Bulldogs4

I think you are probably right about Molinar. His outside shooting was a huge weakness this year and if he is going play in the NBA or the G league, he is going to have to shoot better than 20-25% from (and that line is significantly farther back than the college line) three point range. Depth at PG this year was a huge weakness for this team and I know there was a FR PG from ATL that transferred to GT after last year. He would have been a significant help with depth this year. On the women’s side , though I was an advocate of keeping Novak, the hire of Sam Purcell seems to be solid. But we will see how that plays out.

Tennessee is good but that game seemed one of those blips that happen occasionally. State with one of its classic comeback wins. 83, I agree it was a much needed win and good to see. And This team has not had any comeback wins this year, too my knowledge.Hopefully another good sign that the season is turning around for the better.

State had an uncharacteristic bad day in the field on Saturday that was costly. Obviously the wind was treacherous and made for some difficulties. But not making a couple routine plays costs us about half a dozen runs and ultimately the victory. Another day and another lesson learned. Hopefully, the Sunday game will be a turning point and we will see better performances going forward. UT-OM is going to be a great series and the atmosphere should be electric all weekend. Tennessee seems to be getting uppity these days so maybe OM can shut them up for a few days with a series win or sweep.

THIS is spot on. No need to have more than one administrative office per county for schools. The current system is Completely Ridiculous. In Meridian you have two bloated central offices (Meridian and Lauderdale County). The duplication of positions and all the unnecessary slots in both offices is mind boggling. All the while, the classrooms suffer from not having all the resources that are needed. I would venture to say that just in Lauderdale County alone, if there was only one central office, you could put $2-3 million dollars more into the classrooms, building maintenance etc. each year. Very inefficient system in place currently.

MST, you are correct. In basketball, especially the tournament, a well coached , veteran team of lesser talented players can and does often beat a bunch of individual talented players. We see it every year. I predict we will see it more and more with all these players jumping around. Chemistry in basketball is critical and you only get that by playing together for multiple years , not , 15-20-25 games over one season.

I would think he has decent shot at keeping both them. Neither is ready for pro ball unless they go to Europe (and with the war going on in Ukraine I don’t think that looks very attractive right now). Both Tolu and Molinar could help themselves immensely next year, if both stay healthy, with big seasons. Obviously Molinar could transfer out and he might just do that. I hope he stays though. As you note 83, if Jans keeps the players in the fold plus the signees, then State could be a good team next year. That is a big IF though.

There seems to be fire under the smoke concerning Chris Jans to State as the HC. Do not know much about him but his resume is solid. Evidently something happened at BG about 7 years ago that resulted in him being let go from there. Otherwise, he has had good success at NMSU over the recent years including beating State in JAN a few years ago. Depending on if he can keep the players on the squad from leaving and retain the signing class, he should have a good nucleus to work with going forward. But more than likely there will be some roster turnover. Coach Howland voiced his opinion that he hoped the new coach would retain at least one of the current assistant coaches and I hope that he will do that. Otherwise we will see what happens with a fresh start.

Tough loss for State after a see-saw back and forth game. Bullpen is a major weakness for State at this point. Coaching staff is fine. One of my best friends told me all during off-season that this team was going to better than last years team. I tried to caution him that this years team might be more talented but that the season was going to be a struggle (obviously that was way before the Sims/Simmons injuries). I am older and much more patient than some of our fans (especially younger fans , some who have the patience of a gnat when it comes to college sports). I have faith that this team will improve during the season and that the pitching will as well. A lot of young guys are getting their feet put to the fire and right now many of them are scarred as a result. But they will eventually be the better for it. Tomorrow is important for State though, 0-3 would be a tough start for the conference season. 1-2 is obviously a bit more manageable. Ole Miss with a solid opening series 2-1 over Auburn on the road. Any time win 2 of 3 on the road that is a good weekend.

Molinar is no where ready for Pro Ball unless he goes to Europe. He needs to hit the weight room and improve his outside shooting to have a shot at the NBA. Now he is a tremendous college player but he would probably better suited as a #2 guard at least part of the time. He has an interesting decision to make after the season. If he goes on I wish him the best but I think he could do himself some good by coming back.

What a disaster that decision is. I mean, I understand that he still loves to play football. But he made the right decision to retire. I remember Jim Palmer coming out of retirement at age 45 to pitch again. After spring training he re-retired. I would not be surprised if Brady does not make it out of training camp before retiring again or getting injured and having the decision made for him. Maybe I am wrong but I see mostly pitfalls here with little upside at all. He has nothing left to prove.

