Our Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball team is coming off a stellar 72-67 victory over Texas A&M Saturday Night to move to 14-12 overall and 6-8 in the SEC, and now prepares for 24th ranked Alabama in a tremendously important game at Memorial at 8 tonight on the SEC Network.

Scotty Pippen Jr finished with 24 points, and 6 rebounds versus A&M, and was selected co-SEC Player of the week along with Jaylin Williams of Arkansas after SPJ averaged 26.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 3.5 steals last week. What a week for our junior. He posted 29 points, 6 assists and 5 steals against Auburn. He just keeps on excelling. I don’t know if it’ll be possible to keep Scotty after this season, probably not, but we’ll just make the most of the rest of the time we have him on the West End, and there is a lot of basketball left to be played this season with a lot of opportunities for this team, so Scotty will be a Commodore for a while longer, hopefully into the NCAA Tournament. No reason to ever give up hope on that. We’ve got the team to get there. Jordan Wright added 15 points against A&M and our big fella, Liam Robbins, poured in 14 and pulled down 8 boards. Quentin Millora-Brown also pulled down 8 caroms. We sank 20 of 29 from the line and quite a few down the stretch in hitting 69 percent. Scotty was 7 for 9 and was 12 for 14 against Auburn.

So, super effort by the team, and a major test tonight. Alabama is 17-10 and 7-7 in the SEC. They are coming off a 90-81 loss at Kentucky, but there’s no shame in that. That happens a lot for visiting teams at Rupp. The Crimson Tide has defeated No.1 Gonzaga in Spokane, No.14 Houston and No.10 Baylor at home, so they are a high quality team. Jaden Shackelford, a shooting guard, leads them in scoring at 17.3 per game. Scotty leads the conference at 19.5. Jahvon Quinerly is another stellar guard, who averages 12.9 per game. Keon Ellis is a small forward and stellar shooter who averages 11.2. The Tide puts up a lot of 3’s and is only averaging 28.5% from the arc, but can really get hot and be dangerous from 3. Ellis is their leading rebounder at 5.6. They are shooting 74% from the line, and averaging 40 rebounds a game to their opponents’ 39. So we’ll have to shoot it well, Scotty, Jordan, Myles Stute and Trey Thomas need to sink 3’s, really get after them on defense, and match them on the boards. They’re athletic and quick. JD Davidson, their 5 star freshman point guard, is erratic at times, but when he’s going well, he’s a challenge. He’s a pretty good shooter at times and an excellent passer and terrific athlete. Their big guys, Noah Gurley, James Rojas and Darius Miles are highly athletic. Charles Bediako is a 7’er, and he’s come on some. Juwan Gary is another effective big guy for the Tide.

We’ve got our work cut out for us for sure. A victory here would be spectacular for the team and give us such a momentum boost. So let’s Anchor Down tonight and get the job done.

Baseball lost 2 of 3 from now 4th ranked Oklahoma State. We were No.3 and now we’re No.5. There were some concerning things, the strikeouts, some shaky fielding, and definitely some good pitching, but also some guys who need to develop. I would like to see Nick Maldonado go back to his closer role. That’s where Nick shines. Hope Corbs decides to go that route and go with Christian Little as a starter again. Really liked what I saw out of Chris McElvain Friday Night and freshman lefty Carter Holton shows good promise and a super mid to upper 90’s fastball. We just need to develop in these early games. Don’t like losing the series .There’s a lot we can improve on. The game today with North Alabama has been postponed due to the threat of inclement weather in Nashville. Just a lot of rain, nothing severe. We are scheduled to play Evansville tomorrow at 4:30 PM CT on SEC Network+, so hopeful we can get that in. Evansville is 0-3 after having been swept by N.C. State over the weekend. But we need to improve in all 3 facets of the game, at the plate, on the mound and in the field, so we need to lock in and play well. Army, which is 1-2, after defeating Richmond last Friday before losing to Air Force and Ball State, comes to the Hawk for a weekend set with game times 4:30 PM CT Friday, 2 PM Saturday, and 1 PM Sunday. All games will be broadcast by SEC Network+.

Our Men’s Golf Team is tied for first with Oregon at The Prestige Tournament played at the Greg Norman Course at PGA West in La Quinta, California. We are at +3 along with the Ducks. There are 24 teams competing. Reid Davenport is tied for the individual lead at -2. The tourney will commence again tomorrow, Wednesday, and the final round is on Thursday. Will keep you posted.

Will have a recap tomorrow of this crucially important game for the team tonight.