Raven's LB Gets Shovey with the Police; Ray Lewis is Not Impressed

But lately your mane's gone white
You itch in your veins in the night
Before you "came home alright"
You wielded the lightning rod

-- Jason Isbell, Soldiers Get Strange

The first time we met Tony Fein was the during the Spring practices leading up to the '07 season. We were passing through the halls in the IPF and Parrish Alford or someone asked this guy a question and his response made our heads turn.

We didn't know him at the time, but when we later found out that he was a good 2 or 3 years older than everyone else on the team, and that he was a veteran of the Iraq war, it made sense that he spoke more confidently and maturely than the rest of the team. He was quite literally a man among boys.

And in his maturity, Fein was one of the first players to send up a red flag about Orgeron that season. His was the first bit of protest against the coach, so in that sense, he was truly a leader on that team. By the time John Jerry got around to bitching about Orgeron in the wake of the Georgia game, most sensible fans were realizing that something was amiss with that team.

Anyhow, it's kind of a curveball to find this article on the front page of ESPN about Tony getting into a shoving match with the Baltimore PD. It sounds like he had reason to be upset. Here's hoping Tony clears up any anger issues he may have and that he can find a spot on the Raven's roster this year. Hopefully he can hook up with Ray Lewis's lawyer.

An Open Letter to Ole Miss

"It's just YOU and ME! Ha Ha!"

Dear Rebels, Collectively,

Listen, I don't know if you guys know this, but we didn't just forget about you, OK? We're not stupid. We don't have alzheimers. Nothing has been forgiven.

So you can stop climbing up on the crows nest and flipping us off already. We're trying to cut you some slack, but you keep taunting us.

So listen, pricks, do you know how a prison guard operates? He doesn't want to seriously injure anyone, but he's forced to demonstrate his authority on occasion. So he billy clubs a little guy in the ribs in the lunch room. Or he domes a stray gang banger with his flashlight. Nothing serious. No emergency room. Just a little love tap. Did you guys like Oz? We did. Aaaaaaaaaaanyhoo...

I just wanted to say hey to you guys, give you a little taste, and to let you know that if we wanted to, we could seriously fuck you up.

All best,

Ralpheus

Eminent Treasurer

The Sports Gods, LLC

Hope for Message Board R-Tards

Listen up, disheartened Spirit board nimrod. We know its been a long offseason. The hype has been heavy. The heat: unbearable.

You got egg on your face when you pulled a 180 on Hornsby, vocally defended him on the interwebs, then had to turn around and condemn him again when he got kicked off the team. It was tough, but you subsequently kept your mouth shut about Tig. Fool me once, right?

Then there was the anxiety of the car wreck. And even after that, if you've been paying attention, you've had to worry about the straight up outlandish behavior and wardrobe that xxxgr3g has put on display this summer.

Just got done tying my shoe. That's what's up.*

It all makes you long wistfully for a time not long ago, when Ole Miss had at least one mild mannered, gritty, gutty, deceptively fast player. A player with a certain quality that you couldn't quite put your finger on. There was just something about him that made him likable to you. One things for sure: It wasn't because he was white. You've got a black friend. C'mon.



At the very least, you had Bradley Sowell to look forward to this year. But Sowell could never truly be the Great Whi- uh, Gritty Hope for you, because he was highly touted from the beginning, and you don't really know much of his backstory.



But fear not, you subconciously racist dumdum. Rishaw Johnson did something to get himself demoted to second team, and his replacement was none other than this guy:

He's an underdog. He's unattractive. He's a a lighter shade of pale. What's more? Well, try to contain yourself while reading this:

"Coach Markuson calls me the American Dream. I was in JUCO, a totally different level from here, and I didn't know if I would ever get here," says Brandon.

"Now that I am here, I am going to live the dream and give them everything I have. It's a real strain on the body, but I'm hanging in there. I know a million other kids would like to be in my position, so I am not going to waste a snap.

"I grew up without a Dad and I am being molded into a man by Coach Markuson. I am very thankful for him. He does not baby me or anyone and I appreciate that. You want to give everything you have to someone like that. I will come back later in life and tell my kids that Coach Markuson was the person who made me into a man. I do not want to disappoint him or my teammates. I refuse to."

