Ole Miss will host its seventh regional in twelve years. The Rebels gathered in the Diamond Club seating area to watch find out their fate. Ole Miss will host No. 2 seed Tulane (39-19, 15-7), No. 3 Seed Boston College (31-20, 13-15), and N0. 4 seed Utah (25-27, 18-11). The Utes were the PAC 12 regular season champions.
“We’re excited,” Brady Bramlett said. “Postseason at Swayze regardless of a national seed or if it is just a regional host, it will be the best in the country.”
Ole Miss finished the regular season with 40-16, and 18-12 in SEC play. Ole Miss was thought by many analysts to be right in the thick of things for one of the final national seed spots, but in the end was edged by LSU and Clemson.
“I thought we deserved it,” Errol Robinson said. “I thought we did enough to increase the wins and our resumé this year, and it’s disappointing, but that’s not really in our hands. We did everything in our power to become a national seed, but things didn’t go our way. Now we can just control what we can control, and go out there and gets some wins.”
“I thought the committee did a good job,” Mike Bianco said. “When you look at the 16 teams they picked to host, I think they picked the best 16. I think they rewarded the teams that had the best season, and I think with the eight (national seeds). Unfortunately for us, I think it was probably really close, but we weren’t one of the eight. I think we could have been, but I think now, you can’t be disappointed.”
Ole Miss also got a fairly tough draw in who it will be hosting this week. Tulane has 39 wins, an RPI of 29, beat LSU twice and were the American Athletic Conference regular season champions. After a 6-16 out of conference showing, Utah went 18-11 in PAC 12 play and won that league as well.
“Wow, to host a regional and be the number one seed and play the PAC 12 champion out of the gate, regardless of RPI and record, they’re really good,” Bianco said. “I’m sure like a lot of teams that are hosting, you feel that your regional is really strong.”
The Rebels are paired with the Coral Gables regional hosted Miami, the no. 3 overall national seed.
Regional play will begin Friday June 3. Ole Miss plays Utah at 7 p.m.
