After the second half of the regular season, who would have thought we would be here? We are finding out that maybe, just maybe, the SEC West was a wee bit better than people thought.
Here we are, in the CWS Final Four needing 2 wins to play for the championship, and 4 wins to take it home.
Why not us?
All we can do is play the games.
GO HOGS!!
Yes. Not only did 4 SECW teams make the CWS, 3 are among the final 4. No doubt it’s once again the strongest division in college baseball.
I’m trying to keep my hopes down in light of the gauntlet we have to run, but I’m optimistic about tonight. We all know what’s at stake. Got to hope our pitching is on and theirs isn’t.
If we win tonight then the pressure is on them tomorrow. Which puts some pressure on them tonight; they don’t want to have to play again Thursday.
But those ACC and Litle 12 and PAC whatever teams will still get higher ratings for RPI every year!
Because RPI is a craptastic measurement of anything relevant
Part of the reason our RPI was down was we really got a pretty soft schedule through the SEC. We didn’t play Tennessee. We didn’t play Georgia. We played the two teams that didn’t get to Hoover. And if we’d swept Bama they wouldn’t have made Hoover either. Got the easiest schedule you could get in the SEC for 2022, really.
And let’s not forget that we played seven games against really bad in-state teams. DVH will fix that in the future. The best in-state team was UALR at 187.
By the way, not that it matters now because RPI ceases to be relevant after Memorial Day, but our RPI has improved 26 spots during the tournament according to Warren Nolan. Amazing what happens when you play good teams and beat them… The remaining teams are at #5 (Paperclips), #7 (Gaggies), #12 (Rebnecks) and us at #15. And we beat #4, #6 and #10 (Stanford, Auburn and UNC respectively). Okie Lite is #19.
I would love to play Stanford’s schedule and let them go through the SEC just once… we might get to 60 wins.
I get what you’re saying @hogsrus but playing the best sharpens you up for post season. We’re seeing that play out.
Totally agree, now if we’re talking football?
Swine, your points are well taken, and I am not arguing for a higher ranking for the Hogs. Those seven games we were politically forced (coerced?) to play absolutely killed us. Mine is really a rant about the artificial boost that some teams get because they play in the ESPN-popular circles.
I really liked the way the game played out Wednesday night. Of course we won, but it’s the way we did it that I enjoyed and value. After collapsing in the first game against Ole Miss, Morris came back last night and delivered in the clutch; after the presumptive closer collapsed last night. That should do wonders for Morris and maybe the whole team. One picks up the others.
RPI has nothing to do with ESPN-popular circles. If we’d played (and beaten) better teams, our RPI would have reflected it. Stanford was our only NC game of note (meaning top 50 RPI) out of 23 NC games, until we got to the tournament. It will be better next year thanks to the College Baseball Showdown at Arlington (we play Texas, TCU and the Fightin’ Riggios).
Prancin’ Riggios?
That’s probably better.
Some of RPI you can’t control. You schedule a team you think will be good and they suck instead.
But you can put a few Stanfords and Texases and Okie Lites on there, and you can play more games outside your own ballpark. Particularly in the other team’s park. We didn’t play a single true NC roadie and didn’t play one at all until Misery in late March.
I’m hoping for 2023:
Plus we should get Tennessee and Georgia back next year. That will help too.
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