BB: ASC: American Southwest Conference

[indian4life]

More importantly, I thank his son for his service to our Country.
Let's keep this a fun board where we talk about baseball, the teams and the competition.  To start getting personal and think it is okay...No Thanks!
I hope Ralph and Pat can help us on this one, if we cannot work it out on our own.

I will have to agree with you completely on all of this especially the thanking his son he does things that not many people are willing to do and for that I am truly thankful....

But now on to baseball...after a good weekend out of both UTT and the Indians....should be an interesting weekend!!!! My take is going to be of course McM 2 games to 1

Keys for McM to win:
1. Starting Pitching: This one of the major issues that i think they will have to face is consistency.  Curry has been up and down in his three starts and he will need to set the tone this weekend, Smith is throwing better as the year goes all though the year is still very young, and Martin seems to be fitting into the starting role quite nice.

2. Defense: McM has been a little suspect with a few games with more than three errors, and you cannot do that and beat a good team like UTT, because they will take advantage of mistakes.

3. Get to UTT early:  I do not know what their bullpen looks like this year but I do know that in the past if you got past their starters the layers in their bullpen were very thin.

I do not have very good intel on UTT, but I do know this...Both teams will hit both teams will hit both teams will hit!!!!!!!!  I think that these games will be won on the bump and i would predict that whoever has better starting pitching wins the series (I know this is kinda general but here its true). 

Starting Pitching: Advantage UTT
Hitting: Its a virtual tie but I am going with the Indians for two reasons (Home Field, and UTT's history at Driggers Field)
Bullpen: Advantage Indians
Defense: Advantage UTT
Coaching: I will say advantage Indians because of the one the only John "The Legend" Byington, but both coaches are very very very good baseball men

All in all it should be a great series..I am so upset i have to miss it due to work...best of luck to both teams and safe driving you UTT fans and I hope you have a long drive home.

[mcmguy19]

More importantly, I thank his son for his service to our Country.
Let's keep this a fun board where we talk about baseball, the teams and the competition.  To start getting personal and think it is okay...No Thanks!
I hope Ralph and Pat can help us on this one, if we cannot work it out on our own.

I will have to agree with you completely on all of this especially the thanking his son he does things that not many people are willing to do and for that I am truly thankful....

But now on to baseball...after a good weekend out of both UTT and the Indians....should be an interesting weekend!!!! My take is going to be of course McM 2 games to 1

Keys for McM to win:
1. Starting Pitching: This one of the major issues that i think they will have to face is consistency.  Curry has been up and down in his three starts and he will need to set the tone this weekend, Smith is throwing better as the year goes all though the year is still very young, and Martin seems to be fitting into the starting role quite nice.

2. Defense: McM has been a little suspect with a few games with more than three errors, and you cannot do that and beat a good team like UTT, because they will take advantage of mistakes.

3. Get to UTT early:  I do not know what their bullpen looks like this year but I do know that in the past if you got past their starters the layers in their bullpen were very thin.

I do not have very good intel on UTT, but I do know this...Both teams will hit both teams will hit both teams will hit!!!!!!!!  I think that these games will be won on the bump and i would predict that whoever has better starting pitching wins the series (I know this is kinda general but here its true). 

Starting Pitching: Advantage UTT
Hitting: Its a virtual tie but I am going with the Indians for two reasons (Home Field, and UTT's history at Driggers Field)
Bullpen: Advantage Indians
Defense: Advantage UTT
Coaching: I will say advantage Indians because of the one the only John "The Legend" Byington, but both coaches are very very very good baseball men

All in all it should be a great series..I am so upset i have to miss it due to work...best of luck to both teams and safe driving you UTT fans and I hope you have a long drive home.

Byno is a legend and a great coach....Hitting two walk off home runs against Texas in the same day thats big time...

I have a feeling that UTT will take 2 of 3 from McM.. Joe Towns is back who i thoguth graduated last May but I might be work...and Kendall Fox are the two guys for me who stick out.  Towns can hit for power and Fox just gets on base I dont know how he did it in high school too. 

The thing McM needs for them to take the series is for Cody Curry to throw one of the best games of the season...he has had problems this year but fought out of it and threw decent against Ozarks.  If he throws well and keeps UTT off balance and mixes his pitches up and gets them to roll over, the first game could go to Curry and the McM's or as I know them as the damn Indians.  Which if happens and Curry does do this i will then take McM 2 of 3,

Also for this series you need to take the weather into fact.  If i can remember the last two times UTT came to down the wind was blowing in steady from right.  So who knows how this will fare for both teams...it could be sleeting and 30 degrees or Hot windy and 95 (I havent looked at the weather since writing this so yah)

[indian4life]

Byno is a legend and a great coach....Hitting two walk off home runs against Texas in the same day thats big time...

