Jackson Free Press

College basketball will reach its climax from Saturday to Tuesday as both the men’s and women’s tournament play out the Final Four and championship games. None of the eight teams left will feature a team from our state.

That doesn’t mean you can’t get a taste of the Final Four from the past. Thursday night, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum will honor the 1996 Mississippi State University men’s basketball team that reached the Final Four in that magical season.

The event is sold out, but that doesn’t mean sports fans can’t catch the tribute. While you can’t be there in person, you can check the event out online.

Just like two seasons ago when the state was swept up in the great seasons unfolding at both Mississippi State and the University of Mississippi in football, 20 years ago, the state was swept up in the Bulldogs' astonishing run.

Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame coach Richard Williams led team that season, guiding it to a 26-8 record and winning the SEC Tournament over eventual national champions the University of Kentucky.

The Bulldogs defeated Virginia Commonwealth University (58-51) and Princeton University (63-41), reaching the Sweet Sixteen. MSU shocked No. 1 seed University of Connecticut, which future hall of famer Ray Allen led, for the 60-55 win.

In the Elite Eight, MSU took down No. 2 seed University of Cincinnati 73-63, reaching the Final Four. The Bulldogs were underdogs against both Connecticut and Cincinnati.

MSU’s run came to an end in a 77-69 loss in one of the national semifinals against Syracuse University. In a strange twist, the Orange and coach Jim Boeheim are in this year’s Final Four.

On the court, future NBA players center Erick Dampier and forward Dontae Jones led the Bulldogs. Dampier went on to have a long career in the NBA, while Jones spent just a couple of seasons before heading overseas to play basketball.

Sharp-shooting guard Darryl Wilson led MSU in scoring that season. He also went on to play overseas for several years.

Other important players on the 1995-1996 Bulldogs were point guard Marcus Bullard, forward Russell Walters, center Tyrone Washington, forward Whit Hughes and guard Bart Hyche.

MSU finished with a losing record the next season, and Richard Williams was gone after the 1997-1998 season. The Bulldogs haven’t reached the Sweet Sixteen since the 1996 run.

The tribute to the 1995-1996 Bulldogs will feature highlights, team memories and a panel discussion. Farm Bureau, Weir Boerner Architecture and Mississippi State University sponsor the event.

View the livestream, which begins around 7 p.m. on March 31, at https://livestream.com/shorterproductions/events/5017289.

The Manning Center was the place to be this morning. Breaking a University of Mississippi Pro Day record, 63 NFL representatives from all 32 NFL teams descended on Oxford, Miss., to look at the three stars entering the draft after their junior seasons at UM.

Overall, there were 15 current and three former players who took part in the Rebels' Pro Day. Most of the focus was on offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil, wide receiver Laquon Treadwell and defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche.

One of the things everyone came to see was Treadwell run the 40-yard dash. He didn’t run at the NFL Combine, and this was the first chance all the scouts had to put him on a stopwatch.

Treadwell did run, but his times didn’t alleviate fears that he won’t have the ability to separate from defenders at the next level. His unofficial times were 4.65 or 4.69, depending on the scout, on his first attempt, and he had a minor improvement at 4.63 on his second attempt.

While his top-end speed might not get scouts' heartbeats racing, Treadwell does have other abilities that had to impress NFL teams.

He has a big body that he can use to position himself between the ball and defenders. He also has strong hands and makes each catch look easy. He is a solid run blocker in rush attack, and in fact, he might be above average in receiver blocking.

One thing to remember about Treadwell and his not-so-fast speed is the fact that he is returning from a serious broken leg that he suffered during his sophomore season. Treadwell still came out this season and put up great numbers as he worked himself back into the shape and got his football instincts back.

It is projected that an NFL team may draft him as early as the ninth pick or as low as the 20th pick. Some mock drafts have him going to the New Orleans Saints with the 12th pick. If you want an NFL comparison, think Anquan Boldin. Several teams could move up in the draft to get their hands on Treadwell since he is the near-consensus top wide receiver in the draft.

One player who didn’t run the 40-yard dash at either the NFL Combine or the UM Pro Day was Tunsil. The fact that he didn’t run at either event might not matter, as the offensive tackle is projected to go as high as the first pick but nearly guaranteed to go within the top five picks. He said in an interview that he didn’t run at the Pro Day due to a pulled hamstring.

