Link Gumbo 6/5/13

Oklahoma is coming to The Box this weekend, and they are bringing with them a possible first round pick in starting pitcher Jonathan Gray. It was revealed Monday that Gray tested positive for Adderall in an MLB pre-draft drug screening. While the common ADHD drug is a banned substance without a prescription under NCAA rules, they do not accept the results of a test they didn't administer, so Gray will play this weekend. The MLB community is up in arms about it, but there are few in the college world who care that a player tested positive for the only drug with more widespread illegal use by college students than weed. Not that any of us would mind if the NCAA pulled Gray aside for a "random" drug test in the next 24-48 hours...

Gray will be going up against Aaron Nola, Coach Mainieri confirmed on Tuesday, setting up the best potential pitcher's duel in any Super Regional this weekend. Also likely in the rotation this weekend, Cody Glenn has been reinstated by unanimous vote of his team. He offered up an apology video to the fans which I've added below. The rest of the roster is just about set, with the only question mark being lead off man Sean McMullen's hamstring.

I'm not exactly sure why at the moment, but Chris Cotton and Alex Bregman were sworn in as (I'm sure honorary) deputies of the Iberville Parish Sheriff's Department yesterday.

The announcing crew for the Baton Rouge Super Regional (which will air on ESPN and ESPN2) has been announced as Mike Patrick and Kyle Peterson in the booth, with Baton Rouge native Kaylee Hartung doing field reporting. In an ideal world, it would be Dave Neal in the booth with Peterson, but sadly his talents are needed elsewhere (he'll be calling the Vandy Super). Also of note, LSU great Ben McDonald will be calling the UVA Super where Mississippi State will be playing. To my knowledge, it's the first time he's been on a crew for a Super Regional (certainly a non-LSU one), and is a good signal that we'll see and hear a lot more from McDonald in the coming years as ESPN and the SEC Net ramp up their college baseball coverage.

Standing Room Only tickets for the Super go on sale to the general public at 6pm Thursday night.

The MLB Draft starts on Thursday at 5pm. SB Nation's draft gurus see LSU's first pick being Ryan Eades to Kansas City early in the second round. Don't forget to check out our break downs of the prospect for both the eligible players on the roster and the incoming signing class.

One of the great national voices of college baseball, Kendall Rodgers has an excellent write up of how LSU just keeps chugging along despite all of the various setbacks that have hit the team in the last month.

This time last year he was preparing to face Stony Brook and now Kevin Gausman is starting to find his groove in Baltimore. I guess all that "extra work" he did in the Supers is really holding him back...

Meanwhile, The Dreads of Doom, Chad Jones has returned to the mound in hopes of restarting his baseball career (and he's already getting offers)

JaMarcus Russell is going to get a tryout with the Chicago Bears later this week.

The SEC held it's summer meetings in Destin last week and the topic of scheduling in multiple sports grabbed the headlines. In Basketball, the league is looking to improve it's woeful RPI and low NCAA tournament bid rate by having schools submit their non-conf schedules to the league office for approval. I get the point, but if the SEC is already losing two or three games to the SWAC every year, making the schedules tougher isn't exactly going to help anyone.

There was much wailing again by LSU to end permanent cross-division games (and thus the Florida game) but for now it survives. Until 2015 at least, the league will keep the 6-1-1 format, though A&M and Mizzou are changing their permanent opponents to be South Carolina and Arkansas, respectively.

The SEC also released the baseball schedule for next season [PDF LINK]. LSU will miss Mizzou, South Carolina, and Kentucky out of the east. The Road trips are Florida, Ole Miss, Auburn, A&M (yes, again), and the conference season opener at Vandy.

One late arriving tidbit from the SEC meetings was revealed just yesterday. Commissioner Slive is thinking about retiring after the 2013-2014 athletic season.

In an oddly specific list of "Best schools for NBA talent since 1989" LSU ranks 18th, largely because of Shaq.

From the Canberra Times: There is a big time player who's becoming a Tiger this fall, but he isn't a punter...

One of last remaining giants of the College Baseball world is on his way out. Wichita St.'s Gene Stephenson, who built the Shockers program from nothing in 1977 and has amassed over 1800 wins, 7 CWS appearances (including the 1993 title game against LSU) and a national title in 1989, has been terminated with just 1 year left on his contract. WSU was swept at home for the first time ever under Stephenson earlier this season against Pitt and were bounced from the Kansas St regional last weekend by Arkansas. In my mind, he's at least got to be on the list of candidates at Auburn, even if he is 67.

The other big name on Auburn's radar appears to be former LSU assistant and branch of the Mainieri coaching tree, UCF HC Terry Rooney

In more baseball coaching news, UGA has hired Scott Stricklin. Stricklin is coming from Kent State, where he took the Golden Flashes all the way to Omaha in a magical season last year.

The strange tale of the botched Miami football investigation gets more embarrassing for the NCAA by the day. Last week a DE for the Canes walked into a Coral Gables police station with an attorney to file a report that the NCAA coerced him to provide testimony.

You've seen the gif of Les Miles jumping off a building already, but I just wanted to be sure we shared that the reason he jumped was in support of "Over the Edge for Adoption" non-profit foundation, which seeks to place the nearly 500 adoption-eligible children of the Louisiana Foster Care program in homes.