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Post by circle70 on May 20, 2015 13:37:36 GMT -6
As you all know, we're going into this year's Horizon League Tournament as the #1 seed.
Obviously, we would like to win the whole thing. But we would not have the odds with us. In the last 20 years of the HL, and its predecessor, the regular season champion has won the Tournament a total of 8 times or 40% of the time.
Oddly enough, in those 20 years, UIC has been the regular season champion 10 times, and won the tourney 4 times, or 40% of the time.
Baseball, of all the major sports, seems to crown as champions, more teams that were not the best ones during the regular season. For example, in MLB, it is not uncommon for wild card teams to be World Series champions.
As we saw last year (when last place Youngstown State won it all), anything can happen. It's a crap shoot.
Go Flames!!!
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Post by UICJohn on May 20, 2015 14:57:17 GMT -6
Impressive showing in terms of awards - Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, and Pitcher of the Year.
And yes, out of all major sports, baseball is the least likely to predict. So many variables go into it that a hot pitcher or hits that just don't find holes can cost teams. Let's take care of business because I want to see some NCAA Tournament baseball from UIC!
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Post by circle70 on May 21, 2015 14:04:52 GMT -6
We WIN the all-important 1st game, to go into the Winner's Bracket. Losing would have required us to play 2 games today. Keep winning and you only play once a day.
Go Flames!!!
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Post by UICJohn on May 22, 2015 14:13:28 GMT -6
Winning 5-4 going into the Top of the 9th.
Single. Walk. Wild pitch. Another wild pitch. Hit by pitch. Home run.
Down 8-5.
Game isn't over but it will be in a minute. And possibly the season as well.
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Post by Big D on May 22, 2015 14:51:11 GMT -6
Collapse in the 9th after leading all game? Good times.
We have to beat UWM tonight and WSU twice tomorrow, right? No small feat.
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Post by UICJohn on May 22, 2015 17:21:10 GMT -6
You're correct.
Must win 3 in a row.
Tied with UWM right now. I'm a pessimist with sports a lot so don't judge the bad feeling I have.
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Post by circle70 on May 22, 2015 19:09:32 GMT -6
So we lose to Milwaukee and finish in 3rd place in the HL Tournament.
Not an upset. Even though we were the regular season champion in the HL and the #1 seed in the Tournament, UIC was only the 3rd best team in the league. Third in hitting, and, more importantly, 3rd in pitching in the final league stats.
In RPI ratings, Wright State is currently at 50, Milwaukee at 102, and UIC at 155.
That is the sad thing. We are only the 3rd best team in a mediocre league, but have the highest budget, best stadium, and a brand new state-of-the-art indoor practice facility.
Dee may be the coach of the year but he has a lot of work to do.
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Post by circle70 on May 25, 2015 13:30:58 GMT -6
If there was any doubt that Wright State is, by far, the best team in the Horizon League, there is none now.
For what may be the first time in Horizon League history, our representative in the NCAA Tournament is NOT a lowly #4 seed. They are a #3 and are playing at the Champaign-Urbana branch of the University of Illinois.
To make matters worse (for UIC and the rest of the league), Wright State won't be going away anytime soon. They had 5 players on the all-HL first team, 5 on the second team, and 3 on the all-freshman team. Of the 11 players (2 of the freshmen made the 1st or 2nd team, so it's not 13 players), only 4 are seniors, so 7 will return.
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Post by UICJohn on May 25, 2015 22:18:30 GMT -6
Wright State has an impressive resume in terms of record and RPI and deserves a #3 seed.
Even with the #1 seed in the tournament it still felt like we were still an underdog and RPI does show that (and a pretty significant one). Boehm is a stud and Detmer but my a killer lineup up and down.
I have to wonder with our new Chancellor being very sports interested and mentioning baseball specifically, is Coach Dee going to feel any pressure?
Don't get me wrong - he was Coach of the Year and we did win the regular season title. But 100 RPI spots behind Wright State and 50 behind UWM is inexcusable. With the resources we put into the program we need more results. With the stadium we have and the indoor facilities we need championships.
We should be getting next level talent but we aren't. We should be developing next level talent but we aren't. It seems we used to have draft picks on a yearly basis but quite rare these days. Teams like Wright State are moving up and we just seem stagnant.
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Post by axaguy on May 26, 2015 1:39:20 GMT -6
Well..............in that video that has circulated the new chancellor told the team he expected to be there on Saturday...... So much for that. Saw Arimidis at a basketball season ticketholder event at Flames field late this year. He's been to Omaha with the South Carolina Gamecocks and knows the way......... I'll bet he might be showing Dee a map soon, as well......
A tournament placement by us almost surely would have been in Champaign........ Ahhh the thought of it.....
Some "not so subtle" hints may be in the offing.........
When Arimidis said "we expect to win", he wasn't only alluding to basketball........................
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Post by circle70 on May 26, 2015 9:56:03 GMT -6
Maybe it doesn't have to be Wright State OR Milwaukee OR UIC. Maybe it can be AND.
I know it is difficult for "cold weather" teams to compete for an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament. But it can be done. This year, 6 teams from cold weather states managed to do it: 4 from the B1G Ten, Notre Dame, and, believe it or not, Bradley from the MVC. This is Bradley's first appearance since 1968.
The task for UIC will be humongous. An RPI jump of more than 100 points, for starters.
Although, all of our starting "week-end pitchers" should be back, we need a closer and much better middle-of-the-pack pitchers.
The hitting will take a huge "hit" to graduation. Our 2 most dominating hitters, Boehm and Detmer, accounted for 84% of our HR's and 34% of RBI's. In total, seniors had 88% of the homers and 61% of the runs batted in.
On the bright side, 3 of the 6 guys that hit better than .300, will return.
As I mentioned on another post, Dee has a lot of work to do.
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Post by Big D on May 26, 2015 15:20:09 GMT -6
Gonna be hard to jump 100 RPI spots when we're not only playing, but routinely losing to, the likes of Chicago State and NIU every year. That has got to stop.
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Post by circle70 on May 30, 2015 17:33:37 GMT -6
Gonna be hard to jump 100 RPI spots when we're not only playing, but routinely losing to, the likes of Chicago State and NIU every year. That has got to stop. Good point. Of our 51 games this year, 27 were against teams with an RPI over 200. Our SOS was 235 (out of 301 teams). Here's an extreme example: Mississippi made the NCAA Tournament with a pedestrian record of 30-27. They finished 7th in the SEC with a record of 15-14. However, they had the #1 SOS in the country; they played ONE game against teams with an RPI over 200. Of course, it's impossible for us to even approach a top 100 schedule when 3 of the 6 teams in the Horizon League this year had RPI's over 200. But we can definitely upgrade the non-conference schedule and we have to win some of those games. |
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