Rippee Writes: Rebels notch road win at Auburn + a look at March Madness

0:00What is up, I am Brian Scott Rippy thanks for tuning in to another edition of the Rippy Rites podcast. We talk to Addison Herbert, Coach Herb, Ole Miss Basketball, finally wins a game. We talk to March Madness in general. What the roster might look like next year and a whole lot more. So buckler, thank you and enjoy this conversation before we give that one quick break to remind you. Also brought to you by Watson Turnipsy, Attorney Law, Watson Turnipsy, friend of the show, one of the smartest people I know. Have you been injured in a car accident work? Have the insurance companies denied your storm-related claim? Right now, I storm or the insurance companies denying your I storm-related claim? Get more than one call with North Mississippi's premier boutique law firm Watson Turnipsy at law. Watson has offices in the Mississippi Delta and New Orleans and focuses on client-based relationships to ensure the best outcome. So the last four years Watson has assisted clients in recovering millions of dollars related

1:01to anyone, any personal injury or insurance claims. Get more than one call, get Watson and beat them all. Visit WatsonTurnipsylaw.com for more details or call 504-636-8217. Given McCall today, he's already helped our list some of our listeners out of your doing with some I storm-related claims that you're having trouble with with the insurance companies. Watson Turnipsy is your man that is Watson Turnipsy at law.com or call him at 504-636-8217. This podcast is brought to you by the Cowboy Country Club. The Cowboy Country Club was founded by two Ole Miss Crads. It is a made-up country club with over 30,000 members. It is a lifestyle brand that celebrates the both rugged and refined sides of life. Cowboy Country Club challenges the notion that exclusivity requires extravagance. Other collections are designed for those who move seamlessly from the country to the club. Cowboy Country Club doesn't have customers, they have members. Unfortunately, they're still taking new members and their only initiation fee is making

2:02a purchase from the online pro shop, cowboycountryclub.com. These are the best hats and shirts in the world. I'm wearing a Cowboy Country Club hat right now. They're awesome. Go check them out today. All you have to become a member is, again, make a purchase on the online pro shop. Get them on social media at Cowboy Country Club or cowboycountryclub.com on the web. Go buy your hat. Go buy your shirt. Go check out all the awesome merch they have. It's an incredible golf and lifestyle brand. I love all of my Cowboy Country Club merch and just releasing this podcast will give you a phrase that pays. Use the promo code HottieTottie20 for a nice little discount. Again, just releasing this show. Happy to have Cowboy Country Club onboard this podcast looking forward to the partnership. And I thank them greatly for the support of the podcast. Go boss and merch. You'll thank me later. It's awesome. Okay. Here's Addison. All right. We now welcome on. Rippy writes basketball correspondent Addison Herbert coach her call the president Ole Miss is one of basketball game. They snapped a 10 game losing skid. They went at Auburn on Saturday after a very like almost I don't have inexplicables the

3:07right word, but meltdown double overtime loss to LSU. But that they lose 10 in a row. They won a game for the first time. It's crazy. The podcast throughout the year. It's kind of crazy. I think the last time they won a game was that Saturday night in Starkville, we were talking about how they turned. They might have just turned this whole thing around. They might be clawing for it, but good on them for not giving up. I mean, winning on the road, winning a Neville arena is not easy to do. Yeah. No, Auburn's always got a great crowd and to beat them and apparently they're still in the NCAA tournament. I don't know. I want to get to that. I don't get that either. Yeah. I had to refresh back. We got yesterday's game. Is this on here? Is this factored in that do they know that Ole Miss beat him? But no, that's a tough place to play, man, and obviously like there before the game, they're on the bubble. So they're fighting for something that we're not. So I mean, I think too, like, and we didn't talk about it last week, but the A&M game, I was at that game and we should have won that game.

4:08I mean, I, this team has had many of these games. It felt like the same story kind of in the Auburn game where there was a little run that Auburn went on with about two minutes left where I went, oh, shit, here it comes. Here comes the meltdown. Here comes the half-court offense that can't be efficient or get a good shot, you know, and we're going to try to bounce this thing out and you dribble it out and they're going to go on a run here and one bad miss, you know, or one ball bounced the wrong way and it's going to be the same story, but they stuck through, man, they keep fighting. I mean, they've, I don't know what times people question kind of how hard this team plays, especially certain players, but I think collectively, and I think like Klafke showed it, like some of those loose balls he went and got and, you know, fouling out like it's not the best thing, but it shows he's playing his ass off. So I really feel like. And the bugger of the lower game shot it pretty good. Yeah. No, for sure. And I think he's kind of been that energizer guy whenever everything's super ugly. He seemed to stay the course and make some plays and even in some losses, you know, kind

5:09of at least made us have a fighting chance whenever it looked like it was all going to go south. So, I think it just, it speaks to the culture a little bit of it. You know, it's a buzz word, even in a bad year, though, and in a position, Beard's never been in his entire coaching career to beat what's apparently an NCAA tournament team on the road in a tough environment. I think it shows kind of there is something there. You're right, though. It's a good way to describe it because that's what like when you think about the colossal failure, which is, it's a pretty big failure of what the season is considering the resources they put into this team, but it was just a roster that didn't, didn't work. It doesn't seem like it's any sort of like culture as you described it or a locker room that just doesn't job, just it doesn't work or make sense on the court. And that's going to happen sometimes in this portal era where you're, where you're retooling the roster every year. And so to see them have a positive moment was good in the, we've said it throughout the year. They don't quit. They do a lot of dumb shit that the last like four to five minutes of games, sometimes like what the hell are they doing?

