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Vanderbilt Sports with superb year, Vanderbilt Men’s Golf aims to break down that door

May 29, 2026

Our great freshman, Jon Ed Steed, and his teammates home in on capturing the NCAA Championship in Men’s Golf. (Photo courtesy of *On3*).

Super freshman Jon Ed Steed helps lead the Dores into La Costa Resort and Spa for the NCAA Championships (Photo courtesy of On3)

Our 11th ranked Vanderbilt Commodores are trying to augment what our 10-3 football almost did, our men’s and women’s basketball teams accomplished, our women’s soccer team accomplished, and our baseball team, though not what we wanted, played extremely hard and there is a lot of hope for 2027. When you have a coach in Tim Corbin, who has won national championships in 2014 and ’19, there is always room to be optimistic.

There’s a lot of optimism for all our teams. Clark has reloaded and brought back some studs in wide receiver Junior Sherrill, running back Seddy Alexander and company to go along with 99, 5 star frosh quarterback Jared Curtis, and some nice pieces out of recruiting and the portal. And we have excellent returnees. We’ll be good.

The SEC is always a battle of attrition, but we’re well equipped for 2026 and beyond. Clark is already assembling a solid 2027 class led by 94, four star linebacker Omarii Sanders, 6′ 3 1/2″, 210. Love what Clark did in his fifth season with the great Diego and company and love what the future holds.

Coach By just recruited a stellar freshmen class and also landed some major transfers. Chandler Bing is coming back for his sophomore season, and I like what Chandler brings to the table with his athletic ability, driving and scoring and improving ability from beyond the arc. He averaged 28 points his senior year in his school in Atlanta. He also plays lockdown defense.

And the news of the year in Vanderbilt Sports happened on Tuesday when the amazing Tyler Tanner decided to return for his junior season. That’s tremendous. Tyler averaged 19 points, almost 6 assists and 2.4 steals. He’s looking at an All American Wooden Award season in ’26-27.

Get your season tickets for football and men’s basketball as soon as possible. It’ll be a spectacle at First Bank and Memorial Gymnasium in 2026-27.

Not to be outdone, Coach Shea Ralph led her women’s basketball team to an awesome season. Love the future with Mikayla Blakes and company returning. Coach Ralph is tremendous.

Also, Coach Darren Ambrose took our soccer team to the Elite Eight and we have incredible prospects for 2026.

Those respective teams banged hard on the door, and now Coach Scott Limbaugh, players senior Wells Williams, freshmen Jon Ed Steed and Will Hartman will home in on breaking it down at the NCAA Championships which commenced today and is being played at La Costa Resort and Spa North Course in the San Diego metro area.

Our great golf team, led by freshman Will Hartman’s tie for low medalist honors, won the Athens, GA. Regional defeating teams like No.1 Auburn to earn one of the 30 spots in this field. We tee off at 3:07 P.M. CT/ 4:07 ET/ 1:07 Pacific.

We’ll start senior Wells Williams, sophomore Ryan Downes, freshmen Jon Ed, Will and Michael Riebe. Jon Ed, Will and Michael were part of the No.1 recruiting class in the country in 2025. Coach Limbaugh also secured the No. 1 class in the country for 2026.

The North Course at La Costa will play over 7,500 yards with a couple of long par 5’s in the 616 yard 2nd hole, and the 609 yard 18th. No.6 is the No.1 handicap hole. It’s a par 5 at 576. Good bit of water on the backside. Greens will be a certain kind of bentgrass that will be quick, stimping at 12 1/2 to 13.

Coach Limbaugh, in his 14th season, has led his teams to 50 tournament titles, with the most recent one being the Athens (GA.) Regional, we’ve had 37 low medalists (winners of tourneys), 12 NCAA Championship Appearances, 7 Match Play appearances, 3 Final Fours, 2017, ’19 and ’22, and Gordon Sargent won the NCAA individual title in 2022. It’s a laundry list of excellence. There’s more, players in the pros, etc..

The format for the major championship of college golf is a 30 team field with the field playing 3 rounds, 54 holes, today through Sunday, with a cut to 15 teams after the third round on Sunday. On Monday, the field gets cut down to 8 teams after 18 holes, and those 8 will play match play starting Tuesday. The quarterfinals and semis will transpire Tuesday, and the Championship match is Wednesday. Golf Channel will stream the Championships over the weekend and televise on the Golf Channel Monday through Wednesday, starting at approximately, 5-5:30 P.M. CT/ 6-6:30 East/ and 3-3:30 P.M. Pacific.

Coach Limbaugh said the teams that are favored are Auburn, Florida, Texas and UVA.

We’ll home in on breaking this door down this time. Regardless, we’ve had a heckuva season, and the future is through the roof bright.

And we could very well get over the hump and capture our first Golf National Championship over the next 6 days.

Will keep you apprised.

Anchor Down and have an awesome weekend.

Kranzler dominant, Bats get going in Vanderbilt Baseball W over KY, FL preview for today; Men’s Golf playing superbly well

May 20, 2026

Junior Alex Kranzler incredible versus Kentucky on Tuesday at the Hoover Met. (Photo courtesy of *Instagram*).

Junior right hander Alex Kranzler locked it down for the Vanderbilt Commodores Tuesday, and the bats got going in the bottom of the 6th, as the Vandy Boys defeated Kentucky, 8-5, in the first round of the SEC Tournament at the Hoover Met.

We moved to 33-24 overall and earned our 15th SEC victory as we set our sights on advancing much further in this tourney and solidifying our spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Our No. 12 seed Commodores now face 5th seed and 18th ranked Florida in the second round today with an approximate 1 P.M. first pitch. Could be 1:30 ish or a little later depending on how Miss. State-Mizzou goes. State is up 3-1 in the top of the 4th presently.

Connor Fennell got the start and fought hard like he always. The SEC Network broadcasters interviewed Coach Corbin in the third and Corbin said Fennell was not at his best as he had just gotten 5 days rest. Normal rest time is 7 days for a weekend starter. But Fennell battled, as always, going 4.2, giving up 7 hits, 4 earned with a walk and 5 K’s.

Then Alex Kranzler came in and shut the door on the Kentucky offense. Kranzler went 4.1 innings, gave up 1 hit, 1 run, in the 9th when the game was close to secure, with 1 walk and 5 K’s. It was a spectacular performance from our junior from Norwood, Jersey.

Meanwhile, the bats took a while to get going, but once they did, it went well. We were down 4-1 going into the bottom of the 6th when the offense woke up. After two outs, right fielder Logan Johnstone walked, first baseman Tommy Goodin singled putting runners at first and second, and shortstop Ryker Waite singled driving in Johnstone. Then, our centerfielder, Rustan “Rooster” Rigdon singled up the middle to drive in Goodin to cut the deficit it to 4-3. DH Brandon Barczi singled to left driving in Waite to tie it at 4-4. Jaxon Jelkin, the Kentucky pitcher, who had been dealing on us, was knocked out of the game. Jack Sams came in and with runners on first and second, catcher Korbin Reynolds hit it to third and the KY third baseman threw it away, and the fleet footed Rigdon scored to put us up, 5-4.

With Kranzler dominating Kentucky, we extended the lead in the bottom of the 8th when the great Rigdon singled, stole second and third, and scored when the catcher threw it into left field while Rigdon was sliding into third. Reynolds then singled and our terrific sophomore third baseman from Ooltewah, TN., Brodie Johnston, cranked his 15th homer of the season to deep left field. It was a no doubter. Brodie had to watch that one for a second. It was his 46th and 47th Ribeyes as well.

