NCAA Tourney

[GTNavyNuke]

It sucks so much not to be in the tournament. I love NCAA postseason baseball.

ESPN Bases Loaded has made it even better by flipping between games.

UNC wins like it should.

Fluke down 0-5 in a 5th inning rain delay. The #2 losing to #3 seed wouldn't be awful, but typical ACC under-performance.

 

[Lagrangejacket]

ACC currently 2-1, including a bad loss by NC State to Army. The other 3 teams are losing.

SEC at 7-1.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

ACC at 3-3.

Clemson pulled it out in extra innings.

To refresh:
Of four #1 seeds, 2 won (UNC & Clemson) and 2 lost (NCState and FSU). That is dismal. I think the only 1 seeds who lost yesterday were our two ACC teams. Not all games were played, 3 of 16 were postponed.
Of two #2 seeds, 1 won (L'Ville) and 1 lost (Fluke). Not as bad.

ACC under-performance continues. At least it's double elimination, which extends the agony ....... NCState is my favorite ACC team in the tourney.

Anyone else notice how a few of the stadiums were rocking yesterday ...... Arkansas, Auburn, Coastal?

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Good free (I think) wrap-up of yesterday.
https://d1baseball.com/columns/regionals-wrap-day-1/

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Mississippi St eliminates FSU. FSU was the ACC (A Crappy baseball Conference) champion.

 

[FredJacket]

FSU... Mike Martin.... just WOW.

This game had long weather delay (not sure how long) after 8 innings. FSU with 2-0 lead. FSU fails to score in T9. Martin keeps his starter in who was well over 100 pitches. A couple of Miss St dudes get on. Now up close to 130 pitches. Still no move to bullpen. Crazy. 2 outs... 1-2 count (I think). BOOM walk off HR. Season over for ACC Champs.

Martin has some explaining to do.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

FSU... Mike Martin.... just WOW.

This game had long weather delay (not sure how long) after 8 innings. FSU with 2-0 lead. FSU fails to score in T9. Martin keeps his starter in who was well over 100 pitches. A couple of Miss St dudes get on. Now up close to 130 pitches. Still no move to bullpen. Crazy. 2 outs... 1-2 count (I think). BOOM walk off HR. Season over for ACC Champs.

Martin has some explaining to do.

Add salt to the wound ..... an SEC team takes out a #1 seed ACC team.

I understand Martin would keep his starter in for two hitters. Not the third at all. Martin was playing for the next two games that FSU had to win. When you lose the first game in the NCAAs, 8% of the teams end advancing. So FSU was largely screwed; as is Fluke and NC State.

At least NC State won.

Fluke is going down. Down 7-1 to Cambell (sic). Sad.

 

[Lagrangejacket]

Add salt to the wound ..... an SEC team takes out a #1 seed ACC team.

I understand Martin would keep his starter in for two hitters. Not the third at all. Martin was playing for the next two games that FSU had to win. When you lose the first game in the NCAAs, 8% of the teams end advancing. So FSU was largely screwed; as is Fluke and NC State.

At least NC State won.

Fluke is going down. Down 7-1 to Cambell (sic). Sad.

Duke scored 11 in the T9 to stay alive. Clemson now finds itself in the losers bracket and Louisville will be there too barring a Duke-like 9th.

On a side note, I have no idea why 1 seeds consistently pick the late Friday game. When you get delayed, you end up finishing late or having to play a double header that the 2/3 winner doesn’t.

 

[LargeFO]

FSU... Mike Martin.... just WOW.

This game had long weather delay (not sure how long) after 8 innings. FSU with 2-0 lead. FSU fails to score in T9. Martin keeps his starter in who was well over 100 pitches. A couple of Miss St dudes get on. Now up close to 130 pitches. Still no move to bullpen. Crazy. 2 outs... 1-2 count (I think). BOOM walk off HR. Season over for ACC Champs.

Martin has some explaining to do.

Well this was his last season. I wish that was the case for another coach as well.

 

[FredJacket]

Well this was his last season. I wish that was the case for another coach as well.

You sure about that? He's been on series of 1 year deals, I think. Became the all-time winningest NCAA coach this year... but 2000 wins will very likely come in March next year. He just needs 13 more to reach 2000.

 

[augustabuzz]

Well this was his last season. I wish that was the case for another coach as well.

I don't know about his health, but I don't see Coach K retiring.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

ACC 6-6 overall. All ACC losses to lower seeds except #2 L'Ville to #1 Texas Tech yesterday.

SEC 15-3; Big 12 8-2; Pac 12 7-2. Seems that Big 12 and Pac 12 proponents were right that they should have gotten more bids.

UNC won first two as the #1 seed is supposed to do and is in the drivers seat. UNC gets to play @ 6PM the winner of a 1PM Purdue / Houston game.

FSU out. I think they are the first and only #1 to be eliminated so far.

4 on life support - Clemson!, NC State, Duke, L'Ville.

