David White

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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. 

Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt Basketball, Braden Holcomb, Vanderbilt Baseball, Mikayla Blakes, Aubrey Galvin, Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball. All unplugged.

February 25, 2026

Tyler Tanner playing through the flu, is a warrior as always. (Photo courtesy of WRAL- Raleigh-Durham. N.C.)

Tyler Tanner did everything he could last week despite having the flu.

He scored 27 points in a heart-breaking loss to @Missouri, 81-80, missing a beyond half court shot at the buzzer by maybe an inch after he intercepted a Missouri pass. The shot would have won the game for us.

Saturday, in another real heartbreaker, Tyler played through the illness again, which is tough, and looked to struggle some, but still came away with 16 points in a hard fought 69-65 loss to the Vols. 

Tyler should be a lot better tonight as we face a solid, athletic Georgia team, which is 19-8 overall and 7-7 in the SEC, and has its sights set on knocking us off. The game tips off at 6 P.M. CT/ 7 ET on the SEC Network.

The games are all big now. We’ve got 4 left and are 8-6 in the SEC and 21-6 overall and ranked 25th in the country. Joey Brackets has us as a 5 seed in the Midwest Regional playing 12 seed Belmont, which would be difficult as Belmont is always a sharp-shooting team that plays solid D.

But a lot of work left before that starting today at Memorial. We are tied for 8th in the conference as of today, but still have a shot at the double bye in the SEC Tournament, which starts Wednesday, 3/11, and runs through Sunday 3/15, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Florida leads the SEC standings at 12-2 and is 21-6 overall. Alabama and Arkansas are tied for second at 10-4. Tennessee is 4th at 10-5 after losing at Missouri last night, 73-69. A&M is fifth at 10-5, Missouri and Kentucky, which both played last night, Kentucky defeated South Carolina, 72-63, on the road, are tied for 6th at 9-6. We are at 8-6 and so is Texas, and the two of us are in 8th. Georgia is right behind us at 7-7, so crucial game today.

Thankfully for Tyler and the team, Duke Miles is back on the court. Duke was a little rusty on Saturday going 3-for-13, but sank an acrobatic 3 late in the game. With Duke and Tyler, we’ve got a shot to do well the rest of the season. Frankie Collins is out again tonight. There’s talk about him taking a medical redshirt this season, but we need him. I say as soon as he’s ready, we need him out there. There is a lot of basketball left this season, so if he can get on the floor, he should.

Freshman Chandler Bing is giving us some really solid minutes, and big man Jalen Washington pulled down 10 boards and blocked six shots against Tennessee. We’ve got to have Tyler Nickel, Devin McGlockton and AK Okereke  play well, also. Mike James and Tyler Harris can help us off the bench, and I like freshman center Jayden Leverett. He’s shown signs that he can be a really good player for us. I don’t know if Mark is totally comfortable with the freshman out there for a lot of minutes yet, just because he’s young. But I like what I’m seeing from Jayden. Mark might try him more. At 6’11”, 257, he can really help us in the paint. He’s physical, and skilled at  shooting and passing. 

So, major game today at Memorial. Georgia is good, so we HAVE to play well to get over the top. The Bulldogs are hungry to enhance their SEC prospects and NCAA Tournament resume, so they’ll come after us at full bore. We need to be ready. I’ll get more in depth tomorrow on the game, particularly if we’re successful, and  show some interesting metrics that the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee uses to seed the teams, and metrics, the Net Rankings and these really interesting Ken Pomeroy rankings, that can not only project your seeding, but also project how deep you can go into March/April. April is certainly the goal for this team, but one game at a time, beginning today against an athletic, talented Georgia team.

Vanderbilt Baseball cookin with the bats.

Braden Holcomb is hitting .471 with 6 long ones and 21 Ribbies, and our team has been run-ruling teams achieving their 6th in 9 games this season Tuesday afternoon/early eventing in a 15-3 victory over Evansville. The run rule is when a team in an out of conference game leads another by 10 or more runs after the seventh, home or away. Braden, our junior Floridian center fielder, was named SEC player of the week this week for last week’s performance in which he .579 with 3 homers and 10 Ribeyes. Just phenomenal performance by Braden. We are now hitting .355 as a team, which is stellar. Our pitching staff has a 3.50 ERA, which is solid also. Our bullpen struggled in losses to TCU, 5-4, and a really disappointing 11-1 loss to Oklahoma State with both games played at the Shriners Children’s College Showdown at Globe Life Field in Arlington, TX. We did run rule Texas Tech on that Saturday, 13-3, in 8 innings. And we’ve snapped back. And while the competition hasn’t been as challenging, we’ve played well. We play in the Live Like Lou Las Vegas College Classic this Friday through Sunday in Vegas. It’s to honor people with ALS and the great New York Yankee Lou Gehrig, who the difficult disease is named after. More on that tomorrow, Thursday.

We’ll play three good teams, so we’ll need to maintain this level, particularly with the pitching and defense. We’ll, of course, need to hit, too.