We were up 8-4 in the top of the ninth and Kentucky scored an inconsequential run, as Kranzler closed it out.

It’s Florida today at 1 P.M.CT/ 2 East on the SEC Network.

I’ll guesstimate either freshman right hander Tyler Baird, 0-5, 4.81 ERA, 24 walks, 49 K’s in 4 games started and 43 innings. Tyler has been figuring it out lately, and has super stuff and throws it 95. He has given up 7 doubles, 0 triples and 4 homers.

Or we might go with frosh Wyatt Nadeau, 2-3, 5.57 ERA, 36 walks, 60 K’s in 51.2 IP’s. Wyatt has given up 9 doubles and 5 long balls. Both pitchers have been trending well. Wyatt hits 96 regularly. If they can just keep their control in order I like our chances.

Florida, 37-18, 18-12- SEC, might go with starter Liam Peterson, who is 2-5 with a 4.00 ERA. They may go a bullpen game.

Not sure how Florida is approaching this game. They are securely in the NCAA Tournament, but their coach, Kevin O’Sullivan, and Corbs are good friends, but major rivals. We always get everybody’s best shot, so we’ll need to home in on being successful.

Will get pitchers to you when I know. Could be about 10 or 20 minutes before the game. State is up 3-2 on Mizzou in the bottom of another fifth. We’ll see how that game progresses.

By the way, our great second baseman Mike Mancini, was named second team All-SEC earlier this week., Mancini is hitting .306 with 15 homers and 44 Ribeyes. He has also stolen 20 of 21 bases, including another one Tuesday. Mike’s been a superb player for us this year and is excellent on defense.

Our Men’s Golf Team was down a little earlier today, but is now in first place at the Athens, GA. Regional at -25. We are one shot clear of Louisville, which is at -24. BYU is next at -18. Georgia and Charleston are tied for 4th at -17, and No.1 Auburn is surprisingly in 6th at -15. The top 5 teams advance to the NCAA Championships in Carlsbad, California at the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa-North Course next Friday, May 29th.

Louisville has just dropped three shots and we now have a four shot lead at -25. Both Louisville and us are on holes 10-13. Auburn is also on holes 10-13. Our great freshman, Will Hartman, is -14 and leading the player leaderboard by 3 shots over Louisiana’s Malan Potgieter, who is at -11. Will, from Marvin, North Carolina, shot eight under, 63 on Tuesday. Freshman Jon Ed Sneed, from my prolific wife’s stomping grounds, Enterprise, Alabama, is in 6th at -8. Senior Wells Williams is at -4. Just fell off two shots to -23, and are just one clear of Louisville (-22). Both teams through holes 11-14. BYU is -20 through holes 10-13. Will keep you posted.

Will be in touch on Baseball and golf today. Have a great work day.

Dores in Hoover today at 1 P.M. CT/ 2 ET vs Kentucky, Preview; Men’s Golf do well in first round of Athens Regional

May 19, 2026

Our Warrior junior right hander Connor Fennell is on the hill today versus Kentucky. (Photo courtesy of *The Tennessean)*.

Our 12th seeded Vanderbilt Commodores, who are 32-24 overall and finished 14-16 in the SEC after sweeping South Carolina over the weekend at the Hawk, are in the Hoover Met today for the first round of the SEC Baseball Tournament. We will face Kentucky at approximately 1 P.M. CT/2 East for a shot at matriculating and keeping our NCAA hopes alive and having a shot at excelling in Hoover.

The SEC Network will televise. We need two victories in this tournament, and maybe even three, to solidify our NCAA Tournament chances. So it all starts today versus the Wildcats, who we took two of three from in the regular season in Lexington.

We’ll go with right hander and stellar Friday Night starter Connor Fennell, who is 4-2 with a 4.80 ERA, but has been terrific lately in his starts versus Alabama, Missouri and South Carolina, respectively. Connor has walked 19 and struck out 97, which is excellent. He has allowed 13 doubles, one triple and 15 homers. The opponents batting average against him is .252. Gotta keep it in the ball park. The Hoover Met is more of a pitcher’s park, but there are definitely long balls hit out of there.

Kentucky, which is 31-20, and 13-17 in the SEC and also playing for their NCAA Tournament chances, will go with junior left hander Ben Cleaver, I’m guessing. Cleaver is 2-3 with a 3.83 ERA, 25 walks, 44 K’s. He has given up 7 doubles, 0 triples and 5 homers. Opponents are batting .250 against him.

In the Friday Night game in Lexington on April 17th, Fennell faced Jaxon Jelkin. Fennell went 6.1, gave up 5 hits, 1 earned with 2 walks and 3 K’s.
Cleaver didn’t pitch, but Kentucky won, 5-2. Our bullpen got hit pretty hard that night. I’m not positive Cleaver is starting for them, so this is a guesstimate. I’ll update if I find out anything else before the game.

We’ve hit well this season at .291, and played really solid defense fielding at a .976 clip. Just gotta get pitching in this tournament. We showed some good signs against South Carolina. Fennell was solid as always on Thursday and we got a solid start from Jacob Faulkner on Saturday. We’re just getting it done by committee right now. We’ve got a lot of young, talented arms who seem to be figuring it out right now. Alex Kranzler, our junior, has been pitching well lately.

We’ve just got to get through today. I picked us 5-4 on my All Sports Blog yesterday, so hopeful that comes to fruition. Will elaborate more Wednesday if we emerge victorious today. Come on Fellas.

Golf tied for second after first day of NCAA Regionals in Athens.

Our Men’s Golf team is in second place tied with Auburn at -7 after the first round of the NCAA Regionals at University of Georgia Golf Club in Athens.

We are three back of Louisville, which is at -10, and we are tied with No.1 ranked Auburn. We got stellar performances from freshmen Jon Ed Steed and Will Hartman, who both shot 4 under par 67. Senior Wells Williams is at -1. The second round is underway and we’re on the course. Will keep you updated. There are 13 teams in this Regional with the top 5 teams after the third round advancing to the NCAA Championships at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa North Course in Carlsbad, CA. starting Friday, May 29th. So, we’ve got a lot of work to do.

Luckily for both of our teams, we have Tim Corbin and Scott Limbaugh, respectively.

Will keep you apprised. Thanks and have a great day.

MLB Postseason/ Individual Predictions

May 4, 2026

Can the prolific Aaron Judge lead his Yankees to their 28th World Series title, the most in MLB history. (Photo courtesy of Brittanica).

The 2026 Major League Baseball season is well under way and the Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs and LA Dodgers, of course, are leading the way. The Dodgers are in a bit of a slight slump, but that won’t last and they’ll be there in October. They pay a luxury tax of $162 million, which is outrageous. They don’t seem to care. They are the Saudis of baseball. I wish the players would come around and agree to a salary cap for teams to make this sport more equitable for teams from smaller markets. Despite no salary cap, there are some smaller market teams like the Tampa Bay Rays, Cincy Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates that are doing well despite their financial limitations. The salary cap argument will ensue into the offseason after this 2026 season, and there could be another lockout in 2027, unfortunately. The players need to get it together and realize the NFL and NBA both have salary caps and most of those players are thriving, if they take care of their finances. These MLB players need to look out for the fans, the people who pay their salaries, and quit being so self absorbed.

