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Good morning.
So, yesterday morning, shortly after I wrote the Anchor Drop, VandySports released a doozy of a podcast with former longtime VU equipment manager Luke Wyatt, who had only the nicest things to say about Kirkland Hall and interim athletic director Candice Storey Lee. Spoiler: Vanderbilt operates in a different manner than most power conference schools (and especially literally any other school in the Southeastern Conference), and while some of the ways that it operates differently are in fact very good — like, say, the fact that Vanderbilt is nowhere close to this list:
Most Vacated Wins of All Time
— CFB Home (@CFBHome) February 25, 2020
#1. Ole Miss 33
#2. Alabama 21
#3. Notre Dame 21
#4. North Carolina 16
#5. USC 14
#6. Florida State 12
#7. Ohio State 12
#8. Syracuse 11
#9. SMU 10
#10. California 4 pic.twitter.com/Tt7a6GWvzo
(Side note: LOL at the Ole Miss fans in the replies to that tweet claiming that nobody cares about vacated wins. We absolutely care about vacated wins because we can remind Ole Miss of all the times they’ve cheated.)
... the fact that Vanderbilt operates differently from anyone else is in many ways, of course, very bad.
It was against this backdrop that Vanderbilt released its long-awaited Strategic Plan, which... well, let’s turn to former Vanderbilt kicker Tommy Openshaw for the best response to this:
Honestly this plan reads like it was made by a sophomore HOD student. Nice design but beyond that it’s repetitive and lacking any actionable information. One of the reasons I stayed as far away from HOD/consulting as possible while at Vandy https://t.co/c0JOge2v3Q
— Tommy Openshaw (@TommyOpenshaw) February 26, 2020
Well. Okay then. So that went over well. Only Vanderbilt could release a Strategic Plan and wind up actually pissing off its fan base. (That’s in part because most fan bases legitimately don’t care about strategic plans and just care about pictures of the new locker rooms, but I digress.)
Anyway, Candice Storey Lee then had a press conference about it and seemed to do fine, but some people were still pissed off about... something afterwards.
All right! Now for news that isn’t related to the strategic plan. The basketball team lost to Missouri 61-52 last night (FREE THROWS DAMNIT), and the baseball team beat St. Louis 10-2 yesterday afternoon. 1-for-2 against the state of Missourah (which we continue to not recognize.)
Women’s basketball is on the road tonight at LSU. Game time is 6:30 PM CT on the SEC Network+.
Adam Sparks has a new podcast out, and thankfully it’s not about the goddamn Strategic Plan.
Scoreboard
SEC Basketball: South Carolina 94, Georgia 90 ... Arkansas 86, Tennessee 69 ... Florida 81, LSU 66.
SEC Baseball: Mississippi State 8, Alcorn State 4 ... Alabama 12, MTSU 6 ... Tennessee 12, UNC Asheville 1 ... McNeese 12, Missouri 4 ... Auburn 12, Alabama A&M 6 ... Texas A&M 4, Incarnate Word 0 ... LSU 7, Louisiana Tech 1.
NBA: Hornets 107, Knicks 101 ... Cavaliers 108, 76ers 94 ... Wizards 110, Nets 106 ... Timberwolves 129, Heat 126 ... Magic 130, Hawks 120 ... Rockets 140, Grizzlies 112 ... Mavericks 109, Spurs 103 ... Clippers 102, Suns 92 ... Celtics 114, Jazz 103.
NHL: Avalanche 3, Sabres 2 ... Golden Knights 3, Oilers 0 ... Kings 2, Penguins 1.