NCAA D1 tournament brackets

Go Terps.  2 wins from Omaha.  Awesome....

 

1970-1971 Terps.....ACC champions

BOF,

I was so excited about our win and my phone was exploding with text messages, so I didn't even look over to the OSU side of the field Monday night.  The young man that wrote the above article did a fantastic job of painting a picture of the emotions that the Beavers had afterwards, especially the guys that won't be returning.  

I highly recommend that others click on the link and read the story, these kids become awfully close over a 3-4 year period. 

Beautiful article.

I agree.

Who y'all rootin' for from here on out?

 

I'll be rootin' for Stanford, UCI and Pepperdine cause I know players on all 3 teams and I'm from the West and so are they.  But I'll also be rootin' for Ole Miss because of how well they treated all of the Huskies and parents this past weekend.  They haven't been to the CWS since the 1970's and I think its time. 

 

Pretty fun article below about one of UW's outfielders and what it was like to get heckled by the infamous RF fans at Swayze Field.

 

http://www.redcuprebellion.com...ckling-braden-bishop

I am rooting for (not necessary think they will win) 

 

Houston over UT       

Maryland over Virginia

Pepperdine over TCU

Ole Miss over L-L

Kennesaw State over Louisville

College of Charleston over T-T

Stanford over Vandy

UC Irvine over OS

 

I am going to try to get to one of the UT/Houston games. 

 

 

 

 

 

Go Anteaters!

I think we are perfectly in synch BOF. 

Great article. Congrats again bsbl247, good luck this weekend!

You don't realize how close these guys are until realality sets in. After our final game was played it was hugs and tears everywhere. PO Jr said he had no idea that it was going to be that hard to say goodby to those guys that weren't coming back and he's just a freshman. 

 

Official SG predictions... Hear me now and believe me later:

 

TCU over Pepperdine

UVA over Maryland

Louisville over Kennesaw

Vanderbilt over Stanford (Hoping this is a good Super)

Texas over Houston

College of Charleston over Texas Tech

Okie State over UC Irvine

Ole Miss over Louisiana-Lafayette

Why do the two remaining super-high-academic schools have play each other now? (Sorry, UVA and Pepperdine, but you're one tier down)  As a left coaster I thought I was going to root for Stanford, but now that the SFG have selected Beede I guess I'm a Vandy fan.

it is unfortunate Louisville and Kennesaw have to play each other now. 

Pepperdine one tier down with Virginia? LOL!

 

US News:

 

Virginia #23

Pepperdine #57

RJM he was referring to Stanford vs Vandy which are considered two of the better high academic schools with high performing D1 baseball programs. 

 

I actually consider Stanford one of the most unique schools in the country where it has Ivy type academics with very high level D1 athletic performance, it is almost singular IMO. Vandy is good but IMO not in the same class, but I am a West Coast guy so I am biased. If we had to tier them I would put Virginia significantly above Pepperdine in terms of academics, but this is all a theoretical discussion anyway. I will be rooting for Stanford but I think Vandy's pitching is going to dominate this weekend. 

 

Late add: After posting this Rice is probably similar to Stanford in academic/baseball excellence. Again IMO. 

I guess 23 v 57 wasn't clear enough. I'll make a statement. Pepperdine is not on the same academic tier as Virginia. It's another step down.

I think most would agree with this.

 

Nice article in LATimes on UCI.

 

http://www.latimes.com/sports/...-20140606-story.html

 

 

I think the overall comparative rank among elite academic schools that also offer elite baseball programs would go Stanford, Vanderbilt, Rice, UVA.  But all four are in the same top tier in both categories, IMO.  Pepperdine, while a great school and program, is among the top schools of the second tier. 

My perspective is Stanford may well be #4 of that group for baseball, over the past 3-4 years, but at the top for the educational and post graduation opportunities which exist.

Of course Stanford is still very good in baseball.  I question if they remain a top 15 program where they certainly were from 2000 to 2009.

I don't think all four are in the same category in terms of academic reputation.  I am admittedly biased, but I believe Stanford stands above the other three as a national university.

 

A friend of our older son's (from CA) played and started 4 years at Vanderbilt.  Got a degree in Econ.  I saw him the year after he was finished...was still playing minor league ball.  He told me that he was surprised that while looking for jobs in CA, he often had to explain to employers who/what/where was Vanderbilt and that he was quite surprised by this.  Said he had come to realized that Vandy's reputation did not extend outside of the Eastern US in the way he had thought it would.