OK seriously you Spirit ritards, it's hard not to like this kid. So you've suckered me into rooting for this year's Great White Hope. He's scheduled to start against Memphis at RG, and may see time at Center if (God forbid) we have some OL injuries. Predictably, you payboard guys already have at least three threads devoted to this guy. Somewhere inside Mordor / the Ole Miss Media
Relations Department, some lackey is proposing the commercial release of Brandon Green's jersey. Trust us: the madness has only just begun surrounding this guy who, in reality, is the weak link on the weakest aspect of our team.

But for now, we're with you. We like Brandon Green too. Don't make us change our mind, kid.




*(//on a serious note, is it not a little curious that all our stars hang out together? are the role players not cool enough for you guys? D3xt3r? xxxgr3g?)

On Drew Pomeranz

"Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports, but high-level sports are a prime venue for the expression of human beauty. The relation is roughly that of courage to war.

The human beauty we’re talking about here is beauty of a particular type; it might be called kinetic beauty. Its power and appeal are universal. It has nothing to do with sex or cultural norms. What it seems to have to do with, really, is human beings’ reconciliation with the fact of having a body."

- David Foster Wallace, "Roger Federer as Religious Experience" Play Magazine, Aug. 20, 2006

Oh, hi guys. Sorry for the extended break. Its been a long, busy spring. And also, the editors here were experiencing a little bit of blog burnout.

The thing about web logging, you see, is that you feel the need to say something daily. Which is to say, you want to have your own voice, to say something unique. And that's tough to do when you're talking about something held so dearly by such a wide range of people as Ole Miss athletics.

So it makes no sense that we'd return to our little corner of the internets tonight, June 1, 2009, to heap praise upon Drew Pomeranz. Because we're already late to the party.

We're certain we heard at least three people (Bianco, Shep Smith, Kellum) use the term "legend" when talking about Pom's game tonight. High praise from one, hyperbole from the other two. Kellum flirted with the homo-erotic in his description of the 9th inning.

We haven't checked the serious boards yet, but when NAFOOM looks like it did tonight, you can bet they are bowing to the golden calf on Spirit and Rivals. Our friends at RCR opted for the much more subtle approach in describing Pom's performance tonight, choosing to wax cryptic with their piece titled "Drew Pomeranz just pitched the greatest game in Ole Miss history".

Somewhere, BWAYNE and REBMIK are dancing around a boar's head in loin cloths.

So we're not going to reinvent the wheel here tonight. There is but one storyline worth mentioning when you talk about Ole Miss's 4-1 win over Western Kentucky, and that is the performance of Drew Pomeranz. Baseball's a game of numbers, and Pom's say it all. 9IP, 16 Ks, 2 H, 0 ER.

On 72 hours rest. In a win-or-its-all-over game. To secure a Super at home.

David Foster Wallace describes the almost out of body experience of watching Roger Federer play in very eloquent and beautiful but also practical terms. The ultimate beauty of sport is indeed in our reconciliation with the fact that our spirits are tied to these clumsy, awkward, rotten, forever dying bodies. Some of us are able to make them look graceful.

But some of us are able to make them look graceful in the face of adversity. Far be it from us to try and transcend anything DFW said while he was still on this earth, but instances like tonight prove that sometimes it is about more than simply physics and nature and gravity. We've never been big on words like "guts" or "heart" or "grit" or any of that other crap that keeps unoriginal writers in business. But we are at a loss for how else to describe what Pom did tonight.

I was talkin 'bout you, Pom Pom.

Understand that it is almost inhuman to throw 108 pitches on Friday and then another 115 (we haven't found an exact pitch count) on Monday night. Much less against an offense as explosive as WKU's. Much less in a near no-hit effort.

So we're more than happy to join in the chorus of praise tonight for Bianco and for the Rebs, but especially for Pom. We hope he and the rest of the Rebs get all the partying out of their systems tonight, and are ready for what will undoubtedly be the frattiest Super Regional in the history of baseball and frats next weekend when Virginia rolls into town. May Minerva guide you, young Rebels.

Jamar Hornsby and You, Friend

"Everything that keeps me together is falling apart / I've got this
thing that I consider my only art (of fucking people over)."

