Bulldogs4

Trust us. None of us are too juiced up about State’s pitching. This team lost to the mighty Governor’s of Austin Peay and the Bears of Central Arkansas… But the pitching this year has been a pleasant surprise. The biggest improvement (IMO) is that we are throwing strikes and limiting the number of BB’s. And we won the first game. There are still two more games upcoming. Pleased with the win but we all know that it is only ONE win.

I did not see that kind of score coming for tonight’s game. But it is only one game. Stephen really pitched it well. 8 innings, no runs and only 94 pitches is a tremendous outing. State’s offense has kind of been like this in a number of the games we have won. Underwhelming for 7-8 innings but have one big inning to carry us to a win. Tee it up tomorrow and see what happens. I have made no secret that I have always liked Coach Bianco and have a great amount of respect for him. So I hope he can go out on his own terms whenever that time comes.

What is interesting there is that he was at KY 1994-1996 when State was in the middle of our SS/FF run. He was a good player but Eric Dampier was MAN in the middle. I still believe had we beaten Syracuse that we would have beaten KY in the Final game in 1996. We beat them in Rupp in 1995 and again in the Superdome for the SECT in 1996. This maybe one of those “well he is one of Bear’s boys and he played here” type of deal. Except he played under Pitino of course. It would be considered a safe hire by them but certainly not a home run hire.

KY is quite frankly in a tough spot. With the rise in pay and the competitiveness of college basketball, not many coaches want to jump from a frying pan into the fire. The pressure to win is unrealistically high and most of the fans will never be satisfied even with a FF. They will still be mad that the team did not win the NC. They are 12 years removed from a Natty, 10 years from a FF, 5 years from a SS. Still great history there but the competition has caught up with them in a lot ways. I was at the game at State and yes KY won the game but I did not think they beat State. Physically State was the more physical team. Athletically there was not huge difference there. Two points separated the teams at the end in a game that could have easily gone either way. Kentucky will still be good. They have been the bell cow team of the SEC but I am not sure they will continue to be in the future. They will be in the mix but they won’t be above everyone else like they used to be for decades.

Maybe or Maybe Not They are Free Agents now and very likely can and will go elsewhere…or stay put at UK. Sure you sign with the school and the coach but at UK is probably more about the School than the coach.

There is always a chance. You have to believe Ole Miss is better than what the record is showing. Their confidence level is probably low but again this is a rivalry weekend so none of that matters. Hopefully it will be a well played competitive weekend (with State winning two out of three…..wishful thinking LOL).

Ole Miss is in desperation mode after losing 6 straight conference games. So I have no idea what will happen. State is generally playing pretty well but this is a rivalry weekend so old mo can swing back and forth. Don’t really see a sweep either way but whoever can get the second win will be come out in a much better position. Regardless, still a lot of games left to play after Sunday.

IMHO, this is great news for KY and quite frankly terrible news for Arkansas. I am not sure that he has the wherewithal to floor coach again. He has not had to coach in 15 years. Which was the problem at KY. My prediction is that he will have moderate success at Arkansas but will not do any better than any of the recent coaches there. For KY, it is a chance for a fresh start. The problem for them is that there a great amount of basketball talent around the country and many teams have talent that is close to equal to them. So the last two years of Connecticut winning the Natty withstanding the state of college basketball is very wide open and competitive. Even if they come up with a home run hire, it is hard to see them or any team dominating in the years ahead. The wild, Wild West of transfer portal and NIL will prevent that from happening. Again my opinion only.

Yawn. I completely forgot about the game last night. Didn’t even realize it had been played until I signed into my computer at work this morning. 83 you nailed it. The most uneventful Final Four in recent memory. Really the only excitement in the tournament was the very first round of games. After that it was pretty mundane for the most part. Alabama had a nice run.

Demetrius Hill Robert Bell Brian Cole Sylvester Stamps Odell Finley (I know he is a guy none of you have ever heard of. Played MLB for the 1978 Meridian High Big 8 Championship team that was 12-0. He was 5’8” 160lbs. Yep. I repeat 5’8” 160lbs. Pound for pound the best player I have ever seen. Not the overall best but he had incredible speed and strength and a 6th sense when it came to reading plays before the ball was snapped. And our defense that year was lights out. Obviously he did not get recruited because of his size but he was an incredible player.) I know they said five but I have to include Marcus Dupree. Best ever High School RB in Mississippi history.