6:10But it's not a lack of effort. So to see them say the course and have a positive moment, you lose, I mean, you've been in locker room. You lose 10 in a row. It gets. And especially to the way the LSU game went at home, it's a team that's just as bad as you are, you know, that you, you, you should have won. It'd be very easy to go to Auburn and be like, you know, screw it. I'm going to go try to get mine and I don't really care what happens. But I mean, they competed, man, and obviously Pat and Pinkins with a, you know, career tonight in his early career, I have to tell this step. And just because I had to do math on it, so I got to get it in and not forget about it. But Pat and Pinkins on the road this year is shooting 56% from the field and averaging 14 a game with two game winning shots at home. He is shooting 32% with seven, uh, and averaging seven points per game. So I don't, how do you make sense of that? See, just like me on the road dog, man, I don't know, I, I, and we talked about it last

7:14time. And this is obviously I'm being a little facetious and joking, but we talked about last time. Who, who do you keep on this team? And I was hoping it was Pat and but I'm like, goddamn, if I'm him, I'm getting the hell out of the building and shooting in some of these other SEC gyms every night. Uh, but that, and obviously there's nine away games to seven road games right now, or seven home games. So it, there's, you know, a little, it's a small sample site, but still at this point, we got 16 games to go off of and, I mean, he came to tell me that's not nothing. He also minutes wise, I didn't do the math on, but it's obvious he doesn't play as much at home because he's not playing as well. And, you know, this team's rotation has changed game to game. So that, that blinds up. He does long up because it's this team I got to tell him it's like there isn't a rotation is if you're playing well, you're going to stay in the basketball game. If you're not, you're just not going to play, I thought one of the funny things about this win against Auburn, is it had all the components of what you mentioned earlier of like that. Oh, shit, run of like, hi, this is just not going to work out like they get up actually in the first half instead of falling in a massive hole, then they get down and they're down seven with like two minutes to go in the half.

8:17And for the first time, certainly an SEC play, but felt like for the first time all season, they actually finished a half. They finished a half on a 80 Ron and actually have a lead going in, which to me felt significant of like, all right, instead of going in the locker room, feeling defeated despite, you know, being up or down a point or two, they actually feel pretty good about themselves. Then they lose the lead again in the second half and it feels like with about 14 finish minutes left, like, all right, here we go again, I've seen how this movie ends and they turn around, they respond and they play really well. And like the funny part about it to me is you saw like flashes of what like a functional version of this team could be like James Scott, he had eight points. I think all of this has to be dunks, right? He's getting in the dumperspot getting and he had the one that was very close where Johnson threw it up and he kind of like tipped it on the glass. I mean, he really should have had one more bucket if he just kind of lets up or picks that ball up a little earlier. You're like, where's that been? And then comedy starting to look a little bit more like the player you thought he would

9:18and then you get a couple of jump shots from Klavki, Patton Pinkins, 26 points on the road. Obviously helps a lot. A little bit more efficient AJ store like it was kind of funny. They they went a game and not coincidently that's like, oh, I could see how this team could have made sense and something for me. You got the best folks know them, I guess. Yeah. No, for sure. And it's I was kind of again. I was with or I guess we had talked about it on the show, but right before I was with the buddies last night. So I was kind of watching the game and talking and I, you know, this team is not the most fun to watch. And my buddies, you know, we're a little more entertaining at the time. So I kind of was just in and out of the game. And so I watched it this morning on Synergy. And I love watching games where I have the answers basically like I got the answer test and I can kind of put it together and like, how does this happen? So I'm looking at the box for though at last night after the game wrapped up and kind of like, damn, how did we just beat Auburn on the road? And he's like, oh, well, store, yeah, store was a dude, you know, the link deal wasn't a, he didn't rebound the ball, but he scored efficiently for himself, you know, comedy now.

10:19But it's all those things. Like, yeah, these are, this is what this team is missing is every now and then these guys are having a good game, but collectively having three or four of your top guys have a good game. It's going to give you a chance. It's going like they're good players, but it's just the consistency, consistency has not been there. The flip side of this is much more interesting to me. You brought it up earlier. I did the same thing you did. I went to Lunardi's Bracketology this morning and Auburn's like the last team in and I'm like, hold on. Now that's from last night because I'm looking at it on Twitter, it's like, no, this doesn't hour ago. I'm sitting there drinking coffee this morning and I'm like, I don't understand what's going on here. So just, I'm going to outline this Auburn is now 15 and 14 and six in 10 in the league. Mississippi State, by the way, is Bob and 11, just for reference who's not very good and seems to have given up on the year Auburn, I was like, okay, enough seeing this before you. Look, this current system, we have favors high major teams that play tougher schedules. But what I don't understand about this is Auburn in the non-conference. They have a really good win against St. John's.

11:19They have a one point loss to do this, but they're getting credit. I feel like for playing Michigan and playing Arizona, the only problem is in both of those games, they lost by nearly 30 and then they lose by 28 to Purdue, but it's like they're getting credit for playing the game. Make this make sense to me, Auburn at 15 to 14, six in 10 in the league, they're the last team in the tournament. Yeah, and Bruce Pearls on TV talking about how Miami of Ohio went in the conference tournament. What are we doing? And I'm like, dude, what it is ridiculous. And even earlier in this year, when we were kind of, you know, doing the overview of the SEC and I was like, you know, I think seven or eight teams and it was at the time. That's kind of what it was saying. And now we're at 11 and I'm like, the league besides Florida has basically done nothing. I don't, as an SEC guy, I don't know what they're doing for Auburn to get in. And then you brought up Mississippi State, Oklahoma has the exact same conference and obviously they didn't go play those top dogs. I mean, you play Arizona Houston Purdue, like they're playing top 10 teams and Oklahoma

