Who Goes to the National Championship Game? And More SEC Basketball

We break down a coin-flip Fiesta Bowl between Miami’s ferocious pass rush and Trinidad Chambliss’s escape artistry, then unpack why Indiana’s defense can again squeeze Oregon in a tricky rematch. We close with SEC hoops swings: Georgia’s rebounding pain, Kentucky’s late-game stalls, and Vanderbilt proving it’s for real.

• Miami pressure vs Chambliss’s scramble and deep ball
• Ole Miss front seven vs Mark Fletcher
• Oregon’s protection issues vs Indiana’s disciplined defense
• Georgia roster churn and portal priorities at receiver and DB
• Georgia–Florida hoops lessons on rebounding and shot selection
• Kentucky’s end-game execution
• Vanderbilt’s statement win over Alabama and balanced scoring
• MLB aside on Marlins’ prospect-first strategy and fan frustration

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Transcript

Playoff Semifinal Preview Setup

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The college football playoff semifinal starts tonight. On today's show, I'll break down both of those upcoming games, and then in the later half of the show, I'll talk about three big SEC matchups in basketball this week. So stay tuned because you're not going to want to miss any of this. Okay, so we're down to the semifinal games in the college football

Miami vs Ole Miss Context And Storylines

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playoff. Tonight we've got Miami versus Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl. Interesting fact, Miami has Interesting fact, Miami has played in the Fiesta Bowl four times. They are winless in all of those games. This is Ole Miss's first game in the Fiesta Bowl. In this matchup, it's a tale of two quarterbacks. You have Carson Beck, the highly sought-after, highly paid transfer quarterback from Georgia with the pedigree versus Trinidad Chambliss, who until this year was playing at the lower level of college football at Ferris State and was the backup at Ole Miss at the beginning of this season. Now, going into this game, I think most people would probably argue that Trinidad Chambliss is playing like the better quarterback. I want to address one of the big storylines going into the game, which was whether Ole Miss's assistants, who will be going to LSU next season with Elaine Kiffin, such as offensive coordinator Charlie Weiss, were going to be able to coach in this game. Some were saying that they were choosing not to coach in the game, or that even Lane Kiffin would not allow them to coach in this game. That does not appear to be true. That appears to be rumors. Pete Golding, who is the head coach for Ole Miss, says that there's been good communication between he and LSU, Lane Kiffin. He said, the idea is the same guys that have coached the positions all year will do that in this game. Pete Golding said the decision is not up to him. It is up to LSU and the assistant coaches. He said they would continue to have that opportunity as they have throughout the playoff. He said, I don't dictate whether they do that or not because they're not employed by me. He expects them to be coaching in this game. Sounds like they'll be coaching in this game. Pete Golding is not sure whether they will continue to coach in the national championship game if they win. It would be really hard to believe that they would leave before the national championship game, but it sounds like Weiss and the other coaches have been with the team this week and will coach in this game.

Coaching Rumors And Staff Availability

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Now let's talk about the game. The primary factor in deciding this game will be can Miami sack Trinidad Chambliss or force him into making mistakes? Miami has been amazing rushing the passer all season that has been elevated even in this playoff. They have also done a very good job stopping the run. In two games against Texas AM and Ohio State, talking about the pass rush, Miami had seven sacks against Texas AM and five against Ohio State, 12 sacks in two games. They were able to stop Marcel Reed, held Texas AM to three points. Trinidad Chambliss is a better quarterback than Marcel Reed. They are both very mobile and they were able to limit Reed's effectiveness. However, in the Sugar Bowl, Georgia could not sack Chambliss. They had pressure.

Can Miami Contain Trinidad Chambliss?

