Yesterday, the Rebels overcame an 0-2 deficit to score 6 unanswered runs and defeat the TCU Horned Frogs in the opening game of the College Station NCAA regional. Shortly after that, the Texas A&M Aggies beat the Dayton Flyers 4-1.

Right now, the losers of yesterday's game are playing in the regionals first elimination game. TCU is leading Dayton 6-4 in the fourth inning at the time of the publication, a bit of information which I will neglect to update, so visit WatchESPN.com if you're interested in that. The winner of that game will face the loser of today's Ole Miss vs. TAMU game. Here's what you need to know about TCU.

Regular season record - 43 -16

Conference record - 16-8 (BigXII, for now)

Conference finish - 2nd (Just behind Baylor)

Head coach - Rob Childress (6 years)

Notable out of conference opponents - Michigan State (three game sweep), Cal State Fullerton (1-2 against CSF), Rice (4-5 L)

Of note - They're going to be in the SEC next year. Love/hate them accordingly.

Offensive leaders - Tyler Naquin (.385 AVG, 46 RBI, .543 SLG), Jacob House (.314 AVG, 8 HR, .482 SLG)

Notable pitchers - Texas A&M will throw Ross Stripling against us, a senior righty who is a pretty impressive prospect. He's 10-3 over fifteen appearances. He's pitched 118.0 innings with a 2.90 ERA and an opposing batting average of .221 and 110 K. This won't be easy.

Fun facts - Their baseball stadium is named for an ice cream, which is absolutely delicious.

OPEN THREAD TIME:

Let's go Rebs.

The Atlantic-10 conference champion Dayton Flyers - a name which is a reference to the Wright Brothers, who called Dayton, Ohio their home - are the #4 seed in the College Station regional and will open their NCAA postseason play against the home team Aggies tomorrow at 6:35 PM. What do you need to know about Dayton? Here:

Regular season record -31-28

Conference record - 17-7

Conference finish - 1st (tied with St. Louis University, winners of the conference tournament)

Head coach - Tony Vittorio (13th season), which is, like, the most baseball name ever next to Raul Ibañez and Oil Can Boyd.

Notable out of conference opponents - Eastern Kentucky (10-3 loss), Miami OH (13-8 loss), Kentucky (19-6 loss)

Of note -Dayton's postseason appearance is the result of a late-season surge. They lost 11 of their first 15 games. They won 9 of their last 10.

Offensive leaders - Brian Blasik (.344 AVG, 21 2B, 46 RBI); Bobby Glover (.331 AVG, 9 HR, 41 RBI, .528 SLG); CJ Gillman (.314 AVG, 63 RBI)

Notable pitchers - Tim Bury (8-2, 3.14 ERA); Mike Hauschild (7-2, 4.29 ERA, 87 K); Burny Mitchem (3.65 ERA, 7 SV, 70 K)

Fun facts - None. Nothing fun has ever happened in Dayton. What is Dayton known for? The post-genocide agreement struck among the former Yugoslav nations after they were through slaughtering each other. That's not fun. There's also the museum to the United States Air Force there. I also know a guy from there who is a nice enough guy, but he's a terrible dresser and probably isn't going any higher than middle management. But, hey, I'm sure the crime rate is low or something. Yay, Ohio!

Soon we will have the TCU and Texas A&M previews up. Then we'll have a regional open thread up and ready to go by tomorrow's game between the Horned Frogs and Ole Miss, set for 12:35 PM.

Ross Bjork let the cat slip out of the bag this week and informed the public of the forthcoming SEC television network, currently dubbed "Project X". No longer will ESPNU simply change its logo to the round SEC emblem; we're getting our own channel.

Will it be worth it? Hell yes it will. It will be awesome, something which I can say with confidence because the Southeastern Conference's tried and true "throw money at it until it works" method will be in full employ to make it awesome. It will broadcast various SEC sporting events, both live and as replays, as well as air coaches shows, "classic" football games, and generally serve as a powerful vehicle by which to continue promoting the SEC's brand of college athletics.

To boot, it will assuredly be broadcast via satellite or cable into your home at a speed much faster than that of the B1G network.

Aside from all of that, though, what else will this network use to fill up its programming schedule? Surely you can't replay the 2010 Iron Bowl ad nauseum just to fill up time ("The hell you cain't!"). This is the SEC network; this has got to be unique and showcase what it is about our corner of America that makes this conference more than a collection of universities competing against one another in athletic contests - what makes it a cultural institution.

