Sideline View with Dale McKee

MERIDIAN, Miss. (WTOK) -

The Ole Miss Lady Rebels (25-8) shocked top West seed Stanford, 54-49, to advance to their first “Sweet 16″ since 2007. Ole Miss took the lead early and led until Stanford tied the score 49-49 in the final minute of the game. The Lady Rebels then outscored Stanford 5-0 down the stretch to register the win. The loss for the Lady Cardinals ended their streak of 15 straight seasons in the “Sweet 16″. Ole Miss ran all over Gonzaga, 71-48, in the opening round of the tournament. Ole Miss will now head to Seattle this Friday.

Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs Coach Sam Purcell’s first season as head coach in Starkville ended in South Bend as they fell to Notre Dame, 53-48, in second round NCAA Tournament play. The Lady Bulldogs (22-10) downed Illinois, 70-56, to advance to the NCAA Tournament early last week. The 11th seeded Lady Bulldogs then drilled sixth seeded Creighton, 81-66, in round one of the 64-team tournament.

The Mississippi State Bulldogs lost to Pittsburgh, 60-59, in the First Four of the NCAA tournament last week. MSU coach Chris Janis in his first year led the Bulldogs to a 21-10 overall mark. Janis also may have landed the all-time leading scorer in Mississippi high school history as Josh Hubbard of Madison Ridgeland Academy committed to the Bulldogs.

Southern Mississippi’s historic season came to a halt last week in the first round of the NIT against Andy Kennedy and the Blazers of UAB, 88-60. The Eagles (25-8) finished the season with the best home record in program history, a Sun Belt regular season championship and one of the best turnarounds in NCAA history. USM coach Jay Ladner is up for the National Coach of the Year based on the Golden Eagles’ turn around.

Former Texas head coach Chris Beard was named the new men’s basketball coach at Ole Miss early last week. Beard replaces Mississippi native Kermit Davis who stepped down last month. Beard was fired in January from Texas as a result of being accused of domestic violence by his fiancé during a December argument. The charges were later denied by is fiancé, and the case was dropped two weeks ago.

Two-time defending SWAC regular season champion Alcorn Braves (18-14) fell in the opening round of the NIT on the road at North Texas, 69-53. Tugaloo College (32-2) finished with the school’s best record in history but fell in the NAIA Tournament quarterfinals to College of Idaho, 83-66. The Jackson State Lady Tigers (21-10) fell to Memphis, 79-68, in the opening round of the NIT.

JUCO Basketball

The Meridian Community College Eagles (24-4) are taking part in the NJCAA Men’s tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas, for the first time since 1999. The Jones County Lady Bobcats (25-3), seeded sixth, will make their seventh straight trip to Lubbock, Texas, to take part in the Women’s Championship.

Baseball

Vanderbilt (16-5, 3-0) outscored Ole Miss, 27-4, to take all three games as the teams opened their Southeastern Conference schedule this past weekend. Ole Miss (14-6, 0-3) will host Florida this weekend.

Mississippi State lost all three games at Kentucky to begin the SEC portion of the Bulldogs’ schedule. MSU (13-8, 0-3) will host Vanderbilt this weekend.

Southern Mississippi (12-6, 1-2) lost the final two games at Texas State to begin their initial year in the Sun Belt Conference. The Eagles will host Georgia Southern this weekend before heading to Pearl next Tuesday to face Ole Miss.

Football News

The Indianapolis Colts signed Brandon native Gardner Minshew to a one-year, one million dollar deal.

Forest native and former USM football player Todd Pinkston was named the running back coach for the world champion Kansas City Chiefs.

Former Ole Miss player Laremy Tunsil signed the highest paid offensive tackle contract in NFL history for $75 million for three years by the Houston Texans.

Listen to Dale and Marshall Wood on the Brouhaha Sports Show that will be aired this Tuesday at 6 p.m. on WABO FM 105.5 in the Waynesboro area. This week’s guest will be WDAM-TV Sports Director Taylor Curet. To listen to the broadcast on your computer or smart phone anywhere in the world, go to Google Chrome, go to wabo105.com and click listen live. You may also go to The Brouhaha on YouTube to listen to archived shows. Dale has been writing sports since 1973. Contact him at ddmckee18@yahoo.com.

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