Mississippi still perfect after upset of No. 15 Clemson
GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Mississippi had trouble shooting but Clemson couldn't keep the Rebels off the glass.
Dwayne Curtis and Chris Warren both scored 19 points to lead the Rebels to an 85-82 victory over No. 15 Clemson on Saturday night in a matchup of unbeaten teams in the championship game of the San Juan Shootout.
"Our undoing was the offensive glass," said Clemson coach Oliver Purnell, whose team grabbed 12 offensive rebounds compared to 23 for the Rebels. "They're a gutsy team, I give them a lot of credit."
Warren and Curtis, who had nine rebounds, went a combined 4-for-5 from the free throw line in the final 90 seconds for Mississippi (11-0), which matched the best start in school history.
The Rebels started 11-0 in 1936-37 and 2000-01.
"Clemson is a very good team, and this is a win we'll be able to hang our hat on deep into the year if we continue to improve because they're going to beat a lot of people," Mississippi coach Andy Kennedy said.
Eniel Polynice and David Huertas both added 14 points for Mississippi.
Terrence Oglesby led Clemson (10-1) with 20 points, including going 5-of-7 from 3-point range, while K.C. Rivers added 19 points and Raymond Sykes had 17.
Warren's layup after a steal by Huertas capped Mississippi's 8-0 run and gave it the lead for good, 80-78 with 2:55 remaining.
"My teammates find me, and I find them," said Warren, who was selected the tournament's most valuable player.
Trailing by eight points at halftime, Clemson took its first lead of the second half at 54-53 on a soaring one-handed dunk by Sykes with 13:15 remaining. But the Rebels kept their composure despite the run.
"I think we've got grinders, and the fact that we've been in this situation before with some close games allowed us to not panic and continue to grind," Kennedy said.
Mississippi opened the game on an 8-2 run capped by Polynice's putback of his own rebound. The Rebels went ahead 41-32 on a 3-pointer by Warren with 3:22 to play in the first half and held on for the 48-40 halftime lead. Curtis was 7-for-7 from the field in the first half when Mississippi outscored the Tigers 34-18 in the paint.
"The difference was our intensity, especially the first five minutes of the game," Curtis said. "There's a lot of things to work on, too, but this shows what we're capable of doing."
Clemson had six blocks and held Mississippi to 27 percent shooting in the second half, but the Rebels dominated the boards overall 39-34 and had 24 second-chance points compared to 11 for the Tigers.
"We just responded down the stretch, stepping up and making big plays," Kennedy said.
A cheering section of family and friends of Huertas, a native of Humacao, Puerto Rico, gave Mississippi the edge in crowd support inside the nearly empty stadium in this suburb of San Juan.
great day to be a former Bearcat coach. Kennedy's got them playing well.
Ole Miss is the one team i will root for all the way besides UC.
BcatMatt13 Wrote:Ole Miss is the one team i will root for all the way besides UC.
and why not Huggs and WVU?
or Martin and KSU?
I'll root for in this order
UC
Ole Miss
K State
WVU
WVU would be higher, but it is in the Big East also and I normally would hate WVU and sure hate their fans but will always appreciate Huggins.
Maaan...i'm happy for Andy.
He has to be going thru this whole season thinking how great everything ultimately worked out at Cincy now...
Congrats to Andy! Great guy!
the only thing that sucked about that game is that it wasn't on television. i don't know why some of these exempt tourneys can't get better tv coverage.
that was a great win for ole miss. i wish i could have seen the game. they are the real deal, and they look to be getting better as the season goes along. their first six wins were at home, and other than new mexico none were all that noteworthy, but their last five wins have come off campus (although one was in jackson, mississippi, which is hardly a true road game), and they've beaten some good teams. as young as ole miss is, it looks as if they have quite a bit of stability. most people don't realize this, but they did tie for first place in the west division last year. they have really improved as a program since kennedy arrived.
Coopdaddy67 Wrote:great day to be a former Bearcat coach. Kennedy's got them playing well.
It's sad when you think what UC could and should've had. Billy Don
griffen Wrote:Maaan...i'm happy for Andy.
He has to be going thru this whole season thinking how great everything ultimately worked out at Cincy now...
"Ultimately" worked out???? MC has had less than 2 years to rebuild this program from scratch and you're talking in terms of ULTIMATELY? AK appears to be doing a great job, and I wish him well. I was in favor of hiring him at one point, but the fact is it's too early to say that he could've done a better job of rebuilding our program. The name of the game is recruiting, and Mick has lived up to his billing in restocking this program with talent. He's entitled to enough time to get his players here and develop them before any comparisons can rightly be made about who was ULTIMATELY better for us.
zengardener Wrote:griffen Wrote:Maaan...i'm happy for Andy.
He has to be going thru this whole season thinking how great everything ultimately worked out at Cincy now...
"Ultimately" worked out???? MC has had less than 2 years to rebuild this program from scratch and you're talking in terms of ULTIMATELY? AK appears to be doing a great job, and I wish him well. I was in favor of hiring him at one point, but the fact is it's too early to say that he could've done a better job of rebuilding our program. The name of the game is recruiting, and Mick has lived up to his billing in restocking this program with talent. He's entitled to enough time to get his players here and develop them before any comparisons can rightly be made about who was ULTIMATELY better for us.