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You had Chambliss able to scramble, get away, make a big play, make a very accurate throw down the field. There was one play in which Georgia had three guys in the backfield chasing Chambliss, including corner Dalen Everett. Everett loses contain. I mean, you've got a corner you think he's fast enough to track down the quarterback. Chambliss gets around Everett, makes a great throw down the field. Now, we've talked about Miami's rushers ad nauseum on the show, but the question will be: can those rushers, Ruben Bain, Hakeem Mesidor, Ahmad Moton, can they tackle Trinidad Chambliss? It's not enough to get pressure on him. Can they get him down? If they don't, he could do the same to them. He had 362 passing yards against Georgia. This is one of the best offenses in general, certainly one of the best passing offenses in the nation. So I fully expect Miami to get pressure on Trinidad Chambless. I don't think anybody would be expecting that Ole Miss is going to be able to stop Miami from getting much pressure. The question will be: is that pressure actually effective or does it just allow Trinidad Chambless to make a big play? Ole Miss also has running back Keewon Lacey, who's very good. Miami was able to hold Ohio State and Bo Jackson to 45 rushing yards. So this is going to be a very interesting battle between a very good defense, extremely high pressure rate, and one of, if not the best passing offense in the country. It's a very dynamic matchup between guys who are going to go in the first round, pass rushers like Ruben Bain, and a quarterback that no one can tackle. And Trinidad Chambliss has has applied for a waiver from the NCAA. If he gets that waiver to play an additional season, he is he has said he is coming back to Ole Miss. If he is not granted that waiver, it would be very interesting to see what Chambliss's draft stock is going to be. I mean, there are a lot of stories in this playoff. There's not really much bigger than the story of Trinidad Chambliss and what he's been able to do. And this offense is so good. They only have one loss on the season to Georgia at Georgia, which is an incredibly difficult place to win a game. And in the game that they lost, the one game that they lost, Ole Miss had 35 points on Georgia's defense. They then followed that up by beating Georgia, who I expected to win the national championship game, scoring 39 points on Georgia. So this is very much going to be offense versus defense, who wins. The secondary issue of the game to me that will decide the game is how does Ole

Offense vs Defense: Matchup Keys

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Miss's front seven on defense play? Do they get the pressure that they got against Georgia? I talked about that, that I was very surprised how well Ole Miss's front played, how they were able to get in the backfield frequently, and while Georgia was able to run the ball effectively at times, much of the game Ole Miss was shutting down the run, which had been how Georgia had done so well against Ole Miss the first time. So this is going to be very interesting. And I think the game is going to come down to those two things. Is Mark Fletcher going to be able to run on Ole Miss? If Ole Miss's defense does not play equally well or better to the way it played against Georgia, I think Mark Fletcher will run all over them. He's a big physical, strong back that has not been Ole Miss's forte, strong physical running game. So if they are not able to frequently get in the backfield like they did against Georgia, Fletcher very well could run all over them. But if they do continue to play this well, it'll be hard for him to get going. And and Carson Beck, while at times can make plays with his legs, he is not as mobile as Gunnar Stockton. Gunnar Stockton got out of a lot of trouble, a lot of sacks with his legs. Georgia made that game so close because Gunnar Stockton made so many great plays, fought so hard. I don't think Carson Beck's going to be able to get out of that much pressure. So whose defensive front has more success on the day to me will decide who wins the game. I find this game to be a toss-up. I have felt since the playoff began that Ole Miss was very good, had a legitimate shot to win the national championship. I on the other side of that, I was vociferously demanding that Miami be put in the playoff. I thought earlier in the season that Miami was the best team in the country. We talked about that last episode, and I did say I could see Miami making a run. However, I have picked against Miami both games. Both games I thought would be very close, but I picked against Miami. Last week, I picked against Ole Miss. I don't know who to pick in this game. Ole Miss has a better offense than Miami. I don't think that's in dispute. They have a significantly better offense than Miami. I have a hard time believing Miami is going to hold Ole Miss to three points like they did Texas AM, 14 like they did Ohio State. I do not think that is going to happen. Ole Miss has a drastically better offense than either Texas AM or Ohio State. The issue for Ole Miss is going to be the defense. If I don't pick Miami and they win, I'm going to look like a moron. That's going to be three times in a row that I said, oh, I think this will be a close game with Miami, but I think they'll lose and then they win. However, it is extremely difficult for me to pick against that Ole Miss offense and Trinidad Chambliss the way that he has been playing. It is really hard for me to pick