 

I too was surprised, but not stunned.  I don not believe this would happen with a Stanford degree.

 

Baseball?  Different story, Stanford may be #4 in that group at this time.  (I still think they can win that super regional though).

 

 

 

I agree with you, at least partially, but not because of the US News ratings. They have their use, but saying one school is better than the other based on that is like saying a baseball team is better based on a power rating on a website.

 

As a parent of two HS students among the  factors that I  look at is selectivity - what percentage of applicants schools admit. There are ways that schools may may manipulate this number, and how many of those admits actually enroll is also worth considering, but still - it's a hard number, not a subjective rating.

 

Among the schools still in the bracket, here are the admission percentages:

 

Stanford: 6.6%

Vanderbilt: 12.7%

UVA: 28.3%

Pepperdine: 37%

TCU: 40.9%

UC Irvine: 42.4%

Maryland: 46.8%

Texas: 46.8%

Houston: 56.2%

Louisiana Lafayette: 59%

Ole Miss: 61.1%

Kennesaw State: 64%

Texas Tech: 64.3%

College of Charlston: 70%

Louisville: 76.3%

OK State: 78%

Other notable schools in original bracket:

 

Columbia: 7.4%

Rice: 17%

North Carolina: 27.6%

Bucknell: 29%

San Diego State: 31.3%

Cal Poly: 31.3%

 

So yes, UVA is a level above Pepperdine, but Pepperdine belongs in the discussion. Ironically, my 2015  will probably apply to UVA, but will not apply to Pepperdine. But that's because UVA is good fit for him and Pepperdine is not, not due to ratings or selectivity.

Stanford is a unique school, no question.  My impression of Vandy is that it's always been one of the great schools in its area, but over the past 10 years or so it's gotten a huge influx of prep school students from the northeast. That started with kids using it as a safety, and continued as a sane alternative for those who didn't want to get into the Ivy admissions race. As a result, it's now almost as hard to get into as an Ivy.  Left coast kids have not really discovered it yet.

Not to split hairs too much, but I guess it all depends where the line is drawn for each "tier" and also how much you want to weight academics vs athletics. My default ranking system on schools like this is academic rank trumps, and then it's a question of what level baseball they offer.

 

So if we're talking a "tier" of just top 10 or so academic schools which ALSO feature elite level baseball programs, then Stanford is absolutely in a class all it's own.  Duke is fairly equivalent academically, but the baseball is step below, IMO.  For the four schools in discussion here, all are top 25 and all feature elite baseball programs... so to me they are a group unto themselves in that regard.

I just put on ESPN.com and Vandy is up 10-6 in the 6th. Wow did not expect this. 

It was 10-0 after 3. Just as they did in Bloomington, Stanford is battling back. This hole is much  deeper.

Most of my co-workers are Vanderbilt grads who say that they could no longer get in.  That actually may go for most of us regardless of where we went to college.

 

Undergraduate Application Overlap 2001, in order:

Duke, Wash U, Emory, UVA, Tulane, Wake Forest, UNC, Northwestern, Georgetown, Harvard

Same for 2011:

Duke, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Wash U, Stanford, Northwestern, Penn, UVA, Dartmouth

Vandy took down Stanford 11-6 today.

 

Louisville beats KenS 5 - 3

 

Texas 4 Houston 2

 

Gota love the Eaters up 5-1  in the 5th over OS with the number 4 hitter bunting runners over. #fundamentals.

Irvine executes so precisely.  Our son, as a college coach, believes Coach Gillespie is second to none, and our son got the chance to work under Rex Peters, who coaches precision at the highest of levels in college baseball at UCLA.

I am fascinated to watch the manner in which Irvine executes small ball. While it won't ever be played beyond college, it is amazing to watch and pretty darn tough to defend, when done the way Gillespie expects. I honestly expected this series to go to OSU. They are really good but may not have seen this offense before, even counting UT.

Congrats to the Eaters and bsbl247 son heading to the World Series.

 

....as well as Texas and Louisville who are moving on. 

+1)))

Some more excellent games yesterday for those who did not see them. 

 

Virginia amd Maryland all tied up.

 

Pepperdine got a phenomenal performance by Brown.

 

Old Miss and L-L are still at it.

 

What was supposed to be a pitching dominated series, Stanford and Vandy, had three games with 43 runs scored.....

