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MBB: Nice turnaround for LSU basketball

The Tigers went 2-16 in the SEC last year with as I recall a very depleted roster. They currently stand at 7-8, with their last three wins all coming by one point. They close at Vanderbilt, at Arkansas, and home to Missouri, so they could finish 9-9 in league play (see what I did there Vanderbilt fans).

How much of the roster turnover came via the portal, and how much via freshman recruiting, and for that matter how many players stayed from last year?
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MBB: SEC Tournament

Had we lost last night we would have clinched a spot in the Bottom 4 and an appearance in the opening round. For now the only teams we can tie for 10th are Ole Miss and Texas AM. They actually play each other the last game of the regular season, so one is guaranteed Wednesday off. We have the tie-breaker with AM. If they lose out and we win out….. If
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Baseball Some really quick baseball thoughts

In no particular order...

- Was running some stats tonight to compare Vanderbilt's pitching staffs against the rest of the SEC. The staff ERA after today is 4.69, which is the next-highest in the league. It's "component" or "expected" ERA (Bill James stat based on type/number of base runners allowed, strikeouts, etc.) is 3.08.
I have triple-checked my formula to see if it's right, which it is, though there's *something* about it that doesn't work for college (it under-estimates ERA by about two-thirds of a run on average). Still, it does that for everybody and the difference between Vanderbilt and the next-worst team (LSU at 0.86) is significant.
So this tells me there's some mis-fortune (probably in clustering runners, which, as you've watched games, it's the huge innings like today that have been fatal) that should even out over time.

- I also think that in time, some of the pitchers who are giving up the big innings will either get it right or be replaced by other guys. You're really not going to see more than 9-10 guys pitch on competitive weekends so, should the guys getting shelled not get right, they'll be replaced.

- Looking forward to seeing (I guess?) Thompson and Dutkanych start again in the midweek. Dutkanych, if he's as good as I think, will wind up starting on weekends. I just don't think Bryce Cunningham can give them more than 3-4 innings with consistency.

- So with all that, color me still-not-worried about the pitching, though I wish they'd have certain guys throw more aggressively at times and attack the zone more than they do. (Like yesterday.)

- I'm still not sure what to make of the lineup. I don't think it's a bad one by any stretch, but the lack of star power/power bats certainly hurts. There are clear flaws; Vastine still can't hit a breaking ball, LaNeve strikes out too much to be a dependable middle-of-the-order bat, Diaz is fine (but not showing the star potential people thought he had) and whatever other things one would point out. On the other hand, I think there are guys on the bench who will end up helping and it feels like Corbin put some guys on notice.

- I'm really disappointed in the defense. Diaz's error today was uncharacteristic. Vastine can play better than he's played and I'm sure he will. Even there, this feels like a bottom-five Corbin defensive team. That's not as bad as it sounds (his teams always defend well) but it's just not what I'm used to seeing. My guess is they'll end up playing Hewett or Humphrey, or maybe both, full-time in the outfield. I think their game is going to have to be doubles, defense and steals and they lend themselves to this.

- Holcomb is really a wild card. I noticed a couple of times this weekend he did some small things that could be considered showing the umpires up and Corbin yanked him right after the error. So there could be some growing-up to do. I also would not concede first to him since Maldonado has been nicked up.

Basketball MBB: Bold Predictions

With tip-off being one week away, I figured it was a good time to get the basketball discussion rolling. Drop your thoughts on the season and bold predictions here.


Vanderbilt has four players average double digit PPG

Colin Smith is the 2nd leading scorer on the team

Jason Rivera-Torres looks like a future All-SEC guy

Paul Lewis scores 7-8 PPG as Ezra’s backup

Vanderbilt wins 20 regular season games and makes it back to the NCAAT
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