SEC SQUAD - Charles Bediako DENIED Eligibility | How This Affects Auburn

0:00It's the NCAA versus some SEC quarterbacks and a basketball player. One to nine, what about the quarterbacks? It's time to squat up here on the SEC squad. We're talking ball with the SEC squad. From Alabama to Tennessee, from Georgia to Oklahoma, from Auburn to Texas. It's the local experts of the Lockdown Podcast Network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming SEC weekend. It's the SEC squad and we have a seat for you. Perfueling some thin skin, our pro-hibited. Squat up, you're part of the SEC squad. What is up, everybody? Happy Thursday and welcome into it. Pull up your chair and your crack open your favorite beverage as our guy Chris Gordy, who's not here tonight would say. This is SEC squad time. I'm your host tonight, Eric Cana, Lockdown Falls. We're joined by Stephen Willis, Lockdown Ole Miss, Cory Burton, Lockdown Vandy, and Jimmy Stein, Lockdown Bama. Appreciate you guys for being here and making all of our Lockdown shows your first listen, your first watch, each and every single morning.

1:01We are all a part of Lockdown Podcast Network. The number one sports podcast and network available, your team every single day. Today's show, you got to talk about the court systems. Joey Aguilar, Trinidad Chambers, coming up with preliminary injunctions later this week or into the week, I should say. Trinidad's was today. Joey's is tomorrow. Charles Beddeaco denied his preliminary injunction. What's the next step there? Talk a little transfer portal recap. Who's our best transfer portal addition for each of our teams? And what grade will we give each of our teams for the transfer portal action? And we'll talk a little hoops to conclude this episode of Lockdown SEC Squad, the SEC Squad Show. All right, boys, Jimmy, let's start with you. Obviously, Stephen and I very invested in the tail end of this week with preliminary injunction hearings for Trinidad Chambers and Joey Aguilar. Charles Beddeaco denied his preliminary injunction. He played on two separate or, I guess, one that was extended. TRO's temporary restraining order. His season looks like it has come to an end.

2:01What's the next move with anything for Beddeaco for Alabama? And what's the next step in this story? I don't think legally. I'll be surprised if the Beddeaco lawsuit sort of continues. He can continue on with what amounts to a money damages suit against the NCAA. Basically, his ask to be eligible while the suit is pending has been denied. That doesn't mean the lawsuit's over. But I'll be surprised if it continues. I think what Charles really wanted was to play. I think Alabama obviously would like to see him play. But Alabama was not a party to this lawsuit. This was Charles Beddeaco individually versus the NCAA. Alabama was an interested party, but they weren't an actual party to the lawsuit. I don't think much is going to come from anything for legally as far as this case is concerned. And Alabama is going to continue without him. Obviously, the plan before the season was to play without Charles Beddeaco. This case never would have happened. The Beddeaco whole ordeal never would have happened

3:01without the Baylor case. Yeah. It wasn't like this was planned back in November, December. This came about as a result of the NCAA allowing the Baylor kid to play. So I think Alabama just goes forward without Beddeaco, which was the plan from the job. You know, Cory, I'm really intrigued to see how the sluts in committee views Alabama later in the season. Are they going to wipe out every game that he played in? Just act like it was a no contest. Doesn't matter. Tennessee won on the road at Alabama with Charles Beddeaco on raw. I mean, that's a big win for Tennessee. Does that loss not count for Alabama? I think there were three and two. Is that right Jimmy? Three and two. Do those three wins not count for him? I mean, I'm really intrigued to see how the slush committee, you know, college basketball, media personalities, how they viewed this team when it comes later, you know, in March for slush and Sunday. This will be interesting, Eric, that none of that you mentioned that because it'll be hard for me to believe that they're going to punish a team like Tennessee

4:03for beating Alabama. But then again, it's hard to reward Alabama for playing with Beddeaco. So it's really that catch 22 situation of, okay, do you punish Tennessee and give them a lower seed because that wind didn't count? Do you simultaneously reward Tennessee? He said, hey, that was an impressive win. But then like with Alabama, it's, okay, they had Beddeaco. It doesn't count. Doesn't really hurt them. They were going to, you know, doesn't really hurt them. Doesn't really help them. Just kind of those just kind of get thrown out in the trash for Alabama. And they just have to hope that the rest of their wins and rest of their resume can stand without those, what, five games. Yeah, I think you should have a situation to where if you have a quad one win, like Tennessee beating Alabama in Alabama with Beddeaco. And he almost needs to be a quad one plus or something to where there's even a bonus given to the Tennessee player because yeah, they played against a pro. I mean, they legitimately did.