What sorts of television shows might accomplish this end?

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[EDITOR'S NOTE: Today's The Local Voice column is just a brief preview of the College Station Regional for those folks in and about Oxford who happen to snag a print copy. More in depth previews of the teams in this regional are to come later today/tomorrow.]

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Aggie baseball fans, please welcome us Rebels as we invade the portion of your fair city immediately surrounding Blue Bell Park. Approach us - we're not mean - and get your first real experience with the Southeastern Conference's finest lot of baseball fans. We travel well, and in numbers, so we plan on being in the Lone Star State with some force. For better or for worse, we love this baseball program and we love the NCAA postseason.

Also, we like beer and anything that has been deep fried.

So please, tell us what it is that we should see, do, eat and drink in College Station. To what exactly would you recommend a 20-to-30-something-year-old looking to spend a long, early June weekend in your neck of the woods? Where should we dine? Imbibe? Spend our downtime? Listen to live music?

Aggies, this is your show. Make us feel welcomed. We'll take your best suggestions and re-shape them into a post that lets all of the Rebels coming to town to know what it is they should experience while in College Station. Thanks in advance and best of luck in the regional.

How's Your Back?
Because mine's burned. A weekend at Cape Hatteras highlighted by beer, fresh boiled shrimp, and the poor application of SPF 30 means that I'm not doing so hot right now. Hell of a Memorial Day Weekend though, and I hope that you all had just as much fun.

Texas A&M hosts TCU, Ole Miss, Dayton | ESPN Dallas
To College Station we go. More on this as the week progresses.

Ole Miss Starts Over // SEC 2012: The New SEC | Team Speed Kills
Optimistic he is not, as Year2 assesses the immediate future of the Ole Miss Rebels football program, but he is not without his understanding of our situation or the positives of the Hugh Freeze hire. I'd say that his sentiments largely mirror those of our fan base, in a way.

Ole Miss AD Bjork not unfamiliar with Southeastern Conference | The Clarion-Ledger
The SEC's spring meetings are this week in Destin (Why? Because Mike Slive wants to eat at Joe's Crab Shack and shop at the Brooks Brother's outlet, that's why.), the first such meetings out of many our new director of intercollegiate athletics, Ross Bjork, will be a part of.

I want to begin building solid relationships with all the other athletic directors and head coaches that will be there, and faculty reps and senior women's administrators and presidents and chancellors...I know quite a few, but I need to get to know really everybody.

Bjork's not a complete stranger in the fraternity of SEC athletics directors. He has met with most of the school's athletics officials already in his duty as the Ole Miss AD and at one point worked under Missouri AD Mike Alden.

Fan Dress Code Announced For 2012 Season | OLE MISS Official Athletic Site
Good thing we got this one out of the way in May. I'd hate for our fan base to have to scramble to and from their local shopping malls and overpriced boutiques to prepare the proper football ensemble. It'd be a real drag.

Top 10 list: Toughest schedules of 2012 | CBSSports.com
Being in the SEC West is tough enough. Adding Texas to that already tough schedule, though, earns Ole Miss a nod as having one of the most difficult schedules in the country this year.

Ole Miss Alum Takes Over at Alcorn St. | Fox 40 WDBD
Jay Hopson, an Ole Miss alumnus who played safety for our Rebels in the early 1990's and went on to serve as an assistant coach at Memphis, Michigan, Southern Miss and elsewhere, was hired by Alcorn State to be their head football coach. This makes him the first white head coach of a SWAC football program. We wish him the best of luck there and know that he will represent Ole Miss well in this new capacity.

Details aren't necessary, nor are the reasons for the Rebel loss all that unusual ("Lemme guess: lots of runners left on base, poor bullpen management, and a collapse under pressure?"), so suffice it to say that the Rebels unceremoniously bowed out of the 2012 SEC Baseball Tournament by falling 11-2 to the rivals and SEC Champions, the LSU Tigers.

It was a close fought game until late, with Tanner Bailey and Chris Ellis keeping the Rebels competitive enough through seven innings, but LSU's bats were far too powerful for Ole Miss' bullpen and broke the game wide open down the stretch. Austin Bousfield and Alex Yarbrough were solid for the Rebels who, otherwise, struggled against LSU's sure-fire first rounder ace in Kevin Gausman.