12:19didn't go do that, but they're 15, 14 and 5 and 11, they're a game back in conference play. Like it just, I don't know what sense it makes. I don't get why they get the favoritism, but, you know, and this is the problem with these committees and just these decision making is like, we have a 64 team to our 68 team tournament. The best team needs to be record based, like not who you think, you know, the eye test thing works, but in theory, like in theory, but you got to go by the numbers at the end of the day. And this team's damn near 500 team and there's no reason in my opinion that they've done anything to show that they could win a second weekend game, you know, and that's kind of how I think about it. It's like all the NCAA tournament teams, basically, they've played, it's besides a couple in lead play, especially the top teams, they've not beaten. So what if they've shown us to deserve any of this credit they're getting? I have no idea. Terrific point, particularly on can they like make it to the next weekend, because I don't like the way we're trending with the, the metrics that this committee looks at is it's

13:23very heavily favored to these P6 schools. And like I remember, there's an Indiana State team a couple years ago that was like really fun that kind of got snubbed from the tournament in favor of, I don't remember who it was. I'm sure it was like a 18 and 14 big, big 10 team or something. And it's just like, okay, well, if that team you're giving them a bid, like they've shown nothing throughout this slate that shows you they can win a game or two games to get to the next week and then say tournament. So why not give it to the Indiana States of the world that just went 32 and six and moved through what is probably a league that doesn't give enough credit for how good they are. I don't like the way things are trending. This is like the perfect example of that because you have Bruce Pearl, who like pigeonholed them in the hiring his son and like, I don't just like recruit these guys. I mean, he recruited these guys and he's on TV talking about 29 and I know Miami of Ohio shouldn't be in the turn of they don't win their conference turn of it because they're not quote one of the best 68 teams. I'm like, well, that's actually never how we've arrived at this, but yeah, if it was the top 68, these mid majors would have no prayer.

14:24So that's not really a good arguing point. I just, I don't like where we're going. I don't, Auburn should not be in the NCAA tournament as it stands today. That doesn't make any sense to me. They suck. Yeah. I completely agree. And like they're tap like the pedifer kid, like he had great game yesterday too. He's a hell of a player, but he's again been very inconsistent. Like they're, and they're playing, they're basically playing a seven man rotation. And I know I kind of win in and I feel bad because I really respect these kids and I know how good basketball players they are in a general scope. But I kind of did this about Zach Day, but they're playing a kid named Blake Meshleck, who I recruited at Southwestern Division three and we came down to like the final on this. He got six minutes. He's playing every game. Kids a hell of a player scored 50 points in a private school state championship game. Like really good player, state champion and tennis as well. Like love the kid to death. I don't mean this is a knock, but he is not an SEC player. And he's in their rotation in a game that they have to win. And he's playing six minutes and Zach Day is over there and gets him too. But we're obviously. Yeah.

15:24No, it's not. No, it's not. No, it's not. No, it's not. No, it's not. No, it's not. Exactly. And so I'm like good for these kids. It's great for them. They worked their ass off. They did the right things. But whenever these rosters were being built, they were not a part of the equation to be playing in games in February and March. And that shows what those teams are at right now when those guys are playing. And that's not an NCAA tournament team, in my opinion. No knock on Blake. You should like, I doubt he's going to be listening, but Blake, you're a hell of a player and keep fucking doing it. It's like. If I can email from that kid, I'm going to be absolutely just like the reach of the show. It's just really exponential. But it's a good point though. And but like, I just, I don't love this. I love the NCAA basketball tournament. And if you can tell like, think about this way, these mid major schools in football and basketball, like the G-Fob schools in football and your mid majors in basketball, just gotten brutalized by NIL and the free range transfer. It's just awful for them. And then on top of that, you have these committees and these people that are leading the sport,

16:28the Curry don't have the best interest of the sport in mind. I mean, we're talking, apparently from all the reporting, it's imminent. We're going to expand in 2016 tournament where if he talked to anyone involved with the sport, who the hell was that? No one wants it. Who wants that? It's insane to me. And so I just, one of the things I loved about the NCAA tournament is you got people, you have different styles of basketball from all different leagues across the country, whether in mid major leagues too. And we're, we're kind of just, I don't understand what you tell, if Miami Ohio has a bad day, I don't, does their conference tournament start this week or are they one of those ones that goes through? I don't know. Regardless. I'm not sure. But let's just say they have a bad day in their conference tournament. And they go 29 and one or their 30 and one or whatever the hell it is. I don't understand how you can tell them because they played a bunch of quad three and quad four games because high majors won't schedule them because they don't have any incentive to schedule them. They're not worthy of the NCAA tournament. I just don't understand what we're doing at that point, but you also want to expand it to 96. I just, I don't like this. I like a lot of these mid major schools getting chances and it feels like we're eliminating

17:30those for eight. I'm just making this up. But an 18 and 13 Rutgers in the big 10 in a given year just, it doesn't make a ton of sense to me. Yeah. And, and the beauty of the NCAA tournament right is it's one game like you miss some shots one night. You have a bad turnover like anybody can win and that's basketball, you know, I think in football, you know, the better team probably wins 70% of the time and more talent the better team. And basketball, it's like 60, 40 and I think baseball, it's damn near like 55, 45, you know, like, especially at high levels. So it's a game that can happen, you know, any night. And yeah, sometimes it messes up kind of the elite eight and some of the matchups you might have wanted to see, but that's the fun of it. And you're going to make like they win 30 games, let's say, or how are they're going to probably play three or four more. So 32 games or 33 games. And then we're going to decide three games at the end of your season back to back to back. They played Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I'm looking at it right now and it's, it's March 12.