If State gets on a roll here in the NIT (doubtful but you never know) , maybe Howland coaches another year or two and then retires with the program on the upswing. With all these openings, I think we may do better to stay pat this year. But for all I know this is probably his swan song once he loses next game.

For State making a Regional will be a good accomplishment. One thing about injuries, as bad as they are, 1. They are part of the game. 2. It creates opportunities for a guy to blossom, so you never know how this may develop. As far as Simmons & Sims go, both injuries are very unfortunate. But hopefully, both will heal and be ready for a successful MLB career.

State tied 5-5 with Binghamton in the 8th inning. This is going to be the norm for State all year. There may be occasional (rare) blow out but I think most games are going to be like this one and we are going to have to persevere.

Yes that is correct and then the SEC is going to be ten-athalon. Every weekend is going to be tough with only Missouri being really bad (but remember what they did last year at DNF). Jury definitely out on State. IMHO, right now we are a mid-level SEC team with some potential to be better but it will take some considerable improvement to get there over the next two months.

Howland will not be fired. Maybe he will retire. He is 65 so that would not be a surprise. We have certainly underachieved but it is not like we have been bad either. The program is competitive but just has not been able to climb to the next step. Will be interesting to see how the next few days go.

An interesting note. The last time the SECT was in TPA was 2009 when coincidentally State won 4 games in four days to win it. Could history repeat itself?

Certainly a good win. But I have little confidence that we beat Tennessee unless they play like they don’t care (which is possible). Their seed is not going to change any this weekend unless they win the Tournament and then it might go up one line. This State team has befuddled me all year. I think losing that early game to Colorado State after we had a 9 point lead late in the game destroyed the late game confidence of the team when we are playing a good team. We are good enough to lose by a handful of points to any good team we play. If we were ever to win one of those games, look out. Though now it is too little too late. Garcia has been a nice surprise. Reminds of Russell Walters off the 96 Final Four team. Great hustle, great rebounder and a good defensive player. Is not going to score much but a good player to have on the floor. So winning is better than losing so I will take it tonight.

Certainly disappointing to blow an 8 run lead Saturday. OTOH, I still have faith in the staff and players that we are going to still be a good team as the season moves along. Only 12 games into a 56 game season so there is a long way to go..

Regarding “The Hump” renovation, I heard Cohen say something interesting. They considered imploding and building new but architects/engineers all said that the seating arrangement in place is as good it gets (which I agree with). There is not bad seat in the house. I have looked at the renderings and can’t really get a gauge on how it will look like after the renovations are complete. Hopefully that will be a good selling point when negotiating with a new coach (now that it seems pretty certain that Howland will retire). Looking back on the Williams/Stansbury era, we had 25+ year time of stability in the program. Then we had Ray which has got to be the worst hire in history. I know there are few others too LOL. Howland has definitely brought us back from that abyss but unfortunately has never been able to challenge for the upper echelon of the conference despite having a lot of talented players under his tutelage. This year has been the most frustrating by far. Only 3-4 losses were blow outs, the other 9-10 losses were close games all the way to the end.

We will see if this the game that gets State going but Sims went out with an injury in the fourth inning. Struck out ten of the eleven batters he faced. He took himself out. Just hope and pray that it is nothing too serious. I know Ole Miss knows how that feels after losing your ace last year. So it could be costly victory. But it is nice to see us finally hit the ball and score some runs. For now we will enjoy the win and see how the rest of the weekend goes.

USM blasting State 7-1 in the eighth inning. The struggle continues. Plus give USM credit. They are playing well so far this year.

Baseball is definitely different from football and even basketball to a certain extent. It is the only major sport that N. Kentucky can beat State or back in the old days, Delta State or a William Carey could beat State and it is not really considered an upset because in one game one team can beat another. So you are right in that it will be well into April before the rankings start being legitimate. For now, it is basically subjective. History will play a part, returning players, schedule will come into play, injuries, weather etc. really skew the early rankings and then the cream will rise as the season moves along.

Not generally surprised by anything that happens early in baseball but Sacramento State? sweeping Long Beach is most definitely a surprise. I mean winning one , I could see but 3? Long Beach players must have partied all week after winning 2 at State. LOL

Reb, it has been a tough year for Kermit & Company. But State not much better. Now we host Auburn with them coming off a loss at Tennessee. Most likely they will come out smoking but they could have some doubt creeping into their psyche. We will see what happens but to date State has not demonstrated the ability to beat a top caliber team this year. Until that changes, it is what it is.

Glad for the win but our basketball IQ is a minus 3 on a scale 1-10. Up 6 and we foul a 3 point shot from about 30 feet away from the goal. Then we make a very poor pass inbounds to give them another opportunity. But all that said, State is still hanging on to this season by the thinnest, frayed of threads.