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.

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.

The Heartbreak Kid

In case you were unaware, we're playing LSU on Saturday, which is also Valentine's Day. As such, I'd like to be the first to remind you of what went down the last time we played LSU on Valentine's Day.

Cold blooded.

For the record, Clay Sanders is one of my all-time favorite Rebels. The guy always had a smile on his face. I was on floor under the basket at the Fed Ex Forum in 2007 when Memphis' student section collectively decided that Clay looked like Flavor Flav (Flavor of Love was in its heyday). Everytime he touched the ball they'd start doing the emphatic "FLAY - va FLAYYYVV!" line. Most guys might take offense but I remember Clay actually laughing with them at one point. He was just that type of guy - not really a mean bone in him, as far as I could tell. But he had ice in his veins at the end of the game.

On a related note, the Ole Miss basketball All-Century Team (1908-2008) is being announced this weekend. If DeAundre Cranston isn't the starting forward, then we're boycotting basketball. We'll keep ya posted.

Defending Dahveed

There's a fortune inside your head /All you touch turns to lead You think you might just crawl back in bed /The fortune inside your head

You know you're just a mama's boy/ Positively unemployed

So misunderstood

Wilco, Misunderstood

A theoretical: If you moved to, like, New Jersey or some metropolatin exurb up north, would you change the way you dressed or acted? I got a friend who made such a move recently.

Last I talked to this kid, he was having trouble. He couldn't really find the right crowd to run with and kept having girls "scooped right out from underneath" him. The only reasoning he could come up with, and I tended to agree with him, was because he refused to put product in his hair, or wear jewelry or sport the omnipresent backwards fitted flat-billed hat.

Anyhow, I couldn't help thinking about that as I read the Ole Miss message boards yesterday following our 10 point loss to Vanderbilt in Nashville. The problem with Ole Miss's effort yesterday, according to everybody with a keyboard, was David Huertas.

Understand: our problem wasn't that Mac White and DeAundre Cranston got pwned by an Australian guy on the boards all game. It wasn't that Vandy shot 67% from the field in the second half. What it was was that damned David Huertas and his 19 points that only accounted for 30% of our offense.

Before I get too deep into this, I'd like to address the fact that Forward Rebels is just as guilty of Hurt-us-cising Dahveed as anyone else. We've got an "Is David Huertas an Alien?" tag. We're culprits. BUT, there's a big difference in having a cheap laugh at a guy's goofiness and actually believing he's what's wrong with our team. Make no mistake, David Huertas is the MVP of this team, and I'm not so sure that's simply by default by virtue of EP and Warren's injuries.

But its his goofiness that leads to all the negative pub he gets. Or more accurately, its his Puerto Rican-ness that makes him stand out. Just like I wouldn't put product in my hair if I lived in State College, PA, Dahveed is not going to quit scowling when things go wrong on the court in Mississippi.He's not going to quit being abrassive to opposing players and referees.He's not going to quit being overly dramatic when trying to draw a foul.

It's easy to see, after watching the international players in the Olympics this past year, that Huertas' style of play is 100% FIBA, which is to say that morally its a lot closer to soccer than it is to the NBA. The players wear their emotions on their sleeves. They take dives. They generally cut corners that American players wouldn't.

This phenomenon of villifying your star isn't exclusive to Ole Miss. The Yankees do it with A-Rod (and have long before A-Rod's recent troubles). Nevermind the fact that Alex Rodriguez puts up MVP like numbers in New York. Nevermind that he's the best player on their team. He dates movie stars and hasn't won the World Series, so he's the problem with the team. He's not a "True Yankee" like Derek Jeter.

Likewise, if Dahveed had gone down with an injury early in the year, leaving Chris Warren to lead a group of freshmen into SEC play, and then Warren had a poor start to the game against Vandy, I don't think anyone would've put our failure to make the NCAA tourney on Warren's shoulders. I saw multiple threads on the Spirit and Rivals boards yesterday doing just that to Huertas. Why? Because Warren is essentially emotionless on the court and hustles his ass off. Huertas grimaces, he scowls, he smiles, he talks shit in Spanish, he isn't totally submissive to the coaches.

