Associated Press

Ole Miss Rebels (14-2, 3-0 SEC) at Alabama Crimson Tide (14-2, 3-0 SEC)

Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Tuesday, 7 p.m. EST

BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Crimson Tide -11; over/under is 164

BOTTOM LINE: No. 4 Alabama hosts No. 21 Ole Miss after Mark Sears scored 27 points in Alabama’s 94-88 win against the Texas A&M Aggies.

The Crimson Tide are 7-0 in home games. Alabama ranks fourth in the SEC with 39.1 points per game in the paint led by Labaron Philon averaging 7.3.

The Rebels are 3-0 against SEC opponents. Ole Miss ranks sixth in the SEC with 16.0 assists per game led by Jaylen Murray averaging 4.1.

Alabama averages 10.3 made 3-pointers per game, 3.1 more made shots than the 7.2 per game Ole Miss gives up. Ole Miss has shot at a 45.4% clip from the field this season, 4.6 percentage points above the 40.8% shooting opponents of Alabama have averaged.

The matchup Tuesday is the first meeting this season between the two teams in conference play.

TOP PERFORMERS: Sears is averaging 19.1 points and 4.5 assists for the Crimson Tide.

Sean Pedulla is scoring 14.1 points per game with 3.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists for the Rebels.

LAST 10 GAMES: Crimson Tide: 9-1, averaging 92.5 points, 41.1 rebounds, 17.5 assists, 7.7 steals and 4.8 blocks per game while shooting 47.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 78.8 points per game.

Rebels: 8-2, averaging 76.4 points, 30.9 rebounds, 16.1 assists, 9.7 steals and 5.5 blocks per game while shooting 45.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 63.4 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

Gov. Kay Ivey on Monday ordered all flags at the Alabama capitol and state buildings return to full-staff when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated despite President Joe Biden’s order that flags be flown at half-staff to honor the life of former President Jimmy Carter.

Ivey’s order came 10 days after Trump lamented on social media that Democrats would be “all ‘giddy’” that he would be sworn-in with flags at half-staff.

Carter died Dec. 29 at age 100.

Biden ordered flags be flown at half-staff for a 30-day period of mourning that ends on Jan. 30

Ivey said her order, which applies to flags on the grounds of the Alabama State Capitol Complex in Montgomery and at state buildings throughout Alabama, is in accordance with federal law.

“Federal law … enumerates times and occasions for display of the U.S flag, including Inauguration Day, January 20. Accordingly, flags at state buildings in Alabama should be raised to full staff on Monday, January 20, 2025, to honor the inauguration of the new president,” the governor’s order stated.

On Jan. 3, the president-elect said in a Truth Social post that “no American can be happy about it,” referring to the prospect of flags being flown at half-staff for his inauguration.

“The Democrats are all ‘giddy’ about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half mast’ during my Inauguration. They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves,” Trump posted. Look at what they’ve done to our once GREAT America over the past four years – It’s a total mess! In any event, because of the death of President Jimmy Carter, the Flag may, for the first time ever during an Inauguration of a future President, be at half mast. Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Gov. Greg Abbot of Texas was the first governor in the country to order his state’s flags to be raised for Trump’s inauguration.

Kudos to Mr. Lyman.  It takes chutzpah to ask our legislators to consider his 2025 wish list after having called them soul-less barbarians for years.  Yet, legislators would agree wholeheartedly with his final wish, under his “DEI” label: for our teachers “to share the true history of the state, without any vague and mealy language intended to scare people from basic principles of truth and respect.”

Amen to that.  Mr. Lyman being a woke advocate, let’s take a snapshot of that history as it relates to Blacks, the largest class of victims in woke theology.  The 1960s and before was the era of invidious discrimination.  Blacks were like the Israelites in Egypt.  Merit didn’t count.  Black welders, for example, with decades of talent and families to feed, some fresh from two wars welding tanks and airplanes, had to watch less qualified white apprentices walking through factory gates throughout America, taking the jobs the Blacks desperately needed and could perform better.  

Then came Dr. Martin Luther King.  Their Moses, who led them from bondage.  Followed by brave white Alabamians like our legislators in the 1960s who (in several cases had to ignore death threats) changed Birmingham’s form of government to remove its racist Police Commissioner Bull Connor.  Since then, white-majority governments have passed all sorts of laws, spent trillions of dollars, and seen millions of white people help blacks all over, even here in Alabama.  Merit started counting and Blacks began flourishing in this Promised Land of ours–climbing ladders everywhere, heading Top Ten lists, from actors and athletes to scholars and entrepreneurs.  There’s been magic in that rise of Blacks, and in all fairness, those of us Baby Boomers who’ve served in the trenches to end employment discrimination and know what a Bull Connor Billy Club can do to a man’s skull and emotions, can feel that magic far better than younger generations like Mr. Lyman’s.   

But, then came wokeism, which has become the established faith in the legal and regulatory framework of the American political system, elite corporate culture and academia.  Central to its creed is CRT, which tells precious black children they’ll be fighting an uphill battle against a society controlled by white people who hate them.  CRT pollinated DEI, which tells those children that merit doesn’t count: without DEI’s brand of preferential treatment, they’ll be denied opportunities.  As a result, children become poisoned with hate and fear.  Thinking, don’t fight the system.  Forget studying hard to follow your dreams.  Many opt for rebellion and crime.    

So yes, we need true history.  To demonstrate that while our society has certainly not reached the ideal of being color-blind, we are light years better than yesteryear.  We’d have never elected a black president and vice president if we were white supremacists.  Our children need the confidence that came over with the Mayflower that, with hard work and ambition, the American dream is theirs.  So long as they don’t drink the poisoned Kool-aide of CRT and DEI.

Guy V. Martin Jr., Montgomery