SEC Talk

By Saturday afternoon two SEC teams were in the process of booking flights to Omaha. Both LSU and Arkansas have advanced to the College World Series by sweeping their respective opponents.

Arkansas took the Super Regional against Florida State — on FSU’s home turf — in dramatic fashion. The Hogs led 7-5 entering the game’s final inning, but FSU took the lead in the top of the 9th with three runs. When Arkansas came to bat in the bottom half of the inning, they trailed by one.  After a fly out, Bo Bigham drew a walk and Zach Cox followed with a single to put runners at first and second with one out. Senior Andrew Darr, who cracked the starting lineup for the first time in almost a month, hit the first pitch to the gap in left-center, scoring two and ending the game.

The trip to Omaha will be the sixth for Arkansas, and the first since 2004.

LSU will join the Razorbacks in Omaha thanks to a 5-3 win over Rice. LSU, like Arkansas, swept the series 2-0. An LSU stadium record crowd of 9,651 was there, cheering the Tigers on to their 15th CWS. LSU has now won 10 straight, and is 117-44 all time in NCAA tournament games. That’s a winning percentage of .727, the highest in NCAA tournament history.

The game was back and forth until the fifth inning, when LSU scored two and took a 4-2 advantage that it never relinquished.

Two other teams are still playing in hopes of joining the SEC brethren in the CWS. Florida opened play today with a 9-7 loss to Southern Miss. The game puts the Gators in a 1-0 hole, with games Sunday and Monday (if needed).

Late errors cost Ole Miss against Virginia on Saturday, with the Rebs losing 4-3 to even the series with the Cavs at 1-1. A record crowd of 10,323 saw the action in Oxford, which Ole Miss led much of the way. But two errors in the 8th inning gave UVa the lead for good, forcing Sunday’s final game.

Games on Sunday (all times eastern):

Ole Miss vs. Virginia - 2 p.m. (ESPN). Series tied at 1-1.  Winner advances to College World Series.

Florida vs. Southern Miss - 7 p.m. (ESPN2). Southern Miss leads 1-0.

The little mess between former UK head coach Billy Gillispie and the University of Kentucky got even more interesting… and messy… today.

UK has answered Gillispie’s lawsuit with one of their own — countersuing Billy G. and claiming they don’t owe him a penny since he never signed a contract.

You may remember that while Gillispie never signed a contract, he was working under a “Memorandum of Understanding” that had the terms to be included in the seven year deal. But no official contract was ever signed.

While Gillispie accuses the University of “fraud and breach of contract” in his firing, the University counters by claiming that UK went to Gillispie with six different versions of a contract, which he never signed. UK states that Gillispie disagreed with language in the contract, including what would constitute grounds for dismissal without pay.

Seems like not signing a contract would come under those grounds, huh?

IN OTHER NEWS:

The NCAA Baseball Super Regionals get underway today with three SEC teams seeing action. Arkansas takes on Florida State at noon (ESPN), Ole Miss faces Virginia at 1 pm (ESPN2), and LSU battles Rice at 6 pm (ESPN). All times are Eastern. All games are also covered on XM Radio.

The 2009 Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American baseball team, chosen by Collegiate Baseball was announced today, and the squad features 10 players from the SEC.

The list of SEC players making the All-Freshman team, followed by stats.

FIRST BASEMEN
Preston Tucker, Florida — Tucker hit .348, including 13 homers, 13 doubles and 80 RBI’s to earn SEC Co-Freshman of The Year in the SEC.

SECOND BASEMEN
Riley Reynolds, Vanderbilt — Reynolds hit .350 with 13 doubles and 20 RBIs, and stole 12 bases, earning All-Freshman SEC honors.

SHORTSTOP
Casey McElroy, Auburn — McElroy hit .283 with 8 homers, 10 doubles and 20 RBIs.

THIRD BASEMEN
Colby May, Georgia — May hit .360 with 11 homers, 10 doubles and 39 RBIs, earning SEC All-Freshmen team honors.

OUTFIELDERS
Taylor Dugas, Alabama — An SEC All-Freshmen team honoree, Dugas hit .366 with 19 doubles, 2 homers and 26 RBIs, and stole 13 bases.

Jackie Bradley, South Carolina — Bradley hit .349 with 11 homers, 11 doubles and 46 RBIs, and stole 8 of 10 bases, earning All-SEC Freshmen honors.

DESIGNATED HITTER
Aaron Westlake, Vanderbilt — An All-Freshmen SEC team honoree, Westlake hit .395 with 6 homers, 11 doubles and 44 RBIs.