But he's also the best thing we've got right now. Terrico's had an excellent three or four game run, but David's still averaging about 20 a game - and that's from the first game on. While his slow start did play a factor into Saturday's loss, it wasn't the reason we lost. It was maybe 9th on the list, and remember that Nos. 1-3 are "knees" and No. 7 is probably "Saddam Hussein".

The Cincinatti Vid and a Couple of Observations

• 
  
  Oh boy: Well, the Zapruder film has finally surfaced in Taxicab Confessions/ Bin Ladengate. Here's the abbreviated version from the news station WLWT in Cincinatti. I would like to link to the entire thing, for those of you who wish to watch an hour's worth of fuzzy police dashboard video footage, but midway through the elongated version Kennedy gives his cell and SSN#, and I'm not a big enough ass to spread that around. Also, WTF WLWT? That shit better be edited out by the time I get up in the morning. I watched the whole thing, and will say that the majority of the video consists of AK being level headed, while the Armstrong guy goes ape shit at certain times. Meanwhile, Cop #1 is a ginormous dickhead, while Cop #2 wins the game of life. The highlight of the entire thing? Cop #2: "You think we've never dealt with the national media? We deal with the Bengals." Your move, OchoCinco.
  

• 
  
  Ugh. Recruiting: Full disclosure, I've been tuning in to the recruiting boards a little. First off, 99% of the people who post there are unbelievably stupid. Secondly, it should go without saying that Forward Rebels believes "star rankings" are subjective, arbitrary and about as accurate as odds on dog-racing. But, but but, the first week of February is fun in that way that 90's Country songs on the radio when no one else is in the car are fun. Guilty pleasures are indeed, highly pleasurable. Frebs' sources confirm that of our remaining big name guys we're after, only Marlon Brown is unlikely for us. Take that for what its worth. Also, if you think Ja-Mes will be the weirdest name for a wide reciever in this class, you got another thing coming.
  

• 
  
  Hey Dogs:
  

This is what a mismatch looks like.

On Ole Miss vs. MSU

Firts off, if the first thing that came to your mind when you saw the title of this post was "OMG maybe he's got some info on Patterson!!!!", you're in luck. I've got the real lowdown on old PP's whereabouts last night, and what bars and ladies he hit up, and who his player hosts were and what his latest lean is (spoiler alert: the news is good!!!) right here.

Now, on to the basketball game tomorrow at the Hump. I debated for the longest time about how much I was even going to write about basketball this year, but want to go ahead and flesh this game out. The reasoning is that even though all signs point to the Rebs getting blown out at the Hump tomorrow, Forward Rebels has always been of the mindset that you can't just pick and choose when to acknowledge rivalries. You can't say the games don't matter when you're the heavy underdog (although, let's not get carried away gang, because there's really nothing that can happen tomorrow that would make up for 45-0).

And make no mistake, Ole Miss has a few things going for them. Namely, the Whites have found their game - particularly Terrico. This kid, as a freshman, has shown flashes of scary-goodness. His posterization of three Kentucky players on Tuesday night had me spewing wine all over my computer screen. The guy can do a ton of things on offense - slash, mid-range shot, the three ball.

And Malcolm, for the first time I can recall in his year and a half at Ole Miss, was finally the beast that he was initially made out to be. He fought and won rebounds. He showed some aptitude with his back to the basket. Most importantly, he showed some controlled, technical offensive capability - meaning that he broke the Jermey Parnell mode of "make one Sportcenter highlight reel play, then finish the game with four points and three boards." To avoid that Parnell pigeonhole, he went so far as to not make the SC Top 10, unlike Terrico and Murphy Holloway. Showoffs.

Skyoos meee.

Anyhow, if those two show up again, and if E.T.Veed can put up 25, we oughta stand a fighter's chance. Except that the game's at the Hump. And for whatever reason, SEC basketball road-home splits are ridiculously slanted in favor of the home team. Somebody smarter than me should reallly try to figure out why collegiate basketball splits are that way, as opposed to other college sports or professional basketball. It really is curious, but I digress.