Yep, it would take probably 18 conference wins to get in the hosting discussions. Don’t see that happening with this team unless we sweep a couple of series unexpectedly and can hold our own against Arkansas & Vandy. Unlikely but we will see how it goes.

Kentucky was ready to get rid of him so I am sure they are thrilled. Cal still gets to coach a few more years. But if I am Arkansas I am not sure that I am thrilled about this. He has certainly had success but I wonder how successful he will be at Arkansas… Now the domino of who KY will go after?

The World shifted in its axis and State eeks out a 9-8 win. Still have a bad taste about last night. Long needs to check his emotions and channel them in a better way. What he did precipitated the events and it was completely unnecessary. Unfortunately for us, we had our lineup gutted and the chance to sweep the series was jerked away from us. Glad for the win today and by the same token this game could be a season defining moment in the right way.

Listening to Lemonis, he blasted BHM for the whole fiasco. Said the umpires there on the field wanted resume play. None of the Georgia players that had hoodies on were ejected since they were not identifiable. What a joke. Several of State’s players were being peacemakers and were ejected as a result. Long was in the wrong and should have been ejected on the spot and play should have resumed immediately. It was an emotional play and we got the out. No need for extra curricular especially when we had the momentum going into the bottom of the eighth. 83, I agree that was a total disgrace and whoever is responsible in BHM should be fired and not allowed to monitor baseball games anymore. Lemonis even said they should have declared a double forfeit and ended the game right then since so many players came off the bench and were a part of it. Which the incident never became a fight. Absolutely totally pathetic. The umpires on the field handled it fine. But HQ botched it worse than I can ever remember. We will be playing with our JV squad today.

Don’t think I ever seen a 45 minute delay over what happened at home plate that was really not a fight. Ridiculous…

Yep. Ole Miss being swept at home by KY was brutal. Arkansas is really playing well now. The fact that we had two quick outs in the bottom of the 8th and then put together the four run inning to effectively to seal the win was huge. While we have been abysmal in one run games, I have liked how this team can have six or seven zero innings and then put together one big inning to win a game. That is the sign of good team. I say that with the qualifier that we still have the big weakness of lacking a great closer. Just need to win tonight…

Reality says when a coach is successful his name will be bandied about when job openings occur. He could certainly go there but I get the sense that he is enjoying his time at State and is not really looking to go anywhere. While State does not have all the hardware that Arkansas has, our Men’s Basketball has had some pockets of success (late 50’s - early 60’s, late 70’s-early 80’s, 1990-2012 and then over the last 7 years the team has been moderately successful). I think he is more than capable to taking a team on some deep Tournament runs here, maybe even win a conference title. Those are certainly obtainable. We will see.

State with a good 6-1 win over UGA. Nice 4 run 8th inning after 2 outs to break open the game. Need to win 2 this weekend. 3 would be awesome but 2 would be solid.

I think you are right about Carter. Hopefully Selmon will be similar at State. I also think Reb is right that the grass is not always greener else where especially when the expectations are unrealistic in a particular sport. Case in point. Mullen was making $4 million at State and then he was making $6 million at Florida. Which is relatively equal when you compare cost of living. I thought at the time he might last four years at Florida unless he was wildly successful. And we saw what happened there.

Hard to see Beard leaving after only one season. But with players being disposable after each year, I guess Coaches can be as well. Jans really put it succinctly that no college basketball team is a program any more. It is a one season deal. Period. And football/baseball programs are about the same as well. Win for this year like it is your last year because it is. The future is this game today. Getting experience for the future is a misnomer in the present day.

Now that each of us has won the elusive National Championship in baseball, I see your logic there. More $$$ is certainly available in Football and Basketball today and in future. Ideally, we could hopefully do both. Keep investing in baseball and bumping up our football and basketball investments. ROI is going to be better in those two sports.

Interesting. Judge went from HC of the Giants to Ole Miss as an analyst. Arnett went from HC at State to an analyst at Ole Miss. Who would have predicted that 2 years ago?

Given the fact that Ole Miss has not beaten State in a while in a three game series I look for Ole Miss to win the series this year. Why? Just because….

At least we have some hope now. I actually feel like going into any game now that we are going to win. The only real blowout loss was to Ga. Southern. The other losses have been either close games or games that were not an absolute blowout (10 run rule) type games. And yes you are correct. We need to win the winnable games that are upcoming.

I know these two walk off losses are heartbreaking. But overall not a terrible weekend. Just need to close out some games. Need a Sims or Holder on the staff…