Novak goes for Slam Number 25 again to set the all time record he holds with women’s player Margaret Court. He’s doing it at a place where he’s won 7 times. (Photo courtesy of the BBC).
In Professional Golf, The Masters is the gold standard. In horse racing, the Crown Jewel is the Kentucky Derby. The World Series, the Super Bowl, the National Championship Game in College Football, the Final Four in College Basketball, the NBA Championship, New York, New York, and the Stanley Cup, all of these define true excellence in sports. You’d have to add the World Cup in there as this year has been electric with superstar after superstar; Messi, Mbappe, Ronaldo, and the riveting U.S. team that has advanced to the Round of 32, the knockout round, where it will face Bosnia-Herzegovina this coming Wednesday, 7/1, at 7 P.M. CT/8 ET on FOX.
The 139th Championships, Wimbledon, which begin this Monday, is right in the thick of that elite company of championships. This year’s storylines are superb. Can the premier player in the sport outside the injured Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, defend his Wimbledon title successfully, and win his fifth Grand Slam title with the French Open the only major missing from his resume. Sinner had a disappointing French Open, losing in the round of 64 to Juan Manuel Cerundolo of Argentina after suffering from the heat. Will he be able to handle the unusual heat in London this week will be a question mark for Sinner, though it won’t be as hot in week one, but week 2 it gets hotter.
Novak Djokovic takes another swing at winning Slam number 25 and breaking the all time record over Margaret Court in men’s and women’s tennis. The 39 year old still has a lot of game, but Father time catches up to all athletes, and he’s playing on borrowed time right now. However, he’s been spectacular at Wimbledon with seven titles. His Wimbledon victory came in 2022, four years ago. Alexander Zverev is coming off his first Slam title at Roland Garros. It helped him that he didn’t have to face Sinner or the injured Alcaraz, so we’ll see how he fares with a more competitive field in the third Grand Slam of the season.
How can Americans Ben Shelton, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul, among others perform in what has been a vastly improved American contingent in professional tennis over the past two or three years. That should be a riveting storyline.
On the women’s side, Aryna Sabalenka goes for major number 5, but has never won at Wimbledon.
After suffering an insufferable heat wave in Europe over the past two weeks that caused several fatalities throughout the continent, it’s going to neutralize weather wise with temperatures in the mid to high 70’s at least in week 1. But it will get hotter in week two.
TV
Coverage on ESPN starts this Monday at 5 A.M. CT/6 ET for the early rounds and continues until usually 3 CT/ 4 ET every day for the next two weeks. The Women’s Semis on ESPN are Thursday, July 9th, starting at 7 A.M. CT/8 ET. The Men’s Semis are Friday, 7/10, on ESPN, commencing at 7 A.M. CT/8 ET.
The Women’s Final Saturday, 7/11, on ESPN is at 10 A.M. CT/11 ET, with Breakfast at Wimbledon an hour before, 9 A.M. CT/10 ET.
The Men’s Final Sunday, 7/12, on ESPN, begins at 10 A.M. CT/11 ET, with Breakfast at Wimbledon at 9 A.M. CT/10 ET. John McEnroe may still be hungover from the Knicks winning the NBA Championship. I was in New York the night the Knicks won it. It was historically electrifying. One of the better fraternity parties I’ve ever been to.
Predictions
Men’s Semifinals
Ben Shelton over Frances Tiafoe 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3
Like both of these aspiring American players very much. Even if Ben wins in three sets, it’ll be competitive.
Sinner over Novak, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2
Jannik outlasts the great one.
Championship Sunday
Ben looks primed to win a Slam very soon, but I like the 24 year old Italian to get the job done, but in a highly competitive match.
Sinner over Shelton, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3
Champion
Jannik Sinner
The 24 year old Italian defends his title successfully at the Championships. (Photo courtesy of Tennis World USA.org).
Women’s Final
Elena Rybakina over Aryna Sabalenka, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (12-10, 10 point tiebreaker in third set of women, 5th set of men.)
I’m going to go with the 27 year old from Kazakhstan who has won Wimbledon in 2022, and won the Australian Open this past January. She’ll deny the 28 year old Belarus native another chance at winning at The Championships.
Champion: Elena Rybakina
Give me Elena to capture her second Wimbledon. (Photo courtesy of The Astana Times– in Astana, Kazakhstan).
Novak goes for Slam Number 25. (Photo courtesy of ATP Tour).
The 125th French Open at Roland Garros commences Sunday with immense excitement on both the men’s and women’s sides. Can Novak Djokavic win a record setting 25th major breaking his tie with former women’s superstar Margaret Court. Novak will be locked in. Can the 24 year old Italian phenom Jannik Sinner complete the career Grand Slam with a win at Roland Garros. The now established young Italian, who is the best, nicest and most warrior like competitor on tour, along with 23 year old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, is searching for major number 5, as he’s won the 2024 and 2025 Australian, the 2025 Championships at Wimbledon, and the 2024 US Open. He looked to have the French Open in his grasp in the final in 2025, but Alcaraz pulled off a miracle comeback winning 4-6, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (10-2, 10 point tiebreakers in fifth set at French).
The 39 year old Djokavic, who turned 39 yesterday, will try to regain the magic form that has carried him for so long and has allowed him to win 10 Australians, 3 French’s, 7 Wimbledons, and 4 US’s for his 24 major titles. His last championship came at the 2023 US. That same year, 2023, he also won the French and Australian Opens with Carlos Alcaraz winning Wimbledon that season preventing the great Joker from winning all four Slams. But Joker didn’t go down at Wimbledon without a major fight falling to Alcaraz, 6-1, 6-7 (8-6), 1-6, 6-3, 4-6. What a war.
Carlos will not be playing in this year’s French as he has a wrist injury that will also keep him out of Wimbledon. I know all tennis fans are hoping the superb Carlos will return for the US.