But, despite that, 2026 looks to be a terrific year in Major League Baseball. There are some middling teams, particularly in the AL Central and AL West with the AL Central leading Detroit Tigers at 18-17, and the A’s leading the AL West at 18-16. But there are teams that are excelling too. Here are Postseason Predictions for the 2026 season and which team I like to win the Fall Classic, along with MVP predictions.

American League

(Numbers are for seeding).

East Division Champion: 1.Yankees, No.2 Tigers

3.Seattle Mariners 4. Tampa Rays 5. Toronto Blue Jays 6. Sacramento A’s?- They have moved to Sacramento from Oakland until Las Vegas opens its new stadium later this decade.

National League

1. Braves, 25-10, playing .714 ball right now. 2.Cubs 3. Dodgers 4. Padres 5. Cardinals 6. Reds

AL Wild Card Series (Best of 3)

Mariners over A’s in 2. Rays over Jays in 3

AL Divisional Series (Best of 5)

Yankees over Rays in 5-Rays always give Yankees trouble. Tigers over Mariners in 4.

AL Championship Series (Best of 7)

Yankees over Tigers in 6

NL Wild Card

Dodgers over Reds in 2. Padres over Cards in 3.

NL Divisional Series

Cubs over Dodgers in 5. This monopoly has to end some time. Braves over Padres in 4

NL Championship Series

Braves over Cubs in 6

The 2026 World Series

Atlanta Braves vs the New Yaawk Yankees

Give me Matt Olson and that hitting arsenal that is the Atlanta Braves to capture the Fall Classic. The Braves are leading the Bigs in batting average at .276, and are second to the Yankees in team pitching ERA at 3.19. The Yankees are at 3.01. Some really good pitching going on in Hot’lanta and the Big Apple. I’ll be visiting my daughters in New York this summer and catching a Braves-Mets game at Citi Field. I’ll post on Instagram if anybody is interested. But give me these phenomenal Braves to capture their third World Series title in franchise history. The other two were in 1995 and 2021.

Braves over Yankees in 6

World Series MVP

Matt Olson- hitting .299 right now with 11 homers, 5th in the Bigs, and leading the Big Leagues with 31 Ribeyes. He’s fifth in OPS, on-base plus slugging percentage. Awesome stat. Tells a lot about a player’s hitting ability for a season. Give me the 31 year old from Atlanta to capture the Most Valuable Player Award for the Series.

AL MVP

Aaron Judge

AL Cy Young

Max Fried-Yankees

NL MVP

Matt Olson-Bravos

NL Cy Young

Chris Sale-Bravos– 6-1 with a 2.14 ERA, 49 K’s, 12 walks, 5 homers in 42 innings pitched. 0.90 WHIP-Walks plus hits allowed per inning. Incredibly telling stat. 1.00 is superb. Below that is Cy Young stuff. I like Sale to capture that award and be a key piece in the Braves World Championship victory in 2026.

Vanderbilt Baseball and Men’s Basketball “Jammin'” as the Great Bob Marley said

April 24, 2026

Our great right hander Connor Fennell leads our charges today at 6 P.M. versus No.4 Texas (Photo courtesy of *The Tennessean)*.

Pitching matchups for this weekend as we host the No.4 Texas Longhorns at the Hawk.

Friday, 6 P.M. CT/7 ET, streaming on SEC Network+.

Vanderbilt: Junior right hander Connor Fennell, from Londonderry, New Hampshire. 3-1, 4.74 ERA, 57 IP’s, 14 BB’s, 70 K’s, 12 homers given up. .239 batting average against. Connor’s been excellent the past two Fridays. Against OU on Friday, 4/9, Fennell went 7.1 innings, gave up 7 hits, 3 earned runs, with no walks and 10 K’s in a Commodores’ 10-0 victory. Last Friday @ Kentucky, Fennell went 6.1, giving up 5 hits, 1 earned with 2 walks and 3 K’s. We lost that game in the ninth inning on a grand slam, 5-2, but Connor got the job done and deserved better. He’ll compete. He’s a bulldog.

Texas will go with lefty Dylan Volantis, 5-0, 2.13 ERA,16 walks, 69 K’s, 1 homer, .196 BA against.

Saturday, 7 P.M. CT/8 ET, SEC Network.

VU pitcher, to be determined. I’ll guess freshman righty Nate Schlote (Fairway, KS.), 3-1, 0.50 ERA, 18 IP’s, 17 walks, 20 K’s. 0 homers. .125 BA against. Been good, needs to throw strikes. Other candidates are junior right hander Luke Guth (Franklin, PA.), 1-1, 4.12, 24 IP, 15 walks, 27 K’s. 2 homers. .250 BA against. Or possibly junior righty Brennan Seiber (Newport Beach, Cali.- nice place to live). 5-1, 5.04, 17 BB’s, 20 K’s. 2 homers, .257 BA against.

For Texas, right hander Ruger Riojas, 5-1, 3.25 ERA, 12 walks, 83 K’s. Two homers. .222 BA against.

Sunday, 12 P.M. CT/1 ET. ESPN2, The Deuce.

Vanderbilt: Freshman right hander Wyatt Nadeau (Gorham, Maine). 1-2, 5.40 ERA, 38.1 IP, 32 BBs, 51 K’s, 4 homers given up. .207 BA against. When Wyatt throws strikes, he’s very effective.

Texas:

LHP Luke Harrison. 4-2, 4.09 ERA, 50.2 IP, 22 BBs, 54 K’s. 2 homers. .242 BA against.

Their closer is righty Sam Cozart, 5-0, 1.83, 6 saves. 7 walks, 49 K’s. 3 homers, .104 BA against.

***Keys to success***
1. Throw strikes
2. Keep the ball in the ball park.
3. Let our defense make plays.
4. Play very solid D.
5. Hit in the clutch.

Always the formula for success.

I’ll be back over the weekend with a report if we’re having success.

Men’s golf is struggling today and doesn’t look like they’ll make the Match Play. We’re +6 today, and -5 for the tournament. Eighth place Arkansas is -14. We’re through holes 12-16. We’ve got four teams in front of us below Arkansas. So really disappointing performance by the team. We’ve got the NCAA Tournament, but this is just not the way Vanderbilt Men’s Golf is supposed to compete. Auburn and Florida are both at -32 in the lead. Both are on holes 9-12. Very disappointing performance.

Men’s Basketball,
now this is something to be ecstatic about, particularly if we get two more guys back on the team.

Here are our 2026 signees for the 2026-27 team. All of these ratings are from 247 Sports.

Incoming freshmen 1. Ethan Mgbako, 6’6″, 215 small forward out of Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia. 92, 4-star.

2.Anthony Brown, 6’1″,160 point guard, Archbishop Carroll, D.C. 91, 4-star.

3. Jackson Sheffield, 6’9″, 240 Center, Hoover, Alabama. 90, 4 star.

Transfers

1.T.O. Barrett, 6’4″, 200, shooting guard. Missouri transfer. Originally from Edmond, OK. 93, 4-star out of high school and 91 4 star from Missouri.

2. Sebastian Williams-Adams, 6’8″, 230 power forward. Auburn transfer. Originally from Houston. 98, 4 star out of high school. 94 from Auburn.