18:32So two weeks. Oh. Okay. So that's going to decide now instead of this whole sample size of them dominant, like it makes no sense to me. I think it's completely unfair. I also think, and I don't mean to kind of like debate it. But with the transfer portal, these a lot of these smaller schools, like you, you've seen it with Iowa now and what McCollum did at Drake is, and if I'm going to get my best players picked from you, now I'm going to go pick from NAD to and the next scholarship level below. And a lot of these mid major teams have winners on them that are old. And right now the top teams in college basketball are a lot of freshmen. Like I love Houston, Kingston Flaming's a kid. I've been watching since he was a freshman. I love him. I think he's like, Russell Rusbrook, Esk, like I think he's got a great career, but he's a freshman. So you put him in a one game scenario against a kid that's maybe played in the final for a division two, like anything can happen. And I think that's way more fun as a viewer than watching Auburn, who we've already seen

19:32what happens when they play these top teams. And maybe they knock off one of them. But what's the fun in that? Like is anybody going to get really excited that Auburn, you know, is it 11 seed beats? I don't know, you know, our console or something. You know, they could get an SEC match or someone, you know, that it's like, does that really mean anything? Or would it be a lot more fun to see Miami, Ohio, knock off a power five and move on? And even if they lose in the next round, I would much rather watch the, you know, the Cinderella story, you know. Isn't there a certain point to like, again, within reasonable measure, this is a, this is a, this is a division one school and a league that's in like the non p six leagues. But not just like, it's not the, obviously, we're talking about it. And there's certain points like, I don't really give a shit how many quad three quad four games you played. If you won your first 30 games, you're probably pretty good. Like, I just said, and it's like they get no credit for that. I don't care who they played. You win 30 in a row, man. And I think obviously this might kind of go against what I'm saying a little bit, but

20:33I think it's important to point out, it's like, it's hard to win in your league because no matter what league you're in, you're lined up with similar resources, right? There's always going to be the top teams that spend more money and have better resources and bottom teams that don't spend as much in every league. But if you talk to any coach from division one to the Christian college league, they will say, and if you listen to enough press conferences, you've heard this line, it's really tough to win in this league. And it is from that perspective, right? Like, is it going to be tough for Auburn as tough for Auburn to win in the Mac as it is Miami? Probably not, because of their resources. It's not a fair game. But to do that shows that team, and they haven't just, they've blown teams out and they've won tough games like there's resiliency in that locker room to be 29 and no. I mean, that's so tough to do to basically almost be air, air have a perfect season, you know, the only team and really my memory that's ever done that is that Kentucky team. Not freshman year that we had him first game of SEC took him to overtime.

21:36Yeah. If they don't camp up, we win. Jarvis Summers had a chance to win a regulation. But the Devon Booker, a car on the town, Tarris and twins, that team was stacked and did it in their league. But respectively, it's like the Mac is tough for Miami Ohio, just like the SEC is tough for Kentucky. And they need to be paid off for what they've done, am I opinion? How do we agree? That was a wild game that I've never forget. I was watching that. I was either sophomore, junior in college and I remember watching that from from my house and I was like, Holy shit, they're actually about to do this and then Moody cramps up. I think Calipari actually said in the press conference after like if Moody doesn't cramp up, we probably don't win that game. He was killing two, he like 23 and didn't play like last two over three minutes and reg and OT. And then that was the Wisconsin team that beats the undefeated Kentucky team, but doesn't count it off in the final four. Yeah. And then they go on to lose the Duke. Yeah. It's like beating the Soviets, but losing the gold medal game. It's like, yeah. That was what a missed opportunity there.

22:36Yeah. That was my first SEC game ever. Oh, are we at up against that team and we almost did it. And I'm like, and we've beaten Bama that year, dude. I have the most delusional Ole Miss fandom on first share. I'm like, this is just who we are, bro. We go to the NCAA tournament, like, this is just this is what Ole Miss does. And then I've got humbled real quick junior year when NCA said no more. When you see the talent on a team like that, that Kentucky team, like, I mean, you look back and look what Devon Booker's becoming all those other guys. Do you know in the moment, like, holy shit, these guys are about to beat like long NBA fans? I mean, the kids I coach now, they love hearing me talk about the Kentucky teams that pull it again or we played against, I didn't actually play against them, but we prepared to play against them. I was on those sidelines of like, man, it was stacked and you, you kind of knew it, but like, looking back, like, Willie Collie Stein was like their eighth guy, like, Trey Liles was also like the eighth or ninth guy. And like, Trey Liles is still making like $15 million in the NBA year.

23:39And like, Willie Collie Stein was the first round. Like, it's great. Devon Booker came off the bench of that team, like, at time when you knew this, you know, is now on the coaching staff, Calapari, like, it's just, it really is crazy. And then the other team, too, that I always remember from the Kentucky years was the Fox, Bam out of bio team, Malik Monk, Isaiah Brisco. They came to our place and just killed us just, I mean, it was never a game and it was, it always meant something though, you know, like seeing that when you go there, they had a great intro where it would like flash like John Wall and Anthony Davis making a move in their Kentucky jerseys. And then as they finished the move there and their NBA jerseys and at the end, it says just like, I got, like, Cal has got like billion doll, you know, $30 billion worth of NBA contracts right now or whatever the number was at the time. And I'm like, if I'm going to recruit, if I'm 17 years old and think I'm going to be able to play, why would I ever watch that and be like, yeah, you know what? I need to, I need to go somewhere else. Yeah. I remember that game you're talking about, too, because I remember after the, the game,