We’re fielding at a .973 clip, which is solid. Need to keep that up and even improve on that. More coming Thursday. We are 7-2 overall now. Not ranked at present, but we can get in the top 25 with a good weekend.

Women’s Basketball

The dynamic duo of Mikayla Blakes, who leads the country in scoring at 26.2 ppg and is a strong candidate for National player of the year, and freshman point guard Aubrey Galvan, led us to a critical 81-79 victory over No.16 Kentucky Sunday at Memorial. Our No.5 nationally ranked women’s team moved to 25-3 overall and 11-3 in the SEC, and secured the double bye for the SEC Tournament, which will be played Wednesday, March 4th-Sunday, March 8th at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C. That means we won’t play till Friday, a huge bonus.

Mikayla poured in 35 in a typical Mikayla performance, and Aubrey added 20, including the game winner with 54 seconds left. We hung on, and advanced in the Southeastern Conference. South Carolina leads the SEC standings at 13-1. We are tied with Texas for second at 11-3. We are 25-3 overall.

Charlie Creme, ESPN’s NCAA Tournament Bracketologist for Women’s Basketball, has us as a 2 seed and playing in the Sacramento Regional. We would open in Nashville, and, according to Charlie, would play No.15 Navy.

But we can enhance our resume even more with strong performances against Alabama at home, Thursday at 6:30 P.M. CT/ 7:30 ET on SEC Network+, and Sunday @ Tennessee at 1 P.M. CT/ 2 ET on ESPN. So, a ton to play for going forward.

Coach Shea Ralph has done an amazing job building her program. She’s impressive.

And, as I always say, Corbs is Corbs. Trust the great one.

I’ll get more in-depth on our three teams along with our Men’s Golf team, and our Men’s and Women’s Tennis teams on Thursday. Will check and see if there is any football intel to pass along, also.

Have a super day. 

Vanderbilt Football in Gigantic Matchup, Men’s Ball cookin, Our Awesome Baseball, Men’s Golf, Women’s Basketball and Women’s Soccer Teams

November 21, 2025

Clark leads his charges versus Kentucky Saturday at 2:30 P.M. Central on ESPN. (Photo courtesy of USA Today).

Our Vanderbilt Football team heads into a massive contest versus the Kentucky Wildcats Saturday at 2:30 P.M. CT on ESPN at the great First Bank Stadium on the West End.

Clark, Diego and our 14th ranked football team (College Football Playoff Rankings) are now 8-2 overall and 4-2 in the SEC and we get a shot to enhance our chances at the College Football Playoff with a victory over a highly improved Mark Stoops’ Kentucky team. We are an 8 1/2 point favorite. I’m expecting a close game against a team with a young, very much improving QB and a couple of stellar running backs. But I believe in our guys. Diego, Eli, Junior, Seddy and company need to have strong games and our defense needs to return to its earlier season form, which I expect it to after a bye week and a chance for Clark and DC Steve Gregory to improve our group for its final two games. Excited to see the fellas go at it Saturday. I’ll try to elaborate more on Monday. What a season it’s been for Clark and the team and there’s a lot left to play for with the playoff squarely in our sights. Just need to take care of business against Kentucky and our goals will still be in front of us. I hope our super Athletics Director, Candice Storey Lee, can sign Clark to a 15-20 year contract and keep him in Nashville for the duration of his career. Got to have Clark. We’ve got three, 4 star commits and several high three stars for the 2026 class-signing day is Wednesday, December 3rd, and we’re in it for 5 star quarterback and Georgia commit Jared Curtis from Nashville Christian School in his hometown of Nashville, TN. There’s some serious talk of Jared de-committing from Georgia and signing to play for Clark and the Dores. That would be a coup of all time in Vanderbilt Athletics. Will keep you posted. Quarterback Michael Mitchell Jr. has de-committed from VU, which I hate to see, but it could mean that we have a good shot with Jared. Hate to lose a quarterback commit, or any commit for that matter, but will keep you posted on how things progress with Jared. Gotta take care of business tomorrow at FirstBank though, and stay very much alive in this Playoff hunt.

Mark and the Men’s Bball team with another 100+ point game in a 109-74 victory over Texas Southern. That was our fourth 100 point+ game in a row. Our three great returning players, Tyler Tanner (20 points, 7 assists), Tyler Nickel (20 points, 5 rebounds) and Devin McGlockton (14 points, 6 boards) led the way once again. Coach Byington said that his best recruiting job was getting these three stellar players and young guys to return to our team. They are tremendous leaders and players. Mark said when he’s about to talk to the team after huddling with his coaches during a timeout, our players are already talking about what we should do, and he says that’s the sign of a great team. We had 7 guys score in double figures. We have some super first year players. I’ll elaborate more on our great team once this season progresses some more. Next up is the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament in the Bahamas next Wednesday, 11/26, with an 11 A.M. tipoff versus Western Kentucky. The game will be broadcast by ESPN. We’ll play Thursday and Friday there as well. Those games will be on the ESPN networks as well. Western Ky is 4-0 right now. Pretty good field in the tournament. Teams like St. Mary’s, Wichita State and VA Tech are in it. Will have more next week. 