3. Bangot Dak. 6’11”, 185 Power Forward. From Lincoln, Nebraska originally. Colorado transfer. 84 out of high school, and 89, 3- star from Colorado.

4. Ace Glass. 6’2″, 170, shooting guard. Washington State transfer. From Rancho Cucamonga, CA. 91, 4 star out of high school. 91 from Wash State.

5. Berke Buyuktuncel. 6’10”, 244 power forward. Nebraska transfer. Originally from Bursa, Turkey. Reminds me of when I was trying to call a basketball game at UAB back in 1986 as I was auditioning for potential broadcasting jobs and I had my friend, and frat brother Skins with me and this Turkish player hit a deep trifecta, and Skins said, “He just hit that from downtown Constantinople!” Berke was a 99 4 star out of high school and a 91, 4-star from Nebraska.

So, awesome class by Coach By. Our team ranking is 14th in the country by 247 Sports and our transfer class is 15th. We can do some damage with these guys.

Two other guys we need to lock down are superstar point guard Tyler Tanner, who is weighing his options with the NBA. The deadline for underclassmen to declare for the draft is April 24th, today. May 10-17 is the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago, and June 13th is the deadline for college players to withdraw from the draft and maintain their eligibility. Tyler is getting a very healthy offer from VU to stay, somewhere in the $2.5 to 3 Million range for next season. Tyler should come back. The pay is great and he can be a star and not the 11th or 12th guy on the bench in the NBA. Hopeful Tyler will choose to come back. One thing we have working for us: Tyler is an awesome kid.

The other player is our super solid small forward AK Okereke. He’s trying to get a waiver for a fifth season from the NCAA to get another season at VU. AK’s argument is he played at Cornell, which doesn’t give out athletic scholarships as per Ivy League rules. Would love to get the big fella back as well.

And two guys I would be highly remiss to leave out are our stud freshman small forward this season, Chandler Bing. Chandler, from Atlanta, had a really solid frosh season and is primed to be a big time player for us. And Jayden Leverett, our 6’10”, 205 center, from El Paso, Texas. Jayden showed flashes of being a really nice player for us down low. He’s got good handles, getting more size and he’s already a physical player, good rebounder, can affect the rim, and has a pretty solid offensive game that’s developing.

So, that’s what we’ve got in baseball and basketball. Looking stellar in both sports.

I’ll keep you apprised on baseball this weekend.

Have an awesome weekend.

Vanderbilt Baseball, Men’s Basketball, Football, Men’s Golf Excelling. Here’s VU Insider

April 23, 2026

Our outstanding sophomore third baseman from Ooltewah, TN., Brodie Johnston is pounding the baseball right now. (Photo courtesy of *The Vanderbilt Hustler)*.

Our baseball team is picking it up as third baseman Brodie Johnston and right fielder Braden Holcomb, among many others, are pounding the baseball right now. And, just as importantly, we are pitching MUCH better, which we had to have. The defense has been stellar lately.

I’ll have some more on Friday with details on Brodie, Braden, Mancini, Ryker Waite, Ruston Rigdon, etc, and what to look for as No.4 Texas (D1 Baseball Rankings) comes to Nashville for a three game set at the Hawk. Couldn’t be more gigantic of a series.

Our RPI, as reported by Warren Nolan, an expert in the field, is 69, which is probably not good enough yet to get us in the NCAA Tournament. But we’ve improved markedly in the last week after taking 2 of 3 from Kentucky in Lexington and defeating Xavier, 11-1, in 8 innings by the run rule, a 10 or more run lead after the trailing team has hit in the 7th. We are now 25-17 overall and 9-9 in the always rugged SEC. We started out slowly in the non-conference and the SEC has been as brutal as ever. But we’ve held our own. But we’ve got work to do.

Connor Fennell has been pitching well on Friday Nights, and our bullpen was better last weekend in Lexington. We just need to get better starting pitching on Saturday and Sunday, and our bullpen needs to keep progressing.

Brodie’s been awesome hitting .367 with 13 homers and 38 steaks. Braden is also hitting well at .329 with 12 and 39. Waite, our shortstop, is hitting .301 with 5 and 32 and is 9 for 12 in base stealing, and our great senior, second baseman Mike Mancini, is hitting .301 with 12 and 39. Mancini is also 12-for-12 in stolen bases. We always need to manufacture runs. It can be the difference between winning and losing, and we’ve been pretty strong lately in the stealing and bunt games along with our hitting prowess.

Braden was 4 for 5 Tuesday versus Xavier, and our superb sophomore first baseman, Tommy Goodin, who has taken over at first, was three for 5 with a three run shot and 5 Ribeyes. Waite hit a grand salami. Tommy is hitting .295 with 9 long ones and 29 Ribbies.

Game one Friday versus Texas is at 6 P.M. CT/7 ET on SEC Network+. Saturday’s game is at 7 P.M. CT/8 ET on the SEC Network. And Sunday’s finale is at 12 P.M.CT/1 East on ESPN2.

Major weekend ahead at the Hawk, and we’ll have to pitch well because Texas hits .303 as a team and has a 3.41 team ERA. Texas is 30-8 and 11-6 in the SEC, good for third in the conference behind No.5 Georgia, which is 13-5 and 32-10, and No.7 A&M, which is at 12-5 and 31-7. We are in 11th place in the conference standings, so A LOT on the line on West End starting Friday.

We’re hitting .294 as a team and are 4th in the country in home runs with 87. Defense is solid at .975, and we turn a ton of double plays. Defense could even be a little sharper, but it was very sharp against Kentucky and Xavier.

The pitching ERA is where we need to pick it up. It’s at 5.38 right now. We’ve Got to get better on the mound if we want to have a highly successful season. We’ve had some injuries, but now have guys coming back, and we’re pitching four or five freshmen, so it’s been a learning curve. But now is the time for the staff to step it up. The freshmen have been through a lot of battles in the pre-conference and now in the SEC. So, they’re veterans at this point despite the fact that they’re freshmen. They’re just going to have to lock it down. We’ve got to have those young guys and the veterans produce for us to have good, if not great success this season. The talent is there. Just need to be mentally tough on the hill and throw strikes and let our defense make plays. Connor is definitely giving us that. Fennell is our leader on the staff. Our other juniors and underclassmen have to follow suit.

I’ll have more on our team through the weekend.

I’ll have more on “By,” Coach Mark Byington, and the men’s bball team coming up Friday. By was extended by Candice and rewarded our program and our University for it by pulling in a tremendous incoming freshmen and transfer class. I’ll have many more details on what By has done. Keeping Tyler Tanner as a Dore is preeminent in our plans for 2026-27. Tyler did not transfer, so it’s a matter of if we can keep him from going to the NBA. There are deadlines for declaring for the draft and staying in. I think we’ve got a shot to keep him and possibly get AK Okereke back. AK is trying to win his case in court for an extra year of eligibility. Will get into more detail on Men’s bball Friday. It’s going very well. By’s the man.

It was such a downer losing to Nebraska because I loved the guys on the team and they had such a sensational season. Sorry to see Tyler Nickel, and Devin McGlockton have to move on due to the fact that they’re out of eligibility. Nickel is kind of up in the air still though. He probably won’t be back, but there’s talk of him trying to get another year of eligibility. He was a little erratic as a shooter, but gave great effort and was a leader. Glock was a terrific leader and teammate and gave us a lot. I really liked what Jalen Washington did, too, in his one season as a Commodore. Wish those guys all the very best and will be pulling for them in their future endeavors. Will get more in depth on our newcomers Friday.

