The final eight teams of the College World Series are almost set and I'm glad to see that there will be eight schools from eight different states, even if one of them is a Texas school and another is the wrong Mississippi school. Arkansas, Louisiana State, California State - Fullerton, North Carolina, Virginia, Arizona State, Souther Mississippi and either Texas or Texas Christian.
As much as I like the College World Series, the preliminary rounds are about as useful as the Women's Basketball Tournament preliminaries. Assuming Texas wins tonight, the top five seeds will be among the eight teams in the final. Southern Miss, Virginia and Arkansas are the "Cinderella" teams. Virginia and Arkansas were the number two seeds in their initial brackets while Southern Miss was a three seed.
13 of the 16 teams to reach the Super Regionals were the top seeds in their region. The other three are obviously the trio named above. So for all the games that are played, the dominant teams during the regular season have continued their dominance into the World Series.
Since every round is double elimination, the most losses any team could incur and still be in the College World Series is two; one in the Regionals and one in the Super Regionals. No one has done that. Only Virginia, Southern Miss and the Texas entry have lost a single game. The other five teams are a perfect 5-0.
You also have the major league draft beginning today. I've always liked the timing of it because for a lot of fans, this is their first chance to watch the new prospects for their team. That being said, Carolina's Dustin Ackley and Alex White and Mike Leake from Arizona State will likely be the only first round picks in the World Series. A bunch of guys will end up being drafted, though, who will be on the field in Omaha, so take a gander if you get a chance.
Showing posts with label college world series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college world series. Show all posts
Monday, June 8, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
College World Series coverage
ESPN.com, in an effort to become.....I don't know what they're trying to do. I think become an entertainment website. They certainly don't cover sports anymore. Polls, excerpts from Sportscenter, fantasy chats, whatever Rick Reilly is or does, they have that. Go find what they wrote about Elon's appearance in the College World Series yesterday. Go ahead, I'll wait.
If you need a hint, you have to go to the main page and choose college sports. They have sections for college football and basketball because this is an exciting time of year for those sports. But baseball is lumped in with all the other sports.
Once you go there, if you look at the headlines, you'll see golf, tennis, softball, volleyball, lacrosse. The top story in the image box is softball, where the hook is that Arizona State's pitcher doesn't like being called a freshman. Whatever. A couple games are mentioned in the headlines, including Stephen Strasburg's first loss of the season. But if you want the coverage, you have to click in that little picture box that says Friday's baseball action and then scroll almost all the way down to the bottom to see how Elon did (which is an Associated Press report. Apparently ESPN doesn't feel the need to have anyone on their staff report on the CWS).
By contrast, go to Yahoo!'s sports page, choose college sports from the menu and wow!, imagine that!, there's a section on baseball. The featured story is, no surprise, Strasburg's loss. But they have a much deserved article on Rich Poythress of Georgia. You can click on NCAA Baseball capsules and get the same AP reports ESPN has but if you click on Rogers' regional analysis, you actually get a Yahoo! reporter's take on all the games. Reporting! On a news site! Wonder of wonders!
The best place to go, though, if you're looking for all your tourney information, is right here. The NCAA itself. They have great writeups of all the games plus you can follow all the games live. Definitely check it out if you have any interest in college baseball and/or the upcoming draft since many of the players in the CWS will be drafted by the major league teams.
By the way, Elon lost 17-15 to Southern Mississippi.
Here's who I'm rooting for (with the exception of a year at the University of Pittsburgh, all my education has been at smaller schools so I don't have alma mater loyalties) in each Super Regional:
Oregon State - the only Texas teams I've rooted for are the Houston Oilers (defunct but they once had Earl Campbell and Ken Stabler (my favorite southpaw quarterback), the Houston Gamblers (Jim Kelly and Mouse Davis' run and shoot offense, also now defunct) and Mike Leach's Texas Tech football program so that rules out half of this Super Regional right there.
Georgia Tech - my undergrad degree is from a small school in North Carolina (Elon was a rival which is why I follow them). I grew up in Pennsylvania and when I went to school there, you were obligated to root for an ACC team for basketball purposes. 90% of people rooted for Carolina, Duke, or N.C. State. I backed Wake Forest and Georgia Tech. Plus, I got to watch Georgia Tech play when they had Jason Varitek, Nomar Garciaparra, Jay Payton and Brad Rigby. That was cool.
Alabama - they lost yesterday which doesn't bode well. No one else really grabs me.