Ole Miss Front Seven And Miami Run Game

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against Ole Miss who beat the team I thought would win the national championship, my dogs. There's a few different ways to look at this game. There is the old adage, defense wins championships. Generally speaking, even in this new age of football, that has held true. I firmly believe they're going to get a lot of pressure on Trinidad Chambliss. I don't think he's going to be able to get out of all those sacks like he did against Georgia. Miami has a much more effective pass rush than Georgia does. So I'm going to do something I haven't been doing on this show so far. I'm not making a pick. This game is a coin flip. I definitely think Miami will be all over Trinidad Chambless, but I can't predict the plays he's going to make. I don't think anybody can predict the plays he's going to make. The way he played in that Georgia game, no one can plan for that. No amount of pressure can stop that. You can't stop a guy who can who can scramble that well and keep his eyes downfield and make such accurate throws. I don't know if he'll play that well again this game, but he has played extremely well all season. So this is a cop-out. I don't care. I don't know who's going to win this game. I don't feel good about picking either team because I think so highly of both teams. My prediction is a very good, very close game and an absolute war between a great defense, a great pass rush, and a phenomenal quarterback and an electric offense. Now, shifting gears to the peach bowl, Oregon versus Indiana. This is another rematch. We've had three rematches already in the playoff this year. This will be the fourth. Indiana won at Oregon earlier in the season, 30 to 20. No team that won the first game has ever won a rematch in the college football playoff besides Ole Miss over Tulane. And I don't think you really should even count that. So we've said that on the show before. It is very difficult to beat a good team, much less a very good team, twice in one season. Obviously, no one else has been able to do it other than Ole Miss over Tulane. I also think that's something NCAA needs to think about. Is this really the way we want to do things? And I don't know what the solution would be, but I've talked about this on another show. This goes back years. I always had a huge problem with 2011. This was back in the BCS. LSU beats Alabama during the regular season. LSU has to go play in the SEC championship game. Alabama does not. LSU wins the SEC championship, goes to the

No-Pick Call And Coin-Flip Framing

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national championship game, meets Alabama again. Alabama wins the national championship. That has never sat right with me. There have been several times through the years that a team won in the regular season and then lost in the playoffs. And this has both harmed and benefited my own team. Georgia benefited from it again in 2021, lost to Alabama in the SEC Championship, then won in the national championship. And then this year was a situation where it went the other way. Georgia beat Ole Miss in the regular season, lost in the college football playoff. It's just something teams have to deal with. It happens all the time. But I kind of wonder should the college football playoff reevaluate this? And this is part of my wanting the playoff to be four teams. I I don't think you should have to beat a team. This happened to Oregon last year. You beat Ohio State in your own conference. You won your conference championship game that Ohio State didn't have to play in. Then you did not get a home game, had to play Ohio State again, Ohio State won. I don't like the rematches, especially for teams that are playing teams in their own conference that they won. I don't like the rematches. So I don't know if anything will ever be done about that, but I don't think it's particularly fair to continue to match these teams up in the playoff that they've already beaten. Other sports do it, professional sports do it, it's completely commonplace. It hasn't been all that common in college football because of we had the BCS system with only two teams in the national championship. We had the four-team playoff. It's only just now that we have a larger playoff that resembles professional sports. So this is an issue we're going to have to deal with. We're either going to have to be okay with teams beating teams in their conference, winning conference championship games sometimes, and then having to win having another matchup against those teams in the playoff, or we're going to have to do something about it. But the reality for this week is Indiana's got to beat Oregon again to go to the national championship game. So in that first game, Indiana got tons of pressure on Oregon. They had six sacks in that game. Will that be an issue in this game? Okay, look at Oregon's win over Texas Tech. Yes, Oregon won 23 to nothing against Texas Tech, but Texas Tech got a lot of pressure on Oregon. They did a good job against Oregon's offense. Oregon didn't win that game because of how much they handled Texas Tech's defense. Oregon was four for nine on third downs. They went for it on fourth down eight times, that old Dan Lanning philosophy. Oregon only had 245 passing yards, zero passing touchdowns, 64 rushing yards. Oregon won the game against the Red Raiders because of the turnover margin. They won the turnover margin, four takeaways to one turnover. They also had a play where they sacked Morton on fourth down. That's essentially a turnover. I really don't see Indiana and Fernando Mendoza turning the ball over that many times. Indiana also has a very good defense. Let's talk about how the first game went, in addition to the six sacks. Oregon only had 186 passing yards in the first matchup against Indiana. Dante Moore had one touchdown to two interceptions. Oregon also only had 81 rushing yards on 30 carries. The Ducks also scored a touchdown on an interception, so only 13 of their 20 points were on offense. In that game, Oregon was only 3 for 14 on third down, but they went three for four on fourth down. Indiana didn't have a pr didn't have a particularly stellar day on offense either. But my point is Indiana has a very good defense. That hasn't changed. They completely obliterated Alabama. Oregon also clearly hasn't fixed

