The road to New York does indeed go through Oxford now after 1 seed Arizona State lost to 8 seed Jacksonville last night. Extra motivation for an Ole Miss team that might not be stoked to be in the NIT.

Here’s what the Arizona Republic had to say about the Sun Devils losing at the buzzer.

Troy will be a quality opponent tonight with five senior starters and a nice inside-out game with good guard play and a decent big man.

The potential second-round matchup with Memphis, should the Tigers beat Big East foe St. John’s tonight, is more glamorous, but the Rebels need not overlook Troy if they intend to reach the second round. The Memphis game no doubt has more meaning for the fans than the players. None of them were around the last time Ole Miss and Memphis played in Kennedy’s first year.

I can’t imagine Memphis players, with their recent success, getting up to play Ole Miss.

While you want to be seeded as high as possible and want to be at home, home has been no particular safe haven for Ole Miss, which lost four SEC games at Tad Smith this year.

Kennedy pleads for a homecourt advantage. Sometimes it’s there sometimes not. With this being spring break, there isn’t likely to be a large student turnout tonight. That might be OK for Troy, but it would sure help the home team if students cut short their spring break plans and returned for a second-round game against Memphis that will likely be Friday or Saturday. Depending on TV, it could be Monday, and classes would be back in session then.

At any rate, Arizona State’s loss was a huge lift for Ole Miss. Now Mississippi’s two SEC teams are two of the four highest-seeded teams in the NIT. If they both win their home games, both would go to New York where the brackets would have them meeting in the championship game.

MSU won its NIT opener last night against Jackson State, 81-67, and plays North Carolina at 11 a.m. Saturday on ESPN.

That’s an interesting turnaround time for MSU, which did not start its first-round game until 9 p.m. I suppose it’s more interesting for the Tar Heels, who are the road team.

Elsewhere …

Saw the baseball Rebels for the first time last night, and here’s what I learned. 1, hot chocolate is not sold at all night-time home games even in chilly March. 2, the small heaters in the press box are a nice addition. 3, the outfield grills can be used for heating as well as cooking.

Serioiusly, it was hard to tell much against a SWAC opponent in a 17-1 win. Pine Bluff’s starting pitcher had little velocity and worked so hard not to throw it down the center that he walked five batters.

He gave up 10 hits in three innings, not all of them well struck as batters were out in front. Matt Smith’s first two hits were hit hard, though.

Rory McKean gave up only three hits in five innings, but he had some balls hit hard. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out five.

Offensively, Taylor Hashman joined Smith with three hits. Hashman had a home run, drove in six runs and his six runs scored broke a school record that had stood since 1945.

SEC play for No. 21 Ole Miss opens Friday night at No. 22 Kentucky.