On the Women’s side, Aryna Sabalenka is the star. She’s a tough out with her
powerful, dominant and intimidating style of play.
Here are my Predictions for the Men’s Quarters, Semis and Finals and the Women’s Semis
and Finals at Roland Garros in Paris. TNT and TruTV will televise with HBO Max streaming
the action.
Men’s Quarterfinals, Wednesday, June 3rd, TNT, TruTV
Jannik Sinner over Ben Shelton, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5
Daniil Medvedev over Felix Auger-Aliassime, 6-4, 6-2, 6-3
Djokavic over Alex De Minour, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3
Alexander Zverev over Jiri Lehecka, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
Women’s Semifinals, Thursday, June, 4th, TBS and TruTV
Aryna Sabalenka over Coco Gauff, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3
Elina Svitolina over Elena Rybakina, 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 7-6 (10-8*** 10 point tiebreaker in the French in the third set for women and the fifth set for men.)
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.
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.
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.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is an absolute warrior (Photo courtesy of The Seattle Times).
The Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots both advanced to Super Bowl LX, representing the NFC and AFC, respectively. Super Bowl 60 will be played at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA. on February 8th and will be broadcast by NBC, The Seahawks defeated the LA Rams, 31-27, while the Patriots defeated the Denver Broncos, 10-7.
The Seahawks prevailed over the Rams behind superb play from quarterback Sam Darnold, who completed 25-of-36 passes for 346 yards with 3 TDs against 0 ints. He finished with a quarterback rating of 127.8, which is outstanding. Quarterback ratings are rated from 0-158.3, with below 75, poor; 75-85, below average; 85-95, average to above average; 95-105, very good; and above 105, excellent. Passer rating takes into account completion percentage, yards per attempt, TD rate and int rate. Another popular metric, QBR (Quarterback Rating), is ranked from 0-100, with 70+ very good, 80+ elite and 90+ MVP-like. It rates QBs on passing efficiency, rushing contributions, down, distance, score, opponent strength and clutch plays. There’s a penalty for turnovers. Darnold was at 82.9 against the Rams. The great Matthew Stafford of the Rams was right there with him. Stafford, this year’s more than likely Most Valuable Player in the NFL, completed 22-of-35 for 374, with 3 TDs and 0 ints. His rating was 127.6 and his QBR was 81.5, both outstanding. For the season, Stafford was 412-of-639, 65%, for 4,707 yards, 46 TDs against 8 ints. His rating for the season was 108.2, which is an MVP rating. His QBR was 71, also very good to outstanding.There is an argument that Patriots quarterback Drake Maye should receive the MVP. Maye completed 354-of-492, 72%, with 31 TDs and 8 ints. He rushed for 4 TDs and 169 more yards. Maye’s passer rating was 113.5 and his QBR was 77.1, both excellent numbers. I just like the 37 soon to be 38 year old (Feb. 7th), to be the MVP. He just had more of an impact this season than Maye did, in my opinion. And his numbers were better. I’ll take the Tampa native who played at the University of Georgia from 2006-2008. Darnold completed 323-of-477, 68%, for 4,048 yards, with 25 TDs against 14 ints. His passer rating was 99.1, pretty solid, and his QBR was 55.7, 19th in the league. He had a very good season and Coach Mike McDonald and Seattle offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak are elated that he’s a Seahawk, after Darnold spent last season with the Minnesota Vikings before signing a 3 year/$100.5 million contract with the Seahawks after the 2024 season, which included a $55 million guaranteed contract and a $37.5 million signing bonus. I’d say that’s worked out well for both parties so far.
But Maye is still playing after his team’s victory over the Broncos in blizzard-like conditions by the end of the third quarter last Sunday at Mile High. Before I get to that, I want to say that Seattle’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the 23 year old, 3rd year wide receiver from Ohio State, looks to be the best wide receiver in the National Football League. He was a dominant player on Sunday at Lumen Field in Seattle. JSN caught 10 passes for 153 yards and a six. He was unstoppable and is a key reason the Seahawks are going to Santa Clara for a rematch from Super Bowl 49, in which the Patriots defeated the Seahawks, 28-24, punctuated by a interception by cornerback Malcolm Butler, who played at West Alabama. The Seahawks were on the New England one yard line second and goal and running back Marshawn Lynch was going to carry all 11 Patriots defenders into the end zone if given the opportunity. But Pete Carroll didn’t give him the ball! Instead, Carroll elected to let Russell Wilson throw it. It was one of the most catastrophic coaching decisions in Super Bowl history. He relied on his offensive coordinator, Darrell Bevell, who completely blew it with that play call. Lynch was not going to be stoppedd, but Carroll and Bevell cost their franchise a second straight Super Bowl after they won it in 2014. They haven’t ever gotten back until now. Interestingly, I read a book about Bill Belichick titled, Belichick: The Making of the Greatest Football Coach of All Time, written in 2006 by Ian O’Connor, in which O’Connor, of the New York Post and ESPN fame, described Bill as watching Carroll during the final drive, and wasn’t calling timeouts because he knew Carroll would blow it; which he did. Belichick won six Super Bowls with Tom Brady, but was denied election into the Pro Football Hall of Fame yesterday, a surprising move to many. I think it’s poetic justice for Spygate, and his disloyalty to women. He dropped his wife for a younger woman, then dropped her for a 24 year old. Belichick is 49 years older than Jordan Hudson, his now girlriend. He’s struggling at UNC now, too. Let him sweat a little.
The Patriots play outstanding defense under Coach Mike Vrabel. They have a solid offense with Maye under center and the great Josh McDaniels coaching the offense as offensive coordinator. It’s a tougher call on MVP because of Maye’s help in turning this team around the Patriots from 4-13 in 2024, to 14-3 in 2025, finishing in the second spot in the AFC behind Denver, which they defeated last Sunday on the road. Great stuff from the Patriots. I like Stafford though. Maybe I like the older guy, but the stats don’t lie, either. Should be a riveting Super Bowl. Will break it down and predict it next Thursday, 2/5.