So we, as the #9 seed, went 1-2 in the conference tournament. And we lost to the conference champions in the process. Big deal. To say "I'm over it" is an overstatement because it would suggest that I was at all bothered by this outcome in the first place. What is bothersome, though, is the bubble status of the Rebel baseball team right now. Yesterday, Juco asked you all where it is you'd like to see this team play in a regional, with the presumption that they will. As a low-2/high-3 seed type of team in a tournament that must fill in several spots with conference winners of every collection of athletics teams you've never heard of, and as a team that finished in the bottom third of its own conference, it's tough to expect that the Rebels are a guaranteed "in" at this point.

If we make it, even if it's in the brutal Tallahassee or Gainesville regionals, then we'll delay our gnashing and wailing of teeth. If we don't, that'd mark two consecutive seasons with Ole Miss missing the NCAA postseason play. Considering the fan support, facilities, and dollars spent on this program relative to most other programs in the country, such an outcome would be completely unacceptable. #FireBianco would start trending on twitter and, trust us, that seat would start to warm up very, very quickly.

Yesterday, in our end of the 2012 SEC Baseball Tournament bracket, two hard fought games set us up for today. After plastering Arkansas 9-1, Mississippi State unleashed Chris Stratton on the LSU Tigers. Hapless the Tigers were, as Stratton ground (Grinded? Hath gegrounded?) for his State to reach his 11th win of the season. LSU would lose 3-2. Mike Mayers would dominate in similar fashion, throwing seven innings and allowing Brett Huber to close out the game for the save, as the Rebels shutout the Arkansas Razorbacks 2-0. That victory is the only third SEC shutout the Rebels have had all year. Huber's save, his 28th on his career, puts him atop the Ole Miss leaderboard alongside Stephen Head in that category all time. So, really, all sorts of milestones were reached.

So Mississippi State advances and Ole Miss and LSU are left to face each other. It's like the worst case scenario for Ole Miss fans ever. Our options were to lose to LSU or lose to State, or beat one just to face the other.

Today at, you guessed it, 9:30 AM central, the Rebels will face the Tigers. For LSU, they should feel comfortable today as they are starting Kevin Gausman - a surefire first round type of prospect - against our much maligned TBD. Poor TBD. Guy can't catch a break. RJ Hively, the guy we would typically see in this situation, is feeing some soreness in his arm, so he is questionable. If that lingers, we're guessing that the Rebels are going to do their best to piecemeal some sort of pitching rotation together by starting Dylan Chavez and unloading the bullpen early and often. Tanner Bailey. Don't get shelled out there, Tanner.

So here it is, rebumped for all of you. Open thread away.

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Vanderbilt sweeps Ole Miss, rolls into SEC baseball tournament | The Tennessean
It was embarrassing. What else do you need to know?

UK Opens SEC Tourney with Ole Miss Tuesday | UKAthletics.com
Did you know that Kentucky has never finished higher than fifth in the SEC Baseball tournament? I just learned that from this link. I am also reminded of Michael Gurrero's walk-off homer against Kentucky in the tournament four years ago. I was there. We were told, over the PA system, to stop dancing on top of the dugout. It was fun.

Numbers game: manufacturing runs (or not) | Ole Miss sports
Hugh Kellenburger's looking at this team's baseball stats to conclude something about this team that could help us better understand its fortunes in this 2012 season, and after parsing through the numbers he's able to conclude what the fans have already guessed - this team is, regarding offense, a boom or a bust. We're either cranking out multiple-run homers or we're grounding into double plays.

Men’s tennis defeats Ole Miss and Ohio State to set up Final Four match against USC | The Daily Bruin
Our number 13-ranked Men's tennis team fought hard in the NCAA tournament, working their way to the Sweet Sixteen, but feel to the mighty UCLA Bruins in Athens this past Saturday. We raise our cup to the tennis team, though, because they're a) nationally ranked and b) were actually participating in the NCAA's postseason. Kudos, gents.

Ole Miss Lands Massive DT Recruit Herbert Moore | SBNation.com
Bud Elliot, SB Nation's recruiting guru, thinks this is a good pickup for our Rebels. Herbert Moore, a gargantuan defensive lineman out of Memphis East committed to Coach Freeze and staff this past weekend. He reportedly holds offers from Clemson, Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina, Purdue and Vanderbilt. Of note here is his listed weight of 325 pounds, which is actually the product of him making a concerted effort to get in shape and lose weight. If Moore keeps losing weight, he could add some agility and quickness to is already strong set of skills. If this and all other commitments hold, and assuming a "can't miss" type of prospect doesn't fall in our lap at the position, this should wind out the coaching staff's recruitment of defensive tackles - pretty impressive, considering that it's not even June.