Varnado will be too much for Big Mac when we have the ball, and we can't expect to shoot lights out from the outside every game. Also, as much as I hate to say it, I don't think we need to read too much into the win over Kentucky. Essentially we found their "Harangody factor." Remember when Notre Dame was all bad ass at basketball a few weeks back, and then like Seton Hall or someone figured out if you box and one on Harangody they can't score, and then Notre Dame hasn't won a game since? Well Kennedy was the first one to figure that out about Jodie Meeks. Don't be surprised to see UK go .500 or worse from here on out.



Anyway, as stated before, we're on the road in a very hostile environment with a very young team. That's the difference, in the end.



My prediction: Dogs 76, Ole Miss 64



Just for shiggles, if you're going to be drinking with friends while watching the game, take a shot everytime DeAundre Cranston falls down, sucker punches someone or commits a goofy foul. Then have someone put you in a cold shower.

Warren Tears ACL? Abandon All Hope, Ye Basketball Fans.

"What's good is bad, what's bad is good, you'll find out when you reach the top, you were on the bottom..."
Bob Dylan, Idiot Wind

Word is that in a post-game interview - one that I can't find transcribed anywhere - Kennedy told David Kellum that Chris Warren has torn his ACL. Let that roll around in your cranium for a little bit before reading on....

/

/

Ready? OK. I guess it should come as no surprise that Kennedy called today the worst 24 hours of his life. More on that later. Before I go any further I'd like to say that if this news about Warren is true, then this season has got to be considered among the worst for an Ole Miss program in the history of the University. A season that started out with hopes of a West title, an Atlanta championship, maybe an 8 seed in the Big Dance. All that seems like it was a million years ago on December 18. We haven't gotten into SEC play, and this season has gone beyond worst case scenario - literally. This season has gone beyond the pale. Beyond the freaking pale. I want to go ahead and call it the 'Season of Vengeance' a reference to the sports gods having their way with us following 31-13 and 45-0. Maybe I'll wait for the RedSoloCup guys to come up with something more witty. But for right now, as I polish off the last of my wine bottle after witnessing the worst day of Andy Kennedy's life from start to finish, I'm going to go ahead and officially christen the 2008 Ole Miss basketball season as The Season of Vengeance.

A quick recap of the Season of Vengeance:

• Gaskins out for the year.
• Polyniece out for the year.
• Kennedy accused of a hate crime.
• Warren out for the year.
• Zero 'quality' wins.

Its really enough to make me feel sorry for Kennedy. I honestly do, a little. Its obviously not his fault that his two best players and his sixth man have all freakishly gotten injured early on in the year. And he has been good for our program. He's made people care about basketball. He's generated the funding for the Basketball Practice Facility. The players love him. He's consistently on the sidelines supporting the football team. I mean, in these respects, he is exactly what I want in an Ole Miss baskeball coach. He seems to care about the players and the school, and those are excellent qualities to have in a coach.

But I cannot comprehend this free-pass he is getting from the majority of Ole Miss fans. I'll be succinct: What has Andy Kennedy done to deserve the benefit of the doubt, much less forgiveness, in the Taxigate Scandal?

Does anyone sincerely believe that he was just out at 1:00 a.m. "dining with old friends from his Cincinatti coaching days" as his brother suggested? How do you give that statement any credibility, when everyone knows that Kennedy is a lush. That statement was laughable.

Honestly, its not uncommon to see a coach - say Bianco or Nutt - out on the square. These guys are generally heading into City Grocery or 208 with their families. They speak to fans, they joke with the waitstaff, pay their tickets, go home, tuck their kids in bed and go to sleep. What other coach in the history of the program has been allowed to go make a fool of himself on a consistent basis while everybody just looks the other way? And don't think for a second that Boone and Khayat aren't just as aware of this as you and I. At the end of the day, Oxford is still very much a small town where word gets around quicker than anyone would like to admit.

