Rebs Surprise Cats

It was a surprising win for Andy Kennedy and his team tonight with their win over Kentucky. This team has been playing hard over the last few games, but have not been able to keep it together for a full game to pull out a win. Very glad they were able to get a win over such a storied program that Ole Miss has had little success with.

A few thoughts:

• Great game plan by Andy Kennedy and staff. They had the Cats scouted well and played exceptional defense to control many of Kentucky's scoring threats.
• Terrico White is one heck of a player. Even with an injured knee, he played extremely well. His dunk in the first half was quite a play. Probably one of the best dunks I have seen in quite some time.
• This was the first game in his career that Malcolm White really showed up to play. He played well on both offense and defense. Where has this guy been? He has the talent but normally starts pouting and gets stuck in foul trouble.
• Obviously this team is going to be up and down for the rest of the season with the injuries they have, but a win like this always helps the spirit of the team.

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) - Terrico White and David Huertas each scored 21 points and Ole Miss upset No. 24 Kentucky 85-80 on Tuesday, snapping the Wildcats' five-game win streak a day after they entered the Top 25 for the first time this season.
Neither Kentucky's Jodie Meeks nor Huertas - the Southeastern Conference's Nos. 1 and 3 scorers - managed a field goal in the first half. But Huertas hit a 3-pointer with 11 seconds gone in the second half and the injury-ravaged Rebels (11-9, 2-4 SEC) managed to overcome 24 points from Patrick Patterson for a rare win over the Wildcats (16-5, 5-1).
The win snapped Ole Miss' current three-game losing streak and its nine-game slide to Kentucky, which had won 11 of 12 overall coming into the game. It was just the 12th win for the Rebels in 107 games against the Wildcats.
The Rebels, without three of their best players due to season-ending knee injuries, managed one of their best defensive games of the season.
The Wildcats were fourth in the nation with a shooting percentage of 50.2 percent per game, but struggled against Ole Miss' 2-3 zone and shot 34.3 percent (25-of-65). It was an especially difficult night for Meeks, the nation's No. 3 scorer coming in with 26.1 points per game.
The Rebels held him without a field goal for the first 28:04 and he finished 4-for-15 fro the florr with 21 points. He had eight in the first half, all on free throws, after scoring in double figures in the first 20 minutes of nine of the Wildcats' last 10 games and 14 of 20.
Huertas quickly got open on the left wing on the opening possession of the second half and buried a 3. That spurred Ole Miss to a 16-4 run to open the half that featured four 3-pointers. Graham's second 3 of the run put the Rebels up 53-43 and Kentucky never crept closer than three points after Meeks hit his first two field goals of the game to make it 58-55 with 11:18 left.
Malcolm White scored five points and Huertas hit another 3 during a quick 8-2 run to put the game out of reach.
Ole Miss hit 10 of 26 3s in the game and outrebounded Kentucky 45-40. The Wildcats were just 7-of-28 from the 3-point line.
Terrico White had an especially big game for the Rebels. The freshman finished a point shy of his career high, set one with seven assists and had five rebounds in 37 minutes despite being a game-time decision due to a bruised knee.
Ole Miss led much of the first half, only succumbing to a quick 7-2 run by Kentucky to end the half with a 39-37 lead.

Top 10 Pre Season Ranking for Rebel Baseball

Baseball America
1.Texas A&M
2.Louisiana State
3.North Carolina
4.Texas
5.Cal State Fullerton
6.Mississippi
7.Rice
8.Baylor
9.UC Irvine
10.Missouri
11.San Diego
12.UCLA
13.Arizona State
14.Georgia
15.Stanford
16.Oklahoma
17.Pepperdine
18.Kent State
19.Clemson
20.Georgia Tech
21.Alabama
22.Arkansas
23.Louisville
24.Florida State
25.Oregon State

Rebel Football Ranked 24th Best Program of All Time

ESPN is currently ranking the top 119 programs of all time. The Rebs were ranked in the top 25 programs of all time coming in at number 24.

24. Ole Miss Rebels
Total points: 477

Positives: The Rebels have 20 bowl wins (12th-most since 1936). The glory days in Oxford were a half-century ago, as the program was ranked fifth-best in the nation in the '50s and '60s. The Rebels enjoyed four straight top-5 finishes at one point (1959-62).

