Baseball Notebook

We may be in the middle of March Madness, but that doesn't mean we can't spend a little time talking about the Vanderbilt baseball team. After taking two of three from No. 8 South Carolina over the weekend, the Commodores (12-4, 2-1 SEC) moved up to No. 5 in Baseball America’s Top 25. BA's Aaron Fitt also mentioned Vandy a few times in his chat and seems to be pretty high on coach Tim Corbin's squad.

"Those young arms are the key — I'm not worried at all about Vandy's offense, especially with (Andrew) Giobbi hitting the way he has," Fitt wrote. "It's guys like (Caleb) Cotham, (Mark) Lamm, (Taylor) Hill, (Russell) Brewer and (Chase) Reid who will determine how far Vandy goes. So far, so good."

If you haven't already, check out my column on Cotham, who picked up the win in his SEC debut yesterday. Another good read is Kendall Rodgers' piece from rivals.com. As he puts it, "life sure is good for an offense that some expected to fail without (Pedro) Alvarez in the lineup."

A few other odds & ends on the Hawkins Nine...

• Vandy just played nine straight games against 2007 tourney teams and went an impressive 7-2.
• The Commodores host Lipscomb Wednesday (4 p.m.) before hitting the road to take on Alabama this weekend.
• Vandy took the season series from South Carolina for the fourth straight year.
  
• Redshirt sophomore Andrew Giobbi continues to rake. He was 9-for-21 (.429) with three doubles, a grand slam (an absolute blast to deep left) and 11 RBI. Giobbi leads the team in batting average (.431), doubles (9) and RBI (19).
  
• While sophomore Mike Minor was dominant in Friday night's extra-inning victory, the performances of freshmen Chase Reid and Russell Brewer were equally impressive. They pitched a combined 4.1 innings of scoreless relief to give Vandy a chance to win.
• Is there anyone more clutch than Ryan Flaherty, whose favorite player is none other than Derek Jeter? On Friday night, the junior shortstop hit the game-tying homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and then had the game-winning hit in the 13th. Flash finished the game 5-for-6.

NFL Draft Watch Part 2

We are just over a month away from the NFL draft, and while it appears Chris Williams has all but locked up a top-20 selection, Earl Bennett is still a big question on draft day.

I questioned why he declared for the NFL draft after a very solid class of juniors (Kelly, Manningham, Jackson, etc.) declared themselves, especially after taking a step back from last year's campaign. He looked like a third to fourth round pick until the Combine, where an excellent performance (particularly his 4.48 40-time) fueled speculation that he could be a late first or early second round pick.

However, the depth of receivers and the fact few teams have a glaring need at the position over others could drop Bennett to the back of the second round or even the third. It will probably take a very good pro day to solidify his status as a second rounder, and some of the other receivers having poor pro days to move him into first round consideration.

The problem is he simply doesn't have the size of Limas Sweed and James Hardy, or the speed of DeSean Jackson to make him stand out in the eyes of teams looking for an immediate impact at wideout.

As it stands, Jackson is the only likely top 15 pick, however, as I mentioned in a previous post many teams in the 11-20 range need both a receiver and offensive lineman, and could opt for either one. The Bills, Broncos, Bears, Eagles, Buccaneers, Redskins, Cowboys (2 picks), Titans, 49ers will all consider wideouts in the first round.

The Titans and Cowboys are almost locks to grab one, and there will be anywhere from three to six taken in the first round. Jackson, Sweed, Malcolm Kelly, Devin Thomas, and Hardy are the top choices, which leaves room for maybe one more.

Bennett has to prove the Combine wasn't a fluke, because even though he runs routes and catches balls better than anyone else in the draft, teams still aren't sold that he can create separation from pro cornerbacks. Mario Manningham seriously hurt his draft stock with a 4.60 40-time, Andre Caldwell has had an injury history, and Early Doucet has similar tools to Bennett with half the resume.

Therefore, Bennett could conceivably be the sixth receiver drafted, and assuming he doesn't go in the first round, there are several teams who could call his name early in the second. The Rams and Jets have desperate needs at the position and will definitely consider him. The Chiefs need a receiver, and if the Niners don't grab one in the first round, they will take one with the 39th overall pick.

