And the VandyBoys play TCU in Dallas. Anyone here planning to attend that weekend series? Also playing Oklahoma State and Texas.

I am not as optimistic as I usually am due to the offensive uncertainty, but anything to distract from this basketball season will be nice

Hopefully a couple of weeks after that we will be in the midst of a basketball coaching search.

For all of you that think that its ok for 3 of our best 4 players to come off of the bench every game, why didn't Stallings bring Taylor, Jenkins, and Ezeli off of the bench so they could "watch, and get a feel for the flow of the game"? Hell, we might have made the Final Four if Stallings had used this masterful coaching tactic.

Starts off slow, but makes fun of Texas A&M and UTjr, so, worth a watch.


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I can only imagine the conversation among the managers, "I thought you had them. No, you said you were going to get them. I never said that, you said you would."

Associated Press

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Texas A&M trailed before the opening tip at Florida, a scenario neither coach had experienced or even knew was a possibility before Wednesday night.

Shortly after leaving the court following final warmups, the Aggies realized managers had left their game jerseys at the team hotel. They double-timed it back to grab them, but officials hit them with a delay of game penalty -- officially deemed an administrative technical foul -- because the start had to be postponed a few minutes.

Florida guard Will Richard made the free throw for a 1-0 lead before the opening tip. The Gators (7-7) barely led again and lost 66-63 at home to drop to 0-2 in Southeastern Conference play for the second straight season. The Aggies (9-5, 1-0 SEC) won for the first time in six trips to Gainesville and gave Buzz Williams a victory in his 500th game as a head coach.

This one, though, will be remembered for that pregame point.

"I forgot the jerseys in my hotel room," Williams said. "That's probably the right way to say it because I used to be a manager. If that would have happened, my head coach would have stuck up for me. You don't want the jerseys to get wrinkled so they hang them in my room, and I just forgot to put them on the bus.

"It's my fault and it won't happen again."

Williams was admittedly protecting his student managers.

His players, though, used the pregame hole, albeit the smallest one possible, as extra motivation. They quickly undressed Florida and led by as many 11 points in the opening 20 minutes. They also rallied down the stretch after the Gators tied the score at 63 thanks to Colin Castleton's steal and layup.

"I think the jerseys were a big part of that," said A&M's Julius Marble, who finished with 17 points and six rebounds.

Marble said the team was willing to play in practice jerseys.

"It was an option. They were maroon," Marble said. "We're like, 'Look, we'll wear the practice jerseys. We're underdogs. We'll grind it out. We don't care.'"

But how exactly did the ones that matter get left behind?

"Just moving too fast, I think, just trying to get here, so ready for the game," said guard Tyrece Radford, who also scored 17 points. "Just moving too fast honestly. From the outside looking in, it probably looked like it was a big distraction, but [coach] does his best to keep us locked in and just trying to turn a negative into a positive."

It was a negative for the Gators, who were admittedly confused when they came out of the locker room and saw no one on the visiting bench.

"I'm 37, I've played basketball my whole life and that's never happened to me in an aspect or any point in my career," Florida coach Todd Golden said. "It wasn't ideal. I thought we were ready to go and we were sitting there maybe 15 or 20 minutes, waiting for these guys to show up. It is what it is. We didn't handle the situation well enough."

Technical fouls issued before college basketball games are rare but have happened.

Kansas State picked up a technical before its 2014 NCAA tournament game against Kentucky because a walk-on dunked during pregame warmups. North Florida got hit with a similar penalty during a regular-season game the following year. In June 2015, the NCAA abolished its rule that prohibited pregame dunking within 20 minutes of the opening tip. It's unclear how many pregame techs, if any, have been issued since.

Golden couldn't recall hearing about even one.

"It's something that might happen at my son's CYO [Catholic Youth Organization] game but usually not at the SEC level," he quipped.

This is what the NCAA has invited into their home. One of my best friends is good friends and coworkers with the dad of a very highly sought after high school recruit. The big sports super agents and their groups are signing these high schoolers to agreements. Here is the kicker....The recruits are getting zero money to sign, but instead the agents spring into action after they sign with a school. After their freshman year, the agents are essentially back-channeling with other schools to come to big $ agreements and have the player hit the portal to transfer and collect. This is just pure insanity.

Pretty cool! First amateur to get a special invite since 2000. He's a stud. I think he'll win major(s) after he turns pro.

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Am I wrong here?

I used to hate the guy but over the past 15 or so years, he’s gotten good. I think he’s consistent relative to his peers and he’s not an emotional ref.

I typically hate all refs but I have to say, I think he’s become the best ref in the SEC.

In before, “we still won’t make it” dad jokes.

