Happy Thursday: 
One down for the Baseball Vols and one to go in Hoover as we get closer to Monday's draw. Meanwhile Tennessee hoops zeros in on a huge target while we break down a few other odds and ends.
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A Decision Soon For Chaz Lanier ... That's what Tennessee expects after an eventful visit where I hear that Rick Barnes rolled up his sleeves and personally owned the visit to Dalton Knecht levels. Tennessee put on an impressive display for Lanier conveying how much they wanted him to be a major part of next year's team. I was told that several veteran players including ZZ and Mashack were superb with Lanier during his brief visit.
This one seems to be trending Tennessee's way though they probably aren't going to be the highest bidder for Lanier's services. I was told that Tennessee made a generous offer through their Spyre collective early on Wednesday. Some outlets around Kentucky seem to think he's heading to Tennessee, while a Provo-based talk show host retweeted Richard G West's parody account Tweet regarding Lanier's commitment to Tennessee. This one is expected to wrap up before the weekend.
I've always maintained that Lanier was Tennessee's to lose since they were first with him back in the winter and they got the last visit, which apparently went well. I also maintain that if I had to rank the three schools in this I'd say Tennessee leads Kentucky with BYU third. BYU is in this because his agent is pushing them on him. I do think BYU is trying to BUY him as they've offered him a staggering amount of money. Kentucky is sitting between Tennessee and BYU as perhaps a compromise candidate. Interesting stuff.
TLD Logistics Tennessee Baseball Report:
Matt Dixon
'Voltellos lose SECT scrimmage to vAndyboyz
Tennessee treated its SEC Tournament opener like a midweek game as vAnderbilt hit four home runs in a 13-4 victory that should firmly put the Commodores into the NCAA Tournament.
The Volunteers used eight different pitchers — many of them midweek arms — and 17 position players.
vAndy tagged Nate Snead for five runs in the 3rd inning, including a 3-run homer by catcher Alan Espinal.
It was Snead’s first start of the season.
Tennessee had taken an early 1-0 lead when Hunter Ensley drove in Dylan Dreiling with a double in the bottom of the 2nd.
Reese Chapman’s 3-run home run in the 4th inning was the lone highlight for Tennessee bats.
AJ Russell threw a scoreless 6th inning for the Vols, striking out two. It was the first appearance for the Vols’s opening day starter since March 23rd.
Russell’s fastball sat 93/94 and after missing glove-side early, found better command as the inning progressed.
In the top of the 6th after TV cameras captured vAndy coach Tim Corbin picking his nose,
RJ Austin attempted to steal home off Kirby Connell but was thrown out by at least five feet. Imagine trying to steal home off Vollie Fingers.
Tennessee will play the loser of Texas A&M and Mississippi State in the second game of the day on Thursday.
I'll be on with Tony today and he better not overreact to this goofy game.
@Mattdixon3'
Matt ... No overreaction here. Seeing AJ Russell out there looking pretty playable was inviting. The homerun from Chapman was great stuff. The rest of the game was pretty mid. I must say that it was hard to keep reminding myself that the game mattered very little if at all. Vanderbilt will take it and truthfully probably needed it. Since we're on the subject, let's get this thing over with and get back home. I know some people don't want to hear or read this but Tennessee Basketball made a cameo in March back in Nashville and ran to the Elite 8. Let's do this thing.
Wednesday's With Watson Brown: On The Proposed June 2025 Football Early Signing Period 'June makes sense to me. Look these kids are so far down the road as far as the recruiting process. Back in the day you didn't hear from people til your senior season. That's what it was like when I was coming up. Now you're contacting and offering sophomores a lot of times. Coaches are fighting for the dead period because they want to take a break. It's gotten out of control from a time commitment standpoint. You have kids on campus around the clock. It's too much.'
Sean Sinclair On The Unintended Consequences Of The June Signing Period: This will benefit the haves. Kids will want to lock in slots. I wonder what impact it has on high school football. What's the incentive in playing your senior season?
Watson Concedes The The June Signing Period Could Hurt HS Football 'I watched my son come up through a great AAU summer team which became more important than his high school team. So there's that. Yet these guys are competitors.'
