The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss Denied NCAA Tournament Bid
5/27/2002 | Baseball
May 27, 2002
OXFORD, Miss. - Ole Miss' baseball season officially came to a close Monday as the Rebels were not among the 64 teams chosen for this year's NCAA Tournament, which will begin Friday at 16 campus sites across the nation.
Ole Miss finishes the year with a 37-19 record, the fifth highest single-season win total in school history. The Rebels were 14-16 in the Southeastern Conference to finish a half-game behind Arkansas for the eighth and final spot to the SEC Tournament, which hurt Ole Miss' chances at landing one of the at-large spots.
"Of course we're disappointed," said Ole Miss Head Coach Mike Bianco. "The stigma of not being the SEC Tournament hurt us. Although, I feel this team is as good as many that received bids to the NCAA Tournament, we knew the ground rules up front. We needed to play better at the end of the season and we didn't do that."
Ole Miss stood 32-9, including 12-6 in the SEC to trail Alabama by one game in the SEC West, after a 5-2 win over the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa on April 21 completed a 2-1 series win. The series victory also vaulted the Rebels to a No. 6 national ranking. However, Ole Miss would go 5-10 the rest of the way, including 2-10 in the SEC. The Rebels were swept by Arkansas and Mississippi State on the final two weekends of the season as both the Razorbacks and Bulldogs passed Ole Miss for a spot in the SEC Tournament.
Despite the late season slide, the 2002 season is still one of the most successful in the program's history. In addition to being the fifth-highest win total in school history, the 37-win campaign marked Ole Miss' fifth straight 30-win season, the longest string of 30-win seasons in program history. In the process, the Class of 2002 became the first four-year class at Ole Miss to post four consecutive 30-win ledgers.
The Rebels' No. 6 ranking by Baseball America on April 22 was the program's highest since 1972, and Ole Miss was ranked in one of the four major college baseball polls for 16 straight weeks before dropping out of the polls last week.
Ole Miss also set a school record for both total home attendance and average attendance per home game this season. The Rebels drew a total of 84,910 in 36 home dates to smash the previous record of 58,929, set in 2001 during 31 home dates. Ole Miss averaged 2,358 fans per home date to better the previous mark of 2,100 established in 1999.
"I'm disappointed our seniors has to go out this way," Bianco said. "There are a lot of positives that they accomplished, not only in these past two years with me, but over their four years here. They deserve a lot of credit to how far this program has come and the direction it is heading."
In his two seasons at Ole Miss, Bianco has compiled a 76-42-1 record, with the 76 victories marking the best two-year span in school history.
