Not to be confused with Gladys Knight and her former outfit, but Scotty and the Pips played a superb game Sunday to advance in the NIT with a 70-68 victory over Dayton before 8,200 at Memorial.
The great Scotty poured in 32 points going 9-for-24 from the field, 3-for-9 from trifecta and 11-of-13 from the stripe. Scotty also added 7 assists. Just a terrific game from our super junior.
Rodney Chatman added 9. Quentin Millora-Brown-Brown and Liam Robbins were highly instrumental in helping us secure the victory against a very good Dayton team. Q had only 6 points, but pulled down 6 boards and had some key offensive rebounds and a bucket late before fouling out. Then Liam took over and scored a key bucket and swatted away a shot any the end of the game that clinched it.
The great Jordan Wright, who was honored yesterday as one of ten nominees for the Arthur Ashe Award which goes to a player who excels on and off the court. It is a national award, Jordan is superb on the floor and in the classroom, finished with 5 points and 6 boards.
Scotty also had 3 steals. Stack was really pumped after the game. We moved to 19-16 and go for win No.20 tonight @ a very good Xavier team at 8 CT on ESPN. Dayton finishes its season at 24-11.
Dayton has 5 double figure scorers with 6’11”, 240 pound Jack Nunge leading the way at 13.4 ppg. Nunge also averages 7.4 boards. Paul Scruggs, their excellent point guard, injured his knee in their game Sunday against Florida, a 72-56 victory, and will be unavailable tonight. Tough blow for Paul, but they’re still a formidable team even without their quarterback. Hoping he can return to action at full strength in the near future.
Colby Jones from Mountain Brook High School in Birmingham is a 6’6″ small forward who averages 11.1 and 7.4 rebounds. Really high basketball IQ player and tremendous athlete. Nate Johnson is their top 3 point shooter. He averages 10.3 and shoots 38 percent from 3, 64-of-168. He’s a guard. 6’11” Zach Freemantle averages 10.1 and pulls down 5.7 caroms. They’re a tough team and it’s on the road, so we’ll need our blue collar, hard-nosed mentality in order to be successful in Cincy. Full report tomorrow. Interestingly, Stack had a Zoom call with reporters yesterday and I asked him if he wants to have a certain amount of 3’s per game like some coaches and analysts talk about, particularly Dickie V. Stack said he likes 3’s of course, but he wants to get closer, high percentage shots at the basket and make free throws most importantly. Stack was an 81 percent career free throw shooter in his NBA career, so he knows how to get it done at the stripe. With the experience we’ve had this year in hostile SEC gyms, we should be battle tested at the stripe late in this game tonight and execute at the line. Scotty has been getting better and better and Jordan is an 80% shooter. Just need the other guys to step up there as well. Will have a full report tomorrow. The winner of tonight’s game goes to Madison Square Gahden in NYC for the NIT Final Four next Tuesday Night. Would be a tremendous achievement for our team.
Baseball has now won 16 in a row after sweeping Missouri over the weekend. We’ve got a lot of hot guys at the plate as we’re hitting .327 as a team, and our pitching and defense have been spectacular. Playing Belmont right now at First Horizon Park in Nashville. We’re tied 3-3 in the bottom of the fifth. Freshman left hander Devin Futrell has pitched 5 innings, giving up 5 hits, 3 runs with only 2 earned with a walk and 3 K’s. Devin is 3-0 with a 1.50 ERA coming into today. He has issued 4 walks and struck out 22 already this season including today.. Left handed freshman Carter Holton is a phenom at 4-0 with a 2.10 ERA with 6 walks and 45 K’s. He’s our Saturday guy. Junior Chris McElvain is pitching well on Friday’s. He’s 3-0 with a 2.49 ERA with 7 walks and 38 K’s. Still kind of figuring out our Sunday hurler. Nick Maldonado is a little banged up right now, but he could be the guy. Nick is 1-1 with a 1.50 ERA. Freshman Patrick Really is pitching very well at 2-0 with an 0.95 ERA. Patrick throws it 95-97, so love that velo. Patrick has walked 10 and struck out 27. With Patrick, it’s all about control. When he’s got his control down, he’s a stud. Christian Little is another piece in the puzzle. Christian is 0-0 with a 2.89 ERA with 4 walks and 14 Ks. Another flame thrower who brings it 95+.