After that, all those mid-round teams who passed on a receiver in the first round will get their second chance for one, so I find it hard to see him falling farther than that.

Commodore Banter (3/17)

Here's what Vegas says about the odds.

Who do you think is Vanderbilt's X-factor?

Some seem to think Tennessee was snubbed a 1-seed for its less than dominating run in the SEC tournament, writes Matt Wilson.

Siena is pretty excited to be a No. 13 seed, writes Mike MacAdam.

One analyst left Vanderbilt off his top 25 but listed Shan as an All-American.

Shan Foster still sees the Dores as underdogs, writes Brett Hait.

Matt Jenkins lists Tennessee as the team to hate and Siena as a sleeper in his blog. When I read articles like this, it's funny how different characters size up sleepers. What goes into their thinking? Sometimes I think it's merely that someone thinks a team could upset a higher seeded team, making it a sleeper team!

Happy birthday, Vanderbilt!

In case you missed our...

• Ask a 'Dore with Parker Hanks and Josie Earnest.
• Kevin Stallings should try stand up.

10 thoughts from Selection Sunday...

The brackets are out and the fourth-seeded Commodores will take on 13th-seeded Siena Friday at 6:20 p.m. (CT) at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Fla. in the first round of the Midwest Regional. The winner will play either No. 5 Clemson or No. 12 Villanova on Sunday.

It’s the Commodores second consecutive trip to the Big Dance. It’s the first time they’ve had back-to-back appearances since ’88-’89 and their second highest seed in school history. Vandy was a No. 3 seed in 1993. It’s also the Commodores’ 10^th overall trip to the NCAA Tournament and coach Kevin Stallings’ third in five seasons, a testament to the fantastic job he's done with this program. Here are 10 other thoughts as I rewind from a long and tornado-filled weekend:

1) Vandy clearly got a favorable seed and draw.

According to SI's Luke Winn and Vegas Watch's Jacob Wheatley-Schaller, the Dores are the tourney's most overseeded team. Although I disagree with their take slightly, it's hard to argue that Vandy is fortunate to be a 4 seed with a good Achance to advance to its second straight Sweet 16. I was at tonight's press conference with coach Kevin Stallings and players Shan Foster and Ross Neltner, and they all said they were expecting anywhere from a 4 to 6 seed.

And the fact that national pundits are taking shots at the Dores suits Foster and company just fine. They seem to like playing with a chip on their shoulder better anyways.

"That’s kind of been the story of my life here at Vanderbilt," Foster said. "All four years we’ve been the underdog."

2) Stallings has known Siena coach Fran McCaffery for a long time and thinks highly of both him and his team.

"He and I were assistants back in the Midwest together. He's always done a really good job wherever he's been. I've had a chance to see a little bit of tape already and they look like a very well coached, very high energy basketball team with some guys that can make shots and can make plays off the dribble and draw fouls. They have a lot of really good players and a lot of really good pieces. When you get to this point, every team you're going to play is going to be a good team so we'll embrace the fact that we've got a tough team to play and certainly try to get ready for the challenge."
-Kevin Stallings

3) The fact that four starters (Jermaine Beal, Shan Foster, Alex Gordon, Ross Neltner) have NCAA Tournament experience shouldn't go unnoticed.

"Having that experience last year will really benefit our team. We understand what it takes to win and the tournament format. We have a lot of guys coming back that played a lot of minutes in last year’s tournament so the upperclassmen will try to convey to younger guys about the tournament and how important it is and how everybody steps their game up another level because you lose and you’re done. For me and Shan, our career is over. And for the other guys, their season is over."
-Forward Ross Neltner

4) Last year's Vanderbilt squad was harder to prepare for and mentally tougher than this year's, but not necessarily better.

"I think it was probably tougher for people to get ready for us last year," Stallings said. "Our team was unconventional and difficult. And not only difficult because it was unconventional, it was difficult because we were good and we were tough. That team was an extremely hard-nosed, tough basketball team."

At the same time, Derrick Byars and company lacked an inside presence like A.J. Ogilvy. They depended heavily on the 3-point shoot and struggled to get to the foul line. This year's squad has a much easier time getting easy baskets inside, which is crucial.