I think I'm letting my thoughts get away without making my broader point, which is this: Why are people so adamant about protecting Kennedy here? A winning program? Newsflash: Its year 3 under Kennedy, and we are way worse than we were in year 1. No way around that. All the talk about Kennedy not having his players to run his system is absolute horseshit. Who have the best players been for the past two years? Far and away, they have been guys Barnes recruited. Doyne, Abernethy, Curtis - all Barnes' kids. I realize Kennedy couldn't have been expected to have his own starters in year 1, but its year 3, and the one quality kid he's brought in is probably lost for the season now (obviously, through no fault of his own). For the record, Huertas signed under Barnes, and had to sit out his transfer year during 2006, AK's first year.

None of this "quality of players signed" stuff would be all that huge of a deal to me if Kennedy didn't make such a point of throwing all of Barnes' guys under the bus that first year. I was on the baseline taking photos one night when someone from the stands hollered to AK to take Doyne out of the game after he missed several shots. Kennedy responded by pointing at the entire bench and hollering 15 rows up to this guy "Who the hell I am supposed to put in?" -- as in, "everbody else sucks even worse." This was done in front of a packed crowd, and drew sufficient laughter from the front 10 rows or so. Believe me when I tell you nobody on the bench was smiling.

He also took swipes at the '06 seniors while bellied up at the Sporst Bar on several occasions. A friend of mine, who Kennedy doesn't know from Adam, told me that one night AK bought him shots and proceeded to talk basketball with him for a little bit. "I love these kids because they work hard," Kennedy said of the seniors, Sanders, Doyne and Abernethy, "but I wouldn't have given a scholarship to a single one of those bastards. They wouldn't be on the team if I had anybody else." These statements came about a week after Clay Sanders gave Ole Miss fans one of their greatest moments in the LSU rivalry with his Valentine's Day buzzer beater. At a time when we didn't have much of anything over LSU.

Well fuck you too, Andy Kennedy. You have recruited exactly one player who has proven to be anywhere near as talented as those three were. I know their contributions - especially Bam's - can largely be attributed to AK's system and coaching, but why throw them under the bus like that? And those comments had the underlying theme that the players he would be bringing in would be head and shoulders better than those guys. Again, its year 3, and that simply is NOT the case.

I guess what I'm saying is this: If two trips to the NIT with someone else's players are sufficient enough to make excuses for a lush who spends the night in jail before the biggest game of the season, then what in the hell is considered inexcusable to this fanbase? Is the NIT worth sacrificing our dignity? Would we react this way if Rod Barnes got arrested the night before a game on national television? Take your "I love Ole Miss and everything associated with it" blinders off and ask yourself those three questions.

In all sincerity, we all love Ole Miss. The key is to avoid loving Ole Miss like a child loves his mommy - "Mommy can do no wrong so I'll defend everything she does." The key is to love Ole Miss like a spouse - to care enough to call her out when she is acting inappropriately.

Oh yeah, we lost the game.

Rebs (and traitorous former Rebs) on the Wire

Its been a rough week at the office this week, and thus I apologize for disappointing all three of you who expect a daily post here at Forward Rebels. What makes this lack of posting / laziness all the more inexcusable is that there is much to talk about, Reb fans. I mean, two of our rivals fired their coaches, AK and crew were on TV against West Va last night, Peria and Mike got snubbed by the Conerly Trophy people, we still don't know where we'll spend New Year's and the Swamp People discovered Youtube just in time to blast a friend of Forward Rebs.

But before we get started looking into all this, I'd like to be the first to thank the writers of the Office, not only for being the funniest show on television, but also for allowing Ken Tremendous to make a cameo in tonight's episode. The show was obviously paying tribute to Fire Joe Morgan's exit from the bloggosphere when it decided to bring back Mose Schrute, Dwight's scary-backwoods, axemurdery, character-from-Deliverance, beet-farming cousin. In his most recent appearance, Mose pegged Andy in the head with a basketball. It literally made me spew the Dr. Pepper I was drinking.

Good shot, Mose!