5:05Now, I'm not saying that Alabama should have to vacate a single loss. I'm not talking about anything like that. But I'm saying that teams that beat those Alabama teams, those two wins, it almost needs to be a bonus attached to that win. Yeah, I mean, I think that's fair too, because, you know, again, it wasn't, this is a weird one because like, they ruled him temporarily eligible than they, you know, then they snatched it back. So it's not like they played an illegal player. It's just he was good. And then he wasn't. You treat that because they didn't break any rules. It wasn't against the rules. Yeah, I mean, Joey Aguilar right now, if Tennessee had a football game today, he could play because he's he's under a temporary restraint. He's under a TROs. I mean, he could play. So Alabama didn't break any rules. I just, I'm really intrigued to kind of see how this Crimson Todd team is viewed. Real quick, Jimmy, before we shift on to the quarterbacks, where does Alabama basketball go from here? I guess we can talk about it more in segment three, but any big change not having Betty Ako in the line

6:05of moving forward. A little bit. Alabama doesn't really have a great backup center situation. So I think they're going to probably learn to go with a little more small ball at times. You know, one thing whether Betty Ako's in there or not, you know, Alabama has been down four and five players all season long. It's been the most remarkable run of injuries, like Nate Oates has said, he's never seen anything like it in his career. A typical game is Alabama out four guys and who those four guys are changes week to week. There's been very few games where Alabama's best players have all been on the court at the same time. So Alabama's got to get healthier. I would hope that one thing the committee might take into account if it ever happens. It's by the time March rolls around if Alabama's actually healthy for the first time all season. But in terms of playing without Betty Ako, Ainshrel is a good center. He's going to have to play more minutes and Alabama's going to have to play a little more small ball at times. But Nate Oates has been comfortable with that throughout most of his career.

7:06Three SEC preliminary injunction. One deny that's Charles Betty Ako. It is injunction day for Steven Willis for Trinidad. How we feel in about the time this airs and it's already taken place this morning. But big day for Ole Miss. You know, how's this week been for you? Yeah, it's been pretty weird because it's insane how almost excited and confident Ole Miss fans are going into this situation. And I tried to explain to people the NCAA did a really good job of trying to paint Trinidad Chambliss with the Diego Pavia brush to where you're saying that D2 didn't count. When that wasn't the case at all, this was a simple six-year medical red shirt thing that was that basically has been in college football for the last 40, 50 years. You know, you always had six-year seniors due to injury.

8:06And because of that, everybody kind of ignored what was going on. The NCAA said that Ferris State wasn't even participating and that Trinidad Chambliss just didn't play because he wasn't good enough. That was the original talking points. Got immediately disproved. And then this week it was, the attention was drawn to the fact that during the Ferris State National Championship game, Trinidad Chambliss, his timeline was mentioned of having a medical red shirt in 2022. It completely changes the narrative overall with that. It's been submitted by Ole Miss for a reconsideration from the NCAA. Nothing might happen. It might have already happened by the time he listened to this. But that on top of the injunction, everything, it just feels like Ole Miss fans are just biting their time and listen. If anybody besides Trinidad Chambliss takes the first snap for Ole Miss in 2026, I would be stunned at this point.

9:06It's wild, man, because like, you know, we were talking off air, all three preliminary injunctions, all three different cases, all three tried at the local level. Obviously, you know, Alabama's case didn't go, it's, you know, Betty Ackos case didn't go its way. You've got so much confidence in Trinidad. I have no clue about Joey Aguilar. His hearing, his injunction hearing is going to be tomorrow. We'll see what happens. He's fighting something. His is the Diego Pavi approach, essentially, right? Yours and injury, you know, Betty Ackos is something different. I have no feel on it. Like, I'm leaning that it's going to work out. But what's interesting is the, the lawyer that's representing the NCAA, represented the NCAA against Nico E. Maliabba's case a couple of years ago, took that L. He is from Knoxville, played football at Web, played football at Tennessee Tech, got his graduate degree from Tennessee. He's been all over the place. And he was the lawyer in the Charles Betty Ackos case, actually, too. So I think he's in the Trinidad case, too.

