Life, cereal: Blake Hinson, Austin Crowley carry friendship from high school to Ole Miss

OXFORD — This is a story about brotherhood. And breakfast.

Ole Miss basketball players Blake Hinson and Austin Crowley had spent the past 12 minutes giving each other compliments sitting together in the Tuohy Basketball Center on a Thursday in January.

Now it was time to let the passion come out.

You see, Hinson fancies himself an expert on breakfast cereals. Crowley had just spent a minute picking on Hinson for his obsession, so it was only fair to give Hinson a chance to respond.

It quickly became evident that Hinson's answers weren't extemporaneous. He watches YouTube cereal reviews in his spare time. So he's got a lot to say.

"This is going to be a long one," Crowley joked under his breath.

Hinson ignored the joke and started listing his opinions.

"I feel like the most underrated cereal out there is Chocolate Lucky Charms," Hinson said. "Those deserve more praise. Stop putting so much milk in your Cinnamon Toast Crunch."

That set Crowley off.

"What?" the freshman interrupted.

"It's way better with less milk," Hinson explained.

"You don't drink the milk at the end?" asked Crowley.

"Yes I do," Hinson said with a smile. "Always."

"Exactly," said Crowley, satisfied. "That's the point of having extra milk."

"Yes, but too much milk makes it soggy," Hinson retorted.

The debate continued for another two minutes.


Blake Hinson sets up to shoot in an Ole Miss basketball game. (Photo: Courtesy Ole Miss Athletics)

It may sound silly, but cereal has been a serious sticking point for Hinson and Crowley for three years now. The two — Hinson from Florida and Crowley from Mississippi — spent a year together at Sunrise Christian Academy, a prep basketball powerhouse in Wichita, Kansas. Hinson was a senior when Crowley, a junior, opted to transfer there.

Hinson was skeptical at first. He was the highest-rated recruit in Kansas, according to both Rivals.com and 247Sports. His team was already plenty good, and he didn't need any extra help being noticed by colleges. 

Two weeks later, Hinson and Crowley had already become the best of friends.

"It ended up really being like a big-brother, little-brother thing," Sunrise Christian Academy coach Luke Barnwell said. "Like, 'Hey, I'll show you the ropes, how it works here, what's expected.' I think honestly Blake was huge for Austin."

As much as Hinson helped Crowley, the inverse was true, too. Before Crowley got to Sunrise Christian Academy, Hinson said he was struggling. He wasn't playing with the energy he's known for. Crowley's arrival reminded Hinson of "the light," and pushed him to push himself. 

A kinship developed and a club formed. Hinson and Crowley called themselves the "Sniper Gang" because of their sharp-shooting from 3-point range. They'd team up in practice and rain an onslaught of deep shots against their teammates. They'd celebrate makes by pretending to fire bow-and-arrow shots across the floor. Arms up. All energy. Always celebrating.

Barnwell recalls Hinson and Crowley carrying that attitude into games too. Barnwell said he remembers one game in a tournament in Chicago where Crowley and Hinson lifted the team to more than 100 points.

But Hinson and Crowley's on-court bond wasn't built entirely on flash. The pair would walk from their dorm rooms through snow and across campus late at night to have private shootarounds, just the two of them. They motivated each other. Crowley wanted to be like Hinson. Hinson fed off Crowley's mentality.

And in their downtime they'd — of course — argue about food. Crowley said when he walked into Hinson's dorm room for the first time he was greeted by "boxes on boxes on boxes" of cereal.

The debates rage on. Hinson has called Froot Loops overrated and said Raisin Bran is underrated. Crowley put Froot Loops on his Mount Rushmore of cereals along with Frosted Flakes, Lucky Charms and Fruity Pebbles. Hinson conceded that Fruity Pebbles are a good choice. At least they can agree on one thing.

Hinson said Crowley is the "most un-interesting person" to eat with. No matter how big a menu is, Hinson says, Crowley will still order off the kid's menu.

"He doesn't eat," Hinson joked. "How about that? You can take him to a five-star restaurant and he'll eat chicken nuggets."

Another food opinion Hinson and Crowley could agree on was that the cafeteria food at Sunrise Christian Academy wasn't any good. Even the cafeteria cereal was off-brand. But Hinson would still rather slum it with off-brand cereal than subject himself to the lunchroom surprise. 

