scuba diving fiji

(intense music) - [narrator] new faces don'tmean different expectations. this andy kennedy squadhas always had one goal, and that's to take the next step. - [announcer] shot clock down to five, burdett tryin' to get to the rim lay's it up on theglass, tipped in by saiz. (applause) they get it in to jeroh,loses his balance,

he can't foul and helost, they didn't call it, it's off the backboard,it does not matter, ole miss comes frombehind and wins 90 to 88. - [narrator] with two tightwins to open the season, that next step is ata place far from home. and what's in store for this team is undoubtedly an experiencethey will never forget. - hey bre, come with cj. hey do you realize you're not jumpin'?

do you realize you are? i think you should, likeif you watch dre, watch. watch his legs, heexplodes, he jumps high. and for you, i thinkyou're a jump shooter, you know what i mean? like when you're shootingthrees, you're exploding into it. some guys are set shooters wherethey don't even barely jump and they use their arm and their wrist. - [narrator] every youngteam's first goal of the season

is to find its identity, quickly. with over half of theplayers being newcomers, that means a lot of work. luckily or this young team,they have a young leader who has been there, done that. - [announcer] on the offensiveles curtis out to abernathy. todd abernathy it seems hasbeen at ole miss, it seems-- - [commentator] i think seven,eight years, maybe a decade. (laughing)

- [narrator] assistantcoach todd abernathy has a long history withinole miss basketball. a fan favorite during his playing time, abernathy finished his playing career under then-first yearhead coach andy kennedy so it would go without saying abernathy was a perfect fit for comingback and coaching at ole miss. - the biggest key honestlyfor this trip is you guys. if we carry over thethings that we practice,

that we've been practicing since august, we can beat anybody here. one of our biggest issues is trust, okay? i was asking some of the guys, hey why are you looking around when you're guardingthe ball, and they said well we're afraid thebigs aren't gonna call it. communicate, be loud. the great thing about this place,

there ain't gonna be a lot ofpeople there so you're gonna be able to hear eachother, hear us as coaches. about oral roberts, they're one in one, their first game of the season they played baylor and they lost by 15. what they want to do though,they want to play inside out. they have three bigs that are really good. and for example against baylor, they scored 38 points in the paint.

now this is their guy. averaging 16 shots a game,he is a left handed beast. he wants to get to hisleft hand every time. check this out, he made27 jump hooks last year. so bigs, you gotta do your work early, if he gets position,there's nothing you can do. kinda like the kid from umass. so do your work early andthen shade on his right side, forcing him, make him go right.

- we got a game plan, weknow what we're doing. let's load up and go man. - let's go baby. - [narrator] being away fromhome is tough for anyone. and for parents with newborns, that sentiment is only more true. - we got an eight month old boy, i think my wife is struggling leaving him, she hasn't been away from him, so.

i go recruiting a lot and so i'm used to kinda being away a couple days, but i know for my wifeit's gonna be a big deal. - it's hard. - but i think it's much needed, right? - i guess. (laughing) when i'm on the beach i'll probably agree. - that's right, that's right. (airplane signal sound)

- [pilot] ladies andgentlemen welcome to st thomas where the local time isapproximately 10:13 pm. use caution when opening overhead bins as some items may haveshifted during flight. welcome to st thomas. - [narrator] it's an exciting experience travelling to somewhere asbeautiful as the virgin islands. but excitement can beseen as a distraction, and for this ole miss teamit's always business first.

(whistle blowing) (yelling) - two, nothing wrong with that! - good, good, good. - [narrator] but of course it doesn't hurt to dip your feet in every once in a while. (upbeat trumpet music) - hey do me! - hey!

you know what i'm doing to you. - you gotta take a dive now. - getting in the water now. - [narrator] it was americanpoet ee cummings that once said it's always ourselves we find in the sea, so it's fitting that cullenneal's journey to ole miss begins here in the virgin islands. - the coach's kid is going somewhere else. unm guard cullen nealsays he's transferring

and won't play for the lobos next year. - [narrator] the junior transfer was new mexico's 2012 mr basketball and gatorade player of the year. the high honors for the high schooler led him to play for theuniversity of new mexico under his father, craig neal. his freshman year, he played in both the mountain west title gameand the ncaa tournament.

