots and they were able to overcome the torrid first half of Terrance Henry and Nick Williams and sneak out of Oxford with a 64-60 win. And that's all the recap you'll get from me of this one. You watched it. You've read about it. I'm going to tell you what to do with it.

Ole Miss is a better basketball team than it was January 14th. The Rebels couldn't hit the broad side of a barn a few weeks ago. Now a couple of them can. Terrance Henry seems to have found his identity and his stroke and has now topped 20-points in two consecutive games. Nick Williams is shooting better. We know what Holloway and Buckner are capable of on any given night. The rebounding and defense are there. It's hard to talk about after a devastating loss, but the Rebels are playing like a team that has a chance to make some noise going into this final 10-game stretch. That loss last night was tough, and a missed opportunity, but Florida is a really good basketball team. There's a high likelihood you'll be seeing them play far into the NCAA Tournament. Ole Miss won't face too many teams like the Gators in the final stretch. But will Ole Miss make the Tournament? 

At halftime last night, Ole Miss looked NCAA Tournament worthy. If the Rebels can continue to perform like they have since that win over Mississippi State they should win more games than they lose in the last five weeks of the season and could possibly finish with 19 or 20 wins. The first half Rebels from last night could win all 10 remaining games. The second half Rebels could lose 8 out of 10. Who knows which one we're going to see out there from here on, but I think there's reason for optimism. This team is improving. They are close. I guess that's what makes the Florida loss so frustrating, but it's also reason for hope. 

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I was born in 1975 and attended Ole Miss from 1995 - 1998. For a solid year of my life in Oxford I was a minor - in possession of alcohol - several times a week. I'm hereby turning myself in and throwing myself on the mercy of the Court. If I was going to be a narc and turn in everybody else who was guilty with me I'd need a student directory and I'd only cross out the names of people I didn't know. 

In light of my experience, it's somewhat comical that it makes the news that new Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace got an MIP in Oxford, but that's the world we live in. While I can hardly fault Wallace for having a beer at a restaurant in Oxford on a Thursday night (see above), the fact is it's now a black mark on him, and it's in the news. It's not fair is it? 

Well, actually, it is. Wallace wants to be a starting quarterback at Ole Miss. Like it or not, quarterbacks are held to a different standard. SEC quarterbacks are held to that standard under a microscope. Ask Stephen Garcia (he laughs at Wallace's MIP). Welcome to big time college football Wallace. Consider this MIP your orientation.  While I don't morally fault Wallace for having a beer, he needs to now understand this is the way it's going to be. He's not a scrawny nobody from Jackson (like me) and he can't blend into the crowd. He's Bo Wallace, and aside from that, he's tall. He sort of sticks out. When he walks in a bar in Oxford everybody is going to know he's there, and they're going to watch him. "There's Bo Wallace," they'll tell their friends. "He's the quarterback." Wallace now represents Ole Miss. If Wallace wins the starting job, he'll be only one or two steps behind Hugh Freeze as the University's biggest amabassador. 

The MIP is a tough way to learn the lesson, and it may not be fair that it gets so much attention when 98-percent of the student population at Ole Miss would be guilty of the same on any given Thursday night, but out of 10,000 students there are only four SEC quarterbacks. An Ole Miss quarterback isn't just another student. If he plays well and wins, he'll be worshipped. If plays poorly and loses he'll be questioned relentlessly, and if he has a beer on a Thursday night underage he'll probably get an MIP and make the news. One perk to all this scrutiny is potential fame and celebrity and maybe even a few million dollars one day if he's lucky. Heck, every Ole Miss fan in Mississippi knows Wallace's name and he hasn't even put on the uniform for the first time. But with the good comes the bad and the bad is the scrutiny. 

Wallace probably didn't fully understand all of this before Thursday. Now he does. It's what he does with this new information that will tell us and Hugh Freeze exactly what kind of quarterback and LEADER Wallace will be.

