Shaun King is not very smart

By now, many of you have seen this clip from ESPN's tour of the 50 states in regards to college football, but it certainly merits attention from any college football fan. It is absolutely shameful that ESPN - the supposed "World Wide Leader in Sports" - allowed an apparently ignorant Shaun King to provide such stupid answers to John Saunder's questions regarding the rich history of college football in Mississippi.

First off, I have no issue with naming Walter Payton the greatest college player in state history. With the sheer amount of incredible individual talent to come through the state through the years, it's an endless argument, but it's easy to make a case for Payton. The issues come with the other "history" questions King fields.

Calling the 1999 mittippi tate bulldogs the best team in state history is absolutely comical at best. Behind the brilliant coaching strategy of Mr. Cutcliffe, the Rebels gave the Egg Bowl away that year. And while the 10-2 record and a top 15 finish is nice, the Rebels 2003 team finished 7-1 in the SEC and was a painful loss to LSU away from an 8-0 record. That team or certainly last year's Rebel team would have destroyed those '99 dogs.

ESPN didn't post the the segment where Saunders asked King about the "best coach in state history" question, which is probably for the best. Of all the football coaches in the history of Mississippi, Shaun King proclaimed Sylvester "goo goo g'joob" Croom as the greatest. He of the 21-38 (10-30 SEC) career record. He of the one winning season in 5 years. He of the "be good or be gone" mantra, despite the Urban Myer-esque arrest numbers during his tenure.

The man was an absolute fraud... a clown propped up by the local media fascinated with his skin color. Even the most loyal of bulldog faithful were happy to see him axed because he just flat out couldn't coach. Or recruit. Or conjugate verbs correctly. He was an embarrassment and left the program in as equally as bad a shape as he inherited it.

Despite all of those achievements, Shaun King proclaimed him the best coach in Mississippi's history. Not Johnny Vaught. Not Jeff Bower. Sylvester Croom.

John Saunders and Mike Lupica ruined The Sports Reporters with their personal agendas, so it's not surprising to see Saunders in on a stunt like this. Shaun King is new to the gig, so he was probably just doing what he was told. ESPN always had a fascination with Croom and this was just another way for them to sing his praises, which is not the easiest thing to do when you have a record like Croom's.

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder

Hey everybody,

It's been a hectic week with business travel and a looming mega-project at work and more travel next week. It'll be the end of this month or early July before I can get back in a solid rhythm here. There's not much going on anyway these days, but there'll be plenty to talk about soon.

Some time next month, I'll roll out 5 reasons Ole Miss won't win the SEC West in football this season. The next week, I'll roll out the 5 reasons that the Rebels will claim their first Western Division title.

Until then, Hotty Toddy.

tdg

Mike Bianco: By the Numbers

After yet another frustrating loss in a Super Regional, there's a small but noisy faction of Rebel fans calling for the head of Mike Bianco on a platter. His Rebel clubs' postseason failures are being compared to the Bills and the Cubs, and, unfortuantely, both hold a certain degree of validity.

But you can't just dismiss what Bianco has accomplished in Oxford. When Don Kessinger took over the baseball program via his Good Ole Boy Network connections, he amassed a 185-153 (54.7%) record in 5 seasons. When Pat Harrison tried to build an SEC team out of California rejects, he put together a 116-107 (52%) record in 4 seasons. In 9 seasons, Mike Bianco is 365-203-1 (64.3%) and has actually moved ahead of Tom Swayze in winning percentage. He's taken a program that fans were apathetic towards (at best) and has turned it into a marketing machine for the university.

Only two SEC schools have won as consistently as the Rebels have in conference over the last 9 seasons. South Carolina and Ole Miss are the only schools in the SEC to be at .500 or better in conference play each of the last 7 seasons. Over Bianco's 9-year tenure, only LSU and South Carolina have compiled a better winning percentage in conference than Bianco's squads.

LSU: 156-110-3 (58.65%)
South Carolina: 154-115 (57.25%)
Ole Miss: 152-118 (56.30%)
Florida: 147-122-1 (54.65%)
Alabama: 145-124 (53.90%)
Georgia: 140-128-1 (52.24%)
Arkansas: 134-131 (50.57%)
Vanderbilt: 124-142 (46.62%)
Tennessee: 122-144 (45.86%)
msu: 119-144 (45.25%)
Auburn: 114-156 (42.22%)
Kentucky 97-170-1 (36.33%)

If you go look at only the last 5 seasons, only Alabama has won a higher percentage of their SEC games, and it's by just a fraction of a percentage point.