Corbs has got our baseball team working extremely hard in offseason workouts as always. I’ve seen Instagram and Twitter stuff of our teams working out. They’re doing serious training because they are serious about going to Omaha and winning it all once again under their legendary coach. Like the arms, our position players, our speed, our solid power and potentially superb defense. With Brodie Johnston, Braden Holcombe and Rustan Rigdon and others, we’ve got the foundation for excellence in 2026. Can’t wait to see the guys compete. Will keep you apprised of the team’s progress and will be all in come time the season starts.

The prolific Scott Limbaugh landed our second No.1 nationally ranked Men’s Golf Class in a row in 2026. Our 2025 class was No.1 also, and we signed the No.1 and No. players in the country in this class. That’s knock your socks off great work by Coach Limbaugh and his coaches. We’ve got the number three ranked team in the country heading into the 2026 season and we’re led by our great senior, Wells Williams, who’s up for all kinds of awards nationally. Love what Wells and the fellas can do this season. Under Coach Limbaugh’s leadership our goal is winning it all as well. That’s what we plan on shooting for in 2026. Our next match is Monday through Wednesday, February 16th-18th, 2026, at the Watersound Invitational in Panama City, FL.  on the Third Golf Course. Will keep you posted on any news up until then and definitely keep you posted when the season commences.

Coach Shea Ralph has our women’s basketball team at 4-0, and we’re playing Alabama State right now and leading 80-28. Our superstar Mikayla Blakes finished with 19 points and is taking the rest of the game off as we’re comfortably handling this game. The awesome Mikayla is averaging 24 on the season. There is 8:43 left in the fourth quarter. We’re playing exceptional basketball under the prolific Coach Ralph. Our goals for both basketball teams are playing in April without a doubt.

After today, we play Tennessee State this Sunday at 12 P.M. on SEC Network+, and then head to the Virgin Islands to play in the Paradise Jam versus Oregon State on Thanksgiving night at 7. The game will be broadcast by ESPN+. We’ll then either play Virginia Tech or BYU at the Jam on Friday, 11/28 on ESPN+.  

And, finally, and as importantly, Coach Darren Ambrose and his VU Soccer team is in the second round of the Women’s NCAA Soccer Championships. Our No.1 seeded Dores, which won the SEC Tournament on an amazing penalty kick finish and a phenomenal effort by goalie Sara Wojdelko as we defeated LSU 8-7 in the penalty kicks. It was a tremendously superb effort by the women and Sara. Coach Ambrose and the team face 8th seeded Clemson today at 6 P.M. CT at the Vanderbilt Soccer Complex with a right to go to the Sweet 16 on the line. Our game will be broadcast by ESPN+. Hope Coach Ambrose and the women can keep it rolling.

Will have more coming up in the upcoming weeks. Have an awesome weekend, Go Dores and Anchor Down.

MLB Postseason Predictions; Week 6 College Football coming soon, preview; the catastrophe that was the American Ryder Cup team

September 30, 2025
Can the great designated hitter/pitcher, Shohei Ohtani, lead his LA Dodgers to back to back World Series Championships. (Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Times).

The 2025 MLB Playoffs have started today. I have not looked at scores because I don’t want to do that and know something I’m not supposed to. Can the Dodgers repeat or can the Brewers, Phillies, the home run hitting Bronx Bombers, the Toronto Blue Jays, or a team like Seattle, which has great pitching, emerge as World Series Champions? The Mariners’ Cal Raleigh, who hit 60 long ones to lead the Big Leagues, and drove in 125, third in the Majors behind Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies, who drove in 132, and Pete Alonso of the Mets, a massive disappointment as a team with a $342 Million payroll that failed to make the playoffs-Alonso drove in 126. Raleigh would be the MVP of the American League easily if it wasn’t for Aaron Judge of the Bombuhs, who hit .331, to lead the majors, and hit 53 homers and drove in 114. Raleigh is a stud, but only hit .247, so Judge should get the nod for the Most Valuable Player. 

In my preseason predictions, I picked Judge as my MVP of the American League, Jacob deGrom of the Rangers as my AL Cy Young, Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers as my NL MVP, and Paul Skenes of the Pirates as my NL Cy Young. Judge, Ohtani and Skenes are looking good. Will know that in mid-November and will let you know. Tarik Skubal of the Tigers will win the AL Cy Young. Skubal was 13-6 with a 2.21 ERA and an 0.89 WHIP (Walks plus hits per inning, key pitching stat ). He’s stellar and will make the Tigers tough in the postseason if he can get some help from the other starters and the bullpen, and get some hitting. Ohtani hit .282 with 55 homers and 102 Ribbies. Skenes was 10-10 with a 1.97 ERA and an 0.95 WHIP. While Skubal and Skenes didn’t rack up a ton of victories, they were dominant pitchers, who were un-hittable many times. Skenes didn’t get great run support from a Pirates team with a payroll of $84 Million, 23rd out of 30 teams in MLB.

