Stack and the boys gave it a super run coming back from a 12 point halftime deficit and we had a one point lead in the second half at times, but fell in a hard fought game, 69-63, to the Gators.

Pip went for 23 and had 4 assists, and for the 2 days, was an astonishing 25-of-25 from the free throw line, which is an SEC Tournament Record. Pip just continues to amaze.

D.J. Harvey hit 3 big shots leading our comeback in the second half and stud Trey Thomas sank 3 huge threes to even put us ahead by 1. D.J. and Trey finished with 12. Trey was 4 of 7 from trifecta range and D.J. was 2 of 5.

An awesome effort by the team. Just came up a little short

Stack was proud of the effort by the team ,which had battled through COVID pauses, injuries and a lot of adversity and was playing their best basketball at the end of the season, which is a testament to the players’ resilience and hard work and the coaches developing their talent. Stack is highly optimistic about next season. There will have to be some decisions made. Will Scotty come back for another year. He’s deciding if he wants to come back next year or go out for the draft. Would love for him to come back with Dylan and a super supporting cast and lead us to an SEC title, an NCAA Tournament bid and beyond. Hope he will, but would not fault him for going after his dream of playing on the pro level. He’ll discuss it with 2 experts on the NBA, both of whom were superstars on that level, his dad, Scottie Sr, and Stack. Hopeful and prayerful Scotty will feel like it’s in his best interest to stay. Stack says that Scotty loves college, so that’s a plus. Will keep you posted. The draft date is not known right now, but should be in the summer, so there is time to figure it out.

Clevon Brown and Maxwell Evans will need to make decisions. They are both seniors. We would welcome them back. I believe D. J. is coming back. If we don’t have any defections, we’ll have most of the team back.

And with guys like Trey Thomas, Isaac McBride, Akeem Odusipe, Quentin Millora-Brown, and, of course, Dylan Disu and Jordan Wright, we’ll have a good nucleus along with very high 3 star incoming freshmen Peyton Daniels, a 6’0”, 165 pound point guard, and Gabe Dorsey, a 6’6,” 200 pound small forward. Both can really shoot it. Ejike Obinna will be graduating, he gave us great dedication and some solid play and we’ll miss his presence on the team and pull for him going forward. So we’ll have at least one open scholarship, Stack is looking for a young transfer player.

So, loved the effort by the team, we just kept getting better throughout the season, lost some close games we can win next year, each player improved markedly this season and really like the material we have returning next year. Looking for a highly successful 2021-22.

Baseball

Coming off a 10-4 victory over Memphis on Tuesday, the team is now 10-1 and ranked No.2 in the country, just behind Arkansas, and ahead of Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Florida, which are No.’s 3-5 respectively, in the D-1 Baseball rankings.

We’ve got quite a test this weekend as we are in Stillwater, OK., to face the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the No.13 team in the country by D-1 and No.9 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. The Cowboys are 9-0-1. The Cowboys are coached by our former super assistant coach, Josh Holliday.

Game 1, with Kumar most likely on the mound, is at 6 PM CT. Saturday’s game, with Jack Leiter on the hill for us, is at 6 PM CT also, and Sunday’s finale, with Thomas Schultz on the mound for us, is at 1 PM CT. ESPN+ will broadcast all 3 games. It can be viewed on your computer, your smart TV, your Ipad or Phone.

Dom Keegan is unfortunately out right now with COVID, so we’ll miss him. I would guess that Spencer Jones takes his place, and Spencer is more than capable. No timetable for Dom’s return. Hopefully a week and a half, maybe sooner, for the South Carolina series next Friday-Sunday at the Hawk.

So fantastic test for our team against a team that has its sights set on playing deep into May and the middle of June, like us. Will keep you apprised throughout the weekend. Should be stellar.

Men’s Golf

Our Men’s Golf team heads to the Tiger Invitational on the Grand National Lake Course in Opelika, AL. this coming Monday, March 15th-Wednesday, March 18th. Auburn will be hosting. Don’t have the list of teams playing, but it’ll be a loaded field as Coach Scott Limbaugh has loaded this team with a challenging schedule to get them tournament tough for the postseason. We are now No.14 in the country. Auburn is No.16. I imagine No.15 Florida will be there, No.20 Tennessee and No. 21 Arkansas. Alabama, a perennial top 25 team, will also be in the field. So a super test for our team. Hopefully, William Moll and the guys can come out on top.

Women’s Soccer

Coach Darren Ambrose and our 4th ranked Soccer team, as ranked by Top Drawer Soccer Rankings, defeated Kennesaw State yesterday at the Vanderbilt Soccer Complex, 3-1. We got goals from Madi Allen, Raegan Kelly and Haley Hopkins. Madison Elwell added 3 assists. That’s awesome stuff. We moved to 9-4 on the season and we finished 8-4 in the SEC. In the Top Drawer Rankings, the preeminent rankings in college women’s and men’s soccer, Florida State is No.1, UNC is No.2 and UCLA is No.3 in the women’s rankings, just ahead of us. Next up for us is a game at the Vanderbilt Soccer Complex versus Lipscomb on Sunday, March 21st, at 6 PM CT. ESPN+ will broadcast. After that, we’ll play Memphis at the VU Soccer Complex, Saturday, March 27th at 6 PM CT, and then we’ll finish off the spring season @ No.8 Duke, on Sunday, April 11th at 1 PM CT.

The NCAA’s begin April 30th with the College Cup, the Final Four, May 14th-17th. We automatically qualify based on our winning the SEC Championship back in the fall. There will be 36 teams in the NCAA’s down from 48 due to some teams not participating this season due to COVID. Tis is technically the 2020 NCAA Championships, which are usually played in the fall.

We have a terrific team, which has a shot to win it all. A team well worth watching if you’re in Nashville. Coach Ambrose has done a phenomenal job and the best is yet to come this season and in the future.

Women’s Tennis

Our Women played an excellent match on Sunday, defeating No. 36 Missouri, 4-2. We are now ranked 11th in the country by the ITA-Oracle Collegiate Tennis rankings. North Carolina is No.1 and Georgia is the only other SEC team ahead of us at No.3. We play Georgia at home at the Currey Tennis Center on Sunday, March 28th at 1 PM in what could be a tremendously important match for our team. But we’ve got a lot of work to do till then.

After losing the doubles point, No.1 and 20th ranked Christina Rosca won 6-3, 6-2 over Bronte Murgett of Missouri. Great stuff from Christina. Emma Kurtz won at No.2, 6-2,6-1, so both Christina and Emma came to play. Holly Staff won at No.4, 6-1, 6-0. Super effort by Holly. And the great Marcella Cruz closed it out for the team at No.6 with a 7-6 (7-2), 1-6, 6-0 victory. Marcella is such a valuable player for us.

So big momentum builder for the team. We now face No. 31 Kentucky, this Sunday, 3-14, at 1 PM CT at the Currey Tennis Center, a home match. The women have always been fighters and we’ve got another stellar group. If you’re in Nashville, I’d go watch Aleke Tsoubanos’s team. Aleke is doing a tremendous job in taking over from longtime awesome coach Geoff McDonald, who retired after taking his teams to 20+ NCAAs and 6 Final Fours including a national championship in 2015. Geoffrey is now Aleke’s assistant. Aleke has kept the excellence going in women’s tennis. She’s terrific and the best is ahead for our program starting with the rest of this season. Fun group to watch with high aspirations this season.