You think Ole Miss caught Maryland by surprise?

Maybe. Just maybe not as much as Ole Miss caught the state of Mississippi by surprise.

The seventh-seed in the Dayton Regional, the Rebels shocked the women’s college basketball world by knocking off the defending national champion Terrapins 89-78 Tuesday night in Hartford, Conn.

Such a big win. Such an out of nowhere coming of age victory. It kind of makes you wonder what the folks down Oxford way might be thinking about it.

Good question.

The online edition of The Oxford Eagle reveals no locally produced story on the Rebels upset. In fact, as best as it can be determined, there were no Mississippi journalists in Hartford Tuesday night unless, perhaps, they were from Mississippi but had since moved on.

“Rebels upset Terrapins to reach Sweet 16,” screams out the top headline on the sports page of the online Eagle. Only the story was written by Pat Eaton-Robb of the Associated Press.

Assistant sports editor Chris Kieffer was on site to cover Oxford High’s 3-0 loss to Lafayette on the diamond. Oxford’s Lee Paine, the losing pitcher, is an Ole Miss signee, so what are you going to do?

The two biggest newspapers in the state, the Sun Herald of Biloxi and the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, both led their online sports sections with Mississippi basketball.

Mississippi State men’s basketball.

The Bulldogs took Florida State down in Starkville. They’re headed to Madison Square Garden.

Apparently, in Mississippi, the men threatening to win the consolation round in New York is bigger than the women trying to win the main event in Dayton and Cleveland.

At SunHerald.com, there are two sports teaser heads on the online front page. It looks like this:

SportsMSU headed to Big Apple | Lady Rebels beat defending champs