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Post by UICJohn on May 29, 2017 10:57:31 GMT -6
UIC will be starting postseason play this Friday afternoon in the Hattiesburg regional.
We were chosen as a #4 seed and will be facing off against top seed Southern Miss. The #2 seed is Mississippi State and #3 South Alabama.
We dodged getting in a regional with a top 8 seed so that's good. Southern Miss and Mississippi State are ranked in the #12-#20 range depending on which ranking you use.
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Post by Chuck A on May 29, 2017 11:30:23 GMT -6
I'm still a little pissed. Even in this regional we deserved at least the #3 seed.
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Post by circle70 on May 29, 2017 12:49:19 GMT -6
Tough to argue with these facts:
-Our RPI is 99; the other 3 teams are ranked 11, 28, and 30.
-The Horizon League is actually a LOW major conference in baseball, ranked 23rd out of the 31 conferences.
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Post by Chuck A on May 29, 2017 14:07:36 GMT -6
Tough to argue with these facts: -Our RPI is 99; the other 3 teams are ranked 11, 28, and 30. -The Horizon League is actually a LOW major conference in baseball, ranked 23rd out of the 31 conferences. In UIC's case...and Wright State's case as well, it's a situation where both teams are good enough to win a game or two in the regionals but are hurt by their conference. The Flames won a series from Vanderbilt and split a two-gamer with Georgia Tech. Heck, even Michigan backed out of a scheduled game with the Flames without giving a reason. In my mind, it doesn't matter what level you're playing at, you still have to get the batter out and you have to catch the ball. The Flames are excellent at both!
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Post by circle70 on May 29, 2017 16:00:14 GMT -6
Couple of more tid-bits about the selection process:
- the #4 seed is probably justified. Eleven teams finished with a lower RPI than UIC. Since there are 16 seeds at #4, we fall in that category, though escaping the dreaded Ranked Seeds (the top 8 teams in the country).
- a total of 43 teams with a better RPI than UIC failed to get in, including Miami (FL) which ended a string of 44 straight years for the "convicts".
- the pitiful Horizon League (outside of UIC and WSU) all had RPI's of between 211 and 278.
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Post by uicc79 on May 29, 2017 18:21:53 GMT -6
circle70, is there a site that lists the RPI of all tournament teams (just those teams only), or did you look at the entire list of D1 teams and pick out the tournament teams?
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Post by circle70 on May 30, 2017 5:43:59 GMT -6
circle70, is there a site that lists the RPI of all tournament teams (just those teams only), or did you look at the entire list of D1 teams and pick out the tournament teams? manual process
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Post by UICJohn on May 30, 2017 6:32:16 GMT -6
I didn't even know that Michigan story. That's pretty darn frustrating to hear.
I know that the league has some really poor teams but just seeing those numbers (23rd out of 31 teams) really puts that in context. I know that Wright State has a very good program and really invests into baseball. Do the other programs not really invest into their baseball programs? I know that when Chancellor Amiridis was hired, he really stressed baseball along with soccer and basketball and sports to really get behind. The unfortunate part is that as we are having a resurgence in our baseball program, only one other team in the league is doing much with it.
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Post by axaguy on May 30, 2017 9:18:04 GMT -6
Hey, how does the departure of Valpo and no replacement, yet, affect baseball and our automatic NCAA berths in the future? I thought a league needed 6 teams to qualify for an auto-entry into the tournament?? What if a replacement isn't found right away? Do we stand a chance of having to get in on an at large bid? Seems almost impossible, today. Thoughts???
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Post by UICJohn on May 30, 2017 9:54:17 GMT -6
In regards to our auto-entry, I believe we have a grace period to find another member before that is taken away. I thought it is two seasons but I could be wrong on that.
Interesting thing is that two of the more common additions being talked about - Robert Morris and Fort Wayne - don't solve either of our issues that we've mentioned. Robert Morris doesn't have baseball and Fort Wayne was 9-43 this past year with an RPI of 298 (out of 299).
I know that basketball will be the determining factor in any addition we make but as fans of the baseball program that isn't a welcome addition.
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Post by uicc79 on May 30, 2017 10:01:04 GMT -6
Looking at the HL Tournament bracket, they list 7 teams (and the final league standings) that play baseball in the HL. Youngstown State, the last-place team, was not in the tournament. Therefore, I would assume that even after losing Valpo, the HL would still have a 6-team league.
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Post by Big D on May 30, 2017 10:07:45 GMT -6
I like our draw honestly. I don't see why we can't make a run at it as long as we can hit. We had a real hard time getting anything going on offense against Georgia Tech.
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Post by axaguy on May 30, 2017 14:57:41 GMT -6
"]Looking at the HL Tournament bracket, they list 7 teams (and the final league standings) that play baseball in the HL. Youngstown State, the last-place team, was not in the tournament. Therefore, I would assume that even after losing Valpo, the HL would still have a 6-team league.
You are correct. I forgot YSU. We will have the minimum of 6 without Valpo... Whewww.
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Post by Big D on May 30, 2017 20:32:49 GMT -6
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5623
New Recruit
Posts: 1
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Post by 5623 on May 30, 2017 20:48:54 GMT -6
If any of you are attending the Hattiesburg regional and have a regional ticket book, I'd be interested in purchasing your tickets to game 2 involving South Alabama and Miss State. The tickets this weekend are very tough to come by.
The USM fans are very excited about the weekend. They had a great year and deserve to host. I'm interested to see how you guys matchup with USM. Your ability to pitch can certainly keep you in it. UIC appears to be a tough draw on day 1.
If any of you have questions about Miss St, fire away. I'd be glad to answer them. Best of luck this weekend.
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