Modest Mouse, 3rd Planet

Oh boy. You guys heard about this. We know you did because we read the boards and the blogs and the papers and we saw that everybody got their digs in on Jamar Hornsby after he got arrested in Starkville recently for suspected involvement in a brawl and petit larceny.

We wanna start by saying that we were against signing this guy in the first place. That thing he did back in Florida with the credit card and the dead friend and whatnot still kinda stinks. And we thought it was buttarded that Ole Miss people wanted to believe that the credit card thing was just a misunderstanding back then, and we hope they feel silly now.

And we want you to know that we aren't above having a laugh at others' expense, either. We laughed just as out-loudily as anybody when the Hogvillians melted down after Ryan Mallett got his Public Intox. We even tested out our internet skillz to mixed results - that we never thought we'd show you.

'Cause of the self-righteous sneer, right? Get it?

But let's get one thing straight, gang: Jamar Hornsby's situation is flat out sad. Here is a human being who just pissed away one of the brightest futures anybody on the planet could hope to have because someone rear ended his car. I'm Ok with everyone getting their laughs in, because this guy really deserves it. He fucked up royally, and assaulted another human in the process. So laugh away, but understand that this kid's once promising future is forever tainted.

Let's not beat around the bush: Jamar Hornsby does not need to be on the Ole Miss football team next year. He was extended a second chance at wealth and prominence and influence, which is two more than most get, and he got in his own way, and now we don't owe him anything. I don't care how good he is. He should not be on our team next year.

But to those of you who are rooting for the DA here, who are hoping he rots away in a Florida penitentiary somewhere (which is highly likely), please understand that Hornsby obviously has a schewed sense of right and wrong. We're talking about a kid who sold all of his family and friend tickets to strangers at marked up prices while at Florida, a clear violation of NCAA rules for which Florida was penalized. But what does that say that he had no one in his life who gave a damn enough to come watch him play football in front of 90,000 fans for the eventual National Champion? Our mothers were there for every second of winter league 1A Parochial High School soccer, standing often in the freezing rain to watch a 0-0 tie in a sport they knew little to nothing about. Christ, we have a sister who erupts in applause every time her newborn makes a poopy.

And the use of a dead friend's credit card, no matter the details, shows a blatant irreverence for life and disconnect from what it is to be a human. This latest transgression in a parking lot in Starkville is only further proof that Hornsby has some serious issues. And the sad part is that if he doesn't know right from wrong by now, he likely never will. What's even more depressing is that probably doesn't even bother him.

So get your giggles in at the Fulmer Cup and all that, gang, but don't fool yourself into believing that this is just some evil asshole who deserves the worst. Evil's a mighty heavy adjective, and it's also rarely accurate. And if you think that you weren't born to trouble as the sparks fly up; Weren't saved by fortune and circumstance and grace, well then, you're just as delusional as Hornsby, brother.

Sin Fanaticos: Third in a Three Part Series

Surely you guys have seen this video. If not, google Micah Ginn. Or put "Are You Ready" into the little box on Youtube, and watch this guy's videos he's put together. I'm fairly certain he was the guy behind the season recap high-light reel that was played before the Egg Bowl. He obviously wins at life.

Anyhow, we mention the video now not as a flame to the RSC guys. Those guys knew they would quintuple (?) our normal Monday traffic with their post about us, and we obviously appreciate that. And we sort of get why some people are turned off by David Huertas. But the mindset bugs us a little, and we're gonna try one last time to flesh that out.

The first time we met David Huertas was at a pre-season photo shoot in November 2006. We had gone in early to get some lighting figured out for a shoot with Todd Abernethy, Bam Doyne and Clay Sanders. When we got in the Tad Pad, the only other soul in the building was Huertas. Doing just what he's doing in that video. Free throws. Three pointers. 18-footers. From the time we got there, until the time we had taken a memory card full of pictures and left. He was doing the same thing every time we went in the Tad Pad (literally) that season, excluding games, obviously. From everything we've heard, he still stays late after practice to work on his shots.

The point is, that video's dialogue probably isn't all that far off from Huertas' work ethic.

But we don't want to get hyperbolic, as our friends tell us we have a tendency to do. We don't want to harp on his work ethic, or the long odds of a kid coming from Puerto Rico to the United States to make it by playing basketball. No, we're not going to cast him in that underdog role. We ask that you refrain from doing the same.