10:07Yes, ask you all over the place, man, all over the place. It's wild. Like, I just, I have no clue. I don't know what's going to happen with Joey. But like, you're like, confidence level. I love it out of 10. And I love it. Yeah. So I guess we'll see what happens. It is again, it's unlikely the judge is going to roll from the bench in a preliminary injunction hearing. It's possible. It's unlikely. So we'll see what happens with Trinidad. We'll see what happens to Joey Aguilar. We already know the case for Charles Betty Ackos. But this is all big when we're talking about the outlook for Ole Miss, the outlook for Tennessee in terms of the 2026 season. No doubt about that. Speaking of our teams for the 2026 season, who was the best transfer portal addition for Tennessee? For Vandy, for Alabama and for Ole Miss. All that and more coming up next. So we continue here on the SEC squad on the Thursday afternoon. I'm Claudia Butler, host of Lockdown Women's Basketball. And this is Mazda's Women's Basketball Snapshot. Celebrating the work no highlight reel can ever capture.

11:09Don Staley and South Carolina remain on top of the SEC standings after handing Tennessee their worst defeat in program history with a final score of 93 to 40. In the 43 point win, South Carolina shot 69 percent from the field. Tessa Johnson had a perfect shooting night, scoring 24 points, shooting four for four from the floor, including two threes and made all four of her free throws. And UCLA remains undefeated in big 10 play, topping Michigan 69 to 66. As player of the year, contender Lauren Vets put up a double, double, scoring 16 points, collecting 16 rebounds and adding five assists, and three blocks. These moments are earned off the clock. Those long before the lights ever come on. The sweat, the fakes, the doubt, the scrapes, and coming back for more every time. Mazda puts the same drive into every detail. When's the find the moment putting in the work that defines you? There's more to a Mazda because there's more to you.

12:11Welcome back here to the SEC squad. I am Eric Hannah Lockdown ball. Stephen Willis Lockdown Ole Miss Jimmy Stein locked on. Bama and Cory Burton locked on Vandy here. Hope you guys are enjoying the ride here. A lot to discuss. And I'm not sure why we were throwing shade of the lady balls there in that adry, but it is what it is. Let's talk about the transfer portal. When you lose about 43, you deserve all the shade. All right. That is true. Cory Burton, who was the best transfer portal get for the Vanderbilt Commodores? Well, if you look offensively, it's got to be take your pick between J. Cory Thomas, wide receiver from Old Dominion or Javante Conner, who's going to be the Eli Stowers replacement. Both guys were sorely needed. And then if you look at the offensive line, Bo Johnson coming from now Mountain West football program, North Dakota State. And so the combination of those three guys, I think you're going to make this Jared Curtis, the transition into the Jared Curtis era,

13:11a lot smoother, defensively Ricardo Jones, is the best transfer portal get we got on that side of the ball from the all conference safety from Clemson. Is Curtis going to start? I mean, is that a foregone conclusion? They paid, they paid them too much money to not start. He has a big live arm. I mean, it's just they're going to take their, they're going to take their lumps with them. They're going to, they're going to develop them and they're just going to see what's going on. I would be shocked if Blaise Burlewitz or Jack Elliott takes naps. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, we live in an area to where you got to go out there and win games, no doubt about it. But oftentimes if there's, if there's a tie or if these two players are even, who's got the bigger investment, you know, the bigger investment. That's just a draft capital at this point. That's, that's, that's business. Jimmy, we look at Alabama. Who's the best get for Alabama? Probably Devin Topkins, who's a defensive line transfer from USC, Alabama, lost multiple starters

14:12on the defensive line, Tim Keenan to the NFL draft, LT overed into the draft. James Smith to the transfer portal. So Alabama's looking for three new defensive line starters. They have some interesting players returning. But Devin Topkins is the best of the defensive line. Sonny's from the portal. He was a good player. USC, I think rivals rated him the number two defensive line. And in the portal, he could play inside at the defensive tackle three tech type position or outside an Alabama scheme as a bandit. But I look for Devin Topkins to make immediate impact. Caleb Woodson, an inside linebacker from Virginia Tech, has a good chance to be an immediate starter. Alabama lost their three leading inside linebackers from last season. They were all seniors. They've all moved on to pro football. So Caleb Woodson has an excellent opportunity to become an immediate starter. He was a two year starter and a captain at Virginia Tech before transferring to Alabama. I would also look for immediate impact on the offensive line. Alabama signed. I believe six offensive linemen out of the portal.

