Yes it does matter when we are on the bubble of earning an NCAA at-large bid.
After the UAB loss, we are at 41. Typically, the Top 45 earn bids. We probably need to climb up to at least 5th place and add a couple Top 50 midweek road games to replace ULM and Arky State.
Anything can happen in conference baseball tournaments. The 8 seed FIU won the C-USA Tourney a couple years ago, and ULM won the Belch Tourney as the 8 seed several years ago. Win the first game, and you have a decent chance. Some teams get hot. Some teams have off days. You never know.
Totally disagree. That's a recipe for sitting at home during the postseason.
Why do you say we could only schedule one? We've had 2 canceled.
You certainly can't find any opponents if you don't try. I guarantee you Burroughs could find a couple takers. Teams do this every year, even fabricate reasons to cancel SWAC games.
Our remaining conference games do nothing for our resume. Nothing. We don't have a single Top 100 opponent left in C-USA play. WKU is about to hurt our RPI, especially if we drop a game to them. No opportunities to boost our resume other than at ULL, and they aren't even a Top 50 team right now. We aren't playing for a regular season conference championship, and we definitely aren't a lock for an at-large bid. The committee doesn't care where we finish in the standings. We got a bid as the 5th place team last year while Marshall sat at home in 2nd place. Of course we need to try to win our remaining C-USA games, but that won't be enough to get us in the tourney because we aren't going 14-0 no matter how much we "focus" on those games. We are playing for an at-large bid, and our resume needs more quality wins because we don't have a money weekend series win.
In addition, we are much better at midweek games because our team isn't reliant on a dominant weekend rotation like many others, and we have a good hitting team that can light up weekday pitching. Playing 1 midweek game 2 weeks at the end of the season like we do almost every week isn't going to prevent our team from "focusing" on the remaining conference games.
I said we can schedule one because only Arkansas State was canceled, ULM currently is "postponed," although that can change.
Those are some pretty specific criteria:
top 50 team,
without a full schedule,
on a date neither we nor they have a game already scheduled,
and willing to add a game they likely do not need.
I don't recall many (any?) instances of relatively high-RPI bubble teams adding games like that to their late-season schedules, but my memory is far from perfect and I don't have time for internet excavations. I recall teams like LSU adding teams like Louisiana College or occasional post-conference tourney games as tune-ups for regionals.
We still have not won a HOME C-USA baseball series! Hell, we've only won a single CUSA game so far in friggin' Ruston, LA!!! That's a lot of 'getting your butt whipped in front of your own fans'.
Opponent Results Location USM Lost 0-3 Ruston, LA Charlotte Lost 1-2 Charlotte, NC UTSA Lost 1-2 Ruston, LA Rice Won 2-1 Houston, TX ODU Won 2-1 Norfolk, VA UAB 0-1 Ruston, LA 14% 1-6 Home 56% 5-4 Away
And, in person, in front of his bosses. Hope they're paying attention.
The ULM game isn't getting made up.
Let's see... ULL, Houston, and Southern Miss all made late-season schedule changes for RPI/resume reasons last year that I recall.
A quick browse and Lane's buddy at #12 Arkansas has an opening after canceling their game with Grambling. And look, just up the road from Fayetteville #16 Missouri State has a couple openings. We travel down to Laffy, and look, #27 McNeese State has a couple openings after canceling Alcorn. I'm sure there are several more in the area around here, Murfreesboro, and Miami.
There are plenty of opportunities. You are trying to come up with excuses as to why we can't add games while avoiding admitting that our resume actually does need a boost. The bottom line is that Burroughs at least has to try to add a couple resume-building games because at best our current resume + schedule will only put us on the bubble.
We've got good results so far in C-USA play.
ODU beat USM today. We need ODU to take the series from USM. ODU is our best series win so we need their RPI to be as high as possible.
UTSA has also taken the series from FAU. We want FAU to lose every C-USA game because they are the only C-USA team we don't play.
We should be solo 8th place at end of the day if Charlotte can figure finish DH sweep of MTSU http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2017...Conference-USA
Conference Standings
Team Record Win % GB Overall Overall % Streak 1 Southern Miss 13-4 0.765 - 30-11 0.732 L1 2 Charlotte 12-6 0.667 1.5 24-16 0.600 W7 T3 Florida Atlantic 11-6 0.647 2 24-13 0.649 L4 Old Dominion 11-6 0.647 2 27-12 0.692 W1 T5 Florida International 9-8 0.529 4 24-16 0.600 W1 UTSA 9-8 0.529 4 20-17 0.541 W3 7 Marshall 8-9 0.471 5 19-20 0.487 L1 8 Louisiana Tech 7-10 0.412 6 26-14 0.650 W1 9 Middle Tennessee 7-11 0.389 6.5 19-21 0.475 L4 10 Rice 7-11 0.389 6.5 16-25 0.390 W3 11 UAB 6-11 0.353 7 18-21 0.462 L1 12 Western Kentucky 4-14 0.222 9.5 12-29 0.293 L4
Today's Games
Sunday, April 23rd
11:30
T Old Dominion
(27-12, 11-6 Conference USA)0 #20 Southern Miss
(30-11, 13-4 Conference USA)000 PM
2:00
T UAB
(18-21, 6-11 Conference USA)0 Louisiana Tech
(26-14, 7-10 Conference USA)0
uspende
Beckley, WV
RESUMPTION OF SUSPENDED GAME (Bottom 9) T FIU
(24-16, 9-8 Conference USA)4 Marshall
(19-20, 8-9 Conference USA)3
FIU beat Marshall this am.
Rank Team Record Win % GB Overall Overall % 1 Southern Miss 13-5 0.722 - 30-12 0.714 2 Charlotte 12-6 0.667 1 24-16 0.600 2 Florida Atlantic 12-6 0.667 1 25-13 0.658 2 Old Dominion 12-6 0.667 1 28-12 0.700 5 FIU 10-8 0.556 3 25-16 0.610 6 UTSA 9-9 0.500 4 20-18 0.526 7 Louisiana Tech 8-10 0.444 5 27-14 0.659 7 Marshall 8-10 0.444 5 19-21 0.475 9 Middle Tennessee 7-11 0.389 6 19-21 0.475 9 Rice 7-11 0.389 6 16-25 0.390 11 UAB 6-12 0.333 7 18-22 0.450 12 WKU 4-14 0.222 9 12-29 0.293
In the "it's baseball" category, USM lost a series at home against an ODU team that we were clearly better than on the road last weekend. Were we better than USM in Ruston? Our coaching wasn't fo sho!
It's baseball!