Record
This past weekend, AFC/NFC Championship Games: Straight up: 2-0; overall: 6-6; ATS: 2-0, 5-7; O/U: 2-0, 5-7.
The 114th Australian Open/Predictions
Men’s Semifinals: Coverage begins Thursday at 9:30 P.M. CT/10:30 ET on ESPN for the first semi; and at 2:30 A.M. CT/3:30 ET Friday for the second semifinal match on ESPN.
Jannik Sinner over Novak Djokovic 7-5, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3
Carlos Alcaraz over Alexander Zverev, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4
Men’s Final, Sunday, 2:30 A.M. CT/3:30 A.M. ET, ESPN
Sinner vs Alcaraz
These are the two dominant players in tennis right now and for the foreseeable future. The 24 year old Sinner from South Candido, South Tyrol, Italy, and the 22 year old Alcaraz from El Palmar, Murcia, Spain, split the majors in 2025 with Jannik winning the Australian, going back to back, and Wimbledon, and Carlos winning the French Open and the U.S. Open. They have put on epic matches. Jannik has won the 2024 and 2025 Australian, 2025 at Wimbledon, and the 2024 U.S. Open. Carlos has won six majors, the ’24 and ’25 French Opens, 2023 and 2024 at Wimbledon, and the 2022 and 2025 U.S. Opens. His deepest run in the Australian is the quarters, so he’s advanced beyond that this year. This is one phenomenal rivalry in sports. It’ll be a classic.
Sinner over Alcaraz, 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
I’ll take the great Italian to capture his third Australian Open in a row. (Photo courtesy of the BBC).
Women’s Final, Saturday, 2:30 A.M. CT/3:30 ET Saturday
Elina Svitolina vs. Elena Rybakina
I like Elina, the Ukrainian, to defeat Russian Aryna Sabalenka in the semis tomorrow morning at 2:30 CT/3:30 ET, and for Rybakina to defeat American Jessica Pegula after that. Both will be tough matches. Elina will be locked in to defeat Sabalenka. It’s personal for her. In the Final, I look for another classic with the 31 year old from Odessa, Ukraine emerging and capturing her first Grand Slam.
Svitolina over Rybikana, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5
The awesome Ukrainian player, Elina Svitolina, captures the Australian. (Photo courtesy of CNN).
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Scottie, Farmers Insurance Open Prediction
The great Scheffler aims for more milestones in 2026 (Photo courtesy of Golf Monthly).
The question in 2026 is: can Scottie Scheffler be stopped? Doesn’t look that way after he shot 27 under to capture the American Express last Sunday in La Quinta, CA. and was four shots clear of four, second place finishers. The amazing Scheffler won the PGA Championship and the Open Championship in 2025, at Quail Hollow and Royal Portrush, respectively. After his victory last Sunday, the 29 year old from Dallas, who will be 30 on June 21st, is only the third player to win 20 PGA Tour events before turning 30, joining Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. Now that’s elite. He won’t play this week at the Farmers, but will play next weekend, Super Bowl weekend, at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, a spectacle in golf. Scheffler has four majors to his credit; two Masters titles, in 2022 and 2024, and the 2025 PGA Championship and British Opens. He’s an unstoppable force on Tour. He has all the tools in his bag, and the mental game to go along with it. Very grounded guy. Happily married, deeply pious, has a son, and plays golf to be successful, and what he means by that is winning tournaments and winning majors. He’s also won the Players Championship in 2023 and 2024, and the Arnie in 2022 and 2024, among his 20 victories. As long as his putter is clicking, he’s a juggernaut on the course. There is a lot of competition out there including Rory, who finally won the Masters in 2025, and the great competitor J.J. Spaun, who ground out a 1 under score at the impossible Oakmont Country Club in 2025 to earn the U.S. Open victory, which included a 64 foot birdie putt on 18 to seal it. J.J. was iron. But Scheffler is the Secretariat of golf right now. Brooks Koepka is back on tour. I’m happy about it. He stands to lose 10’s of millions of dollars in future earnings due to his defection to the LIV in 2022. But he’s playing at the Farmer’s. He’s a pretty wealthy guy already, too, so it’s not as major to him as it would be to some other lesser known LIV players. Patrick Reed is coming back and should be eligible later this season and full time in 2027. Looks like Jon Rahm, Bryson and Cam Smith are staying put on the LIV. LIV golfers have until February 2nd to come back to the PGA Tour or the offer is over for this year. These are for LIV players who won a major or the Players since 2022. Reed, who won the Masters in 2018, will play as a non-member and aim to regain full time status in 2027.
The 90th Masters will be played April 9th-12th at Augusta National, the 108th PGA Championship will be played at Aronimink Golf Club in Newton Square, PA., just outside of Philly, May 14th-17th. This’ll be the second time the PGA Championship has ever been played at Aronimink. The first was in 1892? That was before Francis Ouimet played (the 1913 U.S. Open champ at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts). Been a minute. The 126th U.S. Open will be played at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York on Long Island, June 18th-21st. This will be the sixth time the Open will be played at Shinnecock with the other years, 1896, 1986, 1995, 2004 and 2018. The 154th British Open (Excedrin wants me to call it the British Open instead of the Open Championship, so will go with E) will be played at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England July 16th-19th. This will be the 12th British Open at Royal Birkdale. The 52nd Players Championship, with the biggest purse in golf, a $25 million purse, with $4.5 million going to the winner, will be played at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, March 12th-15th.