With that said, here are my predictions for the MLB Playoffs with the teams I like “matriculating,” along with the ultimate winner of the Fall Classic, which will commence Friday, October 24th, and conclude on Saturday, November 1st, if there is a game seven. FOX will broadcast the World Series. ESPN and ABC will broadcast all of the Wild Card Series, which will be the best 2-out- of 3 played at the higher seeded home team. TBS will handle the NL Division Series (best 3 out-of-5) and the NL Championship Series, best 4-out-of 7. And FOX And Fox Sports 1 will broadcast the ALDS and ALCS. 12 teams make the Playoffs with 3 division winners and 3 wild cards from each League. The top two seeds in the AL, which get byes, are the Blue Jays and the Mariners. The top two teams in the NL, which get byes, are the Brewers and the Phillies. 

Here are my Predictions for the Playoffs.

National League Wild Card Series

Dodgers over Reds in 3: @Chavez Ravine, LA

Cubbies over Padres in 3: @ Wrigley, Chicago

NLDS 

Phillies over Dodgers in 5: @Phillies

Cubs over Brewers in 5: @ Brewers

NLCS 

Phillies over Cubbies in 6: @ Philly

AL Wild Card Series

Tigers over Guardians in 3: @Cleveland

Yankees over Red Sox in 3: @ New Yawk

ALDS

Mariners over Tigers in 5: Seattle, home field

Yankees over Blue Jays in 5: Toronto, home field

ALCS 

Yankees over Mariners in 6: Seattle, home field

Fall Classic

I’ll take the Philadelphia Phillies to hang another banner at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies haven’t won the World Series since 2008, and their only other World Championship is in 1980. So while they’ve been very good lately, they haven’t gotten over the Dodgers hurdle or the Dbacks two years ago. I like left fielder Kyle Schwarber, Shortstop Tre Turner, who has been injured, but is back for the postseason and hit .304 with 15 long ones and 69 Ribeyes along with 36 stolen bases, and their stellar first baseman Bryce Harper, who hit .261 with 27 homers and drove in 75 in 132 games out of 162, to win the Series and give the City of Brotherly “Shove” another World Championship. They have a very good starting rotation set up for the postseason and possibly the best closer in the game in Dominican Republic native Jhoan Doran, who finished the season with 32 saves out of 37 opportunities, posted a 2.06 ERA, a 1.10 WHIP,  adding 80 K’s in 70 innings pitched. Doran came over to the Phils from the Minnesota Twins on July 31st, right at the trade deadline day. 

Phillies over Yankees in 7, ***Philly home field advantage.***

Most Valuable Player: Bryce Harper

That was my Prediction before the season started, and I’m sticking with it. Philly may take the moniker Titletown away from Green Bay, though the Packers have a very good team this year. The Eagles sure do too.

Liking Bryce Harper and the Phils to win it all. (Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Inquirer).

Thursday

College Football Week 6 will be headlined by the now No.10 Crimson Tide hosting the No.16 Vanderbilt Commodores at 2:30 P.M. CT on ABC.  The Crimson Tide is coming off a massive 24-21 victory over then No.5 Georgia at Sanford Stadium in Athens, in a game that Ty Simpson was terrific in, completing 24 of 38 passes for 276 yards, 2 TDs and 0 interceptions. Ty added a 2-yard TD run. Ty, Kadyn Proctor and the O line were superb, and the defense really stepped it up led by “L-T-Overton!” as the great Chris Fowler exclaimed when LT stopped Georgia running back Cash Jones on a critical fourth and one at the Crimson Tide 9 in the fourth quarter. Offensive Coordinator Ryan Grubb’s play call on 3rd and 1, in which Ty threw it back to Jam Miller and Jam ran for the first down and got down to help run the clock down, was a brilliant play call and clinched the game. I’m getting bullish on the Crimson Tide. It’s still a long season, but I’m liking what I’m seeing. They gained a lot of momentum from last Saturday’s victory. The Florida State game looks like it was just an off day for the Tide, and now the chemistry is good amongst the players and coaches. Things are clicking. Kirby Smart has an Alabama problem, as his 1-7 record against the Crimson Tide attests to. He told the media afterwards that he’s not losing sleep over it. But I might be if I were him.

On the other side of the state, Hugh, Jackson Arnold and the Auburn offense are having catastrophic problems. Hugh needs to turn things around quickly or it could be curtains for him at Auburn. 

No.3 Miami @ No. 18 Florida State Saturday at 6:30 P.M. CT on ABC is another massive contest, which will have  key playoff implications. All the games from now on for the contenders are tremendously important for their playoff aspirations.