24:44Calapari and Brisco and one other guy came in and they kept calling some guy, Bam. And I didn't know at the time, actually, his nickname is Bam. So I was like, am I stupid? Like, who are they talking about? Is this you, Jerry sat a bio and they're like, oh, yeah, this is Bam out of bio. It sounds like really stupid now. But I remember sitting there in the million being like, what, who are they talking about? Who's this? Yeah. Who the hell is Bam? That's kind of like a bot. I've always wanted, like Calapari area is interesting me because that's like a bygone thing. You can't do that now. That was Peaky's one, Mr. one and done like you can't really stack talent like that any more. Can you? I don't think so. But I mean, he's trying to do it dark and so he's got one of if not the best point freshman point garden country. I mean, I would argue Kingston Fleming's is the only guy that can give him a run for his money from Houston. And he's got a, he's in the mix for all the top guys next year. I mean, and they got, they got plenty, they got the Walmart money, the Tyson Foods money. So, and they're, they're right now they're prioritizing basketball. I mean, that's, that's what Calapari and a league like that, as you see, now that's

25:46what's important to these coaches is like, are you really just going to go all the way in football? Like, and I think that's one thing that kind of makes Mississippi state and Ole Miss is they go a lot more in and LSU has a lot, but they go in on baseball too. And I think that does make it a kind of less attractive job. But that's a really important factor now at Hases like, are all the resources for football or are we going to kind of balance this thing out and am I going to get, you know, obviously not the football money, but of my fair share to be at the top of the NIO budget in my league. And Cal has been in front of the fact that that AAD is just like, we're actually good on football. We're not even actually going to pretend to try that. Yeah. Which is kind of crazy. Like, that's not a great thing. And I think like, I don't know that they're AD said it, but I've seen similar talks about Mississippi state basically saying, like, we're going to go in all, all in on baseball, like, it'd be great if this and like, the other two situations, if your fans love it. And I think at schools like Arkansas and Mississippi state and even Ole Miss to a certain

26:47degree, although I think R&L was so ahead of its time that it doesn't really matter and we can be good at all three, but you, it's not a bad business decision to choose, you know. I think it is like a smart thing to put your resources all in on one thing and really give yourself a chance compared to being mediocre at three of them. We'll get back to Addison in just one second, but before we do, we'll take one quick break to remind you. This podcast is brought to you by Aestok. What is Aestok? Aestok bulk buys products from a variety of retailers and then takes them and sells them in one of two ways, either on their online bidding platform or at one of their many stores across Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. Aestok's mission is to enable you the customer to name your price. Here's how it works. The items that Aestok buys from these major retailers are often overstocked, returned or closed out products. From there, they list them either on their online bidding platform or sell them at one of their store, a bin store locations. You can purchase discounted items from Aestok in two different ways.

27:50On the online platform, Aestok.com or the Aestok bidding app, all items started just $1. Each sale has a specific in date and time, so you know exactly when the bidding closes. You can go online and place your bids on the items you want. There's no shipping or transfers available. All items must be picked up at the specified location. Then their in-store sales, they get fresh inventory weekly. Everything in a bin starts at $7 on Saturdays with increasing price reductions, culminating in 50 cents per item on Wednesdays or a filibag option for $10 on Wednesdays. How about that? This is such a great idea and a great concept. The owners are all misaloms. I'm looking at their website right now. They have everything from sports apparel, jewelry, kitchen appliances, luggage, mobile electronics, just every item you can think of under the sun and you get on there and get to bid and name your price. Go to Aestok.com or use the bidding app or visit one of their many locations in two below Memphis, Nashville, East Tennessee and Kentucky.

28:51Check them out Aestok.com. This podcast is brought to you by LBs University Avenue there in Oxford, Go see Greg if you're Rippy right subscriber that's rippyrights.substack.com. You get a free newsletter for me and discount of meats right now. It is three baking rat filets for $25. That's an incredible valuation there for $25. Just tell them you're a subscriber and boom, you got that Rippy right special. There's all kinds of delicious meats, fresh cuts, and sausages. It is the best butcher shop in the world, a truly local crown jewel of Oxford. Greg's the man. Go find your own favorites. The holiday season. Go throw something awesome on the grill, reward yourself for a year's worth of hard work. Well done. It is LBs. The best butcher shop in the world. Go see them. They LBs University Avenue there in Oxford back to Addison. I agree. I think where Ole Miss has a little bit more financial sense is the fact that college baseball, I love the sport. That's kind of what made this podcast Bones its first couple of years, but it doesn't really move the needle nationally. And so I don't think marketing is a situation where Ole Miss would cut off anything from

29:59football to go to baseball where you're seeing that a little bit like elsewhere. I think football and basketball are kind of your red makers, but if you want to, if you told me like Arkansas was going all in on basketball, only like at the expense of football a little bit, that would make sense to me. But the fact that they're giving so much money to baseball, I'm like this A.D. is kind of an idiot. But to your point, being good at one thing, I think is a little bit better than being mediocre. Three things. Speaking of mediocrity, I want you to get back to Auburn for a second. This Stephen Pearl situation is fascinating to me because now that they suck, their fans are starting to realize like Pearl kind of did them a Bruce Pearl that is kind of did them a little bit dirty. You retire as what a day or two before the first official practice of the season, basically to force them to hire his son who I don't recall seeing Stephen Pearl on any hot board list for even group of five jobs. What do you make of this situation? Like how sustainable is this? I don't know how sustainable is in that fan base now again kind of back to the conversation

31:04football. But they're hungry for basketball and Bruce made him hungry for basketball like they he made this a basketball school like and I've talked about it on here before. I think that is the best environment in the SEC over rub over Tennessee, you know, that's huge. Like I think it's small. They're on top of you. They're allowed. It is a tough place to play man and it is all Bruce Pearl that started that. I mean, Auburn was not a basketball school until he showed up by any stretch of the imagination and then to have basically, you know, the savior of that program, the guy that's made y'all care about it kind of eggs it that way and then the season to go the way it has I think it I get as I don't obviously understand from there. But if I'm putting myself in their shoes, I would be upset too. And I've said it before I there's a few guys on that staff I really respect and like a lot and no personally and think they're really good basketball minds, good coaches.