Likewise, refrain from seeing him as the bad teammate. The kid who disrespects his coach. And, rightly or wrongly, yells at his teammates. Disregard the overly dramatic, sometimes borderline queer dives he takes when trying to draw a charge. Forget that he is likely just a Saint of Circumstance, with inflated stats because everyone around him is either terrible or hurt.

At the end of the day, after all, talk is talk and facts are facts.

All we want you to do is to ask yourself, as an Ole Miss fan, why you wouldn't be all for the guy who leads the team in points and assists.

We realize that the Spirit message board mindset is a rose-colored-glasses fantasy land that is easily made fun of. "All our kids are choir boys, all their kids are thugs." We're not asking you to adopt that 'blindly love all things Ole Miss' attitude.

But we do ask you to question why its all of a sudden popular to hate on the best player on your favorite team. Sometimes people fall into these cycles of having to adopt a contrarian point of view to like, prove their fanhood or something similar to that. To prove to people that they're paying close attention, because dammit, they are a serious fan.

Well, not to get too Lietchesque or anything, but sometimes it should just be enough that a player is excellent at his sport and also he plays for your team. Ergo, you are his fan. Its simpler that way. Its more natural. Its not dumb or Spirit boardish. Its just being a fan who enjoys seeing his or her team do well.

We agree with Juco All-American over at the Cup that by this time next year, no one will remember all the David hate, because at that point :knock on wood: we should be heading for the home stretch of one of, if not the best seasons in Ole Miss basketball history. We hope that everyone is on the same page by that point, and in the mean time, we accept this mea culpa* we received via email from everyone's favorite bloggers.

*we kid because we love

Quit Making Us Defend David Huertas, People

Let's go ahead and state the self-evident: the RedSoloCup > Forward Rebels. That blog is well thought out, its funny, its sharp and timely and you can tell the guys who maintain it take pride in what they do. They don't take days off like we're prone to do. AND they've always been nice enough when Forward Rebels has had internet/techish questions. AND they write about Ole Miss sports, which is obviously our interest, and thus we check in on them daily. We're fans of those guys, and almost always agree with them.

Except when, in a probably flippant little moment of inter-Cup division, one of them takes a lengthy swipe at Dahveed. Which truly wouldn't be that big a deal except that a large amount of people actually believe this shit. Since we like to pretend that we're above wading into message boards and correcting every idiot we disagree with (and the Huertas Haters are legion, believe us), we're glad that Cup author The One That Got Away teed one up for us. If you call out a blogger, he's at least got the means to defend himself, if need be. Anyhoo, let's get all FJMish up in here by dissecting this argument. The usually on-point tOTGA's thoughts are in bold:

I am going to politely disagree with Ghost and say he [sic] Huertas is overrated and inconsistent. I don't like Dahveed and if you have ever sat around me at a basketball game it should not come as a surprise.

Fair enough. He doesn't like David Huertas and has been vocal about it at basketball games, while presumably cheering for all Rebels not named David Huertas. And how would you like to substantiate your dislike? Maybe pointing to a huge loss that Huertas caused?

Yesterday was a perfect example of Huertas and how he hurts the team.

Oh. You went that way with it. See this piece was written on Sunday, meaning "yesterday" was Saturday, the day Huertas dropped 17 on Georgia in a convincing 69-47 home win to pull us to .500 in conference. OK, OK. I'm still listening, I guess. Continue.

Kennedy decided to take Dahveed out early because Huertas was throwing up retarded shots. The one that did him in was a drive to the basket when he was triple teamed and threw up a circus shot that hit nothing but backboard.

Hmmm. The coach took out a shooting guard because he started off cold. I guess that reflects poorly on the shooting guard. Like he's trying to do too much on offense. Why would a shooting guard, and the team's most tenured player, think he needs to do that much? Doesn't make sense. Now, you may look at it logically and say: "Dahveed is the SEC's 4th leading scorer and the only player in Saturday's starting lineup who had started a college game prior to this season. And also, he's one of only two consistent, legitimate offensive threats on our team." Well, don't go thinking too much, friend. Observe:

AK immediately went to the bench and when Huertas saw he was being taken out made sure the crowd and everyone on the court knew he was upset with AK's decision.