Oregon vs Indiana Rematch Dynamics

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the issue with really good defenses, getting pressure, shutting down their offense. Yes, winning the rematch will be hard. Yes, Oregon has played well in the playoff. I don't think Oregon will be able to block Indiana and move the ball well enough to win the game. I think Indiana is going to win this game. I think Kurt Signetti has them on a crash course towards the national championship game. They are the only undefeated team, and you can see why. So I think Indiana is going to win this game and go to the national championship. But whoever wins these games, this is another one of these storylines. Typically in college football, you have had the same handful of teams winning national championships. I mean, you can really go back decades and it's it's similar teams. And over the last several years, you've essentially had the Alabamas, Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, these mammoth programs winning all the national championships. You don't see a lot of teams outside of the historic big programs winning national championships. In this playoff, and I think this is part of NIL, it's part of the transfer portal, it's part of the 12-team playoff. The teams in this playoff are Miami, who, though they have the storied history, has not won a national championship since 2001. You have Ole Miss, who has won non-unanimous national championship in 1960. Then you have Oregon and Indiana who have both never won national championships. So no matter who wins these four games, you are going to have someone in the national championship game who has not even had an opportunity since Oregon was in the national championship game in 2014. There is a very high likelihood you will have a team win their first national championship this year, or in Ole Miss's case, their first in 66 years. And there'll be a lot more to talk about storyline-wise going forward in this playoff. And I will talk about that as we see who wins these games. Now, before we shift to basketball, I want to address more Georgia roster changes. I brought up CJ Allen and Christian Miller going to the NFL last show. Well, since I since I did that, I there have been a there has been a lot of news about roster turnover for Georgia. On offense, tight end Oscar Delp, wide receiver slash running back Dylan Bell, wide receivers Colby Young and Zachariah Branch have all declared for the NFL. These are massive losses. It's essentially Georgia's entire receiving core. I mean, Oscar Delp was the primary tight end. Dylan Bell has been doing whatever the dogs wanted him to do for the last few years. And I wanted to talk about him for a minute. I have loved watching Dylan Bell. I love that he does whatever they ask him to do. He plays very hard, very tough, runs over guys. I've personally thought he was an even better running back than wide receiver. I think he's really kind of playing out of position, but he does that because that's what Georgia needs him to do. He has come up clutch over and over and over in these games. He he doesn't get a ton of touches, but when the Dogs need to play, Dylan Bell has always been there for Georgia. I am really going to miss Dylan Bell. I really wish him the best, as all of these guys in the NFL. But just wanted to give a shout out to him after how a big an asset he has been and how much I have loved watching him play, how much every week I want to see him get more touches. So I'll miss that, but I hope he has a great career in the NFL. Colby Young, when healthy, has been one of Georgia's best receiving threats. He had some great catches in the Ole Miss game. Gonna miss him. Zachariah Branch, this was totally expected. He will probably be a first-round draft pick,

