Mike Bianco has watched the Ole Miss baseball team shock the college baseball world by being the last team picked for an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament only to reach the finals against Oklahoma, which start on Saturday.

The Rebels will face Oklahoma in a best-of-three series.

Bianco to reporters on Friday reflected on the fan base, and the players as the Rebels balanced celebrating with preparing for the next step.

“When you look up and see all that red and blue, you can see how passionate they are,” Bianco said of the Ole Miss fans. “So excited. They’re invested, and it’s really cool. It helps. It has helped us at Swayze and it’s certainly helped us here.”

About the players, he said, “This is a really neat group of guys…just genuine great representatives of our university that do it the right way. Just really good kids.

“Went back home, ate a sandwich in the hotel. Started to answer a lot of text messages & emails…lot of ticket requests..It’s been awesome. My whole family is here. That’s a cool thing to have your entire family here. It’s been a neat part.”

Dylan DeLucia in the clinching win over Arkansas scattered 4 hits in his first shutout for Ole Miss, and Kevin Graham’s RBI double propelled the Rebels to the CWS finals for the first time with a 2-0 victory over on Thursday.

H/T The Rebel Walk.