*GASP!* David Huertas: 17 pts, 5 rebounds, 2 assts, 1 scowl at that bastion of public restraint and emotional discipline, Andy Kennedy. Kick his ass off the team!

It's clear that AK and Huertas have a strained relationship. This isn't the first time they have got into it with each other. I think it was the UT game when they were both yelling at each other, probably because Kennedy reminded Dahveed that he has teammates.

Ok, in seriousness, I would rather our players didn't talk back to our coaches. BUT, I'll take 20 points and a hissy fit over 2 points and "thank you sir, may I please have another" every day of the week. You want a team full of Patrick Spachs? Good luck. When scowling at your coach starts being worth -20 points, call us.

As for "reminding him that he has teammates": David Huertas has 62 assists on the year. He leads the team in that statistic. Granted, the starting point guard went down early in the year, and the new point guard hasn't played enough to catch him in that category, but 62 assists out of your 3 guard is nothing to scoff at.

I think the "reminding about teammates" argument is a subtle nod at the prevailing notion that Dahveed is a ball hog (a sentiment reiterated in the comments section of the RSC post). Before we address that issue, lets point out that another paradigm among the Huertas Huaters is that Terrico White plays the "Rebel way" or some shit like that, and that White is the greatest player of all time at Ole Miss (seriously, lots of people think this. tOTGA says as much in the linked article, where he also complains about Huertas missing too many shots).
UGA game FG-FGA stats:
Huertas: 5-12
T. White: 8-18

Season FG %
Huertas: .423
White: .420

It drives me insane watching Huertas, who is not a very adept ball handler, waste 10 seconds of the shot clock trying to find his way into the lane or get a look at a three.

Woah. Chill out there, tOTGA.

I know he puts up points, that's great,
Better than great. Its how you win basketball games, which is the point of playing basketball. Anyhow, here comes the crux and fallacy of all of this...
but it frustrates me to no end how he takes plays off,
One of the most intense defenders on the team. If anything, he is too passionate, as Latin athletes tend to be...
doesn't pass,
Leads the team in assists...
blows up on his teammates when they do something wrong
Guaran-fucking-tee you if he was white everybody would be cool with this. We were watching the UF-LSU game tonight on ESPN and Nick Calathes chewed out a freshman (black) teammate on camera and the announcers ooohed and aaaahed about Nick's leadership abilities.
Not saying tOTGA is racist, believe us we're not. But why is it not cool for the most experienced player on the team to chew ass sometimes?
and disrespects his coach.
Who spent the night in jail for calling someone Osama Bin Laden, and also probably hurls some of the most venomous insults anybody can imagine in team huddles. Also, that coach plays him for 35 minutes a game, so, you know, there's probably an understanding there.

He's done good things for us, no doubt, but for now I am not going to miss him when he leaves.
"Water is essential to life on earth, no doubt, but for right now I could handle a drought for a year."

In sum: Take David Huertas off this team and we are looking at maybe 8 wins this year. That's not wild proselytizing. That's the truth. He is the best player on this team, and if he weren't here, nobody associated with Ole Miss would give two shits about basketball at this point in the season. Don't succumb to this chic prevailing notion that he is somehow bad for our team, or worthy of your hate. He's just goofy. And goofy's always been alright with us.

David Dellucci: Make Believe Hero, Full-Time Jackass

Yes, Ole Miss lost games to South Wichita Polytechnic Institute and the Mobile Shrimper's Guild softball team this weekend. So what. Happens every year. Newsflash: we were over-ranked at No. 6 anyway, so don't act like your dog just died.

Now, on to more entertaining news: David Dellucci is telling the Cleveland media that he injured his thumb while saving a small child from an alligator attack. And they believe him.

Thanks Dave.

Does Anyone Remember? Does Anybody Care?

When the sun shines down on what's left of me /

About a hundred years from now /

I'm gonna cut my water with Rebel Yell /

And claw my way back to town

100 years, 100 years /

They'll break me, but I'll break them too

--Dr. Dog, 100 Years

The Rebels will take on Georgia in the Tad Pad on Saturday, and the University will do its best to celebrate 100 years of not-so-storied Ole Miss basketball tradition at halftime. The school has selected an All-Century team to commemorate the occasion of this season. A genuine +1 to Langston Rodgers and Co. for that.

