NIT Second Round Recap - Memphis vs Ole Miss

(2) Ole Miss 90, (3) Memphis 81

Ralph Waldo Emerson lamented matters far more important than a silly college basketball game, but the great transcendentalist did leave behind a saying that sports fans often use: "The saddest words of tongue and pen are those that read: what might have been."

That statement aptly describes the 2010 Ole Miss Rebels basketball team.

Friday evening, in an oddly-timed 5:30 p.m. start designed to provide minimal interference with the NCAA Tournament television schedule, coach Andy Kennedy's ballclub reminded a national television audience why it should be playing in the Big Dance, and not the little one known as the NIT. Ole Miss cruised past coach Josh Pastner's Memphis Tigers at Tad Smith Coliseum, punching a ticket for the NIT quarterfinals on Tuesday night against the winner of Saturday's Jacksonville-Texas Tech tilt.

On one level, Ole Miss fans should be very happy after witnessing such a fine performance by their hardwood heroes. A battle against Memphis packed the place informally called the "Tad Pad," as the team from nearby Tennessee generated a level of local interest matched only by Kentucky. Oxford, Miss., rarely gets very enthused about roundball, but this evening marked a distinct exception. Because the Rebels were able to roll to a victory against their backyard neighbor from Conference USA, Kennedy's recruiting could receive a needed upward push. The other big positive to emerge from this nine-point triumph is that Ole Miss will get to host the NIT quarterfinals. Since Jacksonville - the No. 8 seed in this subregional - took down top-seeded Arizona State in the first round, the second-seeded Rebels are the highest remaining seed in their section of the draw. This will give the program one more walk-up gate before the NIT Final Four in New York on Tuesday, March 30.

However, for all that's good about this moment for Mississippi, this toppling of the Tigers owned an undercurrent of agitation that could be expressed in simple terms: Namely, "WHERE THE HECK WAS THIS LEVEL OF INTENSITY ALL SEASON LONG?"

It really is baffling to contemplate how Ole Miss could have missed the NCAA Tournament this season. The team that laid waste to Memphis played inspired, aggressive and thoroughly confident basketball from start to finish. Rebel guard Terrico White hit 6 of 11 shots en route to an efficient 21-point performance. Five Rebels scored in double figures, and four of the five Ole Miss starters hit at least 45 percent of their field goal attempts.

Mississippi also defended with passion, even though this was a high-scoring game. The Rebels blocked nine shots and forced 13 Memphis turnovers, three of which fueled a decisive 14-4 spurt which enabled the home team to gain a 64-51 bulge with 7:27 left in regulation. Kennedy's crew upheld its higher seed with sound yet scintillating basketball that simply did not emerge during a desultory 9-7 trip through a decidedly mediocre Southeastern Conference. This Ole Miss team wouldn't have allowed many Ole Missed opportunities to go by the boards.

Unfortunately, a different and decidedly inferior incarnation of the Rebel roundballers took the court for most of the season. That's why there's no NCAA Tournament game to look forward to in Oxford.

Nevertheless, at least Ole Miss is doing something that first-round losers in the NCAA aren't: playing basketball. With one more win, this program will go back to New York City for a chance to win the NIT title, after losing in a 2008 NIT semifinal against Ohio State.

Make no mistake: This is a great win for Ole Miss basketball. Fans of the Rebels simply wish it could have arrived in the NCAA Tournament.

What might have been... indeed.