Hugh Freeze left Arkansas State in December 2011 for Mississippi, but the Red Wolves are still on the mind of Rebels coach.
Freeze led ASU to a Sun Belt Conference championship in 2011, his one season as the Red Wolves’ head coach, before taking the Rebels’ coaching position.
“I will always follow them,” Freeze said before the Ole Miss Rebel Road Trip alumni event at Whole Hog Cafe in Little Rock on Monday morning. “That’s a dear place to me. They gave me my first job. We were able to have the first team there to go undefeated in conference play and win a conference championship.
“Those kids have carried it on, regardless of the coaching change. I know in my heart of my hearts I’ve benefited from the job the kids did. That’s difficult, leaving a program when you know that the kids gave you the possibility of advancing yourself.
“I’m very close to Gov. Beebe. The Arkansas State administration and the kids that I’ve recruited that are still there. I wish them nothing but the best. The fans are awesome.”
In two years at Ole Miss, Freeze has led the Rebels to two consecutive bowl victories - the BBVA Compass Bowl in January 2013 against Pittsburgh and the Music City Bowl last season against Georgia Tech. Freeze, 44, is 15-11 at Ole Miss and went 10-2 in his only season at ASU in 2011.
“I think we’re way ahead of schedule,” Freeze said. “I didn’t anticipate us going to a bowl game until year three. I said from Day 1 that it would take us three full recruiting cycles until we have a SEC depth chart. We’ve had two. We’re still a little ways away, but we’re ahead of schedule.”
Joining Freeze on Monday at the Rebels’ alumni event were men’s basketball coach Andy Kennedy and Athletic Director Ross Bjork. Bjork said that there are 870 Ole Miss alumni currently living in central Arkansas and that was a selling point for the Rebels athletic department to visit Little Rock on its tour, which also features stops in Texas, Tennessee and Mississippi.
“We have a great group of alumni who are passionate. We play here frequently when we play Arkansas,” Bjork said, referring to the Rebels’ football games against the Razorbacks at War Memorial Stadium. “We felt like it’s our obligation [to come to Little Rock] because we’re always asking people to come to us. We should go to them. We chose Little Rock because it’s strategic and it’s close.
“We wanted to bring our coaches and spread the Ole Miss cheer.”
Kennedy recently completed his eighth season at Ole Miss. The Rebels went 19-14 (9-9 SEC) and missed the postseason after advancing to the third round in the 2013 NCAA Tournament.
Before speaking at the event, Kennedy complimented the SEC on its postseason success in 2014.
Two teams from the SEC (Florida and Kentucky)reached the Final Four and a third, Tennessee, advanced to the Sweet 16.
That success, Kennedy believes, justified the SEC’s reputation as a strong basketball conference.
“I’m not a big conspiracy theorist,” Kennedy said. “But I do think because of our football brethren and how they dominate the landscape when it comes to college football, I do think people get tired of talking about the SEC. As they segue into basketball, it’s easy to focus on other conferences, to other parts of the country and quite frankly, undersell our product.
“You’ve got a team in Tennessee that was similar to Arkansas. First four out, first four in. It’s a position we’ve been in a lot. They’re two points away from advancing to the Elite Eight. … If that happens in another league, they talk about parity. But if it happens in our league, they talk about how it’s a down year. It’s ridiculous and it’s my hope that with what those three teams did in the postseason that it sheds a new light and respect for what our conference deserves.”
Sports, Pages 23 on 04/15/2014