The 8 Signature events are: 1. the AT&T Pebble Beach February 12th-15th, 2. the Genesis Invitational, Feb. 19th-22nd, 3.the Arnie, March 5th-8th, 4. the RBC Heritage April 16th-19th, 5. the Miami Championship at Doral, April 30th-May 3rd, 6. the Truist Championship (at Quail Hollow), May 7th-10th, 7.the Memorial, June 4th-7th and 8. the Travelers Championship, June 25th-28th. I’ll have more details on the Signature events, location, etc., forthcoming in upcoming weeks. The Signature Events have $20 million purses with $3.6 going to the winner and nice earnings for the top 70 players and ties who make the cut.
Winner at the Travelers Championship
At Torrey Pines North and South Courses in San Diego. North, 7,258 yards, Par 72. South, 7,667 yards, Par 72.
Defending champion: Harris English
Defending Genesis Invitational Champion played at Torrey Pines in 2025 due to wildfires in Pacific Palisades, CA.: Ludvig Aberg.
Weather-Looks good as of now. Could change on the Pacific Coast, but right now calling for mid to high 70’s Thursday through Sunday with winds at 5-10 gusting probably to 15-20 at times. Marine Layer in the morning can cause issues with getting the round started as there is a lot of fog. No big deal for the most part though it can delay play.
The rough will be up to four inches, and the Bentgrass/Poa annua greens will be stimping at 13. The players will play the North and South Courses Thursday and Friday, with each player playing the South one day, and the North the other. After the cut on Friday, the players will play the South exclusively Saturday and Sunday. There are 147 players in the field. The cut is top 70 and ties. For the iconic South Course, No. 16 is a 227 yard, par 3, with two bunkers up front. The prevailing wind will make it more difficult to get it close. No.17 is a 443 yard, par 4, with fairway bunkers on the right that require a high draw to clear. The green is undulating, demanding precision to negotiate the slopes on ir. Front bunkers add to the challenge, and the canyon on the left is another obstacle off the tee. No.18 is a 570 yard, par 5. A major risk/reward hole. With a solid, 3 hundge yard drive, the players will go for it on their second shot and have to clear the pond in front of the green. A lot of hearts have been broken in that pond. The rubber meets the road on Sunday on holes 16 through 18.
TV:
Thursday-Friday, 11 A.M.-2 P.M. CT, 12-3 ET, ESPN. Broadcasting regular events again. At least this one. Golf Channel: 2-6 P.M. CT/3-7 ET; Saturday: 12-2 P.M CT/1-3 P.M. ET Golf Channel. 2-5:30 P.M. CT/3-6:30 ET, CBS. Sunday: 12-2 P.M. CT/ 1-3 ETGC; 2-5 P.M. CT/3-6 ET, CBS.
Odds: Xander Schauffele: 13/1; Aberg: 17/1; Patrick Cantlay: 19/1; Cam Young: 22/1; Hideki: 25/1; Maverick McNealy: 27/1; Si Woo Kim: 27/1; Jason Day: 27/1; Chris Gotterup: 27/1-Sony Open winner; J.J. Spaun: 27/1; Taylor Pendrith: 30/1; Will Zalatoris: 33/1; Samuel Stevens: 35/1; Wyndham Clark: 35/1, Harris English: 40/1; Keegan Bradley: 45/1; Sahith Theegala: 45/1; Adam Scott: 50/1; Justin Rose: 50/1; Max Homa: 55/1; Koepka: 55/1; Davis Thompson, 55/1.
Winner
I’m going to take the 35 year old from L.A. via San Diego State University. He’s won twice on tour, at the 2022 Valero Open in San Antone, and at the 2025 United States Open at the brutal Oakmont, 15 miles northeast of downtown Pittsburgh. If you can win at Oakmont, you can win anywhere. Like Frank Sinatra sang about making it there and making it anywhere. Torrey Pines, Torrey Pines, give me:
J.J. Spaun
Give me John Michael “J.J.” Spaun to capture the Farmers. (Photo courtesy of The South Pasadenan).
Devin McGlockton and our team homes in on the Kentucky Wildcats tonight at Memorial. (Photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated).
The Dores come into the game tonight vs Kentucky with a 17-3 record overall and 4-3 in the SEC. We lost three in a row to good opponents, @ Texas, vs. Florida, in a 98-94 heartbreaker, and @ Arkansas. We rebounded last Saturday and handled business at “the Humph” in Starkvegas, defeating the Mississippi State Bulldogs, 88-56. Our terrific sophomore, Tyler Tanner, led the way with 24 points, added 5 rebounds and authored a team high 5 assists. Tyler is playing at an elite level. Duke Miles added 17 points and 4 assists. Our sharpshooting marksman, Tyler Nickel, finished with 13, including 3-of-8 from trifecta. T Nickel is second in the conference in three point percentage making 46% of his attempts, 69-of-149. Jacob Crews of Missouri leads at 47%.
Devin McGlockton finished with 10 points and four rebounds. Jalen Washington gave us super minutes with 8 points and 8 boards. Freshman Chandler Bing added 5 points and 5 boards. Mike James didn’t score, but he pulled down 6 boards. We shot 54% from the field and 32% from deep. We out-rebounded them, 36-34. We also were 10-of-11 from the charity stripe, 91%. We held them to 35% from the field, 19% from triple, and they finished 11-of-17 from the line, 65%. So nice job overall by the team.
