Our basketball team is special. They may not have the overwhelming resume of a Syracuse, Duke or Florida, but this group has never quits. Saturday is further evidence of a group that has hearts that are bigger than Memorial Gym; these are high character guys. We were 3-of-24 from trifecta (11.5%), 17-of-55 from the field (31%) and 20-of-31 from the free throw line (64.5%), but we still found a way to defeat Texas A&M in overtime, 57-54m, Saturday before 9,059 fans at Memorial. The team moved to 14-10 overall and 6-6 in the conference. A&M dropped to 14-11 and 5-7. It was a somewhat important game in the SEC standings because if we play well the rest of the way we could get a bye in the SEC tournament which is always huge. We wouldn’t have to play on Wednesday and give our guys a much needed extra day to rest their legs.
Rod Odom was 3-0f-18 from the field and 2-0of-11 from three, but hit the shot of the game with a 15 footer from the left side of the basket with five seconds left to tie the game at 49 and send it into overtime. Just before that Dai-Jon and James Siakam pressured the A&M ball handler and tied him up forcing a jump ball and the possession arrow went to us. Rod hit the beautiful jumper to tie it up and send it into an extra period. Some were saying Dai-Jon fouled the A&M guy, but the refs were letting them go on Saturday, and for the most part, in a good way. I just saw a good play by Dai-Jon. Damian had a key and one in overtime (old-fashioned three point play) which was key, and we outlasted them to gain the victory. Kyle was 0-for-5 from three and Dai-Jon was 0-for-8, but Kyle had some key drives and scores late in the game. He had four drives to the rim and finishes. He is so good at that. Kyle has been excellent this year. Losing Eric McClellan was unfortunate for him, but it was actually a good thing for the team as Kyle is much more of a team leader and an excellent player. Dai-Jon plays 40 minutes a game, so his legs were spent on Saturday, but man did he hustle on defense. We were down 9 with 5;49 left and outscored them 15-5 in the last 5:49 to send it into OT. James had a good day at the line going 12-of-14. That really helped. James finished with 16 points and 10 boards, Kyle had 12 points and four assists, though I’d like to see that assist total go up to about six or seven a game, and Damian had 10 points and 13 boards. Damian was a beast on the boards. We out-rebounded the Aggies 41-38. We just found a way. So proud of’em. We are now tied with LSU and Tennessee for fifth in the conference. Pretty good stuff. Tough week ahead though with a Wednesday contest @ Missouri at 8 PM ET/7 CT on the SEC Network (Channel 68 in B’ham, not sure about everywhere else) and a Saturday contest against a pretty good Auburn team @ Auburn at 6 PM Et/5 CT on Fox Sports Net. The following week will host the amazing Gators of Florida on Tuesday (2-25) @ 7 PM ET/6 CT on ESPN. Should be an electric atmosphere for that one. Florida defeated Kentucky Saturday Night at Rupp and to me look like the best team in the country. They start four seniors and have one of the if not the best coach in college basketball on their sideline, though Coach K and Pitino fans might disagree. But I’ll take Kevin and our warriors against anybody. Tough three games coming up, but this team has shown so much heart. They don’t back down from anybody. If we can hang in there physically and not get worn down, I’m still a believer in our postseason chances. Never give up on that particularly with these warriors. Another guy I want to mention is Carter Josephs, our walk-on sophomore guard who has given us some valuable minutes. Carter is another warrior. On Saturday late in overtime, Carter was running down for a loose ball and collided with an A&M player. The A&M player was called for the foul which was the right call, and Carter was bleeding heavily from his eye. He’s getting stitches from that collision.But that was a big play in the game. A&M was a assessed a flagrant one foul which is two free throws and the ball and Luke Kornett, who had a bad ankle and played limited minutes (not serious) drained one of two free throw to put us up by four. When a player gets injured who is supposed to shoot a free throw the opposing coach gets to choose the free throw shooter on the team shooting except when there is blood involved then the home coach gets to pick. Not sure why we picked Luke, but he sank one of two. Anyway we iced it away and pulled out a key SEC victory. It doesn’t get any easier this week, but that’s OK; I like this team a lot. Love what they’re accomplishing with limited manpower. We have some major heart guys on this team. Our legs can get tired and our shooting can suffer, but we find other ways to get it done. We won the math contest on Saturday.