Every so often, Crowley would walk by Hinson eating cereal and greet him with a smirk before saying "Yeah, I'm with you today."


Ole Miss freshman guard Austin Crowley celebrates after a made shot. (Photo: Courtesy Ole Miss Athletics)

Crowley and Hinson's teammates knew the two would end up going to college together. More specifically, teammates would tell Hinson and Crowley they'd go to Ole Miss together. Hinson usually responded with a big, "We're not doing that."

Hinson, a 6-foot-7 sophomore from Deltona, Florida, had no interest in playing for Ole Miss, despite being pursued by then-coach Andy Kennedy. Then Kennedy stepped down and Ole Miss replaced him with Kermit Davis. Hinson said he thought the Davis hire confirmed his initial thoughts.

"Then coach Davis called me and said, 'I'm interested. I'll come to Florida right now,'" Hinson remembers. "So he came to Florida and met with me. Then all of the sudden they were my number one option. It just happened that quick, from 'No, I'm not going to Ole Miss' to 'I think that's my best choice.'"

So Hinson came to Ole Miss. But Crowley, a 6-foot-5 freshman from West Point, wasn't convinced.

Despite growing up less than two hours away from Oxford, Crowley signed with Vanderbilt. Vandy "felt right" until the Commodores fired coach Bryce Drew on the same day Ole Miss was playing in the NCAA Tournament. That's when Crowley had a change of heart.

"As soon as it happened, the red and blue popped up in my mind," Crowley said. "I was like, 'Yeah, I know where I'm going.'"

Crowley called Hinson. He told his friend he was going to try to get out of his National Letter of Intent. Hinson said they had to make a reunion happen. Apparently, Kermit Davis agreed.

Davis flew up to Kansas to convince Crowley to join the Rebels. But Crowley hadn't officially been released from his NLI yet, so NCAA rules forbade Davis from recruiting. So Davis waited.

The coach says he spent about a day and a half in Wichita waiting for Crowley's NLI situation to be sorted out. Davis said he spent most of that time in his hotel room; he couldn't find much to do in Kansas other than work remotely.

Once Davis got the go-ahead from his compliance director that Crowley was available, the two met up. Crowley said seeing Davis wait like he did solidified his feeling that Ole Miss was the right place for him.

Less than a month later, Crowley signed with Ole Miss.

Life hasn't been perfect for the members of the Sniper Gang since reuniting in Oxford. Hinson missed the better part of three months this fall while recovering from a blood abnormality that prevented him from taking part in full-contact practices. Since returning, Hinson has broken out as Ole Miss' third-leading scorer and rebounder, averaging 10.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game.

Crowley, meanwhile, is growing into his role as a supplementary player off the bench. The freshman is averaging just 16 minutes per game, but he's also averaging 3.9 assists per 40 minutes of action, the second-best mark on the team, while shooting 34.5% from 3-point distance.

Hinson and Crowley haven't replicated the magic from when they won three invitational tournament championships together at Sunrise in Oxford just yet. But there have been glimpses of that magic. In Ole Miss' home game against LSU, Crowley assisted Hinson on two 3-pointers within a minute of one another to end a 16-4 LSU run.

One of those assists came on a fast break. Crowley pickpocketed LSU point guard Javonte Smart and darted down the floor. He had a lane toward the basket. But instead of driving, Crowley dished behind his back to Hinson, who had been trailing. 


Ole Miss sophomore forward Blake Hinson is prone to on-court celebrations, like his former high school teammate and current Ole Miss teammate Austin Crowley. (Photo: Courtesy Ole Miss Athletics)

Crowley turned around. He didn't need to watch the shot. He threw his arms in the air and celebrated his friend's make before it even went in.

"As soon as he shot it, I put my hands up," Crowley said. "I just knew it. All those late nights since Kansas just shooting, I knew where it was."

For two guys who spend so much time arguing about cereal, they just might be each other's lucky charms.

SOURCE: Suss, Nick. "Life, cereal: Blake Hinson, Austin Crowley carry friendship from high school to Ole Miss." Mississippi Clarion Ledger, 10 February 2020, https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/college/ole-miss/2020/02/10/ole-miss-basketball-blake-hinson-austin-crowley-carry-high-school-friendship-oxford/4565786002/

Contact Nick Suss at 601-408-2674 or nsuss@gannett.com. Follow @nicksuss on Twitter.