15:14Several of them have an opportunity to win starting spots. So my answer today is pre spring. Is Devin Topkins and Caleb Woodson. I won't be surprised Eric at the end of the spring. If I'm telling you a better answer is one of those offensive linemen. Yeah, it's interesting to kind of have this conversation before spring practice. Then after spring practice heading into camp. And then of course, you know, after the season because it can change a couple different times. It's interesting how I'm bringing in six offensive linemen via the portal. A couple defensive linemen, a couple of linebackers. Obviously you had to replace the duo of Quay Rousseau and James Smith. Those two guys. The package dealer visited Tennessee. I liked it to go to Ohio State. Steven, what about Ole Miss? Who's the best or the collection of best players via the transfer portal? Yeah, whenever you asked this question a little bit earlier, I started thinking about it. It's like, is it Jay Crawford? The cornerback that came over from Auburn, which allows Ole Miss to get back to play at man coverage and letting Pete Golding attack a little bit. That he wasn't able to do last year. Or I could be a troll and say it was Luke Forelli.

16:17You know, or maybe even Blake Purchase, the transfer from Oregon, but I explained for those that don't understand. Oh, Luke Forelli, the transfer from Clemson, called, caused Davos Sweeney to essentially melt down on there and go completely nuts. And that story lasted about three days and died down. And Steve Spurrier actually came out and said that somebody needs to let Davos know rules anymore. So that was kind of funny. But going back to it, I think Blake Purchase would be a big pick as a jack player on the edge on the transfer from Oregon. But until we find out about Trinidad Chambles, I think the number one leader in the clubhouse needs to be Duce Knight, the five star, left in a quarterback transfer from Auburn. I know everybody. You got a quarterback from Auburn. How good could he be? He's a really athletic guy and has, has, has strength that can be unbelievably explosive in Ole Miss's office.

17:17So that's very intriguing. Yeah, um, spent some time in the state of Tennessee when he was in high school. And then he transferred to, was it was a Mississippi, was it Mississippi for senior year, whatever it was? It was him and George McIntyre, the two in state quarterbacks that Tennessee was obviously targeting. Went ahead and went with George McIntyre. And he could be Tennessee's quarterback, depending on Joey Aguilar, depending on the five star phase on Brandon. Quarterback very unsettled, maybe more so after this week. When you look at Tennessee, oh real quick, Stephen, how many left? Because again, coaching changed. How many left and how many did Ole Miss get in the quarter? I think Ole Miss lost about 15. They only lost four players to LSU. The trend is when a coach leaves, that usually a bunch of players follow. Only four players ended up going to LSU. And that kind of, to me, is a testament to exactly how that was thought of and the way that all went down. But Ole Miss got lucky on that one. They lost an offensive line and went to Alabama,

18:18an offensive line and went to Auburn. Couple of good players, but nobody that was going to be real contributors. Ole Miss didn't lose too many guys that are going to play a lot. And if they're at the point where next season, if the quarterback gets right, they have legitimate Atlanta hopes going in even though the schedule gets harder. Yeah, it's got to play Fandy this year, Steve. We Ole Miss has to go to Nashville twice. Really? Yeah, I played Louisville first game of the season in Nashville. Oh, yeah, that's right. Trey Richardson transferred to Louisville. He's already doubtful for week one. Though he had a hit surgery as Nick Sabin once said, only easy place to play in the SEC is in Nashville. And then Alabama, unfortunately, stumbled that next week. Yeah, for Nick. There's a lot of easy places to play for Nick. We look at Tennessee. Tennessee had 26 when you count like former walk-ons,

19:21all that. I mean, everybody encompassing 26 leave. Tennessee brought in 21. Tennessee brought in a huge portal class. I mean, we really had to remake the defense. Specifically, the secondary. And again, like I could go, I mean, I've written so many stories about Tennessee's transfer portal class because there were some immediate impact players. Kay and Lee, the corner back two-year starter at Auburn. He's going to be a starter at a corner. TJ Metcalf, formerly of Arkansas. All big 10 at Michigan. He's going to play safety. Kwe Mosk, coming over from Kansas State. He's going to play the nickel spot. Chad's Coleman defensive end was ranked number three in the transfer portal rankings. Per on three this cycle from from Penn State. Amari Campbell, the linebacker, following Jim Knowles from Penn State. There's a lot that I like about this class, you know, for Tennessee specifically. I'm going to go with an under the radar one, though, because I think it's a huge position of knee defensive tackle. Now, two years ago, Tennessee lost Amari Thomas, Omar Norman Lott, Elijah Simmons defensive tackles this year. They say goodbye to Jackson Moe,