Still, I don't think this team has the "it" factor and killer instinct that the 2007 Commodores had, although I guess they still have a week to get it...

5) A sign that Vandy is in trouble: Stallings said his two areas of concern are "sustained defensive intensity" and rebounding.

If a team is still addressing those issues now, the odds aren't good that they'll be fixed by Friday.

6) The Southeastern Conference should be thankful.

At one point, only three SEC teams were locks for the Big Dance. But, thanks to an impressive league performance by Kentucky and strong tournament runs from Arkansas and Cinderella Georgia, the SEC sent six teams to the tourney. The only disappointment is that Tennessee lost its No. 1 seed and was put in the same bracket as UNC, the top overall seed.

7) Joe Lunardi is either really good or a cheater.

Or probably both. The ESPN Bracketologist nailed all 65 teams correctly, although he made a couple of adjustments late in the afternoon (bumping Illinois State out, for example) that make you wonder whether he had any inside tips...

While Lunardi was right on with the field, he wasn't the best at projecting the seeds. Vegas Watch tells us that honor goes to SI's Stewart Mandel.

8) The Selection Committee worries about what teams they put in the field, not where they put them.

How else do you explain this?
-No. 7 Butler playing No. 10 South Alabama in Birmingham?
-No. 7 Gonzaga playing No. 10 Davidson in Raleigh?
-No. 1 Memphis playing in the South Regional (with the second weekend being in Houston) along with No. 2 Texas?

9) The Selection Committee needs to become more transparent so coaches, fans, writers, etc. know what it looks for in teams.

"Unless you’re behind those doors of that committee, you don’t know what they place the most value on," Stallings said.

10) Stallings isn't sold on his Commodores just yet so neither should we.

"There are a number of things that we do better this year than we did a year ago, but I'm not going to sit here and profess our team ready to be a tournament team," he said. "I think we'll find that out."

Stallings asked some great questions that no one knows the answers to just yet.

"It's about the teams that get on a roll and catch fire right now, and that could certainly be us," he said. "We have the elements. We have the pieces. Do we have the focus, the ability to limit the distractions, the ability to rebound and play with that sustained defensive intensity that it takes in this tournament?"

What do you guys think? How does this year's team compare to last year's? Does Vanderbilt have what it takes to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament? Or is it overrated and ready to be knocked out in the first or second round? Leave your comments below...

Q & A with Caleb Cotham

Shortly after picking up the win in the Commodores’ 10-4 victory over South Carolina in the rubber game of a three-game series, redshirt freshman Caleb Cotham sat down with The Sports VU to talk about a number of topics, including his impressive X-Box skills and impressive repertoire of pitches. You can also check out my column on Cotham from vucommodores.com here.

Q: Knowing that it was the rubber game of the series, what was your mindset coming into the start?
A: I was just trying to come out with an edge. We got beat pretty bad last night and I wanted to come out and make a statement early on, just compete and show them that we weren’t going to give in.

Q: How do you go after such talented guys like Justin Smoak, especially after the way they hit yesterday?
A: You’ve got to be fearless going after big hitters like that… You have to forget about (yesterday) and you can’t give them too much credit. You can’t come in today saying “Oh, they’re so great. What am I going to do?” I was aggressive, and it paid off.

Q: Talk about the pitches that you throw and how comfortable you are with each of them.
A: I’m a fastball guy. I like to establish my fastball both sides of the plate and once I do that, I like to throw a slider for a strike and then have a slider that I can throw in the dirt as a chase pitch. I also show a change up to keep them in check.

Q: What can your fastball get up to?
A: 91-92.

Q: How cool was it to walk off to a standing ovation in the sixth in your first SEC start?
A: I was just glad that I could put together a pretty good performance for my team. Of course it’s nice to come off to a standing ovation. Everyone loves that.

Q: How nervous were you before the game?
A: There were some butterflies, but I kind of took them more as motivation. I wanted to show them I am ready for this.

Q: What’s the biggest difference in your game from this year to last year?
A: From this year to last year, the biggest thing is confidence, knowing that I can hang with these guys. Last year I was just trying to fit in, got a little timid.

