by Cooper Torrez | Nov 17, 2011 | News Slider
This weekend marks the start of an extended road trip for the men’s basketball team.T The trip started Thursday in Illinois, where the Bisons lost to the Illini 79-64. The team will stay in the the state and play Illinois State before heading to Cancun for the Cancun Challenge.Senior guard Jordan Burgason is excited to watch the younger guys play on the big stage. “The new guys will get an opportunity to play on the big stage against Illinois and Illinois State,” Burgason said. “This will really help show where we are at as a team and how hard we have to work to beat top tier teams.” Senior guard Jacob Arnett thinks this week with help the growth of the team. “I think this week will be good for our team because we are playing four games this week,” said Arnett. “Being a young team we lack game experience so I think we will benefit from having games like these.” Burgason is anxious to get back on the court and help the younger guys out. “I’m looking forward to the Sacred Heart/Hampton game because it’s my first game back. It’s been a struggle having to watch my teammates play and not being able to get out on the floor so I’m definitely looking forward to getting back out there.” Burgason is in the middle of a five-game suspension for an undisclosed matter. The Bisons travel to Normal, IL on Saturday for a game against Illinois St. before they travel to Cancun, Mexico to play SIU Edwardsville on Nov. 22 and either Hampton or Sacred Heart on Nov. 23....
by Cooper Torrez | Nov 1, 2011 | News Slider, Sports
The BCS has had its fair share of shake ups the last couple weeks. With Oklahoma losing to Texas Tech and Michigan St. beating Wisconsin on a “hail mary” pass, this week was sure to be pretty normal, right? As Lee Corso would say, “Not so fast my friend.”Clemson failed to get passed Georgia Tech to notch their first loss of the year and a thrilling triple overtime game in Los Angeles was the perfect way to cap off the day. Heisman contending quarterback Andrew Luck and Stanford snuck out a win 56-48 against USC to keep their undefeated record and hopes of a National Championship alive. Oklahoma St. also kept their undefeated record in tact with a huge 59-24 win over Baylor. Oklahoma St. is ranked number 3 in the BCS Standing behind LSU and Alabama. Vanderbilt was leading the number 10 ranked team in the nation, Arkansas, with only the fourth quarter to play. After driving down to the 3 yard line Vandy running back Zac Stacy fumbled and the fumble was returned by Arkansas for a touchdown. After converting on the two-point conversion, the game was tied 28-28. Arkansas got a field goal with 3:42 left in the fourth quarter to go up 31-28. However, Vandy never gave up. They drove the length of the field and set up kicker Carey Spear with a 27 yard attempt to tie the game. Spear pushed the kick right and Vanderbilt lost a heartbreaker 31-28. Coach James Franklin was encouraged by the game, “We’re going to find ways to finish games like this,” Franklin said. Vandy is 4-4 on...
by Cooper Torrez | Sep 26, 2011 | News Slider, Sports
With the Vols on a bye week this week the Commodores looked to keep their perfect record alive against the twelfth ranked Gamecocks. The Commodores took the lead after an early field goal. However, those were the only points the Dores would get. Vandy still looked to be in the game until South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore took a screen pass for 51 yards right before halftime to put the Gamecocks up 14-3. Vandy struggled to put together anything on offense. Unfortunately for the Dores, they racked up more penalty yards than total yards for the game. Quarterback Larry Smith only threw for 44 yards and leading rusher Zac Stacy had just 18 yards on seven carries. Lattimore would put the game away with a 22 yard touchdown run in the third quarter. The bright spot in the game was the Commodores defense. Vandy picked off South Carolina gamecocks QB Stephen Garcia four times and held Lattimore to less than 100 yards for the first time all season. Vandy coach James Franklin had this to say about the defense, “I thought our defense played extremely well. I think they played good enough to win. They held Lattimore to 85 yards on 20 carries, they picked off Garcia four times.” The Commodores schedule doesn’t get any easier. Next week they take on third ranked Alabama in Tuscaloosa and the Vols take on the University of Buffalo at Neyland Stadium. In the conference alignment news, the SEC announced Texas A&M as the conferences thirteenth member on Sunday. Here is a better look at Texas...
by Cooper Torrez | Sep 21, 2011 | News Slider, Sports
The start of the college football season has been full of surprises and disappointments. Both Tennessee and Vanderbilt started Saturday 2-0 and only one team ended the day 3-0. However, it was the team most would not have suspected. Vanderbilt beat Ole Miss by the final of 30-7 on Saturday. The Commodores scored 21 points in the second quarter in route to a rare, but easy, win at Vanderbilt Stadium. Quarterback Larry Smith started the scoring with a 19 yard touchdown run and then a minute later defensive back Trey Wilson put the Commodores up 14-0 after a 52 yard interception return for a touchdown. At the end of the third quarter, Vandy running back Zac Stacy put the game out of reach with a 77 yard touchdown run. The big win was strongly attributed to Vandy’s five takeaways. “By nature we are an aggressive defense. We do quite a bit of blitzing and movement and things like that,” Vandy defensive coordinator told the Tennessean on Saturday. “I thought our guys did a good job creating havoc up front and doing things like that so, that’s important to us to be disruptive.” The Commodores take their 3 game winning streak on the road next week as they look to go 4-0. They face the 12th ranked South Carolina Gamecocks Saturday in Columbia. The other SEC team in Tennessee did not fare so well on Saturday. The Vols took on Florida in “The Swamp.” The game didn’t start well for Volunteer fans as star wideout Justin Hunter left the game after the first series with an ACL tear and is...
by Cooper Torrez | Sep 1, 2011 | News Slider, Sports
With the loss of five seniors there will be new leadership, new competition and a whole new look to the Lady Bisons volleyball team this year. However, players and coaches are excited for the season and the new freshman. “Anytime you lose five seniors and bring in five freshman you’re going to have that,” said Lady Bisons coach Brandon Rosenthal. “I am very impressed with our freshman and all five of them [showed up] in great shape, worked hard and a couple of them are competing for starting spots.” Coach Rosenthal thinks that his team had a very good preseason and that their first couple weeks on the floor were “tremendous.” “ “There was competitiveness and it was tooth and nail everyday,” he said. “I really liked what I saw.” The team kicked off the season at the “Flo Hyman Collegiate Cup” last weekend and lost three tough matches to Xavier (3-0), Houston (3-0) and Central Arkansas (3-2). While the scores of the Xavier and Houston matches were both 3-0, the games were very close with most of them being won by no more than two or three points. Junior Kaycee Green, who started all 31 matches for the Lady Bisons last season, is looking forward to the new look of this team on and off the court. “I feel like we are more connected as a team on and off the court,” said Green. “We rely on everyone’s effort and not just two or three people. This year we will need everyone on and off the court to support one another to get the wins.” Coach Rosenthal agrees...
