STARKVILLE — There’s no such thing as a must-win game in mid-January of a Southeastern Conference basketball season that goes well into March. That doesn’t mean it can’t sometimes seem that way.

Ask Mississippi State coach Chris Jans, whose Bulldogs entered Saturday night’s game with arch-rival Ole Miss having lost two straight games and facing the Rebels, who were a perfect 4-0 in the SEC coming in. In Jans’ press conference afterward, we did.

“Well, I didn’t tell our team it was a must-win game, but internally it certainly felt that way for me. We badly needed to win,” Jans answered after a grueling, 84-81 overtime State victory. Jans’ voice was noticeably raspy from two hours and 45 minutes of nearly constant yelling.

There are at least two more extenuating circumstances of why this one seemed so vitally important. First, State goes back on the road for two more games this week, beginning Tuesday night with No. 6 Tennessee in Knoxville. Nobody wants to take a three-game losing streak to a place like Thompson-Boling Arena. Second, well, this was Ole Miss, the team Mississippi State folks most love to despise.

A raucous, largely partisan, standing room only crowd of 9,444 packed The Hump, yelling maroon murder. Most probably left the arena with raspy voices, too.

State rode that tidal wave of emotion early. On their first possession, the Bulldogs retrieved two offensive rebounds before scoring the game’s first bucket. And that rebounding dominance would be a recurring theme throughout. In an overtime game, eventually decided by three points, the Bulldogs outscored the Rebels 19-6 on second-chance (and third chance) baskets, out-rebounded the Rebels a whopping 51-29, and out-scored Ole Miss in the paint 40-24.

In a game with so many ups and downs and twists and turns, there’s a danger of over-complicating what caused the final result. In this one, there shouldn’t be. The closer the ball got to the basket, the more State dominated play. You look at those rebounding and the in-the-paint numbers and you ask yourself: How the heck was it that close?

It was that close because Ole Miss simply wouldn’t go away. The Rebels got behind 11-0 before they finally scored. They trailed 14-2 early and by as many as 14 in the first half. At the risk of using verbs TV announcers have worn completely out, Chris Beard’s Rebels scratched and clawed their way back into the game and stayed within striking distance throughout. They did so with a suffocating on-ball defense that forced 16 State turnovers. How do you overcome a 40-24 point differential in the paint? Mostly by out-scoring your opponent 14-3 in points off turnovers.

“That’s what Ole Miss does,” Jans said. “They turn you over.”

There is one striking similarity between the two teams. Both guard you as if their mothers’ lives depend on the outcome. Both teams play exceedingly hard.

Although Ole Miss has won 15 of its first 18 games, Beard has fretted often about his team’s rebounding woes. The Rebels had been much better in that regard in their first three SEC games, mainly because 6-foot-9, 240-pound Malik Dia had stepped up his play in January, averaging just over 10 rebounds per game. Against State, Dia got only one offensive rebound, two rebounds total. Compare that to State’s Keyshawn Murphy and Cameron Matthews, both of whom pulled down 11 rebounds.

Beard refused to lay blame on Dia. “It’s a team game,” he said, while allowing, “We do need Dia to play better.”

Instead, Beard pointed to three factors he said led to defeat. First, he said, was State’s fast start and early dominance, which he termed “unacceptable.” Secondly, as Beard put it, “They made more free throws (17 of 28) than we shot (8 of 14).” Beard didn’t blame officiating. “They were more aggressive going to the basket than we were,” he said. And, third, of course, the rebounding. “They were more physical than we were,” Beard correctly said.

In such a grinding, topsy-turvy game, it’s difficult to point out any one play that stood out, especially when the last 90 seconds of overtime took 17 minutes to finish. (In keeping with the officials’ style, I’ll take five minutes to review each sentence of this column upon its completion.)

But if you were going to point out one deciding play, it would be this one. With Ole Miss leading 77-76 late in overtime, the Rebels’ Matthew Murrell appeared about to score a break-away layup to put the Rebels up by three. Instead, RJ Melendez ran him down from behind, leaped and swatted the ball against the backboard for a clean block. State quickly pushed the ball the other way and Matthews spotted Riley Kugel in the left corner for a wide open three-ball, which Kugel, the game’s leading scorer with 21 points, swished.

Instead of being down by 3, the Bulldogs were suddenly up by two. They finished.

