Bulldogs4

Agree with Reb. 22 is the magic number. Win two of the next three plus two in the Tournament and we are in. Very tough but doable. Win three remaining games plus one tournament game and we are in. Anything less and we are on the outside looking in. Last night was gut wrenching. Coach Williams summed it up. Missouri hit 8 three pointers and we hit 7. The last one for them was from about 24 feet out over a 6’10” player. Not much you can do about that. We are still limited offensively. In the second half we were 0-11 from three point lane. It ended up biting us last night. I liked Coach Howland tremendously but Jans is most definitely a better floor coach. With this team, now I go in to each game with the attitude that we are going to win. Obviously, that does not happen each time out, but that is my mindset.

Two State pitchers give up a combined 7 runs in one inning pitched. Incredibly bad. The rest of the staff pitched well. 3 errors on defense Not scoring a run until the seventh inning All adds up to be a big fat L. These games are costly because later in the year they can be the difference maker.

Season needs to start the Friday of Labor Day Weekend. High School Football Friday Night Dove Hunting Saturday morning College Football Saturday afternoon/evening. A perfect way to celebrate the Holiday and start football season. Football games should never be played in August unless the Friday of Labor Day falls on the 29th, 30th or 31st of August.

Lost in the mix yesterday was the fact we shot 18-21 from the FT line. We desperately need to keep that up.

In the present day, you can’t lose games like yesterday. Obviously, you are going to lose some games during the season but when you are leading a BAD team by NINE RUNS, there no excuse to lose that game. ZERO EXCUSES.

Missouri and A&M are kind of odd ball teams this year. Missouri is talented but wildly inconsistent. A&M was terrible in OOC games but have been on a roll in conference play. I agree a split would be a good week but my greedy side says we need to win both.

State losing today is shades of losing to Eastern Kentucky last year by the same score (I think ). We missed an XP (no surprise there) again this year to lose by one. Last year that was a bad omen and it sure sours the start of this season.

83 you made the right decision today to go to the basketball game. Though we only played well for about 14 of the 45 minutes of the game. Thankfully it was enough.

Baseball has exceeded basketball on poor shooting (pitching) today. Though basketball did finally make a shot or two down the stretch to win in OT.

Well about the only thing good here was State pulled out a win in overtime. I knew it was going to be very difficult. And it was. Though when Ole Miss did not win in regulation you could kind of sense that State would win in OT. Season would have been destroyed today. We live for one more game. They are all critical now. I feel bad for Kermit Davis. I was a student when he was a part of the team at State, though I did not know him personally. Tough situation for him at Ole Miss and the writing is on the wall.

State & Ole Miss setting basketball back to the Stone Age today. Horrific by both teams.

After last year for State, no opponent is weak. Very good first game. Hopefully this is a good omen for the season. About the only negative was three errors but maybe some of that was first game jitters. Otherwise, there was a lot to like today. Good starts for Ole Miss & USM too!!!

No surprise there. Loss last night hurts but we will see how things go from here.

The turning point, last night, to me was when we scored back to back with a dunk/lay up to go up 41-38. Davis was fouled but missed the and - one FT. I know it does not sound like much but it seemed to give UK a spark and it kind of killed our momentum. Later when Jeffries missed the front end of a one-and-one was also huge. Kentucky made their FT’s down the stretch though we did a great job of extending the game over the last few seconds. Tough road ahead but I still like this team. We will see how it goes starting first Saturday.

Tough loss for State tonight. Give Kentucky credit for holding us off. But I like our fight and grit. Sometimes fortune goes against you and we had a few those plays that were just bad luck. Officiating was okay though they did miss a traveling call on UK at a critical juncture of the game. But that was not the reason we lost. They beat us on the boards and then the ball seemed bounce Kentucky’s way tonight. Got to regroup and be ready to go to Oxford Saturday. And we will face Ole Miss at their best so it is going to be very difficult to win.

All the intangibles point to the Eagles winning but I think the Chiefs pull out a win late. 28-27. I like Hurts a lot but Mahomes experience will be the difference.

I felt like we had a chance tonight going into the game. The early brutal SEC schedule is paying dividends now. True we lost all four games to Tennessee/Bama but in three of the four games we played them, we had a chance to win. The last one @ Bama where we lead most of the game only to lose by three helped prepare this team for tonight. The 20K crowd never got us rattled. And that was big. Next big game is Kentucky. And it is still tough to beat them even when they are struggling. They still have elite talent. But a great win tonight on the road. Go Dawgs!!!

The SECW is truly unpredictable in baseball. Every team except Alabama is capable of winning the division and possibly going to Omaha. And Alabama has certainly improved over the last few years. The difference between 7th and 1st could be pretty slim this year. I am glad State is picked Seventh. After last season that is where we deserve to be until we prove differently.

Winning in Oxford is going to be very difficult. Ole Miss still has a good team that is very capable. Plus it is a rivalry game so the records mean absolutely zilch. But before that game there are two very important games to play. I am interested to see how we fare at Arkansas. They are coming off a huge win at Kentucky. Some times it is hard to sustain that kind of effort two games in a row. The biggest key for State is to make some outside shots and hit our free throws. We are solid every where else but three point shooting/FT shooting have been inconsistent at best. I know they have a great crowd but I think we have a veteran team that can play through the crowd effectively. Big game for State. Last night was one of those games that you are glad to win and get out of the gym. Anytime a team is on a long losing streak, it is worrisome because they are going to eventually beat someone.

State and LSU set basketball back about 80 years in the first half. State scored 10 points in the first minute and then 9 points in the last minute and then in the other 18 minutes scored 6 points. Ugggghhhh. But LSU was so horrid that after all that they were still losing by 3 points at the half. I mean that was BAD HALF OF BASKETBALL. Second half a bit better so far. State up by 8 (36-30 with 12 minutes to go. But still just poor basketball.

Not a surprise to me. Usually when everyone gives up on a team, they will turn around and win some games. Good road win over a decent Georgia team for Ole Miss.

I think Foxhall is a good pitching coach. When you lose 4 pitchers to injuries during a season that is a difficult thing to overcome. Throw in the fact that our offense was terrible. We were Dave Kingman offensively. We hit about .213 with 50 solo home runs and about 200 strike outs. Then add in that we were the defending National champions. Add all that up and we were like the cowboy who was staked to desert sand and had molasses poured all over him. We were devoured by anyone and everyone we played especially at the end of the season. All that to say, IMO, we will be much better this season. Using a single preseason scrimmage to predict the season is about the most lousy correlation I have ever heard in my life.

No surprise there. We will have to continue to win and if we do that it will take care of itself. SOS is very good but that only helps to a point. Because if you do not win some of those games, it really does not matter at all. The FL loss at home is really hurting us right now even though they have a good team. We are going to have to win a road game (Missouri?) to kind of even that one out. But at least we are trending in the right direction.

State Women beat UT and the SEC referees 91-90 in double OT. What game!!! Much needed!!! Listening to Coach Purcell after the game, he said he just turned our guards loose and let them play. We were much faster than UT and it was evident that they could not guard us out front. Still a long way to go but this team has the potential to be a NCAA tournament team.

Thankfully Tolu seems to have solved his FT woes. His % has been much better in the recent games. LSU is up next. Cannot take any game for granted. As Al Davis said “Just Win Baby” So we need to beat LSU Wednesday. They were competitive with Bama yesterday.