(05-30-2022, 09:53 AM)cardfan77 Wrote: UCSB and Texas State will be tough. Not your traditional powerhouses but it will not be easy.
Fairly tough draw. Kyle Peterson picked this out as the toughest regional (or at least one that struck him as notably tough).
UCSB (3 seed, 43-12) and Texas State (2 seed, 45-12) have similar profiles. Both ran away with their leagues. Both leagues are typically good, but Big West had a rough year.
The Big West is typically a very good league (Long Beach, Fullerton, Irvine), but was down this year. UCSB went 27-3 in conference, no conference tournament. Out of conference they were 16-9: splitting 4 games at Oregon, losing 2 vs UCLA, losing 1 vs SC.
Looks like they have three roughly equal starting pitchers: Cory Lewis (9-0, 3.35 ERA); Mike Guttierez (8-1), 3.02 ERA); Ryan Gallagher (8-0, 3.00 ERA).
Texas State won the Sun Belt (26-4) but lost in their tournament to Louisiana*, despite sweeping them in a series earlier. The Sun Belt ended up putting 4 teams in the tournament - just one fewer than the Pac 12 and the Big 12. Out of conference they were 19-8: winning 2 of 3 at Arizona, splitting a home and home with Texas, lost 1 at Texas AM, won 1 vs Baylor, split a home and home with UTSA**.
Looks like they feature a big two among their starting pitching: Levi Wells (7-2, 3.01 ERA); Zeke Wood (6-1, 3.56 ERA)
* Stanford beat Louisiana early season at the Round Rock tournament.
** Stanford lost a midweek game at UTSA right after the Round Rock tournament.
Binghamton has a much weaker profile. They went 22-28 overall and 15-15 in the America East conference. They got in by a bit of a surprise win in the conference tournament (fifth seed, but in three-way tie for third best conference record). During the year they lost 3 at Alabama, lost 1 at Miss St, currently on a 5 game win streak.
Looks as if we'll have to win 2 versus Tex St/UCSB. A significant challenge.
Wonder if Stanford will go with Uber in game #1 (started first game in conference tournament vs ASU).
(05-30-2022, 10:26 AM)Ballbuster Wrote: Pac 12 president tweeted about conference tournament. He received a lot of backlash about how the tournament was set up. I have to think that this tournament hurt UCLA and Oregon and the placement in their regional.
Well, of course the tournament is going to hurt teams that lose. Not sure what set up would help the teams that lose.
UCLA was apparently not hurt by the tournament. They were the nominally third highest #2 seed (vs overall #14 seed). They weren't projected to be higher. Their RPI went up 2 spots after the tournament.
Nonetheless, if the Pac 12 is going to have a tournament, they should set it up so nobody plays more than 4 games. For example, the SEC has four pods of 3 teams. Everybody plays at least 2 games (vs the pod), then the pod winners play a semifinal then a final. A little squishy for a tournament, but teams don't almost universally get 2 losses and it keeps teams from blowing through their pitching staffs. While Stanford got through with only four games, UCLA and OSU played 5. If UCLA had won the late night rematch, they would have played 6.