Watson Warns That This Is A Slippery Slope For All: 'They're offering kids off camps. Not blocking and tackling. Not games. This is stuff you can't judge. How do you find the winners and clutch players? I just can't stand to watch high school kids put something in front of their high school seasons.'
Watson Predicts A High Number Of Very Good Players Will Sign In June: 'I think that you'll see 80 percent of the 4 star types come off the board. I don't think this will hurt the next level down guy (schools). I would have begged for this at any level of coaching. I remember offering a good TE out of Texas when I was Rice. We beat schools like Baylor for him then he decided to go to Texas as a preferred walk on.'
Watson Is Concerned With The Transient Nature Of Major College Football: 'They need to come up with a way to incentivize the time a player stays at one place. Collective bargaining must happen and this is years away. Kids don't even stay one year now. Some kids leave after a few months. It's out of control.'
Watson On The Lessons Learned From Rashada Florida NIL Fiasco: 'I look at that situation and that's why I'd never want to be a GM if I was coaching. Keep me away from negotiations. I wouldn't want to be in that room when money is discussed. That would lead to a lot of problems. What happens when you sign a kid and pay him a bunch of money and make promises and he has somebody better at his spot on a practice field. That's why I wouldn't want to get near that.'
Where Are The Braves? You're probably wondering the same thing when you turn on Bally's and see that the Braves are blacked out to most of East Tennessee. In fact the Braves are blacked out even in their own ballpark these days. Fret not because MLB is just slowly buying back all the regional rights. They're not letting any teams extend local TV deals anymore because they're going to bring all 30 teams in house to their MLB.TV product. They've done it with a handful of teams this year with decent results mostly because there's no blackouts.
The Braves TV contract with Bally runs out this year. MLB is expected to pay them 10% over what Bally was paying (about $135M a year) to buy back their rights for 2025 and beyond. Fans will be able to purchase a package for all 162 games of their favorite team only for $150 a year with no blackouts next year. That sounds a lot cheaper than cable TV.
GBO & Pistons
Tone
ICYMI from Tuesday: TLD Logistics Tennessee Baseball Report Matt Dixon
'Voltellos sweep Gamecocks/win SEC title.
Tennessee swept South Carolina to close out the regular season with nine consecutive SEC series victories.
The Volunteers won the SEC regular season title after the 3-game sweep plus the vAndyboy’s Saturday win at Kentucky.
Tennessee enters the postseason ranked No. 1 in the country with a 46-10 record (22-8 SEC).
The Vols are the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament in Hoover and are scheduled to play Wednesday afternoon against either Florida or vAnderbilt.
Thursday night
See last Friday’s blog:
Friday's blog link
Friday night
Tennessee used two big innings to comeback and win the series with an 8-3 victory.
South Carolina scored three runs in the top of the 2nd but it could’ve been worse.
Hunter Ensley made a nice running catch in deep centerfield to prevent at least one more run to score and then Ethan Petry struck out with runners on the corners for the 3rd out of the frame.
Down 3-0 after two innings, Vols starter Drew Beam had a 3-0 count to the Gamecocks’s Blake Jackson to leadoff the top of the 3rd. QB1 came back to strike him out in what felt like a game-turning AB.
Tennessee’s 3rd error of the game extended the Gamecocks’ at-bat in that 3rd inning but a line out to centerfield stranded runners on the corners for the 2nd consecutive inning.
South Carolina closer-turned-starter Garrett Gainey touched 94 just once but had Tennessee batters off-balance through five scoreless innings.
The Vols finally got on the board in the bottom of the 6th by who else — Christian Moore. His solo home run over the scoreboard in right field was his 3rd of the series and 27th of the season.
After back-to-back 2-out singles from Billy Amick and Dylan Dreiling, Hunter Ensley homered into the left field porches to put the Vols up 4-3.
Tennessee loaded the bases in the bottom of the 7th after two walks and a HBP. Blake Burke then crushed the first pitch he saw well over the batter’s eye in centerfield for Tennessee’s SEC-record 11th grand slam of the season to put the Vols up 8-3.
