The Dores come into the game tonight vs Kentucky with a 17-3 record overall and 4-3 in the SEC. We lost three in a row to good opponents, @ Texas, vs. Florida, in a 98-94 heartbreaker, and @ Arkansas. We rebounded last Saturday and handled business at “the Humph” in Starkvegas, defeating the Mississippi State Bulldogs, 88-56. Our terrific sophomore, Tyler Tanner, led the way with 24 points, added 5 rebounds and authored a team high 5 assists. Tyler is playing at an elite level. Duke Miles added 17 points and 4 assists. Our sharpshooting marksman, Tyler Nickel, finished with 13, including 3-of-8 from trifecta. T Nickel is second in the conference in three point percentage making 46% of his attempts, 69-of-149. Jacob Crews of Missouri leads at 47%.
Devin McGlockton finished with 10 points and four rebounds. Jalen Washington gave us super minutes with 8 points and 8 boards. Freshman Chandler Bing added 5 points and 5 boards. Mike James didn’t score, but he pulled down 6 boards. We shot 54% from the field and 32% from deep. We out-rebounded them, 36-34. We also were 10-of-11 from the charity stripe, 91%. We held them to 35% from the field, 19% from triple, and they finished 11-of-17 from the line, 65%. So nice job overall by the team.
The Wildcats are 14-6 overall and 5-2 in the conference, so with us at 4-3, this is a tremendously important game for our guys. No. 30 Texas A&M leads the conference at 6-1. The Aggies are 16-4 overall. No.15 Arkansas, No. 19 Florida and Kentucky are all 5-2 and tied for second place. Arkansas is 15-5 overall, Florida is 14-6 and then Kentucky. We’re at 4-3 tied with Georgia, Missouri and Auburn for 5th place. Unfortunately, it’s a later start tonight on ESPN, but Memorial will be electric. I have some writing duties in the morning, so I’ll have to watch the second half in my office when I get in tomorrow morning. I’ll give you a recap after I watch the second half, if we’re successful. The Wildcats are led in scoring by six foot four inch guard Otega Owen, who averages 16 points. Six-foot-five guard Denzell Aberdeen averages 12 per game. Their seven foot, 250 pound center, Malachi Moreno averages 8.7 ppg and leads them in rebounding at 6.4. Kentucky averages 38.3 boards per game, and we’re at 36.8. Devin is our leader on the glass with 6.7 per game. Jalen Washington adds 5.4. We’ll need to hang with them on the boards, and get after them on the defensive end with T Tanner and Duke creating turnovers for us. Duke and Tyler are numbers one and three, respectively in the SEC in steals. Frankie Collins is number two, but he’s injured and out till mid to late February. That’s my best guesstimate from the intel I’ve gotten. That’s not too far away, though. We need our Tylers, Nickel and Tanner, and Duke to knock down some triples, and for Devin, AK Okereke along with Jalen Washington, Chandler Bing, Tyler Harris, and Mike James making major contributions on both ends of the court. I’ll go ahead and predict it.
Dores 85, Kentucky 82
***Update***: Duke Miles is out tonight, due to injury. Not disclosed exactly what the injury is, but he’s struggled with a leg injury and an illness this season. It’s not long term, but hurts a little tonight. We’ll have to figure it out without him.
Should be a spectacle. Love what Mark is doing. Coach Byington is a stud.
Will have more on our phenomenal men’s team tomorrow, hopefully.
Women’s Basketball
Our No.5 women’s basketball team, which lost a tough one to South Carolina on Sunday on the road, are still 20-1 overall and 6-1 in the SEC. Tennessee leads the conference at 6-0. We’re tied for second place with South Carolina at 6-1. the great Mikayla Blakes leads the conference and is third in the country averaging almost 25 points per game. Coach Shea Ralph is doing a superb job. Just gotta find our rhythm again in our next game. Our Women play No. 17 Ole Miss Friday at 2 P.M. CT/3 ET at Legacy Arena in Birmingham on SEC Network+. The game was moved from Thursday Night in Oxford due to the winter storm that affected so many people this past weekend in the Southeast and throughout the Northeast. Nashville got hit pretty hard. We’re thinking about our friends in Nashville, Atlanta and other cities and towns that were affected by the relentless storm.
