Team preview: Ole Miss

Blue Ribbon Illustrated previews the 2005-06 college basketball season, exclusively on Insider.

Updated: October 18, 2005, 12:19 PM ET
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(Information in this team report is as of October 1.)

COACH AND PROGRAM

Given the way the Ole Miss administration had dealt with its football program four months before, it would have surprised no one had basketball coach Rod Barnes been sent packing at the end of last season.

Despite five winning seasons in his first five years, football coach David Cutcliffe was fired after the 2004 team, minus quarterback Eli Manning, stumbled to a 4-7 record. Cutcliffe's surprising demise came just a year after he led the Rebels to a 10-3 record and a Cotton Bowl appearance.

If anything, Barnes' fate seemed more certain than Cutcliffe's.


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