Baseball swept Long Beach State over the weekend. Won 5-0 Friday night, 6-0 Saturday night and 6-2 yesterday afternoon. Pitching was superb. Tyler Beede went five Friday night in the start giving up one hit, one run with one walk and seven K’s. Walker Buehler and Brian Miller finished it off. We only had six hits, but got the job done. Saturday night Jared Miller pitched six, giving up one hit, no runs with zero walks and four K’s. The awesome Carson Fulmer cleaned it up with three innings of shutout ball giving up two hits, with one walk and five K’s. Carson is special, but our starters look so good, who knows if he can crack the weekend rotation. He is a talent though and an amazing competitor. He may be a Saturday or Sunday starter before it’s over. Carson hurt his eye in the Sunday game of the Louisville super regional last year and that hurt us in the deciding third game on Monday when we didn’t have Carson, who was pitching lights out, available for that third game. He looks back to being the Carson who is a potential dominant pitcher after battling the eye injury in the offseason. Love some Carson Fulmer. We had 11 hits Saturday night with freshman left fielder Brian Reynolds and junior right fielder John Norwood each having a pair of hits. Shortstop Vinnie Conde knocked in two runs on the night.
Yesterday, we put on a pitching and hitting clinic. We pounded out 13 hits and were led by Reynolds who had three hits and three RBis. Reynolds looks pretty special. Big Z, third baseman Xavier Turner, also had three hits. Catcher Chris Harvey had two hits. Haven’t hit a home run yet, but that’ll come. Like our power potential with Xavier, Harvey, Zander Wiel and Norwood packs some punch. Tyler Ferguson pitched 5.1 innings giving up just two hits with no earned runs, Tyler committed an error that led to a pair of runs scoring, with no walks and three Ks. Freshman lefty John Kilichowski, T.J. Pecoraro, Adam Ravanelle, who gave us a good outing, and the always reliable and possibly dominant again Miller finishing it off. Next up is Lipscomb @ 5 PM ET/ 4 CT @ the Hawk. Then we have a weekend series against Illinois-Chicago next weekend at home. Game times for the UIC games are 5 PM ET/4 CT on Friday, 3 PM ET/2 CT on Saturday and 2 PM ET/ 1 CT on Sunday. You can watch all four games on the computer on the vucommodores.com website. Like this team a lot just from the opening weekend, but as Corbs says, “One day at a time.” Gotta say though, pretty excited about what the future holds. Got a lot of work to do though starting this week. The goal is Omaha, but to get there we’ve got to get better every day. That’s Corbs’ approach and it’s the right one.
Derek Mason was on Jim Rome a couple of weeks ago and the Paul Finebaum show last week. Derek did an awesome job. Starting to think some about spring ball now with some interesting stuff coming up in spring practice. Job number one will be watching our quarterbacks and see who is our best option though that may not be decided until the middle of August. Patton Robinette and Johnny McCary will be battling for the job with Joshua Grady as our third string. I wish the coaches would move Josh to wide receiver. He is a great athlete and can help us out wide. I know Josh wants to play qb, but he has a better chance to make an impact at wide receiver. He is talented. Patton and Johnny will make for an interesting spring competition and then the three freshmen come in this summer. I do like one of the two upperclassmen to get the job though. Like both of these guys and will give an opinion on who I like as our signal caller after the spring game. Patton did some good things last year, but has some improving to do. He’s a winner though. Johnny has a lot of talent, so we’ll see how they progress. We’ve got good players around the quarterback position, excellent line with four starters returning and a lot of depth, pretty good rb situation though I’m hoping freshman Dallas Rivers can give Jerron Seymour, Brian Kimbrow and Ralph Webb some help, tight end is coming along, and we’ve got some pretty good young talent at wide receiver. We’re going to be pretty tough on defense. With Derek and Coach Kotulski running the defense, and the talent we have at all positions, I think we can be pretty special on defense. Excited about the prospects. Spring should be very interesting. We have a big recruiting weekend this Saturday with 2015 prospects at our Junior Day camp. Possibly a commitment or two may come out of it. Will keep you posted.
Brandt will play this week at the WGC Accenture Match Play at the Golf Club at Dove Mountain in Marana, Arizona. Brandt’s first match Wednesday is against David Lynn of England. I’m not sure where Brandt’s game is right now. He’s had some good rounds, but not as consistently good as he’s been in the last two years. He’s had a week off, so hopefully his game will be good this week. Would love to see Brandt get back to being Brandt and driving it perfectly, hitting good approaches, chipping well which he’s been very good at the last two years, and then let that putter go to work. Will keep you posted on B’s progress. Hope his injuries have not been a factor in his inconsistent play, but I think he’s OK and ready to go this week.
The 16th ranked men’s golf team finished third out of 13 teams at the Sun Trust Gator Invitational in Gainesville, Fl. Arkansas won it and Florida finished second. I like what second year coach Scott Limbaugh is doing with our program. This has a chance to be a special program this year and in the future under Limbaugh.