Ole Miss was the reincarnation of Villanova 1985 (almost)

[Kampus Korner]

As I continued to watch Ole Miss players make one improbable shot after another, I began to wonder whether Ole Miss was the reincarnation of the 1985 Villanova team which shocked the world in beating a heavily favored Georgetown team in Rupp Arena to win the 1885 NCAA Championship. Like Villanova, Ole Miss played the perfect game against a UK team favored by 23 points, at least up to the point where its diminutive but super quick, high jumping guard, Stefan Moody had to leave the game with leg cramps. Unlike Villanova, when Ole Miss lost Moody for most of the overtime period, its chances to pull off a Villanova type upset were greatly reduced. At the time of his departure he had just been fouled on a three point attempt. He is one of the best foul shooters in the country. Alas, because of his inability to play and shoot free throws, the UK coaching staff was able to choose which Ole Miss player would shoot the free throws. Fortunately for UK, Moody's replacement missed two out of his three attempts. Had Moody not cramped up and finished out the game in the same high performance manner he had been displaying, we may have witnessed Villanova 2.0.

As most of us have witnessed over the years, on any given night, even the most talented team can be beaten by a team with inferior talent. Hopefully, this game will provide the proverbial "wake up call" to our young team who doubtlessly has been reading and hearing the so called college basketball experts predicting how UK will easily vanquish its SEC opposition and remain undefeated when NCAA tournament play begins. I hope they realize that just because they are "McDonald's All Americans" and have "Kentucky" emblazoned across the front of their jerseys that the players on future opposing teams have enough talent and determination to beat them on any given night. While losing to an underdog SEC team during the regular season would not be catastrophic, losing to such a team in the NCAA Tournament would be devastating to our players and Big Blue Nation.

This post was edited on 1/7 4:49 AM by Kampus Korner

 

[hotelblue]

go back and watch, when moody left is when summers started hitting everything. he barely missed a game winning shot in regulation, and that was about the worst thing he did in the second half of that game. they couldn't have executed or scripted it any better until they went for a tough two in the lane when down 3, with 20 seconds left in ot. they blew that.

holding off a team that shot 50% in a shootout is the type of game we are not going to see often. now that we have we'll know how to handle such a game should some team come out on fire in the tourney. you got to match them, and we did.

 

[musrat59]

Ole Miss hit a bunch of tough shots.

 

[Kampus Korner]

Originally posted by hotelblue:
go back and watch, when moody left is when summers started hitting everything. he barely missed a game winning shot in regulation, and that was about the worst thing he did in the second half of that game. they couldn't have executed or scripted it any better until they went for a tough two in the lane when down 3, with 20 seconds left in ot. they blew that.

holding off a team that shot 50% in a shootout is the type of game we are not going to see often. now that we have we'll know how to handle such a game should some team come out on fire in the tourney. you got to match them, and we did.

I agree that Summers, like Moody, was hitting everything he threw up in the overtime. However, had Moody been able to be on the court, he would most likely have made the 2 free throws which were missed and it would have been a different game and strategy at that point. Still, as our basketball team is want to do, for the most part, we pull out a win in these kinds of situations more often than not. On the other hand, our football can get real close sometimes to beating an SEC opponent only to fall short like Ole Miss did last night.