32:06But I mean, it's a tough situation because I don't think they're going to fire him either. I don't think they really can. I think he's going to get a second year. And so he will be on the hot seat next year, especially if they continue this and the NCAA does what's right and doesn't put him in the NCAA tournament. Next year, it's tournament or we're moving on. Is this an NCAA tournament team with Bruce, like what is like what is the like larger, how much better is this team with Bruce for Steven? I know that's an impossible question to answer, but just you know, speaking. I mean, I definitely think like the experienced Bruce has like and I it just can't be replicated. Like you can talk to your dad on the phone. He can come see you. He can give you a vice, but in game time situations, man, like you're reacting. You're not thinking things through. You're going based off of what's gone wrong in the past or what's gone right in the past. And you're making those decisions in a split second on the precedent.

33:09And he just doesn't have that as an assistant coach. You make a lot of decisions, you know, I'm sure he's been in charge of subbing and he's been in charge of offense or defense or whatever and this scout and that scout. But the pressure of being in that seat and I've never done it, but I've seen a lot of people firsthand experience it. And man, it's not easy and, and you know, you're always going to second guess your decisions and until you've gone through those battles and honestly lost are the ones, the times you've messed it up are the times you're going to remember more and learn more from. So I just think, I don't know that they're that much better, but I would say, you know, a few game difference. I think we probably are not having this conversation about why the hell is Auburn and then the tournament right now, it bruises there because they're probably two or three games better at least, especially like I'm just kind of scrolling through their scores here. And they have some close losses against some quality teams. I mean, you brought the Houston one earlier, Georgia went to OTV like that tough loss at A&M. That was controversial. Like, those are games that I'm my opinion and my dad had a great line as a kid and

34:13I think it was because he was our coach, so he was trying to hype himself up. But he always said, when games are decided by like six or less points, so like two to three possessions, about 75, 80% of the time the better coach wins. And he's always said not necessarily the better coach, but the better coach said that makes that that pushes the right buttons at the right times. And I definitely as a coach, even just coach in an A&M stuff, like there's a few times where I'm in a tight game and I look across and I'm like, now it's me and you. Like, I'm kind of, you know, I'm a better person so I'm like, you mean, you bitch, like, let's go. Let's see here. Like who's going to control this game more? And I just think like Steven can get there. I think he's capable of it. He has the resource set and I don't know that's going to be Auburn for the next 10 years, you know, like his dad did. But I definitely think they're probably, they're, they're a better team to self-experience alone. On that note, his press conference after the loss on Saturday night was two minutes

35:13and 40 seconds. I saw a lot of Auburn people, like, reporters that I follow caught at the shortest press conference of the year. I'm not sure actually how it could get shorter. I've seen opening statements last longer than that. So it was two minutes and boys seconds. So he answered about three or four questions very shortly and then one of the last ones, the answers, which is what I wanted to get to was he got asked about Keishan Murphy and he kind of like paused for a second and he went into like whatever the generic answer was. Like, well, Keishan's also got to be better. He was 20 minutes late to film session. That's why he didn't start and that carried over into this performance. I'm like, oh, buddy, like we're leaking stuff like this right now. If you're a player in that locker room with a coach, like I want to get to a beard example to second, he doesn't have a ton of like belts on the wall, not a ton of cachet. What, what, what do you make of that if you're in that locker room and he kind of spills that after a very frustrating loss to a bad team? Yeah, I think you make a great point that he doesn't have kind of like the clout to say

36:17that almost if if it is a guy that if it's Bruce Pearl saying that, you know, I don't think so for somebody that's different. Yeah, yeah, it's it is a different thing because it's like he's just, you know, holding a standard, uh, Pearl is at the point in his career where he's got to be a play and he's a younger guy like in my opinion, when you're younger and you're starting out, you got to be a player's coach and go to bat for your guys more than anything and show him that like whether that's sometimes going to get in a technical foul to show I'm going to fight to like, uh, with the officials like whatever it is, uh, and I think this is kind of, I was talking to one of my buddies the other day about this, uh, is this year for some reason, it seems like these coaches are in these press conferences. I feel like we've had a big press conference year for some reason, obviously the mickron and things fresh on everybody's mind, but I feel like I've seen a lot of guys like really put their players on blast and not defend them like I'm kind of a customer seeing and I almost wonder if it's not like a NIL thing of they feel like now I'm paying you

37:21dude, like and you're not doing your, your part of this. So I don't know what it is, but yeah, yeah. And these guys are making more, what do you say? These guys are making basically more than anyone in this room. Is it too much to ask to make him, uh, for them to make a layup? And he said, we live in Bizarro world or whatever. Bizarro world. Yeah. Bizarro world. Well, that's classic. Okay. Classic. Okay. And there's been like a few examples of this like I've seen this year and that's why I think I've had this conversation with two different people, um, and it's just, it's interesting to me. I don't, and the only thing I can kind of conclude it to is NIL, um, I don't know what else would, you know, make them feel this way and do it, but it just is kind of opposite of how I've always seen coaches handle press conferences. I'll give you one that I don't think anybody picked up on. We didn't talk last week because I had like three podcasts on Sunday, but, uh, I, the after the A&M game did, like I don't have anybody watch this.

