David White

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Vanderbilt Sports

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

April 24, 2026
Our great right hander Connor Fennell leads our charges today at 6 P.M. versus No.4 Texas (Photo courtesy of The Tennessean).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Texas:

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

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

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

Always the formula for success.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Transfers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’ll keep you apprised on baseball this weekend.

Have an awesome weekend. 

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

April 23, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks, have a great evening and Anchor Down.

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

March 20, 2026
T Tanner (left) and Duke with big days in round 1 in OKC to lead us to victory. (Photo courtesy of YouTube).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vanderbilt 75, Nebraska 73

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have an awesome weekend and Anchor Down. 

No.5 seed Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball in OKC Thursday for first round of NCAA’s; Women’s bball in first Round Saturday

March 18, 2026
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. 

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

March 4, 2026

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

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

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

Will get more into that in a second.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

March 3, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

Women’s Basketball

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

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

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

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

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

Men’s Tennis

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

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

Baseball and Women’s Tennis

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

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

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

Men’s Golf 

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

Will keep you apprised. Thanks a lot. 

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

February 26, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vanderbilt Baseball

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

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

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

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

Vanderbilt Men’s Golf

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

February 25, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vanderbilt Baseball cookin with the bats.

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

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

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

Women’s Basketball

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a super day. 

The two Tylers, Dev, and Vanderbilt freshman small forward Chandler Bing, from Pace Academy in Atlanta, who just turned 18 recently, lit it up for the Dores Tuesday Night as Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball dominates Kentucky

January 28, 2026

Our great, talented, athletic freshman Chandler Bing is figuring out college basketball in a hurry. (Photo courtesy of theScore.com)

Our two Tylers, Nickel and Tanner, lit up the Kentucky Wildcats  Tuesday Night and power forward Devin McGlockton added a double-double as our 17th ranked Vanderbilt Commodores Men’s Basketball team blasted the Wildcats, 80-55, before a surprisingly solid and electric 10,135 fans @ Memorial Coliseum despite the difficult, cold and icy conditions Nashville has been besieged with the past couple of days.

Nickel and Tanner both finished with 19, Tanner added 5 assists and 4 steals, and Nickel was 7-of-14 from the field, and 2-of-6 from trifecta. But both triples were beautiful shots. On one of Nickel’s, he was moving to his left from 22 feet. He sank another from the corner. When T Nick gets hot, it sure helps the cause.

Tanner was 6-of-8 from the stripe, while Nickel was 3-of-3. We finished 20-of-25 from the line, 80%. That’ll help win games. 

McGlockton finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Devin connected on 3, triples in the first half that were tremendously important shots and also perfect looking shots. Dev was a stud once again. When our big three get it going, we’re tough to beat. 

We out-rebounded them, 43-37, which is always a big deal. 

Our defense was also terrific. We held them to 32% from the field, and 25% from three. They were 11 of 19 from the line, 58%. We just put so much pressure on them on the ball. We got 15 turnovers, and gave it up only 9 times. We were swarming on the defensive end. Nickel posted two steals and freshman Chandler Bing added two more steals.

On our superb, young, just turned 18 year old freshman-can’t find his exact birth date on the website, but Mark said after the game Chandler just turned 18, he was phenomenal. Bing went for 11, sinking a pair of triples and throwing down a monster slam. Tyler T had another massive slam as well. We’ve got some athletes on this team.

With Duke Miles and Frankie Collins out for a little while longer, but not too much longer, we’ll have to rely on our depth. Love how Chandler, our young freshman from Pace Academy in Atlanta, is developing. He is a superb athlete. Chandler  averaged 27 points his senior season at Pace. He’s a very good rebounder and excellent defender also.

The defense was so good last night. I can’t state that enough.

AK Okereke, our graduate transfer from Cornell, gave us another solid night with 9 points and 4 boards. Mike James looks like he’s starting to emerge a little more. The 4 star transfer from Louisville sank a three, was 2-of-2 from the stripe, and made several hustle plays.

Jalen Washington, our 4 star transfer center from UNC, 6’10”, 245, didn’t score, but pulled down 9 boards. Jalen is a good offensive player also, so we’ll need him to be a good on the offensive end going forward. He gave us good minutes though. He always does.

And I loved what I saw from freshman center Jayden Leverett. Our 6’11”, 257, first year player was 3-of-3 from  the field, finishing with 6 points pulling down 3 boards, and doing some really athletic things in the post. We’re going to really like our freshman from Chapin High School in El Paso, Texas going forward.

So much to be excited about with this team. We hit a slight valley a couple of weeks ago and into last week, losing three in a row, but have worked our way out of it.

Mark said in the postgame that Duke will have surgery on his injured knee today, but could be back as early as the Oklahoma game, a week from Saturday, February 7th, at home at 2:30 P.M. on the SEC Network.

Frankie is getting closer to returning. From the intel I’ve been getting, Frankie may be a week or two away now. He tore his meniscus in December. Once we get those two guys back to help Tyler T in the backcourt, we’ll be extremely dangerous.

We already are. We’re playing through the injuries superbly well so far. And they’ll be back soon.

We moved to 18-3 overall and 5-3 in the SEC, while Kentucky dropped to 14-7 and 5-3.

Mark said after the game he hoped this brought some pleasure to the people of Nashville. Mark’s house lost power on Sunday, so he’s been sleeping at his office. What a Coach. People in Nashville and Atlanta and other places in the Southeast and throughout the country are in our thoughts and prayers. Know it’s been a difficult time. Hoping you guys can get back to normalcy as soon as possible.

Next up is @ Ole Miss Saturday at 7:30 CT/8:30 ET on the SEC Network. Will keep you informed.

Thanks a lot, have a super day and how ‘Bout them Commodores. 

Our No.18 Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball team plays host to the 27th ranked Kentucky Wildcats (AP Poll) tonight at 8 CT/9 ET on E-S-P-N. Football, Baseball, Women’s Basketball and Women’s Tennis

January 27, 2026
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.

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Fresh Tweets:

Vanderbilt women’s tennis player Astra Sharma 1 on 1. https://t.co/D0WS0rVnqG @VandyMeg @mmhamlett @Vandywtennis @ManOfVandy @SkipPrince
May 18, 2017, 2:34 PM

Vanderbilt women’s tennis Astra Sharma 1 on 1. https://t.co/D0WS0rVnqG @astrasharma @markNwhitebluff @vandy_62 @warehouse1987 @dbc5361
May 18, 2017, 2:33 PM

Previewing 2017 Clemson Tigers football team. https://t.co/1JH1cPGQkp @markNwhitebluff @vandy_62 @clayphillips27 @warehouse1987 @dbc5361
May 15, 2017, 2:13 PM

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