Yep we lead with a Tennis story today, as the teams head for the SEC Championships this week.
Apologies for the lack of a weekend recap again this week, though dropping 2 of 3 to Auburn is hardly anything to write home about. As should be expected, we are not ranked in the Top 25 in any poll. We face a gauntlet this week, with Top-20 ranked Southern Miss tonight in Metairie and on the road at Top 5 Vandy for the weekend.
The biggest news from the weekend is that RF Mason Katz broke his hand on the diving catch attempt late in the game on Sunday, which will have him out for 3 weeks at least. While Raph Rhymes, Jimmy Dykstra, and Spencer Ware were all mentioned as possible fill-ins, by late evening (presumably after a practice) Coach Mainieri had settled with Rhymes at RF, Ware at LF, and Watkins at DH. Game is at 7pm from Zephyer Field. The game got picked up for TV by Jumbo Sports, so it's on Cox 4 in South Louisiana.
Speaking of baseball injuries, The Daliy Rev caught up with pitchers Joey Bourgeois and Jordan Rittiner, who are both spending the year recovering form Tommy John Surgery.
It was a crazy weekend in the rest of the SEC, as an A-Day doubleheader sweep of Alabama by Tennessee means that even LSU is only 4 games out of the division lead. Meanwhile, things stayed classy in Fayetteville.
Also in college baseball: The most telling statistic in the drop in offensive numbers in the sport may be the increase in shutouts from 277 to 444 at the midway point in the season. And the first ever game in the evil monstrosity Rosenblatt-replacement TD Ameritrade Park was held last night as Nebraska beat Creighton, 2-1, in front of a reported crowd of 22,197.
Lots of discussion about Patrick Peterson as our NFL counterparts get prepared for the Draft. Billy and Poseur talked to Bills blog Buffalo Rumblings about the esteemed Emperor Zod. All you Texas Tigers may have heard there have been rumblings that the Texans may trade up to get him, but Battle Red Blog doesn't see it happening.
The loooong running Hicks/McCarhty investigation should be coming to an end soon.
A report by BusinessofCollegeSports.com shows LSU narrowly coming in second behind Florida for the most donor contributions in the SEC. While not surprising, I wonder if some fuzzy math is giving LSU a leg up. I've seen that $38 million number before and I'm pretty sure that it includes the "donations" that season ticket holders will recognize as Tradition Fund payments. I wont pretend I know how it works at other SEC schools, and I'm not even saying there is anything wrong with it, but let's not kid ourselves. The Tradition Fund is a seat licence fee and is as voluntary as the face value of the ticket. LSU Athletics probably still gets a ton of actual donations, but if you take away the couple thousand dollars the average season ticket holder is paying (not to mention the astronomical figures club seat holders must be paying) I bet that number drops significantly.
Gordy Rush is leaving the LSU airwaves after 16 years for a management position at his broadcasting company. His replacement on the Pre-Pregame and Post-Postgame shows that air before and after Football games on 98.1 will be former LSU QB Alan Risher, while BayouBengalsInsider.com's Derek Ponamksy will take over the Wednesday night after-coaches' show.
The NCAA decided on a host of proposed rule changes last week, including increasing the number of graduate assistants in football from 2 to 4 and penalizing players who do not pass 9 credit hours in the fall with a mandatory 4-game suspension the following season.
The best thing about Doc Saturday's Ole Miss preview? That their best season ever was ruined by Billy Cannon.
There have been even more rumblings about La Tech to the Sunbelt, even though Terry Bradshaw thinks the move is a step back.
Saturday Night Slant looks at the inroads Texas A&M has been making in recruiting the state of Louisiana.
TeamSpeedKills argues that UL-Monroe is a perfect example of why there should be more contraction in D-1A football.
As required by SEC sports blogging bylaws, here is a link to Curley Hallman selling Golden Flake.