38:22Did you see what Beard said about Diab? So Diab gets hurt toward the end of that game and he's on the ground. And then with the possession, he gets hurt, Ole Miss plays five on four, gives up a three that kind of shifted the tide of that game. Beard got asked about it after the game and he said, I don't know what happened. All I saw was D on the ground and then a couple of minutes later, he was magically ready to go back in. And the possession he was on the ground was five on four with the three that turned out to be a pretty big possession of that game and then he just kind of like looked in the camera for a second, like kind of grunted and then was like, I don't know what happened on that play. And I'm like, well, damn man, tell me how you really feel like I've never seen that before to your point. Yeah, and he's even as approached a little differently too at times with making these guys go face to face. Yeah, bring them all out there. Yeah, it's the starting five that beat Austin P by seven or whatever he said. Like, I just don't know, and I find it interesting. I love, and when we were having this debate with somebody's last night, the NBA vs.

39:22college basketball. I'm like, yeah, the NBA, they're better players, but like, I love the order behind college sports. And NFL, I feel the same way. I would much I prefer the college football slate to NFL Sunday. I'm going to watch both. Don't get me wrong. I'm going to watch the NBA still because that's all I do is watch sports and I'm obsessed about it. But in my opinion, that's what makes this fun is these coaches are not well adjusted human beings and put on. They're not like pretentious like pro coaches are at all. Yeah. Yeah. And the movement of players, the movement of like just the drama behind all of it and the coaching carousel that's going to come here in a couple of weeks when seasons start ending. Like, I love following that stuff. And I think that's what's fun about it. And so I just, I don't know what it is, but I love it because it's like every day, I watch basketball. I feel like it on Twitter. And there's a coach having some ridiculous presser and I'm like, this is great. This is, this makes me laugh. It's because of how much power they have on these college campuses, we're in professional football.

40:23That's just not the case. They're like, in a lot of cases, they're the most popular or most powerful or second most powerful individual in their state, which I guess, like Mick Krennan's interesting me. I don't understand what that guy's got going on. Like, is it because he don't have hair? Like, is it? I don't understand what his is. I mean, he's always been a psychopath. I mean, and Cincinnati, he had to, they told his doctor told him to stop coaching and that he couldn't watch the game until he drove around Cincinnati and his car listening to it. So he didn't do anything. Um, like, he's like to make shit like Lou Brown's got the earpiece. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. Or even he frees it liberty in the, in the, in the bad. It's a lot of awful. Registration. Yeah. Uh, no, these guys are crazy. And like, again, I've had this conversation with a lot of people over my life is like, why I got out of it is like, I'm looking at the people that I respect the most and think are the best of this. I'm like, your life outside of this, though kind of sucks.

41:23Like, like, but that's what it takes, man. It's so competitive. There's so much money in it. There's a lot of line at, at stake, uh, and they're entertaining, though. I mean, they're all characters in their own right. Uh, and, and I love to like in the NBA, basically, everybody just runs pick and roll, pick and roll, pick and roll, all some transition stuff and there's crazy runs, crazy runs. I, I know these coaches because I watched it. So I know kind of how they want to play and the, the contrast of style is like, bam, a whole mess that I doubt got great ratings. But to me, it was interesting, just like, who's going to put their style, like, I know Bam is going to shoot time and three, so we're going to shoot a mid-range shot. It's like, what's going to work here and there's examples of it every day that there's a college basketball game of just kind of who's going to inflict their style on this game and that's why I appreciate the sport, but, uh, you know, I made a career out of it for a little bit. So, uh, I've kind of been it more than most last thing for you out of here. There was news this week that Ilias Carmeding got, uh, got an additional year of eligibility. And I saw in the old person on our border earlier in the week that like odds are he probably

42:27comes back to a miss. I know your average fan out there is probably not totally fired up by that news. But when I saw that, and if there is a path to like, we talked about guys who are coming back next year of like, like two weeks ago, it was just patting pinkins and throw your hands up in the air. I don't know. That day in class, you were my next two guesses. Yeah. So, uh, if there's a path back for Carmeding, it's probably to play him off the ball and get like an actual point guard, like if I told you, Carmeding's at Ole Miss next year and he has a good year, what does that look like to you? Yeah, I agree. It's probably playing off the ball, being a secondary ball handed or not a primary. I think he's, he has got to adjust more to the physicality and understand how important and hopefully we address the needs on the roster. So he doesn't have to have as big of a role as he had to have on this team. But I would just love to see him be more aggressive. And I've said it from the beginning to me, he seems very passive and scared to pick

43:27his spots, doesn't like the pressure, doesn't like the physicality. So I just, I think there's a, there's stuff there to, I mean, 26 and 10 this week against LSU. I mean, obviously we lose the game and, yeah, I didn't go the way we want, but 26, 10 and 5 and a divisional and basketball game and there's something there. I mean, he's a pro. So I don't think it's a bad thing that if he's coming back, but he, he definitely needs to address what we've seen on film. I mean, he's got to take that next step and hopefully too for his professional career and life after Ole Miss, like he probably got woken up to a different brand of basketball and kind of what it's going to be like here. And maybe we kind of, you know, misplayed him and put him in spots that he wasn't super comfortable with. But I think he's more than capable of being a primary ball handler. He's a great passer. It's just kind of the laxodaisical stuff at times that just kind of leave me scratching my head. What is called silly season in college football has a little bit started in college basketball. There's been a little bit of rumblings about what is Chris Beard do.