Turnovers, Pressure, And Ducks’ Offense Limits

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but boy, I really wish Zachariah Branch was coming back. He was Georgia's number one target, far and away, not even close this year. And he showed time and again, all you had to do was throw a screen pass and watch him go. There were so many times where Zachariah Branch should have been tackled behind the line of scrimmage and he makes a big play out of it because he's so fast, so quick, runs so hard. He is a special player. I expect him to do great things in the NFL. We are going to miss that very much. So, yes, Georgia has some young wide receivers. They also dipped into the transfer portal last year with guys like Noah Thomas. Georgia's probably going to have to go back to the transfer portal to address the wide receiver situation. On defense, you had cornerback Dalen Everett, Georgia's top dog at corner, is going to the NFL. Talked about Dalen Everett last show. He's made big play after big play for Georgia for the last couple years. And there's just there's just not any easy way to replace that. The experience, the leadership, the clutch plays. So I think that's going to be a big loss. Wish him the best in the NFL. But also, Jonel Aguero, he was injured in the old miss game, did not play in that game. He has played the star position for Georgia. That is, for you old heads, that would be more the nickel corner spot. He has played that position for Georgia for the last couple years. He is transferring. So Georgia already was playing some young defensive backs this year. Was not really deep at corner this year. So, as always with Georgia, you've got some young guys, but some of that depth is also transferring out behind Everett and Aguero. So Georgia may have to go to the portal. Yes, Georgia got the Clemson safety, Khalil Barnes in the transfer portal. That's a good get, but Georgia is probably going to have to do more to address the corner defensive back position. Some positive news. Middle linebacker Raylon Wilson has announced he is coming back. So that is a huge deal for Georgia to have his experience, to have his leadership as CJ Allen leaves. So hopefully Georgia will not lose hardly any more guys going into next year. Now, speaking of Georgia, we're going to shift to basketball. Well, all I can say is what a letdown after Georgia reached its highest ranking at number 18 since 2003. Talked about this on the show Tuesday. And on that show, I said, Georgia cannot afford to lose Samto Surreal. He is critical to their success. Georgia is a smaller team. They have to have their big dog inside who gets the rebounds, gets the blocks. And we talked about Georgia's difficulty rebounding against Auburn, that they were drastically out rebounded, particularly offensive rebounds, and that Florida was number one on him in offensive rebounds and first in total rebounds. So I asked, would that be an issue in this game? Short answer, yes, it was a huge issue in this game. But it was made worse because

Indiana’s Edge And Historical Parity Shift

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Surreal was necessary for Georgia to have a chance in this game. Ten minutes into the game, Surreal elbows a guy in the face, flagrant too, he's ejected from the game. I understand, and you heard Mike White talked about this after the game. Samto Surreal, if you've ever watched him play, is an emotional guy. He plays very hard. His emotions are a big part of his game. And Mike White said he has done a better job handling those emotions this year. He gets hit a lot. It would frustrate anybody how much he gets hit. He's having to wear the mask this year. But no matter how frustrating it is, you cannot do that. And he knows that. And Mike White said at halftime they went into the locker room and Surreal was really down on himself. It was a it was a big mistake. You cannot do that. I'm not sure what exactly happened in the entire sequence of events, but it ended with a Florida player falling on top of Surreal, seemed to hit him on accident. So Surreal gets angry, responds to that with throwing an elbow in the guy's face. That's an easy call for the ref. Without him, it was just going to be really difficult for Georgia to ever have a chance to win. It already would have been difficult for them to rebound. They already would have struggled to rebound against Florida with Surreal. Without Surreal, you know, you didn't have a lot of a chance. And Georgia did a really good job fighting back after Sreal went out, went into halftime down one, actually took the lead in the second half. But Surreal being out wasn't the only thing hurting Georgia on Tuesday night. Georgia was not passing the ball well. It looked like to me, guys were not moving without the ball. They were not helping guys who often needed help. You would see a guy with the ball clearly looking for someone to pass to, and guys just aren't moving. Georgia took a lot of bad shots, looked really out of control to me a lot of times, and they just missed a lot of shots. Part of the not moving the ball well, Georgia only had six assists on the game. This is the number one offense in the country scoring over 99 points a game, and they struggled to score on Tuesday night. Jeremiah Wilkinson talked about him last show. He's Georgia's leading scorer. He had just two points on one of nine shooting. Blue Kane, Jeremiah Wilkinson, and Samto Surreal, all three of Georgia's key players, had 12 points combined between them. Wilkinson only had two, Surreal only had two. Even with how deep Georgia is, we've talked about they play