Negatives: Ole Miss hasn't had a major bowl appearance since the 1969 season. The NCAA also put it on probation three separate times, costing it 21 points in our tabulations. Plus, Rebels fans should just block out the '80s, when they accrued minus-5 points (77th in the nation).

Through the decades: Through 1958: 23rd 1968: 10th 1978: 13th 1988: 16th 1998: 24th

Did you know? Only 11 programs have won more bowl games in the BCS era than Ole Miss (5).

White Named Player of the Week

Ole Miss freshman Terrico White was named SEC Player of the Week for his performance against Arkansas and LSU. Terrico has been one of the few bright spots on what has been a terrible season thus far for the Rebs in a number of different ways. After the Arkansas performance I thought White had earned the roll as starting point guard. However in the LSU game the coaching staff decided to start Will Bogan which is still a mystery in my mind. Bogan is not ready for SEC ball, White is. Hopefully the coaching staff has learned their lesson and we will see Terrico in the starting lineup at Tuscaloosa on Wednesday.

(UMAA)BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – After posting back-to-back career-high scoring efforts against Arkansas and LSU, Ole Miss freshman guard Terrico White was tabbed with Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week honors by the league office Monday.
A native of Memphis, Tenn., White tallied 18 points in a 74-65 win over the Razorbacks on Wednesday before pouring in 22 against the Tigers on Saturday. Playing at both the point and shooting guard spots, the 6-foot-5 rookie drained three shots from downtown in each game.
White leads Ole Miss and ranks seventh in the SEC with a 15.7 scoring average in league games.
He is the second Rebel to receive a weekly honor by the league office this season. Forward Murphy Holloway was a freshman of the week selection on Dec. 29.
White and the Rebels hit the road for a pair of league contests this week. They will visit the Alabama Crimson Tide on Wednesday (7 p.m. CT tip), followed by an FSN South-televised matchup with South Carolina in Columbia on Saturday (7 p.m. CT tip).

Nutt, Oher Gain More Honors

(UMAA)
OXFORD, Miss. -- The Touchdown Club of Atlanta will honor Ole Miss Coach Houston Nutt and senior lineman Michael Oher at its 71st Annual Awards Ceremony on Feb. 7 at the Rialto Center for the Arts located on the campus of Georgia State University.
Nutt has been selected by the Touchdown Club as SEC Coach of the Year, while Oher will be awarded the Shug Jordan Award for Top Southeast Offensive Lineman.
The last time an Ole Miss coach earned SEC accolades from The Touchdown Club was in 1947 to legendary coach John Vaught. Also, this marks the first time since Kenny Dill’s award in 1963 that an Ole Miss lineman was distinguished by the organization.
Nutt was named SEC Coach of the Year by the league coaches and the AFCA Region 2 Coach of the Year. In his first season in Oxford, Nutt immediately reversed the Rebels’ fortunes and became just the fifth Ole Miss coach to guide the Rebels to a bowl in his first season. The Cotton Bowl victory over Texas Tech completed a 9-4 campaign, marking the team’s best improvement from one season to the next since Vaught’s debut in 1947.
This season was Nutt’s seventh with nine or more wins in his 16 years as a head coach. He earned SEC Coach of the Year accolades for the third time in his career and top Region coaching honors for the fifth time.
Oher was a consensus first-team All-American and All-SEC selection this season for the Rebels. The Memphis native also picked up the Jacobs Blocking Trophy as the SEC's best blocker and was one of three finalists for the Outland Trophy. The 6-foot-5, 318-pound left tackle helped the Rebels rank second in the SEC in rushing with 186.5 yards per game and fourth in sacks allowed with 1.5 per game in 2008.

Nice Win By The Rebs Tonight

Very nice win by Kennedy and the boys tonight. Glad to see them play Terrico White at the point. It looks like White is going to be able to handle it better than Will Bogan. Should be an interesting game vs LSU on Saturday.


