Bulldogs4

LSU walked into a gold mine similar to usce six years ago when we beat connecticut and had nothing left in the tank for the Championship game. Iowa was on fumes after Friday night. Just very difficult to play at that level two games in a row with only 36 hours between games. I agree with 83 that connecticut is the solid favorite but they maybe due for an off game. I think San Diego State caps it off with the win and takes home the gold ball. Plus what better way to end what has been a crazy season of basketball.

Well a disappointing and disastrous 8th and 9th inning cost State an opportunity to win the series. Actually could have swept the series and yet only won one game. Kind of sums up the season so far State. Still even though winning is the objective I thought we did play better this weekend overall. Congrats to Ole Miss on getting a win. Same thing there, maybe they can relax and play ball now.

And we only issued one base on balls last night and that was in the seventh inning well after the outcome was decided. And made zero errors in the field. What a fresh breath of air. No way to know if that will continue though…LOL

Douglass did a good job at Meridian. He walked into a complete dumpster fire and definitely righted the ship. Unfortunately the last two years, we lost a couple a very close division games that cost us an opportunity to be in the playoffs. His first year, we were playing with 8th and 9th graders because most of the actual high school players quit the team. So in his case, you have to look at situation with some context. I think he is a good coach. Unfortunately, the LCSD has a terrible track record with regard to football. If they will leave him alone (doubtful) he can build NEL into a good football program. But it will not happen overnight.

It was great to win the NC but the peak is high when you hit the pinnacle and then the fall fast and furious (at least in State and Ole Miss’s cases). As has been noted Ole Miss has been competitive in their games while 5 of State’s 7 conference losses have been blow outs. Ole Miss is getting everybody’s best shot this year and probably (as 83 noted) some of the intangibles are going against them. Of course Ole Miss had some struggles last year during the season before getting hot at the right time.

Mostly just relief. We will see where it goes from here.

Finally a WIN LETS GO DAWGS!!

And like Harry Carey said way back each year on April 1st: “Hope springs eternal and this will be the year the Cubs win The World Series.” LOL of course long after he died they did finally win a World Series… So there is that for the Diamond Dawgs.

Definitely agree Reb. The objective is to win. But we have been so far on the “L” side recently that even a competitive loss looks better. Maybe we can pull off a win tonight. Still gotta clean up some things and get some timely hits. Good luck to Ole Miss tonight.

At least we had a chance to tie or win the game in the ninth inning. A loss is a loss but it is certainly better than losing 26-3.

We had a 5-4 lead against UK in the eighth inning on the the first Friday conference game. Had we won that game, I wonder if our psyche would have been different Saturday/Sunday. No way to know and we might be 1-5 now. Coming into that game we had won seven in a row. Blowing that game set the tone for the rest of the weekend and everything has spiraled down since. But hey we won last night and right now any win is a great win. The encouraging thing is we only walked three batters for the game. Hope that trend continues. We will see what happens this weekend.

Lauderdale County School District does not care about football and never has. WL has been steady good for many years but they have only one or two deep runs in the playoffs since the playoff era started in 1981. And no State Championships. The other three schools change football coaches about as often as Zsa Zsa Gabor changed husbands.

Down goes Texas. Four Seed Five Seed Five Seed Nine Seed in the Final Four. Talk about a wild tournament.

Yep. Losing games when you are competitive is one thing. Getting blown out game after game is losing on steroids.

Sustaining yourself after a NC is extremely difficult. USCe won two straight about 10 years ago and they have not approached that level since. There seems to be a pall of gloom over State and now more recently for Ole Miss. Very difficult to endure but in State’s case I am still not in favor of firing a coach in the middle of the season. I know that is the popular thing but the popular thing is not always the right thing to do.

connecticut is now the odds on favorite but they have played two straight great games. Normally a team will only three straight great games before there is a drop off. Will they be able to sustain this through the Final Four? We will see.

At this juncture, it is hard to see this turning around though it is possible. We are only 4 games into the Conference schedule. Sometimes a humiliating loss like last night will spur a turnaround by a team. Frankly it is hard to see that happening but I am always going to pull for our team and players. We will see what happens. Right now we are making the Bad New Bears look like major leaguers.

I don’t know. Coach Polk is 79 years young and has forgotten 10 times more about baseball than any of us have ever learned. But I think he is enjoying retirement these days so just don’t see that happening. Though is Not necessarily a bad idea to get through this year and then hire a new Coach/Staff.

KState and VaTech are the only two P5 schools to have not won a National Championship. So I would not mind seeing KSTATE win it this year. Otherwise, if Princeton were to somehow get there, it would truly be awesome. All of America would be pulling for them except for their opponent’s fans. lol This is what makes the Tournament great.

Down goes Bama. Not really surprised. They were due for an off game. After watching State basically having golden opportunities to beat them twice, I felt they were beatable. Plus the three point shot is often fickle. It is great but occasionally those shots are not going to fall and when they don’t the difference in a great and good team is that you find a way to win anyway. 3-27 from Three is about as bad as it gets and that will get you beat in the NCAAT.

It is the equivalent to losing 3 to 1/3 a run every inning for 9 innings.

Vandy 26 State 3 Back in 1982 or 83, State beat Ole Miss 27-10 and then turned around and lost to Ole Miss the next day. But I am not sure if/when this team will win a conference game. We are just plain bad.

Oops I did not know that. Oh well. Scratch that thought.

So which Mississippi team gets their first SEC win first? Both Vandy and Florida are Top 5 teams. Gosh we could both be 0-6 come Sunday. Though I hope that is not the case. We are both at home but the challenges are formidable. State by sheer dumb luck is due for at least one SEC win but Ole Miss probably has the edge on being first to do so. We will see.

The NIT is still very meaningful. I get that some of the teams lack motivation if they feel they were NCAA worthy. But for the most part, it is tremendous for teams to continue playing and they gain valuable tournament experience for the future. And as 83 noted, you occasionally gets some cool matchups. Plus as a player, getting to go to NYC and play in MSG would rate as a cool experience. Mainly, it gives an additional 32 teams a chance to keep playing. For a team like Vanderbilt, that was huge. They were playing really well at the end of the season but had too many blemishes on their resume to make the NCAAT. So it was good that they could continue playing.