The College football spring games will conclude this weekend. Mississippi State and USM will hold their contests while Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and LSU will also have spring game. MSU is without the full time services of Nick Fitzgerald, but backup signal caller Keytaon Thompson is impressive.
Ole Miss is set at quarterback for the fall, but an experienced back up could be a problem in the SEC. USM has plenty of competitors for its starting quarterback position. Northwest Community College quarterback Jack Abraham is pushing Laurel’s Keon Howard during the spring. Last year’s starter Kwadra Griggs is not taking part in the spring. Griggs threw for over 1,800 yards as he fired 16 touchdowns and was only intercepted twice during the 2017 season.
USM BASEBALL
CONTINUES TO ROLL
The University of Southern Mississippi won its ninth straight C-USA baseball series as it took two of three from Florida International to move within a half game of Florida Atlantic in the C-USA standings. The 13th ranked Golden Eagles are 10-4 in league play and 24-11 overall. USM will host Middle Tennessee this weekend.
Ole Miss lost its second straight series as they fell to Vanderbilt in Nashville. The Rebels won on Friday night but lost two one-run games on Sunday to fall two games behind Arkansas in the SEC West. Ole Miss hosts Georgia this weekend in SEC action. Mississippi State (5-10, 19-18) lost two of three at Auburn to fall in a last place tie in the SEC West with Alabama. State will host Arkansas this weekend in Starkville as part of Super Bulldog Weekend.
COLD WEATHER
FOR BASEBALL
April usually brings plenty of rain showers, but mix in a little snow and sleet and you have some bad weather for the boys of summer. Major League baseball saw six postponements of their games this past Sunday. Minnesota and the Chicago White Sox had three straight games cancelled this past weekend. So far in the first 2? weeks of the season, 21 games have been postponed. The Red Sox and the Orioles played in a wind chill temperature of 23 this past Sunday. This past Monday Boston even had to cancel their Patriots Day game that coincides with the Boston Marathon for the first time since 1984. Speaking of Red Sox history, they are off to their best start in the last 118 years as they entered the week at 13-2.
ODDS & ENDS
— Ole Miss is ranked number one in the 247 publication that covers recruiting news. The Rebels are listed as the top ranked school for the 2019 football recruiting class. Mississippi State is listed as the fifth ranked school in the same 247 publication.
— Mississippi State’s Victoria Vivians and Morgan William are taking the next step as they prepare for the WNBA. Vivians was a first round pick and eighth overall of the Indiana Fever of the league. William selected Las Vegas to sign as a free agent. William is the all-time assist leader in Lady Bulldog history while Vivians is the Lady Bulldogs' all-time scorer.
— There were a couple of big time coaching hires in the high school ranks of Mississippi last week. Bobby Hall was hired at Philadelphia and Shelton Gandy was hired to lead Wayne County.
— The NBA playoffs had an upset on the first date of the playoffs when the New Orleans Pelicans ambushed Portland, 97-95. Former Kentucky basketball great Anthony Davis leads the Pelicans.
— The New Orleans Saints have sold out every home game since 2006 and have a waiting list that exceeds 60,000 for season tickets. Gayle Benson, the widower of the late Saints owner Tom Benson, now owns controlling interest of the Saints and basketball Pelicans.
Sports columnist Dale McKee lives in Waynesboro and has been covering sports in the state of Mississippi for more than years. He can be contacted at
ddmckee18@yahoo.com.