The U.S. Ryder Cup team was a total and complete disaster until Sunday, when they showed a little more heart in the 45th Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. They played well in the singles matches on Sunday, but it was too little, too late. Keegan Bradley just didn’t have enough life experience or captain experience and was severely out-captained by the terrific European Captain, Luke Donald. The European team seems to want it more than the American team does right now. After winning the Ryder Cup with his 6 foot birdie putt on 18 to halve the match with Russell Henley, and clinch the Euros’ 14th point, which allowed them to retain the Cup, Shane Lowry said it was the hardest thing he’s ever done and more important to him than winning the 2019 British Open at Royal Portrush in his home country of Northern Ireland. Now that’s a big statement. Europe won 15-13. The U.S, team is just too concerned about individual accomplishments and the monetary rewards of playing golf rather than the team concept the Euros embrace at the Ryder Cup. They wanted to be paid to play and they did get paid pretty handsomely, but just don’t have the hearts to overcome a European team led by Rory, Tommy Fleetwood, Lowry, Jon Rahm, and 45-year young Justin Rose, who want this more than anything else-almost anything else in their lives besides their families- for their native continent. The U.S. needs to figure it out soon and find a way to get these players to grasp the team concept, or it could be a long dry spell for American fortunes at the Ryder Cup. The 46th Ryder Cup will be played at Andore Manor in Limerick, Ireland on September 17th-19th, 2027. Those fans will most likely severely harass the American team after the embarrassing behavior of the Bethpage Black fans over the weekend. 

Our Vanderbilt Men’s Golf Team with terrific effort despite adversity; Baseball today 5 P.M. CT vs Wright State, SEC Network

May 30, 2025

Senior Jackson Van Paris with a terrific career for Scott Limbaugh and Vanderbilt Men’s Golf. (Photo courtesy of Instagram).

Our senior, Jackson Van Paris, is an All American and 2nd team All-SEC (Photo courtesy of Instagram).

Our Vanderbilt Men’s Golf Team, under the great Scott Limbaugh, didn’t reach our yearly goal of making the Final Four and winning it all, but, despite not having senior Gordon Sargent in the lineup for the entire NCAA Tournament, the team finished tied for 13th overall in the country at the NCAA Championships in Carlsbad, California this past Monday.

Senior Jackson Van Paris, junior Wells Williams, who was SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year, junior John Broderick, sophomore Chase Nevins and freshman Ryan Downes finished second in the NCAA Regionals at Amherst, Virginia to qualify for the 30 team NCAA Championship. The guys made it through the first three days of the Championship stroke play to qualify as one of the top 15 teams that played in day 4  on Monday. They didn’t advance in that 18 hole stroke play round to qualify for the 8 team NCAA match play field, but gave it a nice effort.

Besides JVP, none of the other guys had NCAA Championship experience. Losing Sargent was a bit painful because he won the NCAA Individual Championship his freshman year, but never quite achieved as much for us as we had anticipated he would. I’m sure he’s a great guy, but struggled in match play through the years, and just couldn’t finish the season out with us this year. He was really struggling this season. Maybe his heart wasn’t in it, maybe he was just struggling with his game, which happens. Too bad he couldn’t help us more through the years.

But Williams shot a final round 5 under, Van Paris had an awesome career for us with All American honors in 2024 and second team All SEC this season. JVP is headed to the Korn Ferry Tour, where he’ll have a shot to qualify for the PGA Tour at the end of the season by getting in the top 30 on the points list on that Triple A tour, or by the PGA Q School.  Pulling hard for JVP going forward. He gave us a great, dedicated four years.

Wells will return for his senior season and will be our leader. Chase, John and Ryan will all be back, and Chase and Ryan had some good rounds in the NCAA Championship, so all four gained valuable experience in their first time on the big stage.

And our super coach, Scott Limbaugh, has signed the No.1class in the country for 2025-26. Will Hartman of Charlotte Catholic H.S. in Charlotte, N.C., Michael Riebe of Cathedral Catholic in Encinitas, CA., and Jon Ed Steed of Enterprise (High School), Alabama are all coming on board for the 2025-26 season. All are top 20 players in the country and will add immensely to next year’s team. Jon Ed is from my wife, Beth’s, stomping grounds, Enterprise, so I’m very excited to see JES compete for us. 

So, a lot to be excited about for Coach Limbaugh’s golf team next season. National Championships are Alwaysour goal under Coach Limbaugh, and he and his players will relentlessly pursue that aspiration once again in 2025-26. Proud of what the guys accomplished this season despite the adversity with Gordon Sargent not being a part of the team.

Game time for Vanderbilt Baseball today versus Wright State is 5 P.M. CT on the SEC Network. JD Thompson will get the ball for us, and I’m sorry I don’t have this absolute intel, but I have a strong feeling Wright State will go with their senior left hander Garrett Peters. Peters is 5-0 with a 4.58 ERA. He’s walked 25 and struck out 52. He’s given up 11 doubles, two triples and 8 homers. He pitched a complete, 9- inning game last Friday Night versus Northern Kentucky allowing just one hit and one run, a solo shot, with 6 walks and 11 K’s.