Welcome to Oxford, Bo.  

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Ole Miss has a date with destiny when it hosts No. 14 Florida Thursday night. A win would thrust the Rebels (13-6, 3-2 SEC) into the NCAA Tournament conversation and put Ole Miss on a three-game SEC winning streak. It would also be the second win over a ranked opponent in three games. With another home game against South Carolina, picked by some as the 12th best team (a.k.a. "the worst") in the SEC, there would be a real chance for Ole Miss to move to 5-2 in the SEC on Saturday. Am I getting ahead of myself? Probably. The point is there is real opportunity here in the next three days and all Andy Kennedy and his team must do is reach out and take it...like a Honey Badger (from here on out the animal that will always be the symbol for those who take what they want).

Is it presumptuous to think Ole Miss could beat Florida? Not at all. The Gators have lost exactly four games this year, all on the road. The last loss was in Knoxville to an average, rebuilding Tennessee team. The young Gators are more comfortable at home, but so are the Rebels. Ole Miss hasn't lost in the Tad Pad this year. The Rebels are playing their best basketball of the season in the last two games. Kennedy seems to have figured out which players give his team the best chance to win and who needs the ball - and it's the frontcourt trio of Murphy Holloway, Reggie Buckner and Terrance Holloway, not coincidentally the leading scorers in each of the three SEC wins. Ole Miss will be looking to those three from here on out. 

Big game Thursday night! A chance to prove something. Will Ole Miss take advantage? I can't wait to find out.

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Ole Miss announced the formation of a new committee yesterday - The Lunch Committee. The University explained this newest committee in a press release just received at Jake's Ole Miss Blog headquarters this morning:

"I'm very pleased to announce my new Lunch Committee," Chancellor Dan Jones said. "Lunch has always been a very difficult decision for me since I moved to Oxford. When I worked at UMC I just went to the Wendy's on Woodrow Wilson or Backyard Burger because they were right across the street. Now that I'm here in Oxford I simply don't know where to go. If I go down University Avenue to the Square all the restaurants are just jammed together and there are so many choices. And then if I turn left and go down Jackson Avenue it gets even more difficult. Chinese? Chick Fil A? McDonald's? It's simply too much for one man, and lunch is too important a decision to get wrong. I want to make the best choice for lunch. That's why I've appointed this committee. The Mascot Selection Committee, the Help Me Find a Football Coach Without using the Athletic Director Committee and the Help me Find an Athletic Director to Replace the Athletic Director I can't Use Anymore Committee have all worked so well I think this new Lunch Committee makes the most sense for me and for Ole Miss."

"I have appointed John Currence of City Grocery and Big Bad Breakfast and food critic and writing extraordinaire John T. Edge to lead this committee. I think these two gentlemen are far more qualified than I to decide where I should eat lunch and I know they'll do a great job of helping me pick a decent restaurant."

Other members of the committee include a guy named Big Mo, the Fry Cook at Chick Fil A, and Mary the UPD parking enforcement cop. 

"Chancellor Jones has charged us with finding the best place possible for him to eat each day," Currence said. "We will relentlessly pursue the best place for him to eat each day, and when necessary we will deliver his lunch to him. Our goal is for the Chancellor not to be responsible for picking his own lunch and we take this task very seriously. The Chancellor should not worry about picking his lunch when he could better spend his time picking more people for committees to make decisions for Ole Miss and we are glad we could help."

The Lunch Committee already made it's first selection for the Chancellor - A $5 Foot Long from Subway. 

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Nope. I did not die sometime last week. I felt like death for a couple days though, as I prepared for and participated in a trial in federal court. Even when it was over I was wiped out (of course you know I won). Therefore, no blog post recapping the monumental win over Mississippi State and the heart stopper on the road at Georgia. I hate that I didn't have the time or strength for a post though because Ole Miss finally experienced some success and I wanted to write about it. For most of the last couple years there's not been much positive to write and now that Andy Kennedy and his scrappy Rebel squad finally gave me something to work with I didn't have time...

