With the final regular season series set to get underway this weekend, the Alabama Baseball team has it’s eye on post season baseball.  Alabama will travel to the SEC leading Georgia Bulldogs for a three game series starting Friday night.  Alabama positioned themselves well with the series victory over the Gators last weekend in dramatic fashion, but a berth in the SEC Tournament (which takes the top 8 teams from the SEC) is on the line.  The Bulldogs have already secured the SEC Regular Season Championship and the top overall seed in the SEC Tournament, so Alabama may have a break in seeing the Dawg’s top pitchers.  Right now Alabama has a record of 30-23 (14-13 in the SEC), a game and a half back of the West leading LSU Tigers (winners of 13 straight). 

Alabama has found a bit of a spark as of late, winning four straight series.  Winning one game against Georgia this weekend should allow Alabama to advance to the SEC Tournament.  One thing is for sure though, anything can happen in the SEC Tournament so making it there is key.  Ask Ole Miss.

Hoover Met, home of the SEC Baseball Tournament

Not only is Alabama looking to advance to the SEC Tournament, but several college baseball sites have recently given their predictions for the field of 64 in the NCAA Tournament.  Most, if not all of these sites have Alabama in the field.  The location varies from site to site, but according to BaseballAmerica.com, Alabama will be the three seed in the Tempe, AZ region with the number two overall seed Arizona State as the host.  While Alabama still has work left to do, the chance to play in the NCAA Tournament should be enough motivation for the Alabama players. 

The SEC appears to be a well represented league for the NCAA Tournament.  Most college baseball sites have nine SEC teams advancing.  Out of those nine, Alabama has the worst RPI ranking, but winning four straight series over Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Arkansas, and Florida will speak volumes when teams are selected even if Alabama misses out on the SEC Tournament. 

It should be a very interesting weekend around the SEC, as four teams with 14-13 records battle for the 4-7 seeds.  Stay tuned for updates after the weekend on the Alabama/Georgia series and seedings for the SEC Tournament. 

Over the past weekend Alabama OL Andre Smith was recognized and honored as a member of the 52nd annual Playboy Preseason All-America team in Phoenix, Arizona.  Andre is the first Tide member to receive this honor since Roman Harper in 2005.  The weekend included an all-around sports competition, a team photoshoot (yea, that’s what they call it now), and an awards dinner.   

When asked about the honor Andre replied, “I was honored to be selected as a Preseason Playboy All-American.”  I would be honored too.  Can you imagine what it would be like to place that award on the resume?  Can you imagine (I caution you for reading these next couple of lines) seeing Andre by the mansion pool in a silk robe, smoking a cigar with his navigators on?  What about the chances of actually appearing in the mag?  Well the story will be ran in the September issue of Playboy and will feature several of the All-American team members.  As one clever poster on BamaOnline stated, “As long as the pictures are classy, and they respect him as a person.”  I laughed out loud to that.

Now, I know most men claim to enjoy the articles while “reading” a Playboy magazine, but this particular issue might be one that men actually read and not have to lie about.  Also, when the issue does come out (mid-August), go ahead and tell your wife to pick up a copy of it on her next trip to Barnes and Noble or Book-A-Million because it’s about football.   You should get a pass. 

This is a great honor for Andre and the rest of the members.  Believe it or not, being named a Playboy All-American is actually a pretty big deal.  Congrats to Big Andre, and please stay another year!

Former LSU QB Ryan Perrilloux has told the Birmingham News that he intends on signing with Jacksonville State University according to this story by SI.com.  Perrilloux also said that he visited one other school during his search (Alabama A&M) but considering JSU has zero scholarship quarterbacks, I guess he decided to go where he knows he will instantly play.  Talented, yes, but Perrilloux has a knack for putting himself in bad situations and making bad decisions.  Will a change of scenery change Perrilloux?  It’s really hard to tell. 

At some point one would figure that Perrilloux would get the idea that he can get in trouble.  Maybe after his 486,785 last chance at LSU he will realize that there are prices to pay.  From Baton Rouge to a small town in Alabama is quite a change.  I’ll be the first to tell you that there isn’t much in the form of outside entertainment in Jacksonville, Alabama.  There’s also not a casino for miles and miles.  I’m interested in seeing the outcome here and just how long he will last. 

The Human Reverse is no longer a Vol.

