Anchor Drop, December 13, 2022: Swing Your Sword

Good morning.

Optional Musical Accompaniment

News broke on Sunday that Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach had been transported to a hospital in Jackson, and on Monday the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported that he had suffered a massive heart attack. To put it mildly, the best-case scenario here is that he’s coached his last game:

It appears, according to sources, that Leach may have suffered seizures with the possibility of brain damage. Sources said the situation is dire, and MSU said Leach was in “critical condition” in a statement Monday.

Leach has been one of college football’s true characters over the last 20-plus years (and for those who aren’t regular readers of the blog, I live in Lubbock and am married to a Texas Tech alum who was at the school when Leach was their coach.)

Seriously, though, imagine 99% of college football coaches hanging this picture in their office:

Or doing this.

(Seriously, though. It does rain mud here.)

What a sad day, and a reminder that life is fragile.

Also, Craig James killed five hookers.

In Vanderbilt news, Aria Gerson assessed Vanderbilt basketball’s resume at the moment and: it’s not good, but there’s still two-thirds of the season and the entire SEC schedule to play. Obviously we’d all feel better if they’d beaten Grambling the other day, but it’s nothing that can’t be solved by beating Kentucky and/or Tennessee.

Chris Lee had his weekly podcast with former Vanderbilt equipment manager Luke Wyatt, and really the most newsworthy thing in all of this is that they’re both starting to hear whispers in McGugin that Jerry Stackhouse might get fired, though they did hedge that with “if he goes 9-9 in the SEC, he’s not getting fired.” There’s also a lot of discussion about how bad his evaluations have been; since commenters have brought it up, yeah, it’s probably bad that the freshmen aren’t playing much on this team, and Lee says that he’d heard talk from recruiting guys that this year’s recruiting class wasn’t as good as it was hyped to be. So... yeah. It’s long, but worth a listen. I think there was a mention that (as I had kind of suspected) the contract extension they gave him prior to the season was more of a paper extension than anything.

Bad Gambling Advice

Season to date: 49-59-2 ATS, 52-58 totals

• NC Central at LSU (6:00 PM CT, SEC Network): NC Central +14, Under 140
• Memphis at Alabama (8:00 PM CT, ESPN2): Alabama -6.5, Over 150

Sports on TV

All times Central. College basketball schedule here.

• 1:00 PM: World Cup: Argentina v. Croatia (FOX)
• 6:30 PM: NBA: Warriors at Bucks (TNT)
• 8:00 PM: NHL: Capitals at Blackhawks (ESPN)
• 9:00 PM: NBA: Celtics at Lakers (TNT)

Scoreboard

NFL: Patriots 27, Cardinals 13.

NBA: Heat 87, Pacers 82 ... Nets 112, Wizards 100 ... Grizzlies 128, Hawks 103 ... Mavericks 121, Thunder 114 ... Spurs 112, Cavaliers 111 ... Trail Blazers 133, Timberwolves 112 ... Clippers 113, Celtics 93.

NHL: Canadiens 2, Flames 1 ... Rangers 4, Devils 3 ... Penguins 2, Stars 1 ... Senators 3, Ducks 0 ... Wild 2, Oilers 1 ... Blues 1, Predators 0.