20:22Bryce and East and Dom Bailey. A lot of their big guys up front. Xavier Gilliam from Penn State, coming over. Pretty productive player. Very athletic, three down defensive tackle. You know, Rodney Garner still at Tennessee, despite the defensive coordinator change over. There's a really good job at developing talent, but plays a lot of different guys. Somebody needs a leader up there, the defensive tackle. That's probably my answer. The sexy answer is Chad's Coleman. I think the sky's the limit for that guy. Long athletic. So for the little bit of injury, so he didn't see a ton of playing time. In his production, certainly one there's a true freshman, but there's a reason of how state wanted him. There's a reason Lane Kiffin and Ellis, you wanted him. South Carolina made a real big push there at the end. He comes with Jim Knowles to Tennessee. I think Chad's Coleman on the edge as a chance to be really, really good for the volunteers. And how can you not like Amari Campbell? Head over 100 tackles at North Carolina, 100 tackles at Penn State last year. Knows the defense and everybody talks about how, well, Jim Knowles is great, but it takes three or four years, you know, for that defense to come around, right?

21:24Well, you've got a defensive tackle, you got a linebacker, you got a safety. Oh, you got two defensive linemen, a linebacker on a safety. You have a defensive Vince coach, and you have the secondary's coach all coming with Jim Knowles. So I think that's going to accelerate that process for Tennessee on the defensive side of the football. If you could give your team a grade for the transfer portal, Steve, what would it be? I would say and just a straight A, they had a really good portal class. I'm, I know, I'm a homer, big deal. But when you look at needs that were basically up-kept, you got a quarterback, Duce Knight, you got wide receivers and Horatio Fields and John Tate Cook. You remade the secondary with Edwin Joseph and Jay Crawford and Janelle, the safety from Georgia over there. You got Luke for, for Ellie, you got the linebacker from Baylor. They've remade their defense at a higher level to where the talent actually jumped up.

22:26And according to the collective person at Ole Miss, they have very high hopes for what this defense can be. And honestly, we're going to be real. If Ole Miss had a defense that could bow up and stop the run and play man coverage and do the things that need to do, they would have beaten Miami and they would have been playing Miami on Monday night. And that is what Pete Golding's trying to do. And that's what the transfer portal kind of accomplished. I'm really, really excited to see what Blake Purchase can do as a true end. They transfer from Oregon. He was going to start at Oregon. If they lost either of the two ends that were starting above him this year, they decided to come back. Blake Purchase hit the road. That's a benefit for Pete Golding. I do think it was an A-Transfer Portal class. Number two in the 24-7 rankings. And they signed a lot of big name, big school players. And not for a ton of money either. That's the cool thing about this is Walker Jones and the Growth Collective.

23:30They've discovered it's like, hey, this wide receiver is a talented player, but he had quarterback problems. So we can get him at a little bit of a discount. So that's what they did with Trey Harris. That's what they did with the Sean Stribbling. And that's what they're trying to do with Horatio Fields coming from Auburn. We got an A. Anybody beat an A? Cory, Jimmy? I'm going to go with the A-minus right there on the cusp because I think based on what they lost and what they gained, I think they gained a lot of great things. What they lost was guys that I think they were getting ready to shed anyway to make room for this great high school class that they signed. And make room for some of these bigger, bigger name portal guys. So I think they filled their needs with quality guys, especially in the offensive line. Mike DeBose coming over from Alabama is one of my favorites because he was signed as a tackle because they probably wanted to play the tackle.

24:30But he's coming down. Mike DeBose came from Alabama. Yeah, he's coming back. This eligibility thing's getting crazy. I want to see how you know, you want to talk about a veteran guy. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me. You want Mike DeBose and not Mike DeBose. Trust me. Mike DeBose, yeah. Yeah, he's coming down to play guard for Vanderbilt. I think that's a better natural fit for him anyway. So you get all, you get an all-conference safety. You get a corner from Texas A&M. You get, you load up your edge position, getting a guy from LSU who has a ton of potential and a lot of speed and a lot of things. So you get weapons for for Jared Curtis with Cole Adams. Jimmy familiar with him too. And jacory Thomas, which I think Cole Adams fits a really nice role for Vanderbilt. Not only on offense, but on special teams as well. So just a ton of great pieces. I mean, yeah, it sucks that you lose Tray Richardson and Brandon Fountainette to the portal.