Therefore, I'm making time. Andy Kennedy, you're awesome. This pat on the back is for you.

After losing at Auburn two Saturday's ago I was about ready to pronounce the date of death of your basketball team. I wasn't the only one. You listened not. You kept coaching. You changed your game plan. You narrowed the minutes. You got the right people the ball down low. You kept your team believing and you inspired them to play to their potential or maybe even beyond. You got big performances from Reggie Buckner and Terrance Holloway. Your team made shots (finally). You won on the road and you beat a Top 20 in State rival at home for the first time in five games.

You took a team that had lost its confidence and its leading scorer and was headed in what appeared to be the wrong direction and you got it turned around.

Andy Kennedy, GREAT JOB!

I don't get to say that often enough on this blog and I didn't want to miss the opportunity.

The season isn't over by any stretch, but I believe in blunt truth, honesty and in sharing my opinion at all times, even when it's good. Too often it's negative, but I can only work with what you Ole Miss coaches give me. I'm quick to point out bad coaching, so it's only fair to compliment good coaching.

So here's to you Andy Kennedy. Great job. Keep up the good work, and so on and so forth. Beat Florida. You know the drill...

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Rick Stansbury went to great lengths yesterday to say Ole Miss is just another critical SEC game for Mississippi State, and nothing more. I don't believe him. I've witnessed the crowds at Tad Smith Coliseum and the Hump when these two teams play. It's not just another game to them. Filling Tad Smith Coliseum has been so difficult in recent years, and it's not uncommon for Ole Miss to give away tickets just to entice fans inside the old relic. That won't be the case when State visits. It'll be jam packed with diehards for both teams eager for a win over in-state rivals. Aside from being larger, the crowds are usually just plain louder and more into the games. The players will scrap harder for loose balls and the fans will yell as though each play could decide game. While the Hump fills a little easier thanks to years of successful hoops under Stansbury, he's surely noticed the atmosphere is a little more electric when Ole Miss visits. Coaches aren't deaf. 

Stansbury's comments about this game not meaning much to him were nothing more than a subtle jab - an easy one too, because he owns a 20-7 records in the series. To be frank, beating Ole Miss isn't that difficult for him. When you beat a team often enough I suppose that might take a little of the anticipation out of it, but don't think for a minute that Stansbury is genuine when he says it's just another game. He relishes his mark in the series, as does his school with its "Our State" billboards. 

Those billboards are ringing more and more true with each game that the Rebels and the Bulldogs play. Ole Miss hasn't beaten the Bulldogs in a Big 3 sport since baseball in 2010. That's right. We are now nearing the two-year mark since the Rebels beat Mississippi State in a major sport. No matter how Stansbury feels about it, this better be a big game for Ole Miss. It's a huge game. You don't lose to your in-state conference rival in every major sport for two years. It's really inexcusable, and it's a sign of how far the Ole Miss athletic department has fallen. Mississippi State isn't Kentucky. It's not Alabama. It's also not Florida. It's Mississippi State. That school in Starkville with a budget similar in size to Ole Miss. It's not a perennial powerhouse in any sport. Yet, Ole Miss hasn't beaten them in almost two years. 

Andy Kennedy has lost five straight to Stansbury. Wednesday night, when Kennedy's young offensively challenged (Kennedy's words, not mine) backcourt faces off with the No. 18 Bulldogs there's a good chance it'll become six straight. 

That would be unacceptable. A seventh straight would be downright intolerable. It's a big game. 

