|
Commodore Notebook: Feb. 20 2/20/2006 Commodore Notebook Kids Eat Free! Kids can enjoy a free hot dog and soda courtesy of Vanderbilt Athletics at the women’s basketball game versus South Carolina on Sunday, February 26. Tip-off is at 2:00 p.m. Women’s Tennis Keeps on Winning If there is a better college tennis coach than our Geoff Macdonald I would like to know who that might be. Geoff came here in 1994 after earning ACC “Coach of the Year” honors at Duke and has averaged 20 wins a season since. He has built our program from the ranks of the mediocre into one that has been to six straight NCAA Tournament “Sweet 16” rounds. In 2001 his team became the university’s first in any sport to play for an NCAA team championship. He has been Vanderbilt’s “Coach of the Year” so many times we jokingly refer to it as the “Macdonald Award.” Most of you were not in the Currey Tennis Center Sunday afternoon to watch our match with No. 10 rated Baylor. It was a terrific one. Our roster has no seniors, just one junior and a handful of outstanding sophomores and freshmen. And, yes, we won 4-3. It was fun; check the schedule on our web site and stop by sometime. You will enjoy watching excellence in action. Austin (Danger) Powers Would Love It Wednesday night’s LSU men’s basketball game is our home “Retro” game. It should be fun with the team wearing a jersey design from the mid-1960’s and a host of ’60’s wrinkles surrounding the game. Pay attention to the black and white message center where we have some special graphics. We wore the “retro” jerseys at Georgia and they produced a victory. There is some good-natured ribbing going on from the old school alumni, however. The SEC did not mandate the old-fashioned short game shorts be worn, – fearing a revolt of sorts — so the teams continue to wear the long, baggy shorts. It is funny how the perceptions change. As one who played ball in the 1960’s you could not have forced us to wear loose shorts below our knees, we would have thought they were dresses and we would have revolted! That was before Michael Jordan changed everyone’s thinking about style. Someday folks will look back at these shorts that droop to the mid-calf and think the style equally incredible. No Quit in these ‘Dores I hate to write that I told you so but a couple of weeks ago, amidst chatter that our men’s basketball season was going up in smoke, I wrote in this space to keep the faith in this team. While we have lost a couple of heart-breaking games since, I don’t think there is any one paying attention that would claim we have thrown in the towel. We have played as hard as one can play every game. It hasn’t been the year we wanted it to be — yet — but it also isn’t over. Stay tuned for March Madness. Senior Day Sunday afternoon’s game with South Carolina will mark the final regular season appearance of seniors Nicole Jules and Erica Grimaldi. It is possible for the women’s team to reach the NCAA Tournament field. If so, we could be placed in the Nashville region; those games are March 18 and 20 in Memorial Gymnasium. Tip time Sunday is 2 p.m. |