But, and I had to look at this three times to make sure it was accurate, he threw 149 pitches. Wow, is that overworking a pitcher or what? Guess they had to have it to make the NCAA’s, so I assume his arm will be OK for today’s game.

JD, as you know, is our left handed junior and leader for our pitching staff who is 5-5 with a 4.06 ERA with 29 walks and 110 K’s. JD has given up 12 doubles, 2 triples and 9 long ones, and he was terrific last Thursday versus Oklahoma, going 5, giving up just 2 hits, 1 earned  run, with 3 walks and 11 punch outs.

Have full confidence in the man. Have an awesome weekend, Go Dores and I’ll keep you apprised. 

Our Vanderbilt Baseball Team is Profoundly Exceptional

May 29, 2025

Our superb freshman Brodie Johnston was phenomenal in the SEC Tournament. (Photo courtesy of You Tube).

A friend of mine in Birmingham, “PW” Watts, emailed me after the San Antonio Spurs, with Coach Greg Popovich, Tim Duncan (the Big Fundamental), Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, had won their fifth NBA Championship in 15 years in 2014, and called the Spurs, “sublime.” I agreed with PW then and I will say the same about Coach Tim Corbin and this Vanderbilt University Baseball Team. 

This coach and these group of players are profoundly good  and not just on the baseball field, where they are prolific. When Coach Corbin meets with his players, which is frequently, he mainly talks about the players doing everything they can to be “good men.” To Coach Corbin, that’s what’s most important. 

If you read the roster bios on each player, Coach Corbin has comments on each one. They’re awesome comments and so accurate, and he closes talking about almost every one of the guys saying, “he was on the Dean’s list in the fall.” 

Isn’t that what college athletics is supposed to be about? With Greg Sankey and the Big Ten Commissioner, Tony Petitti, trying to professionalize college football more every day as they now try to institute a 16 team playoff, it’s really nice to see a coach who still cares about academics for his players, and players who care about doing well in all facets of their lives.

This team plays the game the right way. They’re warriors on the field, but they’re also gentlemen. The “heart beat,” as Coach Corbin likes to say, is unified, and together. It leads to successful results on the baseball field and in life for these young men.

I love this 2025 team. I have loved every team we’ve had under Coach Corbin. They’ve all been special. But these guys bring their own uniqueness to Vanderbilt baseball. They’re their own entity. And it’s a special legacy they are in the midst of leaving.

We have a lot of work left. We have a regional to host with three other highly competitive teams. We play Wright State (38-19, 25-5 Horizon), a team that hits .305 and has some pretty decent pitching. Game time tomorrow, Friday, is 5 P.M. CT on the SEC Network. JD Thompson will be on the hill for us, while I’m guesstimating it’ll be sophomore left hander Griffen Paige for them (1-3 with an 8.90 ERA, but had a very good start last time  out versus Northern Kentucky, 6 IP, 1 hit, 0 runs, 1 walk, 8 K’s). Louisville (35-21, 15-15 ACC), which defeated us up at their place in mid May, and East Tennessee State (41-15, 14-7 Southern Conf), play at 1 P.M. CT at our regional Friday.

But we played spectacular baseball at the SEC Tournament with superb pitching by JD, Cody Bowker, Connor Fennell and Austin Nye, among others, superb defense, led by some amazing plays by our “sublime” freshman Brodie Johnston, who, when God decided he wanted to create a prototypical baseball player to play for Vanderbilt University and beyond, he turned his attention to Ooltewah, Tennessee on March 13, 2006 and brought one Brodie  Kenneth Johnston into the world. Brodie is another gift to this profoundly exceptional baseball team. He made play after play at third, throwing out a runner at home on Saturday in a key moment against Tennessee, making super play after super play at third and hitting a key two run shot on Sunday versus Ole Miss, his 13th homer and 52nd and 53rd Ribeyes of the season.

The whole infield was terrific. Another great freshman, Rustan Rigdon, was turning double plays beautifully. Ruston has found a home and had three hits on Saturday in a huge performance for us. Our spectacular senior, Jonathan “Johnny 
V” Vastine, was his typical stellar self at short, and our awesome first baseman, Riley Nelson, was digging’em out at first. Riley is an outstanding defensive first baseman as well as an outstanding hitter for us.

Centerfielder RJ Austin, our inspirational leader along with Johnny V and JD, led us in the outfield along with the great Jacob Humphrey, our right fielder, who hit a crucial home run to right on Sunday. Left fielder Braden Holcomb may not have been known for his defense coming out of high school because his bat was so prolific, but the sophomore made a tremendous grab of a sinking line drive in left on Sunday. Braden is excellent in left and brings a massive stick to the plate.

And our great catcher, Colin Barczi, is just steady and brings greatness to the position, both behind the dish and at the plate. 

