Anchor Drop, July 2, 2018: 61 Days

Good morning.

We’re now 61 days away from Vanderbilt’s season opener against Middle Tennessee State. 61 is the number worn by Bruno Reagan, who started all 12 games at center for the Commodores last year, after starting 13 games at right guard as a sophomore. We’re not sure where Reagan will start this year, but you can pencil him in somewhere along the offensive line.

In case you missed it, Luke Kornet signed a one-year, $1.6 million contract with the New York Knicks after playing in 20 games last season. We’ll be seeing a lot of Luke in the NBA with Kristaps Porzingis out with a torn ACL to start the 2018-19 season.

Vanderbilt baseball commitment Ryan Weathers won’t be playing for the Commodores next year, as the Padres reached an agreement with their first-round pick. The signing bonus is reported to be north of $5 million. Honestly, we wouldn’t turn down $5 million, either, and if he really wants a Vanderbilt degree down the road $5 million would be more than enough to cover the cost of attendance.

In other MLB news, David Price got roughed up in Yankee Stadium to the tune of 8 runs in 3.1 innings... just a day after Sonny Gray also got roughed up in the Bronx.

The LeBron James sweepstakes are over, as the King signed a 4-year, $154 million deal with the Lakers on Sunday night. Ryan Nanni has the correct take on this:

Indeed.

Russia and Croatia advanced to the World Cup quarterfinals yesterday, with both winning on penalty kick shootouts: Russia over Spain and Croatia over Denmark. Today, Brazil plays Mexico at 9:00 AM CT, followed by Belgium-Japan at 1:00 PM.

Also yesterday: Francesco Molinari won the Quicken Loans National by eight strokes. Holy crap.

If you haven’t listened to it already, in his latest podcast Chris Lee of VandySports.com dropped some hints about upcoming changes in the Athletic Department. We can’t say it out loud, but some of you will probably like it.