RPI - 5/18

[UT Horn Fan]

The Alabama A&M games only cost the Horns one spot. UT is now #3 behind CSF and UNC.

RPI - May 18, 2009

 

[accuratehorn]

If we can win two in the Big XII tournament, and we will be set for regional play. Most projections last week had UT at a 1-3 national seeding, so I don't see us dropping much below there at this point.
Really, we should win the first two, pack up and go home. But that won't happen.

 

[goosehorn]

forums.hornfans.com/php/wwwthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=baseball&Number=5949577&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=

Here is a link to a thread that is only about 6-7 down from this post where I break down the RPI of the rest of the country. Shamelessly I direct you to visit this thread as I spent quite a bit of time on it, but I think it is relevant to this discussion as well.

 

[bassale47]

I really couldn't care less about winning this tournament, as long as we play well enough in the first few games to secure our best possible national seed. Remember that the national seeds are determined and announced this Sunday, with the complete field being announced next Monday, so actually winning the tournament won't help our standing. It just means an extra game.

My only problem with not winning it is that it presents a chance for A&M to win it, after which they would undoubtedly claim themselves "back-to-back-to-back Big 12 champions," since they won a tourney title in '07 and regular season in '08. And I could do without having to listen to that crap for the next year.

 

[GemStateJim]

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[GemStateJim]

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[goosehorn]

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[bassale47]

The Statesman reported it as cancelled initially, so a lot of people were confused. It would have been better for RPI to just not play, but since we didn't have a midweek game either last week, I wouldn't have wanted to go into the conference tournament having not played a game in almost 2 weeks.

 

[goosehorn]

I totally agree. From what I remember about our baseball teams in the past, a 2 week lay off would be pretty bad. Even though we start off with Baylor, I think we are going to need to be pretty sharp given that sometimes our bats are quiet.

 

[centexorange]

The big thing is come out of this with no injuries..

 

[BevoBeef]

It is critical that the Horns maintain a good level of confidence rolling into the regional playoffs.
To do that, they must take one or both of the games against the Kansas teams. That is mainly
because of what happened in those two earlier series with KSU and KU.

 

[Valmy77]

While we don't need to win this tournament, winning it is still really important. This is not 2005, this team does not have a tradition of winning regionals. They need good things to happen and build confidence. This is like 2002, winning the Big XII tournament that year was a huge accomplishment that propelled them to the title. If we want Texas to win it this year we need a very strong showing in this tournament.

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[Nordberg]

Meaning we can go 2-1 and still get a top three or four national seed.

 

[bassale47]

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[Scooter]

I wonder if it matters whether you are the #1 or #8 national seed. Since the regionals are based more on geography than an actual 64-team seeded bracket, it probably doesn't make much difference. In other words, If Texas ends up the #1 National seed, for example, they probably won't be paired with the actual #16 seed. Just getting a national seed is probaly all the advantage we can expect.

And even getting to Omaha as a #1 seed probalby doesn't make that much difference. How much better is the #1 national seed than the #8 national seed?

The best scenario is hosting a super and then going to Omaha paired against a streaking low-seeded team that fades under the Rosenblatt spotlight.

 

[bassale47]

I don't think it matters much at all anymore, in terms of which regional you get paired with. The only way that it makes a difference is if say 3 Texas teams (maybe Texas, Rice, A&M) all ended up with national seeds. Obviously we couldn't play each other before Omaha, so we might get a weaker regional in that instance.

And I look at Omaha as being a completely different animal. If you get there, you're good enough to win, period. Doesn't matter if you're the #1 seed or if you weren't seeded at all. It's all about who can elevate their game for the longest.

 

[daytonhorn]

Regarding the CWS, we are fortunate this season to have a pitching staff that can survive an early loss resulting in consecutive days playing. But man I would really love to get to the finals undefeated. A loss in the finals could be to our advantage if we're facing a team with a slim pitching staff. (Of course I'm not saying we should lose to stretch the other team's pitching staff.

) I would anticipate the third game of a finals series more than the other games knowing that it would be the final and deciding game. OTOH, it was pretty sweet sweeping Florida.

 

[Valmy77]

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[Scooter]

^
This is a good point. Because the #2 seeds sent to a top-8 national seed's regional are no better or worse than the #2 seeds sent to the other 8 regionals.

 

[bassale47]

Not anymore, since they started taking the term "regional" more literally. It used to be more like the NCAA basketball tournament, where you could be sent anywhere and your geographic location wasn't all that important.