Andrew Behnke and Aaron Combs combined for three scoreless innings in relief of Beam to close the game out.
Beam battled through six innings with yet another quality start. Only one of the three runs he allowed was earned. He scattered six hits — all singles — while striking out four and walking two.
Saturday
In a rare low-scoring game three, Tennessee completed the cream sweep with a 4-1 victory in the regular season finale.
Zander Sechrist threw six scoreless innings. He scattered four hits, struck out four, walked none and was aided by three double plays. It was easily his best start since throwing six scoreless innings vs Georgia in March.
Tennessee got on the board first in the bottom of the 4th. After a 2-out walk to Hunter Ensley, Kavares Tears doubled to the right centerfield gap and scored Ensley from 1st.
The Vols added three more runs in the 5th inning on five singles.
Following a leadoff HBP to start the 8th, the Gamecocks finally got on the board after back-to-back 1-out singles.
Aaron Combs entered with two on and one out with the tying run at the plate. Combs got a strikeout then a weak fly out to end the Gamecocks’s final threat of the weekend.
Look for an SEC Tournament preview on tomorrow’s blog.
I'll be on with the guys today trying to make some sense to Tony.
@Mattdixon3'
Brian Hartman
'On3 NCAA Tournament Projections: 1) TENNESSEE ( Nebraska, UNCG, Omaha)
2) KENTUCKY
3) N Carolina
4) TEXAS A&M
5) ARKANSAS
6) Clemson
7) GEORGIA
8) Oregon St
9) Oklahoma (LSU)
10) Florida St ( FLORIDA)
11) E Carolina
12) Indiana St ( ALABAMA)
13) Virginia ( VANDERBILT)
14) Ucsb
15) Nc St (S CAROLINA)
16) Oklahoma St (MISS ST, Oregon, Lamar)
LSU is one of last four in.
Ole Miss, Auburn, Missouri are OUT
Vols Non league opponents in field:
Illinois ( Vols swept 6-3, 24-1, 8-3 Mar 8-10 at LNS)
Xavier ( Vols beat 10-2 Mar 19 at LNS)
Kansas St ( Vols beat 15-5 Mar 5 at LNS)
Bowling Green (Vols swept 11-1, 12-1, 16-6 March 1-3 at LNS)
#9 Oklahoma ( beat Vols 5-1 Feb 17 at Arlington Classic
D1 NCAA Tournament Projections: 1) KENTUCKY
2) TENNESSEE ( UConn, Ga Tech, Fairfield)
3) TEXAS A&M
4) N Carolina
5) ARKANSAS
6) Clemson ( S CAROLINA)
7) Oklahoma (ALABAMA)
8) GEORGIA
9) Florida St (FLORIDA)
10) Oregon St (VANDERBILT)
11) Nc St
12) Virginia
13) Ucsb
14) Indiana St (MISS ST)
15) E Carolina (Duke, Col of Charleston, Presbyterian)
16) Oklahoma St ( LSU)
Vanderbilt is one of last 4 in
Ole Miss, Auburn, Missouri are OUT
Vols non league opponents in field:
Illinois (Vols swept 6-3, 24-1, 8-3 Mar 8-10 at LNS)
Kansas St ( Vols beat 15-5 Mar 5 at LNS)
Bowling Green ( Vols swept 11-1, 12-1, 16-6 March 1-3 at LNS)
#9 Oklahoma ( Beat Vols 5-1 Feb 17 at Arlington Classic)
On3 has the Vols in the #1 overall spot. To the chagrin of many fans. Good thing Notre Dame is nowhere to be found in any projections…
Oklahoma loss back in February looks not bad seeing how the Sooners are now a top 10 team with a shot to host a regional and super regional….
Alabama, Florida, S Carolina, Vanderbilt and LSU have been projected as #3 regional seeds by some. This means Today's games in Hoover could be very significant. Florida vs Vanderbilt, Alabama vs S Carolina & LSU vs Georgia might be the end of the season for all of these teams except Georgia.
The losers (except Georgia) will have to toss and turn with anxiety for 6 days waiting to see if they get in the field. The winners could be solidly inked into the field. Stay tuned.
Brian'
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