The Wildcats are 14-6 overall and 5-2 in the conference, so with us at 4-3, this is a tremendously important game for our guys. No. 30 Texas A&M leads the conference at 6-1. The Aggies are 16-4 overall. No.15 Arkansas, No. 19 Florida and Kentucky are all 5-2 and tied for second place. Arkansas is 15-5 overall, Florida is 14-6 and then Kentucky. We’re at 4-3 tied with Georgia, Missouri and Auburn for 5th place. Unfortunately, it’s a later start tonight on ESPN, but Memorial will be electric. I have some writing duties in the morning, so I’ll have to watch the second half in my office when I get in tomorrow morning. I’ll give you a recap after I watch the second half, if we’re successful. The Wildcats are led in scoring by six foot four inch guard Otega Owen, who averages 16 points. Six-foot-five guard Denzell Aberdeen averages 12 per game. Their seven foot, 250 pound center, Malachi Moreno averages 8.7 ppg and leads them in rebounding at 6.4. Kentucky averages 38.3 boards per game, and we’re at 36.8. Devin is our leader on the glass with 6.7 per game. Jalen Washington adds 5.4. We’ll need to hang with them on the boards, and get after them on the defensive end with T Tanner and Duke creating turnovers for us. Duke and Tyler are numbers one and three, respectively in the SEC in steals. Frankie Collins is number two, but he’s injured and out till mid to late February. That’s my best guesstimate from the intel I’ve gotten. That’s not too far away, though. We need our Tylers, Nickel and Tanner, and Duke to knock down some triples, and for Devin, AK Okereke along with Jalen Washington, Chandler Bing, Tyler Harris, and Mike James making major contributions on both ends of the court. I’ll go ahead and predict it.
Dores 85, Kentucky 82
***Update***: Duke Miles is out tonight, due to injury. Not disclosed exactly what the injury is, but he’s struggled with a leg injury and an illness this season. It’s not long term, but hurts a little tonight. We’ll have to figure it out without him.
Should be a spectacle. Love what Mark is doing. Coach Byington is a stud.
Will have more on our phenomenal men’s team tomorrow, hopefully.
Women’s Basketball
Our No.5 women’s basketball team, which lost a tough one to South Carolina on Sunday on the road, are still 20-1 overall and 6-1 in the SEC. Tennessee leads the conference at 6-0. We’re tied for second place with South Carolina at 6-1. the great Mikayla Blakes leads the conference and is third in the country averaging almost 25 points per game. Coach Shea Ralph is doing a superb job. Just gotta find our rhythm again in our next game. Our Women play No. 17 Ole Miss Friday at 2 P.M. CT/3 ET at Legacy Arena in Birmingham on SEC Network+. The game was moved from Thursday Night in Oxford due to the winter storm that affected so many people this past weekend in the Southeast and throughout the Northeast. Nashville got hit pretty hard. We’re thinking about our friends in Nashville, Atlanta and other cities and towns that were affected by the relentless storm.
Football
Football signed 20 high school players and 17 transfers in this 2026 class. We added several important pieces to our offensive and defensive lines, excellent skill guys, and the prolific 98, 5 star quarterback (Both the On3/Rivals and 247 Sports rankings) Jared Curtis from Nashville Christian. Jared lit it up in high school leading his teams to back to back state championships. His junior season, Jared threw for 2,839 yards, with 40 TDs against only 3 ints. He commandeered Nashville Christian to the state championship in Tennessee’s Division II A level in 2024. He also rushed for 637 yards and 18 TDs. He completed 70% of his throws. This most recent season, 2025, Jared was injured some, but still threw for 1,863 yards, with 31 TDs against 6 ints. He rushed for 536 more yards with 10 rushing TDs. His state championship team in 2024 went 12-1, and this season’s back to back team finished 12-0. In the state championship game, the awesome Curtis threw for 254 yards and 5 TDs, and rushed for 77 more yards and another six in an emphatic 59-7 Nashville Christian victory over University School in Jackson (TN.).
We’re getting a special player in Jared Curtis. We’ve got some weaponry coming back to help him with running back Seddy Alexander and wide receiver Junior Sherrill returning unless something drastic happens in the portal. Clark and the staff have added nice pieces on offense and defense in recruiting, both high school and transfers, and we have some more excellent players returning. So, elated to see what this team can do in 2026. We do have other quarterbacks in Blaze Berlowitz, who looks pretty darn good too, Whit Muschamp, and Walter Taylor, who had been a Commodore a few years back, but transferred and has now transferred back to the West End. So a lot to be excited about with this football team for 2026. Game one is Saturday, September 5th vs Austin Peay in FirstBank.
Baseball
Baseball will be cranking it up soon. Our centerpieces in the lineup are Brodie Johnston, Braden Holcombe and Rustan Rigdon. Catcher Colin Barczi and infielder Mike Mancini are key pieces, who are back as well. We’ve got some nice arms, led by Connor Fennell and Austin Nye. I don’t know a lot about the young guys we have, I’ve read some stuff and they sound talented, but I do like the returners. We were picked 23rd in the D-1 Baseball Preseason Poll, and 17th by Baseball America. We’ll hopefully be a lot better than that. We always have a shot to make it to Omaha under the prolific Tim Corbin. Former player and veteran Cleveland Indians assistant hitting coach Jason Esposito is now our hitting coach, and Corbs and the entire team are ecstatic about that. Jason was a superb third baseman for us. Jason was a .350 hitter, a terrific defender, and played on our first CWS team in 2011. I like what we have in Espo. Our reliable Scott “Brownie” Brown will be back to coach the pitching, and Ty Blankmeyer is our other assistant. I like our players, our staff, and Candice and Chancellor Diermeier have put more resources into the program, which surely helps. Hawkins Field will keep being a superb venue to support our guys, and there will be additions to seating and more aesthetic improvements that are happening right now. It’s an elite stadium already, and will be even moreso after the renovations are complete. Not sure the timeline on that, but will look into it, and get back. We have a superb coach and a superb program. We’ve just gotta keep supporting it. We open with No. 10 TCU on Friday, 2/13/26, at 3 P.M. CT/ 4 P.M. ET in the Shriners Children’s College Showdown. We play unranked but solid and usually ranked Texas Tech on Saturday, 2/14/26, at 11 A.M. CT/12 P.M. ET. And, on Sunday, we play unranked but highly successful and respected Oklahoma State at 10:30 A.M. CT/11:30 A.M. ET. I’m sure MLB Network or some other outlet will televise. I’ll look into that as well, and let you know on that in the upcoming days.