44:30It does seem it's probably likely he's back at Ole Miss next year. What do you just make of the situation in general? Do you think he maybe takes this year, even they didn't go his way to kind of go to another program that he sees is better? I think the misconception, like nationally versus locally is like, this is kind of on them and their staff are messing up this roster. There's no lack of resources or need to go to somewhere else or like a huge step up in program to like, you know, the ones you would think of. Right. I just, what do you think you think he's back next year? What do you make of this failure of a year and how he kind of views that as far as next year is concerned? I mean, I think he's back kind of just knowing somewhat his personality like this. This is going to leave a bad taste in his mouth. He's going to want some redemption, you know. I'm not saying he's going to be here for the next 10, 15 years, but I think he wants to show that he can win here. I also think in the past, you know, we, I don't know how much everybody knows, but he was very much in the mix for that Arkansas job, which is like we've mentioned is a better

45:32basketball job than Ole Miss on a national scale. He was very much in the mix for the A&M job last year as well. And even some talks about maybe Indiana. I think A&M is more of a lateral move, but Indiana Arkansas would be a step up. I don't know. And again, we can see when silly season starts here when, you know, they start team stop playing games and their seasons wrap up. But I don't know looking at this year, even though he went to the sweet 16 last year for the first time forever in Ole Miss history. I don't know that there's going to be a job that would be that enticing that makes him like, oh, I can't say no to that. And I think that's the only way that he would leave is if it is such a huge jump that he's like, I would be, I'd be regretting not taking this job if, if, if I stay here. And he had a, I think it's at funkeys now, but you know, they have the, the like midweek,

46:35little live show. I don't know who does it now, but it used to be a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, or whatever. Yeah. You know, I'm talking about. Yeah, it's a red talk, but I, I guess, get out of the party, maybe does it now since David Kowloff last year. Yeah, but I saw a clip from that that, uh, Brad Logan posted and I watched the whole interview, but he basically like, to me said he's coming back. He was like, this is unacceptable. We understand that we're going to address it like we appreciate and even I, the, the crowds have not been great, and I don't blame them, but he even was like, the crowds are great. Like people are driving from Jackson, still driving from Memphis. Like, uh, I appreciate all the season tick a whole, like, but like not even in an irony, not like a lane kiff and like, did you see, you know, the, I forget who we even send to the game. You know, one in that tone, it was legit, like, I appreciate y'all, I'm sorry. And we're going to write this ship, uh, so I don't think he's leaving. I don't think it's in his character to, to run from a fight. Uh, I also think he's getting challenged right now in a way he's never been challenged.

47:38He's never had a season like this. So it'd be hard for me to be like, this is how he's going to handle it because I don't know. Um, but based on those comments and kind of what I do know about him, I think it means more to him personally, to write the ship, uh, I just think to, and I might have said this before, but it, it's just, this season's extremely disappointing to not build on the momentum of lessons. Yes. That's the big, that's the big thing. Like, if you go, even if you go like 18 and 14 or whatever, or 15, whatever it would be, be in the mix and you, and you, and you, and you barely missed the tournament, um, you know, not the end of the world. There's still some momentum. We did it two years ago, but, uh, for the season ago, this way, and have a losing record for the first sunbears career, uh, it, it's tough. It was tough. It's tough to see. And I don't think anybody really thought this was going to happen coming in, but we did have a lot of these questions in the Memphis game that we want. I mean, you have asked them early, you're like, is there going to be a thing where who's the dude and who's going to step up and be there every night and that's been the problem?

48:42It has. And like if we're all missed too, it's like, I'm totally good on the missed opportunity. A lot of it is like, uh, fan-based behavior correction. If you played relevant games in February, people, like they haven't played a relevant game since like the third week of January, so then people who are used to being like, baseball seasons in two weeks, they go back to that, like, reflexive behavior versus like, no, this basketball team's still in it. And I hope that's what he can fix next year, because again, even if they weren't like a bonafide tournament team this year, just being in the mix and being relevant and having relevant basketball games, being played in Oxford in the month of February, would go a long way to kind of like change the habits of fans, and I think they missed that opportunity for sure. I totally agree. And I think again, I kind of hinted at earlier, Mississippi State, LSU, Ole Miss, are kind of a weird spot where they're one of the few schools in the country where the basketball might be the third sport. Yeah. But when Ole Miss is good and they're exciting in basketball, like the fan-based shows up, man. Like I've seen it, like, and I've seen when we weren't good, and they don't, I don't blame

49:45them. Like I know it's not like the thing there, and we don't have the history in basketball that we do in baseball, they're football, you know. And so I get it. And to your point, too, about a meaningful game, the most meaningful college basketball game that's been played in 2026 was LSU vs. Ole Miss in Women's Basketball. Yeah. I mean, that's the best crowd we've had in this year so far, and it's just disappointing because there was, it seemed like, you know, last year, and I think we could have won that Michigan State game and made it a lead-A, and taken this program to a place that it really had never been. And so it's just disappointing for this to be the follow-up on that, and I know Beard feels that, and I think he's the type of guy that's like, no, I'm not going out like this. Like I'm going to fix this, and also, again, to my point earlier, I don't know who's going to come calling. Like, as much as I think he's a great coach and brazen, he does have obviously the history, and so with that, and then a losing record coming off a sweet 16 is a school like, you

50:48know, a North Carolina or something, that would be a huge step up, and obviously, I'm not saying they're going to be open, but say, make Chrono at UCLA. I mean, his story program, is that really a better job right now, though? I mean, I don't know that it is, and maybe if he views it, is that a place that he sees himself? He's a southern guy, SEC is way more his brand than Big Ten and being an LA. So I just don't see, I just don't see a job really that I would be like, yeah, I can see him going there, whereas Indiana Arkansas, A&M in the past, I mean, I can see why he would go there, and not A&M as much, but I could see it, and I don't, and he still turned them down back then whenever he was a hot commodity. Yeah. So I just don't see what would entice him to leave and not try to prove people wrong that he can do it at Ole Miss. It'll be interesting to see how he writes the ship. He is Addison Herbert, coach Herbert. It's good to see you. As always, my man, I appreciate the time we'll talk to you again next week. Yeah, sir. Good talking to me.

51:49All right. That's going to do it for our show today. Got some basketball and baseball stuff coming for you the rest of this week. Thanks, listen to the show as always. We'll talk to you again here real soon.