Clay Horning
You think Ole Miss caught Maryland by surprise?
Maybe. Just maybe not as much as Ole Miss caught the state of Mississippi by surprise.
The seventh-seed in the Dayton Regional, the Rebels shocked the women’s college basketball world by knocking off the defending national champion Terrapins 89-78 Tuesday night in Hartford, Conn.
Such a big win. Such an out of nowhere coming of age victory. It kind of makes you wonder what the folks down Oxford way might be thinking about it.
Good question.
The online edition of The Oxford Eagle reveals no locally produced story on the Rebels upset. In fact, as best as it can be determined, there were no Mississippi journalists in Hartford Tuesday night unless, perhaps, they were from Mississippi but had since moved on.
“Rebels upset Terrapins to reach Sweet 16,” screams out the top headline on the sports page of the online Eagle. Only the story was written by Pat Eaton-Robb of the Associated Press.
Assistant sports editor Chris Kieffer was on site to cover Oxford High’s 3-0 loss to Lafayette on the diamond. Oxford’s Lee Paine, the losing pitcher, is an Ole Miss signee, so what are you going to do?
The two biggest newspapers in the state, the Sun Herald of Biloxi and the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, both led their online sports sections with Mississippi basketball.
Mississippi State men’s basketball.
The Bulldogs took Florida State down in Starkville. They’re headed to Madison Square Garden.
Apparently, in Mississippi, the men threatening to win the consolation round in New York is bigger than the women trying to win the main event in Dayton and Cleveland.
At SunHerald.com, there are two sports teaser heads on the online front page. It looks like this:
SportsMSU headed to Big Apple | Lady Rebels beat defending champs
Not even the Associated Press is calling them the “Lady Rebels.”
You’d think the Ole Miss message boards might be burning with anger. Like, where’s the respect for this team that finished fifth in the SEC behind No. 4 Tennessee, No. 14 Georgia, No. 9 Vanderbilt and No. 10 LSU?
Now 23-10 on the season after going 9-5 in the SEC, and led by point guard Armintie Price, a unanimous all-conference pick in a conference where that means a lot, this team deserves some love.
But all anybody wants to talk about on the message boards is Rebel baseball. Ranked No. 13 and having just beaten South Alabama 8-6, it’s hard for March Madness to compete.
Both the Clarion Ledger and the Sun Herald went with AP game story. Even the school’s own Web site went with a story written by Arthur Sherman of the Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin, rather than one written by an Ole Miss publicist.
Maybe it’s a literacy thing.
You’re right, that’s unfair and overly harsh.
Apparently, Mississippi is catching up to women’s sports with all deliberate speed.
Reason for concern
Oklahoma would be wise take the Rebels seriously. Not only because everybody should be taken seriously this time of year and non only because Ole Miss proved very explosive, turning a 6-2 deficit into a 35-12 first-half lead, against the Terps. But because, if one number really stands out, it’s turnovers.
Maryland’s turnovers.
“They punished us in the first half with the 20 turnovers,” Terps coach Brenda Frese said.
Twenty first-half turnovers?
That’s a lot, and taking care of the ball still can’t be considered a real Sooner strength after 19 giveaways against Marquette.
No fluke
So the Rebels were the fifth-best team in the SEC?
Actually, right now, they might be second or third, but the point is nobody goes 9-5 in the SEC without knowing what they’re doing.
This is a team that took Rutgers to three overtimes at Rutgers.
This is a team that opened SEC play 5-0 with wins at Auburn, against Vanderbilt, against LSU, at Kentucky and against South Carolina.
This team can play.
And explode.
And force turnovers.
Even for a bunch of red-hot Sooners, it’s no tap-in.