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When you have four kids and a wife, if you want to keep them, you can't watch or listen to every single game that's played in this ESPN world we're living in. You have to choose. With Tebow and the Saints slated for Playoff games Saturday night, I shuffled the Ole Miss - Auburn basketball game to the bottom of my priority list. Using Jake's Ole Miss Blog's secret technology (Twitter) I was able to keep up with the game in brief capsules of time when no one was looking (bathroom, when wife walks away to get kids drinks, etc.). On the way to and from a family outing to Dickey's Barbeque Pit (pretty good stuff BTW) I was able to overhear David Kellum and Keith Carter describe the new ways Ole Miss invented of turning the ball over and bouncing the ball off the backboard. As we drove to the park to teach the oldest two to ride bicycles, a task I neglected most of the fall only to watch the Rebels go 2-10, I heard Carter say to Kellum:

"I've just never seen a team struggle this much on offense."

That was at about the 10-minute mark with the Rebels down by 12 to what was once thought to be the worst team in the SEC. Family time was looking much more fun after I heard that.

Radio off. Let's ride some bikes.

I was then rewarded with an hour of watching my little girls pedaling their little hearts out, eating grass and tumbling over handle bars, only to get back up and do it again and again. There was determination, tears, laughter, grass stains and plenty of screams of encouragement from me and mom. They became little bicycle riders on Saturday, and that time was both rewarding AND fun.

When we finally got back in the car, I scanned Twitter, and learned Ole Miss did what it does oh so well: Come back from certain bone-crushing defeat using luck, the other team's awfulness and a few flashes of spectacular play, take the game to overtime (TWO overtimes) and then lose in the final seconds on a baffling What-was-the-coach-thinking-Why do-I-follow-this-team-at-all-Is-being-a-Rebel-really-worth-this-type-of-misery type of play. 

For those of you who watched it go down - I'm sorry. 

I'd like to say you are now free to close the book on this season and return to your families and friends and lives that don't include losing all the time, but that would be too easy. Ole Miss will probably find some way to win a few SEC games this year and cause you to again believe that something good might come from this season only to crush your hearts at the last possible minute and again make you wonder why you do it to yourself. 

It's hard being a Rebel. 

ANDY KENNEDY'S ANALYSIS
It's hard to imagine Ole Miss winning many more games when it can't shoot or pass. The can't shoot or pass isn't my analysis - it's the heach coach's. These are Andy Kennedy's quotes after the game on Saturday. 

We Can't Shoot: "I'm not sure it's how we want to play, but it's who we are," Kennedy said. "It's who this team is. I would like to tell you that next game we're going to rise up and as opposed to 7-of-28 go 17-of 28 (from 3-point range), but that's probably not happening.

We Can't Pass: "I'm so worried with our offensive inefficiencies to pass the ball more than two or three times, because I want to get it to the basket. (Summers) got it on the rim, that's what we asked. We weren't able to knock it down."

It's hard not to be discouraged. 

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Ole Miss travels to Auburn for another crucial SEC matchup today. The Rebels need to take advantage of a rebuilding Auburn program on the road. As we all know and has been written, said and widely acknowledged, road wins are hard to come by in the SEC. The Tigers are one of the worst teams in the conference and present a real opportunity to get one. Ole Miss plays each SEC West team twice and it needs a sweep against at least one of them it's to get past that .500 conference record ceiling, where each of Kennedy's teams have hovered or stayed below for his previous five seasons. Getting past that .500 threshold, while daunting for a unit that has struggled to score most of the season, is nonetheless crucial if the Rebels hope to get a sniff of the NCAA Tournament. Will today be the day one of those young guards like Jelan Kendrick, LaDarius White or Jarvis Summers finally find some rhythm? Will Nick Williams continue the aggressive play that got Ole Miss 18 points Wednesday night? That's got to be the hope. While Murphy Holloway was able to carry Ole Miss to a win against Arkansas, he can't do it alone, especially on the road. That's what I'll be watching today. Which player will take Holloway's lead and step up? If one does Ole Miss would have its first back-to-back wins since early December, and will have some needed positive energy headed into a date with rival Mississippi State next week. As cliche as it may sound, it's another big game today on the Plains.

