Other Regionals

SabreHorn said:
"Left"???

I seem to recall Gus riding Swindell's arm when he was a freshman, as well as a couple of incoming freshmen after that. Times change, and perhaps so do coaches thoughts & procedures. When asked how far Texas would go, he replied, "As far as Swindell's arm would take us"

Tanner Witt was supposed to be our ace, but while we hope he heals completely, I also remember Gus practicing the fall semester with his "ace" having arm problems from which he never recovered - resulted in losing the final game in Omaha.

I was convinced that Pierce was the "genius" behind Graham's recruiting at Rice. NIL, education, food & living conditions in Travis County are one helluva a lot better than minor league ball. Has select ball totally depleted the talent pool. Chris has a whole bunch of investigating to do, not only the individual applicants, but also the overall market. I don't envy him, but I do have faith in his ability to do the right thing, but I may not live long enough to see it.
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I was looking that up earlier, Pierce never did anything though while he was a head coach. He made the tournament, but never made it past the regional. After looking at his "accomplishments", i wondered how the heck he got the job.

I don't envy CDC either, like i said, next year, no matter who is at the helm, that guy is going to have a rough year.

We have waaaaaaay too many holes to fill on the mound and while 1-2 freshman may be able to help, that's not enough and very unlikely to find 6-8 freshman pitchers who can help us compete in the SEC. And it really looks like we need 6-8 arms.
 
aUTfan said:
Pierce never did anything though while he was a head coach. He made the tournament, but never made it past the regional. After looking at his "accomplishments", i wondered how the heck he got the job.
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He was hired by our "interim" athletic director at the time, who had zero athletic director experience previously. A nice guy, I'm sure, and a great Longhorn, but he was no CDC.
 
Seems like almost all college teams this year have a shortage of good pitching. Is that impression correct?
Is it lack of good pitching or hitters getting better?
:hookem:
 
NC State wins it, 4 SEC teams, 4 ACC teams.

3 ACC and 1 SEC team on the left side. Tenn, Fl. St., N.C., Virginia

3 SEC and 1 ACC team on the right side. Kentucky, NC St., Florida, A&M
 
aUTfan said:
NC State wins it, 4 SEC teams, 4 ACC teams.

3 ACC and 1 SEC team on the left side. Tenn, Fl. St., N.C., Virginia

3 SEC and 1 ACC team on the right side. Kentucky, NC St., Florida, A&M
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All East of us here in Austin (and therefore, also Omaha.) Weird. Has that ever happened before? And does anyone really care about that factoid?
:hookem:
 
LonghornEE72 said:
Seems like almost all college teams this year have a shortage of good pitching. Is that impression correct?
Is it lack of good pitching or hitters getting better?
:hookem:
Click to expand...

I think NCAA baseball changed the balls to a flat seam back in 2015 but I can't find the official baseball. Was supposed to increase HR's.

Another big change has been the action clock, not sure what the impact but a lot less thinking going on before the pitch is made by both players.

MLB and NCAA have been changing the game for 100 years to "improve" it. From mound changes, to bat changes, to most recently ball changes.
 
LonghornEE72 said:
All East of us here in Austin (and therefore, also Omaha.) Weird. Has that ever happened before? And does anyone really care about that factoid?
:hookem:
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California has as much if not more talent than Texas, so for all the teams to be east of Austin is pretty telling from a leadership standpoint, leadership being the Pac12 and Big XII. Who wants to play in a league no one wants to be in?

Softball has seen the same transition, California had a team in the championship game or world series for decades and alot of the time, often the championship was two Cali teams or pac 12 teams with mostly cali kids, not any more. All their talent is heading east just like baseball.

I think there will still be some cali teams win it all or compete with the right coach. Too much talent out there, just not any good coaches right now.
 
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aUTfan said:
I think NCAA baseball changed the balls to a flat seam back in 2015 but I can't find the official baseball. Was supposed to increase HR's.

Another big change has been the action clock, not sure what the impact but a lot less thinking going on before the pitch is made by both players.
Click to expand...
Thanks! because now that you mention those two things I recall them and think you are probably right that they are having an effect.
The change to the ball (which I also now recall but don't know when it happened) would likely affect hitting distance (less resistance.) On pitches, fast balls should tick up a bit, which we seem to have with almost everyone throwing in the 90s now, while breaking pitches would require better technique to get good results as the higher seams would make it easier to get a strong "bite". (Side note: In the college game, the raised seams led to blisters; not a lot, but enough to be noticed. That seems to not be happening, or not nearly as much, the last few years.)
On the time clock, I also recall reading something about major league pitching/hitting when they were considering the pitch clock, saying that the longer a pitcher took between pitches, the worse hitters performed. That was a statistical correlation, but seems plausible as a factor.
:hookem:
 
No proof, just personal speculation. The wealth of talent in California HS is still there. What is missing is coaching like Dedeaux (sp), the ASU HC, and smaller schools like Long Beach State, Fresno State, Fullerton among others. If I went to see the Horns play one of those or LSU or the convicts or FSU, I was pretty sure I would be watching two top ranked teams. Now, instead of watching coaching geniuses, I get some great Chandler wannabes.

I am convinced the talent level is still there, albeit perhaps redistributed. The coaching is what has changed, but unfortunately that seems to be true in football & basketball as well.
 
Being more pitching friendly I say move the fences back or outlaw metal bats. This back to back to back home runs is absurd. 8homers in a game? bS
I sympathize with the pitchers, but that’s just me I reckon.
 
LonghornEE72 said:
All East of us here in Austin (and therefore, also Omaha.) Weird. Has that ever happened before? And does anyone really care about that factoid?
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For anyone who wants college baseball to become more popular nationally, it's a horrible trend. Having a CWS populated by southern teams (like this year) will just relegate this sport to the regional sport ghetto like lacrosse or hockey. That's one of the really unfortunate outcomes of the disappearance of the Pac12 conference.
 
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I keep waiting for someone to awaken USC again. USC won 6 championships in 10 years. Cali has the talent to do it again with the right coach.

If it's not Stanford, it's Cal St., if not them, it's Oregon St., or it's Fresno St., if not them its USC, not them, it's UCLA. One common denominator, predominantly Cali kids. Just need one good coach at USC to awaken the giant again to bring them all to one location.

Texas is the only state that can compete with Cali and same applies, with the right coach to bring in the talent, can win alot of games and championships.
 
who do you have in the championship game? Who's winning it all?

I am looking forward to the Florida St. and Tennessee game Friday. We will find out if the Florida St. offense is legit or not.

I feel Tennessee and N.C. have the edge in the bullpen on the left side of the bracket, would like to see a Tennessee vs. N.C. semifinal.

Right side:

Florida, i think they are getting hot at the right time. O'Sullivan has been here before.

Virginia is the only team that I just don't see having enough to hang in this tourney but it's real difficult to get a bead on the field this time, they are all very close in ability. One of A&M's top players went down with injury, i feel they are now at a disadvantage and won't go far.

I just don't want to see a Florida St. vs. Florida championship game, other than that, I really don't care.
 
Hard to say who will win. Tenn is gonna blow this. Worried about aggy doing well. I am liking Kentucky.
 
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