Women’s Tennis
Our No. 19 Women’s Tennis team just defeated No.7 Michigan on the road to punch their ticket to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. Awesome stuff from Coach Aleke Tsoubanos and our women. Will keep you apprised on the women’s progress in the Indoor Championship. We’ll play Northwestern at home this coming Sunday, Feb. 1st before heading to Illinois for the Indoors.
Will keep you posted on Men’s Basketball, Baseball, Football, Women’s Basketball and tennis, both Men’s and Women’s, and anything else that comes up in the upcoming days. Anchor Down and let’s get the job done tonight at Memorial.
Tyler Nickel was terrific from behind the arc against A&M in our team’s massive victory. (Photo courtesy of Instagram).
Our men’s basketball team secured a phenomenal victory at College Station on Wednesday Night as we defeated the 12th ranked Texas A&M Aggies, 86-84, to move to 19-9 overall and 7-8 in the SEC. The No.12 Aggies (AP Poll) fell to 20-8 and 9-6.
To say it was a mild surprise might sound like an understatement unless you understand the makeup of this group, which we all do. They’re warriors and were not going to be denied at Reed Arena. Our terrific marksman guard/forwardTyler Nickel sank 7 of 10 trifectas and finished with 21 points. Guard MJ Collins had a big night with 16 points and four boards. Our super combo point guard/shooting guard, Jason Edwards, we’re kind of a position-less group, finished with 15 and was iron from the charity stripe sinking 8-for-8 at the stripe. We were 28-for-36 as a team from the line, 78%, and that was massive down the stretch.
The game took 2 hours 40 minutes with excessive foul calling and reviews. It was out of control. But our guys responded to those adverse conditions (the road and the refs) and emerged with a major resume building victory. Our terrific freshman point guard, Tyler Tanner, finished with 9 points and four assists, and was 4-for-4 from the line. These were all highly clutch free throw conversions in the last two minutes of the game. Big man Jaylen Carey sank a couple of key free throws late as well. Jaylen and our awesome other big man, Devin McGlockton, were saddled with foul trouble throughout the game. It was a very questionably officiated game. Devin fouled out, but pulled down 10 boards before he did. He always gives us superb minutes, even if he doesn’t score a ton of points. He usually gives us good offense though, and he’ll give us great effort every time out. One of the key moments in the game was when JaQualon “JQ” Roberts, our 6’8″, 230 inside guy, came in late with Devin and Jaylen in foul trouble. JQ gave us 8 valuable minutes. He pulled down four boards, had a massive dunk off a beautiful dish from MJ, and played awesome defense. JQ, one of the two holdovers from Stack’s program, along with Jordan Williams, which you gotta admire and appreciate, will be a valuable piece for us down the stretch if Jaylen and Devin get into some fouling issues or they just need a break. I love what JQ did for us Wednesday and what he can do for us going forward. Last season, towards the end of the 2024 year, JQ was coming on for sure as a freshman. So I really believe that he can be a factor for us. He’s tough, physical, is a very good rebounder, and give us some offense.
A.J. Hoggard, Chris Manon and Grant Huffman weren’t major factors in the outcome, but did some good things, and we always need those guys to play well in order for us to be successful. They are all three highly valuable pieces to this team’s success. Definitely need them to give us their usual quality minutes going forward. Manon put together an awesome performance against No. 24 Ole Miss last Saturday in our 77-72 victory at Memorial. He finished with 16, 7 boards, 4 steals and 3 blocks against the Rebels. He’s such a superb athlete, and brings so much energy to the court. A.J. is always an important player for us distributing and leading our offense along with some scoring and solid D. Grant brings hustle and talent. We’ll need everybody.
So where do we stand? We are now 19-9, and 7-8 in the SEC, tied for 9th in the conference. Auburn has been excellent this year at 14-1 and 26-2 and are the clear No.1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi and Heat Check’s Lukas Harkins, another accurate brackelogist. Auburn is projected No.1 in the South by both Lunardi and Harkins. Auburn’s only two losses are @ Duke, much earlier in the season and at home versus Florida a couple of Saturdays ago. We are seeded 9th by Joe in the South playing in Lexington versus 8th-seeded Illinois. Lukas has us 9th in the West playing No.8 BYU in Wichita. So riveting stuff going on with our team, and if we keep playing like this, we’ll get a higher seed going forward by both Joe and Lukas. I’ll keep you apprised on those developments as they transpire. Both Bracketologists release their projections each Tuesday and Friday, and these brackets are completely up to date as they both released their respective ones this morning.
We’ve got No.14 Missouri Saturday @ home @Memorial at 5 PM CT on the SEC Network. Need an electric crowd to help us knock off a very good team and enhance our resume even further. Missouri is 21-7 and 10-5 in the conference and is coming off a 101-71 home victory over South Carolina. They are presently tied for fourth with Tennessee in the conference standings and are a 5 seed by Joe in the East, and a 5 seed by Lukas in the Midwest. They are talented and can do damage in the NCAA Tournament, so we need to bring everything we’ve got. They defeated us in Columbia on Saturday, January 11th, 75-66. We can get this done, but it will take another stellar performance. We’ve got it in us though. Love the way we’re competing. Will give you a recap on Monday.
Vanderbilt Baseball
RJ Austin is knocking the cover off the ball. (Photo courtesy of The Tennessean).
Our 13th/14th ranked Vanderbilt Baseball team is on a roll right now after sweeping Saint Mary’s last weekend at the Hawk and defeating Tennessee Tech handily this past Tuesday. We won 11-4 last Friday, 2/21, we won 13-7 on Saturday, 2/22, and 10-0 Sunday, 2/23, in 7 innings with the 10 run rule in effect after 7– top of the 7th at home, bottom of the 7th on the road. Then, for good measure, we defeated Tennessee Tech 16-3 at the Hawk in 7 on Tuesday.
