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Good morning. So, I’ve been in Rome and Florence, Italy, over the past week and was severely jet lagged last night, so your Anchor Drop is late this morning.
The baseball team opens SEC play this weekend at Mississippi State. Tonight’s game will see Drake Fellows on the hill for the Commodores against Mississippi State’s Konnor Pilkington. First pitch is at 6:30 PM CT and the game will be televised on the SEC Network+ and WatchESPN.
Speaking of Mississippi State, the women’s tennis team lost 4-3 in Starkville last night, just their third loss of the season and first against an unranked team.
The men’s tennis team will host South Carolina at 4 PM CT today. Vanderbilt has a live stream of it.
The women’s bowling team will host the Columbia 300 Music City Classic this weekend.
Men’s golf will be playing in the Schenkel Invitational in Statesboro, Georgia this weekend.
In case you missed it, Larry Austin Jr. and Payton Willis were granted their release to transfer.
I haven’t added my thoughts on the transfers, so here goes. First of all, these moves don’t necessarily mean we’re getting someone, but it does free up two scholarships in case anyone wants to come. But these guys were expendable. Austin was barely playing on this year’s team, and on next year’s team he has to “compete” with Darius Garland for playing time. As for Willis, while he wasn’t terrible, he shot 35 percent from three-point range this season, and he’s a below average defender. Basically he doesn’t bring anything to the table that Max Evans doesn’t also bring, and Evans is a better defender and can create for himself to some degree. In short: if we were going to miss these guys, we have problems.
Off the West End
The SEC went 4-0 in the NCAA Tournament yesterday, which is unfortunate because that means Tennessee and Kentucky both won.
The Nashville pod starts today, and Cincinnati and Xavier are headlining it, which was a great way for the NCAA to troll the school to the east.
Eight Pitt players are asking for their release to transfer. That’s something.
It took DeAndre Ayton and Allonzo Trier hours to announce they were going to the NBA after Arizona got drilled by Buffalo. I have to say, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a team that looked that disinterested in an NCAA Tournament game.