A question for Ole Miss fans, basketball thoughts and why we hate exits
Do you have Kiffin fatigue? What's the right way to leave a program? Is the basketball team as bad as it looks?
Hope everyone is having a good week. We’ve got a new podcast out with my old radio partner Michael Borkey discussing the Brian Kelly hire, Lincoln Riley’s chances to make USC elite again and much more. You can check that out here or anywhere you get podcasts.
We’ve got some of the same to talk about today, plus some basketball and why we all hate exits no matter how they happen.
Ole Miss beats Rider, welcomes Memphis on Saturday
Ole Miss topped Rider 75-51 on Tuesday night.. in the Dimencio Vaughn double revenge game? If you don’t remember that name, Vaughn played four years at Rider, transferred to Ole Miss, never found his footing and failed to crack the rotation last season, and is now back at Rider for his COVID year. You don’t see that often.
Anyway, I loosely watched this game. I don’t have a ton of thoughts about it in particular, but with the Rebels being 5-2 and welcoming No. 18 Memphis to town this weekend, I will offer a few things to ponder about this team through seven games.
Yes, this team has been underwhelming and hard to watch this year. It’s the same lingering issue that plagued the Rebels last season: they struggle on the offensive end of the floor, particularly in half-court offense. It makes for a tough watch, because they’re actually quite good defensively. It’s worth reminding you that Ole Miss was one win away from making the NCAA Tournament last season. Had the Rebels beaten LSU on that Friday night in Nashville at the SEC Tournament, it would’ve been enough to earn an at-large bid in what would have been Kermit Davis’s second NCAA Tournament in three seasons. But did it really feel like it? Exactly. Hence the ‘tough product to watch’ aspect of this.
Why is this team struggling offensively? Well, it’s weird. On paper, they’re almost where you’d think they should be. Jarkel Joiner is averaging 15.5 points per game and is shooting 44 percent from three-point range. That’ll hunt. Or will it? Jaemyn Brakefield is offering 10 points and five rebounds per game. Ty Fagan and Nysier Brooks are giving eight points per game.
What’s the issue? It’s that no one can create a shot. Joiner’s isolation game hasn’t improved, and if anything it has regressed. Nearly all of his points are coming off of spot up jump shots — which, to his credit, he has been terrific in that area so far this season. That’s all well and good until you get into the final three minutes of a game, everyone’s tired, the offense gets bogged down and someone needs to take the basketball and create a shot. Ole Miss doesn’t have single guy on its roster that can do that right now and it’s a problem. Revert back to the second half of the Marquette game and how the Rebels looked on offense in the game’s final six minutes. It was a mess, as it was so many times last year. Brakefield hasn’t shown anything that would lead you to believe you can run offense through him late in games and with respect to Brooks, it’s nearly impossible to run offense through a seven-foot center in this day and age of basketball.
It truly is the same issue Ole Miss had last season. Joiner was thought to be the best option, but he isn’t getting past defenders off the dribble consistently and hasn’t emerged into shot creator. ‘Bucket getter’ is a common term that couldn’t be more apt here. Ole Miss doesn’t have a bucket getter and it’s already showing. Matthew Murrell hasn’t taken the next step and the Rebels have been without freshman Daeshun Ruffin since the season opener due to an injury.
So, where does Ole Miss go from here and how does it fix the issue? The easiest answer is for Joiner to become that guy, but at this point, is that reasonable to expect? He sort of is what he is at this point. Ole Miss clearly misses Ruffin, which leads to the next possible solution. Ruffin is a bucket getter. He is quick as hell and can get to the rim at a remarkable rate despite his size. We haven’t seen enough of him to know whether he is ready to play major minutes at point guard in the SEC as a true freshman, but Ole Miss sorely needs him to be. Why? Well, beyond his own ability to create shots, you could move Joiner off the ball, which, to me, seems more conducive to running him off different actions and letting him be a jump-shooter with at least a mild threat of driving. Kermit Davis moved Breein Tyree over to the wing and Devontae Shuler to point guard during his first year and it worked incredibly well. It also helped having an NBA player in Terence Davis on the other wing, which this team certainly doesn’t have. I don’t know what it says about the state of the team and program to need a true freshman with one game under his belt to get healthy in a hurry and make an impact. But that might just be where Ole Miss is, for better or worse. Ruffin is expected back before SEC play begins in a couple of weeks.
On the bright side, the Rebels have been quite good and pretty versatile defensively. Their numbers back it up, too. Ole Miss has also been good in transition offense and you wonder if you’ll see more of that in an effort to supplement the struggles in half-court offense. Playing fast becomes a bit of a dangerous game once you get to SEC play and your opponent has better talent on most nights. But they’re going to have to do something because you can run all the sets you want in half-court offense, eventually, when the game is close in the waning minutes, you need someone to take control and create a shot. If they can some how find this, they might be fine, because everything else actually looks pretty good. But again, that’s a huge IF and looks unlikely to happen.