Nice to see Fluke come back. They sure could have packed it in. Now all they have to do is win two more games. But since UGAg and Troy play at noon and Duke gets the winner at 4 PM, that's a big help to Duke to force another game tomorrow. I'll LMAO if Troy beats UGAg. Won't happen but is fun to think about.

Do #1 seed teams get to pick when they play? Or is it set by ESPN since they are paying the bills? Or is it just baked into the tourney format? It makes sense to schedule the better teams in prime time for viewership. Rain outs can play havoc though (go Duke!).

 

[65Jacket]

Just to show you what we are up against, I heard a report who lives in a Southern suburb of Chattanooga. There is a guy that he knows who was widely recruited a few years ago and went to Miami. My friend saw him recently and talked to him about his experience. The guy had a fabulous time playing ball and NEVER ONCE ATTENDED A CLASS. Old Morris is certainly a wizzard in recruiting, isn't he. I wonder how we would recruit if we had such majors to offer. This is probably not a Miami only operation.
By the way, is the FSU board ready to get rid of their aged coach, I can't stand his "this is all about me" personna.

 

[Lagrangejacket]

Do #1 seed teams get to pick when they play? Or is it set by ESPN since they are paying the bills? Or is it just baked into the tourney format? It makes sense to schedule the better teams in prime time for viewership. Rain outs can play havoc though (go Duke!).

In the 2018 rules (here), it says "Prospective hosts shall submit their preferred starting times for all games and Day One preferred game order. However, the finalized regional game times and Day One game order shall be determined by the NCAA and ESPN."

I don't know how often they are turned down, though. There are enough games where I think some popular #2 seeds (like Miss St this year) would be fine for primetime viewership.

 

[FredJacket]

Just a thought... if I'm not mistaken, UGA is the sole representative from state of GA in 64 team NCAA field. The states around them have multiple reps. NC, SC, FL, AL. Most are smaller schools...not P5-type. Ex... ECU, UNCW, Troy, Campbell. These teams are also winning games in their regionals.

I think it's a fair assumption most smaller schools recruit primarily in their states (or geographically close)... in fact, it really seems nearly all schools (even P5-types) do this. Obviously, GT does.

So... at what point should we consider GA is no longer so special regarding baseball talent bound for college? I think NC alone fielded 7 teams in this tournament (UNC, NCST, ECU, UNCW, Campbell, NC A&T, Duke).

 

[Lagrangejacket]

By the way, is the FSU board ready to get rid of their aged coach, I can't stand his "this is all about me" personna.

His new nickname is apparently Lord of No Rings. When I last saw him at GT, he pretty much seemed like the NCAA version of the human rain delay.

 

[Lagrangejacket]

I think it's a fair assumption most smaller schools recruit primarily in their states (or geographically close)... in fact, it really seems nearly all schools (even P5-types) do this. Obviously, GT does.

I don't think that's totally fair. UNC, for example, has 3 players from GA:

Cody Roberts: C, started 53 games
Jackson Hesterlee: More of a situational player, but has appeared in 37 games with a .333 batting average
Cooper Criswell: 2nd most IP for UNC, ERA of 2.89

So they may not have many players from GA, but all 3 are big contributors. Of our all-ACC selections, all but one (Chase Murray) are from GA. The fact that UGA is the only team in the tournament speaks more to our coaching than any lack of talent in GA.

Edit: you may remember Hesterlee's name. Mike Fox had him pinch-hit for a senior starter in the bottom of the 8th in a game against us this year. He hit a game-tying grand slam.

 

[FredJacket]

Thank you. Yeah... I agree it may not be fair. I am not qualified or knowledgeable on the details to draw any conclusion one way or the other. Was curious what others thought. It could be as simple as my assumption isn't valid. & you pointed out examples with UNC... a significant portion of the GA talent is exported. I know Seth Beer is a GA guy too.

But are you saying all the relevant GA schools have poor coaching? ...because there are quite a few GA teams sitting at home right now.

 

[Lagrangejacket]

Thank you. Yeah... I agree it may not be fair. I am not qualified or knowledgeable on the details to draw any conclusion one way or the other. Was curious what others thought. It could be as simple as my assumption isn't valid. & you pointed out examples with UNC... a significant portion of the GA talent is exported. I know Seth Beer is a GA guy too.

But are you saying all the relevant GA schools have poor coaching? ...because there are quite a few GA teams sitting at home right now.

I honestly have no idea about KSU or smaller GA teams' coaching. But I think the major factor is just that the other states have more major conference teams; all the power 5 plus the AAC got at least 4 teams in this year. There are 5 teams from those conferences in FL: Miami, F$U, UF, UCF, and USF. There are 5 in NC as well: Duke, NC State, Wake, UNC, and ECU. There are 2 in Georgia, us and the Dwags.

It's really a reason that us and UGA should be powerhouses in baseball every year- Georgia is 6th among all states in MLB draft picks, and there are only 2 schools trying to convince them to stay in-state.

 

[Lagrangejacket]

UGA beats Troy with the help of a boatload of errors and runs with 2 outs - they're in the drivers' seat now. Clemson somehow beats St. John's to stay alive despite getting outhit 16-9.