It was over; the fat lady had sung.
I was talking to some folks during halftime Saturday about how the Ole Miss Rebels were going to be in a bit of trouble. They were down 20 and being doubled-up at home by Alabama.
They started off the second half of league play on the wrong foot, at home no less, and were going to be 4-5 in Southeastern Conference play. Worse yet, the next three games were at Mississippi State Thursday, followed up by home dates with Vanderbilt and Florida.
Ole Miss was playing its way out of the NCAA Tournament. To be honest, 4-8 in SEC play looked like a real possibility.
But the Bama beat writers sitting next to me said that no win was safe with the Crimson Tide.
I understand Alabama isn’t great, but 20 points seemed pretty safe. Heck, the Tide was up by 23, 43-20, with less than 19 minutes to go.
But then the Rebels went plus-30 the rest of the way en route to a 74-67 win.
“I didn’t see either one of those halves coming,” Ole Miss head coach Andy Kennedy. “I was proud to see the second one.”
As he should be. It was the biggest Rebel comeback during his time at the helm in Oxford.
“This was a huge game,” Kennedy said. “We dropped two in a row. We dropped two in this building. We’ve got a road game next Thursday in Starkville ... if we had any hopes of staying in the race we could not afford to drop this and we knew that.”
With the win the Rebels are again above the .500 mark, at 5-4 in conference play.
“We wanted to be No. 1, leading the SEC,” junior guard Chris Warren said.
They’ll have to settle for No. 2 in the West right now and being either first or second in the West is key heading into the SEC and NCAA Tournaments.
The Rebels need a good showing in Nashville come March. It appears as though they’ll be playing for seeding, but a good showing in the “Music City” would get the Rebels a better draw in the Big Dance.
To make such a showing, it’s imperative that Ole Miss does not play in the opening round of the SEC Tournament. The top two seeds from each division get a bye and Saturday’s win may go a long way in securing one.
The win over the Tide may have done a lot for the Rebel’s NCAA Tournament prospects as well. A big loss to a mediocre Alabama team at home would’ve looked really bad. Moreover, the Rebels need to be a top-two team in the Western Division given its perceived mediocrity this season.
Divisional and tournament positioning really aren’t even the biggest reason Saturday’s win was huge. The comeback victory ended the two-game Ole Miss losing streak.
The game had the potential to be more than one win or one loss.
Had the Rebels lost, the losing streak would have been at three with the potential to grow as large as six with Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and Florida on the horizon.
Now, the key for Kennedy & Co. is parlaying Saturday’s second half into a solid showing Thursday in Starkville, and beyond. If they can do it, the Rebels will be poised to make their first NCAA Tournament since 2002.