Save the Shield! A Vanderbilt sports blog

Today I finally got around to watching the first half. No, it’s not for masochistic pleasure, and in fact I’ve been emotionally “over it” for a while now. I just didn’t have the free time to go back and try to watch analytically until now. But I think they take the first [...]

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Being somewhat experienced at losing 4-13 games, I’ve found that it’s best to split up the emotional reaction and the analytical one. Given that watching basketball is back to occupying a less-unhealthy portion of my attention, I can’t promise that I’ll get around to the analytical post, but this one is clearly a short [...]

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Since predictions on the Vanderbilt-Murray State game will cease to be interesting sometime around 11:30 Pacific Time, I should get these out there if you haven’t seen them.
The first is by longtime friend of this blog Jerry of the War Eagle Reader. He presents a well-argued case for Murray State. (He has a [...]

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It’s still way early to project all this stuff, especially given that we don’t even know the matchups yet, of course. But it’s fun.
No Vanderbilt fan is going to love these numbers, based on Pomeroy’s Pythagorean ratings, Bill James’ log5 formula, and Lunardi’s bracket projections. (Yeah, yeah, I know there are [...]

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I’m not going to get too upset about Saturday’s result. Maybe when Kentucky finds a coach who can actually hang onto his accomplishments rather than getting them all vacated by the NCAA, I’ll respect them as a good basketball program again rather than just proficient cheaters.
But we’re still working on [...]

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By now you know I’m not real big on game analysis. I haven’t checked out the game thread on Anchor of Gold but I’m sure it’s got some good commentary.
Couldn’t leave tonight’s win unnoted, though. Honestly, I do think that Tennessee was running on fumes to beat Kansas and start the [...]

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I can’t let the change of seasons go by without at least noting the excitement over the prospects in 2009-10 for men’s basketball. I think all our fans are really eager to see what this team can do.
I’ve seen very slight indications that people elsewhere in the SEC are starting to see [...]

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It’s a weird time for me to be thinking about football recruiting, but a thread on VandySports about Stanford got my brain working on this topic.
The national media often talks about college sports recruiting as though there’s a static pecking order of teams who just line up and draft their targets. In football, [...]

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The commissioner of the SEC (the Southern Fat Cat one, not the Wall Street Fat Cat one) sent out an edict last week stating that it was no longer open season on officials. This year, we’ve seen more criticism of officiating than is the norm.
Your Mississippi States, Kentuckys and Vanderbilts have always been [...]

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I’m not good at obsessing over week-to-week details, especially when the team’s not really competing for any postseason honors. I was going to direct you to VSL, but I see that Bobby only made it through the first quarter in detailed fashion and Stan has turned his attention to the Carolina game. [...]

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