(UMAA) OXFORD, Miss. (AP) - Ole Miss was forced to come up with new goals after season-ending knee injuries to a pair of starters and a top reserve prior to Southeastern Conference play.
“We want to be the most improved team in the SEC from the start to the finish,” said Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy, after Wednesday's 74-65 win over Arkansas. “We took a big step toward that goal with this win.
Ole Miss, who never trailed, led by as many as 21 points in each half and placed four players in double figures, led by freshman Terrico White with a career high-tying 18 points. David Huertas scored 16 points, with four rebounds and two assists, while Zach Graham and Murphy Holloway added 12 and 11 points, respectively.
“The reality is Terrico White hasn't played point guard in his life until three games ago,” Kennedy said. “It's been a bit of a challenge, but I thought he was tremendous tonight. A win like this shows what we're capable of.”
The win continued the home court mastery over Arkansas, as the Rebels (10-6, 1-1) have won 13 of the last 14 games. Arkansas (12-3, 0-2) has dropped successive division games after riding a 10-game winning streak prior to SEC play.
Courtney Fortson had a game-high 24 points and Jason Henry added 19 points for the Razorbacks.
The Rebels built a 32-11 in the opening 15 minutes to take a 34-24 halftime lead. Ole Miss rebuilt the lead to 53-32 with 11:21 left and hit 16 of 18 free throws the rest of the way to seal it.
“It's so unreal to go from playing so well to playing so bad in the last two games,” Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said. “We're just not playing as well as we were. We're better than what we've performed in the last two games.”
The Razorbacks got within 34-28 on a basket by Fortson with 18:23 left, but Ole Miss responded with a 19-4 run to put it away. Arkansas never got closer than nine points, which came within the final 15 seconds.
“We started clock watching in the final few minutes,” Kennedy said. “But, except for a couple of minutes at the end of each half, we played well. After all our injuries, nobody has as much room to improve as us, but this was a great start for us.”
Ole Miss finished 24 of 56, 43 percent, from the field and outrebounded Arkansas 36-34. The Razorbacks were 23 of 53, 43 percent, from the field, but managed only 3 of 15 from three-point range.

Rocker Out at Ole Miss

Well the Rebels lost their defensive line coach to Auburn today. Tracy Rocker who was an All American at Auburn is returning to coach at the school he played college ball for. Rocker is reportedly going to get paid $400,000. Paying that much money for a D-Line coach in my opinion is absured. Rocker was my favorite assistant coach on staff. I watched him at the first day of practice in the summer and he impressed me. But not worth $400,000. It is my understanding Ole Miss played the cash game with Rocker during negotiations this weekend. But enough is enough. I dont blame Pete Boone and Nutt one bit for not matching the offer. We can go out and find another D-Line coach for almost half of that. From what I have heard there have been several coaches contact Nutt about the position open on his staff. I feel confident Nutt will find a replacement, a good one at that, real soon.

(Clarion Ledger)OXFORD — Defensive line coach Tracy Rocker has left Ole Miss to take a similar position with Auburn, according to Rebels’ head coach Houston Nutt.Rocker was instrumental in turning UM’s talented defensive line into one of the best in the country, led by All-American senior defensive tackle Peria Jerry. The Rebels finished the season with a 9-4 record and won the Cotton Bowl over 8th-ranked Texas Tech 47-34 on Jan. 2.“There’s no question he did a phenomenal job with our line,” Nutt said. “Especially when some of our guys were out early with injuries, he really built some outstanding depth that helped us win games this season.”The Ole Miss defense tied for the national lead with 112 tackles for loss in 13 games, with the majority of those coming from Rocker’s defensive line.Rocker had been with Nutt for six years as a defensive line coach, including five at Arkansas and one at Ole Miss. When he came to Oxford last year, he signed a 3-year contact worth $210,000 per year.Nutt and his assistants were given raises in December, but Rocker’s new contract had not been released. Nutt said he did not know if money was a factor in Rocker leaving for Auburn.“It was a tough decision for him because we’ve had a great working relationship for six years,” Nutt said. “But it’s his alma mater and he’s got family less than an hour away, so it was something he felt like he needed to do. It’s a tough loss, but I understand why he did it.”Rocker played for Auburn in the 1980s, where he was an All-American and Outland Trophy winner on the Tigers’ defensive line. Auburn recently hired coach Gene Chizik to replace Tommy Tuberville, who had been with the Tigers for 10 seasons.Nutt said he was in Nashville at a coaching clinic, working on finding Rocker’s replacement. He said he hoped to name a successor soon.