Georgia Roster Turnover And Portal Needs

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10, 11, 12 guys. It's hard to win that way. It is hard to win when three of your best players only contribute 12 points. You did have Smurf Millender was seven for 11 for 18 points. I thought Justin Abson played very well on defense. He had five blocks and six rebounds. But it is very hard to guard the excellent big men for Florida with just Justin Abson and Dylan James kind of playing out of position. Dylan James played well, had 16 points, 6 rebounds. But Georgia just really struggled Tuesday night, and a big part of that was their three-point shooting. We've talked about that with Kentucky. I mentioned earlier in the year, Georgia likes to take threes, they don't hit them very well. Very they were when I talked about that before, they were ranked 313th in three-point percentage. That is a problem. On Tuesday night, they only shot four of 19 from three-point range. Oh, and they only hit 65% of their free throws. You're not going to win a lot of games, four for 19 from three and hitting 65% of your free throws. But the rebounding, as I was concerned that it might be, was the clear issue. Florida had 22 offensive rebounds to Georgia's 11. Florida had 56 total rebounds to Georgia's 35. That is not going to work in SEC play. One game could be a fluke, two is not. And yes, you won the game against Auburn despite the rebounding disadvantage, but this was the first time this year where Georgia lost bad. Georgia had only had one loss before that to Clemson, that was an overtime. This wasn't anything like overtime. Georgia got manhandled. This was an over 20-point loss. Oh, and Georgia only had 10 fast break points. Georgia's offense is running, transition, fast break points. Georgia had 10 fast break points. They were totally out of sync during the game. The this is a terrible matchup for Georgia, just looking at it objectively. Georgia does not match up well with Florida, and that's with Surreal in the game. Certainly not without Surreal. This could become a problem going forward with teams that have good athletic big men. Mike White said after the game, there is a problem with this team's rebounding. He said they do not seem to have the mentality to really get after it on the boards. They do not seem to have the urgency, particularly on offensive rebounding, and that is bearing itself out statistically, to go get those offensive rebounds. For Georgia to win games, it has to hit shots and it has to have crisp passing. It had neither on Tuesday. You couple that with getting dominated on the boards, that's a recipe for disaster, which is exactly what it was. Georgia kept it close part of the game, but much of that second half was hard to watch as a Georgia fan. Now, Georgia will go to South Carolina on Saturday, who had a insane lead on LSU Tuesday, ended up winning by 10 points. Florida, Florida did not shoot particularly well. This was not a great shooting performance by either team. They were six for 25 from three, but they had 18 assists, 10 blocks, 35 fast break points. Florida really dominated the game. They were the aggressor in this game. Georgia is called the Dunkyard Dogs. Florida was the one with the dunks. Florida was the one with the alley oops. At one point I was saying to my TV, hey, guys, they're going to throw it up to Condon.