Football had an awesome spring. Clark has this program fine tuned to be a powerhouse in the near future. I love what five star freshman quarterback Jared Curtis can do for us. The QB competition is still ongoing into August, and we’ve got three other pretty good players. Curtis has the most talent. He can really sling it. Can a freshman quarterback really lead his team to prominence in the SEC? If anybody can do it, Jared can. It’s not a done deal, but I’m banking on Jared being our starting QB in game one vs. Austin Peay at FirstBank on Saturday, Sept 5th. And the talent around Jared, or whomever it is, is as good as we’ve ever had. The defense is loaded, too. We’ll have to fine tune our offensive line, but there’s great size and ability, and plenty of depth. And I’m a huge fan of O Line coach Chris Klenakis. With Coach Klenakis, and OC Tim Beck at the helm, and our chief Consultant to Clark and senior offensive Advisor Jerry Kill, we’ll have good offense. Seddy Alexander, MK Young and Junior Sherrill are back among others. I like our material on offense. And Clark and DC Steve Gregory can do super things with our talent on defense. Our defense can be elite. Couldn’t be going any better in football.

Our Men’s Golf team shot 9 under today in the second round of the SEC Tournament at Sea Island Golf Club at St. Simons Island, GA. and are in 9th place heading into Friday’s final round of stroke play at 11 under. We are one shot back of 8th place South Carolina, which is at -12. The top 8 finishers in stroke play matriculate to the Match Play on Saturday and Sunday. There are quarterfinal and semifinal matches on Saturday, and the Championship Match is Sunday. I like where Coach Scott Limbaugh and our team stands heading into Friday.

We are ranked 11th in the country. We have really improved throughout the season. We’ve got a young team, for the most part, as two freshmen are in the starting lineup of 5 players in the team competition. But the two freshmen were 2 of the three players in the No.1 recruiting class in the country in 2025, so they know what it takes. But our senior from West Point, Mississippi, Wells Williams, has been the story for our team through the first two rounds. Wells is at nine under for the tournament, and tied for fourth, three shots back of Auburn stud Jackson Kolvun.

We’ll need Wells, freshman Will Hartman, from Marvin, N.C., who is at -4, freshman Jon Ed Steed from Enterprise, Alabama, who has been superb for us this season, junior Chase Nevins, from Great Falls, VA. and sophomore Ryan Downes, from Longmeadow, Massachusetts, to lock down tomorrow and get us into the match play, where it’s anybody’s game then. No.1 Auburn leads the team leaderboard at -27.

Will have more VU Confidential stuff Friday with the 2026-27 Basketball team makeup, more on these tremendous signees, and a running diatribe (not overkill, but up to date information) on the Men’s golf team as they home in on round 3 and advancing to Match Play.

Thanks, have a great evening and Anchor Down.

Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball advances to the Second Round. VU Women’s Basketball in action Saturday along with the Men. Baseball, Women’s Tennis, Men’s Golf and Tennis

March 20, 2026

T Tanner (left) and Duke with big days in round 1 in OKC to lead us to victory. (Photo courtesy of *YouTube*).

Tyler Tanner dropped in 26 on 7-of-16 from the field, 3-of-8 from triple, and 9-of-10 from the stripe, and added 7 boards and 5 assists, as our Vanderbilt Commodores Men’s Basketball team advanced through the first round of the NCAA Tournament with a 78-68 victory over a scrappy McNeese team at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.

We moved to 27-8 on the season, and, most importantly, “matriculated” to the second round of the tournament where we’ll face the fourth-seeded Nebraskas Cornhuskers (27-6, 15-5 Big Ten) at 7:45 P.M. CT/8:45 ET Saturday. TNT will broadcast our game with Nebraska.

The Cornhuskers reached the second round by blasting Troy,76-47 in the game before us at the Paycom Center. We are the fifth seed in the South Region. We are a 1 1/2 point favorite over Nebraska as this time.

Duke Miles added 13, and Tyler Nickel and Devin McGlockton chipped in 12 apiece. AK Okereke finished with only seven points, but led us in rebounding with 9. Devin added 8. We out-rebounded them, 37-34. We were 26-of-51 from the field, 51%, 9-of-24 from trifecta, 38%, and 17 of 20 from the stripe, 85%. We held them to 36 percent from the field, but they sank 9 threes like we did. They were a scrappy team and had our number for a while in the first half. But we picked up our intensity in the last 25 minutes and played solid basketball from that point on.

Coach Mark “By” Byington calls this “a road game” for us Saturday against Nebraska. Hopefully we can have a strong contingency there. If you live in the Oklahoma City area and you’re an alum, please come out and support our stellar team.

Nebraska got 23 points out of their 6’7″, 210 junior forward Pryce Sandfort Thursday vs Troy. He was 7-of-12 from trifecta, and 2 of 2 from the stripe for his 23 points. Jamarques Lawrence and Braden Frager added 13, and 6’10”, 250 center Reink Mast finished with 11 and 6 boards.

Nebraska’s coach is Fred Hoiberg, who had a lot of success at Iowa State from 2010-2015, going 115-56 (67%) with four trips to the NCAA Tournament. The Cyclones went to the Sweet 16 in 2014 under Hoiberg.

He moved on to the Chicago Bulls of the Association after that and went 115-155 before getting fired in 2018-19. It’s hard for any college coach to succeed in the pros either in Football and Basketball.

Just ask Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier, Rick Pitino or John Calipari. Four of the greatest coaches of all time in their respective sports, each of whom could not succeed on the professional level. Those guys like discipline, and in the pros you have to be a player’s coach, and those guys just didn’t want to do that. But they had superior success in college, and Pitino and Calipari are still going strong with teams that can do some major damage in this NCAA Tournament with Pitino at St. John’s and Cal at Arkansas.

Hoiberg probably ran into the same issues.Billy Donovan, who was so successful at Florida winning back to back national championships in 2006 and 2007, is finding the same struggles in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls. His teams either miss the playoffs or barely make it to the Play-In games every year. Right now, Donovan’s team is at 28-42 and in 12th place and looking not too swift to make the NBA Playoffs. He’s a superb coach and would make an excellent coach in college again if he wanted to come back.

Hoiberg looked like he faced the same issues.
He’s doing very well after a slow start at Nebraska. He started in 2019-20 and went 7-25, then 7-20 in 20-21, 10-22 in 21-22, but broke through in 23-24 going 23-11 and making the NCAA Tournament where the Huskers lost in the first round. Last year they won the CBC Champions Tournament, a level below the NIT, and this season has been a spectacular one for Nebraska.

So what do we need to do to be successful Saturday? We need to guard them hard on the three, win the boards or stay equal, and we need EVERYBODY to contribute. We’ll need big games from Tyler Tanner, Tyler Nickel and Duke and we’ll need Devin, Jalen Washington, AK and Chandler Bing to give their usual stellar contributions on offense AND defense. As By always says, “we’ll have to guard.”

I like us to bring our lunch pales, hit big shots, defend well and stay equal or a little better on the boards and come out victorious in a tremendously hard fought game. This is a very good Nebraska team.

