Vanderbilt Hotline: Ladies go down, the bats come alive, and the men look to hang around

Hopefully the throngs of people reading this has grown from 7 to 10 in light of the recently created Facebook group dedicated to the Vanderbilt Sports Line. I would encourage everyone in the group to tell two friends, and they'll tell two friends, and so on, and so on...Today's Hotline is coming a little early since Bobby's got a big day at work, don't get used to it.

We will start today with the ladies disappointing 59-56 lose last night in round 2 of the Women's NCAA Tournament. Coach Balcomb's team could never really get going last night, despite having a chance to win the game down the stretch. This marks the second consecutive year the Lady Commies have made a second round exit, this time at the hands of #7 seed Bowling Green. Much like the Vanderbilt men, Bowling Green, typically, relies heavily on the 3-ball, according to Mike Organ of the Tennessean, however, that is not why Vanderbilt lost last night. Johnny on the Spot, Stanimal has a recap below.

Coach Kevin Stallings appeared on Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPN Radio this morning. I thought Coach Stallings was very good, made a few good points, and bought into the shtick of Mike and Mike. In looking ahead to the Hoyas, Coach Stallings made a good point on Mike and Mike about how Washington State and Georgetown play similar styles, particularly on the defensive end. While the Cougars didn't have players like Hibbert or Green, Vanderbilt's ability to dictate pace in the second half against Washington State, bodes well for them going into Friday. As Stallings pointed out however, Georgetown can play up-tempo as well, and Commie fans cannot rely on a Vanderbilt win if the score is in the 80's. With all that said, Vanderbilt will be looking to play an up-and-down game on Friday, which is why they are resting up now. The best part of the interview was the fact that sitting in for Golic today was ESPN baseball writer and Vanderbilt Homer Buster Olney. It is now the stated mission of this blog to either get Buster to comment on VSL or to get a shout out for VSL on his ESPN Insider's baseball blog.

The "You be the Coach" thread is coming up with a lot of great stuff and will all be incorporated in the Georgetown preview that we will post tomorrow, in the mean time, one of the central points discussed thus far was the importance of Ross Neltner on the offensive end. Brett Hait discusses just that in today's Nashville City Paper.

A real benefit for Vanderbilt Basketball playing now, is that that it will help develop their future teams as well. It appears to already by working. The Hustler's beat reporter, Jared Amato has a number of good notes in today's Basketball Notebook that are definitely worth checking out as well. Finally, Bobby's adopted hometown paper doesn't have anything about the Hoyas/Commies match-up, so I guess we'll have to settle to the gospel according to the Washington Times.

In Vanderbilt Football news, the first 2008 Commie commit is in the books, with Coach Bobby signing offensive lineman Richard Cagle. The Houston native is 6'5, 250 lbs, with GPA of 3.77, further proof that if I applied to Vanderbilt today, I couldn't get in. After being granted a medical red-shirt after going down with a back injury in last year's open against Michigan, offensive tackle Brian Stamper will miss the rest of spring practice, after suffering a stress fracture in his right foot.

Vanderbilt baseball put a world of hurt on the Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky yesterday, with a 15-2 drumming yesterday. It was never close, and the Commies are now 22-1 and preparing for a three-game series in Fayetteville against Boyer in the District's Razorbacks this weekend. Back from a sabbatical, Woody is back with a fantastic recap.

Before getting to my American Idol take (a complete rip-off of Mr. Tony, for those of your scoring at home), I wanted to make it known to my loyal reader (thanks mom!), that I have an extra ticket from Vanderbilt's allotment for the Sweet 16 and Elite 8. All I want is face value, but I wanted to make the ticket available to VSL readers before pursuing other avenues. If you are interested in this ticket, please email me at vandysports@gmail.com.

Finally, last night's American Idol was very entertaining. Brentwood's own Melinda Doolittle was absolutely fantastic and is clearly the leader in the clubhouse, even if she has a striking resemblance to the mother Bernenstein Bear.

I thought Chris Sleigh (this year's Taylor) and Blake Lewis (American Idol's answer to Justin Timberlake) were very good during last night's "British Invasion" theme. These two are clearly the best guys and will hang for some time. Sanjaya is absolutely awful and really has to go. It's too bad that both he and Phil can't both be voted off tonight since they are both basically unwatchable. Finally, Haley Scarnato is hot. She knows it, I know it, and now the 9 of you reading know it.