PLAYOFFS: This is an exciting weekend of NFL Football! With the Saints, Giants, Packers all still alive I get to watch all my favorite teams in do-or-die games, fighting to get to the Super Bowl. Add to that the thrill of watching Tim Tebow take on the Patriots in wintery Boston tonight, and a chance for redemption against the villainous (to me anyway) Tom Brady, and it just doesn't get any more dramatic. The Broncos had their win streak snapped badly by New England a few weeks back and Tebow imploded. All of that on the heels of Tebow's heroics from last week make tonight's game must-see TV! Literally. Some  are speculating the prime time event will get the highest NFL ratings EVER! Follow that with tomorrow afternoon's rematch of the 2008 NFC Championship game between the Giants and the Packers on Lambeau's Frozen Tundra and the chance to see Eli Manning possibly lead his team back to the Super Bowl with a win against the league leading Packers when just a couple weeks ago the Giants seemed done and PINCH ME this is setting up to be an incredible weekend of football. I haven't even mentioned the Saints, P-Willy... oh man...

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Without offering an opinion as to whether Andy Kennedy should return for a seventh season as basketball coach, it now looks more and more likely that the decision won't be made by the next Ole Miss athletic director. It's January 13 and the search for the next AD suppossedly hasn't even yet begun. Current AD Pete Boone announced he would retire by December 2012, but meanwhile all the biggest decisions in the Ole Miss athletic department are being made under his leadership. It makes you wonder why a change at athletic director is being made at all? If the next athletic director is going to be hamstrung by Boone's decisions or those of some outside committee then what was the point? 

First, there was the hiring of Hugh Freeze. Whether you like the hire or not Freeze wasn't hired by the next AD and his contract wasn't negotiated by the new AD. Now, there's a new Nike contract.  Forward Rebels wrote a lengthy post explaining the process or lack thereof behind the signing of that 7-year, $13.9 million deal. There was no competitive bidding for the contract despite the existence of other major apparel companies such as Under Armour and Adidas to name just a couple. These are the bigtime decisions for which the job of AD exists. The next AD will now be stuck with a Nike contract he didn't negotiate, and a football coach he didn't hire. With each passing week it looks more and more likely that the 2012 basketball coach (whether Kennedy or somebody else) won't be a result of a decision by the next AD either.

(By the way, if you wonder how the $13.9 million deal compares to what other schools are getting, check out this link.)

Essentially, it appears as though the next athletic director, whoever that may be (and I too think Walker Jones is probably the leading candidate), will be presiding over an athletic department for years before he finally can take vested ownership in the major decisions. 

It makes no sense to me. Does it make sense to you? Let me know on Facebook or Twitter.

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Ole Miss needs a running back next year and it may have one in commitment L'Tavius Mathers. The two-time Tennessee Player of the Year can carry the rock. After Houston Nutt was let go, there were reports that Mathers' commitment got a little shaky and Vanderbilt's James Franklin made a hard push, but Hugh Freeze & Co., were able to keep Mathers focused on Ole Miss. There's an interesting read on the Mathers recruitment by Franklin and Vandy and the heated rivalry with Tennessee in Clay Travis' Outkick the Coverage. 

If there's a game on the Ole Miss schedule that needs to be circled as biggest game on the schedule, in my opinion, second to MSU, it's Vanderbilt. The Commodores and Mississippi State are must wins on the schedule every season because those games should be winnable and it will take wins in those two games most years for the Rebels to be bowl eligible, assuming the Rebels can take care of their non-conference opponents (a BIG assumption in 2012).

Vanderbilt has beaten Ole Miss three of the last four seasons. If Freeze wants to make his mark, that must end in 2012. You can bet the Commodores have the same mindset when it comes to Ole Miss, proving once again that NOTHING comes easy in the SEC. With all that said, it's good to see Ole Miss keeping Mathers. 

And now, the Mathers footage:

2010


2011 

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