Just from baseball perspective, is C-USA ranked higher or lower than ACC? I would think that SEC is higher (on avg) than both ACC and C-USA.
Splitting hairs or depends on how you want to rank.
I'm sure someone out there has stats on how many CWS appearances for each conference over the past 10 years or head to head records between each other.
Probably depends on if you want to rank say the top 4 or 5 programs from each conference versus the balance of the conference.
Regardless of history, ECU is going to be a Top 20 team and many people are predicting a CWS visit.
The promos from Conf-USA tout that they are the 5th ranked conference. It doesn't say what goes into the formula for ranking. Conf-USA did have 3 teams which advanced to Super Regionals in 2009 - ECU, Southern Mississipi and Rice with Southern Mississippi advancing to the CWS.
BTW, ECU opens with a 3-game home stand against UVA with a 3-game home stand against South Carolina the following weekend.
Congrats to Nick Thompson on his commitment to ECU!! I had the privaledge of Nick playing me for in a tournament back in summer 2008 and there are not enough good things you can say about the kid, and his family. ECU is getting a great ballplayer and a even better kid!!
I guess my previous posting was not well written. The points that I was trying to make were 1) that the two in-state ACC schools do not move very fast or, at least, overestimate their drawing power or academic prowess and 2) that they seem to recruit out of state kids before in state kids (which seems completely backwards to me). According to Perfect Game's 11/14/09 list, Virginia has recruited one of the top 400 high school 2011 prospects, a rhp/inf from Ashland, MA. I did not see any listed for Virginia Tech. North Carolina and North Carolina State had four 2011 commits each, Florida State had three, Clemson had two and Maryland, Miami and Virginia had one each. (Am sure others have committed, but Perfect Game did not list them on the site that I saw). Four of the five 2011 Virginia kids that have committed were ranked higher, and Perfect Game listed four of their gpa's from 2.95 to 4.35. I realize that the schools have different needs and that the kids have different desires/dreams, but the schools should have been able to find something they liked among the four or five players. They included a left handed pitcher/first baseman with a good bat, a speedy right handed infielder with a good bat (who will probably roam centerfield), a strong right handed catcher with a good bat, a middle infielder/right handed pitcher with a good bat and glove work and a hard throwing left handed pitcher. If you cannot find something in that mixture, you obviously do not need any incoming players from the 2011 class or you have some other reason for not getting them. The schools (LSU, USC and ECU) that the players chose are generally ranked in the top five college baseball conferences. If those conferences and their respective schools thought the kids were good enought to play in the SEC and/or C-USA, they were good enought to play in the ACC, and grades had nothing to do with their decisions. Rather, the offers from the SEC and C-USA persuaded the players to commit to out of state and non-ACC schools. Quite frankly, I think the in-state schools missed the boat either because their offers were too low or they failed to act promptly, or the players preferred the other schools.
quote:overestimate their drawing power or academic prowess
You do realize that UVA was in Omaha last June, right?
Don't confuse what an individual recruit might want to see, with what the guys running the program want. UVA has a very firm recruiting philosophy. It wasn't for my son, but there is no denying that they have built an outstanding program with it.
UVA generally seeks to avoid tying up its scholarship money on guys they think are at high risk of going pro on them -- which, when it happens, happens when it's too late to have your pick of the litter any more. I call it the "Beautiful Mind" approach because they prefer the grade A players to the A+ players. And, they go after quantity as well as quality, which means that they are not going to tie up a lot of their budget on any one guy.
If you are a potential recruit, you need to know that there are a lot of very talented kids they will not pursue due to their being viewed as academic risks, draft risks, or guys trying to max out their scholarship %, etc. Other kids do get there, but with the depth they have achieved, they hardly get to play. There are guys in their bullpen who rarely throw, that other teams -- even other ACC teams -- might have as weekend starters if they could.
All of which is to say, UVA has a lot of great things going on, but it isn't for everybody. And nobody understands that better than the UVA coaches themselves. They know the type they are looking for and they are not interested in bending their program to any one player's individual desires. If it's a match made in heaven and you're willing to take what they're offering, yes they will make early commitments. But they will not get stampeded into bidding on a Jake Cave type of kid. They will let him go, and use the 90% he wanted to land two very talented kids at 45% each instead.
And it works. The proof is in the proverbial pudding.
I can say that Va Tech and UVA were on a couple of the 2011 VA kids very early. The school's needs and those of the student/athletes' in these cases did not match. The recruited them. They have great facilities and great staffs but it was not a good fit for either player. They pulled out all the stops in attempt to get these kids.
Midlo Dad, you assumed that I was referring to UVA. Thought their were two ACC schools in the Commonwealth. As far as UVA's visit to the CWS, congrats are certainly in order, but it does not change my observations. Seven other schools (Arkansas, Arizona State, Cal State Fullerton, LSU, Southern Mississippi, Texas and UNC) made the CWS. At least one of them did not rest on their past accomplishments. They saw a potentially great player and make him a great offer. Understand that may not be UVA's way, but it does not explain the others kids going out of state, nor does it explain the perception that they look out of state first and in-state second or that they do not like early recruiting. (According to the 11/09 Perfect Game list, of the 16 early 2011 recruits to ACC schools, only two committed to out of state schools - North Carolina had one, and UVA had the other). To paraphrase Shania, it don't impress me much.