now with his degree from new mexico and two years ofeligibility left, neal opted to come play for his father'slong time friend andy kennedy. - it was just time for me tomove on and find another school and luckily enough ole miss became home. i think i just need to lead this team. i'm the point guard for the team, so i need to make sureeverybody's in the right spots and i need to just be overallplaymaker on the floor.

my teammates are family, so, we're two and oh and we justwant to keep going forward. (ocean waves) - [announcer] there's amistake for oral roberts off the pressure from ole miss. (buzzer) burnett with a step back, ties the game. and why not, burnett. 37 points, he's knocked out nine of twelve

from beyond the arc. 79 apiece after olemiss scores five points in the blink of an eye. - showboat's important, tip's important. - [announcer] this is the way the season's going to continue to go for ole miss. this is going to be aheart-stopping year for their fans. brooks with a three. that gets us going here in overtime.

and there he is on the defensive end couldn't get to it though,it's blocked by saiz, falls to saiz, the tip's there for hymon, and it's an eight point game. - [commentator] wellhymon's been a huge impact here in the second half in overtime. - [announcer] here's neal, quick release and a four point lead. - [commentator] that newmexico transfer's been quiet,

hit one in the firsthalf, but a huge trip. - [announcer] there's thatsmile that his mom says is back on his face now that he's in a new setting here in oxford. two on one, burnett to brooks,burnett with the follow. burnett saves the day for ole miss, they stave off the upsetbid from oral roberts. it's not enough to offset atournament record 41 points and nine threes, from thenext great volume scorer,

at least that's what it looks to be for andy kennedy and the rebels. - we gotta stay togetherthough, together on three. one, two, three, together. - snap thought you snap though bro. - he just told me to stay in it, he was yellin at me basicallytellin' me to stay in it. and that's what i did. the play gonna come, he waslike the play is comin',

you fine to step up and make a big shot. and that's what happened, istepped up and made a three. - and i told dre, dre didn'tthink we was gonna win two straight games,these two straight games and i told dre he was gonnamake a play to win the game. - what, i had it right here at my ear. pinpoint accuracy. - but do you see what your base look like? - what you mean i did this,

i don't need to have to do all of that. soon as i take the shot, i'm runnin' it, i don't pass, that's just the fate. - set, red 18, red 18 go. - i didn't get to that,i didn't get to that because i only played little league. we didn't do all that, wejust said down, set, hut. (upbeat music) - so next up, it's getting kinda late,

you know we have a game tomorrow. so now got some cold cutsjust gonna go to bed now. what about this dude overhere, over here climbing. goodnight! - [announcer] ole miss pullsaway in the second half, they did it with a strongrun to open the half. opening up leads as large as 16 and never let st joe'smuch closer than that. good win for ole miss.

first time in four gamesthis year that andy kennedy hasn't had to sweat itout there at the end. his rebels learned to win tight games, today learned to put a team away. - i was about to get hot,i'm talking sesame chicken. i'm about to go dre for 41. - you look exhausted. does he not look exhausted? - i told andrew i fellasleep before the game.

- i told you bro that rare steak, you can't get sick offrare steak, yes you can! - huge second half man, huge second half. now don't be satisfied. let's go get us a championship, let's go get us a championship alright? (cheering) (seagulls) - [narrator] travelling is always

an opportunity for new experiences. for many players on this team, that means getting to do thingsthey'd never done before. - so we about to goscuba diving, let's go. - i mean it's been amazing, idon't know if you can see it but straight over this is like paradise. i've never been to anything like this, so just coming out here with my brothers it's just like making us closer.

- [narrator] this maybe the first time brooks has gotten his sea legs underhim, but on the hardwood, this senior is no stranger to big moments. - [announcer] brooks withthe ball fake, he answers! - [narrator] a junior college transfer, brooks follows in the wake ofother ole miss jc transfers including stefan moodyand marshall henderson. in his debut season at ole miss, he averaged nearly ten points per game

and became a key role playerfor head coach andy kennedy. now in his senior year, he hasbecome the emotional leader of this young and verydifferent kind of team. - coming into thistournament, we just wanted to kinda find ourselves, see who we are. the first two games wereclose so we still tryin' to get better from thoseand tryin' to find ourselves as a team and find ouridentity and get better. try to win it all and go home

with a little more confidencethan we had coming in here. i feel like my hair is blowingin the breeze right now. oh i'm'a get some amazingcuts, this is what i do, i was built for this. i'm going in baby! (caribbean music) this is heaven on earth man. this is a crazy crazy experience. hey i'm enjoying it too.