Q: How gratifying was it to win your first SEC start?
A: I was excited to get my crack at SEC. Watching all last year, I had a feel for what it was but it’s a big step up. I had thrown midweek up until now to so to step in and do well for my team, it’s a great feeling.

Q: What pitchers do you admire?
A: I’d have to say David Price last year. I used to come to the games and watch Jeremy Sowers and all those guys pitch growing up. I was a big Vanderbilt fan. I also like Roger Clemens a lot – his competitiveness.

Q: Talk about your redshirt year. I’m sure it was frustrating not to be out there when you’ve played baseball your whole life, but at the same time, I imagine you learned a lot.
A: It was a humbling experience because I really hadn’t sat out before, and being able to learn the game and watching guys like Price and (Casey) Weathers go about their business, how they competed and worked hitters. I just had my notepad out, taking notes, and it’s paid off.

Q: What’s it like throwing to guys like Pedro and Flash (Ryan Flaherty) in practice? I’m sure it prepares you well.
A: We have a great lineup so I feel like if I can get them out, I can get anyone out in the nation. I get (Pedro) out, so when Smoak comes up, I know it’s not going to be hard.

Q: Pitchers tend to love shagging fly balls in practice. Who’s the best at it?
A: I am. We like to shag them and make a game of it, and I’d like to say I’m the best.

Q: How do you keep busy on days you’re not pitching?
A: Being a Sunday starter, I was on every pitch Friday and Saturday, picking up tendencies, where they were in the box, what pitches worked to what guys, and charting. To more you’re on every pitch, the more successful you’ll be.

Q: Favorite movie?
A: Blow.

Q: What’s on the iPod these days?
A: John Mayer. And I just got the new Herbie Hancock CD.

Q: Are you into video games?
A: Oh yeah, I’m a big X-Box guy. I played Halo competitively a little bit when I was in high school and won a couple tournaments.

Q: Impressive. Still have time to play?
A: Down time in my room, I’ll play “Call of Duty” online.

Q: Anyone else on the team play with you?
A: Pedro plays, and I play with Price a lot. He’s in Spring Training and has a lot of down time.

Q: Do you have a pre-start routine?
A: I like to eat a good breakfast and then just throw on my iPod and relax in the locker room until it’s time to warm up.

Q: Funniest player on the team?
A: I’d have to say David Macias.

Know Your Saints: Previewing Siena

The seedings are done, the brackets are set, and now it's time to play some basketball. As always, the top teams in the tourney are household favorites such as UCLA, North Carolina, and Duke. But at the same time, there are a bunch of scrappy, lovable underdogs who burst onto the national scene by virtue of winning hallowed league tournaments such as the Big Sky or the MEAC.

Anyways, our Commodores have drawn one of those mysterious underdogs in the Siena Saints, who went 13-5 in the MAAC (no, that's not a typo, that's the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference), and 22-10 overall. So, who are these Saints? And where the hell is Siena? Read on, my friends, read on...

For starters, Siena is located in Loudonville, New York, which is just outside of Albany (interesting fact: I have been going to Loudonville for Thanksgiving since I was about 5 years old. It's a pretty nice place). It is home to about 3,000 undergraduate students and, according to their website, "admission to the college is competitive." A bad omen for Vanderbilt: Siena is affiliated with the Catholic church, so they will have God on their side. Then again, we have Shan Foster.

Alright, now to the basketball. The regular season MAAC co-champs clinched a tourney seed by blowing out Rider in the championship game by 21 points. Key wins include a shocking 79-67 victory over Stanford in November, and... that's really it. The only other big-time opponents that Siena has played are Syracuse, St. Joseph's, and Memphis, and the Saints lost those contests by a combined 58 points.

Siena is young- only one senior is on the roster- and have a trio of high scoring players who average over 15 points a game. Sophomore Edwin Ubiles leads the squad with 17.3 points a contest and classmate Alex Franklin is tops on the team with 8.0 boards a game.

What Siena lacks is size, as their resident big man, junior Josh Duell, stands at a "mere" 6'7'', the same height as Andre Walker. They do have three guys that are 6'9'', but none of them are significant contributors. And Franklin, their top rebounder, is shorter than Shan Foster at 6'5''. As long as A.J. Ogilvy gets plenty of touches, we should be fine.

