And it’s a hard one, but Kevin’s one at a time approach is the only way we can look at this tournament. Have Arkansas tonight. They killed us at Bud Walton Arena in January, 56-33, then we got them at Memorial, 67-49.

Arkansas is 19-12 overall and have slim hopes of making the tournament. But everybody’s got a shot to win this tournament and automatically qualify for the NCAA’s, so that’s the way we’re approaching it and that’s the way Arkansas is approaching it. It’s kind of a wide open tourney, even though Florida won the regular season. Florida showed it’s vulnerable on the road.

Arkansas was 18-1 at home, but 1-9 on the road and 0-2 at neutral sites. They are led by the explosive B.J. Young, a guard who lit us up early in the second half at their place. Young is averaging 14 points per game. Marshawn Powell is a load in the middle, 6’8″, 255, and averages almost 14 a game and 5.3 rebounds. They’re a good rebounding team averaging 34.9 per game. We average 32.9. We need to win the battle on the glass to win this game.

Other key factors for us are controlling Arkansas’ chaotic defense both in the half court and the full court. We need to avoid a lot of  turnovers. We’ll have some, but we need to keep it in the single digits or about 10-11 to win this game. We can’t allow them to go on a big run or we’re in trouble. We need to make seven or eight threes and sink our free throws at a 70-75 percent clip if we get to the line much. We’re now at 63 percent. That number has climbed steadily in the past three weeks. Shooting it a lot better at the stripe.

Josh Henderson, Shelby Moats, and I hope, James Siakam are going to have to play strong for us down low. Kede, Kevin Bright, Dai-Jon, Kyle and Sheldon will have to sink shots, find the open man or be the open man and convert and get after their guards and small forwards on defense.

We can definitely get this done. It will take a very good effort, but we’ll be in Nashville, and even though it’s not at Memorial–it’s at the Bridgestone Arena downtown–we’re playing in our home town which helps. Should be a fun one. 7:30 PM ET/6:30 CT on the SEC Network.

Baseball at Auburn this weekend. Exciting to start the SEC season. We’re now 16-2 after taking two of three from Oregon on the road and taking care of business against Buffalo yesterday at home, 4-2. Zo will pitch Friday in a 6 PM CT start. Tyler Beede will be on the hill Saturday with a 2:15 PM CT first pitch which will be televised by Fox Sports South. Phillip Pfeifer will take the mound on Sunday with a 1 PM CT start. Kevin Ziomek (Zo, Friday starter) is 4-0 with a 0.87 ERA and 46 K’s in 31 innings. He’s walked only seven. Zo is dominant. Second baseman Tony Kemp is on fire hitting .438 now. He has four doubles and three triples and now has 18 triples in his three-year career. He had a two-run triple yesterday. Got everything we need to go to Omaha and win there. We’re getting back to being healthy. Catcher Spence Navin sprained his ankle last Sunday against Oregon, but Corbs is hoping he’ll be back for this series. Chris Harvey has been catching in his place. Harvey getting better and better on defense and his hitting is potentially awesome; both for average and power. We’re going to like Harvey in the future. May need to catch some this weekend. Probably will. T.J. Pecoraro coming along from his hamstring injury. Hopefully, Pec will be back for Florida next weekend. May be a couple of weeks though. Some other guys are getting healthy which is always good. Almost swept No.15 Oregon last week. Had a 5-2 lead going into the bottom of the eighth, but couldn’t hold it. Still like our bullpen. They’ll get it going. Brian Miller is a stud as our closer. Brian is 2-0 with an 0.57 ERA and four saves. He has 13 K’s in 15.2 innings. He’s going to be a workhorse for us this season. Stephen Rice, Jared Miller and guys like Carson Fulmer and Tyler Ferguson have a chance to be excellent. Adam Ravanelle is coming back from injury, and Corbs is high on Adam out of the pen. I believe Adam comes out of the pen. So he’ll help too. Msy be a week-dsy starter too. Our team ERA is 1.96. That’ll win you a lot of games. Like the makeup of this team like I’ve written earlier. Good shot at going deep this year. Very deep. Need to be lucky on injuries. If we are, this year’s teams’ chances are very good to be in Omaha and win the national championship.

Looked at film on next year’s commits: d tackle Jay Robertson and qb K.J. Carta-Samuels. Loved them both. Jay buries people at the line of scrimmage. He’s quick off the ball and very, very physical. K.J. has awesome accuracy and a strong arm. Excellent mobility too, and I can’t get over how good of a passer he is. He’s special as is Jay. Jay a high three-star by 247 and not rated by Rivals, but could very well be a four-star if he keeps this up. Won the state heavyweight wrestling championship and that’s always a sign. Terrific athlete and looks to be very tough. Just need to keep reeling these ’14 guys in.

James spoke with the media on Monday and you can tell he’s excited about this football team. Austyn Carta-Samuels will most likely be our qb and we’re going to like Austyn a lot. He started his freshman year at Wyoming and was Mountain West freshman of the year four years ago. Austyn played a game for us last year and did a nice job. Austyn has a chance to be outstanding. Wide receiver will be awesome with JMatt and Chris Boyd as our leaders.They are fantastic players. We now have 15 scholarship offensive linemen with size and talent. James expects us to be 300 across the front this year. Wes Tate, Brian Kimbrow, Jerron Seymour and Derek King will be our running backs. Freshman Raphael Webb may get redshirted, but looks like a Zac Stacy type to me. Need to land a couple of rbs in recruiting. Expect some big things out of Wes Tate and the other guys this year. James said that tight end should be much better this year with jc transfer Brandon Vandenburg possibly taking over. We’ve got pretty good depth there. Vandenberg is 6’6″, 260.

Defense will be a little bit thin at  d tackle, but we’ll be good there with the guys we have. Jared Morse has been suspended from the team and school. He may come back in the fall. That remains to be seen. Guys like Vince Taylor and Barron Dixon will need to step up in the interior. Pretty good at d end though with the hard-working, physical Walker May as our leader. The coaches are expecting huge things from Caleb Azubike. Could be a beast on the end. Caleb is now 6’5″, 255. He’s going to be awesome. Linebacker is deep with a lot of young guys who are very talented. Chase Garnham, an excellent player in the middle and a senior, will be our leader there. Secondary will be anchored by safeties Kenny Ladller and Javon Marshall and corner Andre Hal. Love those guys and there is a lot of talent back there.

Kicking game will be good with Carey Spear. We lost Richard Kent, our stellar punter, so we’ll need to replace him.

Play all the east teams; South Carolina, Florida and UT are on the road. Georgia, Mizzou and Ky are at home. Two west opponents are Ole Miss (as usual) and A&M. We open with Ole Miss Thursday, Aug. 29th, @9:15 PM ET/ 8:15 CT on ESPN. Huge opener. Toughest games are @ SC, @Florida and @A&M. Expecting eight wins or better. That is where this program is right now, and it is ascending each and every day. Spring practice begins tomorrow. The spring game is Saturday, April 13, @ 1PM CT.

Brandt will get back on the tour next week at Bay Hill for the Arnie Invitational. Will be good to get him back. He’s been working hard on his short game while recovering from rib problems. He broke his rib last year, so he has to be smart about it. Will be hitting balls for real on Sunday according to his coach, Todd Anderson. Anderson said Brandt will be going full force beginning Sunday. Luke at +2 today through 16 at the Tampa Bay Championship. Leaders at -3. Luke eeds to finish strong and have a good round tomorrow.

Will have bball review, hopefully with a good result, and pitching matchups tomorrow on blog.