We gave the No.8 Crimson Tide, a 2nd seed in the NCAA Tournament as of today, everything they wanted and just missed pulling out the game, just falling 82-78 at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa this afternoon.

Alabama is a very good team, but I believe we’ve become a very good team. We lost to Kentucky at home, 82-78, Wednesday Night, but Kentucky just blasted No.19 Tennessee, 70-55, at Knoxville this afternoon. Kentucky is starting to come into their own in the SEC at 7-7. So we are playing really good basketball right now.

Scotty poured in 24 to go along with 4 assists. Max Evans added 18, including 4 of 5 from trifecta. Dylan dropped in 17 and pulled down 15 boards. We didn’t get a lot of help from anybody else though Jordan Wright and Issac McBride did some good things. We were missing Clevon Brown today, he was out with an injured knee that Stack said wasn’t a major deal, but Stack wanted to hold him out for future games this season, hopefully starting Wednesday. Braelee Albert did a great job on the boards in Clevon’s place, pulling down 6 and also played terrific defense and buried a crucial trifecta in the game. It’ll be good to get Clevon back, hopefully Wednesday at home against those guys from the East, 8 PM CT on the SEC Network.

Stack was pleased with the performance and sees us finishing strong. I agree with the head man. We’ve got home games left vs those guys from the Eastern Bloc on Wednesday, Ole Miss at 2:30 PM CT next Saturday, Feb. 27th on the SEC Network , and a road game vs LSU Tuesday, March 2nd at 7:30 PM CT on the SEC Network. Then it’s the SEC Tournament. We can do well in all of those games, especially if we can get Clevon back as soon as possible. We will probably be able to make up a postponement or 2 before the SEC Tournament starts at Bridgestone Arena Wednesday March 10th. The SEC tourney concludes Sunday, March 14th at Bridgestone with the championship game at 12 PM CT on ESPN. SEC Network and ESPN will televise throughout. We had 2 games postponed with Texas A&M, one at home, one of the road and one on the road at Missouri, so we could maybe make up an A&M and Missouri game before the tourney starts. We would have 8 days after the season ended March 2nd before the Tournament starts March 10th.

So, we’ve got a lot of basketball left. Kentucky is now 7-7 in the SEC and playing as well as anybody. We just need to figure out how to get over the top in these close ones. I see us as ready to do that.

Scotty and Dylan are spectacular players, and if they would come back next season, we would be a special team. If I am Scotty and Dylan I would weigh this, do I want to be a superstar player in college, my junior year, have a superb season, enjoy college life without COVID, be with my teammates and become very high draft picks after the 2022 season or get drafted after this year and sit on an NBA bench for a year or 2. It just seems like a much better deal to learn as much as you can from Stack and become an elite player as a junior, and work toward a Vanderbilt degree, which is a major thing in life for any athlete or student who has ever gotten a degree from our prestigious university. Just need the guys to come back and help us become an elite program once again.

I love what Stack is doing with this team. We have grown into a very good basketball team. A few more free throws converted, a few more rebounds pulled down, and our record could be very respectable. Our record is 2-10 in the SEC and 6-12 overall, but we’re a much better team than that. And we’ve got a lot of basketball left to win games and do well in the SEC Tournament. We’ve got super players, a super coach, and we’ve got the ability to excel the rest of this season. We’ve just got to keep believing. I like our chances Wednesday Night and going forward.

Tomorrow on the Blog

Baseball season starts at 6 PM CT tomorrow at the Hawk with the No.3 ranked Vandy Boys, D-1 Baseball Rankings, hosting Wright State from Dayton, Ohio. The game has been moved from Friday and today to tomorrow due to inclement weather in Nashville these past few days. But we’ll be good to go tomorrow. Kumar most likely on the hill for us. SEC Network+ will carry the game on the computer or on the ESPN app on your TV or phone. We will have a game Monday versus Wright State and quite possibly a doubleheader on Monday.

I will have my conversation with Coach Corbin on the blog tomorrow in the afternoon before the game starts, probably around 3 PM, as Coach assesses a team that, as always, looks very promising in the 2021 season as we aim for another trip to Omaha and to excel once we get there..

I’ll have more on Women’s Tennis, which is also elite at No.8 in the country, Men’s golf at No.13 under our great Coach, Scott Limbaugh, Women’s Soccer, which won the SEC Championship in the Fall and will compete this spring as the team tunes up for the NCAA Championships. Will talk to first year Women’s Tennis coach Aleke Tsoubanos, who has taken over for the great Geoff McDonald, and has our program cookin at 8-0 after a 4-2 victory over then No.9 Georgia Tech last Sunday at Tech. Really exciting team. Coach Limbaugh’s team will be playing in the LSU Invitational next weekend with a stacked field of SEC teams. Looks like another phenomenal season for Vanderbilt Men’s Golf and we have 2 exceptional signees coming in next season whom Scott and I will talk about. Darren Ambrose has been a stellar coach for our Women’s Soccer team, and after an SEC Championship in the fall when we went 4-0 in the SEC Tournament in Gulf Shores, AL., Coach Ambrose is preparing us for the spring and the chance of being very special in April at the NCAA’s.

And, I’ll also be reviewing our football recruiting class, talking about our present players and our new elite coaching staff, led by our great head coach Clark Lea.

All of that coming up in the next 2 weeks. Of course, will stay on top of Stack and the bball team. Like what I’m seeing and what we can accomplish the rest of the way.