Ok, without further ado:

• 
  
  As you've no doubt heard, Tommy Tubz stepped aside this week at Auburn. To summarize, I'm at once confused, excited, pleased in a jilted lover type of way, and curious. Obviously, all Ole Miss people should be a little pleased with a guy who fled Oxford under the cover of night to go to Auburn getting canned after a horrible season. Its kinda like watching your whorish ex-wife get a divorce from the guy she left you for. But in all honesty, why would Auburn do this? Who do they think they're gonna pull in? Whose got the cajones to place themselves in a situation where if you don't beat Nick Saban every year, you'll probably be gone after three seasons? Also, good for Ole Miss. I mean, between Aubs and State re-tooling for the foreseeable future, and with LSU down, and with Arkansas likely still re-building and learning next year...dare I say it...from the outset we look to have decent odds at a trip to Atlanta. Seriously. We swap Florida for Tennessee from the East next year. We can and should beat Vandy and South Carolina. All that's in the way is an Alabama squad who beat us by 4 this year. And we get them at home. Hmmmmm... but anywho, the more I learn about Tubs' recent track record, the less I can villainize Auburn. I mean, the guy hadn't exactly been tearing up the recruiting trails lately. From Jay Coulter, an Alabama sports journalist:
  
  

"I’ve been given access to the recruitment of a five star athlete (class of
2010) that is being recruited by most every school in the Southeast and really across the country. This kid has Auburn at the very top of his list. He’s been
to three games on campus this year as an unofficial visitor. Again, this is a
five star recruit. He’s visited with Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Mark Richt, Rich Brooks and Bobby Johnson during unofficial visits this year. He’s gotten alone time with each of them before games.
Hugh Nall is recruiting this kid and has been pretty good. Do you know how many times he’s spoken with Tuberville? Zero.
Nada. Not once has Tuberville introduced himself prior to the game. Nall wants to sign him badly. But yet Tubs has not made one effort in the process.
In contrast (this will make you sick), Nick Saban faxes this kid prior to each game on Friday with a handwritten note. He then follows up with a handwritten note mailed to him on Monday congratulating him on the prior week’s performance. How many notes has he received from Tuberville? Zero."

The point is this: Tubby is burned out. The Starkville rumors don't bother me one bit. He doesn't have the fire to seriously compete in the SEC any more, especially not at a school like Auburn where one 5 win season means you're jobless. That said, if the Tigers get Mike Leach, that could spell trouble in the long run. But I haven't ever been a longrunner. I'm looking at 2009 - 2010 as the Rebels' window of opportunity for Atlanta. And a daytripping, Pirate shipping, just plain weird Mike Leach at Auburn won't factor into those two years anyway you slice it. Also, FWIW, the homer blogs say the Pirate Captain ain't a-goin nowhere.

• 
  
  
  Well, the basketball squad gave the game away in the waning moments last night against West Virginia, although in all honesty, I didn't expect us to hang around for that long in the first place. Granted, West Va's got very, very good rebounders on their squad, but it became apparent last night, if it wasn't already, that we are seriously hurting at the forward position. Barring somebody on our frontline making a miraculous turnaround, we look to be NIT bound again. That said, the SEC is purty durn turrible on the whole this year, so we might sneak into the Big Dance thanks to a weak conference slate. Also, its become painfully obvious that Dahveed is far and away our best player. And he's legitimately good. But he's also legitimately spastic. There's an alien exploration post coming to Forward Rebs soon.

Yeah. This guy.

• 
  
  Football Awards are Gay:Mike Oher is one of the three best offensive linemen in the nation. Cool. But wait, Mike Oher is not a better football player than a D-III quarteback, and therefore not the best football player in the state of Mississippi. *letting it sink in* Yep. Would I trade my empty can of Diet Tab for the Conerly Trophy? No. No I would not.

• 
  
  On a related note: Peria Jerry leads Terrence Cody in every defensive statistic they keep track of, and the two played half their games against the same offensive linemen. I've stated before that I wouldn't trade the Truth for 3 Mt. Codys. And yet, because Cody goes to Bammer, he gets the recognition. Seriously - and I could go on for days about this, but I'll try to be succinct - collegiate football awards are entirely subjective and thus are horse shit. From the Conerly Trophy on up to the Heisman, nay, on up to the AP Poll, all collegiate awards and rankings are horse shit. The Heisman trophy should go as a package prize to the number one overall pick in the NFL Draft. Eat shit if you disagree.

