Anchor Drop, February 26, 2023: Bowling undefeated, again

Good morning.

Optional Musical Accompaniment

Vanderbilt bowling went undefeated again at the second day of the Stallings Shine-O Ball-O Invitational, and after opening with a match against Tulane at 7:30 AM CT, they’ll go into the championship bracket as the 1-seed. The team is looking for its second tournament championship of the season after winning last month’s Prairie View Invitational.

Baseball dropped the second game of the weekend series against UCLA by a 3-0 score on Saturday, setting up the rubber match today at noon CT on the SEC Network+.

Women’s basketball closes out the regular season today at Auburn at 3:00 PM CT on the SEC Network. The Commodores are 12-17 and 3-12 in the SEC and uh, they’re playing on Wednesday in the SEC Tournament.

Both tennis teams are in action today: the women’s team faces MTSU at 1:00 PM CT (and I quibble with the description of them as a “crosstown opponent”), while the men’s team is at Northwestern at noon CT. Both are playing their last match before SEC play starts next weekend.

Men’s basketball dispatched Florida fairly easily, 88-72, last night to complete a season sweep of the Gators and improve to 16-13, 9-7 in the SEC. The 16 regular-season wins and nine conference wins are Vanderbilt’s most since the 2016-17 season, which also happens to be the last time they swept Florida and beat Tennessee.

And finally, I’m kind of shocked at the reactions to this happening in a spring training game:

I mean, yeah, what did you think happened if the pitch clock ran out? Because it’s definitely not about this:

Which, no: that might be a concern for college football, where networks are frequently showing four games back-to-back on a Saturday and want the games fitting in a neat window so that one game doesn’t run into another time slot. It’s not a concern for baseball, where the RSNs (at least as long as they still exist, which is up for debate) really only exist to broadcast that MLB team’s game. With baseball, this is a concern of “games have gotten longer for no reason other than pitchers and hitters wasting time for no particular reason,” and I don’t think that actually adds anything to the viewing experience.

Sports on TV

All times Central. College basketball schedule here. SEC baseball schedule here.

• 12:00 PM: PGA Tour: The Honda Classic, Final Round (Golf Channel)
• 12:00 PM: NBA: Suns at Bucks (ABC)
• 12:00 PM: NHL: Capitals at Sabres (NHL Network)
• 2:00 PM: PGA Tour: The Honda Classic, Final Round (NBC)
• 2:30 PM: NBA: Lakers at Mavericks (ABC)
• 5:00 PM: NHL: Lightning at Penguins (NHL Network)
• 6:30 PM: NBA: Timberwolves at Warriors (ESPN)
• 9:00 PM: NBA: Clippers at Nuggets (ESPN)

Scoreboard

SEC Basketball: Missouri 85, Georgia 63 ... Alabama 86, Arkansas 83 ... Mississippi State 69, Texas A&M 62 ... Kentucky 86, Auburn 54 ... Tennessee 85, South Carolina 45 ... Ole Miss 82, LSU 69.

SEC Baseball: Georgia 12, Princeton 5 (Game 1) ... Wright State 12, Kentucky 9 ... Arkansas 10, Eastern Illinois 3 ... Iowa 12, LSU 4 ... South Carolina 1, Penn 0 ... Ole Miss 12, Maryland 6 ... Georgia 9, Princeton 0 (Game 2) ... Auburn 12, USC 6 ... Portland 4, Texas A&M 1 ... Florida 13, Cincinnati 3 ... Tennessee 4, Dayton 1 ... Alabama 10, High Point 6 ... Missouri 10, FIU 4 ... Mississippi State 5, Arizona State 1.

NBA: Raptors 95, Pistons 91 ... Hornets 108, Heat 103 ... Pacers 121, Magic 108 ... Knicks 128, Pelicans 106 ... Grizzlies 112, Nuggets 94 ... Celtics 110, 76ers 107 ... Jazz 118, Spurs 102.

NHL: Blue Jackets 6, Oilers 5 ... Capitals 6, Rangers 3 ... Penguins 3, Blues 2 ... Ducks 3, Hurricanes 2 ... Senators 5, Canadiens 2 ... Devils 7, Flyers 0 ... Bruins 3, Canucks 1 ... Lightning 3, Red Wings 0 ... Avalanche 4, Flames 1 ... Blackhawks 4, Sharks 3 ... Stars 3, Golden Knights 2.