People on the Siena bandwagon (including that stupid guy on CBS) may point to their excellent guards when arguing for an upset. I have one thing to say to these foolish people: Please. Do they really think that Jermaine Beal, Alex Gordon, Shan Foster, and Keegan Bell can't handle anything that Siena will throw at them? As an added bonus, the emergence of Jamie Graham as a super lock-down defender and energy guy will certainly help to stifle Ubiles and company.

Siena has a pretty good basketball tradition. This is their fourth dance in program history, the last coming on 2002, where they beat Alcorn State in the play-in game. They also placed third in the NIT tournament in '94.

So, now you know everything you ever wanted to about this quaint little college in upstate New York.

Vandy garners No. 4 seed

Despite an early exit from the SEC tournament, Vanderbilt was recognized as the No. 4 seed in the Midwest bracket. The Dores (26-7) open up the tournament in Tampa, Florida against the No. 13 seeded Siena Saints (22-10). Siena finished the season strong winning its final six games, but suffered a horrible loss to Memphis (101-58) and other losses to schools like James Madison, Cornell, and St. Joseph's. That said, they beat Stanford in November and have some thinking of an upset over Vanderbilt.

The Midwest Regional features powerhouse teams like Kansas and Georgetown. A win against Siena would put the Commodores against the winner of Clemson-Villanova game. Clemson could be a team to watch with his most recent upset over Duke in the ACC tournament, and its close match-up with No. 1 overall seed North Carolina.

I don't think there's any doubt Vanderbilt was a bit lucky to earn a No. 4 seed. Its road woes and utter dependence on the Foster-Ogilvy duo were not unknown to the tournament committee. However, the team is led by three experienced seniors in the starting lineup. What do you all think?

Check back later tonight for a report from Coach Stallings' press conference.

The Seeds

If there is anything more futile than predicting who will be in it’s where they will be seeded. So I’m doing this for really the sole purpose of being ridiculed after I completely fuck it up. I will not be investigating as to whether Coppin St. should lose in the play in game or to a 1 seed, so I will only be going through the top 12 lines or until I run out of at-larges, whichever comes later. The 1 seeds will be in order, the rest will not, also this is done on the assumption of wins today by UNC, Kansas, Arkansas, and Wisconsin, although the Big 12 winner doesn’t really matter.

1: UNC, UCLA, Memphis, Tennessee
2: Texas, Kansas, Georgetown, Duke
3: Xavier, Wisconsin, Stanford, Louisville (barely over Pitt)
4: Pittsburgh, Washington St., Clemson, Drake
5: UCONN, Butler, Indiana, Arkansas
6: Vanderbilt, Michigan St., Kent St., Notre Dame (we’ll call it the nationally overrated line)
7: Purdue, USC, Oklahoma, Marquette
8: UNLV, Gonzaga, WVU, BYU
9: Miami, St. Mary’s, St. Josephs, Texas A&M
10: Baylor, Mississippi St., Arizona, Davidson
11: Temple, Villanova, South Alabama, Ohio St.
12: Syracuse, WKU, Arizona St., George Mason

Jacob of Vegas Watch (through Rob) points us to a table summarizing the brackets of pretty much every college basketball pundit in the world. The final update will come at 4:30 CT today.

The Field

In one of the must futile activities in the sporting world, every March many writers, bloggers, etc… will hopelessly try to predict what the NCAA selection committee is thinking. Since nobody really knows what they’re doing, I thought I might as well try. Also I will be making this field with the assumptions that Illinois and Georgia will both lose, however if they don’t win obviously just add them and take away my last two teams in. I might or might not attempt to seed the teams later in the day, it depends how pleasant my nap is.