Alabama: 86-63 (57.72%)
Ole Miss: 86-64 (57.33%)
Florida: 81-69 (54.00%)
LSU: 81-67 (54.73%)
South Carolina: 80-70 (53.33%)
Vanderbilt: 78-70 (52.70%)
Arkansas: 77-71 (52.03%)
Georgia: 76-72 (51.35%)
Kentucky: 68-80 (45.95%)
Tennessee: 65-81 (44.52%)
msu: 58-87 (40.00%)
Auburn: 54-96 (36.00%)

All that's left for Bianco to do is get over the seemingly insurmountable hump of winning a second game in a Super Regional. His squads have shared the division title twice, won the SEC Tournament, and shared the overall SEC crown this year. I know everyone is frustrated with the repeated Super Regional failures, but you can't ignore what Bianco has meant to this program.

All that said, there's little to no reason for the Rebels to not have advanced to Omaha yet. While Bianco is an elite recruiter and ambassador for the university, flawed game day logic and decisions keep him (at least until now) from accurately being recognized as an elite coach. Whatever approach he takes in Super Regionals has not worked, then or now. Something needs to change - whether it's philosophy or assistant coaches or both - but not Bianco.

And to the ones calling for his head... who is he replaced with? Who has won with the consistency that Bianco has against the same level of competition? Some suggest former Bianco assistant Dan McDonnell, but there's no guarantee that he or anyone else brought in could match Bianco's wins.

So what does all this mean? It means that firing Bianco would set the program back, not move it forward. He has built a once moribund program into a consistent winner that has been on the precipice of greatness for several seasons now. If Evan Button doesn't shortarm that throw Saturday afternoon, this entire argument is moot. But that's the way baseball is. Bianco is going to get the Rebels to Omaha... it maybe 2010, maybe 2011, but he's won too consistently over an extended period of time to not catch a break. I just want him to do it in Oxford.

A (somewhat) level-headed look at Mike Bianco, Ole Miss baseball

As game 3 of the Oxford Super Regional came to a end yesterday afternoon, the floodgates opened on the message boards, text messages, and the blogosphere. I was as frustrated as anyone, but after a few Fat Tires, some yard work, and a good night’s sleep, I can pen my thoughts with a clear head, instead of one fresh from the heat of the moment.

Nothing said here is to cheapen what Virginia did this weekend or what they’ve accomplished all season. The Cavaliers played a very solid brand of baseball and gutted out two win-or-go-home games to punch their ticket to Omaha. They’re a very solid team top to bottom. This is more an indictment of the way the Rebels played. Certain things jump out at you after the series this weekend.

What was the painful aspect of the weekend was how poorly the Rebels fared executing mundane fundamentals. We struggled all weekend bunting guys over, making the easy play (7 errors?), hitting cut off men, turning double plays, stringing hits together, etc. Our poor execution coupled with UVA’s nearly flawless Saturday and Sunday performances equated to an easy series win for the ‘Hoos.

Here’s what I’ve come up with. Feel free to dispute, agree, ignore, or patronize…

There is no excuse for not winning this Super Regional

Against Texas in 2005, we said, “Oh it’s Texas, they always win and it’s our first Super Regional ever.” Against Miami in 2006, Miami rolled into town and won. We said, “Oh, it’s Miami, they always win.” Against Arizona State in Tempe in 2007, we said, “It’s Arizona State, they always win. Plus we’re on the road.” None of that applies to Virginia this year. The Cavaliers had never been to a Super Regional before this weekend. They start 7 freshmen/sophomores. They almost dropped baseball to a club team several years ago.

The only one of those four I can truly stomach is the ASU one, but given how we lost game 1 because Bianco ran Kline back out for the 9th, even that one’s tough to take. The Miami series in 2006 was inexcusable as well. That was a mediocre Hurricanes team that had no business winning Games 2 and 3 in Oxford that season.

Firing Mike Bianco is not the answer. At least not yet.

The Ole Miss baseball team has experience unparalleled success under Bianco’s direction. The late years of Don Kessinger’s tenure paired with Pat Harrison’s very existence left a very bad situation that Bianco has turned into one of the most successful regular season programs in the country. To dismiss that as something anyone could step in and emulate is foolish.

Yes,. the four super regional losses are tough to swallow, but, quite frankly, Miami is really the only clearly inferior team that we lost to. Above all the others, that's the Super Regional that the Bianco haters should point to. As great as the 2004 team was, Texas was clearly better, as was Arizona State. With Bittle on the shelf, it's easy to make the argument that UVA was a better team than Ole Miss was before the weekend series.

The problem lies in Bianco’s salary, by some accounts the highest in the SEC. Yearly failures on the 2nd biggest stage in college baseball should not be a characteristic of the highest paid coach in the league.