Phillip Fulmer announced Tuesday that senior WR Kenny O’Neal, a former five-star JC-transfer receiver who started his career at Florida State, will not return to UT following an academic suspension.

I guess he got sick of yelling: “Hey Kenny! Go Deep!” or “Reverse to Kenny on three. Ready, BREAK.”

I wish O’Neal the best, really I do. But this is not a huge loss, by any means. Sure, O’Neal scored touchdowns on half of his catches last year, which sounds AWESOME until you realize he finished the season with two catches. Every time he was on the field, the opposing team lined up 11 men on the side opposite where O’Neal lined up because they knew a reverse was coming. If anything, this makes us even less predictable than we were after Cutcliffe left to go to Duke.

It saddens my heart, though. The most redeeming portion of the Kenny O’Neal Era for UT was the brilliance of the Kenny O’Neal diary from Loser With Socks. (NOTE: PROCEED WITH CAUTION ON THE LINK. LANGUAGE WARNING.)

Moesha on.

Tennessee head football coach Phillip Fulmer now has a Web cam in his office. And no, it’s not so he can flash Vicky his moobs when he’s working late.

Apparently, after Nick Saban found a loophole (that one’s for you, TideFan) in the rules about face-to-face recruiting by installing a Web cam in his office to set up teleconferencing with potential recruits, Fulmer — a tireless recruiter with a pretty good track record himself — thought it was a great idea and had one put in himself.

We recently sat down with Phil inside his Neyland-Thompson Sports Complex Office to discuss the new recruiting methods.

“How neat is this?” Fulmer asked rhetorically as we were plopping in a plush orange chair. “We’re still trying to get some of the kinks worked out, obviously. I heard the first time Nick talked to a recruit, the kid only saw the top of his head because the people who’d installed the camera positioned it to accommodate a person of normal height.

“That’s why we got a wide-angle lens.”

For a die-hard Tennessee fan, one of the questions that had to be asked was, Why copy Saban? Why couldn’t you think of it first so I wouldn’t have to act to my Bama buddies like this was an excellent idea? I simply didn’t understand why he then had to say that Saban thinking of the loophole was smart.

“Hey, I tell it like it is, Ghost,” Fulmer said. “It was a very innovative idea. Obviously, I’m not going to try to be like Nick. Sure, he got three ‘in-state’ kids in Tennessee this year — one from Georgia, one whose dad is a Bama alumnus and one whose coach purposefully shielded his player from us, but we’ve been doing OK, recruiting-wise.

“I know that Nick is going to bring some good players to Alabama. That’s the way it should be. But we’re content with what we’re doing here. What am I going to do? Start losing to directional schools and making December reservations for Shreveport? I like what we’re doing.”

Fulmer said that he’s so excited about the Web cam that he’s thinking of doing live shots from hip places in Knoxville such as some of the bars on the Strip, the sorority dorm rooms at Humes Hall, Britton Colquitt’s full wet bar and Pilot Corp. chairman and UT booster Jim Haslam’s pad.

“We’re also going to go on-location at the Mouse’s Ear to show the recruits some of the lovely ladies that UT has to offer,” Fulmer said with a grin. “I am however disappointed that Ramar Smith and Duke Crews got kicked off the basketball team. Now, our players are going to have to find new connections, so we’re going to have to photoshop some of our guys into Urban’s weed farm at least temporarily and see if we can pull that off.”

The Web cam is already paying off, according to some coaches. Though they haven’t gotten any commitments from the teleconferences yet.

“We dressed up like the Super Troopers and did this sweet little male revue thing for this one kid,” Vols defensive coordinator John Chavis said. “It was me, Dan (Brooks), Greg (Adkins) and Larry (Slade). The kid seemed to dig our mustaches, but I guess the vibes we were giving off were a little much. He committed to Florida.

“Also, I hate recruiting. I mean I freakin’ H-A-T-E it. So, I can just sit back here in Phillip’s office, eat ding dongs and talk to recruits in the comfort of my own underwear. I try to talk to a recruit at least once a month.”

Fulmer closed the interview with a demonstration of how he would talk to recruits. Rather than sitting behind his mahogany desk overlooking the Tennessee River, Fulmer had three walk-ons cut out a cardboard, life-size picture of Peyton Manning a couple of weeks ago, and Fulmer stands with his arm around the Manning replica, preparing for the recruit.

