Who knew what it was before today?

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Baseball. As usual, I'll let others post the flip side.
After watching the games in Texas and attending the games at the Hawk this year, here are some encouraging signs that leap to mind:
Espinal: Strong arm and POWER. I sit by the visitors' on deck circle. When his three run shot left the bat, I screamed "Get over him," as in get over the left fielder's head. It looked like one of those liners hit straight at the outfielder. The difference was that this one was ten feet high and never sank. I couldn't believe that it cleared the fence. I don't remember a harder hit ball at the Hawk.
Vastine: Hitting for average, and with power. Talk about a no-doubter: his homer Tuesday night looked like it was well over 400 feet.
RJ Austin: Initially reminds me of Austin Martin, another true freshman who did okay. Marty seemed to hit it hard every AB. RY makes good contact consistently. Also, his arm is a cannon.
Hewett: He had a key drop, but I've seen him make enough circus catches that I'm not worried about his glove. Has power and speed.
Parker: off to a good start.
Polk and McKenzie are showing potential. Same with Shreck.
The team is aggressive at the plate and on the basepaths.

Pitching is deep, and control appears to be better. A lot of K's.

Sure, there are weaknesses, but again, I'll let someone else focus on those. I'll be there, plus one, for all three games this weekend. Here's hoping that the rain stays away.
Go Dores!

In The Athletic. Gets thoughts from Corbin, Bakitch, Vitello, others.

Of course Vitello stays on message with his complaint about “11.7”.

Nice run we had.

NIT bound (hopefully) now.

Big choke job tonight, but not totally unexpected.

I caught up with Vanderbilt target and Missouri QB Sam Kaiser. Vanderbilt recently offered, and it seems as though the Commodores will take more than one quarterback in the 2024 class.

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Thoughts on his Vanderbilt offer:

Sam Kaiser: "I’ve been talking to Coach Lynch for a couple of weeks now, and I've built a good relationship with him. It’s just so cool to get my first SEC offer especially from an up and coming program like Vanderbilt. I really like the city of Nashville and can’t wait to get up there and meet everybody. I plan to get up there for a spring practice really soon."

Thoughts on Vanderbilt OC Joey Lynch:

SK: "Coach Lynch is a really great guy and super good communicator. I liked all off the staff a lot. Coach Lynch told me he likes my arm talent and mobility at my size. He told me I can put the ball anywhere I want it. I haven’t talked much scheme with Coach Lynch, but I love the direction it’s going. I think they do a lot of things that fit what I can do."

Other visit plans:

SK: "I'm in talks with a lot of schools but not many visits planned. As of right now, I plan to visit Pitt, Vandy, Miami of Ohio, and Mizzou"

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If EZ, TY, Dia, Dort, Noah, Lewis and Shelby all come back(and that's a big if), I think this team will be fun to watch. Throw in 1 impact transfer big man and we have a shot to be good.

That ain't good.
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Reading his quotes in the Tennessean today is nauseous. What a jerk. Glad he’s out of Nashville.

This is the official game thread for tonight, Joey will have us covered.

More from the 3-star OL target from this past weekend

The VandySports Podcast, presented by Dr. Jody Jones DDS.

The guest line is presented by Michael Kendrick of The Kendrick Group. Michael is a local carpenter and a lifelong Vandy fan. He builds bookshelves, cabinets, picture frames, furniture and made-to-order items, including a display case for my prized Dale Murphy jersey. I have seen Michael’s work and he’s a true craftsman. If you’re in the market for custom woodwork, give Michael a call at 615.830.9458.

Today’s mailbag is sponsored by Sutherland & Belk, a family owned injury law firm. If you or a loved one has been hurt in an accident, give Taylor or Russell a call at 615-846-6200 to see what your rights are and if they can help.

We'll probably do this this morning, maybe this afternoon. I labeled it "baseball" but we can talk whatever.

This thread will be for illogical and emotional responses to Vandy losing at LSU.

No tags but you know who you are, let it fly.

Brutal game. Tone was set early with Filet getting 2 quick fouls and our offense went to shit the entire first half. We got out-athleted quite frankly and missed too many free throws.

KJ Williams going off for 35 didn’t help.

Tonight was a prime example of why you need to recruit from day 1, not year 3.

Jordan Wright and Myles Stute absolutely killed us tonight.

My take on Stack at this point, he deserves any criticism that comes his way, he was the lazy ass years 1 and 2 but he can coach (if you don’t get that by now, you don’t deserve to be allowed to talk college basketball).

Where do we go from here?

Gotta beat Florida, then at UK, then MSU.

Brandon Miller has 33, but the rest of the team is lacking

The fact that LSU was 1-13 in the SEC before tonight or that their overall record is only two games worse than ours. They are 13-15 overall. We are 15-13. I smell contract extension!!

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Time to hang it up, young Buck. You ain’t never gonna get healthy enough to play competitive baseball.

Word on the street is that Timeouts smiled at Stack in practice, and that’s why they weren’t used tonight.

In all seriousness, how do you not call a timeout after the Smith 3 with 1:25 left to stop the clock, set up your defense and talk about end of game situations?

And this might be nitpicking, but even CJS sitting down at the end of the game bothered me. Give me someone demonstrative telling his players to get on the ball and trap corners. Communicating a sense of urgency. Seems like Mazarei was only one doing that.

Vanderbilt among early contenders for the in-state 2025 DB

I was really excited for the florida game all week. Didn’t expect this to happen at all. I know a bunch of people who bought tickets after the auburn game. Now I don’t even wanna go.

I think they cover easy.