Rebel recruiting going coast to coast | The Clarion-Ledger
Hugh Freeze's recruiting strategy isn't all that different from Ed Orgeron's: get your name out there early and often to any and every player you're interested in. While he is recruiting the Memphis area and Mississippi very heavily, Freeze is also looking beyond Mississippi and the Deep South in general for his 'croots. His ultimate goal is to strengthen Ole Miss' national image and brand in a way that positively impacts recruiting during his entire tenure as head coach, however long that may be.

Thanks to the SEC's baseball tournament format change, enacted in the wake of the conference's recent expansion from 12 to 14 teams, the Ole Miss Rebels will be a part of the festivities in Hoover as the number nine overall seed* in spite of losing the final four games of the season in uncharacteristically embarrassing fashion.

After sweeping Tennessee, Ole Miss was in control of its own destiny as far as postseason seeding is concerned. Being that we are Ole Miss and such was a high-ish pressure situation, the team promptly lost to Arkansas State right before being swept by Vanderbilt, finishing the regular season on a bit of a low note. Regardless, though, this team's in the tournament, and here's what you need to know for the first round.

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[We lost again. Whatever.]

[We lost game one 3-0 on the back of a poor offensive showing and, yeah, I'll say it, poor officiating. Complaining about umps is the Ole Miss way, right? Continue the weekend open thread if you feel so inclined.]

The final week of regular season Ole Miss baseball is upon us. The Rebels will travel to Nashville to take on Vandy (26-25, 13-14 SEC) in a series which, as I mentioned in today's The Local Voice column, is crucial to this team's postseason ambitions. The fine folks at Anchor of Gold agree, but from the Commodore perspective. Both teams need wins, and both will be fighting hard for them this weekend.

This series will begin tonight as it is a part of ESPNU's ongoing coverage of the finest brand of baseball in all of collegiate athletics. You have ESPNU, right? If not, your neighbor does. You don't like your neighbor? Then go to a bar or something. Look, the point is that you should watch this, alright?

From the mothership, the probable starters for the weekend are:

THURSDAY, 6:30 P.M. (ESPNU)
VU - T.J. Pecoraro, So., RHP
OM - Bobby Wahl, So., RHP


FRIDAY, 6:30 P.M.
VU - Sam Selman, Jr., LHP
OM - Mike Mayers, So., RHP

SATURDAY, 2:00 P.M.
VU - Kevin Ziomek, So., LHP
OM - TBA

Really looking forward to seeing what TBS has to offer his performance against Tennessee this past weekend.

OPEN THREAD BEGINS NOW

In an effort to make money and show the ACC and Big East how lame they are - but, more importantly, it's the money - the SEC and Big XII have announced a new bowl partnership that would take place during primetime on New Years Day (take THAT, Rose Bowl!) that would pair the champions of each conference in some sort of mega bowl, assuming said champions aren't participants in the BCS National Championship Game. What would that look like? Godfrey breaks it down nicely. Notice that, even in 2003 and 2008, Ole Miss isn't considered for this game. This would basically be a step above the Sugar and Cotton bowls as far as prestige goes, meaning that Hugh Freeze or whoever it is replacing him in three or for years needs to win a metric shit-ton of days to get this program an invite.

This bowl, having just been announced today, still has a lot of kinks to work out and details to nail down before it goes live this upcoming January. It doesn't yet have a television contract worked out, which is pretty awesome considering the fact that the league offices have already decided that this will be on a certain date at a certain time. Somebody's gonna pick it up and make some coin off of it because this is going to have a massive television audience, and the league offices know that to the point that they are the ones setting the date and time of the broadcast.

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[ED: Press time on this was before we lost to Arkansas State, so read this as if I both assumed we won and didn't care at all to mention said outcome.]

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Coming off of a sweep of the (bad) Tennessee Volunteers and in a position to improve its postseason stock, one would think the nationally ranked Ole Miss Rebels would make mincemeat out of a mediocre Sun Belt team during an otherwise non-noteworthy midweek matchup. Instead, they lost by five runs to Arkansas State last night, sucking some wind out of their post-sweep sails and failing to avoid an easy RPI damaging trap.

