The above was the most entertaining thing to happen at Alex Box over the weekend as the Tigers got sideswiped by a Vandy team that has now become red hot at exactly the right time. It also didn't help that nearly everything that could go wrong did. Lackluster performances from Nola the Younger and Eades, the rare blown save by Goody, Rhymes going 2 for 12 on the weekend and dropping his BA down to .478, and the sudden loss of Ross behind home plate due to appendicitis all contributed to the series loss, the latter of which allowing Vandy to steal with significant success (9 stolen bases combined Saturday and Sunday) and turning what had been a strength into a potential weakness until Snickeris gets up to speed. Ross is recovering well from the surgery, but won't be back until the final rounds of the SEC tournament at the earliest. The weekend wasn't a total loss though, as Gausman's complete game on Friday earned him SEC Pitcher of the Week.
The standings in the SEC are a bit of a mess with a pair of canceled Sunday games that cannot be made up, but LSU is still in terrific shape. We have locked up the SEC West #1 seed for the tournament and it's 1st and 2nd round byes by way of tiebreaker and can do no worse than finish tied for the division title. The overall SEC regular season championship is now a 4 way race between LSU and UK, SCar, and UF out of the east. After Nicholls St tonight, LSU hits the road for a Thurs-Fri-Sat series at SCar.
After being granted his release last week to look around at other schools, Ralston Turner will be transferring to NC State. The Alabama native will, after sitting out a year, be playing for Mark Gottfried, who originally recruited him when he was with the Crimson TIde. After the break, we've got an interview that Johnny Jones did for WAFB.
Les Miles was on Tim Brando's radio show last week, backing up Nick Saban's opinion that a conference championship should not be required for a team to be included in whatever playoff format emerges.
LSU was ranked #1 in the post-spring pre-season early-summer BlogPoll.
In NFL news, Harry Coleman got picked up as an UDFA by Edmonton of the CFL, Will Blackwell had to move up his wedding due to rookie minicamp at Carolina, and Chad Jones has been cut by the Giants after failing a physical, a significant setback after all the work he and the Giants have put in to get him back to playing shape.
Arkansas is having one helluva off season.
SEC public enemy #1 Harvey Updyke had to be escorted away from the SEC Softball tournament last weekend (LSU is headed to the NCAAs at College Station this weekend)
You know you love'em, here's the SEC football helmet schedule.
All of a sudden there is a ton of talk about Florida State potentially moving to the BXII, and not everyone at FSU is on the same page. Our SBN Blog Bros at Tomahawk Nation have excellent coverage of this madness. Also in realignment news, Boise St might be getting cold feet and Louisville just flat wants out of the Big East.
The USFL is coming back as a spring football league.
Northwestern State's baseball game with La Tech last Wednesday was canceled BECAUSE THE FIELD WAS ON FIRE.