Bulldogs4

Glad for him but the abyss that rules the Laudable County School District will not let him succeed. The county football teams have withered on a vine for decades with the exception of the golden child school, West Lauderdale, where they have had moderate success throughout the years but save one year about twenty years ago, have never sniffed a State Championship. The same school that wasted Austin Davis’ talent by running the Ga. Southern double wingback offense that runs the ball 90% of the time. Good luck to him but we have seen this same thing with hiring coaches. Rinse, Dry, Rinse and repeat.

Regarding the broadcast, I was out and about last night and just simply listened to Jim and Jay on the radio. They are much more enjoyable to listen to than the TV people any day of the week. I always like it when Coach Polk is on the broadcast. What a treasure we have in that man and he is so knowledgeable. I know he and Jay Powell alternate/rotate.

Brooks Auger was one of the four or five pitchers that went down with injuries in the disastrous 2022 season and he did not pitch at all last year. If he stays healthy this year, he can be a huge part of the back end/closer type pitcher that you have to have to be successful. USM has tremendous pitching but like State they are on the short end of the bat errrr stick at the plate. Runs will be hard to come by unless they improve immensely very quickly. That seems unlikely at this point. Pitching and fielding are going to determine whether State or USM will be successful going forward. And some semblance of timely hitting to help you win close games.

Did not know that Matthews and Moore could be back. If they were to do so, that would certainly be a big help next season. I am sure Hubbard will be well taken care of.

I give him credit for getting a lot of mileage out of the players he had. But you are correct that the portal has been and is going to continue to be a huge factor in basketball. State is losing Smith, Matthews, Moore, Davis, Jeffries and Bell. I know we have young talent coming up the pipeline but Jans is definitely going to have to hit the portal hard. Of course, available playing time is a factor as well along with $$$ with seeking players through the portal.

Still a good year for Ole Miss even with the slide here at the end of the season.

With a few exceptions we seem to be throwing strikes and have cut down the BB’s considerably. We will see if that holds up. With Mershon & Kohler back in the lineup, we are much better defensively in the infield and offensively as well. Our power is anemic so far. 7 HR’s in 13 games and almost all of them are from Jordan. Certainly better than the early showing we had but not enough for me to have much confidence as of yet.

Sometimes a four spot in the first inning can be the best thing to happen to a team or the worst. USM had the great start but sometimes you lose your focus and your edge when that happens. The rain delay certainly worked in State’s favor as well. To throw 8 shutout innings after the first inning was a great job by the State pitching staff. And Southern has a really good team. Both teams played errorless baseball which is good to see. Still not sold on State but this was a good win and the team is playing better. Conference play starts March 15th. We will know soon enough if we are better or still just a fraud.

It is a road game and A&M is a weird team. Very capable on any given night to win a game. But at the same time, I believe if State comes out and takes care of the ball, hits some threes at a decent percentage and do the same at free throw line, we will win this game. We will see how it plays out.

State totally collapsing at the end of regular season was inexplicable even if there was drama within the squad. Losing to KY & FL at Home was inexcusable. So yes beating A&M is a must if we want to make the Tournament. Hopefully whatever the issue was has been settled now. Ole Miss finished up strong after a period of struggles. It seems that game was the watershed for both teams. After OM won that game it turned their season around and sent State into a tailspin.

Now the most Southern Miss thing to do is to lose to a mediocre (at best) State team Tuesday night. Now USM should win but they seem to find a way to lose to State when they are much the better team. We will see what happens Tuesday night.

A&M is a weird team. They are certainly capable of winning against State especially at home. But this is a game State needs to win. After playing well for six straight games, State was due for an off night and Auburn is so good at home as well. Hopefully we have gotten our bad game out of our system and will play well enough this week to go 2-0. We will see. Ole Miss with a much needed win (though they about let it slip away). This week presents two winnable games and can get Ole Miss back in the conversation if they can win both of them. @Georgia and A&M are certainly good opportunities for victories.

