Speaking of that: Let's pack the Pad one last time

I sit down to write this column in the library. I have two hours until it is due.

I need to check some basketball stats online, so I click on Safari and this new “Network Access Logon” window opens up. I type in my Web ID and password, and instead of being directed to the “Experience Amazing” Ole Miss homepage, I get a message that says I need to install the Clean Access Agent.

I think, “who is this agent and why does he need clean access?”

But I install all 4.9 megabytes of him anyway.

I close my browser, as instructed, and click on the Agent’s green icon in my applications folder.

Then, nothing. I double-click. Still nothing. Four clicks, 10 clicks, 28 clicks— nada, zilch.

I click on Safari again, log in again, and lo and behold Mr.Agent wants to be installed again.

So I install him again, click on his icon again. And again, nothing happens.

I got really frustrated and called Weir Hall and end up talking to Ryan at the Helpdesk.

I start telling him what’s going on and he asked, “Mac or PC?” I say Mac. He puts me on hold, and on comes the “Experience Amazing” ad. You know how it goes, “At Ole Miss, students are asking, What if? ... I wonder ... How do we? ...”

All I want to know is how do we get on the Internet at the library.

Ryan is back. “Sir, did you try opening a new browser?”

“Yep, I tried that. It didn’t work.”

“Well, we probably can’t fix this over the phone,” he says. “If you are on campus you can come by the Helpdesk and we can probably get it fixed for you.”

At this point I just want to get started on my column and get on with my day, so I decide to move forward without Ryan, or the stats.

Here goes...

While you were in Destin last week, the Ole Miss men’s basketball team played two of its most impressive games of the season.

They trounced Troy 84-65 and out-muscled Memphis 90-81 in the first two rounds of the National Invitational Tournament (the runt of the two postseason tournaments, but a tournament nonetheless).

With a win over Texas Tech tonight, the No. 2-seeded Rebs will advance to the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden in New York for the second time in three years.

Yeah, I know, we are all bummed the Rebs fell short of making the NCAA Tournament after showing so much promise this season. I left many a game shaking my head in frustration with a pom-pom hanging limp from my fingers.

But ya know what?

For as many times as we gave up on them, the Rebels never gave up.

Riding the hot shooting of Chris Warren, they won four straight games to finish the regular season.

In these last two, Terrico White has been unstoppable, averaging 24 points per game.

It isn’t just White and Warren.

For the first time all year the team is playing like a team. In Friday’s game against Memphis, Zach Graham and Trevor Gaskins were lethal from three-point range. Reginald Buckner, DeAundre Cranston and Murphy Holloway dominated the paint. Terrance Henry and Eniel Polynice made plays all over the court.

Hands down, their best all-around game of the season.

Now, the stage is set. Ole Miss versus Texas Tech at 6 p.m. tonight in the Tad Pad.

Oh, and the game is on ESPN immediately following SportsCenter, which means millions will be tuned in.

What will the student section look like? How loud will it be? It’s all up to us.

I say we pack the Pad one last time and give the team a proper send-off to the Big Apple.

They haven’t quit. So let’s don’t quit on them now when they need us most.