 

OH and I forgot Texas Tech is in for the first time!

 

and of course bsbl247 is packing his bags for Omaha!!!

 

PS: There is still a chance that NO national seeds will make it to the CWS.

 

 

I posted last week that I drove to Corvallis, Oregon with my wife for the Regionals and the Eaters knocked off the number one seeded Beavers.  What a great weekend!

Well, that worked out good, so I decided to make another drive to Stillwater, Oklahoma with my daughter for the Super Regionals.  We left knowing that the team had a shot to upset another OSU team, and if they did pull it off, we'd spend some extended time together...a sort of #RoadToOmaha family edition.  After another OSU series victory, that's exactly what we're doing.

On Sunday morning my son & his team flew back to So Cal, this is Finals week for the boys.  My daughter and I drove into Oklahoma City and visited the Oklahoma Bombing Memorial site.  It was a very emotional 2 hour tour/visit.  Afterwards, we drove to Moore, Oklahoma...the site of last year's terrible tornado disaster and extreme devastation.  We see the loss on TV, but you really don't understand until you're there.  The citizens of Oklahoma are indeed OK-Strong!!!  We concluded Sunday on a positive note visiting the University of Oklahoma and checked out the football & of course, the baseball field.

Today (Monday) we left Stillwater, Oklahoma (classy town/city) and jumped on the I-35 on the Road To Omaha, however, I decided to take a small 200 mile detour to Kansas City, MO for my daughter.  On the way here we stopped by Friends University in Wichita KS, a few of my son's good "friends" will be transferring there this Fall to play ball.  And, of course we drove by Wichita State.  The Shockers have an amazing baseball stadium.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I will drive my kid around KC in the morning/afternoon and then take the 4-5 hour drive to Omaha, NE....it should be a fun day!

PS- My wife is flying into Omaha on Thursday night to join us! 

Sounds like you've had the month of a lifetime! Some more good news for you is KC to Omaha only takes 2.5 hours.

That is good news...thanks coach!

How exciting for you and your whole family!  Reminds me of our trip in 2006 but ours starting in south carolina.  We had three days before we arrived so we planned to do the same with stops along the way to Chattanooga to Nashville to Paducah to Saint Louis to Kansas City with other stops along the way. We wrote on the back windshield "Omaha or bust" on our mercury sable which we still have as husband refuses to part with  (150k miles plus).  It still has Clemson stickers on it as well!
We had a blast!
This is a unique experience that you will remember forever!  Your son and his teammates will be treated like rock stars! 
Have a blast and best of luck!
BTW..enjoy the RIDE!

Those were some very exciting super regionals.  ULL, Stanford, Pepperdine, Maryland made it extremely exciting.  I got to see some college players I've never seen before including Pepperdine's Aaron Brown who can absolutely play!  I'm (now) a big fan of his.  Now, I can see why ULL was so high in the rankings.  They've got a crazy aggressive team, but just ran into a hotter team in Ole Miss.  Stanford will be back as they have a lot of young talent including one of our poster's sons.  Maryland came out of nowhere, and they showed us their program is on the upswing as they move to the Big 10.  Virginia finally woke up, and showed us their talent and approach can be dangerous in Omaha.

 

Here's the World Series schedule and brackets.  Should we rename it the TX World Series or the Big 12 World Series?  Having 3 programs from the same conference make it to Omaha says something.

 

Saturday, June 14

UC-Irvine vs. Texas

Louisville vs. Vanderbilt

Sunday June 15

Texas Tech vs. TCU

Virginia vs. Mississippi

 

Congrats to bsbl247, I am living through him right now!!!

 

My son has a friend who plays at Friends University. He also knows quite a few guys on the Pepperdine team and I am heartbroken how they lost that game at the end. Great season for them, they are going to lose a lot of key players to the draft this year. Brown is a beast will be interesting which way his pro team sends him

We to have a friend on Pepperdine.  Disappointed for him/them.

 

Aaron Brown was a joy to watch this post season.  Special player.

I haven't posted all season but have been lurking and reading. My son had a very rough start to the season but has been coming around some lately. Last night his team punched their ticket to Omaha and I am looking forward to making the trip. Go Hoos!

HaHa...TPM, my wife wanted me to purchase a Marker so that my daughter could write "Omaha or Bust!" on the back of our car, but I couldn't get myself to do it, besides it's been raining the past few days.

What we got was washable but only when you washed it off!  We did orange and purple...go for it!