Bulldogs4

Wish the State men were being coached by the State women’s coaching staff. Talk about maximizing what you have and translating it into victories. This staff has done that with about 8 scholarship players and zero inside players and absolutely no height at all. Tremendous job by Novak, the staff and the players . They had no business beating Ole Miss yesterday. But they did . If our men played with the total effort, efficiency and execution that women play with, we would have won at least 4-6 more games than we have to date. Oh well, just proud of the women for not throwing in the towel which they could have easily done this year. Cohen needs to go ahead and check the WBB HC job off his to do list. The Coach is already on the court and doing a great job.

State played better in the second half but the end of the game was still poor. Smith/Garcia both missed two FT’s at a critical juncture about midway through the second half when we had taken the lead. Got to cash in on your FT’s especially on the road. Neither Coach should be in danger of losing their job. State has just been inconsistent all year and we have failed to play one complete game to date.

State looks like they have thrown in the towel. LSU just outscored is 37-15 to end the half. Very disappointing effort in the first half.

College Baseball is very fickle. We are very talented with experience but how this season goes is anybody’s guess. Being the defending NC’s means we will get everybody’s best shot but that was already the case. So I don’t see that being a huge difference this year. I could see us having some struggles this season. After all the 2021 team went through some dark times. Long Beach State will be a heck of a good start to the season. A really good quality team will be in DNF. 2 out of 3 would be a tremendous weekend. Ole Miss will pound the baseball. The big question that you guys have alluded to is the pitching there. If it holds up, look out for OM. Bianca is good at developing pitching so that might be better than expected. Pulling for USM to have a good season. Scott Berry has done a great job and I hope they have a heck of a good season this year. Don’t know much about them but know he has recruited well.

There is no way Kermit Davis should be fired. To me the man might be Coach of the Year, considering how depleted his team and yet they remain competitive and are winning some games. For State it is the same old some old. Poor start and poor finish, poor FT shooting, poor bench play. Very disappointing last night because the team has an abundance of talent but has not played a complete game all year against a quality team. No excuses. Tennessee is certainly a very good team but they are a very beatable team. Sigh and ugggghhhh. As D83 noted, this team is so frustrating to watch.

Agree with you. Austin Davis is a man of high character and integrity and I don’t put much stock in what McElroy says. Plus it is in his best interest to run down Auburn, given his background and the fact the media people enjoy stirring a hornet’s nest.

I thought we played hard and pretty well at Arkansas. Very physical game and Arkansas definitely got some calls their way particularly with the Smith-Williams calls heavily titling their way. But on the road you have to be able to play through that and we are not mentally tough enough (yet) to do so. Potential is there but we have yet to answer the bell. Difficult loss for Ole Miss. For Ole Miss to even go to OT with Florida on the road with the depleted roster is amazing. State women and Ole Miss men very similar. Much credit to those players for their grit.

Hopefully Heath recovers from the injuries he suffered in the automobile accident. I don’t know any details but for him to have been airlifted obviously meant it was very serious and prayers for his continuing recovery. Agree with you guys very talented but inconsistent. Hopefully he has matured and I hope he has a great season with the exception of one game…..LOL. I think Ole Miss will be between what State was in 98-99 and 02-03. The influx of Jucos were huge in the former but backfired in the latter. Understanding that the transfer portal is theoretically bringing in a more polished and talented player vs. a Juco player but there are some parallels there. That said , I think Ole Miss is probably 7-8 win team with 9 if everything goes great or 6 if things unravel some. Because you just never know. State is an interesting take. I think we will be talented and have depth but the schedule is going to be a challenge (which is okay). I think 8 wins would be the ceiling and 5 wins are the low end if things went really south. 6-7 wins are realistic predictions. But again you just don’t know as there probably 5-6 games that you can look at as toss up type games and so much can happen between now and then.

Huge opportunity for State tonight @ Arkansas. Can we finally beat someone on the road? Doubtful but we will see what happens. Kudos to Coach Kermit Davis and Ole Miss on beating LSU on the road despite half the team being in a M*A*S*H unit. Don’t know what happens the rest of the way but he has done great job piecing together a team racked by injuries.

Nice road win by Ole Miss in Red Stick. State did what we were supposed to do. Win at home against USCe. Now can we do what we have not been able to do? Win a road game against a good team. 3 of the next 4 on the road @Arkansas, @ LSU and @ Alabama sandwiched with a home game with Tennessee. It is crucial to go 2-2 in this stretch. It is time to put up or shut up. We will see what happens.

Nice win by Ole Miss today in the B12-SEC challenge. State getting blown out at the half @ Texas Tech. Not a surprise but thought we would put up a better fight than this.

14-23 FT’s were a killer. Did a lot things well in the second half but missed FT’s are killers. Had a couple of easy shots at the beginning of OT that we missed and you can’t do that on the road against UK. Maybe we can steal a win at Texas Tech Saturday. We will see.