Total BS. It's not too early to get a gauge on the job a coach is doing. AK did not exactly get the UNC job. He had to rebuild as well. (Lets agree Mick has a bigger rebuilding job although I don't see the point of that arguement).
In 2 years of head coaching, ak was a contender for national coach of the year and was voted sec coach of the year. Truth be told, thus far mick has out recruited him. so contrary to some, recruiting may not be everything.
Micks putting a hell of a foundation together so in the long run who knows. As of now I'll bet that Ole Miss fans are sweating bullets at the thought of old andy moving to bigger, more recruitable programs.
BearcatDave Wrote:WVU would be higher, but it is in the Big East also and I normally would hate WVU and sure hate their fans but will always appreciate Huggins.
Seeing the current state of UC Basketball, I dont have to worry about WVU damaging UC's hopes of winning a Big East championship. Id like to see Huggins win a national title this year, particuarly because UC doesnt have a chance.
I root in this order: UC, WVU, Ole Miss, KSU.
b Wrote:zengardener Wrote:griffen Wrote:Maaan...i'm happy for Andy.
He has to be going thru this whole season thinking how great everything ultimately worked out at Cincy now...
"Ultimately" worked out???? MC has had less than 2 years to rebuild this program from scratch and you're talking in terms of ULTIMATELY? AK appears to be doing a great job, and I wish him well. I was in favor of hiring him at one point, but the fact is it's too early to say that he could've done a better job of rebuilding our program. The name of the game is recruiting, and Mick has lived up to his billing in restocking this program with talent. He's entitled to enough time to get his players here and develop them before any comparisons can rightly be made about who was ULTIMATELY better for us.
Total BS. It's not too early to get a gauge on the job a coach is doing. AK did not exactly get the UNC job. He had to rebuild as well. (Lets agree Mick has a bigger rebuilding job although I don't see the point of that arguement).
In 2 years of head coaching, ak was a contender for national coach of the year and was voted sec coach of the year. Truth be told, thus far mick has out recruited him. so contrary to some, recruiting may not be everything.
Micks putting a hell of a foundation together so in the long run who knows. As of now I'll bet that Ole Miss fans are sweating bullets at the thought of old andy moving to bigger, more recruitable programs.
You say BS, yet I see little disagreement between our posts. Two years may be enough time to judge AK a success at Mississippi, but it's not enough time to judge MC. You concede that MC has a larger rebuilding job to do (much larger, in fact) then say you don't see any point in arguing that fact. But that point is critical in any attempt to compare the two.
No, recruiting isn't everything. But it was the main thing that needed to be done here, and it's still the most important ingredient to succeed. As you state, "in the long run who knows". Right. That's all I'm saying.
Other than Dwayne Curtis, all of the players that are contributing for Miss were brought in by AK. None of them were recruited very highly, and he came into a pretty tough situation. Ole Miss was coming off a 12-13 win season and Gregg Doyel rated Ole Miss the worst coaching job in America.
I agree... I think people underestimate what an insanely tough job ole miss is.... Cronin may have walked into less talent because everything was bear...but the guys he brought in even the first year would probably be as talented as the guys that were at Ole Miss. Kennedy is getting a ton out of those guys. He is an exceptional coach(I think there may be a ceiling on the success he can have at Ole Miss though.. Long term it is a way worse job than UC, and one of the worst BCS jobs in the country
Andy Kennedy is the best in-game coach in America.
jarr Wrote:Other than Dwayne Curtis, all of the players that are contributing for Miss were brought in by AK. None of them were recruited very highly, and he came into a pretty tough situation. Ole Miss was coming off a 12-13 win season and Gregg Doyel rated Ole Miss the worst coaching job in America.
exactly. most of the contributing players at ole miss are people that kennedy brought in.
Quote:I think there may be a ceiling on the success he can have at Ole Miss though.. Long term it is a way worse job than UC, and one of the worst BCS jobs in the country
i'm not so sure about that. the culture will have to change from where it was two years ago, but i think it already has, or at the very least has begun to change. the same thing could have been said about texas a&m just two years ago. look at them now. there is no reason the same thing can't happen at ole miss if they get the right guy, and i think they have the right guy. there is quite a bit of enthusiasm around their basketball team now.
...and northwestern is the worst bcs job in the country. in fact, i can think of about 60 non-bcs schools that appear to have twice the potential of succeeding that northwestern has. gruehls really wrecked that program when he was a student there.
Quote:Total BS. It's not too early to get a gauge on the job a coach is doing. AK did not exactly get the UNC job. He had to rebuild as well. (Lets agree Mick has a bigger rebuilding job although I don't see the point of that arguement).
In 2 years of head coaching, ak was a contender for national coach of the year and was voted sec coach of the year. Truth be told, thus far mick has out recruited him. so contrary to some, recruiting may not be everything.
Micks putting a hell of a foundation together so in the long run who knows. As of now I'll bet that Ole Miss fans are sweating bullets at the thought of old andy moving to bigger, more recruitable programs.
I don't understand why some people on here continue to downplay Kennedy's achievments. He has done more with less than any coach in the country in the last 3 years.
I have a feeling Kennedy will be hanging some Final Four banners in his career.