So, this all adds up to an exceptional baseball team. We’ve got our work cut out for us to make it to Omaha. Watching the Selection Show on Monday, I thought to myself, “Wow, there is a massive amount of talent in this 64 team field.”

But I love this head coach, these coaches and this stellar group of profoundly good players, who also happen to be profoundly great people. It starts at the top and we’ve got the man who has done it at Vanderbilt University for 23 years and counting. 

This team is sublime. This coach is sublime. This season could very well end up being sublime. We’ve got the pieces in place to make it that way. It starts Friday at 5 P. M. CT. Can’t wait to tell you all about it. 

Our Commodores get the job done in Knoxville; major series coming up Thursday through Saturday; postseason right around the corner. Where we stand

May 13, 2025
Our stud senior shortstop, Jonathan Vastine, launched one to left on Sunday after a 2 hour lightning delay. (Photo courtesy of The Tennessean).

Our Vanderbilt Commodores Baseball team secured a phenomenal series victory at parts unknown in Tennessee on Sunday against a team we absolutely detest.

The Dores hit four homers, led by Colin Barczi’s two, and Jonathan Vastine’s and Mike Mancini’s solo shots in our 7-5 victory over the team from the East and their very much disliked coach; at least as far as we’re concerned. We took two of three from them, including a 10-6 victory Saturday and the 7-5 W on Sunday. Ethan McElvain was gigantic on Sunday to close out the victory and earn the save for our team, striking out one of their players with the bases loaded and 2 outs as we were hanging on to our 7-5 lead. Ethan is a warrior, and Corbs loves warriors. That’s what Corbs is and Ethan certainly is, too, as are a lot of the players on this spectacular baseball team, including our leaders, Vastine, RJ Austin and JD Thompson.

We moved to 16-11 in the SEC and 36-16 overall, and are now ranked No.9 in the country by the D1Baseball.com top 25 rankings. They fell to 15-12 and 39-13. They are now ranked 17th nationally.

Our metrics are good for the postseason as we head into the Kentucky series at home @ the Hawk starting Thursday and continuing through Saturday. Our RPI is 3, our Quad one wins are 15, which is excellent, our strength of schedule is now No.2 in the country, and we are presently the fourth place team in the SEC, which, if the SEC Tournament was held today, would allow us to have a double bye at Hoover and play on Thursday in the 16-team, single elimination format. It’s a riveting format with Texas and Oklahoma in the conference now. Every team gets a shot, but it’s just one shot, and a bye is big, while a double bye is even bigger. Thanks to Vandy 247 Sports for the intel on the metrics.

Texas is No.1 in the SEC with a 20-9 conference record and a 40-10 overall mark. Arkansas is second at 18-9 and 41-11; LSU, now No.1 in the country according to D1baseball, is third at 17-10 and 40-12 overall. Our guys, Georgia and Auburn are tied for fourth at 16-11, and we are the fourth seed by virtue of our head to head record with the other two teams we’re tied with. We are 4-2 against Georgia and Auburn, Georgia is 3-3 against us and Auburn and Auburn is 2-4 against us and Georgia. We lost two out of three at Auburn to start the SEC season, but could have easily won that series as we had a 6-2 lead on Sunday and lost 7-6. We swept Georgia at home April 17th-19th. The record versus the other teams amongst those respective teams that are tied is the first tiebreaker. If it was just us and Auburn which were tied, Auburn would get the tiebreaker because they took 2 out of 3 from us at their place March 14th-16th.

However, there is a lot to be decided when Kentucky comes to town this Thursday. If Corbs was to read this, he would get hot because he knows this scenario won’t matter if we can’t be successful this weekend. But it’s fun for sportswriters and VU fans to pontificate on. Thursday’s game is at 6 P.M. CT on SEC Network+; Friday’s game is at 6 P.M. CT on SEC Net+; and Saturday’s game is at 2 P.M. CT on SECN+.

So there’s still a lot of work ahead of us. But we still can, at least as fans and a VU sportswriter, enjoy what our players did over the weekend in eastern Tennessee. Saturday we were a 10-6 winner after a tough 3-2 loss on Friday Night. JD Thompson pitched well Friday despite the loss. JD is doing very well for us right now, which bodes well for our immediate and long term future this season. We stole 8 bases on Saturday off their pitching and catcher. Jacob Humphrey swiped 3 and has 19 on the season. He came out of Sunday’s game out of caution for a concussion. He sustained a concussion a couple of weeks ago. Jacob’s return Thursday is TBD. Sophomore David Mendez replaced Jacob on Sunday, and while Mendez is a pretty good replacement, we need Jacob if he can get back. He’s an electric player for us. Rustan Rigdon stole two bags and has 16 on the year. Rustan also made an excellent play at second on Sunday, stopping a ball heading for center field and making a leaping throw to first baseman Riley Nelson, who dug it out for the stellar play. Riley is quite a first baseman along with being a terrific hitter for us. Riley (7), Braden Holcomb (2) and Mike Mancini (2) also stole a bag. Braden was 2 for 4 with his eighth homer of the season and added 3 Ribeyes. RJ Austin was 1 for 5, but drove in three. Jacob was two for three with the three stolen bases and made a spectacular catch in the 8th to preserve the lead. The hitter smashed it to the right field corner in what looked like would be a sure triple. But our star senior dove to his left and snagged the ball before it hit the ground for the defensive play of the game to get us out of the inning. Ethan came on in the bottom of the 9th and closed it out 1-2-3.