After reflecting on the game for a day, I have concluded that State did not lose the game. KY won the game. Yes, you can nick pick a few plays to say we should or should have not done this or that. It was a great game. I enjoyed it immensely. I am disappointed but in no way disappointed with our team. State scored 14 points in 50 seconds. Sheppard and Hubbard were unbelievable. Hopefully we do not let KY beat us twice. Now obviously, the trip to Auburn is going to be very difficult to win. But we are capable so we will see what happens.

4-4 after a week is certainly not a good look, when given the competition, we should be 7-1. Glad for the win today but my confidence level is still a minus 3 on a scale of 1 to 10. Playing the next four games against Jackson State and Mount Saint Mary. If we are not 8-4 going into the USM game then….well I don’t know….

I will be in the Hump Tuesday night. Give KY the edge but our team seems to be finally finding its groove on offense. So it should be heck of a good game. Our depth has certainly improved now with 9 players in the rotation. Against a team like KY, depth is a must. Would be nice to beat them since they have had our number in the recent years.

DOWN GOES FRAZIER!!! What a great phrase that was!!!! Hubbard is in the vein of Jeff Malone, Super “D” and Timmy Bowers. Just don’t see that type of talent too often. Definitely glad he is a Bulldog. And just a Freshman and he will continue to improve. CRW mentioned tonight he was so glad to see Hubbard driving the ball more and taking advantage of that part of his game.

Recently it just appears to me that Ole Miss has run out of gas. Certainly have exceeded expectations this year with a first year Coach (who is really good but not a miracle worker). Still not sure why things went south with Davis, especially last year) because there is definitely some talent on that team. And the team is still scary because they can still beat most any team on a given night. Even they don’t make the NCAAT (and the door is not closed there yet) a NIT bid would be good.

The way State’s softball team is playing, I will probably find myself following them more closely than the Diamond Dawgs this season. They lost to OK 9-3 yesterday but had the lead early and were more competitive this game than the last time we played them when I think they waxed us 11-0. OK is on a similar run that the Connecticut women had years ago. It will eventually end and after that, I think you will see women’s softball become more widespread competitive with more teams capable of winning a NC.

Governors beat State earlier in the week Now it is the Statesmen turn LOL

Time for State to meltdown. Up 2-0 in the seventh inning. Plenty of time to give up seven runs.

This is easily the worst stretch for State since 2008-2010. We went to the CWS in 2007 but then the bottom fell out in 2008 and Polk retired. That left Cohen with a major rebuild and to his credit we were in a SR in 2011. Now fast forward to today and the dynamics are so much different. But like RM noted, State/OM are at the top of the food chain with facilities/stadium/fan support. I have always been a fan of Coach Bianco going back to his playing days at LSU. I have a great amount of respect for him. That said, it kind of feels like he has done all he can at Ole Miss and maybe it is time to turn the reins over to someone else. Hopefully that will be on his terms and when he is ready to do so. It just feels like both programs are stuck in a rut and we are stomping on a pedal but the gearshift is in neutral. I will end with what I said above. I hate to throw the towel in after five games but for State & Ole Miss things quite frankly look bleak.

Already have vacation scheduled May 30-June 9 So no worries there….LOL I know there are considerable differences but I think we are in a similar but much worse situation that LSU was in toward the end of Paul Mainieri’s tenure. It seems that we are stale and new blood and a new fresh start will do wonders for the baseball program. I think we have plenty of talent on the field. And looking at LSU, Jay Johnson did not take long to elevate the program again. And we can rise again quickly as well. I think we have squeezed all the juice we can out of the current turnip. But just my two cents.

Five games in and it appears to be but we will see what develops. Don’t want to throw in the towel in February but certainly very discouraging right now.

I actually like State chances against LSU Saturday night. We have a veteran team that I believe will keep an even keel even though it was big win over our rival tonight LSU OTOH has won two huge back to back nail biters on last second shots. They could very well be a bit flat Saturday night. Now you never know how a game on the road is going to go but it sets up reasonably well for State with LSU coming off just playing Kentucky.

LSU just beat Kentucky. Saturday night has the makings for one heck of a game in Red Stick.