| 16 January 2012
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.
 |
Like Jake's OMB on Facebook |  |
Follow Jake's OMB on Twitter |  |
Listen to Jake's radio show |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