So, what about Memphis? The Tigers are a talented team that’s been battle-tested already against the likes of Virginia Tech, a Rick Stansbury-led Western Kentucky team and Iowa State. Until Wednesday night, the Tigers’ only blemish was getting run out of the gym by the Cyclones, but then they lost to an awful Georgia team in Athens last night. Let’s just say it didn’t sit well with Hardaway.
Penny: "There aren’t enough guys in that locker room who care about winning unless they are the ones that are helping us win. It’s not team. That’s the danger of having a lot of talent. The talent has to want to play together & right now the talent doesn’t want to play together."The Tigers are ridiculously athletic and boast one of the best players in the country in Emoni Bates. This is going to be a tall task for Ole Miss and a pretty good test of where the Rebels are as a team. We’ll have a little more on this tomorrow.
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Kiffin, Diaz and Miami
This has been one of the wilder coaching carousels we have seen. It might be the craziest one ever. Ole Miss has avoided having anyone poached, at least so far. In reality, despite some click-bait driven articles and news nuggets, Kiffin wasn’t a serious candidate for the LSU, USC or Florida openings. His name hasn’t really seemed to surface around the Oklahoma job either.
But the one that won’t die is the Miami job, and from talking to folks about this as far back as September, this job was always the one people pointed to being a real landing spot for Kiffin. He has a house in Boca and loves the water. We all know this. You can’t fish for snook at Sardis. It’s always described as a lifestyle play when you ask someone why he’d take this job. The reason for asking is that Miami isn’t a better job than Ole Miss and hasn’t been for a decade. That’s just my opinion but it seems pretty obvious. But what Miami does offer is not having to play Alabama, Auburn and LSU every year with a better living situation and is a program with a lot of tradition (though I question how much that actually matters). There have been rumors and even reports of Miami “upping their investment in football,” whatever the hell that means. A $20-30 million figure has been thrown out. Even if that is real, what would it go toward? Facilities? Assistant coaches salary pool? Head coach salary? Who the hell knows. The Hurricanes play in an NFL Stadium off campus.
What’s made all of this even murkier is that no one actually knows what Lane Kiffin thinks. No one knows what he values or desires. He is a deeply private person. And to be frank, he’s a weird guy that’s viewed as a total wildcard when it come to this stuff, in part of because of his history. He left Tennessee after a year to go to USC. The other part of it is his desire to have his name constantly in the news cycle with regard to other jobs. If you believe that Kiffin’s name being loosely connected to or floated out concerning all of these job openings is strictly the work of his agent, then I cannot help you. I think he likes it. I think he views it as a way to remain relevant and I think he views it as marketing his brand, which he is CONSTANTLY doing. I mean, look how many times the man changes clothes on a road trip. How many hoodies did he pack for a day trip to Starkville?
He also hasn’t committed to the program, and I don’t just mean tweeting out that he’s staying or issuing a statement that he’s ready to build a winner, if you can pick up what I am putting down. None of that is an accident, either. Ole Miss is going to give him a sizable raise, if he’ll have it. This is just a hunch, but if the number I was told is remotely accurate, I don’t think Miami can top it. But how much does he value money and how close to that number could Miami get for him to not factor in the difference? Your guess is as good as mine. It all boils down to this question: would he take the job if offered? I genuinely have no idea. I don’t even have a lean. Two weeks ago, I leaned no. Now, I really have no clue.
Hell, the job isn’t even open yet. I probably buried the lede here, but there seems to be a much better shot that current Hurricanes head coach Manny Diaz keeps his job than there was two weeks ago.
Miami is still trying to hire an athletic director. That makes this even more complicated, particularly with the early signing period being a thing now. Ideally, any school would want to hire an AD before a coach. The AD is eventually going to want to hire his own guy anyway. It’s a tricky situation and Diaz’s future will hinge in part on when an AD hire is made. Shall we check in on how that process is going?
This fascinates me for a couple reasons. You’d think the longer this drags out, the better this is for Ole Miss’s chances of keeping Kiffin, right? The longer the wait, the more likely the new AD — whenever the hire is actually made — is to retain Diaz for 2022 and then, in all likelihood, can him after next season. But is there a scenario in which the early signing period passes, Miami signs a large chunk of its recruiting class, an AD is hired and he decides to fire Diaz anyway before the February period?You sort of saw this with Joe Moorhead and Mississippi State a couple of years ago. It’s not an ideal strategy, but it’s not the end of the world if said new AD wants Diaz gone bad enough. But also, and this is a far-fetched hypothetical, if the aforementioned scenario does play out, and all the dominoes fall correctly and Kiffin takes the job, is Ole Miss better off for having gotten thru the early signing period as opposed to it happening during this vital recruiting window? I have no idea, but it is interesting to think about.
