Tomorrow @5:30 PM ET/ 4:30 CT on CSS. A&M upset Florida just a minute ago, 6-3, and they look pretty good. Their starter tonight was a good pitcher. Don’t know a lot about them but will have more tomorrow. They’ve got a good defensive shortstop and a power hitter who hit a three-run shot against the Gators. Will fill you in more tomorrow morning. I’m assuming Corbs is going to go with Walker Buehler on the mound because Zo and Tyler just pitched over the weekend and both probably need another day off. But I trust Walker completely. He can get the job done. Alabama plays LSU at 2 PM ET/ 1 CT on CSS in what should be a very good game. Alabama playing very well right now and LSU is a very good team as we know.
If you didn’t know, basketball player Sheldon Jeter is transferring, but he wants to transfer to Pitt, and Stallings is blocking the transfer. Knowing Kevin, there is a very good reason for this. I’ve heard that Pitt tampered with Jeter while he was playing for us this year. They didn’t offer him out of high school–he is from Beaver Falls, Pa.–but after seeing him perform some this season, they obviously wanted him. I say good riddance to this kid. We had just won a game in February and he had played a good game, and he, Kede and Dai-Jon were in the postgame interview room talking to the writers. He was in the middle, Kede was on the left and Dai-Jon was on the right. It was a five minute interview and strangely, he was laughing the whole time during the interview session. It was really weird. I didn’t think a lot of it when it happened, but now that I think about it, something was wrong there. Maybe he was just extremely immature. He was acting very strange. It wasn’t a funny situation. It was just your typical post game interview and Kede and Dai-Jon were both focused and serious, but Jeter was acting like an idioit. Kevin is on the 11-coach basketball rules committee for the NCAA and takes these violations very seriously. Jeter could have been struggling with school too, so that could be a factor in his decision. I’m with Kevin totally on this one.
Also, I read today in the golf section of CNN/SI that Brandt has a low bone turnover condition that causes him to break bones very easily. He has had four cracked ribs in the last six years, most recently during the 2012 RBC Heritage tournament in Hilton Head, he’s had two hip surgeries, and twice strained muscles in his rib cage. The most recent was in the AT&T at Pebble Beach this year, the tournament in which he won and shot a 65 on the final day, when he was in a lot of pain. Brandt has been injecting a drug that makes his bones less brittle. Tough on B. Hate it for him. Hopefully, B can overcome this. Really pulling for him. Great guy. Thoughts and prayers with B. Won’t be playing this weekend at Crowne Plaza Invitational in Fort Worth, but he is scheduled to play next week at the Memorial, Jack Nicklaus’s tournament, in Dublin, Ohio. Brandt will then play in Memphis the following week and then comes the U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club outside of Philly. On his website, it doesn’t have the U.S. Open on his schedule, but he’s certainly exempt. We’ll see what Brandt wants to do. Support him whatever direction he chooses. Just want him to get his health back.
Luke playing at the Crowne Plaza. Luke still working very hard. Just needs to keep fighting and get in the top 125, so he’ll be back on the tour next year. If he doesn’t make it, he’ll have to go through the new format for qualifying for the tour in 2014, which will be an interesting format. Luke is presently 153 on the Fed Ex list and 152 on the money list, so he has some work to do. I’m sure Luke will go all in to get exempt for next year.
Finally, I want to send out my personal thoughts and prayers to the people in Moore, Oklahoma. Such a tragic thing that happened there yesterday. The American spirit is strong though. This will take some resilience. Tough, tough thing.
Will have more tomorrow on the game.