25:34And you lose a ton of guys to graduation and NFL. But I thought, Clark Lee did a phenomenal job of replacing those guys. 30 seconds, Jimmy. I talked too long. It's my fault. 30 seconds. Give me your grade for Alabama. A C plus in the transfer portal. Not enough impact, immediate impact guys. Several guys who might contribute. That, however, is offset by a high school class that's showing up. That's an A or an A plus. Three or four of the high school players could be immediate, impactful players, even at positions like running back in a water receiver. So I'm going to give Tennessee a B. And I want to separate the quarterback conversation from this, but you can't, right? And we don't know about Aguilar and all that. They got faith in the young guys. They took a swing of Sam Levitt. They turned their nose at Bo Pervula. Everything else. I mean, need check, need check, need check. I mean, Tennessee brought in 21 players, checked all the boxes. We made that secondary. I think it's solid B plus is what I'm going to give him right here. For the Tennessee transfer portal grade. What about your team on the maximal court?

26:34They're getting closer and closer to March. Who's hot? Who's not? Who's real? Who's not SEC basketball conversation? When we return right here on SEC squad. Tax season doesn't have to take over your life. This year, Turbo Tax is making it easier than ever to just hand things off and move on with your day. You know, for years and years and years, Cory, he did my taxes. He can't do it anymore. He got too complicated. So I just did a jail. I got an expert from our friends over at Turbo Tax. Turbo Tax full service. Does my taxes for me trust a local expert? Not Cory, a trusted local expert here in Knoxville, not Nashville. Start the finish. Taking the stress, taking out the guesswork when my taxes that are a little complicated, get it done for me. They handle everything from W2s, self-employed forms to 90 nons. Working to get every single the duck guys. We know this lot of work. We have got to record everything. And the people, the great people at Turbo Tax really helps find every deduction possible. Again, it's a piece of mind.

27:35Let them do the work for you this tax season. For a limited time, you can get your taxes done by a local Turbo Tax expert for just $150 all in. If a Turbo Tax expert did not file for you last year, just file by February 28. Take taxes off your plate, get back to real life, visit TurboTax.com slash local. To book your appointment today, that is TurboTax.local. To book your appointment today. SEC squatted up. Let's talk basketball here to conclude this edition of the SEC squad. Who's real? Who's not? Alabama is obviously a pretty talented basketball team. Vanderbilt started out really hot. Kind of treading water here lately. Tennessee. A lot of talent there. Playing better. Blowing double digit leads to Kentucky. Very frustrating. Ole Miss is down there towards the bottom of the conference. They play basketball. They play basketball. That's true. Corey, what's your thoughts on Vanderbilt right now? What needs to happen for Vanderbilt to

28:36get back to where it was to begin this? He's a big win earlier this week. Yeah, huge win on the road against Auburn. They literally were limping into that game, missing two key pieces, a key substitute and a starter. Already have front court mismatch issues going into that game. They went down to Auburn, Neville Arena, which I thought Auburn was going to win the front court battle, and that was going to be the difference in this game. But and the fact that Vanderbilt looked like a JV team against Oklahoma. But they come into the Neville Arena. They're focused and they get the win. And they were led by double digits by most of that game. Auburn made a run there towards the end, but they held on Tyler Tanner again, probably the MVP of the SEC had 23 points after scoring 37 points on Saturday. I mean, he's he's got to be averaging close to 20 now. At this point, I don't see how his average is not not above 20 with his with his scoring output.

