What got the Cajuns into the Field of 64 ...

[GoneGolfin]

... is exactly what we have been talking about. Principally the following ...

- The conference championship was paramount
- The committee also liked the record over the Last 15 games (finished in an upward trend)
- They had the various RPI criteria in the right place

Brian

[cajunhawk]

How close was it Brian?

[Turbine]

It was close.

Basically it seems like UL had everthing going for it except their showing at the conference tournament.

[marine dude]

I know its hard to say, but do you think if we had lost one more conference game and finished one game back of FAU, that we'd be on the outside looking in? I suppose it would depend on who that loss was to, etc., for RPI purposes, but it seemed like going into the last weekend of conference play, it was more about just winning that series against ULM and finishing in 2nd place in conference in order to get in…not necessarily having to tie/win the conference to get in.

[CajunProud]

Congrats to Tony and the boys. It seems they needed every one of those wins in the second half of the season. Very impressive.

[BirdofParadise]

_ I know its hard to say, but do you think if we had lost one more conference game and finished one game back of FAU, that we'd be on the outside looking in? I suppose it would depend on who that loss was to, etc., for RPI purposes, but it seemed like going into the last weekend of conference play, it was more about just winning that series against ULM and finishing in 2nd place in conference in order to get in…not necessarily having to tie/win the conference to get in. _

As Brian said, winning the conference was paramount.

[GoneGolfin]

_ I know its hard to say, but do you think if we had lost one more conference game and finished one game back of FAU, that we'd be on the outside looking in?

Assuming the same conference tournament finish, yes.

Brian

[marine dude]

_ Assuming the same conference tournament finish, yes.

Brian _

Wow, that's amazing. 16 out of 18 wouldn't have cut it, it had to be a 17 out of 18 run to get in. After 5 sweeps and one 2 outa 3, we deserved a berth imo (no matter if that tied for the conf title or not), but I had no idea it would basically come down to that.

Who knows if the conf tourney would've played out the same way (maybe Osbourne goes against Ark St on short rest if we feel we have to win one), but thankfully we pulled that extra inning one out against ULM in the last series and FIU got 1 against FAU!

Amazing how 1 game here or there in a 57 game season can be the difference.

[GoneGolfin]

_ Wow, that's amazing. 16 out of 18 wouldn't have cut it, it had to be a 17 out of 18 run to get in. After 5 sweeps and one 2 outa 3, we deserved a berth imo (no matter if that tied for the conf title or not), but I had no idea it would basically come down to that.

Who knows if the conf tourney would've played out the same way (maybe Osbourne goes against Ark St on short rest if we feel we have to win one), but thankfully we pulled that extra inning one out against ULM in the last series and FIU got 1 against FAU!

Amazing how 1 game here or there in a 57 game season can be the difference. _

Indeed. In a way, it balances things out. In 2006, folks believe that the horrific 9th inning at UALR cost us a bid (it did, but there are other games that could have gone the other way as well). A win there would have been a conference co-championship and #1 seed in the Sun Belt Tournament. Instead, we finished one game back in 2nd place and did not make the field of 64.

Not this time.

Brian

[Parrott]

Spoke with the NCAA selection committee chair about an hour ago. Said that there were 12 teams fighting for the final two spots. Goes to show how tight things were this year.

[GoneGolfin]

_ Spoke with the NCAA selection committee chair about an hour ago. Said that there were 12 teams fighting for the final two spots. Goes to show how tight things were this year. _

This validates the grief I went through selecting the final few teams in my projections at 3am in the morning. This was as tight at the end as any year I can recall.

Brian

[CajunDreDog]

Spoke with the NCAA selection committee chair about an hour ago. Said that there were 12 teams fighting for the final two spots. Goes to show how tight things were this year.

Did he mention what 12 teams they were, and which two were the lucky ones? I'm sure he didn't mention all of them, but he might have mentioned some of them.

[Cajunsmike]

_ ... is exactly what we have been talking about. Principally the following ...

- The conference championship was paramount
- The committee also liked the record over the Last 15 games (finished in an upward trend)
- They had the various RPI criteria in the right place

Brian _

If winning the co championship was such a crucial part of the bid, it demonstrates how huge the extra inning win over ULM was on the last weekend. From what I recall, we also had a close one over UNO and I remember an extra inning win at USA early in the year. I know 56 games is a lot but it does go to show that every game is important, particularly in conference play.

[LifeTimeCajun]

An extra inning debacle at south al, and 2 one run losses to fau could have come back to bite us....fortunately it didn't

igeaux.mobi

[BirdofParadise]

_ Did he mention what 12 teams they were, and which two were the lucky ones? I'm sure he didn't mention all of them, but he might have mentioned some of them. _

If I had to guess, and this is just a guess, I would say you could choose among New Mexico, Arizona and Elon.

I'm betting that they would be fighting at the end.

I talked to a source today that quoted a committee member that if you went into your conference tournament as locked in, you couldn't play your way out of it.

I believe that winning a share of the championship locked us in.

If we had won one fewer game, we'd have been sweating.

Now, I think that we still might have gotten in over Elon. But I'm sure glad that it didn't come down to that.