RJ Austin is the heart and soul of this baseball team. Our junior from Atlanta is hitting .455 with 2 doubles, 3 triples, a homer and 9 Ribeyes. RJ is also 6-for-6 in stolen bases. Jacob Humphrey, who has found a home in the corners of our outfield, is hitting .440, and is 3-for-3 in stolen bases. Love what we’re getting from transfer Riley Nelson (Western Texas College/Yavapai College, Texas). Riley is hitting .406 with a double, a homer and 12 Ribbies. Freshman Rustan Rigdon is hitting .360, and I’m liking what I’m seeing out of freshman Brodie Johnston. He’s a slick fielding third baseman and was a highly ranked recruit in the class of 2024. Brodie hits and fields at a high level. He was 2-for-4 Sunday against Saint Mary’s with a pair of runs driven in. Like what we have there. Mike Macini, a transfer from James Madison, is going to be stellar at second base. With steady, reliable junior Jonathan Vastine leading the charges at short, we’ve got a good makeup in the infield with Nelson a nice fielding first baseman as well. The SEC is tough, but our 13th/14th-ranked team (Baseball America, D1 Baseball rankings, respectively) is shaping up well. We are now 8-1. Pitching has been pretty solid. Still some room for improvement. Really like what I’m seeing out of our present Sunday starter Cody Bowker. Cody is 1-0 with an 0.00 ERA. Can’t get any better than that. Cody, a Georgetown transfer, is a strike thrower. He’s walked four and struck out 12. JD Thompson and Ethan McElvain are still rounding into form on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Corbs will see how the guys develop before settling into an SEC weekend rotation. The bullpen has been very solid. Miller Green looks like a shutdown closer and we’ve got great arms in middle relief and for midweek starts.
We have UCLA tonight in L.A. in the Southern California College Baseball Classic. First pitch is a 7 PM CT and it’ll be streamed on BIG Ten Network+.
Saturday, we play USC in Irvine, CA. at 4 PM CT on the BIG Ten+ Network.
And Sunday, we face UConn at 12 PM in L.A., again. Today’s game is at Jackie Robinson Stadium, Saturday’s game is at Great Park, and Sunday’s game is again at Jackie Robinson Stadium, all in Southern California. So, two true road games today and Saturday. UCLA is 7-2, USC is 7-1, and UConn is 1-5. So, some challenges this weekend that will be good for getting us mentally tough for the SEC, which starts in two weeks @ Auburn. We’ll open @ Auburn Friday, 3/14, and play there through Sunday, 3/16. Will have much more on that after we get through this non-conference schedule. Major challenges this weekend starting today versus the Bruins.
Women’s Basketball
Khamil Pierre filled it up last night in our victory over A&M. (Photo courtesy of ESPN).
Sophomore Khamil Pierre poured in 31 points on 13-of-21 shooting from the field and added 6 boards, and freshman standout Mikayla Blakes finished with 18 points and 5 assists as our women defeated Texas A&M, 91-58, at Memorial Thursday Night. Khamil is from Phoenix, and Mikayla is from Somerset, New Jersey, 40 miles from the Big Apple. Justine Pissott added 14, going 5-for-5 from the field and 4-of-4 from the stripe. Justine is a junior from Toms River, New Jersey. It’s 75 miles from Toms River to Manhattan. We moved to 20-9 and 7-8 in the SEC. We’re now 9th in the conference and are an 8 seed in the Spokane Bracket in the NCAA Tournament according to ESPN Bracketologist Charlie Creme. Charlie is the expert in projecting the tournament bracket for the women’s game, and he’s pretty darn accurate as are Joe and Lukas in the men’s game. Mikayla is now averaging 23 points per game, and Khamil is at 20.9. Khamil also averages 9.5 boards per game. Iyana Moore is at 11.9 points per game. Coach Shea Ralph knows we have a lot of work left if we want to reach our goals of playing much deeper into March. We finish out the season this Sunday @ Missouri for a 2 PM CT tip on SEC Network+. The Tigers are 14-16 overall and 3-12 in the SEC. The SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament starts Wednesday, March 5th at Greenville, S.C. So, exciting stuff for the women’s team as well. Will have more on the SECT on Monday after we play Missouri, and, hopefully, get the job done.
Coach Mark Byington and Coach Ralph are doing absolutely tremendous jobs with the men’s and the women’s teams, respectively. Love our coaches. Of course, Corbs is doing his usual phenomenal job. He just keeps getting it done. Love what all three teams can do going forward with both the Men’s and Women’s bball teams heading into March and our baseball team setting its sights on the rest of the non-conference, and then homing in on the SEC in mid-March. Extremely exciting stuff going on for our programs.
Men’s and Women’s Golf; Women’s and Men’s Tennis
Will have a lot more for you on our three respective teams on Monday along with our Men’s and Women’s golf teams and our Men’s and Women’s tennis teams. All four teams are matriculating well.
The Men’s Golf team, which is ranked 14th in the Clippd rankings, the premier rankings in men’s and women’s golf, opens play at the Cabo Collegiate in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico this coming Monday with a loaded field competing. Should be a great measure on Coach Scott Limbaugh’s team Monday through Wednesday on the Twin Dolphin Course. Will have more as the team competes next week.
Coach Greg Allen and his 12th ranked Women’s Golf team (Clippd rankings as well) play in the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate Monday through Wednesday versus a talented field as well. More on the Women as well next week.
Our 19th ranked women’s tennis team (ITA Rankings), 8-1 on the season after opening SEC play with a 7-0 victory @ Missouri last Sunday, plays Mississippi State today @ the Currey Tennis Center in Nashville at 2 PM, and hosts No.17 Alabama Sunday at 1 PM. So huge weekend for the women’s tennis team.
The Men’s team is ranked 32nd by the ITA Rankings, and is 8-3 overall. After defeating LSU on the road this past Monday, 4-3, we play @Auburn today at 2 PM CT, and we are @ No.25 Alabama Sunday at 1 PM.
