Wade Baldwin IV had 24 and Damian Jones added 20 and 12 boards as the Dores hung on to defeat Florida Tuesday Night, 60-59, at Memorial to move to 12-8 overall and 4-4 in the SEC.
It was a much needed victory for the team after a tough loss at Kentucky last Saturday afternoon, 76-57. Wade and Dame were terrific against Florida. Wade was 7-of-13 from the field, 1-of-1 from three, and 9-of-14 from the stripe. Don't love that free throw number; he's a lot better than that from the stripe. Damian was six-of-14 from the field and 8-of-11 from the line. As a team, we were 21-of-33 from the line for the game, 63%. That needs to improve going forward. Jeff Roberson had six points and six boards and Luke Kornet had four points and nine boards. We shot 41% from the field, 18-of-44, and 33% from trifecta, 3-of-9. We played good defense though until the end of the game, holding Florida to 33% from the field, 23-of-70, and 32% from three, 7-of-22. The Gators were 18-of-25 from the stripe, 60%. They out rebounded us 43-41, but that was pretty much a wash. Our defense was excellent for most of the game, though in the final six minutes of the second half it was pretty shaky. Florida dropped to 5-3 in the SEC and 13-7 overall.
We have a huge game this Saturday @Texas in the SEC-Big 12 Challenge at 11 AM CT/Noon ET on ESPN2. Would be tremendous to get a W in Austin. Shaka Smart has a good team this year in Austin. Texas is 13-7 overall and 5-3 in the Big 12. They have a home victory over No.1 North Carolina, 84-82, back in December. They defeated top 15 team Iowa State at home, 94-91, on Jan.12th, and they also defeated top 20 team West Virginia on the road, Jan. 20th, 56-49. The Longhorns are 10-1 at home, with their only loss coming to UConn on Dec. 29th, 71-66. They are coming off a loss at Kansas last Saturday, 76-67, and a W on Tuesday Night over TCU, 71-54.
This is important. We'll need the Big Fella and WB4 to play well again, but Jeff and Luke will have to give us more on the offensive end, and Riley and MFD will HAVE to shoot it well. Riley is too good of a shooter to be struggling the way he has. I expect him to get it together on Saturday and going forward. He's too good of a player not to. He's still helping us with his hustle, his defense and his passing. MFD hit two trifectas Tuesday Night, but we need to get more of that from him. If he gets an open look, he's usually automatic from three. We'll need that Saturday. Our guys off the bench, Camron Justice, Joe Toye, Josh Henderson, Nolan Cressler and Carter Josephs, will have to give us some valuable minutes.
After Texas, we have A&M next Thursday at home, 6 PM CT/7PM ET on ESPN or the Deuce. A&M lost last night at Arkansas. Huge game next Thursday, too. The Kentucky loss wasn't the way team our team should play. We just had a really off game. Kentucky played extremely well, too. They look like they really have it together now. After beating Arkansas, 80-66, at Arkansas last Thursday, they beat us soundly, and then crushed Missouri last night, 88-54. They are clicking right now, and look like a Final Four team and even a national championship team. But we've got the guys to stick with them when they come to Memorial, Feb. 27th, for a 3 PM CT/4 PM ET tipoff on CBS. A lot of basketball for us to play before that though, starting Saturday. It's gotta be a game at a time for our team right now with every game counting the same and massively important. Texas will be a huge challenge and would also be a huge lift for our team if we come out of Austin with a victory. We can get this done. We just need to play up to our standards.
Football
We got a really good commit on Tuesday from Andrew Mintze, an outside linebacker/defensive end from Philadelphia, PA. Andrew is a 79 two star, but I watched his film and he is a guy who plays with reckless abandon. Andrew is 6'3", 220, and has a super high motor and is a violent tackler, and I mean that in a totally positive way. He makes sure the ball carrier goes down without any gray area. Andrew had 23 tackles for loss and 14 sacks this past season and was a first team All-State selection for the Class 3A state champs Imhotep High football team. Really like this pickup for Coach Mason and the staff. We haven't heard from three-star defensive end Kelvin Lucky yet, but he's still on the radar. We have three good prospects coming in this weekend. Will let you know if any or all of them pull the trigger. '
I was reading about one of our offensive line commits, Devin Cochran. The high three star offensive tackle is 6'7", 315 pounds and buries people. Devin visited last weekend. Devin played at Greater Atlanta Christian, a team that went 12-2 this season and made the semifinals of the Georgia Class AA playoffs. Really good player here. We have three offensive linemen in this class, with two tackles and a center. Braden Kopp, a 6'6", 285 pound solid three-star tackle, and four-star center Sean Auwae, 6"4", 285, are our other line commits. Excellent group and we could add another one before signing day.
We did lose defensive tackle Brandon Adams. He decided to de-commit and go to Georgia Tech. Sorry to hear that, but we should add another d lineman before it's over. There is a defensive linemen from California visiting us this weekend, so hopefully we can get a commit out of him. He's got great size and power. Three star Josiah Sa'0. His film is really impressive. I almost like him better on the offensive line than the defensive line. He is just a dominator on the offensive side of the ball. Josiah will be in with a couple of other prospects this weekend.
Signing Day is next Wednesday, Feb. 3rd. Should be an exciting day. Kind of like a holiday really. Sorry to lose Brandon to Tech, but like the pickup of Andrew and the prospects for some more guys this weekend.
Cornerbacks coach Brett Maxie has left the program to go to Tampa Bay and coach the secondary for the Tampa Bay Bucs. Coach Maxie's heart was in the NFL. I met him one time when I was interviewing Coach Mason and he just seemed like an NFL coach. Coach Mason will most likely hire a cornerbacks coach after signing day. I really believe our cornerbacks can get even better. Torren McGaster, Taurean Ferguson, Donaven Sheffield and Tre Herndon are highly talented along with our depth there, and they can even get better coaching. Coach Mason will of course be heavily involved in coaching the secondary, so that will help along with safeties coach Marc Mattioli.
Luke List finished tied for sixth last weekend at the Career Builders Challenge in California. Excellent showing by Luke, who shot 68,68, 66,66 to finish -20 and get some good priority points with that showing. Jason Dufner won the tournament in a playoff over David Lingmerth.
Luke and Brandt are competing this weekend at Torrey Pines in the Farmers Insurance Open. Brandt is even par through seven and Luke is +2 through 10. Brandt is coming off consecutive top three finishes in Hawaii at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Maui and the Sony Open in Honolulu. Brandt actually lost in a playoff to Fabian Gomez at the Sony, so he's playing well. Brandt didn't play at the Career Builders last week.
There is a five way tie for the lead @ -4 at the Farmers. K.J. Choi, Harris English, Hideki Matsuyama, Bud Cauley and Rob Oppenheim are leading. Pretty jammed up leaderboard. Should be an exciting weekend with a marquee field at Torrey Pines in San Diego.
Will have my conversation with Coach Geoff McDonald of VU Women's Tennis next Monday. The team are the defending national champions and Geoff firmly believes this team can do some great things this season because of their efforts in the preseason and their passion for the game. It's tough to repeat. Geoff and I talked about that. But it's certainly doable with the talent we have on this team and their extraordinary attitudes and competitiveness. Will have more on that and the rest of our conversation on Monday.
Tuesday, I will have my conversation with the man, Corbs, on his 2016 Vanderbilt baseball team. The prospects are exciting. Corbs and I talked about a lot of stuff and will have that up Tuesday at the latest.
In the meantime, we have a huge basketball Saturday and football recruiting in the forefront this weekend. Will keep you up to date on both of those sports and anything else that comes up.