Not to mention a game tying three run bomb in the ninth the night before at Texas!!!! "BIG JOHN"

[Ralph Turner]

We have a big order in front of us.

I don't think that we have filled in the holes from last year.  At least McMurry has seen Chapman's pitching to get them ready.  Kitchens and Sigman were both "on" on  the days they threw.

The good thing about this series is that it doesn't count towards the division.

I will be ecstatic at winning two of three.

I also do not like to air "dirty laundry" on these boards.

There is no way that the other side can say what they need to say to balance the argument.

[PatriotASID]

Joe Towns is back who i thoguth graduated last May but I might be work

McMGuy,
Joe actually did graduate but he did it early, so he is finishing his eligibility while he works on his Master's.  Also the Patriots combined for 8 HRs and 31 Ks against UMHB this weekend. I am not sure where UMHB ranks in the West, but that should provide some indication to where they are so far this year. I think the series this weekend will be great.

[dp643]

I can say after watching this weekends games (UMHB vs Tyler), that there is no way McMurry will have an edge anywhere in the pitching category. They have 4 or 5 very quality arms out of the bullpen, and I didnt even see one of their pitchers who ate up a bunch of innings last season out of the pen. I wouldnt judge their staff by striking out 31 UMHB batters in 3 games, just for the fact that UMHB (very young team) is averaging 8 strikeouts a game anyways.

I have no idea what McMurry looks like, but I think I would go out on a limb, and say this years UT Tyler team would take 2 of 3 from last year's McMurry team. Booher, Holland, and Wolfe weren't as overpowering velocity wise as I thought they would be, but they have plus breaking pitches, and for the most spot can spot it where they want. Booher had some control issues on Saturday I think walking 5 or 6 in just 5 innings.

UT Tyler's offense is pretty impressive as well. They got very few cheap hits this weekend. They were mashing. To put this in perspective, Mississippi College's arguably best hitter from last season (Paige Hodges) is batting 8 hole and was on the bench one of the three games.

I definitely think they are beatable, but you can't make too many mistakes. I think its going to be interesting to see how McMurry does this weekend.

[TexasBB]

UTT has a solid team but as you all may recall lost with Holland on the mound to CTX at home. UTT also does not have a great record in Abilene (was so so in last years pre-confernce tournament and in the playoffs). So this will be a big test for them. I am very impressed with their defense. Allowed no errors for the entire series against UMHB and only had one or two the week before. Their starters are as good as there are in the confernce and they have more depth in the bullpen than last year. They have a solid hitting team but no standout power hitters. So as far as I can see this can go either way but I always have to favor MCM at home. Although this will be an interesting preview what I really want to see is how UTT performs in May when it really counts.

[indian4life]

I just want to throw this out there but another home field advantage that McM has is the mound.  Although, it is perfect regulation size mound it appears to be much larger...this can both throw off the hitters and the pitchers for a few innings.  It is a very deceiving mound!

And TxBB and Dp thanks for the insight on UTT's Bullpen like I had mentioned I only know of them from last year i have not had much time to keep up with them this year.

[dp643]

No prob, and who knows. I have been wrong before. I haven't seen McMurry's bullpen so I don't have much to base it against. Anything can happen. Tyler definitely has some quality arms coming out of the pen though.

[TexasBB]

Patriots look impressive in tune up for big McM series this weekend. UTT shut out HS 7-0 with its pitching staff allowing only 2 hits while striking out an eye popping 15 batters.  Tommy Rozell went 7 innings and recorded 12 of those Ks allowing only 1 hit and 1 walk. He is 2-0 and looks like UTT has found a 4th starter which they will need to be successful in post season play. Once again the Patriots defense did not commit any errors. So in the last 4 games they have not committed a single error and only a total of 4 in their last 7 games. Good pitching and good defense, if they can keep it up will carry this team a long way. (Not bad hitting either!)

[TexasBB]

Significance of McM v. UTT series this weekend. Although this series will not impact the conference standings or conference tournament pairings it will have an impact on ptential NCAA Pool selections. West region games count to determine if a team is offered an NCAA tournament invitation. So the series is important to both teams from that perspective. UTT has not had a big road series yet this year. In fact they have not played a single game away from the friendly and comfortable confines of Irwin field this year. Historically they have not played well when they have had long trips away from home expecially at Diggers field. McM needs to do well in this series also since they have already been swept by Chapman. From a pool play perspective they cannot drop more west region games. UTT must prove that it can win big games in Abeline. So both teams have alot riding on this series. Should be interesting.

[Ralph Turner]

Copied from the women's basketball message board.


The regional rankings are out for the last public time in basketball.

We will probably have two very good teams that might qualify for bids, and we might have a division that is shut out of bids for the playoffs, just barely.

We have CTX announcing adding track and field and ETBU adding tennis (both mens' and women's I assume).

Let's look at an option to increase the number of AQ's that we get.

