Tarris Reed Jr. leads the Huskies into the National Championship Game. The 6’11”, 265 pounder from St. Louis finished with 17 points and 11 boards versus Illinois in a 71-62 UConn victory over the Illini Saturday in the first semifinal game of the Final Four. (Photo courtesy of Athlon Sports).
The UConn Huskies and the Michigan Wolverines square off tonight at 7:50 CT/8:50 ET (pretty late) to determine which team will cut down the nets in Indy as the 2025-26 National Champion in NCAA Men’s College Basketball. It’s the superbly talented Wolverines versus the talented, and scrappy underdog Huskies. The Wolverines have the weaponry for sure, but the Huskies have weapons as well, and a stellar national championship pedigree as they have won national championships in 1999, 2004, 2011, 2014, 2023 and 2024. They are 6-0 in National Championship Games. Michigan’s only national championship was in 1989. So while the talent favors Michigan, the ability to close games in the big moments under intense pressure favors the Huskies. Here is White’s World’s Prediction for tonight’s contest.
Final Four record: SU- 2-0, ATS- 2-0, O/U- 1-1.
Overall from SEC Tournament through the Final Four: SU- 11-14, ATS- 10-15, O/U-15-9.
Michigan (36-3) vs. UConn (34-5)
Lucas Oil Stadium, Indy, 70,000
7:50 CT/8:50 ET
TBS/truTV/HBO Max
Ian, Grant, Bill, Tracy, Gene-rules
Michigan by 6 1/2, 145 1/2
Who wins tonight?
I’m going to go with the Al Michaels, “Do you believe in Miracles?” Theory and’ll take the great Dan Hurley and the Huskies to make it 7-0 in National Championship Games. Hurley’s is a character and can sometimes rub some people the wrong way, but I think he’s refreshing and a heckuva coach as his back to back National Championships attest to in ’23 and ’24. Jim Calhoun won three at UConn in ’99, 2004 and 2011, and Kevin Ollie won it all in 2014. Geno Auriemma is an elite coach on the women’s side, the best of all time, though the late Pat Summit of Tennessee, and, lately, South Carolina’s Dawn Staley gave and have given him a run, respectively. Geno’s won 11 national titles. Hard to argue with. Pat won eight, but lost a battle with Alzheimer’s disease at 64 years old, so her career and life were cut too short.
Staley, who Geno got into it with on Friday Night in South Carolina’s 62-48 victory over the Huskies in the Final Four at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Clevelend, as Geno thought Staley’s players were mugging his players, and also thought Staley was working the refs to get away with it, has three and going strong although her team did lose to UCLA in the national title game on Sunday. Geno is now 71 and Staley is 55, and will be 56 in May. So she has more time left than Geno, maybe. But he’s got a lot of energy and may increase that title number next season to 12.
So I’ll take the championship pedigree. Do I believe in miracles? Heck yes I do.
Coach Brad Underwood leads the Illinois to its first Final Four since 2005. (Photo courtesy of Reuters).
The Final Four will tip off Saturday afternoon at 5:09 CT/6:09 ET with the Illinois Fighting Illini squaring off with the somewhat Cinderella UConn Huskies. You could say both teams are Cinderellas, and prolific ones at that. The Fighting Illini had an easy time with Iowa in the South Regional of the Elite Eight Saturday evening, while the Huskies came back from a 19 point first half deficit to shock No.1 seeded Duke in the East Regional Sunday in a dynamic basketball game. More on that below.
That game featuring a pair of overachievers will be followed by, at approximately 7:40 CT/8:40 ET, a pair of Goliaths in college basketball this season, the Michigan Wolverines and the Arizona Wildcats. Michigan easily disposed of Tennessee in the Midwest Regional Final Sunday, while the Wildcats took care of business handily against Purdue in the Western Regional on Saturday Night. There is off the charts NBA talent on these two rosters.
Here are predictions for these two classics on Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indy.
I told Excedrin “Gameological” Bates last Thursday that I was taking the Tom Cruise/RiskyBusiness approach to the Sweet 16 picks: “Sometimes you gotta say, what the…Heck?” So I took some chances with the picks. Didn’t work out like I wanted, but you just gotta get back up when you’re knocked down and try again as Bear Bryant liked to say.