RELIEF PITCHERS
Matty Ott, Louisiana St. — A first team SEC selection and Co-Freshman of The Year in the Conference, Ott posted 14 saves, a 3-2 record and 2.27 ERA. He struck out 61 batters while walking only 4 in 43 2/3 innings.

Sonny Gray, Vanderbilt — During his freshman campaign, Gray totaled 5 saves with a 4-1 record and 4.74 ERA with 44 strikeouts.

MULTI-POSITION ATHLETES
Zack Cox, Arkansas — Cox notched a .295 batting average and hit 7 homers, 9 doubles and 25 RBIs. As a pitcher, he was 5-1 with a 4.50 ERA.

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Yes, the same school that brought you the phrase “Don’t Tase me, bro” at a speech by Sen. John Kerry in 2007, has another incident on it’s blotter.

Janoris Jenkins, 20-year old rising sophomore and starting cornerback on the University of Florida football team, was arrested over the weekend on misdemeanor charges of affray and resisting arrest without violence.

(I love this definition of “affray” from Wordnet: a noisy quarrel)

Fans of SEC football will definitely remember Jenkins from his stellar freshman season. He earned All-SEC freshman honors, and became only the second true freshman in Florida history to start at cornerback in his first game. Jenkins is out of Pahokee (Fla.) High School, where he was a part of three state titles in four years… and don’t forget the BCS title in his first year at UF. Championships follow this guy around.

The police were called to a reported street fight around 2 a.m. Saturday morning, and found Jenkins fighting about five others. When the police ordered everyone to stop, everyone kept fighting. The officer drew his Taser and again ordered the group to stop fighting, at which point everyone did… except Jenkins, who threw a punch at another guy’s head, and the officer hit him with the Taser.

After being hit with one “cycle” from the Taser, Jenkins got up and ran away, despite the police yelling at him to stop. He was later arrested about two blocks away from the scene, and he admitted he had been fighting.

(My favorite part is coming up)

Jenkins said he was fighting because he thought someone was trying to steal his chain.

Now I don’t know whether it was a bike chain, gold chain around his neck, or what. But whatever, it must have been some chain to be willing to get Tased over it!

One other note. If Jenkins was able to take a hit from a Taser, get up and run, what chance do SEC offenses have in running over him?

IN OTHER NEWS:

Four SEC baseball teams will head into the NCAA’s Super Regional action this weekend. LSU, Ole Miss, Florida and Arkansas have all advanced to the next round.

Here are times for this weekend’s action (all times are Eastern):

Series beginning on Friday, June 5 (the three game series will be played Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if needed))

Arkansas (37-22) at Florida State (45-16)
Friday: Noon (ESPN), Saturday: Noon (ESPN2), Sunday (if needed) Noon (ESPN)

Virginia (46-12-1) at Mississippi (43-18)
Friday: 2 p.m. (ESPN2), Saturday: Noon (ESPN2), Sunday (if needed) 3 p.m. (ESPN)

Rice (43-16) at No. 3 LSU (49-16)
Friday: 7 p.m. (ESPN), Saturday: 5 p.m. (ESPN), Sunday (if neede) 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

Series beginning on Saturday, June 6 (the three game series will be played Saturday, Sunday and Monday (if needed))

Southern Miss. (38-24) at No. 8 Florida (42-20)
Saturday: 3 p.m. (ESPNU), Sunday: 7 p.m. (ESPN2), Monday (if needed) 1/7 p.m. (ESPN/ESPN2)

As expected, former Kentucky head men’s basketball coach Billy Gillispie has sued the University for more than $6 million, arguing that while he never signed a contract, there was a “memorandum of understanding” between the coach and the UK Athletic Association, which fired him two years into a seven year contract.

UK released a statement claiming surprise, as they were in the midst of working out a settlement with Gillispie.

Now, I’m not a lawyer, agent or coach, but could someone please explain to me why there was no signed contract in the first place? I mean, “memorandum of understanding” or not, anyone in the coaching business should know the job is shaky enough, especially at a place with through-the-roof standards like UK.

So where was Gillispie’s agent in all of this? Isn’t his job to make sure all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed so that this stuff isn’t even an issue?

And how could UK’s general counsel, way back in 2007, say that all the memorandum had all the “basic terms needed for an employment agreement, and can itself serve as the employment contract for the coach.”?

I don’t know who was fooling who in this scenario, and Gillispie sure deserves some sort of buyout… I mean, c’mon, firing a coach after two years? This was more about personality and opportunity than it was wins and losses.

But, sheesh… get a contract!