If you, like me, said "well, that figures" or "WAOM" or, really, anything along those lines of self-deprecation and honest awareness, then you too have noticed that this baseball program has shown an continued inability to defeat even inferior opponents when something significant is on the line. Furthermore, this team has been especially bad this season at winning close-fought contests, oftentimes losing late via sudden bouts of ineptitude or the inability to seize victory when it presents itself.

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Baseball Vols out of SEC hunt thanks to Ole Miss Rebels | Timesfreepress.com
We at the Cup are thoroughly pleased with the Rebels getting a long-overdue SEC sweep over the Tennessee Volunteers this past weekend. We're especially pleased with the performance on Saturday, which saw the Rebels overcome a late two-run deficit by forcing extra innings in the bottom of the ninth off of a Sikes Orvis home run before winning on a three-run Matt Snyder walkoff shot. We've seen this team collapse under pressure several times this season, making Saturday's victory both unexpected and incredibly exciting.

The Rebs have one final series this weekend in SEC play as they travel to Nashville to take on Vanderbilt. Then it's on to Hoover.

Kicking it with Ole Miss' Mike Marry | SEC Blog - ESPN
ESPN's Edward Aschoff talks to linebacker Mike Marry about the defensive outlook for the fall. Naturally, Marry's confident in the team's abilities to the point of proclaiming a 2012 unit that is much improved over its 2011 counterpart. What I do find interesting in this discussion is the focus on the gameplan of Dave Wommack, a gameplan that is largely focused on a continuing variety of formations being utilized.

Ole Miss adds RB commit Mark Dodson | Hugh
Hugh Freeze has landed yet another prized recruit from a state not named Mississippi in Memphis running back Mark Dodson. Dodson's four-star prospect per Rivals and is listed as one of the top all-purpose backs in the country by the same service.

Ole Miss star RB Brandon Bolden sees fractured ankle cripple him in draft | BostonHerald.com
Get it? It "crippled" him in the draft? Get iiiittttt?

How Sweet It Is | OLEMISSSPORTS.COM
The Ole Miss Rebel mens tennis team has earned the programs 19th berth in the Sweet Sixteen. They'll soon travel to Athens, Georgia to face, yet again, UCLA. I don't know how we always seem to be up against UCLA in the NCAA tennis tournaments, but whatever. Congrats to the netters and best of luck against the Bruins.

The last 2012 home weekend at Swayze Field before the postseason (no, I didn't keep a straight face while typing that) is upon us, as the Tennessee Volunteers travel to our fair Mississippian hamlet to take on our Diamond Rebels. Tennessee isn't so much a "good" baseball team this year, with a 24-24 record overall and an 8-16 record in conference. The Rebels will be crossing their fingers really hard and hoping for their first sweep of the season, the only scenario that could get the Rebels back to a +.500 record in SEC play leading into the final series of the season at Vanderbilt.

Offensively, Tennessee is led by Will Maddox. I know that batting average is a somewhat misleading statistic in that it only tells part of the story, but he's the only guy on the team with a batting average over .300. As a team, they bat .255 which is, like, really bad. A guy named Drew Steckenrider leads them in home runs with six, which means that they're not a particularly powerful team either. Statistically, they're about as good as Mississippi State at the plate.

What makes them much, much worse than Mississippi State, though (remember, State took a series from us, and it sucked) is the fact that they don't really have much in the way of pitching. Their team ERA is 4.29, which is only better than Vanderbilt and Alabama in that category. Tonight they'll bring out lefty Dalton Saberhagan, who is 5-1. That, alone, is misleading though, because Saberhagan's work has been mostly in relief (that's right, Tennessee doesn't have a consistent Friday starter), as he's only started once and pitched just 24.2 innings this season. He has 12 strikeouts with 13 walks, to boot, so maybe he can't throw strikes.

Then again, maybe he'll blank us. Who knows at this point.

On Saturday they'll pitch sophomore Nick Williams. On Sunday, they too will pitch TBD. I don't know how TBD plans to bitch pitch (whoops) for both Ole Miss and Tennessee, but I'm guessing they'll make it work out somehow.

Game times are Friday at 6:30 PM, Saturday at 4:00 PM, and Sunday at 1:30 PM. Saturday's game should be on television so check your local listings. OPEN THREAD is below.