Final Four Games
Saturday
Game 1
No.3 Illinois (29-8) vs. No. 2 UConn (33-5)
Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis (70,000)
5:09 CT/6:09 ET
TBS/truTV/HBO Max, a lot of options Ian (Bird) Eagle, Bill, Grant, Trace, Gene (Rules)
Pregame, Halftime, Postgame: Ernie, Kenny, Charles, Special K, Bruuuce
TV Timeouts: Samual L. Charles, Spike Lee Joint, Earvin, Jenn, Caitlin
Illini by 2 1/2, 139 1/2
What a comeback by the Huskies on Sunday. Freshman Braylon Mullins, from Greenfield,Indiana, connected on a trifecta from downtown French Lick (35 feet) with .4 seconds lefton the clock to send the Huskies to the Final Four. Mullins is going home to try and win a national championship. I like him and these amazing Huskies to do just that. Meanwhile,Duke keeps scratching their head about their young coach, Jon Scheyer (38 years old), and these five-star freshmen that seem to gag in the clutch. But it’s nothing new. They gagged several times under Mike Krzyzewski as well, though he did win 5 national titles. Still think Wooden was better. UConn under Dan Hurley has already won back to back national titles in 2023 and 2024.
UConn 74, Illinois 70
Give me Braylon Mullins and the Huskies Saturday at Lucas Oil. (Photo courtesy of NCAA.com)
Game 2
No.1 Michigan vs. No.1 Arizona
Lucas Oil
7:49 CT/8:49 ET TBS/truTV/HBO Max
Same crew calling game, doing pregame/halftime/postgame and commercials
Michigan by 1 1/2, 157 1/2
I’ll take the great UAB power forward transfer, Yax Lendeborg, UNC transfer point guard Elliot Cadeau, and the Wolverines to play UConn in the National Championship Game.
Michigan 80, Zona 78
Elliot Cadeau and the Wolverines advance to the National Championship Game (Photo courtesy of College Sports Network).
Yaxel Lendborg leads the extravagant spending Michigan Wolverines into Chicago to face the Crimson Tide. (Photo courtesy of USA Today).
Sixteen teams embark on their respective missions to reach Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for the Final Four Saturday, April 4th, as the teams lock horns in the Sweet 16, which begins on Thursday. A lot of talent in this final 16 group in what has been a highly enjoyable college basketball season. Here are predictions for the 8 games that commence Thursday Night, with 4 games on tap Thursday. And then on Friday Night, there will be 4 more games on the docket.
Record for 2025
Sweet 16 through National Championship Game- along with 2025 SEC Tourney Predictions, though some of the ATS and Over/Under games were not applicable in the SECT due to misses straight up in some games.
Straight up: 19-10; ATS: 14-14; Over/Under: 14-9.
2026 Predictions from the SEC Tournament and 3 Vanderbilt games-SEC Championship Game and two NCAA games
SU: 8-7; ATS: 7-8; O/U: 11-4
Thursday’s games
All teams No.’s are their seeds in region, not their national ranking.
West Region
No.11 Texas (21-14) vs. No.2 Purdue
SAP Center at San Jose, San Jose, CA., 18,543
6:10 PM CT/7:10 ET
CBS Brian Anderson, Jim Jackson, Allie LaForce
Purdue by 7 1/2, 148 1/2
I’ll take the Boilermakers to advance to the Elite 8.
Purdue 78, Texas 70
South Region
No.9 Iowa (23-12) vs. Nebraska (28-6)
Toyota Center, Houston, 18,104
6:30 PM CT/7:30 ET TBS/truTV
Kevin Harlan, Stan Van Gundy, Robbie Hummel, Lauren Shehadi Nebraska by 1 1/2, 131 1/2
Give me those scrappy Cornhuskers over another scrappy team in the Hawkeyes.
Nebraska 68, Iowa 62
West
No.4 Arkansas (28-8) vs. No.1 Arizona (34-2)
SAP Center, San Jose
8:45 P.M. CT/9:45 ET
CBS
Brian, Jim, Allie
Zona by 7 1/2, 166 1/2
I’m going to take Darius Acuff Jr. and John Calipari to pull off the upset
Arkansas 84, ‘Zona 83
South
No.3 Illinois (26-8) vs. No.2 Houston (30-6)
Toyota Center, Houston
9:05 P.M. CT/10:05 ET
TBS/truTV
Kevin, Stan Van, Robbie, Lauren
Houston by 3 1/2, 140 1/2
I don’t see this Houston team as good as 2025’s National Championship runner-up, but I still like’em a lot. And they’re at home.