Written in an orange cloud above Peyton’s head are the words: “Yeah, I played for Tennessee. That’s how I got these mad skillz.”

The coolest part of the whole production is when offensive coordinator Dave Clawson — who does a mean Manning, by the way — gets behind the cardboard Manning and recites the Saturday Night Live “United Way” piece for the recruits. Some of dumber prospects, Fulmer said, think it’s actually Peyton.

“Those are for the guys we’re going head-to-head with Alabama on,” Fulmer said.

Fulmer is through interviewing for the day. He said it’s time to get down to business, and my heart rate rises as I get to sit in on an actual recruiting call with the Vols! Fulmer hits the redial button — he set this up with the recruit’s coach this morning — and clears his throat to make the first of many pitches to this player, when, on the screen, pops Vicky Fulmer, Phillip’s lovely bride.

She’s peeking through fingers into the camera: “Phillip? Is that you? I’m not talking to you unless I know your shirt is on.”

Thank God it wasn’t a five-star.

As I took a break from my all-night cram session (excuse any bad writing, please) for two finals that start at 8 am and 11 am, I just had to check up with any Alabama related news.  Well, I got it.  Our stud linebacker from this year and hopefully more to come was in a motorcycle wreck back in his home town of Decatur, AL.  

Apparently sophomore LB Rolando McClain slid under a moving SUV sometime last night and lived to tell about it.  He only suffered very minimal injuries and was released from the hosiptal yesterday.  God (and The Bear) must have been watching down on him because not only was he lucky to avoid serious injury, he could have easily been killed. 

I think I stopped breathing when I saw the headline and didn’t even think about it until my face and body turned purple.  As you can imagine, this is probably going to be the end of motorcycles for the UA Football Program.  At least I hope so.

Sorry I don’t have more, but the details are still unclear, and frankly, I’ve got to cram a little more. 

Normally this time of year when something happens as drastic as Ramar Smith and Duke Crews getting booted off the Tennessee men’s basketball team, you’re sent scrambling as a coach.

Late signing period has come and gone, and the team you have coming back is the team you’re stuck with, for better or worse. That’s what normally happens. It’s not every day you look out there and find a potential star junior college point guard on the “scrap heap.”

Fortunately, that’s just what the Vols — who have become a recruiting juggernaut in basketball — have done. Six-foot-one point guard Bobby Maze, a former Oklahoma freshman starter, signed with Tennessee on Wednesday during his one-day official visit. The Hutchinson (Kan.) CC point guard — who set a school record in assists last year, though dubbed a combo guard by most, chose the Vols over Kentucky and St. Johns. Also Cincinnati and USC expressed interest. According to a Govols.com article this week, “Maze averaged 20.7 points, 6.7 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game last season and led the Blue Dragons with 55 steals.”

How much does this kid look like Allen Iverson?? Wow. Hope he plays like him

In the same article, his coach — Ryan Swanson, a former Bruce Pearl assistant — had this to say about the speedy point guard:

Maze originally committed to Maryland, another team that runs an uptempo system. But the Terps pulled their offer at the last minute before later coming back and saying they had room after all.

Maze wasn’t interested the second time around.

“Bobby has heard from about 50 Division I schools,” Swanson said. “Bobby is very intelligent; he’s been through this process before, and he can read between the lines.

“Tennessee would be a great fit for him, but he’ll make up his own mind. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Bobby wants to go to Tennessee.”

Coming out of high school in New Jersey in 2006, he was Rivals.com’s No. 135-ranked player. Apparently, there were some player-coach issues at Oklahoma that stemmed from Maze being a high-maintenance player who had a me-first attitude and bouts with immaturity, though his junior-college coach seemed to refute that. Either that, or he changed drastically. We as Vols fans have to hope so.

Whatever the case, Ramar had some character issues, and with only one point guard (sorry J.P.) on the roster next year in true freshman Daniel West, UT had to pull the trigger on Maze, a supreme talent with a decent amount of baggage.

He had a great quote on today’s Volquest.com story.

“I’m a point guard that likes to run, and just looking at the players we’ve got here, as a point guard, it’s like someone handing you the keys to a Ferrari. No offense to the other schools, but if someone hands you the keys to a Ferrari or a Range Rover, I’m going to take the Ferrari.”