Important to remember: This was just Round 5 of an 18-round SEC schedule for both teams. Many peaks, valleys and potholes will play out over the next six weeks. What we know is this: Both State and Ole Miss are two really competent teams that play in the nation’s most competitive basketball league.

Both have the potential to play beyond the regular season and the SEC Tournament. And a reminder: These two teams go at it again Feb. 15, the day after Valentine’s Day, at Oxford. Again, there will be no love lost.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Gov. Tate Reeves and members of the state’s Republican leadership should send President Joe Biden a thank you card as he leaves office.

After all, the plans of Reeves and others to eliminate the state income tax, which accounts for about 30% of the state general fund revenue, would not appear nearly as doable if not for the actions of the outgoing president.

No doubt, the tremendous cash surpluses that Reeves and other state Republicans cite when defending their plan to eliminate the state’s income tax would not exist if not for the billions of dollars in federal funds that have been pumped into the state during Biden’s presidential tenure. Economists agree that those billions greatly boosted the Mississippi economy, leading to a record spike in state revenue collections.

Reeves and other Republican leaders sound an awful like the turtle bragging for being on top of the fence post and not acknowledging he surely had help in reaching that lofty position.

The American Rescue Plan Act, which was passed during the Biden presidency, provided $3.5 billion in direct funding to state and local governments and educational entities in Mississippi as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. That money is still being spent in the state, growing the economy and hence growing state revenue.

And that $3.5 billion does not even take into account cash payments made directly to Mississippi people and businesses. It also does not take into account other programs, such as enhanced federal subsidies to help Mississippians purchase health insurance.

Further, economic development projects that Reeves and other leaders boast are being built in Mississippi at least in part because of tax incentives offered in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. These projects taking advantage of the tax breaks include the manufacturer of electric batteries for commercial vehicles in Marshall County, and the massive data centers planned in Madison and Lauderdale counties coupled with the solar farms that are part of those projects.

And even beyond those other listed initiatives, Biden’s historic infrastructure bill will provide Mississippi an estimated $4.4 billion, including $100 million for broadband expansion that Reeves and others often tout.

This past summer, House Speaker Jason White hosted a summit to tout his efforts to eliminate the income tax. There, Senate Finance Chair Josh Harkins, R-Flowood, acknowledged that he and other state leaders had help building those cash surpluses just as the turtle had help reaching the top of the fence post.

Harkins pointed out that the state, its citizens and businesses received about $33 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds that have artificially bolstered state revenue. He said time might be needed to look at the financial condition of the state after the impact of those COVID-19 funds had faded.

Even recent years of high inflation, which Reeves and other Republican leaders repeatedly blame on Biden, have helped bolster state revenue collections that have led to the record surpluses.

Mississippi has a high sales tax, including a high sales tax on groceries. When the cost of a dozen eggs or any other retail items goes up, that results in more sales tax revenue for the state.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the 7% sales tax on a dozen eggs costing $4.30 instead of $3 generates more revenue for the state.

So if Reeves and other Republicans prevail in eliminating the state income tax this year, they should join hands, face northward, and shout a resounding, “Thanks, Joe Biden!”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Jan. 18, 1962

Officials at Southern University at Baton Rouge, Louisiana — under pressure from the state — closed the doors after students protested those kicked out of school for taking part in sit-ins. 

State police occupied the campus to try and end these protests, and when SNCC field secretary Dion Diamond tried to meet with students, police jailed him on charges of criminal anarchy for “attempting to overthrow the state of Louisiana.” 

The white guards told Black inmates if they gave Diamond a difficult time, “you may get time off for good behavior,” he recalled. After the guards left, the inmates promised to protect him instead. He wound up serving 60 days in jail before being released. 

He was only 15 when he began his activism, sitting at “whites-only” lunch counters. When he was involved in a 1960 sit-in in Arlington, Virginia, American Nazi leader George Rockwell spewed insults at him. 

In May 1961, he became a Freedom Rider. He said he was thinking it might be a long weekend; instead it turned out to be two and a half years. After he and other riders arrived in Jackson, Mississippi, where they were arrested and sent to the state’s worst prison, Parchman, because the city ran out of jail space. 

In all, Diamond was arrested about 30 times. He remains grateful for the experience. “Any time I pick up a historical publication,” he told NPR, “I feel as if a period or a comma in that book is my contribution.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.