Houston 71, Illini 67
Friday‘s games
East Region
No.6 St. John’s (30-6) vs. No.1 Duke (34-2)
Capital One Arena, D.C., 20,356
6:10 P.M. CT/7:10 ET
CBS
Ian, Bill, Grant, Trace Duke by 6 1/2, 141 1/2
This will be a classic, and I’ll take the “maestro,” as Dickie V. calls him. Give me the savvy veteran St. John’s coach, Richard Anthony Pitino. I love St. John’s 6’9″, 245 senior power forward Zuby Ejiofor from Garland, Texas as well.
St. John’s 72, Duke 70
Midwest
No.4 Alabama (25-9) vs. No. Michigan
United Center, Chicago, 20, 917
6:35 P.M. CT/7:35 ET
TBS/truTV
Andrew Catalon, Steve Lappas, Evan Washburn
Michigan by 9 1/2, 174 1/2
Nate Oats isn’t my favorite person right now with all that’s gone on in his program the last three years, but he’s got a very good basketball team. The Crimson Tide sank 19 trifectas against Texas Tech on 30 attempts this past Sunday Night. I really like the way this team is playing right now.
Give me Philon, Philon, Philon, Latrell Wrightsell, Houston Mallette and that excellent shooting offense. I also like the way the Crimson Tide is playing defense right now, and I see Aiden Sherrell holding his own underneath against Yaxel Linderborg and Aday Mara. Aiden is high quality and a class act. I’ll go with the massive upset in Chitown. Bama shoots its way into the Elite 8, locks down just enough on defense and keeps it close on the boards.
Crimson Tide 89, Michigan 86
East
No.3 Michigan State (27-7) vs. No.2 UConn (31-5)
Capital One Arena
8:45 P.M. CT/9:45 ET
CBS
Ian, Bill, Grant, Trace
UConn by 1 1/2, 135 1/2
This should be a classic. Give me the great Tom Izzo and his Spartans to advance.
Michigan State 68, UConn 66
Midwest No.5 Tennessee (24-11) vs. No.2 Iowa State (29-7)
United Center
9:10 PM CT/10:10 ET
TBS/truTV
Andrew, Steve, Evan
Iowa State by 4 1/2, 138 1/2
I’m bullish on this Cyclones team. They advance to face the Crimson Tide in the Elite 8.
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.
Tyler Nickel (left) and Jalen Washington lead the Commodores into Oklahoma City Thursday for Round 1 of the NCAA Tournament (Photo courtesy of The Tennesseean).
After a phenomenal effort in the SEC Tournament, where we came up a little short to Arkansas in the SEC Championship Game at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, our No.5 seeded Vanderbilt Commodores Men’s Basketball team alights in Oklahoma City tomorrow, Thursday, at the Paycom Center to face the McNeese Cowboys at 2:15 P.M. CT/3:15 ET on truTV in the South Region. We are favored by 11 1/2 points.
Tyler Tanner, Tyler Nickel, Devin “Glock” McGlockton, Jalen Washington, AK Okereke, the prolific Duke Miles, they all are for that matter, and superb freshman Chandler Bing will try to lead our team and University to another victory this season and a critical one as we HAVE to win going forward. In one of my ESPN brackets (for free by the way), I have us defeating Arkansas in the National Championship Game, 90-88. I’m going to stick with that bracket here on this forum. We’re going to keep it positive because there is so much to be positive about with this team.
Tyler Tanner has racked up the honors both in the SEC and Nationally, and Coach Mark “By” Byington has too.
But it’s about all these guys. Jalen Washington was tremendous in the SEC Tourney. Duke was a dominant player. T Nick was superb from trifecta on Sunday versus Arkansas and gave us through the roof effort throughout the tourney. AK was awesome. Dev may not have had his best games, but we HAVE to have him step up. Chandler was terrific. And T Tanner always is spectacular.