We’ve really been defending well lately also. We’re fielding at a .972 clip. Really have improved there. Dom Keegan is leading us at the plate at a scorching .426 with 5 homers and 22 Ribeyes. Dom has made the switch to catcher this season and is doing an excellent job behind the dish. Our senior is doin serious work. Stellar freshman third baseman Davis Diaz is hitting .392 with a homer and 10 Ribbies. Right fielder Spencer Jones is hitting .348 with 3 long ones and 14 ribbies. Just an explosive, electric player. He’s 5 for 5 in stolen bases. Our outfield with Spence in right, Enrique Bradfield in center and Javy Vaz in left is as good as you’re going to get in college baseball. Our senior second baseman and one of the main leaders on our team, Tate Kolwyck is hitting .348 with 6 homers and 20 ribbies. Tate is having a spectacular season. The great Enrique B is hitting .336 and is 13-for-13 in stolen bases including one today. Our stud center fielder just keeps on delivering. And our outstanding shortstop Carter Young is hitting .313 with 3 homers and 14 RBI’s. Good to see Carter get the bat going again this season. He had a dislocated left shoulder at the end of last season and that really hampered his hitting. But he’s healthy now and playing like an All American.
So, we’ve got another tremendous team under the great Tim Corbin. We are 17-2 and 3-0 in the SEC and ranked 4th nationally. Ole Miss is No.1, Texas is No.2 Arkansas is No.3 and then us. No team is hotter than us though. We’re at South Carolina this weekend. More on today’s game and the weekend set in Columbia tomorrow. Gotta get it done today. Will send out a quick blast/tweet on the outcome today.
Our Men’s Golf team is in a tussle with Georgia at the Linger Longer Invitational at the 7,438 yard, par 72 Great Waters Course, a Jack Nicklaus Course, at Reynolds Plantation in Georgia. We are now -24 and trail Georgia by a shot. Georgia is -25. Florida is third at -15. We are now on holes 12-14 as is Georgia. We are -4 today, GA is -5 Would be superb for Coach Limbaugh and the guys to win their third straight tournament after capturing the Prestige in California and the Cabo Collegiate in Mexico featuring multiple top 10 teams. We are currently No.6 in the country, Georgia is No. 10 and Florida is No.19. North Carolina, also in the field, is No.4, but they are just +2 for tourney. Sophomore Cole Sherwood is tied for second overall in the individual competition at -8. The leader, Jacob Bridgeman of Clemson is -14. Cole is tied with Fred Biondi of Florida. Bridgeman has played 15 holes and our sophomore has played 12 as has Biondi. Super freshman Gordon Sargent is tied for 6th at -6 through 13 holes. Will let you know how we fare. Would be a gigantic victory for the team if we can pull it off as we continue to put ourselves into elite status nationally. We already are, but this would cement it even further. Will let you know later this afternoon.
Our women’s basketball team is playing extremely well in the Women’s NIT after emerging victorious in the second round last night with a 71-45 victory over Liberty at Memorial. We now advance to the third round where we’ll face Middle Tennessee at Murfreesboro Thursday night at 6:30 CT. Iyana Moore poured in 25 points for us last night and Sacha Washington added 17. We moved to 16-18 overall. MTSU is 25-7 and defeated us earlier this season, 55-46, but that was on November 15th and we’re much improved now in March. So will keep you posted on our great first year coach Shea Ralph and her ladies. The Final Four will be at the respective campus sites of the higher seeded teams. If we win Thursday, we are in the quarters.
Check back with you later this afternoon on baseball and golf. Thanks.