East Carolina - Go Pirates! Tough call over South Carolina and my favorite baseball coach, Ray Tanner. I've always liked East Carolina since they played an exciting game against Pitt in football while I was there, falling two yards short on a long pass on the game's final play. The final score was 47-42. Heck of a game. It's strange. I like high scoring football games (when I watch) and low scoring baseball games. Go figure.
Louisville - No reason.
Marist - Why not?
Mississippi - Of course, the majority of teams that interest me are in this region. I have friends who are graduates of Ole Miss and Missouri. I've rooted for Fresno State since the Kevin Sweeney football years (how, for someone who doesn't like football, did I become so influenced by it?), Virginia has a good team and, of course, you have Stephen Strasburg's San Diego State team.
LSU - Probably the biggest baseball powerhouse that isn't in Florida, California or Texas. Skip Bertman led a legacy there that still continues even though he's no longer there.
My pick for winning it all is Cal State Fullerton.
If you need a hint, you have to go to the main page and choose college sports. They have sections for college football and basketball because this is an exciting time of year for those sports. But baseball is lumped in with all the other sports.
Once you go there, if you look at the headlines, you'll see golf, tennis, softball, volleyball, lacrosse. The top story in the image box is softball, where the hook is that Arizona State's pitcher doesn't like being called a freshman. Whatever. A couple games are mentioned in the headlines, including Stephen Strasburg's first loss of the season. But if you want the coverage, you have to click in that little picture box that says Friday's baseball action and then scroll almost all the way down to the bottom to see how Elon did (which is an Associated Press report. Apparently ESPN doesn't feel the need to have anyone on their staff report on the CWS).
By contrast, go to Yahoo!'s sports page, choose college sports from the menu and wow!, imagine that!, there's a section on baseball. The featured story is, no surprise, Strasburg's loss. But they have a much deserved article on Rich Poythress of Georgia. You can click on NCAA Baseball capsules and get the same AP reports ESPN has but if you click on Rogers' regional analysis, you actually get a Yahoo! reporter's take on all the games. Reporting! On a news site! Wonder of wonders!
The best place to go, though, if you're looking for all your tourney information, is right here. The NCAA itself. They have great writeups of all the games plus you can follow all the games live. Definitely check it out if you have any interest in college baseball and/or the upcoming draft since many of the players in the CWS will be drafted by the major league teams.
By the way, Elon lost 17-15 to Southern Mississippi.
Here's who I'm rooting for (with the exception of a year at the University of Pittsburgh, all my education has been at smaller schools so I don't have alma mater loyalties) in each Super Regional:
Oregon State - the only Texas teams I've rooted for are the Houston Oilers (defunct but they once had Earl Campbell and Ken Stabler (my favorite southpaw quarterback), the Houston Gamblers (Jim Kelly and Mouse Davis' run and shoot offense, also now defunct) and Mike Leach's Texas Tech football program so that rules out half of this Super Regional right there.
Georgia Tech - my undergrad degree is from a small school in North Carolina (Elon was a rival which is why I follow them). I grew up in Pennsylvania and when I went to school there, you were obligated to root for an ACC team for basketball purposes. 90% of people rooted for Carolina, Duke, or N.C. State. I backed Wake Forest and Georgia Tech. Plus, I got to watch Georgia Tech play when they had Jason Varitek, Nomar Garciaparra, Jay Payton and Brad Rigby. That was cool.
Alabama - they lost yesterday which doesn't bode well. No one else really grabs me.
East Carolina - Go Pirates! Tough call over South Carolina and my favorite baseball coach, Ray Tanner. I've always liked East Carolina since they played an exciting game against Pitt in football while I was there, falling two yards short on a long pass on the game's final play. The final score was 47-42. Heck of a game. It's strange. I like high scoring football games (when I watch) and low scoring baseball games. Go figure.
Louisville - No reason.
Marist - Why not?
Mississippi - Of course, the majority of teams that interest me are in this region. I have friends who are graduates of Ole Miss and Missouri. I've rooted for Fresno State since the Kevin Sweeney football years (how, for someone who doesn't like football, did I become so influenced by it?), Virginia has a good team and, of course, you have Stephen Strasburg's San Diego State team.
LSU - Probably the biggest baseball powerhouse that isn't in Florida, California or Texas. Skip Bertman led a legacy there that still continues even though he's no longer there.
My pick for winning it all is Cal State Fullerton.
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