I would say that Virginia is none too happy with their draw. This made no sense at all. Virginia had a strong case for a #1 seed (in fact, I thought they should be the #1 seed at East Carolina) with their RPI (which rules the committee thinking more than ever) and their ACC Tournament Championship. So, what does the NCAA do? They send them across the country to Irvine (a national seed that deserved a Top 4 national seed) where they get Stephen Strasburg in the opening round.
Brian
You make a good point and I might wanting to much but there is no reason that we should not be near the top of the conference every year. As a fan when you see nothing good out of your athletic program except for softball you tend to become pretty angry at the entire program.
I said earlier that I didn't think Robe should be fired but he needs to do some winning next year. I have heard the word rebuilding about this years team and that is all well and good if next year he comes out and wins. I heard the word rebuilding for the last couple of years with the basketball program and guess what they get less fun t watch every year.
I agree with that with one caviat. We must invest in our baseball program. As we saw with Troy's field this past week even the SBC teams are spending millions on their programs.
I understand that as well. That is why I try and focus on the actual facts and numbers and compare to other programs. That way I can realistically assess the performance.As a fan when you see nothing good out of your athletic program except for softball you tend to become pretty angry at the entire program.
If men's basketball continues to disappoint, I am highly confident a coaching change will be made. I know I said the same thing a year ago. However, we won't have to buy out a contract and the APR issues will be mostly behind us at that point. Regardless of that, I think it is important we name the new assistant coaches soon. We will have 5 seniors on the squad next season. Most signings occur in the early signing period in November these days and any the recruiting occurs in the July AAU tournament period. That is why I think we need to finalize that situation. I know Dixon from UNO is supposedly coming here but I have seen nothing official on that.
Z, what makes you optimistic about football and pessimistic about baseball for next year. Personally, I am unsure about football as I don't know how much the three offensive stars will be missed. I am optimistic about baseball as the bulk of the squad returns and Coach Robe has admitted we need to do some things differently.
If we don't win next year, then yes, it is time for a change, but it would be useless as in all of the other sports until we get some real MONEY. I think if Robe had the proper funding, he would be more consistent, although, the recruiting has not been very good over the last couple of seasons, so who knows.
Bottom line is, if you don't have the money to hire better than what you have, you're just swappin spit.
I disagree that pitching was the downfall. We were near the top of the conference in ERA this season. Unfortunately we were near the bottom in batting. What really killed us was being in the lower half in fielding. Many of those errors occurred at crucial times. The hitting did improve in the last week of the season except for the last game. Pitching did fall apart in the 2nd to last game but I don't panic in that regard when I look at the overall season on the mound.
Mental Toughness, this cannot be stressed enough, is the reason for so many errors. I don't know for sure how many times, but I can guarantee that multiple times this year, one player had more than one error in a single inning. You have to be able to put a bad play behind you and make the next play, and we didn't do that much this year.
I agree mental toughness was lacking. Often times a bad play in the field would carry over to the plate and vice versa. It has to be as the coaches repeatedly mentioned throughout the season that we had too many "soft" guys. What I don't understand is how you fix something like that in the off season other than to have team leaders step up. Les Smith could be that kind of guy but it is tough to be respected as a leader when you are a pure freshman.
i have never met les smith, just watched him play this year. But i dont see how he couldnt be respected as a leader.he has produced as a player, he goes at it 110% every time he steps on the field, and seems to be a very intense player. And I dont how u change a soft ballclub, they were soft last year,and again this year. Mental toughness needs to be identified when recruiting players. You either have it or you dont.
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