I love what Women’s Tennis Coach Aleke Tsoubanos is doing for our team, and what Coach Scott Brown is doing for our men. We have another Scott Brown, who is our pitching coach. So we two have Coach Browns on our respective staffs.
I’ll check back in Monday with a lot more on where all of our teams stand heading into the week. God Bless, have an awesome weekend, and Anchor Down!
Mikayla did some serious work on Sunday @ Auburn. (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia).
Our terrific McDonald’s All American freshman Mikayla Blakes made history again on the basketball court as
she set a freshman record this time for any freshman, true or redshirt, as she poured in 55 points and led her
Vanderbilt Commodores teammates to an amazing 15 point comeback in the fourth quarter at Neville Arena in Auburn as the Commodores defeated Auburn 98-88 in overtime to move to 19-7 overall and 6-6 in the SEC. Coach Shea Ralph was not only happy for Mikayla, she was ecstatic for her team as we had lost three in a row. But what a performance by our young freshman out of Somerset, New Jersey and Rutgers Prep. Mikayla was 15-of-28 from the field, 2-of-7 from trifecta and 23-of-24 from the stripe. She is now averaging 23 points per game and is second in the SEC and sixth in the country in scoring. She was voted SEC Player of the week and SEC Freshman of the week. There was no doubt that was going to happen. The team is now tied for 8th in the conference, and Charlie Creme, the Bracketologist for ESPN, has us as a No. 7 seed and playing 10th seeded Richmond in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Los Angeles. Our next game is Thursday at 6 PM @ No.16 Oklahoma. OU is 19-6 and 7-5 in the SEC, so they’ll be a tough out. Mikayla and the women will have to step up once again. I like them to do just that.
Men take on the Cats in Rupp
Jalen Carey leads the Dores into Rupp Arena today at 6 PM (Photo courtesy of the Nashville Post).
Our men’s team is in a huge contest today at 6 PM today on the SEC Network at Rupp Arena versus Kentucky. We fought so hard against Tennessee and almost pulled off the upset, but are looking ahead to today in a massive game at Rupp. We are 17-8 overall and 5-7 in the conference, and Joey Brackets has us as an 11 seed and in the West Regional playing in Cleveland in the first round and facing No.6 seeded Clemson. Gotta excel here in our last six games. We’re getting very good play from Jalen Carey, Devin McGlockton and Jason Edwards, among others. Need everybody to step up tonight, Tyler Nickel, AJ Hoggard, Chris Manon, MJ Collins (so athletic) and Grant Huffman will HAVE to do their part as well for us to emerge with the victory. Coach Byington knows it’ll take a total team effort to come away victorious. I don’t gamble, but I do predict against the spread, and we were a 6 1/2 point underdog yesterday, and now we’re 5 1/2. So trending in the right direction. It was 4 1/2 earlier today. Just gotta lock in.
Baseball
JD Thompson gave us an awesome start on Friday versus Grand Canyon, a true road game in Phoenix, at the 2025 MLB Desert Invitational. (Photo courtesy of Baseball America).
We’ve gotten some pretty solid pitching so far in our first five games as our No.15 Commodores (D1 Baseball Rankings) are 4-1 with victories over Grand Canyon, UC Irvine and two over Air Force. Our only loss is to No.23 Nebraska on Saturday Night, and that seemed like a road game in the MLB Desert Invitational. Really like what we got from JD, who pitched 4.2 against Grand Canyon, and allowed just 3 hits, 0 runs, with a walk and 6 K’s. JD is our Friday Night guy for now, but that’s still being determined. Sure like our chances with him on the mound. Cody Bowker, a transfer from Georgetown, was super Sunday against Cal-Irvine. Cody went 4, gave up 0 runs, 2 hits, with a walk and, also like JD, six K’s. Nice efforts from a lot of our pitchers. Like the way our pitching is rounding into shape. We play Saint Mary’s in a weekend set this Friday-Sunday. Hitting is coming along. New addition Rusty Rigdon, kind of a utility player for us in the infield and outfield, is leading us at .467. Jacob Humphrey, whom I’ve always been bullish on since he arrived on the West End from Duke in 2024, is hitting .455. And our electric center fielder RJ Austin, who can do everything, kind of an Enrique Bradfield with a little more power, is hitting .391. We’re fielding at a .989 clip with just a couple of errors, so pretty solid. I’m sure Corbs is pretty pleased with the start. Gotta keep improving every practice, every game as Corbs always preaches. Our goal is Omaha and getting it done there. That never changes.
Jackson Van Paris with a nice showing at the Watersound Invitational at Panama City (Photo courtesy of The Vanderbilt Hustler).
Nice showing by Men’s Golf
Our 11th-ranked Men’s Golf team (CLIPPD Rankings, premier college men’s golf ranking service) finished in 5th place at the Watersound Invitational in Panama City Beach, FL. on the Shark’s Tooth Golf Course. We had a rough day in day one shooting 9 over as a team. Then we came back and shot 6 under, and, in round 3, we finished 14 under to post an 11 under score for the tournament. Florida State won it at 26 under par. We did get a terrific effort from senior Jackson Van Paris who finished tied fourth individually shooting 6 under par. Luke Clanton of FSU won it at -10. Nice comeback by the squad. Need some more guys to step up if we want to reach our goals this year in the SEC and NCAA Tournaments. Next is the Cabo Collegiate Sunday, March 2nd through Tuesday, March 4th. It’ll be 3 rounds with a loaded field. I will let you know more about it when it’s time to get to work in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico at the Twin Dolphin Club.
I’ll have more coming up next week. I will be out of pocket the rest of this week working on another project here in town, so will check back in the middle of next week or so with intel on Men’s basketball, baseball, Men’s golf and women’s basketball and anything else that transpires in the VU sporting arena. Thanks a lot.