I didn’t like expansion beyond 64. The slight expansion to 68 has provided a watered down product imho. 90 has some rough implications for the basketball regular season. This would hurt all but those who profit from the actual tournament to me.

Down 13....

Pearl looking quite ordinary.....

SEC is weak

What will each team receive annually when this new deal comes to fruition in what 2025? If it compares to the new B1G TV deal it will be in excess of $100M per school. How many total athletic scholarships does VU have? 250?

Let’s say it costs $125k per student athlete (including meals, tuition, travel etc)

250 x $125k = $31,250,000
+
200 AD employees x $85k ave salary = $17,000,000
+
Coaches salaries = 20 Olympic sport asst coaches Ave $200k = $4,000,000
+
High dollar head coaches and football staff (football, hoops, baseball etc)
18 coaches = $14,000,000

Grand Total Expenses
$66,250,000 Expenses excluding facilities maintenance and operating variables etc

On the revenue side add the additional $2,000,000 First Bank annual revenue and the approximately $7,000,000 ticket revenue and the $54.6 SEC payout and it seems like we would have an approximately $60,000,000 EBITDA (excluding building maintenance and operating variables)

My point is (and I know the current revenue share is $54.6M per school) it seems the AD is in pretty good shape especially considering some of the athletic scholarships are endowed. When that revenue jumps to effectively DOUBLE in the next couple of years it stands to become an extraordinarily profitable venture.

He blocked me for this, I think? Didn't even mention him. How soft is that?

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A group of friends owns a Copper Mountain, Colorado ski condo and we don't rent it but just apportion usage among our families. But, we just had a couple of partners who can't use their weeks so it'll be unoccupied for the weeks of Jan 14, 21, and 28 (Sat-Sat). The partners would like to produce income from it so I wanted to toss it to the board at what I think is a great bargain. Here is a link to a similar unit in our gated building at $800/night and I suspect that I can offer ours (#211 Anaconda) for $2,500/week plus $180 cleaning fee (so a substantial bargain): VRBO - Copper Mountain Anaconda

Our unit is on the second floor and is two levels. While formally 3 bedrooms (2 king master suites and another with a queen and bunk beds) with 4 full bathrooms, the downstairs has a partition that pulls across to create a 4th private sleeping space w/bathroom and two twin-sofabeds. Our common areas include sauna and hot tub and is less than 100 yards from the East Village lift and JJ's Tavern. We have a reserved heated garage space and are at 9,712 feet. Copper is 30 minutes from Breck, 30 minutes from Vail, 10 minutes from Frisco, and 15 minutes to Silverthorne/Dillon.

Frontier flies direct from BNA to DEN and the RT fare for the January 14 week is now $93 and only $79 for the January 21 and January 28 weeks! Copper Mountain is 90 interstate miles from the Denver airport. Beau Jo's in Idaho Springs is a fine place enroute for a Colorado Mountain Pie and pint.

Please DM with any questions.

I’m sure there are some that feel like firing Fisher was necessary and others who think you can’t ever rehire him because of his mistake. But… I’m willing to bet that the majority of the VU community thinks Joe has served his time and now would be a great time to rehire him.

Please share why you feel the way you do.

Know we have seen some drawings and permits recently courtesy of @baseballbros.

Is construction on the north end starting this quarter?

This may be old news (I was on vacation when it was posted) but Vanderbilt cracks Collegiate Baseball's first rankings at No. 9.

Did we ever figure out what actually happened in the alleged LSU gang bang? Because Big Cat put LSU in horny jail in his week 17 power rankings

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Here are three quick takes, two questions, and a prediction after Vanderbilt’s SEC-opening win over South Carolina: https://vanderbilt.rivals.com/news/vanderbilt-basketball-3-2-1-post-south-carolina-win

Sorry---my post about Stack and the anthem was misguided. My mouth (or in this case my fingers typing) was working ahead of my brain.

…bench in the country?

We’re not the best at a lot of things but last night the Bench Dores scored 64 points in relief of the starters.

Hard to imagine Wright, Filet and Robbins would have performed better as starters.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens at Mizzou. We can’t afford to get down 8 in CoMo, but if we do, we know we might have the best bench in all of college hoops.

It's embarrassing that our head coach cannot get out to the court in time so that he can stand in line with the team for the National Anthem. There is the "get back
' coach" in football. Perhaps our coach needs to make one of his many, many assistants the "get out coach" whose job it is to get him out to the court on time.

If you subscribe to the athletic, the article

All-America recruiting confidential: Elite ’23 prospects discuss NIL deals, photo shoots, best visits​

Is worth a read. 15 top recruits anonymously share details on recruiting. Interesting, to say the least.