• 
  
  On the bowl watch, it really seems to me that the Cap One is a pipe-dream. I mean, why would the Cap One take an 8-4 team from 20 hours away over a 9-3 team from like (totally guessing) 5 hours away. Isn't the objective to reward good teams and also sell as many tickets as you can? That said, the Hotty Toddy Blog provides the most logical argument for us to go to Orlando yet in the whole debate. Still, methinks we're grasping for straws. Get your hotel in Dallas already.

• 
  
  Finally, some Swamp Folk discovered the webz. And then they proceeded to post a video of our good friend Ern on the web. Turns out if you kneel it out on the one-yard-line, LSU fans stop making out with eachother and start filming the celebration around them. Honestly, I would otherwise care less about this quasi-funny youtube video, but Ern is a friend of ours. And while he's clearly inebriated in the video, he doesn't deserve to be ridiculed by some swamp person with webbed feet. From what I've heard, Ern's having fun with the video, and probably soaking up the sympathy he's received at becoming the latest youtube sensation. Sympathy like this little post I'm writing right now. And for the record, Ern is more hetero than Peppy Le Pew. Like, painfully hetero. Oh well, nobody messes with my little buddy. It's my duty to protect him.

Me and Ern. To scale.

Post scriptum: Whenever you hear other, maybe more popular Ole Miss blogs just now catching on to the shark thing, please remember that you first heard about the Land Sharks at Forward Rebs. After all, if you were paying attention, you would've noticed Powe doing the dorsal fin at the Vandy game, like we did.

Thank goodness for Downtown Dahveed

Call me another name, you nerdy ass blog bitch. I dare you.

Umk so maybe we should lay off the Dahveed bashing. I don't like making fun of Rebels. BUT, after hearing how Forward Rebs libeled him at halftime, Dahveed caught fire early in the second half Friday night. And without his 24 points, our otherwise "meh" 65-53 win turns into a "holy shit we're in trouble" 45ish - 53 loss to Arkansas State. So I'm gonna keep taunting you, E.T.veed. Apparently it pissed you off.

The weekend went about as good as anyone could've expected all around. More analysis tomorrow. For now, well done Rebels. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Rebs on the Wire

Umk. For the life of me I can't figure out how to do the cool link thing where like you throw a link out, but instead of http://yadayadayada dot com, it has some word so you can incorporate the link into a sentence. You know what I'm talking about. Whatever. Its not like anybodys reading this anyway.

• So the Sporting News took this story off the AP wire from somewhere in MS. Don't know who wrote it, but its basically just an idea of how fired up a lot of the Rebs are about the prospect of Bowling this year. Of note are a couple of quotes from Jason Cook. Guy really wants a bowl game. Not to give too much away, but this week's game should mean a shit-ton more than a typical UL-M game to guys like Cook and Big Mike and Peria. I'll touch on that later in the week. Aaaaaaanyhoo, also of note in this article is Ol' Archie just pining over a Liberty Bowl invite. That's right, Arch. Shoot for the stars, bud. http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=485578

• I got this friend who somehow gets to sit on the sideline at Vaught-Hemingway. He spent the Auburn game chatting it up with one of Andy Kennedy's assistants (the basketball teams trotted out in front of the student section at halftime). Anyhow, he told me this story about how the first time Ole Miss beat State in Oxford after Kennedy took over, Tricky Rick Stansbury came to shake AK's hand after the buzzer. Kennedy's lone sentence, verbatim: "You better fuckin' get used to it." Pivot. Turn. Exit. Curtains. In addition to being a supremely funny guy (in a Steve Polychronopolous / Nelson Muntz type of way) , apparently Kennedy knows how to recruit: http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20081112/SPORTS030103/81112021/1001/news

Yep Rick. I'm bringin' in Top-30 guys now. Ha Ha!

• For much better, much more insightful Rebel hoops commentary, you should definitely visit http://crepepaper.blogspot.com/ if you're not already. Those guys over there are primo-bloggers. Of course, so is the gang over at http://www.redsolocup.com/ , who graciously gave me a shout-out earlier today. Many thanks and a wholehearted endorsement to those guys. At their best they will get you in trouble at the office for laughing too loudly (I speak from experience), and at their worst they're still infinitely funnier than me.