Tough loss, but what an effort, 77-71, UK.
Scotty didn’t have his best game by any means going 2-of-17 from the field, but he played so hard throughout the season. He may have been a little worn out, but he sure kept fighting through the game. I could see him testing the draft and if it doesn’t look like first round/early second, I could see him coming back next season. We’re going to have a really fine team next year if we keep the nucleus alongside adding this stellar freshmen class next year with 3, 4 stars and a high 3 star with a 6’9″, 240, 95 4 star center in Lee Dort, 2 power forwards, 6’8, 200 4 star Collin Smith and 89, 3 star 6’7″ 190 Malik Did, along with Dort’s teammate, stud 4 star point guard 6’2″, 175 Noah Shelby. Then you throw in the great Jordan Wright, who was superb last night going for 27 on 10 of 12 from the field including 5 of 6 from trifecta and 2 of 2 from the line to go along with 6 rebounds, what a performance by our SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year. Jordan worked so hard on his game in the offseason and it really paid off and showed last night in our biggest game of the season. Excited to see what Jordan can do next year, his senior season. He’ll be a real leader for us. Then you thrown in marksman Myles Stute, who has unlimited range from 3, our stellar 2 guard, Trey Thomas, who is just a winning player with key 3’s and key plays. We’ll have our 2 bigs back next year, Liam Robbins and Quentin Millora-Brown. Shane Dezonie and Tyrin Lawrence should be much improved and they were 4 star players out of high school. Tyrin will be a junior and Shane a sophomore. Terren Frank and Jemaine Mann are sophomores this season and will give us quality depth down low. Hopefully, the guys will all stay. Rodney Chatman and Drew Weikert are seniors. Rodney’s in his sixth year, so we’ll lose him. If Rodney and Liam could have been available the entire season, we could very well be going to the NCAA’s. Drew may be able to come back next season, I’ll check on that. He’s a valuable player. Stack likes him a lot. I like him a lot. Just a total team guy and helps us out on the floor.
Maybe we get Dylan Disu back. There was talk about a month ago that he might come back to VU. I don’t think he’s happy at Texas. I’ll keep you posted on that. Wow, would that be quite a coup for our program.
That out of bounds ball with 20 seconds left in the game last night, which looked pretty clearly off Kentucky, if that had gone our way, we’re just down 4 and we get the ball, and you never know. I was so proud of the team though, their fight, their never backing down. Kentucky is so good from the mid range, that killed us. Tshiebwe is really outstanding. They have a terrific team. They’ve got a shot to win not only the SEC Tourney, but also the NCAA Tourney. Of course, they have a tough test in Tennessee today as well.
But our team sure played some superb basketball these last 3 nights. We should be going to the NIT, which is huge for getting our guys some more games and experience, giving Scotty, Rodney and Drew some more games, and hopefully winning a championship. That would be so rewarding to an outstanding group and it would be huge for recruiting as well. It would mean so much for this team. We finished the season 17-16, and the way we played, that should get us in the NIT. I know the guys want to keep playing together and I know we all want to keep watching them.
Will keep you posted on what’s next for our fine basketball team.
Baseball won its nightcap, 13-0, so playing very well. Going to delve a lot more into baseball going forward and keep you totally informed on both basketball and baseball.
Football spring practice is coming up later this month. Our spring game is at 1 PM CT, Saturday, April 16th. The SEC Network will most likely televise. I know I need to write about our 2022 recruiting class. I’ll get to that in the near future. Our class was 32nd in the country, may have been last in the SEC, but with the guys we got, and more to come in 2023, we can win several games next season and the years after that. Love this class. I can see us making a bowl in the upcoming 2022 season and building from there. A lot to talk about with football too.
Our baseball team is looking stellar. More on our Vandy Boys on Monday.
Men’s and Women’s Tennis lost yesterday, the men on the road to A&M, 5-2, and the women to Arkansas at home, 4-3. Men play Drake at home tomorrow at 9 AM at Currey. We are 9-3, so still doing well. We’re 1-2 in SEC.
Women are 8-4 and 0-3 in the SEC and play Missouri tomorrow at the Currey Center at 12:30 PM CT. Need to get it going on the women’s side.