Waiting is the hardest part for Ole Miss as it still does not know its NCAA Tournament opponent
When Ole Miss saw its name pop up on the screen in the early moments of the NCAA Tournament selection show there was not another team that filled in the bracket.
Instead the Rebels saw San Diego State and North Carolina fill the spot, signaling a First Four team will be play them in Friday’s first round game at approximately 3:05 p.m. CT in Milwaukee.
Head coach Chris Beard acknowledged on Sunday that he has never played against a play-in team in the first round and that going days without knowing who they will face later in the week was something he did not know how to feel about.
As Tom Petty so eloquently stated: The waiting is the hardest part.
The answer to Ole Miss’ mystery opponent will get answered late Tuesday night with the Tar Heels and Aztecs facing off in Dayton at approximately 8:10 p.m. CT. This gives Beard and his staff two days to come up with a game plan.
But in the meantime? The practices and meetings are more about the Rebels than anybody else.
“I’ve never been in this situation before,” Beard said on Monday. “No matter what our schedule is we always try to get back to us. The NCAA Tournament it’s all about match ups. No doubt about it. Scouting’s going to be part of this high-level basketball. But above all it’s about you. Can you bring your identity?”
Of course when a team starts out its season it does not know that it will first off, make the NCAA Tournament, and secondly, not know their opponent come Selection Sunday.
Still, Beard is one who lives on the philosophy of preparedness. The Ole Miss non-conference schedule this season was created with that purpose in mind.
“We’ve been in this situation before in the non-conference,” Beard added. “We purposely scheduled different times, different locations and different prep periods between games. So just reminding the guys, ‘Hey, we’ve been here before. This will be the schedule this week.’ That is the way we look at it.”
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Ole Miss could be featured in one of the highly-talked about first round games this week.
If North Carolina advances to Milwaukee then it could fuel more fire to the controversy of them getting in. The Tar Heels were the last team to get into the field, something another Ole Miss team knows all too well about.
Bubba Cunningham, the North Carolina athletics director, is the chairman of the men’s selection committee that put his basketball team into the field over West Virginia and others, which led to plenty of debate.
Should the Tar Heels move on then it might put an even bigger spotlight on the game with the Rebels when they tip off on TNT come Friday afternoon.
Beard was more focused on celebrating his team’s success in reaching the dance after a five-year absence.
“We can think about all this stuff after the fact but I think there’s no denying that 115 years of Ole Miss basketball, this is the tenth NCAA Tournament bid,” Beard said. “That’s cool. I’m proud of the players, coaches and everybody in our program putting us back on this stage where this program needs to be on a consistent basis.”
