Getting everyone some playing time early on is one of the reasons the “regular” season has been so successful.

Just saw on twitter where Casas has 9 home runs so far this season. Haven’t confirmed anywhere but that’s a pretty nice number for him. Hate it’s in Columbia.

nm

Jeff Borzello
ESPN Staff Writer

St. John's fired head coach Mike Anderson on Friday, and sources told ESPN that the Red Storm are expected to make Iona's Rick Pitino their top target.

Anderson failed to reach the NCAA tournament in any of his four seasons at St. John's, with the Red Storm going 68-56 under his watch. They finished their season on Thursday, losing to Marquette in the Big East tournament quarterfinals. The loss dropped them to 18-15 overall and 7-13 in Big East play.

"After fully evaluating the men's basketball program, our University has decided a change is needed in both the leadership and direction of St. John's Basketball," athletic director Mike Cragg said in a statement. "We wish Coach Mike Anderson and his family the best in their future."

The Red Storm hired Anderson in 2019, weeks after Arkansas parted ways with him. He reached the NCAA tournament three times in his final five seasons with the Razorbacks, but failed to replicate that success in the Big East.

St. John's is expected to turn to Pitino as its top candidate to replace Anderson, sources told ESPN. A New York native, the Hall of Fame head coach has won two regular-season championships and one conference tournament in his three seasons with the Gaels.

Pitino, 70, is considered arguably the best college basketball coach of his generation, and he would be the type of big name needed to ignite a St. John's fanbase that hasn't seen an NCAA tournament win since 2000.

I caught up with New Jersey athlete Raphael Dunn. He visited Vanderbilt on Tuesday. I really like Dunn's film as Vanderbilt is recruiting him as a linebacker. He's physical, runs extremely well to be 6-foot-5 and 210-pounds, and possesses good ball skills. Dunn really likes Vanderbilt, but I do think others are going to get involved.

Official game thread here.

Still in last 4 out in update 10 min ago

They opened the locker room tonight for a few minutes so I was able to talk with a few guys one on one.

Here's a rough transcript/summary of each

QMB:
Rebounding was a big factor tonight, that's a big piece to how they get wins and how they can get wins. Thinks there's more room to go from where they were tonight.

on Dort's return:
"It was great, he played huge minutes, he played really well, I'm so proud of him."

on having five blocks:
"I was just feeling it tonight, all there is to it."

On returning:
"We got a great group of guys, we're just really using this year and taking this as far as we can, being able to come back with a familiar crew and do that experience again is just great for us."

Colin Smith:

on guarding KJ Williams:
"I know im not as strong as him but just trying to be as physical with him and get him off his spots and get him off the line, that was my main goal, just trying to be physical with him."
Said it was a different gameplan this time than last time. Said it was about hedging more, getting on his body more, and forcing him to take tougher shots.

Question: How good does this one feel after what happened in Baton Rouge?

"It felt good to get back at them, we kinda let one slip right there, so i feel like getting that one back is gonna help us continue in the tournament obviously and keep our NCAA Tournament aspirations alive."

on role this year:
Stack tells him individually before every game just to make shots and play defense. "I just try to bring as much energy as i can to the borads, crash hard, box out on the offensive end and just be confident and knock down shots."

Expects that to be his role tomorrow as well, expects is job will be primarily to box out Jacob Toppin and limit him.

on how he assesses his freshman year:
"I think I did pretty good this year, obviously had some patches where I could've played better but I think recently I've been making a lot more shots and playing better defense, obviously there's always more room for improvement."

Paul Lewis:

on tonight:
"Coach always tells me to come in and be aggressive whether I play five minutes or 15, that's all I was really trying to do was be aggressive."

"It's always good to get some get back."

on composure:
"coach always tells me to just be poised when I get in. Even though I'm a freshman that doesn't mean I can just play any type of way, I'm playing point guard too so I gotta be able to control the pace of the game and stuff like that."

on the backcourt next year and beyond:
"I'm very excited, we're winning games now so we're only gonna get better with all those people coming back, that's something to look forward to."

on Kentucky:
"It's gonna be a battle for sure, we looking forward to it, we got them at Kentucky so we want them again."

Robbins:
No timetable on his injury that he knows of. Was mostly just catching up a lot of it off the record. His scooter is pretty sick.

MTSU down 2 with 25 seconds. Would be disastrous for bubble teams for FAU to lose.

On bracket matrix, “Haslametrics” has us in right now as an 11 seed

@Joey Dwyer @Chris Lee What are y’all hearing leading into the cage match tonight about the status of Cason Wallace and UK’s backcourt?

I’m hearing grumbling from UK folks that Cal may sit the starting backcourt to protect Cason from re-injury for the Big Dance, and sounds like Wheeler may still be out too.

https://amp.kentucky.com/sports/college/kentucky-sports/uk-basketball-men/article272920330.html

For what it is worth I am voting we are already in. This is one of the weakest bubbles in recent memory.

This is the official game thread.

We didn’t move last night, staying at 82.

Would likely be a “pick-‘em” if Tshiebwe didn’t get such preferential treatment from the officials. Can’t control the officiating, just how you play.

Thomas needs to stay on the bench. He’s been such a negative on both ends of the court the last 3 games. Kentucky is too big and physical for him to be an asset.

If Manjon and Lawrence are able to continue to drive and finish/dish, and Wright continues his very good play of the last three games, VU has a chance. What can you get from Lewis and Smith may be the “X” factor in determining if VU can pull another upset against Kentucky, along with how many effective minutes can Dort give.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/t5IDpLDxHbw

This is a video made by the NCAA discussing the process they use to select at large teams. The NET is discussed at the 7 minute mark. I’m not really sure what to think. They make it a point to note multiple times that other factors outside the NET are heavily considered. If that’s true, VU could be in tonight and stay that way with a good showing tomorrow. No way to know and it’s a guessing game until Sunday. Just keep winning

So….

A little heads up on the no alcohol policy would have been appreciated.

The team is working together, how about we try that around here for a change?