12: Mississippi
A high-flying forward named Su has the new-look Rebels
thinking
big
 When Rob Evans took over as Mississippi coach five years ago, he
inherited a little office that had bare cinder-block walls.
He spruced up the place with navy wallpaper, a huge
wooden bookcase and a leather couch. This season he's
taking the next step: He's moving
to more spacious digs, part of a new suite of basketball
offices being built at Tad Smith
Coliseum.
The Ole Miss program has undergone a similar upgrade during
Evans's tenure. Back in the bare-walls days, the Rebels
struggled against Division II teams like Abilene Christian
and Oakland University. Last season they went 20-9,
surfaced in the Top 25 for
the first time, beat Kentucky for the first time in seven
years, won the Southeastern Conference's Western Division
and got an NCAA tournament bid. Evans has all five starters
back and only one significant concern: finding enough
playing time for his
subs. "For so long around here, basketball season came
and everything was negative," Evans says. "This
year people have talked about basketball all summer and all
fall. It's what I envisioned when I came
here."
The player most responsible for the upswing? A man named
Su. Ansu Sesay (pronounced ANN-sue SEE-say) is his full
name, but Su is what his teammates call him and what you'll
hear Rebel fans howling at games. "Not only is he a
great athlete, he's also a
great listener and learner," Evans says of the
6'9" forward from Houston.
Last season, as a junior, Sesay was named first-team
All-SEC after averaging 14.8 points and 7.9 rebounds per
game. He ranked among the top 10 in the league in four
categories. "He's a leader, a hard worker, unselfish,
a people person," says
clutch-shooting senior sixth man Joezon Darby. "He's really been a
brother to
me."
Evans fosters that family feeling. He requires each player
to stop by his little office daily, just to chat. Sometimes
it's a one-on-one discussion about girlfriend troubles; at
other times there are 10 players shooting the breeze in
Evans's cramped
quarters. (This is where the new, larger office will really
come in handy.) The players got even closer in May when
they spent 11 days touring Australia, winning all five of
their games against Aussie club teams. "If you don't
have a close bond, I don't
think you can call yourselves a team," Sesay says.
"You really wouldn't be getting anything out of it,
except just
basketball."
|
Last Year | 20-9 |
|
Returning Starters | 5 |
| Points Per Game '96-97 | 69.0 |
| PPG By All Returning Players | 67.4 | The Rebels had grown so tight by the end of last season
that Evans turned down a more lucrative job offer from
Louisiana State because he couldn't bear to leave his
players. "We had asked them for their loyalty,"
Evans says, "and for me to leave them at
that time in their lives for more money would have been
phony."
Instead he'll start his sixth season in Oxford with a team
that's for real.
—Dana Gelin
Next: UNC Charlotte
|