I didn't assume anything. You obviously did refer to UVA when discussing "the two in-state ACC schools." That would be UVA and Tech, right? I don't recall there being any others.
I think if you asked the kids why they committed out of state, as opposed to at UVA or at Tech, they would tell you they were looking for big time baseball and a school that met their needs, and that they got the offer they wanted early on.
Tech has come a long way in baseball and a lot of good things are happening there. But like it or not, Tech is not going to be in the discussion for a kid who has the talent to be recruited by LSU or Texas. Tech is trying to get there, but it's tough to climb over teams in the ACC given the high caliber of teams at the top and the fact that everyone else is also trying to climb at the same time. (Believe me, I know!) Tech also suffers from the fact that Blacksburg weather is not the most conducive for baseball, and there's nothing they can do about that. Tech most likely did go after all those kids you've named, they just didn't succeed in getting them interested.
Anyone who has ever been involved on the player side of UVA recruiting will tell you that the coaches there are of one mind in that they insist on controlling the entire process. They move when THEY want to move. They offer what THEY want to offer, and they don't negotiate much. And they go after kids who fit their mold, as opposed to recruiting pure talent and then working with a mix of different player types every year.
Many of the kids you list above probably received some expressions of interest from UVA. But if they got an offer from, e.g., LSU and then asked UVA if they would match it, they were probably told a polite no.
From personal experience, I would bet that Jake Cave was told candidly to look elsewhere because UVA just plain won't offer a kid who is as likely as he is to go pro out of high school. (I mean, we're talking about a mid-90's lefty, how many of them don't go pro?) My own son heard those words loud and clear from Coach O'Connor himself, face to face. It was a frustrating conversation for Midlo Son at that time, but in hindsight, he was doing us a favor by letting us know that what we were looking for wasn't going to be there. And to be clear, Coach O'Connor was as friendly and polite as he could be in the way he delivered the message. He could have strung us along, and I'm glad he had the integrity not to do that. So I'm not criticizing him at all, I'm just trying to tell you how they handle things up in C'ville.
Their approach works, and I don't expect them to suddenly fall off their current winning ways over getting the players they will get vs. the players mentioned above. They've been doing this for years now and they keep climbing higher and higher. Why would that trend suddenly change?
I think if you asked the kids why they committed out of state, as opposed to at UVA or at Tech, they would tell you they were looking for big time baseball and a school that met their needs, and that they got the offer they wanted early on.
Tech has come a long way in baseball and a lot of good things are happening there. But like it or not, Tech is not going to be in the discussion for a kid who has the talent to be recruited by LSU or Texas. Tech is trying to get there, but it's tough to climb over teams in the ACC given the high caliber of teams at the top and the fact that everyone else is also trying to climb at the same time. (Believe me, I know!) Tech also suffers from the fact that Blacksburg weather is not the most conducive for baseball, and there's nothing they can do about that. Tech most likely did go after all those kids you've named, they just didn't succeed in getting them interested.
Anyone who has ever been involved on the player side of UVA recruiting will tell you that the coaches there are of one mind in that they insist on controlling the entire process. They move when THEY want to move. They offer what THEY want to offer, and they don't negotiate much. And they go after kids who fit their mold, as opposed to recruiting pure talent and then working with a mix of different player types every year.
Many of the kids you list above probably received some expressions of interest from UVA. But if they got an offer from, e.g., LSU and then asked UVA if they would match it, they were probably told a polite no.
From personal experience, I would bet that Jake Cave was told candidly to look elsewhere because UVA just plain won't offer a kid who is as likely as he is to go pro out of high school. (I mean, we're talking about a mid-90's lefty, how many of them don't go pro?) My own son heard those words loud and clear from Coach O'Connor himself, face to face. It was a frustrating conversation for Midlo Son at that time, but in hindsight, he was doing us a favor by letting us know that what we were looking for wasn't going to be there. And to be clear, Coach O'Connor was as friendly and polite as he could be in the way he delivered the message. He could have strung us along, and I'm glad he had the integrity not to do that. So I'm not criticizing him at all, I'm just trying to tell you how they handle things up in C'ville.
Their approach works, and I don't expect them to suddenly fall off their current winning ways over getting the players they will get vs. the players mentioned above. They've been doing this for years now and they keep climbing higher and higher. Why would that trend suddenly change?
St. Johns (Washington DC) High School shortstop Nick Howard has committed to UVA. He is a junior.
coach scoop, I noticed perfect game lists Nick Howard as a third baseman/right handed pitcher. #2 in the State of Maryland and #175 in the country. Is he going as shortstop, third baseman or pitcher? Topped out at 88 mph per perfect game.
Probably will be moved to third base at UVA. He is a big kid, roughly 6'4" and 205lbs.
Perfect game indicates J.T. Castner, a member of the Richmond Braves National team, committed to William and Mary. He attends Jamestown High School and is listed as a middle infielder.
Also noticed that Patrick Corbett committed to Radford. He attends Tabb High School and is listed as a right handed pitcher, first baseman and third baseman.
Congrats to both players!
Also noticed that Patrick Corbett committed to Radford. He attends Tabb High School and is listed as a right handed pitcher, first baseman and third baseman.
Congrats to both players!
Auggie Ayers (Manchester HS) to Liberty and Scott Hurrell (Landstown HS) to UNC Charlotte.