What it boils down to is this: The Vols play a fun brand of up-and-down basketball. Any prospect is going to consider playing for UT, and some are going to jump at the chance. Also, Pearl and the Vols have done a good job of getting guys that, for some reason or another, didn’t wind up with their original teams. Think about it: Tyler Smith came to UT from Iowa, J.P. Prince came to the Vols from Arizona after wanting to trasfer to Vanderbilt. Hopson signed with the Vols after verbally committing to Mississippi State and not signing. Now, there’s Maze, an Oklahoma transfer who committed to Maryland before having his scholly oddly pulled.

It’s definitely an odd way to get players, very unconventional. But it’s working so far. Hopefully, with the signing of Maze, it will continue.

Well, with a headline like that, at least you’ll read the first sentence. But, obviously, troublesome former LSU quarterback Ryan Perrilloux won’t be transferring to Tuscaloosa. Not even a scoundrel like Nick Saban could get away with that.

Instead, ESPN.com is reporting that Jacksonville State has contacted Les Miles and is interested in taking Perrilloux onto the team. Said Gamecocks coach Jack Crowe:

“Les was very kind to spend quite a bit of time explaining the situation to me,” Crowe told The Associated Press. “He’s very optimistic about him being a successful player and a successful student-athlete.”

Personally, I think Jacksonville, Ala., would be a good fit for Perrilloux. I mean, there aren’t many places in the world lower on the list than rural Alabama when you think of somebody waking up in a mound of expensive cocaine and guns after doing lines off a dead hooker, which, right now, seems a more likely destination for Perrilloux than the NFL.

Instead, Perrilloux would probably just spend his remaining eligibility smoking home-grown ganja and making lesser opponents look silly before somebody wastes a late-round pick on him as a wide receiver until he ends up in a federal prison. Either that, or he’ll just get into trouble again in college and fade into oblivion.

I’d like to see Perrilloux get back on track, but that seems pretty unlikely at this point. Hopefully, he’ll start making some good decisions and make something of himself. Even if those four Heismans he predicted have spiraled even farther down the drain.

** STORY UPDATE: It appears the chances of Alabama’s crime rate going up just got greater. The Huntsville Times reported this morning that Alabama A&M has been in contact with Perrilloux, and also Alabama State is interested. I guess when you have a talent like this, all the baggage goes out the airplane window.

Most people think this will be Perrilloux’s next destination

All of us here at 3SiB have been pretty slack in our posting and we want to apologize to all of our readers (Mom). It’s been pretty lean news-wise with just the periodic early commitment for next season’s recruiting class and the half-hearted attempts at mocking. But then Auburn, as always, rides to the rescue.

Today, we were tossing around ideas, and we had a discussion about some comments Tommy Tuberville had regarding this not new teleconferencing thing Saban is credited with not inventing. Namely, that Tuberville thinks it’s a great idea, won’t be doing it. So we got into a debate, me saying that not doing it was irresponsible and short-sighted, others saying Auburn has done fine the past six years and that’s enough proof of things to come. We never agreed (I’m right), but decided to offer it to you. Feel free to weigh in, but first, you have to check this out. I was searching for the quotes from Tuberville for this article, and was directed via al.com to this proud website:

www.bamahaters.com

This site is everything Tide fans love about Auburn. Ugly, obsessive, and contains fewer references to Auburn than it does Bama, including the title. If you don’t feel like counting, just look at the ads.  All for Bama products.

Not all Auburn fans are like this–there’s probably even one who knows something about Auburn–but it’s sites like this that make it easy to stereotype. It also provides me one more point of comfort: Auburn fans are so proud of only alumni supporting their program, looking down upon Alabama for having so many fans that never took a class at the University. Well, when your fans post things like this, distancing yourself from their education is a bit easier when you don’t share it. Don’t make me post a Kenny Irons interview. I’ll do it, I swear.

Ball, Kenny. Ball? Say Ball. Ba-ll.

No, I could not type that with a straight face.

Anyway, BAMA also picked up their fourth commitment for the 2009 class. QB AJ McCarron, ranked as one of the top ten QB’s in the nation, chose BAMA over Georgia, Miami, and Oklahoma. This comes as a surprise to exactly no one. I remember first seeing his highlight films a little over a year ago and thinking that BAMA had to have this kid. Then I learned that those were clips from his sophomore year. Kid has a cannon. Three of his teammates signed with Alabama this past February.

Here’s some Youtubery from his junior year…