Peaked Too Early

Ole Miss continues its woes on the road as they have all season with a loss to Alabama Wednesday night 69-58. This team reached a peak around the first week of February and really has not played well since for the most part. Clarence Sanders is the only guy on this team who has stepped up and played well for the team on a consistent basis.

For the Rebels it was Sanders who led the team in scoring once again, as he put up 18 points. Dwayne Curtis followed with 12 points. Aside from that NO ONE was able to contribute the way they should. Brian Smith played for probably two minutes and had 6 points, compared to Todd Abernathy who played most of the game and fouled out with 6 points.

Bam Doyne's average points have gone down on a consistent basis since the St. Louis game. Tonight Bam plays the entire game and scored 4 points. He was 2-9 from the field, 0-4 from behind the arc, and 0-2 from the charity stripe. Not only that, Bam was the guy who took the shots, when the Rebels still had a chance to pull off a miracle. So three straight trips down the court with less than a minute and a half to go: it is Bam turnover, Bam miss shot, Bam miss shot.
WHY? WHY? WHY? If it was not senior day on Saturday, no way I start this guy.

For Alabama, they did not play extremely well, but they found the way to win. They were led by Mykal Riley who had 13 points followed by three players with 12 points. They also crashed the boards very well, and shot 67% from three point land in the second half. However as Andy Kennedy mentioned after the game, the Rebels could have easily won this game. They did not capitalize on the multiple opportunities that were given to them by Bama.

What does this mean for the rest of the season. The Rebels have played their way out of controlling the SEC West to finding themselves in a four way tie for first play with one to play. But a western division championship has no bearings on post season play. Aside from the Rebels playing lights out, Florida not showing up at the SEC tournament, and everyone else in the league forfeiting in the SEC tournament, it is the NIT for the Rebels.

On a side note David Kellum is terrible. I am so glad I was blessed to be able to live within driving range of Oxford where I do not have to listen to him on the radio every game. Not only does he give awful commentary like ........."Abernathy steals the ball but he fouled, or the free throw hits, centers, and rolls of the rim, or Curtis blocks the shot but fouls. He drives me insane. On top of that he blames the game on Sanders for being 3-14 from three pointers, when Clay was the leading scorer with 18 and only one of two in double digits.

With all that being said, the Rebels have one game left against Auburn on Saturday. A win and an Alabama win over MS State and the Rebels win the West. A loss and they can finish as far back as fifth place in the West.

Game time is set for 1:00 on Saturday and it will be televised by Lincoln Financial.