Ole Miss is keeping court storming alive and well

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Good morning, Winners!

On Wednesday, I talked about how the SEC figured out court storming. The conference figured it out. One lonely Texas A&M fan stormed the court after the team beat Auburn. That seemed like a real watershed moment to me.

As it turns out, I'm an idiot. The SEC didn't actually solve the NCAA's court storming at all. Or maybe Ole MIss' student section didn't get the memo.

Ole Miss beat No. 4 Tennessee on Tuesday in a close 78-76 game that the Rebels barely eked out. After the win, the fans promptly proceeded to do this:

Yup. That's right. They stormed the court. And there Chris Beard stood atop a few chairs on the sideline, just soaking it all in. As he should! And as they should! This is a huge win for the program. With yet another win over another top 5 team in the nation, Ole Miss is positioned to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2019. This deserves to be celebrated, and celebrate they did. They certainly weren't worried about any SEC fines.

Good for Ole Miss, man. This is what college hoops is about. As college sports increasingly (officially!) becomes professional, it's become easy to feel like we're losing the sauce that made the sport special. It's important to remember that these are college students! You go to college to learn, obviously. But you also go to college to have fun. Court storming is an actualization of that fun.

Is it annoying? Yep. Is it dangerous? Mildly. Should it happen all the time? Probably not. But fans rushing the court after a really big win is certainly not the worst thing in the world.

So, yeah, I was wrong. As it turns out, the court storming problem hasn't been solved yet. Maybe the solution isn't the fine — maybe it's actually Buzz Williams. Good thing he can't coach every team, am I right?

The greatest Celtic duo ever

This is not going in the direction you think it's going. I promise.

When you think of iconic Boston Celtic combos, you think of names like Larry Bird and Kevin McHale. Maybe you're fond of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. You'll probably lean toward Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown if you're a more contemporary fan.

Today? Throw Derrick White and Payton Pritchard in there.

The two guards combined for 84 points (!!!!) and 19 made 3-pointers (!!!!!!!) against the Trail Blazers on Wednesday. Yes, you're reading that correctly.

They made history for the Celtics, which is extremely hard to do.

• Pritchard (43 points) and White (41 points) became the first Celtic duo to score 40 in the same game.
• They also became the first duo to make at least nine 3-pointers in a game. Pritchard made 10 and White made nine.

Nope. It doesn't make any sense to me either.

A word to Around the Horn

Around the Horn's end date has officially been announced for Friday, May 23. The show has been around for over 20 years and has hosted a number of excellent sports journalists throughout that time.

Clinton Yates, one of those excellent journalists, decided to say a word about what the show meant to him. If you're a fan of the show, you need to listen to this today.

Man. We're still a couple of months away from the end and it's already getting emotional in here. ATH, you will be missed dearly.

Quick hits: The top API storylines to watch ... The Suns might make the playoffs now ... and more

— Here's Blake Schuster with the top stories to watch for the Arnold Palmer Invitational, including Scottie Scheffler's dominance.

— Prince Grimes says Kyrie Irving's injury is about to derail the Phoenix Suns' tank job. Sorry, Phoenix. You're a lock for the play-in.

— Jaxon Smith-Njigba doesn't seem very happy about everything going on with the Seahawks' receivers. Andrew Joseph has details.

— Speaking of Seahawks receivers, Christian D'Andrea has five potential trade destinations for DK Metcalf.

— Robert Zeglinski put together three tiers of NBA Finals contenders. Yes, the Lakers are included.

— Trading your best lineman after Patrick Mahomes got sacked 87 times in the Super Bowl is a choice. Shoutout to you, Kansas City Chiefs.

That's a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading. Let's do this again tomorrow. Peace.

-Sykes ✌️