Vanderbilt 75, Nebraska 73

Our No. 2 seeded Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball team (Fort Worth Regional) tips off at 6 P.M. CT/7 ET vs No. 15 seed High Point at Memorial in Nashville on Saturday. The game will be broadcast by ESPN News.

The amazing Mikayla Blakes was named first team All American by the Associated Press earlier this week. Mikayla leads the country in scoring at 27 points per game. In my opinion, Mikayla should be the National Player of the Year. Will keep you posted Coach Shea Ralph and our women’s progress. Will send out a full briefing on Monday.

A couple of brief things which I want to elaborate more on Monday, our baseball team plays at No.6 Mississippi State today through Sunday. The game today is at 7 CT/8 ET on the SEC Network. Saturday’s game is at 6 P.M. CT/7 ET on SEC Network+, and Sunday’s game commences at 1 P.M. CT/2 ET on SECN+ as well. We are 13-9, far from our standards. We gotta learn how to pitch if we want to have a chance to have any success this season. Got a long way to go there. We’re hitting .308, so usually we’re good at the plate, and we’re fielding well at .979, but our team ERA is 4.89, which is unacceptable for Vanderbilt University Baseball under Tim Corbin. We’ve had some detrimental injuries to our pitching staff, but there are no excuses. Need to figure it out starting tonight or it could be a long, painful season.

Our No. 12 Women’s Tennis team is on a roll after defeating No,37 Ole Miss yesterday, 5-2. No.33 nationally ranked Bridget Stammel, No.25 Valeria Ray, Trinetra Vijayakumar and Sophia Webster all won in singles and we won the doubles point as well. We moved to 16-4 overall and 6-2 in the SEC. We have now won 5 straight SEC matches with one coming over then No.1 Georgia and another over then No.11 South Carolina, both at the Lummis Family Tennis Center at VU. We are @ No.11 LSU Saturday at 11 A.M.Great stuff from Coach Aleke Tsoubanos and our team. Our usual number one player, Celia- Belle Mohr, is not playing at this time. I’m going to do some investigating and “get back to you” on this on Monday. Need Celia-Belle back for sure. But we’re doing well even without her.

Men’s Golf is presently tied for fourth after the first round of the Linger Longer Invitational at the Great Waters Course at Reynolds Plantation Lake Oconee in Eatonton, GA. We are -10. Georgia leads at 21 under. We’re playing solid golf. Michael Riebe, Jon Ed Steed and Ryan Downes all shot 3 under/69, today on the par 72 course. Wells Williams finished at 1 under/71. Need to get back in it on Saturday and win it on Sunday. Two more rounds left. Need a big performance Saturday. Our guys tee off at 8:24 A.M. CT/9:24 ET with Wells leading us off.

The Men’s tennis team is ranked 13th nationally by the ITA Rankings, which also ranks our women. The guys are playing @ No.3 Texas right now. We lost the doubles point, but are highly competitive in the singles right now.

Will keep you apprised on everything on Monday, with a blast on Sunday on our men’s and women’s basketball teams with hopefully successful outcomes.

Have an awesome weekend and Anchor Down.

Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball with a massive victory in OxVegas Tuesday Night

March 4, 2026

Our superb graduate senior, AK Okereke gave us another terrific performance Tuesday Night in a thrilling victory for the Commodores. (Photo courtesy of x.com).

The awesome Tyler Tanner finished with 34 points, 5 boards, 7 assists and 5 steals as T Tanner and the Dores outlasted Ole Miss last night, 89-86, in overtime before 7,300 fans at The Sandy and John Black Pavilion in Oxford.

With the victory, a spectacular one on the road against an athletic, pretty talented team, our Dores moved to 23-7 overall and 10-7 in the SEC, and still in contention for a double bye in the SEC Tournament, which commences next Wednesday, 3/11, and runs through Sunday, 3/15, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

Will get more into that in a second.

First, on last night’s game. Tyler Tanner connected on big shot after big shot and helped propel us to a critical SEC road victory as we now gear up for a trip to Knoxville to face the Tennessee Volunteers to close out the season this Saturday at 1 P.M. CT/ 2 ET on ESPN. Should be an epic game with a hopefully favorable outcome.

Duke Miles sank a pair of clutch buckets at the end of regulation, and finished with 16, while another great, graduate senior AK Okereke, from? Cornell University, added 16, 5 boards and 5 assists. Dev McGlockton only finished with 4 points, but pulled down 16 rebounds, eight of them on the offensive glass. Wow. We out-boarded them, 44-40, and outboarded them on the offensive end, 22-12. We also wreaked some havoc on their offense as they turned it over 17 times to our 9.

We shot only 39% from the field, we were 9-of-32 from triple, 28%, and we were 22-of-30 from the line, 73%. It was our work on the glass and the turnovers along with some critical buckets late in the game that won the contest for us. Tyler Nickel finished with 9 points, but sank a critical trifecta late in the game, and pulled down a critical carom right after that.

Dev was brilliant on the boards. He kept two shots alive with consecutive rebounds, the first one he pulled down, and the second he tapped out to T Tanner who then laid the ball in off the glass for a 65-64 lead with 5:11 left. Seemed big at the time. It was our first lead in a long time.

T Tanner was so good last night. Tyler is a phenom. He was driving, dishing, scoring, and played defense like Gary Payton, “The Glove.” Payton played for the Seattle Supersonics back in the day (1990-2003), and was an electric, historically tenacious defensive player.

And T Tanner drained a three that looked like it came from Big Bad Breakfast on the north side of town. What a player.

So, here we are heading into a critical Saturday season finale @ the Vols with a lot at stake. Right now we are tied for fifth with Missouri, A&M and Kentucky at 10-7. Texas is 9-7, and could join us, but they have to play @ Arkansas tonight at 6 CT/7 ET on ESPN2. That’ll be tough for them and a Razorbacks’ win would help us as Texas holds the head to head over us with a victory over us in Austin on January 14th.

Florida has won 10 in a row and is at 15-2 and leading the conference standings. Alabama, which lost on the road last night to a very solid Georgia team, is second at 12-5. Arkansas is third at 11-5, and would tie the Tide for second with a victory, but Alabama holds that head to head tiebreaker over the Hogs by virtue of a victory over them a couple of weeks ago in Tuscaloosa.

Tennessee is in fourth at 11-6. If we defeat the Vols Saturday, we would be tied with them in the standings, and not sure about the tiebreaker in that scenario, yet, because they defeated us in Nashville a week and a half ago. I’ll work on that and, “get back to you,” as my high school U.S. History Teacher/Football Coach would say when we asked him questions like who was the explorer who founded Florida (Ponce de Leon-FYI, I wonder if he ever found that out. He never “got back to us.”). I will though.

Other key games for our purposes this Saturday are: Arkansas @ Missouri (need Missouri to lose, 11 A.M. CT/12 East, ESPN), Florida @Kentucky, (3 P.M. CT/4 ET, E-S-P-N. Need a Florida W), Texas A&M @ LSU (5 P.M. CT/6 ET, SEC Network-we do hold the tiebreaker with the Aggies), and Oklahoma @ Texas (7:30 P.M. CT/8:30 ET. Need a Texas loss tonight or Saturday).

But we need to hold up our end of the bargain first and pull off what would be considered a slight upset in Knoxville as they will be favored in all likelihood. The point spread will be decided closer to game time, tomorrow or Friday, but I’d imagine anywhere from 2 1/2- 5 1/2, Vols.

The Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball team will play Friday at 5 P.M. CT/6 ET on the SEC Network in the quarterfinals of the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament. We play the winner of Thursday’s No.7 seed Ole Miss and the winner of tonight’s Auburn/A&M matchup (Thursday, 5 P.M. CT/6 ET, SEC Network). We are ranked fifth in the country and can really make a statement for a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament with tremendous success this weekend at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C.

Baseball has several injuries right now, and it’s’ a struggle. We’re 7-6 now after losing to Central Arkansas Tuesday, 5-4. We’re playing Troy right now. Troy is always scrappy and usually pretty darn strong in football, basketball and baseball. Those Alabama country boys are terrific athletes and fierce competitors.

The Trojans are 5-6, but have already knocked off No. 8 Georgia, 6-5, in Athens on Wednesday, February 25th, two weeks ago. Georgia is currently ranked 11th nationally by D1Baseball.com. It’s 0-0 going into the bottom of the fourth.

Have a terrific rest of your week. I’ll “get back to you” in the near future. I promise I will.

Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball in a Critical Game today, Women’s Basketball excelling, Men’s Tennis, Baseball, Women’s Tennis, Men’s Golf

March 3, 2026

No way to sugarcoat it, we got our tails kicked in Lexington on Saturday, and HAVE to regroup tonight in Oxford as we face the Ole Miss Rebels (4-12, 12-17), which are fresh off an upset @ Auburn and aiming to get revenge from our earlier victory over them this season at Memorial. The game tips at 8 CT/ 9 ET on ESPN+. Probably not staying up for the second half, but will watch it first thing in the morning in my office and have a write up if we’re successful.

We are now 22-7 overall and 9-7 in the SEC. We are ranked 24th in the AP Poll, the Ken Pom rankings has us ranked 14th, with an offensive rating of 9th nationally, and a defensive rating of 26th, which are still solid numbers as far as our ability to matriculate in the NCAA Tournament.

But the effort Saturday was not there. Kentucky seemed un-guardable that day, too, but we have to get better. The Net Rankings has us at 19th, and the latest Lunardi bracketology has us as a 5 seed and playing Liberty in the Midwest Region in Portland in round one. Michigan is the Number one seed in the Midwest, according to Lunardi. Will get into that more as we get closer to that time, but we’ve got to concern ourselves with the SEC right now.

We are tied for 7th place with A&M presently as both of us are at 9-7. Florida, which looks like a juggernaut, but not unbeatable, is in first place at 14-2. Alabama is second at 12-4, Arkansas is third at 11-5, and Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky are at 10-6 and tied for fourth. So tremendously important game for us tonight.

Tyler Tanner will give us everything he has as always, and so will AK Okekere, but we’ll need Devin McGlockton, Tyler Nickel, especially him, and Duke Miles to play well and get good minutes off the bench from Chandler Bing, Jalen Washington, etc. Gotta have this one. Ole Miss is playing a lot better and there is skill and talent down there, so we will HAVE to play well.

We finish off the season Saturday at Tennessee for a 1 P.M. CT/ 2 ET tip on ESPN2.

Women’s Basketball

Our fifth-ranked Commodore Women put on a spectacular performance at Knoxville on Sunday as the great Mikayla Blakes was dominant with 34 points, six boards, and four assists in another masterful performance from our sophomore from Somerset, New Jersey. The awesome Mikayla is leading the country in scoring at 27 per game. If Mikayla is not player of the year nationally that would be a travesty. Simply the most impactful player in the country.

Our tremendous freshman point guard from Deerfield, Illinois, Aubrey Galvan, added 24 and 5 dimes. Sacha Washington, our terrific graduate power forward from Lawrenceville, GA., finished with 16 and 8 boards. We defeated the Vols, 87-77, to close out the regular season at 27-3 and 13-3 in the SEC.

ESPN Bracketologist Charlie Creme has us as a No.2 seed in Region 2, the Sacramento Region, facing No. 15 Navy in Nashville, which would be tremendous. We could play the first two rounds in Nashvegas. We can get to a Number one seed if we win the SEC Tourney.

And first things first. The SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament starts tomorrow, Wednesday, at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C. We have a double bye and don’t play till Friday as we finished second in the SEC behind the Gamecocks, and are the second seed.

We’ll either play Auburn/Texas A&M (first round game Wednesday Night) or No.7 seed Ole Miss, which has a bye to Thursday. We’ll play Friday at 5 P.M.Central/ 6 East on the SEC Network. Will keep you totally apprised on our phenomenal women’s team. Coach Ralph is superb.

Men’s Tennis

We swept a pair of SEC matches last weekend, winning 4-3 at Oklahoma, and 4-3 at then No.14 A&M. Great stuff from third year Coach Scott Brown and the guys. We have now jumped to 11th nationally (ITA Rankings) after being 37th last week. So, superb stuff from the fellas.

We’re at No. 41 Arkansas Friday at 5:30 P.M. CT/ 6:30 ET, then, on Sunday, 3/8, we’re at No.31 Ole Miss starting at 1 P.M. CT/2 ET. We are 11-3 overall and 3-1 in the SEC with our other SEC victory coming over No.61 Tennessee, 4-2. Our only loss is to No.5 Mississippi State, in a tightly contested match, as we just barely fell, 4-3. So a lot to be excited about with the men’s tennis program.

Baseball and Women’s Tennis

No sugarcoating this either: Both teams got their respective tails kicked over the weekend. Baseball lost all three games in the Live Like Lou Las Vegas College Classic, losing 9-4 to UC Irvine, 5-1 to ‘Zona, and 6-4 to Oregon. We were terrible.

We have Central Arkansas at home today at 4:30 P.M. CT/5:30 ET on SEC Network+, and we play at home Wednesday at 3 P.M. CT/4 ET versus Troy on SECN+. We host North Dakota State this weekend at the Hawk. Will have more on the team once they decide to show up this season.

Women’s Tennis lost a pair of matches at home last weekend to then No. 4 A&M, 5-2, and No.16 Texas, 5-2. We’re presently 35th in the country according to the ITA Rankings. We host No.1 Georgia Friday at 5 P.M. CT/6 East, and then we host No.11 South Carolina Sunday, 3/8, at the Currey Tennis Center at 1 P.M. CT/2 ET. Need to get our act together and start playing a lot better tennis. Tough matchups this weekend, but need to see if we can find a way to emerge victorious.

Men’s Golf

Our Men’s Golf team has had a terrible performance at the Cabo Collegiate as we are in 12th place out of 16 teams at 17 over par. No idea what happened. A lot of room for MAJOR improvement.

Will keep you apprised. Thanks a lot.

Senior Night a resounding success for the Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball team; Baseball with a weekend trip to Vegas; Men’s Golf in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

February 26, 2026

Dev McGlockton had a huge night for the Dores in our victory over Georgia. (Photo courtesy of *x.com*).

Six Vanderbilt players scored in double figures, as Dev McGlockton, Tyler Nickel, Coleson Messer and Miles Keeffe were honored for their hard work and dedication to the program on Senior Night with the team giving the Memorial crowd of 10,460 a night to remember as the 25th ranked Commodores defeated Georgia, 88-80.

Dev and Tyler Tanner led the way for the Dores with 17 points each. Dev had several critical buckets down low, as he was 7-of-10 from the field. Glock added 10 boards and 2 blocks.