To be a conference to earn the AQ, you must have seven full members (or at least 4 core members and three affiliates.) 



The ASC-West could split off the ASC (go into Pool B for two years) and then 2 years later have these AQ sports.

VB
Football (accepting ETBU, LaColl and MissColl as affiliates)
M/W Soccer
M/W Basketball
M/W Tennis
Baseball
Softball
M/W Golf (accepting the ASC-East teams in both sports as affiliates; currently LeTU, MC, UTD and UTT for the men; LeTU UTT and UTD for the women.)

The ASC-West would have the required four schools to sponsor a conference championship in M/W T&F (CTX, HSU, McM, SRSU and TLU-women).  UT-Tyler and MissColl could affiliate for both genders.

The ASC-West also has 4 schools sponsoring  Men's XC (CTX, McM, SRSU and Schreiner) and 5 in women's Cross Country (CTX, HSU, McM, Schreiner and SRSU).   The West schools could affiliate for a combined championship with the East if they wished under an affiliation agreement.



Where does that leave the ASC-East.  I understand that a conference needs to sponsor five men's and five women's sports.

The East has the full 7 schools to earn the AQ for these sports.

M/W Soccer
M/W Basketball
M/W Tennis (now that ETBU has added both M/W tennis)
Baseball
Softball.

The ASC-East has these core members in Cross Country to sponsor the sports.

MXC -- (5) ETBU, MissColl , UOz, UTD, UTT
WXC -- (6) ETBU, LaColl, MissColl, UOz, UTD, UTT.

The West schools could affiliate with the East "conference" for the championship.

What is left that we haven't covered?  LaColl and UOz need to add volleyball for the ASC-East to have the AQ.

The result--

We gain AQ bids in Volleyball, M/W Soccer, M/W Basketball, M/W Tennis, Softball and Baseball!


You win the East.  Your first playoff game may be the West, but it is in the NCAA's and not the ASC tourney finals.

That is 9 more bids to the NCAA's after the two provisional years needed by the new conference.  Long-term crossover contracts between the two schools could be signed to assure games.  Our complaints about weak schools on the schedules would be mitigated by the fact that we had doubled our bids in this part of the country.


The weakness in this strategy is this.

Texas Wesleyan spent an exploratory year moving up from D-II about 2001.  TWU moved right on thru to the NAIA and Red River AC.

UDallas, a charter member left the ASC in 2001.

Another Charter member, Austin College left us in 2006.

Those schools are "east".

This strategy has been on the books for nearly a decade.  It has suffered three setbacks.  It makes sense.  Nevertheless, a team leaving the conference and dropping below the threshold of 7 teams and this strategy backfires.

[TexasBB]

Ralph that is an interesting theoretical discussion. I certainly am in favor of expanding the ASC NCAA bid potentials in all sports. Maybee UD could be persuaded to rejoin the ASC East or even Austin College. I would like to see UTT and UTD add football. There was at least discussion of football at UTT when my son went there a couple of years ago. It may never have progressed beyond talk but I sure would like to see it happen. They have land and big sports sponsors but football is the most expensive of the sports to start and maintain. When I went to DIV III in Ohio I played football and most of the private colleges sponsored football and still do. UTT is a state school I am sure they could find the funds.

I still also believe that eventually UTT will move up to either DIV II or even DIV I. It keeps adding students and its overall enrollment is now up close to 6,000 if you add in the grad school. They are constantly building and expanding the campus and it is part of the University of Texas System and the only public university in north east Texas.

[Ralph Turner]

Ralph that is an interesting theoretical discussion. I certainly am in favor of expanding the ASC NCAA bid potentials in all sports. Maybee UD could be persuaded to rejoin the ASC East or even Austin College. I would like to see UTT and UTD add football. There was at least discussion of football at UTT when my son went there a couple of years ago. It may never have progressed beyond talk but I sure would like to see it happen. They have land and big sports sponsors but football is the most expensive of the sports to start and maintain. When I went to DIV III in Ohio I played football and most of the private colleges sponsored football and still do. UTT is a state school I am sure they could find the funds.

I still also believe that eventually UTT will move up to either DIV II or even DIV I. It keeps adding students and its overall enrollment is now up close to 6,000 if you add in the grad school. They are constantly building and expanding the campus and it is part of the University of Texas System and the only public university in north east Texas.

Austin College has landed where they have wanted to be for a long period of time.

I really don't know the conditions that would bring UDallas back to the ASC.  They have a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.  They have tried to improve their academic selectivity.  The very seldom schedule ASC team unless there is a clear distinct advantage to their selecting that game.  They see their peers as the SCAC.

[tloc14]

In a completely theoretical and ideal situation, all DIII Texas Schools could be in the same conference.  That would be pretty interesting...but i guess I take that back especially for baseball.  I would rather not have to be the best in TX in order to get an automatic bid.....though thats not far from the truth as it is.