That said, there need to be changes, either in philosophy of existing coaches or in the actual assistants

The common thread in the 4 SR losses is they’ve been under Mike Bianco’s watch. The 4 Supers in 5 seasons is certainly nothing to sneeze at, but the growing grumblings of Bianco taking the Rebels as far as he can are starting to gain much more traction with another failure. Bianco’s teams are now 0-6 in home games that would send us to Omaha. Whatever approach he is taking to loosen guys up is obviously not working. Even this team – with all their antics and carefree attitude – played tight yesterday, even with an early lead.

Bianco’s typical stubbornness with starting pitchers cost us yesterday as he stuck with Nathan Baker far too long. Baker wasn’t pitching poorly, but his painfully slow delivery + UVA’s speed on the basepaths + Kyle Henson’s “arm” was a recipe for disaster. UVA’s starter was pulled early because he was struggling… Bianco should’ve taken the hint and pulled Baker as well.

The small ball he tried this season doesn’t work well unless the players are skilled at sacrifice bunting. It’s tougher than looks – keeping the head of the bat up, coming back at just the right time to deaden the ball, placing it just right – but practice makes perfect. Something needs to improve in that skill-set or the small ball just won’t work.

They say once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a trend. It’s hard to not feel that way watching another Oxford Super Regional go the way of the visitors. Next year’s Rebels will be another Top 10 quality team and will have a legitimate shot at another Super Regional. Will it finally be the year Bianco and his Rebels break through? Or will be just another disappointment for Rebel fans?

It's like deja vu all over again

Oxford Super Regional Checklist:
_x_ Win Game 1 in dramatic fashion
_x_ Lose Game 2
_x_ Lose the coin toss so you're the visiting team in Game 3
___ Lose game 3, sit at home while winner goes to Omaha

Ah yes, the old familiar slow trudge out of a sporting event so ingrained into Ole Miss fans reared it ugly head today. For a second straight game, the Rebels played bad fundamental baseball - errors and a missed cut-off man - and now face a win-or-go-home game tomorrow. The game couldn't have started any better - the Rebs were up 2-0 before there UVA recorded its first out - but the bats went silent for too long after that, mustering only 1 run in the next 27 outs.

A few plays stand out to me today...

* Kyle Henson should have been waved home in the 6th inning. It's easy to say that now after we saw what the throw home looked like, but with the momentum we had going there - and David Phillips coming up in a potential double situation, you've got to take your chances there

* When Basham was subbed in for Henson for defensive purposes, why wasn't Ferguson put in for Power?

* Zach Miller could've scored on Kevin Mort's flyball in the 9th. UVA's leftfielder Shane Halley is righthanded and was sprinting in to make the catch on a line that was taking him directly at first base. Had Miller been tagging, he could've scored as Halley slowed down, angled himself towards the plate and made a throw.

Regardless of today's outcome, this series should be tied 1-1, just with a Cavalier win yesterday and a Rebel win today. Each team's 2nd baseman has made a costly error at a critical time of the game to open the door for the other team. UVA bounced back from a 2-0 deficit this afternoon to stave off elimination, but that's what we've come to expect from the opponents in the Oxford Super Regionals. The Rebels win Game 1, show promise in Game 2 before crashing back to earth, then drop the rubber match.

There is no excuse for not winning tomorrow. There have been built-in excuses in the other Super Regionals Ole Miss has participated in, but not this one. If the Rebels lose this one, which one are they going to win?

Matt F#$%ing Smith

Holy hell what a baseball game this afternoon. Errors, poor bunts, bloody noses, baserunning blunders... you name it and the Rebels did it and still walked off with an unbelievable win in Game 1 of the Oxford Super Regional.

Matt Smith went from near goat in the top half of the 12th to unquestioned hero in the bottom half. His fielding error was a distant memory as soon as the loudest PING of the day sounded in a jam-packed OUS. One pitch. One swing. Ball game.

The question now is - Can the Rebels finish it off? They've been in this situation before - up 1-0 in an Oxford Super Regional - and have failed to advance both times. Can they finally put it all together this time?

Like I said earlier today, I think this may just be the Rebels' year to make it to Omaha. This isn't the most talented Rebel team in recent memory, but there's not been a scrappier, never-say-die team to wear the Red and Blue. They easily could've folded up shop several times today with the miscues and UVA's pitching, but they didn't. And they won't tomorrow.

While I doubt we see 9 innings out of Pomeranz tomorrow, we will see a performance where he keeps the Rebels in the game for as long as he's out there, probably 6-7 innings. It'll be up to the Rebels to generate some offense, tighten up the defense, and get their damn bunts down in key situations.

Virginia may be down, but they're not out. They've rallied around 1-run losses all season and they aren't going to roll over now. But if the Rebels get a typical Pom start and reach double digit hits for the 20th time in 21 games tomorrow, Rosenblatt Stadium and the fine people of Omaha won't know what hit 'em next weekend.