It’s also worth mentioning that is no secret that Miami alum and current Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal is the Hurricanes’ top target should the job come open. So this entire conversation may be rendered moot. Oregon plays in the PAC 12 Championship game on Friday night against Utah. Even if Miami makes a move without an AD in place, I’d guess you won’t see much movement on this until after that game. I think Lane Kiffin is coaching Ole Miss in September of 2022. Don’t mistake that for me contradicting myself re-Kiffin taking the job if offered. It’s two different questions.
The last thought I will leave you with is this: are you fatigued as an Ole Miss fan? I am curious to hear your feedback. Lately, I have talked to readers, listeners and friends that are Ole Miss fans and I have started to notice a trend. Some people have grown weary of all of this. The Rebels capped their first 10-2 season in program history and are bound for an access bowl, but what are you talking about more? The season, the bowl and the future of the program — or Kiffin’s future? I doubt your fatigue stems solely from coaching rumors. Perhaps it’s the constant negging of the fan base about attendance or the lackluster recruiting to this point. They’re all likely intertwined, in a way. I am not suggesting Kiffin is bad for Ole Miss. He’s instantly made the program relevant and orchestrated a remarkable turnaround in an incredibly short amount of time. I just wonder what the Lane Kiffin shelf life is at any program? We quite literally don’t know what that looks like. His career is unique, but at the same time, he’s been a been a head coach for 12 years now. Is this just who he is? Is this the Lane Kiffin experience? Do you appreciate him while he’s here and hope he leaves the program in a decent state when he departs without getting overly worked up at when the departure will come? It sort of feels that way from talking to folks. Maybe the sample size is too small and I haven’t talked to enough people. I just find it interesting.
If nothing else, Lane Kiffin is a fascinating character in ridiculously stupid but entertaining sport.
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We hate Brian Kelly’s departure. But why?
Brian Kelly has gotten ripped for the way he departed Notre Dame for LSU. The text he sent to players was leaked after the story itself leaked (sort of ironic) and a supposed 11-minute meeting to tell his team that he was leaving became a two-minute meeting in a span of five hours. Anyone in the media who wanted to take a shot got at Kelly got an easy layup.
It made me think about this trend. Why do we as media, fans and consumers get so worked up at the way these coaches leave major programs?
“Because there is a right and wrong way to do things,” you say.
Is there? And even if there is, does it matter? This is the most corrupt sport in North America with the most imbalanced playing field, dumbest rules and governs itself in an archaic manner. Paranoia and secrecy is baked into this sport. Why are we shocked by anything these days, much less a guy not being a straight shooter about leaving leaving for a better job with better pay? What else do you expect him to say?
And what is the ‘right way’? Kelly was asked a couple of weeks ago if he’d ever leave Notre Dame. He gave some corny answer about his wife and an imaginary $250 million check as a roundabout way to say ‘no, he wouldn’t ever leave’. So, now he’s a liar, right? But what do we actually want him to say? If he’d have said, “Oh, hell yeah. If these three schools offer me, I am blowing this popsicle stand.” I promise you we’d all crush him had he said that. We live in a microwaved news cycle. It’s incredibly hard to keep things a secret for long, and it’s virtually impossible to keep things a secret long enough to tell players ‘the right way.’ There is no possible way to be honest, yet we continue to demand honesty and transparency in a sport that has never had any of that. And for the life of me I don’t understand why.
I am not telling you Brian Kelly is a good guy. This industry is filled with not-great guys. He has a decently long and well-documented track record of scandals, from mishandling sexual assault to having a videographer die on during a practice. Other, less serious stories either emerged or resurfaced this week in light of him becoming the new cycle’s asshole of the week. This one in particular was sort of funny but also not great.
I am also not telling you he is a bad guy. I don’t know him. I have no idea what he’s about. But do think three things are telling:
1. None of the players seemed to be shocked. Maybe I am just not looking hard enough, but I didn’t see any passive aggressive social media posts from players with broken heart emojis or cryptic quotes about shock.
2. The athletic director admitted he wasn’t surprised Kelly left.
3. None of the assistants went with him. Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees is staying on staff and defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman was promoted to full-time head coach less than 48 hours after Kelly’s departure… after just one season with the program in any capacity.
This all signals to me that most people who worked with Kelly don’t necessarily think he is a horrible, irredeemable human by any means, but simultaneously know that he is about himself above all else and that’s just how he is. We all have that friend, don’t we? The guy that’s likeable and fun to be around, but it’s pretty much understood by everyone in the group that, when push comes to shove, he is going to save himself above anything else and that’s just how it is.
Anyway, not the point. I just don’t understand why we continue to waste time being upset about things like this. Are there more tasteful ways to leave than others? Sure. I just don’t think we should expect that simply because our standard of the ‘right way’ is completely irrational and nearly impossible in most cases.
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On the horizon
USC beat writer Antonio Morales on the Friday pod, plus a hoops check in with Bracken Ray and Friday picks with Greg
Football and hoops in tomorrow’s newsletter
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