We are averaging 86.4 points per game and McNeese is at 80. We are holding opponents to 75.2 per game, while McNeese is at 66.45, so they get after it on defense. We rebound at 35 per game, and they’re at 35 as well. We have 277 steals on the season, and they have 348.
They are fast paced and athletic, so we’ll have to match them with our athletic ability and intensity. T Tanner leads us in scoring at 19.1 points per game. Duke is at 16.5, and T Nick is at 13.5.
They are led in scoring by 6’4″ guard Larry Johnson, who averages 17 per game. Six foot one guard Tyshawn Archie averages 14.3, and 6’3″ guard Javohn Garcia adds 12 per game.
Glock leads us in rebounding at 6.7 per, and J Wash is next at 5.7. Their leading rebounder is Johnson at 5.5 per game.
The Cowboys are going to try and run and gun, and we can do that some, but we may want to keep it more deliberate and dominate them on the glass. Would love to see Glock and J Wash have big days on the boards and in blocking shots. T Tanner and Duke will have to contain those lightning quick guards McNeese has, though Tanner and Miles are quick as hiccups as well.
I like our chances, as always. This team is special. If we can defend well, like we have been recently, and dominate down low, get boards and keep them off balance on offense, we will advance.
That’s what I’m predicting. It’ll be tough, but I like our guys to get the job done in OKC Thursday.
Vanderbilt 88, McNeese 84
Our No.2 seeded Women’s Basketball team faces No. 15 seeded High Point Saturday at 6 P.M.CT/7 ET on ESPN News. We are in the Fort Worth Bracket.
We will be playing in Memorial in Nashville. Will have more on our superstar Mikayla Blakes and her teammates as that game approaches.
Labaron Philon, Philon, Philon leads the Crimson Tide into the NCAA Tournament vs. Hofstra Friday in Tampa at 2:15 P.M. CT/3:15 ET on truTV. (Photo courtesy of Alabama)
After months of meditation, acupuncture, white water rafting in Locust Fork with a wet suit, numerous lengthy hikes in Oak Mountain State Park, and overall in-depth thinking in front of my TV and laptop on Saturdays, here is White’s World Sports Confidential’s Bracket for 2026. Good luck with your’s.
Darius Acuff Jr. has been injured recently, but his expected availability for the SEC Tournament will greatly enhance Arkansas’ chances of capturing the SEC Championship. (Photo courtesy of Facebook).
Bridgestone Arena in Nashville will once again host the SEC Basketball Tournament for the 19th consecutive year, and this 66th edition is expected to be a spectacle in college basketball as 16 teams compete for the coveted Southeastern Conference Championship Trophy and procure major momentum for the NCAA Tournament, which starts a week from tomorrow, Tuesday, 3/17, with the First Four games in Dayton. There will be two games next Tuesday, 3/17 and two games next Wednesday, 3/18 in the First Four. Then the rest of the field of 68 will start their NCAA Tournament journey on Thursday and Friday, 3/19 and 3/20, respectively. Joe Lunardi of ESPN has 11 SEC teams in the field for the NCAA’s in his Bracketology. No.4 Florida (nationally), No,15 Alabama, No. 17 Arkansas, No. 22 Vanderbilt, No.25 Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Missouri, Texas A&M, Texas and Auburn, though the Tigers metrics aren’t that swift in the Net Rankings and Ken Pom Rankings, good predictions of getting into the NCAA Tournament. Auburn has work to do in Nashville. A team like Oklahoma is playing pretty good ball right now, so they could make a possible run. That’s four straight days of winning, which is not unprecedented, but quite mentally and physically demanding.
Here are my predictions for the S-E-C Tournament. Teams’ seeds are listed in front of each team’s name.
Wednesday, 3/11, First Round
Bridgestone Arena holds 19,395 at capacity.
11:30 A.M. CT/12:30 ET, SEC Network
No.9 Kentucky 82, No.16 LSU 68
Kentucky by 6 1/2, Over/Under: 151 1/2
2 P.M. CT/3 ET, SEC Network
No.12 Auburn 78, No. 13 Mississippi State 70
Auburn by 7 1/2, 158 1/2
Stephen Pearl and his Tigers get off to a good start.