Tyler T stuffed the stat sheet once again with his 17 to along with 6 boards and 5 assists. Duke Miles had a nice game and is looking like himself now as he finished with 15 points, 4 boards, and was 3-of-5 from trifecta.

Our great forward, AK Okereke, finished the night with 13 points, six boards and 6 assists. Excellent night from our grad transfer from Cornell. He’s such a key component to this basketball team. We’ve always had a 6’7″ small/power forward who can score and do all the blue collar work. AK is an outstanding player for us and will be a critical piece and leader for us in March/April.

Tyler Nickel finished with 10. Not Tyler’s best night shooting as he was 1-of-8 from triple, but he hit a key trifecta late and was a leader as always and hustled like always. Our stellar grad transfer from UNC, Jalen Washington, finished with 10, 4 boards and 2 blocks. I’d like to see Jalen finish a little better around the rim, but certainly believe he can and will.

Chandler Bing once again gave us solid minutes off the bench. Love what our freshman can do going forward this season. Chandler finished with 6 and gets after it on the defensive end.

We moved to 22-6 on the year and 9-6 in the SEC. It was a key victory for us as Texas and Texas A&M both lost, which helps us in the SEC Standings. We are now tied for fifth in the conference standings. No.7 Florida moved to 13-2 last night and 22-6 overall with its victory over Texas, 84-71 and is in first place. No. 17 Alabama is tied for second with No. 20 Arkansas, which blasted A&M last night, 99-84.The Crimson Tide is 11-4 and 21-7 overall after blasting Mississippi State last night at home, 100-75. The Razorbacks are 11-4, and 21-7. No.22 Tennessee is fourth at 10-5 and 20-8 overall after its loss to Mizzou Tuesday Night on the road. We are tied for fifth at 9-6 with Missouri, Texas A&M and Kentucky. We’ve got Kentucky on the road Saturday at 1 P.M. CT/2 ET on E-S-P-N.

We control our own destiny as far as getting a double bye in the SEC Tournament (Wednesday, March 11th-Sunday, March15th, Bridgestone Arena, Nashville), so there’s plenty of work left for our team.

But we pulled off an excellent victory over a solid, athletic and physical Georgia team, that looked every bit the part of an NCAA Tournament team. We were just as physical beating them on the boards, 36-29. Just a real nice effort from the guys.

I said yesterday that I wanted to tell you about these interesting NCAA Tournament stats, and I won’t go into elaborate detail as I don’t want to nerd you out. But these Ken Pom stats are pretty prophetic as far as NCAA Tournament advancement for a team. Ken Pomeroy is the smart nerd who compiles numbers like offensive and defensive efficiency ratings. We are 12th in the country in our offensive rating, and 21st defensively, which, and I looked this up, correlates to a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. It’s very indicative and accurate of how a team will fare in March/April. Ken Pom ranks us 13th in the country in his overall rankings.

Duke is No.1 by Ken Pom with an offensive rating that’s 7, and a defensive rating that is Numero uno. And the top teams are all top caliber defenses.

I say bring’em on. We’ll match up with all these outfits and have a real shot at making it into April and going the distance. We have a team with skill, physicality andleadership, and we have a superb coach in Mark Byington. Mark has kind of shortened his rotation to seven players with Tyler Tanner, T Nick, McGlockton, Okereke, Washington, Duke and Bing. We’d take Frankie Collins back, but who knows? I read the SEC Availability Report the night before and the day of every one of our games, and he’s always out. But after last night, I like our chances with the guys we’ve got. I’m sure Coach Byington and the players would welcome Frankie back, but it’s unclear what’s going to happen with him. I’ll keep checking every night before and day of games and let you know.

Okereke and Nickel can help Tanner and Miles with ball handling. We were only 7-of-26 from trifecta last night, but we were 21-of-24 from the line, 88%, and we shot 30-of-61 from the field, 49%. If the threes aren’t falling, you’ve got to find other ways to win and our team did. Georgia shot 41% from the field and 42% from three. They were burying some 3’s in the second half, but our defense was overall solid, we out-rebounded them and we just have clutch players.

The other metric that’s interesting, and this is more for NCAA Tournament seeding purposes, is the Net Rankings. We are 17th in the Net, so we want to improve on that and improve our seeding possibilities. ESPN’s Joey “Brackets” Lunardi will come out with his latest 68 team field projection tomorrow. You can check it on the ESPN website under “Bracketology.” Joe puts it out at 9 A.M. ET/8 CT on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Major game in Lexington Saturday for SEC and NCAA prospects, and we do enjoy defeating those guys. It’ll be a major challenge for sure, but believe in the guys. Will have more on Monday on the team.

Vanderbilt Baseball

The Vandy Boys, at 7-2, are in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Ballpark to play in the Live Like Lou Vegas Collegiate Classic.

Friday, Braden, Brodie and the Boys face UC Irvine, which is 6-3. First pitch is at 4 P.M. CT/5 ET and will be streamed by D1 Baseball.com. You can go to vucommodores.com or D1baseball.com to sign up if you’re inclined to do so. Saturday’s game versus Arizona (1-7) is at 6 P.M. CT/7 ET, and will also be streamed on D1.

Sunday’s game, on D1, is versus Oregon, which is 8-0. First pitch is 1 P.M. CT/2 ET on D1. The Ducks are not ranked yet, but will be if they have a good weekend.

Need a good weekend out of all 3 phases of the game for our team to be successful. Gotta pitch, defend and hit at a high level. Will let you know about our results on Monday. We are unranked by D1, but we are ranked 25th by Baseball America. Baseball America goes more in-depth on its analysis on its top 25 on its weekly rankings, so I trust them just as much if not more than D-1. We need a good weekend though to keep advancing as a team.

Vanderbilt Men’s Golf

Our 5th-ranked Vanderbilt men’s golf team heads to Cabo San Lucas Mexico for the Cabo Collegiate Sunday, 3/1-Tuesday, 3/3 for a 54 hole team event at the Twin Dolphin Club, a 7,156 yard, par 71 layout.

Other ranked teams (Scoreboard by Clippd rankings) include No.7 Arizona State, No.9 Arkansas, No. 17 Georgia Tech, No. 18 Tennessee, No.20 Stanford, and No.27 Arizona.

We finished second at the Watersound Invitational in Panama City in mid February, after taking a 6 shot lead into the third and final round. But we shot +2 the final day and Arkansas had a good day and overtook us to win it. Freshman Michal Riebe did tie for the individual title. Coach Scott Limbaugh has another stellar team as always. Our freshman class was the No.1 class in the country in 2025, and our 2026 forthcoming class is also ranked No.1 in the country. Just need to get over the top soon. We certainly get in position.

We need senior Wells Williams to really lead this group. Wells will need some help in order for us to be highly successful in 2026.

I want our guys, coaches and all the teams to be careful down there after one of the leading drug cartel guys, “El Mencho” was killed by Mexican military and security forces. It can be dangerous down there with all the drug cartels and unrest from the killing of the drug lord, which was a great thing for Mexico and the U.S. And I think we’d not go if it wasn’t safe.

Will keep you posted on these three key Vanderbilt teams and other key teams in the winter and spring as we matriculate into March. Thanks a lot, have a good evening and Anchor Down.

Predictions for the NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals and the 50th Memorial Tournament, the seventh Signature Event on the PGA Tour this season

June 2, 2026