Jumbo Package: Julian Sayin shows out at Elite 11, latest on Darius Miles

Happy Friday, everyone. As you know already, 2024 SEC schedules were released this week and Alabama got one of the tougher draws. Knoxville local idiot Blake Toppmeyer believes that Sankey was punishing Saban for complaining about permanent opponents.

The emperor spoke out of turn from Tuscaloosa, and the commissioner clapped back Wednesday from Birmingham.

The SEC didn’t go easy on Georgia, either.

The rivalry game against Florida in Jacksonville counts as one of Georgia’s home games in 2024, so Georgia was assigned just three true SEC home games compared to four true road games, including the trip to Bryant-Denny Stadium, where Alabama hasn’t lost since 2019.

That seems unlikely. People are calling the three road trips to Tennessee, Oklahoma and LSU a gauntlet, but Is anyone really scared to go to Norman at this stage of the Venables era? The Sooners finished 6th in the most recent recruiting rankings, but only because they took a whopping 42 players, 18 of which were three stars, and that was necessitated by 17 players bolting town. Things don’t seem terribly stable over there.

Julian Sayin showed out at the Elite 11.

3. Julian Sayin (Alabama commit) – Consistent. That’s the word that best describes Sayin’s night. He was sharp from start to finish and never seemed to put the ball on the ground. We were impressed with his fine-tuned mechanics and how he created plenty of whip with his textbook footwork.

Nick Kelly got to review the same footage from the night of Jamea Harris’ death that Ryan Phillips and ESPN staff already got to see and, lo and behold, he saw the same things.

The state argues Davis shot first. The defense contends Johnson did.

What actually happened in the early Sunday hours on the Strip in Tuscaloosa on Jan. 15?

The Tuscaloosa News read 205 pages of court testimony, authenticated audio from a Ring doorbell on Grace Street and spent dozens of hours examining surveillance video from 12 cameras at Twelve25, the Houndstooth and Publix in the area of the shooting to put together as complete of a timeline as possible.

Whether Cedric Johnson or Michael Davis was the aggressor is clearly up for debate, but every account has shown Miles attempting to deescalate two situations including the fight that his girlfriend got involved in at CVS, and Brandon Miller doing absolutely nothing wrong. NBA teams have undoubtedly done a deep dive into Miller’s non-involvement and he seems to be a top three lock in the upcoming draft.

Last, baseball NIL is not an area where Alabama can compete very well, and they are about to lose their best young hitter as a result.

Shelton led the Crimson Tide in home runs in 2023 with 25 as just a freshman. Additionally he averaged .300 at the plate while finishing third on the team in RBIs with 51 and drawing 33 walks. He hit two home runs in five different games.

The Lithia, Fla., native will be one of the most sought after transfers in the portal after his strong season. Not only did he lead the Tide in home runs, but his season was strong enough for seventh most nationally.

The Tide will probably be playing against him at LSU next year.

That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend.

Roll Tide.