- alright he's going topush you through, boom, go. lift on me, throw, boom. - [narrator] playing threegames in a single weekend can be a tall order forany basketball player. so while the team is notpracticing on the court, it's still on assistantcoach bill armstrong to prepare the team foranything they might see in the championship game. - i don't want to overwhelmyou with all their actions.

everything they do, they do it hard, they run their stuff, we gottabe true to our principles. we gotta be, communicate, help each other, be off to the ball, we'regonna switch one through four. one through four ball'sgreat for switching, 'cause all those fours can shoot. ball's over the top big'sdon't let him attack you, counter attack him, but useyour length, get your hands up, don't let him throw any lobs on us.

we gotta play extremelyhard and we cannot relax. - one way to keep that thingto getting lobbed on you is if he comes off on that ball spring, opposite guard just get in his path, you can't just whensomebody's in your path. ball's coming up, i'm off, just helping, get in his path so he can't. - don't be so close to him man, not pressure him, gap him, gap him.

make sure you keep him in front. talk it through, talk it through. keep him in front, keep him in front. good good good, that's theway to talk through it. get back, back, everybody back. - let's go jays, let's go jays! - if your mindset ain't we for the win, don't leave this locker room. (clapping)

they ain't got no ak over there. all that work we put in, we got it. - [announcer] ole miss looks for it's biggest non conference victory ever. never beaten a team rankedthis high, out of conference and if they can pull offthe upset here today, it'll give them the championship of the us virgin island paradise jam. jumps into a doubleteam, dribbles out of it.

hurls it over to brooks,he sizes up for three. got it, brooks! brooks loses a handle for a moment, now sends it on the right to eustis who drives hard to the lanewith the one-handed hammer. hoo, eustis! davis on the right side to brooks, free ball on the way, it's good. oh there's your irrational confidence.

one of those don't youdare take that shot, it doesn't even touch the rim. zern is all up in burnett's grill, he steps back, a bad shot, but eustis just gets the offense support free ball, all the wayfrom burnett it's good. rebels crashing the glass. davis now drives the lane left side, puts it up and scores and he's fouled.

creighton poster drives the lane, puts up another and scores. timeout andy kennedy asthe blue jays faithful comes to its feet. three seconds to go, burnetthas his pocket picked by watson, a runner atthe buzzer, no good. oh my goodness, the olemiss rebels put together a whale of a first half and they lead number 12 creighton, 46 to 40.

- if you drive they scared of you. i'm gonna tell you whatit is, but we gotta guard. if we guard, the offensegonna come, we can score. hey let's get it baby! business on three, onetwo three, business. - [narrator] in a trip thatwas defined by identity, the rebels were 20 minutesaway from knowing theirs. had the rebels finally found the spark that makes them a great team,

or is there still work to be done? whatever the case, the12th ranked blue jays weren't done chirping. - [announcer] furmanaviciuswho was such a key in the first half off the bench, he'll start this second half with a nifty move on the baseline. - [commentator] oh that was wicked! - [announcer] inbound fromthe corner on our left

it's stolen by burnett, lobbed up to neal, puts it up off the glass and scores with a lay in on the pass break. a ten point lead for ole miss. neal to inbound nearsidebaseline, saiz, neal, quarter three on the way,they needed three they got it! austin hayes did a greatjob to stay with him and it didn't matter,foster's up to 23 now. (intense upbeat music)

- [narrator] with the olemiss lead down to just one, creighton has proven why they were the fastest scoring team in the nation, and with that momentum on the12 ranked blue jays' side, it was just too much forthe rebels to overcome. - [announcer] burnett with the basketball off the high screen, to the elbow, another jump shot, he nails that one. how about foster savingthat one, out to hegner,

and creighton has come back from 11 down for their first lead since12 minutes in the first half. the blue jays are gonna come away with another early seasontournament victory. they grinded their way there. the blue jays have won the usvirgin islands paradise jam. - it was great down here man. it's hard to win the ship, but you can't win the ship sometimes.

- i think we all had a good time out here, we learned a lot about ourselves, we learned how resilient we are, we learned how good we can be. i'm kinda sad we didn'tget out here with a dub, but nobody's gonna go undefeated, so. - it was a pretty good weekend, would have been better if we got the win. but we goin' in the rightdirection as far as what's next,

so learn from this losshere and just be ready for what's coming next.