Georgia-Florida Hoops: Ejection And Rebounding Gap

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Okay? They're going to get a dunk. Thomas Haug had a great game, 21 points, 12 rebounds. Florida wasn't ranked going into the game, but this is a very good team. This is the team that won the national championship last year. Yes, they lost some pieces from that team, but their losses are a two-possession game against Arizona, who right now looks head and shoulders above just about everybody in the country. They had a four-point loss to TCU, a one-point loss against Duke, a four-point loss to Yukon, and a two-point loss to Missouri. So, yes, they have five losses and are not ranked. That does not mean they are not a good team. They are an extremely good team. Would the game have been much different with Surreal in? Not sure. Maybe, I don't know, but that's not why Georgia lost this game. Florida was able to shut down Georgia's number one offense, which has had a hundred points in a game seven times this season. Florida just took it to Georgia. That's really all there is to it. Florida will play Tennessee at home Saturday. Georgia and Florida will play again in Athens on February 11th. Now the team Florida lost to on Saturday, Missouri went to Kentucky on Wednesday night. Kentucky had not lost a home opener since 2013. And we've talked about Kentucky's struggles, had that loss to Alabama on Saturday. Kentucky did some things somewhat better in this game. They were seven for 18 from three. That's an improvement over their general three-point shooting. They won the rebounding margin in this game. They had more assists today. We talked about them only having nine assists in the Alabama game. They had 16 on Wednesday, but they had too many turnovers. 13 turnovers, terrible field goal shooting, totally total shooting percentage of 43%. This was not a pretty offensive performance by either team, and it wasn't really because the defenses were playing so well. It it was a sloppy game. There were some wild passes, some bad shots, and kind of as we've said all year, Kentucky just doesn't look right. They just look totally out of rhythm. As I've heard lots of people say, they do not have a pure point guard who can run the offense well. Now, in the first half, when Owe had the Owe had a huge three-quarter court buzzer beater. I I don't can't remember the last time I've seen one of those shots actually go in. Hits the shot, but coming out of halftime, it just kind of continues to be the same type of game. Now, with about four minutes left in the game, Kentucky really went on a run, started to pull away, looked like they would win the game. But then they didn't take care of the basketball. They let Missouri right back in the game. And then they played Kentucky played really poorly the last minute of the game. And I want to talk about that last shot. Kentucky calls the timeout. You're playing with the last shot. I thought that was really sure poor shot selection for the last shot of the game. He did not have an open three there. You've got a guy calling for the ball. You had more time. There was over three seconds on the clock when that shot was taken. Why not pass the ball? They have to get something going on offense. Will it get better? Uh well, maybe as they get healthier, play together longer, mature. So yeah, maybe it will get better, but right now it is looking really bad for Kentucky. Kentucky has six losses on the season already. And I don't think it's going to get a whole lot easier in the SEC. Kentucky plays Mississippi State Saturday, who followed up their overtime win against Texas with a nearly 20-point win over Oklahoma. Is Kentucky going to be able to score with the Mississippi State Bulldogs? Josh Hubbard had 38 points on Saturday. He had 30 on Wednesday night. He's scoring over 20 points a game. Is Kentucky going to be able to score with Josh Hubbard? So that'll be what you want to look for on Saturday. For Missouri, this was their first win ever in Rup Arena. They've been 0-9 previously. So Missouri had some very bad losses to their rivals early in the season, had about a 40-point loss to Illinois, but they have been extremely resilient in two SEC games and won both. They came back in two games against Florida and against Kentucky. For Missouri,

Shooting Woes, Ball Movement, And Efficiency

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Anthony Robinson had nine points, ten assists. Mark Mitchell played well, had 21 points. Jaden Stone had 20 points, seven rebounds. Missouri will play Ole Miss on Saturday. Now, the big game that everybody was focused on on Wednesday night in the SEC was Alabama versus Vanderbilt. This was kind of a who is the top dog in the SEC. Vanderbilt was coming in ranked 11th, undefeated. Alabama was coming in ranked 13th. Now, one of the storylines here had been Alabama head coach Nate Oates had kind of questioned Vanderbilt's schedule. Were they really legit? Did what did we really know about Vanderbilt? And I don't know if they heard it or not, but Vanderbilt came out very hungry, got a good lead on Alabama earlier in the game. A lot of the Alabama came back, made it very close. This was a game between two very good three-point shooting teams. I said on the last show to expect a lot of three-pointers. Well, neither team hit very many threes. And that was really the problem for Alabama, who uh a lot of their offense is dependent on hitting threes, hitting threes in tran is dependent on hitting threes. They need to hit the threes in their offense, and that's how they won the Kentucky game we talked about, how good their three-point shooting had been. Alabama was nine for 40 on three-point shots. That's 22% for you, non-math majors. They only had nine assists, 13 turnovers. That's not a good stat line, is it? This was a really back and forth game, extremely physical. Saw a lot of fouls, a lot of guys getting knocked to the floor. Uh it clearly meant a lot to the players who won this game. But Alabama did not play, but Alabama did not play well, and they had two technical fouls in the game. This was just not a very good game for Alabama. Alabama point guard LeBaron Phylon had 15 points in the first half. Okay. He had three points in the second half, was missing from the bench most of the second half. What I have been seeing on social media is Nate Oates said he had full body cramps and had to get an IV. But obviously that plays a role in the game, not having one of your best players out there running the offense. Positives for Alabama, Amari Allen had 25 points and 11 rebounds. Aiden Holloway had 22 points, London Jameson had 11 rebounds. Now for Vanderbilt, which is really the story of the game, is Vanderbilt and how they played. Tyler Tanner had 29 points, seven assists, four steals. Duke Miles had 19 points, four rebounds, five steals. Devin McLaughlin had 10 points, 12 rebounds. Vanderbilt had five players who went for double-digit scoring. Vanderbilt had Alabama off balance all night. I thought they clearly played like the better team. There was a lot of question about were they a legit 14-0 number 11 team in the country? Most power conference teams that are 14-0 would have been ranked higher. I think Alabama, if they had sniffed 14-0, would have been ranked much higher. But Vanderbilt, but Vanderbilt clearly answered that on Wednesday night. Is Vanderbilt a very good team? Yes, it was a very close game, but Vanderbilt led 83% of the game. They led by as much as 13, and they showed they are legit. They controlled most of the game. They were the better team. I also, one thing about this game, I thought how Alabama handled the last few seconds was very strange. Alabama had about nine seconds left in the game, one timeout, only down six points. Alabama didn't even try to foul