Locks:
ACC: UNC, Duke, Clemson, Miami
Atlantic 10: Xavier, Temple*
Big 12: Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M
Big East: Georgetown, Louisville, Pittsburgh*, Notre Dame, UCONN, Marquette, West Virginia
Big 10: Wisconsin, Indiana, Purdue, Michigan St.
Mountain West: BYU, UNLV*
Pac 10: UCLA*, Stanford, USC, Washington St.
SEC: Tennessee, Mississippi St., Vanderbilt, Arkansas
West Coast: Gonzaga, St. Mary’s, San Diego*
One Bid Leagues: Memphis (C-USA), Butler (Horizon), Drake (Missouri Valley), Cornell (Ivy League), Winthrop (Big South), Austin Peay (Ohio Valley), Belmont (Atlantic Sun), George Mason (Colonial), Siena (MAAC), Davidson (Southern), Oral Roberts (Summit), Western Kentucky (Sun Belt), Mount St. Mary's (Northeast), Portland State (Big Sky), American (Patriot), UMBC (America East), Kent State (MAC), Mississippi Valley State (SWAC), Coppin State (MEAC), Boise State (WAC), CS Fullerton (Big West), Whoever wins the Southland (Southland)
* Denotes automatic bid (I didn’t think it was necessary to do that with the one bid leagues)

That’s 56 teams, that leaves 9 spots. Of the remaining candidates I think five should not have too much to worry about except who they’ll play in the first round, they are: Baylor, St. Josephs, Kansas St. Arizona, and South Alabama. So, four spots left for the dozen or so hopefuls. In order they are: Villanova, Ohio St. Syracuse, Arizona St. My next four would be: Oregon, UMASS, Ole Miss, Kentucky. Conspicuously missing: Illinois St.

My first thought when doing this is how atrocious the bubble is this year. I think most years none of my final four would get in. I differ here from most people with Kentucky and Illinois St. and I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see one if not both of them ultimately in the field, however I just don’t see it.

ISU is quite frankly a joke and if they get in, the team they play should be among the happiest tonight. They played 3 tournament teams, went 0-5 against them as part of a 2-5 record vs. the top 50 with both wins being against Creighton, who is 48^th. They’re whole argument is based on going 13-5 in a down year for the recently good Missouri Valley and an inflated RPI. However as I just pointed out they beat nobody and as Jay Bilas loves to say, all bubble teams have proven you can lose, bring me one that has proven they can beat somebody. They sort of remind me of that old Utah St. team that was like 25-5 and was left out because they beat nobody.

Kentucky has proven they can beat people, Vandy and UT at home, but they went 6-7 against an average non-conf and one of their best players, Patrick Patterson, is now hurt. You may say we shouldn’t hold that against them, but the committee does, as evidence when in 2000 Kenyon Martin got hurt for Cincinnati and that wound up hurting their seeding. In my mind they are not one of the 34 best teams anymore, which is the criteria the committee uses. They proved what they are like when hit with injuries during their 221^st RPI rated non-conference. People are getting so swept up by the 12-4 league record, but, like the Valley, the SEC is way down this year. Their RPI is 57, their best non-conference win is Liberty and they are 5-10 against the RPI top 100.

A quick rundown of my last four in: Villanova has bad losses and good wins, overall better than most of the garbage that’s out there. Ohio St. is a terrible 2-10 vs. the top 50, but are 5-1 vs. the next 50 and played a decent non-conf which included wins over other bubble teams, Syracuse and Florida. Syracuse’s SOS is 9 and they beat G-Town and Marqutte and I’m biased so they’re in. Arizona St.’s RPI is 83 which would be the worst ever by like 10, however they lose a lot of ground because most of their non-conf games are against teams whose rpi’s are in 250+. They would move up considerably if those teams had been 150-200 instead.

It makes no sense to me to keep a team out because they beat the 7^th best ivy instead of the 4^th or the 10^th team in the big sky instead of the 5^th. All tourney teams should win these games easily and they just happened to play the worst of worst instead of just the very bad. However they have 5 top 50 wins, more than any of the other teams on the bubble, and 7 top 100 win’s including @ Arizona and vs. Stanford, and for me that’s enough to get them in.

Commodore Banter (3/16)

Why playing Memphis in the NCAA tourney might not be a horrible match-up for the Commodores.  

At the very least, it's nice to know that it is highly unlikely that the Dores and Razorbacks will clash again.  

There's word in this piece by Jason Smith that Vanderbilt 2009 signee, John Jenkins, averaged 30.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 2.8 assists this year.

If you dare to read about yesterday's blowout loss to South Carolina...

Men's golf had a terrific showing in Hawaii in winning the 2008 Kauai Collegiate Cup by an impressive 28 strokes.