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The Rebels have made it to the Championship Game of the NIT. Yeah I know it is the NIT, but this is a pretty big step for the Ole Miss basketball program. A program that has struggled over the years and has had very little success. The sad thing is I do not feel like there are that many Ole Miss fans that appreciate the fact they have made it to the final four of the NIT. Take a look at the VA Tech game tonight, there were 10,000 screaming fans in attendance, we would never have that in Oxford.

I can say that I am very proud of this team. They showed me tonight what I have been looking for for several months. I wrote several months ago that I would not support them until they showed effort like they wanted to play-win or lose. Well tonight I felt like it was probably their best game of the entire year. Yeah that is maybe a stretch, but they really looked good tonight. Never dropping back and allowing the Hokies to go on a run, which has been the main reason for alot of our losses this year. All and all a great game for the Rebs, and glad to see them in NY for the NIT.

They will take on Ohio State on Tuesday in Madison Square Garden, a big time stage I doubt the Rebels have ever played on. Ohio State is a good team and they will definitely be looking to play Florida in the championship game.

(UMAA)
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) - Chris Warren scored five of his 22 points during a 9-0 second half run Wednesday night and Ole Mis beat Virginia Tech 81-72 in the NIT quarterfinals to earn a trip to Madison Square Garden in New York.
Ole Miss (24-10) led 51-49 with 10-49 to play before Warren's layup sparked the burst. He later added a 3-pointer, Eniel Polynice hit a jumper and Kenny Williams made a layup to cap the spurt, which gave the Rebels a 60-49 led with 8:22 to play.
The Hokies (21-14), who got 23 points from Deron Washington in the final game of his college career, never got closer than seven thereafter in a game that wasn't really as close as the score. Virginia Tech was outrebounded 46-23 and shot under 40 percent.
Dwayne Curtis added 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Rebels, Williams had 10 points and 11 rebounds and David Huertas finished with 16 points and seven rebounds.
Ole Miss shot better than 49 percent and grabbed 16 offensive rebounds.
A.D. Vassallo scored 16 points for the Hokies, but missed 15 of his 21 field goal tries, and Malcolm Delaney scored 14. Vassallo had seven assists and Delaney five.
The Rebels led 33-31 at halftime and never trailed again. Virginia Tech drew even at 49 with 12 minutes left on J.T. Thompson's layup, but Huertas hit one of his four 3-pointers 14 seconds later and the Hokies eventually fell as many as 13 points down.
Virginia Tech, which blew out UAB on Monday night, 75-49, started the same way against Ole Miss, scoring 12 of the first 15 points to fire up the crowd of 9,615.
But the Rebels responded quickly with an 18-5 run and led 21-17 after 11:30.