Kentucky’s Late-Game Issues vs Missouri

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and let the clock run out. Yes, I know if Vanderbilt hits the free throws, Alabama would have been down eight with nine seconds left, or they could have intentionally missed a free throw and ran some more clock or got fouled again. But with a timeout and a two-possession game, I think they should have at least tried to foul. I just didn't think it I thought it was a very odd way to handle the end of the game. Now, LSU will go to Vanderbilt on Saturday. Alabama will have Texas at home. One more thing I want to talk about before I end the show. A few weeks ago, I talked about MLB needing a salary cap and a salary floor. I talked about some teams that are not even trying to win, and I named the Marlins and how the Marlins have had a very long track record of having young, very promising players who they ship off for prospects repeatedly. I mean, it's rents repeat. It's it's been their MO for their the entire history of the Marlins, and it's it's frankly gotten ridiculous. So on Wednesday, they did it again. The Marlins traded starting pitcher Edward Cabrera to the Cubs for prospects. Cabrera is not even Edward Cabrera will turn 28 in April. Had a very good year last year, 3.53 ERA, 150 strikeouts. So he looks to be a very promising young pitcher. For the Marlins, the main part of the trade that they are getting is Owen Casey, ranked as the number one prospect in the Cub system. Casey played in the majors 12 games last year. When you're looking at him, it's pretty much about the bat, has a high whiff rate. So the question will be how can he cut the whiff rate down? Can he get more walks? How does the guy hit going forward? I don't want to get too much into this trade, but this is just another example. The Marlins will not just try to win. Yes, I know you can build your team by trading for big prospects. You can trade and build up your farm system, and all that's great. I'm not saying that teams, particularly teams in smaller markets, should never do that. But you shouldn't always do that. There comes a time of you have the good player right now. You have a player you already know is successful in Major League Baseball. You have a young player. Stop continually trading these guys for prospects who have not proven themselves in Major League Baseball. The Marlins have net have never shown they are in win-now mode. They will not do it, no matter how many young, talented players they have. We talked about on the that the show I talked about earlier that the Marlins had a playoff team just a few years ago and decided to ship all that talent and get clean house on their front office and their manager. At what at any point is something going to be done to push the Marlins in in the direction of trying to win baseball games? Because you can argue that you're trading for prospects to improve your future all you want to. Prospects that you will then trade off again. Eventually, you have to try to win. And part of winning is keeping proven young players on your team.

Vanderbilt Validates Against Alabama

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And the Marlins pretty much never do that. So I don't have a dog in the fight. I'm a Braves fan. The worse the Marlins are, the better for the Braves. But if I were a Marlins fan, I'd be furious. I mean, if Miami doesn't even want to try to win, if the Marlins don't even want to try to win, how about the ownership sell the team? It's it's just ridiculous. So that's all the baseball for this show. On Tuesday, I will talk about those two college football playoff games, who is making the national championship. I will also talk about this weekend's college basketball games. So it all comes down to this. Tonight, Miami and Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl, and Friday night, Indiana and Oregon in the Peach Bowl. Let me know what you think. Who do you think is going to win those two games? Who are you rooting for? And what do you think about Georgia's loss to Florida? Are the Wildcats going to get out of this tailspin? And what about Vanderbilt's hot start, 15 0 on the season? Thanks for tuning in. If you enjoyed the show, please follow, subscribe, like, share it with your friends, and let me know what you think.