6 P.M. CT/7 ET, SEC Network
No. 10 Texas 76, No.15 Ole Miss 70
Texas by 5 1/2, 149 1/2
8:30 P.M. CT/9:30 ET, SEC Network
No. 11 Oklahoma 80, South Carolina 73
OU by 6 1/2, 150 1/2
Kentucky, Auburn, Texas and Oklahoma advance to Thursday.
Thursday, 3/12, Second Round
***These lines will be published when posted, as will the forthcoming games after that.***
11:30 A.M. CT/12:30 ET, SEC Network
Kentucky 78, No.8 Missouri 77
KY by 3 1/2, 148 1/2
Wildcats pull off what should be an upset and advance to quarters on Friday.
2 P.M. CT/3 ET, SEC Network
No.5 Tennessee 74, Auburn 70
Tennessee by 5 1/2, 149 1/2
Tennessee survives and advances and the Tigers will sweat it out on Selection Sunday.
6 P.M. CT/7 ET, SEC Network
No.7 Georgia 84, Texas 81
Dawgs are solid. Texas is too. Should be an excellent game.
8:30 P.M. CT/9:30 East, SEC Network
Oklahoma 78, No. 6 Texas A&M 76
A&M by 2 1/2, 161 1/2
The Sooners advance and A&M will have some anxiety on Selection Sunday as well.
Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Oklahoma advance to Friday’s quarterfinals.
Friday, 3/13, Quarterfinals
12 P.M. CT/ 1 ET, ESPN
No.1 Florida 81, Kentucky 78
Gators by 11 1/2, 160 1/2
Hard to defeat a team three times in one season, but I’ll take the Gators to just “get by,” as Jerry sang.
2:30 P.M. CT/3:30 ET, ESPN
No.4 Vanderbilt 69, Tennessee 67
Tennessee by 1 1/2, 146 1/2
This will be more of a slugfest with the Dores just prevailing.
6 P.M. CT/7 ET, SEC Network
No.2 Alabama 82, Georgia 80
Crimson Tide by 11 1/2, 163 1/2
Georgia handled the Tide in Athens last Tuesday, but the Crimson Tide edges them out in Bridgestone.
8:30 P.M. CT/ 9:30 ET, SEC Network
No.3 Arkansas 84, Oklahoma 68
Hogs by 7 1/2, 168 1/2
Hogs advance with superb point guard Darius Acuff Jr. most likely in the lineup.
Florida, Vanderbilt, Alabama and Arkansas advance to the Semis.
Saturday, 3/14, Semifinals
12 P.M. CT/ 1 ET, ESPN
Florida 85, Vanderbilt 83
Gators by 8 1/2, 160 1/2
Gators just prevail in a hard fought NCAA Tournament-like contest.
2:30 P.M. CT/3:30 ET, ESPN
Arkansas 94, Alabama 92
Arkansas over Ole Miss by 8 /12, 158 1/2
The Hogs get by in a blockbuster.
Championship Sunday, 3/15
Arkansas vs. Florida
I picked the Gators to win the SEC and NCAA Tournaments respectively last season, and Walter Clayton Jr. as my MVP in both the SEC Tournament and Final Four, and both Florida and Clayton Jr. delivered. Clayton Jr. is now with the Memphis Grizzlies of the Association as he was the 18th pick in the first round by the Washington Wizards in the 2025 NBA Draft, then was traded to Utah, and, ultimately, traded to Memphis. It’s a serious business in the pros, though college has become more like that model. Hoping that commission that met at the White House last week can make some positive changes in that regard.
Clayton Jr. is averaging 7 points per game and 3 assists for the Grizzlies. Pretty decent first season. He was a machine in the SEC and NCAA Tournaments in 2025 carrying his team on his shoulders to both the SEC and National Championships.
But I actually think Florida is better this year. They’ve got skyscrapers all over the post and their guards are terrific. Give me 6’9″, 215 pound power forward Thomas Haugh ( 17.5 ppg, 6.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists) and the Gators, but in a tight contest. Florida has 5 or 6 NBA prospective NBA players in their rotation, but Arkansas has their share too. I expect the Hogs to give the Gators everything they want.
Florida 95, Arkansas 94
MVP: Haugh
Give me Thomas Haugh and the Gators to capture the 66th Edition of the S-E-C Championship Tournament. (Photo courtesy of GatorCountry.com).
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.
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.
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.