29:38But I mean, that dude is a absolute stud. So the Vandy roller coaster just keeps going on. They're either they're either blowing people out or getting blown out themselves. And there's a couple of close wins in there in between. But it's it's like this with Vanderbilt right now. They're back on the upswing after what I thought was a pretty bad embarrassing loss against Oklahoma. I think you could say that for all of our teams, you know, up, down, up, down. I mean, Florida's Florida. Really, really good. Kentucky challenging start to the season. But they just want the team's Vanderbilt killed. Yeah, the world gym like it was. It was I was like, what are we doing here? Certainly found its footing. Arkansas and A&M are tied for third in the conference of the time that's recording again in some games. You know, this weekend and in the rest of the week. Vanderbilt, Alabama, Missouri, and Tennessee, all tied. It's six and four in the conference. And Jimmy, we spoke on it a little bit earlier. What does Alabama have to do to take that next step before March knowing? There's no more trails. But I got well, Alabama's played the number one schedule

30:40in the country. But they're now entering starting now. A little a met more manageable portion of the schedule. It's been pretty insane up to this point. That's been responsible for some of the up and downs. But the next four, five, six games are a little bit more manageable than what Alabama has seen, basically starting from the first week in November. Secondly, the injury situation. 13 players, three are now out for the season. Several other players are out this game or that game. Holloway's got a wrist. Ritesol injured his leg in the last game. Phylons missed time. The injury situation has just been outrageous. NATO said last week he's never seen anything like it. As long as he's been coaching. But if Alabama can finally get healthier and now you've got a more manageable part of the schedule, I think Alabama can string together some wins here and get a get solidly into this SEC race. That's kind of where Tennessee is in its schedule. Kind of that sweet spot had a couple games against Kentucky.

31:40Again, where you're beating the crap out of them, but can't hold on to a double digit lead. 17 at home, 14 on the road. It's baffling. Mark Pope one and Mark Pope is four and one against Rick Barnes while in Kentucky, but that one loss sweet 16 last year. I'll speak on Tennessee in a moment. But first, Steven, instead of commenting on Ole Miss this year, I want you to comment on Chris Beard getting thrown out of the game in Knoxville last week. I thought that was so bizarre. Well, he's trying anything to get this team's attention. It's one of those situations where evaluations just kind of got missed. Ole Miss actually has a European pro on their team and Ilya is commenting. And he has not adjusted to the American game at all. Travis Perry, kind of a one trick pony at this point. It's just difficult. And Chris Beard got thrown out of the game. I honestly think he's trying to get his team's attention. However he can do it, nothing is working.

32:40They had an 18 point deficit against the Texas Longhorns in the first half. Came all the way back and took the lead and lost the game by double figures. That is what the Ole Miss basketball experience is this year. Y'all have ups and downs during the season. Ole Miss has ups and downs in the game. Wow. Forty to Betioca's attorney that Steven admits Ole Miss has a European pro on the team. I think Tennessee has two pros that are on the team. Okay. Forting that to. A conversation for another day in terms of, well, if you're a pro over there, what makes it different? There's a lot of differences. But again, we can talk about that later. Tennessee really is in the sweet spot of its schedule. Playing really good basketball, I'll be at camp find a way to close against Kentucky. Beat Auburn a couple of weeks ago. Outlasted Georgia and overtime on the road. Beat Alabama and Charles Betty Acko. A couple of weeks ago. A&M and overtime. Mississippi State earlier this week,

33:41LSU this weekend. Oklahoma coming up next week. And then you got two against Vanderbilt, Missouri, Alabama. Those are going to be some challenging games to end the season. Nadei Mint is coming alive. Looking like that lottery pick, everybody thought he was going to be Jacobi Gillespie. We'll make you pull your hair out of your brain sometimes. But his scoring has been great. He's a great facilitator as well. It's about finding that consistent third. It doesn't have to be one person. One doubt, it can be Bishop Boswell. One doubt, it can be J.P. Estrella. Tennessee's got no consistency on the front court. And I think that's been really, really frustrating for Rick Barnes so far this year. But I'm intrigued to see how Tennessee finishes. They need to take advantage of this stretch of games they're in because again, it's going to get tougher. Vanderbilt twice, Missouri, Alabama. Still on the schedule to close out the regular season. Well, I'm going on for all of our teams. Football conversation never stops. Basketball seasons heating up. Baseball season begins this weekend. We had our first ever baseball squad show earlier this week.

34:44I hope you guys all check that out. And hey, NCAA battling in the court systems against Trinidad Chambers and Joey Aguilar. Trinidad's earlier today. Joey's is tomorrow both seeking preliminary injunction to be the quarterbacks for all Miss and Tennessee in 2026. Pingers crossed. We'll see what happens for Stephen Willis. Locked on all Miss Cory Burton. Locked on Danny Jimmy Stein. Locked on Bama. I am Eric Kane of Locked on Balls. Appreciate you guys for being here. This has been the ESCC squad.