Sorry I was not calling you a name. But back in those days Warren Central had a chip on the shoulder because they were stuck in the Little Dixie Conference but felt they were as good as the better Big 8 teams. Honestly during the 70’s they had a good point as they had some really good teams. And the Bowl game was very close and they played very well. Meridian won a very tight game and our players had great respect for them. The teams were not also rans either. Both were 7-3 on the season. Good seasons but fell short of winning our respective conferences. Gulfport win the Big 8 that year with an 11-1 record and were crowned State Champs. Clinton won the Little Dixie with an 11-0 record and probably felt like they could have beaten Gulfport that year had they played. Probably would have been a great game. I would have given Gulfport the edge as that team was loaded that year but Clinton would have held their own and possibly could have won the game.

Occasionally, that very thing does happen, much like Utah beating Bama in the Sugar Bowl or Boise State beating Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. But those examples are much the exceptions rather than the rule. Your second claim is a bald face lie. In 1977, Meridian played and defeated Warren Central in the Red Carpet Bowl in Vicksburg. Warren Central was not a member of the Big 8 and Meridian was a Big 8 member. Demographics have changed greatly but over that 50+ years there was a significant difference in the playing squads. Big 8 schools regularly dressed out 80-100 players and many of your smaller-mid-sized schools dressed out 35-40 players. In a one game scenario, they could very well win a game i.e. Magee playing Pensacola Escambia in 1985 and losing 7-6 with two missed FG’s. But if they played against 6A-7A teams every week they would lose by attrition. 33 players against 100 players every week is not going to be successful. So yes I agree that in an occasional season or in a single game much smaller teams would have fared well back in the old days but sustaining that over a long period of time would have been impossible.

From the 1920’s to 1981, the Big 8 champion was considered the State Champion much like the AP poll crowned a college champion from 1936 until the BCS/playoff era. Now a lot of controversy exists because some teams claim they were the best team in a given year. But the Big 8 was the only state wide conference with teams stretching from Corinth to the Gulf Coast. The conference also had the largest schools in the state so naturally it follows that the team that won the Big 8 was the best team. Yes occasionally another team was possibly better but 9 out of 10 years the Big 8 champion was the #1 team in the State. Now on a different subject, Enterprise academics are overstated because they have done a great job at teaching kids how to do well on the State tests. Unfortunately, a lot of their graduates struggle in college because they are ill prepared for the rigors of college academics. Quitman actually does a better job of teaching the nuts and bolts of learning to their students despite the fact that they are a lower rated school. I would say more of their students are better prepared for college even if the school is lower rated.

Just messing with you Auburn is really good and barring injuries or something unexpected, they are a real threat to win it all this year.

Wayne County is on the high school forum.

Ole Miss played very well today for almost 30 minutes but the team has no depth because of injuries. Davis is still a very good coach but is enduring a difficult season. I know in today’s world most people have the patience of a nat. But they will be back next year and the team will probably be very good. I am impressed with how hard his teams play even when they are outmanned. I know the Missouri game was disappointing but not unexpected after they played so hard against AUBURN the previous game. Obviously it was a must win for State. Now comes the challenge. Can we beat a good team on the road? Two opportunities this week @Kentucky @Texas Tech This will determine if we are going to be a legit tournament team or just around the bubble. Desperately need to win one of these games. Doubtful we do but we will see how it plays out.

State girls trailed by 27 points (38-11) to Georgia and came all the way back to lead 63-62 with about 30 seconds left. Still had a chance to win late and then tie to go into OT. But lost 66-63. Certainly proud of the effort after being blown out in the first half. Still a tough year but I like the grit of the team.

But if you only have 5 region games then you can easily fit in a rival game amongst your other 5 OOC games. With the weather being less hot the gate could be even higher with those games being scheduled in September as opposed to August. Not to mention much fairer to the players on the field. So that should not be an issue either. I just think it is ridiculous to play games in the middle of August. Plus they can start practices a bit later than the end of July.

I don’t think the season would be extended any. Eliminating those two games or the bye week/eleventh game should have the schedule on the same date rotation.

Well the State ladies are playing hard but they are mostly outmanned because of no depth. Between the multiple coaching changes and COVID, it is shocking they have won any conference games this year. Novak has done IMO a tremendous job this year and with every thing else going wrong, they have been playing with great effort. It was inevitable that Ole Miss was going to beat State and it was no surprise when it happened last week.

Much like March Madness, a #4 seed has defeated a #1 seed on numerous occasions because the relative strength between divisions can be very different. So four teams from each division making the playoffs is like the NBA and does make for some blowouts in the early rounds but the possibility exists that lower seeds can win some of those games. But make no mistake, it is all about money. I will continue hammer the point that the regular season should be 10 games and the season should start the Friday of Labor Day weekend!!!

I am guess I am puzzled about Daniel’s situation. He played against State in 2020 but I don’t know that he has played any other game besides that one game. So how good is he? He did have a great game against State (but was playing against a severely depleted defense) but that is probably not the best indicator of his true talent. I never heard his name in 2021. But with the COVID year , I presume he has two years left. Will be interesting to see where he ends up if he leaves Georgia.

Where did you hear that? That is news to me. The only thing I have heard is that she stepped down because her cancer returned. He was then made interim HC just a few days before fall practice started. Novak was on the staff as an assistant coach.