Nothing to do with the tournament for reasons which will soon become apparent.
Arizona State finished tied for last (8-22) in the Left 12. Overall record 23-32. They were tied with SoCal, which was even worse overall (21-34).
There is NO/ZERO reason either one of those programs should ever be bad. With that tradition in those metro areas? I know the NCAA hammered Sparky a few years back, but that probation ended in 2013. And the Broomheads have even less excuse, at the school that gave us Tom Seaver and Mark McGwire.
I have been really, really nice and not rubbed it in about the fall of the sparkies. (BTW, the AzWho fans like Sparky, but not the bolt). There was a link sent to me recently to an article about this being the first time ever that Zona State has finished with fewer than 30 wins. He thinks that Smith should be gone, but isn’t sure that it will happen. And you are right, there is no excuse for either team to be that bad. The home of Barry Bonds, Reggie Jackson, Bump Wills, Dustin Pedroia, Jim Otten, Rick Monday, Oddibe McDowell, Bob Horner, Sal Bando (and on and on and on) should have no trouble finding players. Of course, prime territory for baseball has moved since most of those players were there. It is now firmly centered in the SEC.
I’m not even sure that my friend went to many of the games this year. To show you how aware he is, he didn’t even remember that we had such a bad year last year.
I told my friend that he really needed to go to the CWS several years ago. He seemed to think that he would have lots of time to make the trip. Well, they haven’t been there since 2010, while we’ve been twice in that time. I try not to rub it in.