Football
Football signed 20 high school players and 17 transfers in this 2026 class. We added several important pieces to our offensive and defensive lines, excellent skill guys, and the prolific 98, 5 star quarterback (Both the On3/Rivals and 247 Sports rankings) Jared Curtis from Nashville Christian. Jared lit it up in high school leading his teams to back to back state championships. His junior season, Jared threw for 2,839 yards, with 40 TDs against only 3 ints. He commandeered Nashville Christian to the state championship in Tennessee’s Division II A level in 2024. He also rushed for 637 yards and 18 TDs. He completed 70% of his throws. This most recent season, 2025, Jared was injured some, but still threw for 1,863 yards, with 31 TDs against 6 ints. He rushed for 536 more yards with 10 rushing TDs. His state championship team in 2024 went 12-1, and this season’s back to back team finished 12-0. In the state championship game, the awesome Curtis threw for 254 yards and 5 TDs, and rushed for 77 more yards and another six in an emphatic 59-7 Nashville Christian victory over University School in Jackson (TN.).
We’re getting a special player in Jared Curtis. We’ve got some weaponry coming back to help him with running back Seddy Alexander and wide receiver Junior Sherrill returning unless something drastic happens in the portal. Clark and the staff have added nice pieces on offense and defense in recruiting, both high school and transfers, and we have some more excellent players returning. So, elated to see what this team can do in 2026. We do have other quarterbacks in Blaze Berlowitz, who looks pretty darn good too, Whit Muschamp, and Walter Taylor, who had been a Commodore a few years back, but transferred and has now transferred back to the West End. So a lot to be excited about with this football team for 2026. Game one is Saturday, September 5th vs Austin Peay in FirstBank.
Baseball
Baseball will be cranking it up soon. Our centerpieces in the lineup are Brodie Johnston, Braden Holcombe and Rustan Rigdon. Catcher Colin Barczi and infielder Mike Mancini are key pieces, who are back as well. We’ve got some nice arms, led by Connor Fennell and Austin Nye. I don’t know a lot about the young guys we have, I’ve read some stuff and they sound talented, but I do like the returners. We were picked 23rd in the D-1 Baseball Preseason Poll, and 17th by Baseball America. We’ll hopefully be a lot better than that. We always have a shot to make it to Omaha under the prolific Tim Corbin. Former player and veteran Cleveland Indians assistant hitting coach Jason Esposito is now our hitting coach, and Corbs and the entire team are ecstatic about that. Jason was a superb third baseman for us. Jason was a .350 hitter, a terrific defender, and played on our first CWS team in 2011. I like what we have in Espo. Our reliable Scott “Brownie” Brown will be back to coach the pitching, and Ty Blankmeyer is our other assistant. I like our players, our staff, and Candice and Chancellor Diermeier have put more resources into the program, which surely helps. Hawkins Field will keep being a superb venue to support our guys, and there will be additions to seating and more aesthetic improvements that are happening right now. It’s an elite stadium already, and will be even moreso after the renovations are complete. Not sure the timeline on that, but will look into it, and get back. We have a superb coach and a superb program. We’ve just gotta keep supporting it. We open with No. 10 TCU on Friday, 2/13/26, at 3 P.M. CT/ 4 P.M. ET in the Shriners Children’s College Showdown. We play unranked but solid and usually ranked Texas Tech on Saturday, 2/14/26, at 11 A.M. CT/12 P.M. ET. And, on Sunday, we play unranked but highly successful and respected Oklahoma State at 10:30 A.M. CT/11:30 A.M. ET. I’m sure MLB Network or some other outlet will televise. I’ll look into that as well, and let you know on that in the upcoming days.
Women’s Tennis
Our No. 19 Women’s Tennis team just defeated No.7 Michigan on the road to punch their ticket to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. Awesome stuff from Coach Aleke Tsoubanos and our women. Will keep you apprised on the women’s progress in the Indoor Championship. We’ll play Northwestern at home this coming Sunday, Feb. 1st before heading to Illinois for the Indoors.
Will keep you posted on Men’s Basketball, Baseball, Football, Women’s Basketball and tennis, both Men’s and Women’s, and anything else that comes up in the upcoming days. Anchor Down and let’s get the job done tonight at Memorial.