Tunsil did an impressive 34 reps at 225 pounds in the bench press and added 10 pounds of muscle so far this offseason. There are very few knocks against the potential No. 1 pick, though his run blocking needs more work, and there are questions about his power.

However, there are no questions about …

The NFL owners recently approved two new rule changes that will be one-year test rules next season. Both were highly controversial, one among coaches and the other among players.

First, here's a look at minor rule changes.

All chop blocks, which are when one offensive player is blocking a defensive player high, and another hits the same defensive player low, are now illegal in the NFL.

Defensive players are at risk to major injuries because of the blocks and in most cases, the NFL already outlawed them. Offensive linemen can still cut block (a one-on-one low block) a defensive player.

Now, just one season after the NFL experimented with the idea, points-after-touchdown kicks ("extra points") are permanent from the 15-yard line. There were 71 misses on extra-point kicks last season with the new rule change, and 27 teams missed an extra point. The defense is still allowed to try and score on missed extra points as well.

The owners also tweaked the horse-collar rule. Now, it is a horse-collar penalty to take a player down by the nameplate or above to make a tackle. Again, this is a player safety rule, but it will have some effect on games next season.

Other changes include:

Eliminating the five-yard penalty for illegal touching after a player goes out of bounds and reestablishes himself inbounds. Now, it is just a loss of down.

Coaches can use the coach-to-player radio system whether they are on the sideline or in the coaches booth.

Teams will receive a delay of game penalty if they try to call a timeout when they aren’t allowed to.

Eliminating multiple spots of enforcement on double fouls after a change of possession.

Teams now don’t have to designate which player will return from short-term injured reserve, although teams can still only bring back one player each season from IR.

Now, here's some information on the controversial rule changes:

First, players or coaches can be ejected from a game after two personal foul penalties. Players and coaches met this rule with resistance, with coaches fearing that players would bait others into penalties.

Only certain types of personal foul penalties will qualify for the ejection. Throwing a punch, forearm or kicking an opponent, if contact is made or not, will be part of the new ejection rule.

Using abusive, threatening or insulting language to an opponent, official, teammates or league officials or using baiting or taunting acts or words to foster ill will between teams can now lead to an ejection with two fouls.

While coaches or players won’t like the ejection rule, it isn’t likely to cause many, if any, ejections. A similar rule exists in college football but rarely comes into play as far as ejections go during games.

The biggest rule change that will affect every game is the new kickoff rule. Now, touchbacks after kickoffs will come out to the 25-yard line instead of the 20-yard line. …

Last week, the Mississippi film community lost a legend.

On Thursday, March 16, Jim Dollarhide's home near Lake Cavalier in Madison went up in flames, and on Wednesday, March 23, Madison County Coroner Alex Breeland confirmed that they found the filmmaker’s body in the wreckage.

Dollarhide was born in 1952 in Greenwood, Miss., where his father, Roger Freeman Dollarhide, ran a record store called Dollarhide Music Shop.

Jim attended Murrah High School and originally planned to become a photographer. When he learned that the United States Army was going to reinstate the draft, he joined to be part of the photo corps. Ultimately, he only spent six weeks in the army and later earned his GED. After that, he received a full scholarship for photography at Hinds Community College.

After Dollarhide dropped out of college, his friend, Sergio Fernandez, asked him about working on a TV commercial. It was then that he discovered his love for cinema.

In 1977, he founded Imageworks. After Jackson flooded in 1979, filmmakers Vilmos Zsigmod and Mark Rydell asked Dollarhide’s company to shoot footage for a 1984 film called "The River," which starred Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek.

After years of working under the Imageworks moniker, Dollardhide closed the company in 1998, though he started Dollarhide Film only a short time after.

Besides national commercial spots for brands such as Scope and NyQuil and award-winning campaigns, including his anti-tobacco spots, Dollarhide was best known for his documentaries. He scored an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary with the film "LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton," which made the connection between poverty and the lack of education opportunities for African Americans in the Mississippi Delta. The film won an award for Excellence in Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001. He also won the award for Best Director in the 1995 International Monitor Awards for "Harmonies: A Mississippi Overture."

In more recent years, Dollarhide created a B.B. King documentary for the B.B. King Museum in Indianola. The museum won a Muse Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in museum media, for the film in 2009. Dollarhide, along with filmmaker Gregg Wallace, had been working on updates to the documentary since King's death in 2015.

A wake for Jim Dollarhide will be at Hal & Mal's (200 Commerce St., 601-948-0888) Thursday, March 24, from 5 to 9 p.m.