Dawg83

Will be interesting to see what happens to Virginia after O’Connor. He built their program from nothing into a steady Omaha contender. We’ll see if they can find another good coach to keep it going relatively so or if they fall off the face of the earth like other formerly great programs of the past have. Rice is one that immediately comes to mind.

Apparently TBD depending on if Wake’s head coach get the Virginia job. If he does, Muscara would probably be the favorite for the Wake head coach job if it opens.

Saw this morning that Virginia now has 20 players in the portal since O’Connor left. Gotta think several of those are Starkville bound. And there is some serious talent among those.

I think it’s fair to say the SEC underachieved pretty badly. When you have six Top 8 seeds and half of them don’t make it out of a Regional, that’s kinda rough.

Murray State wins. Wow. What a crazy game. This may go down as the weirdest super regional field ever depending on if Little Rock can finish off LSU….

Well…. Thought we might get a beatdown at Swayze tonight… don’t think I saw Murray State giving the beating though. This has been a bloodbath.

And tomorrow we have both USM and Ole Miss with a chance to host Super Regionals with one more win. OM would host Duke if they can finish off Murray State, USM would host Louisville if they can finish off Miami.

Officially official. Brian O’Connor is State’s head coach. Take a bow, Zac Selmon.

FSU eliminates State…. And now we wait for the news.

Big innings from Stone Simmons today to preserve bullpen. Siary obviously gave a very good start. I have very low expectations for State getting past FSU but who knows.

Weekend certainly not over but the SEC is having a rough tournament so far. Only 4 of the 13 teams are in the winner’s bracket. And the SEC is something like 0-5 against the ACC so far. Even Texas and Vandy are in the loser’s bracket.

I don’t see State climbing back from this hole now. Just don’t think the pitching depth is there and would have to beat FSU twice. I could see a path to them wining two games MAYBE, but even then I don’t know who the heck they’d have left to pitch if it got to Monday. I actually like OM and USM’s paths back pretty good. If OM can get past Georgia Tech tomorrow then it’s just a matter of beating Murray State twice, which isn’t some crazy thought. USM will have to beat Columbia and then Miami twice, again will be tough but not impossible. Bama being out of that Regional already is a big help for their chances, IMO.

There is a A LOT of weekend still to go, so don’t want to put the cart before the horse. That said…. Corvallis is the Regional opposite Tallahassee, and the 3 and 4 seed both won yesterday. Hypothetical here, but if State can beat FSU twice and either St. Mary’s or USC finishes it off in Corvallis… probably would be looking at a Super Regional at The Dude. But gotta have multiple things go right to get to that point.

Dominant by State. Northeastern’s ace had really good numbers and State just rocked him. Good pitching by Davis and McPherson to keep other guys fresh, too. You get a shot at the Noles tomorrow and their Top 5 draft pick ace. Won’t be easy but you are kinda playing with house money. Pretty disappointing performance by USM and Ole Miss. Especially USM who got smoked. I still feel like both teams are in a good spot to win tomorrow, but beyond that, may be tough. We shall see.

Back to Regional talk, looks like pitching plans have been announced. OM and USM both throwing their #2 starters against the 4 seed. State is throwing Ben Davis against Northeastern, which is fascinating to me. Went with one of their top bullpen arms instead of anybody in the normal starting rotation. I presume they are playing the long game. And trying to save those guys for FSU as much as they can. But it’s certainly risky, especially given that State is the lower seeded team.

If it happens, Selmon deserves all the credit in the world. I had zero belief that they could get BOC and said as much in this very thread not long after Lemonis was fired. It feels like it has taken a lot of things falling just right for it to be a possibility this quickly. State had to fire Lemonis early. Virginia had to miss the NCAAT. This new era of revenue sharing had to be a factor and, in turn, UVA had to be noncommittal about baseball. If it’s going to happen, the timing has been impeccable for State. I do not think BOC even considers making this move 5 years ago.

Kendall Rogers and several other national guys saying it’s not done but O’Connor is the clear front runner. Feels like there is a strong possibility this happens. It usually does not get to that level of reporting otherwise. Now if the rumors about him bring the Wake Forest pitching coach with him are also true, woooo buddy watch out.

I think they are still making a big push for O’Connor and depending on who you ask, the chances of success may not be zero. I think Wasikowski and Fitzgerald would be the two leading candidates after O’Connor, and I’m not sure it would get past those two.

I think Bakich is using State for leverage. His buyout may be too big for State anyway. Plus I’ve always heard that he may be holding out for the Vandy job once Corbin retires.

We are getting to the interesting point of the coaching search now too. Until this point it’s just been guessing and everybody knew it wasn’t happening until after the season. Well now seasons are over for certain candidates, it will be over for others this weekend, State’s season could also be over by Sunday. We should know something in the next week or two barring a weird series of events a la 2018. Certainly feels like State is giving Brian O’Connor the right of first refusal, and Virginia’s season is over now. Where does it go if he is a no? I have no clue. But him being the first preference seems to be something most everyone agrees on.

Looking at the overall bracket, I don’t see how the SEC doesn’t have 5 or 6 teams in Omaha. With 6 national seeds and two of those being paired with other SEC hosts, I mean you can kinda see where this is headed. And that’s not even counting any of the 2 or 3 seeds that aren’t hosting but are capable of getting hot and making a deep run. There is a mathematical chance for all 8 spots to be SEC teams… But it would require State and Oklahoma getting to Omaha and I don’t feel great about either of those teams’ paths.

State is a 3 seed, you kinda lose the luxury of holding your ace when, on paper, you aren’t even one of the two best teams in your regional. That said, does State have a true ace? Pico is the Friday night guy and I feel pretty confident he starts this game, but he has been pretty average at best for about two months. That stadium is VERY hitter friendly so State is probably going to have to slug their way out of this weekend to have a chance. And they do have the offensive firepower to do it, I believe. But just not sure they have the pitching depth.

Fascinating matchup. Northeastern’s stats and record are very impressive, but no idea how good they actually are. I presume State will throw Pico in that game and they will definitely need a good performance from him. And if State wins, they get to face one of the best aces in the country on Saturday with Jamie Arnold (assuming FSU beats Bethune Cookman)

Now confirmed, Oxford and Hattiesburg both hosting.

TCU ended up losing last night. I tend to think they do not host now.