The bball team finished 15-15 overall and 7-11 in conference after a couple of losses to LSU at home and @ Ole Miss respectively. We had a good chance of winning both those games as we had a double digit lead on LSU in the first half and an eight point lead in the second half against Ole Miss. Both of them got away at the end though. But I thought we played well for most of both of those games. Dai-Jon was awesome on Saturday hitting four trifectas and scoring 23. His offensive game has really come along. DJP was a four-star player coming out of high school and he’s been playing that way lately. Excited to see him play next year as a senior. He should be awesome. There is a good chance we’ll have Kedren back next year and with Kede and DJP as our starting backcourt and walk-on Carter Josephs, who’s been stellar in a backup role to Kyle this season, the freshmen, who are two four-stars and a three star, we should be pretty solid in the backcourt. These incoming freshmen lit it up their senior years this past season. Wade Baldwin is a point guard and he averaged 15 points and eight assists. Wade is a four star by 247 and a four-star by Rivals. Wade has good height for a point guard at 6’3″, 180. Matthew Fisher-Davis, a four-star by Rivals and high three-star by 247, is an absolute stud offensive player. He averaged roughly 25 points per game. Excellent rebounding guard too, at about seven per game. Matthew is 6″5″, Matthew is 6’5″, 175. Wade is from Jersey and Matthew is from Matthews, NC. Our third guard signee is Riley LeChance from Wisconsin.  Riley is a three-star by Rivals and a four-star by 247. Riley is another sharp shooter, averaging 23 per game. Excellent three-point shooter. Riley is 6’2″, 160, so needs to gain some weight which he’ll do. And this breaking: we just received a commit from 6’6″, three star small forward Jeff Roberson! I don’t have numbers on Jeff-he’s from Houston–but watched him on film and liked what I saw. Looks like he’ll give us some help on the boards, looks like a good defender and can shoot it from the perimeter. So this is an excellent class. We very well might add one more. Signing time for the late period is in April, so we’ll get Jeff signed up then and hopefully add a power forward. The other three are signed up. There’s a big boy out of Kentucky who we’re interested in. Can’t recall his name, but he’d be a good addition. About 6’8″-9ish 215. Looks like he could really help us. Will work on getting his name and get it to you as soon as I can find it. Inside for next year, we’ve got Damian coming back as a sophomore and he’s special. Damian has had some good games, but still learning the college game and banging with the big boys of the SEC. Damian is 6’`10″ 230 and he’ll get stronger in the offseason. I expect him to be an excellent player for us next year. He’s been good this year. We’ll have Luke Kornet back next year and he’ll get stronger in the offseason. Luke just needs to add 15-20 pounds to his frame and he’ll be stellar. Already shown signs of being an excellent player for us. He can hit the 10 footer inside at 7’0″ tall and can stroke it from deep. Excited about Damian and Luke next year. Shelby Moats will be back and I think Shelby will have a solid senior season. Shelby keeps getting more confident this year and it’s showing by much improved play through  the course of this season. Very hopeful Josh Hendo will be back next year. Josh (Henderson) suffered a very tough knee injury in December in which he tore his anterior and posterior ligaments in his knee. Tough. He is a highly skilled player and a hard worker though, so Josh could very well be a key contributor on the team next year. And finally walk-on Nathan Watkins has shown a lot of hustle and promise towards the end of this season. Nathan can help us. He’s tough, a good shooter and a valuable player. It’s pretty cool that we’ve had a short bench this year because we’ve discovered two good players in Carter and Nathan. They can really help us next year. Coach Hufnagel was returning from a recruiting trip two weeks ago and Carter was in the gym at 12:30 AM shooting. Love it.

Now to the rest of this season. Don’t want Rod and Kyle to go out without a fight. Have State tomorrow night @ approximately 9:30 ET/8:30 CT or 30 minutes after t he Auburn-SC game which starts at 7 PM ET/6 CT at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Just want Kyle and Rod to have a lot of success in this tourney before they finish their careers. Heck I want to win this thing. You never know. Don’t ever want to think differently. We have good players who’ve battled all year and deserve to have success in this tournament. I think the guys will be charged up. Let’s just take care of business with State and go from there.

Baseball ranked No.3 in the USA Today Coaches Poll and in the top seven in Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball and National College Baseball Writers Association polls. Good stuff there. Pitching extremely well. Our weekend starters, Tyler Beede, Jared Miller and Tyler Ferguson have been lights out. Jared is 4-0 with a 0.36 ERA with six walks and 22 K’s, Tyler is 4-0 with a 1.08 ERA, five bbs and 33 K’s and Tyler is 3-0 with a 1.50 ERA with six walks and 22 K’s. Incredible stuff. Our bullpen has been sensational led by the awesome Carson Fulmer and the always dependable and stellar Brian Miller. Just need to shore up our mid-week pitching though Walker Buehler and some others are highly capable. This pitching staff is unreal. Right now South Carolina is one and FSU is two in every poll. Our defense has been fantastic. Vinnie Conde is really playing killer short. Vinnie’s a stud. Big Z, Xavier Turner doing a nice job at third and Zander Wiel and Dansby Swanson are excellent at first and second respectively. Excellent article on Zander and his dad, Randy, on vucommodores.com. Zander is an awesome kid and an outstanding baseball player. After having a good frosh campaign with the bat, Zander is hitting .316 with 10 RBIs and seven doubles. He’s got great power. Outfield has a ton of talent. We’re loaded there. Bats have been good this year. As the weather warms up, we’ll have some exceptional hitting. Like the makeup of the guys at the plate. We can hit, hit for power and run. Zander’s father, Randy, was an assistant coach at North Carolina under Dean Smith when I was working for the Durham Morning Herald in the late 80’s, living in Chapel Hill. Randy was a really nice man.He’s originally from Jamaica. I’m sure he still is. Coached at some head jobs and had some great success over in Europe. He’s now back home in Murfreesboro watching Zander compete on the diamond. Sure he’s liking what he’s seeing out of his son. Zander is awesome. Guys like Kyle Smith, John Norwood, Rhett Weisman and awesome freshman Brian Reynolds are really going to give us some good hitting and slugging this year. They already are. Chris Harvey is getting better and better behind the plate and he’s got a stick now. Chris gives us a lot of good hitting and good power. Like him a lot. His backups are pretty good too.

Ok, so we’ve got Eastern Illinois tonight at 6:30. They’re 3-12, but we need a good outing by Walker if he’s on the hill and just a good game to get ready for the Bengal Tigers this weekend @ home. LSU is in the top six in a couple of polls and three in Collegiate Baseball and eight in Baseball America, so they’re obviously for real again. Take care of business tonight and LSU games this weekend are @ 7:30 PM ET/6:30 CT on Friday on vucommodores.com to watch, 3:15 PM ET/2:15 CT on Fox Sports Net/South on Saturday and 2 PM ET/1CT on Sunday on vucommodores.com-watch button. Excellent test for the team this weekend. But first things first. Need to get it done tonight. I’m hoping I have a conflict Saturday with basketball and baseball. Could happen.

Just figured it out: the kid from Lexington, Ky is Jackson Davis. Jackson is 6’8″, 210. Would be a great cap off to this class. He’s got a lot of offers from some pretty good programs, but feel like we’ve got a pretty good shot. Will keep you in the loop on that. Also, spring practice about to start crankin. Will keep you informed on that as well. Exciting with the Derek Mason era beginning.

Will be in touch.