Ethan McElvain was tremendous over the weekend in Knoxville. (Photo courtesy of Youtube).

Then, on Sunday, we took off with the bats. Our great catcher, Colin Barczi, hit a pair of shots, one solo and one a two run shot in the top of the 6th to score himself and Holcomb, who had tripled right before Colin’s oppo shot. That made the score 5-3. Then there was a two hour lightning delay. After the delay, Vastine launched his shot to left. Pretty amazing stuff from our super senior after sitting on the bench for two hours waiting to hit. Then in the top of the 9th, our DH, Mike Mancini, cranked one over the left field wall, a huge shot that put us up 7-5. Ethan came on and ran into some trouble in the bottom of the 9th, but shut the door with the bases jammed and two outs by striking out their hitter to close out the game and clinch the series. Corbs said in the postgame that the team grew up 10 years after that series victory on Sunday.

Our great catcher, Colin Barczi, hit a pair of shots to right on Sunday to help clinch the series. (Photo courtesy of The Tennessean).

So, awesome way to close out the weekend. We got solid pitching Sunday from England Bryan, who was hitting 97-98 MPH on the radar gun, Luke Guth, who is looking very reliable, and Miller Green. Alex Kranzler struggled a little, but he’s still trustable. Connor Fennell started and wasn’t his sharpest, but we still have trust in Connor. Cody Bowker got the start Saturday Night and pitched decently. We need Cody and Connor to be good for us, and, of course, JD as well.

Mike Mancini cranked a huge homer in the top of the 9th on Sunday that extended our lead to 7-5. (Photo courtesy of Instagram).

So here we are heading into the last weekend of the season. Here is the SEC schedule for Thursday through Saturday. We play Kentucky (13-14, 28-20). Kentucky is looking for victories to get in the hunt for the NCAA Tournament and enhance its position in the SEC Tournament, so they’ll be hungry. We need to be just as relentless as we have been this season. No.3 (nationally) Texas (20-7, 40-10) plays @ OU (13-14, 32-17). Texas A&M (10-17, 27-20) is @ No. 10 Georgia (16-11, 40-13). No.18 Alabama (15-12, 39-13) is @ No.23 Florida (13-14, 35-18), which has come on lately. No.1 LSU (17-10, 40-12) is @South Carolina (5-22, 26-26). Mississippi State (12-15, 31-20) is @ Missouri (3-24, but swept A&M on the road this past weekend, 16-35). No.6 Auburn (16-11, 36-15) is @ Ole Miss (14-13, 34-17). And No.17 Tennessee (thought I could make it through this column without saying their name, so it goes, 15-12, 39-13) is @ No.8 Arkansas (18-9, 41-11).

So a lot of work ahead of us, but I like the way this team is trending with a lot of electric baseball in front of us. I’ll keep you very much apprised throughout the weekend as our team competes with Kentucky. The stakes are high, so we’ll need to maintain our blue collar, relentless mentality throughout the weekend starting Thursday at 6 P.M. on SECN+.

Men’s Golf surging at the Amherst (VA) Regional

The Vanderbilt Men’s Golf Team is presently in first place in day three, the final day of the Amherst, Virginia regional. Amherst has been getting the weather that has been transpiring throughout the southeast the last several days, and play has been suspended for the day and will resume Wednesday at 6:30 A.M. CT. However, through holes 6-8, we are presently at three under as a team for the tournament and three shots ahead of Oklahoma and Tennessee, which are each at even par. The top 5 in the 14 team regional qualifies for the NCAA Championships. More on that after we complete play and hopefully emerge successfully. We’ve gotten stellar play from senior Jackson Van Paris, who has taken the team on his shoulders this week and has been that way all season. JVP is presently -1 today and 7 under for the tournament and is leading the individual leaderboard. The next two guys are at 4 under par. So, awesome work by our dedicated senior from Pinehurst, North Carolina. Will absolutely keep you apprised of our attempt to close this out and win the region and qualify for the NCAA Championships. More to come tomorrow.

Great stuff from our Vandy Boys. You gotta love these guys. Clark and Mark are still forming their respective teams for 2025-26. Love the prospects for both our football and men’s basketball coaches and teams.

Baseball is the priority right now though. Men’s golf is riveting also. Anchor Down and I’ll keep you informed in the upcoming days starting tomorrow with a report on our men’s golf team and throughout the weekend with our Vandy Boys.

Riley Nelson is still a hitting machine for us as he is batting a sizzling .365. (Photo courtesy of Instagram).

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