But this is the same Sports Information Department that gave us manually dropped crepe-paper from the score board and "the redblue in you" campaign. Anything they promote should be taken with a grain of salt. The occasion, though - that of a century's worth of basketball at the University of Mississippi - brings up a very important and existential question that we've all asked ourselves before: How am I supposed to feel about Ole Miss basketball?

Let's not confuse the situation. No one at Forward Rebels wants you to rationalize not going to the game tomorrow. And it is decidedly not valid to answer basketball taunts from State fans with "Well, we're a football school." Because we all know first hand that when the Rebels are good, we care. The Forward Rebs editorial staff, to be sure, cared a great deal back in 2001 when a special Rebel was making it cool to be a small fry right when all 125 pounds of this blog's staff was hitting campus.

But what are we to make of this basketball program that once promoted its head basketball coach to Ass't Coach of the Freshmen in football (not even joking)? What to make of a team who's greatest basketball coach (Country Graham) is only regarded as highly as he is because he notoriously spied on opponents of the school's greatest football coach (Vaught)?

The answer, of course, is to treat it exactly the way it gets treated. Sure, in an ideal world every game of every season would be sold out and raucous, and we could raise the funds for better practice facilities, and we could eventually say bye-bye to the Tad Pad. But it took the University of Mississippi about 50 years to regard its basketball program as anything other than a primer for football season, so its taking the fans a while to warm up to the sport.

Consequently, its fitting that the Centennial would fall in the same season that brings us three year ending knee injuries and Bin Ladengate. Outside of a few notable exceptions, Ole Miss basketball has been hounded by mediocrity.

That said, it doesn't take an improbable SEC Tourney Championship run to endear a program to a fanbase. All it takes is competition against blood rivals, and players who prove that they will run through walls for the same program that we struggle to make it to Wednesday night games to see if it happens to be raining outside. Its those players, no matter how many times they missed out on post-season play, that deserve the recognition they'll get tomorrow night. If you've been around for a century and have never been considered a UK or a KU, you learn to appreciate grit, and pluck and scrap and mostly spite. You truly do have to appreciate the idea of going into games and seasons thinking "They'll break me, but I'll break them too..."

Players like Elston Turner and Gerald Glass and Ansu Sesay and John Stroud and yes, Lil' Harrison (who was somehow left off the All-Century Team) understood this when they came to Ole Miss. And they allowed us to have those fleeting moments that validate 100 years of basketball. If anything ever does come from this program, it will be because of the players on the court at halftime on Saturday.

If you're in Oxford this weekend, please attend for their sake, at the very least.

Six and a Half Months Out

You know how in Jurrasic Park they'll just be sitting there in the jeep or something, just talking about music and food and stuff, and Jeff Goldblum is making some weird but vaguely witty comment, and then all of a sudden somebody's water will get ripples in it and everybody goes quiet because you know, you just all of a sudden know that those little water ripples in the cup are being made because that mofo T-Rex is waaaaaaaaay out there but he a comin andnoLittleTimmythatain'tnotremorweain'tonafaultlinelet'sgetthehellouttahereandquick - you know what I'm sayin? You know that thing is out there but dammit it's big and it'll be here soon enough.

It's really a little cinematic tool that foreshadows and builds suspense. Frebaholics, I present our water-cup ripples.

Goose.Bumps.


I'd like to take this opportunity to announce to you all that I plan on witnessing every minute of Ole Miss football next year. If it breaks me (and it most certainly will), I will sell things to make it. I'm not saying we're going to win the SEC or the National Title or anything like that. That's not the reason I'm doing this at all. I'm doing it because I'm at a point in my life where I can do it, and I've always wanted to and why the eff not? If not now, when? And of course, for all you poor little schmucks who aren't able to take on that enormous feat, I'm willing to lay it all on the line and let you live vicariously through the blog. I'll send you postcards from the road.

Anyhoo, we'll keep our eyes open for more water-cup ripples in the meantime.

A massive HatTip to Ledhendrix for creating this video.
A smaller HatTip to BhamReb of NAFOOM for finding this thing.