BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[frank_ezelle]

I looked at the Rhodes schedule and it looks like they had 22 games against teams that Millsaps also played (I may be off a little--I ran out of fingers and toes).  My guess is that if you compared how Rhodes and Millsaps did against common opponents you would have no definitive answer on which should be seeded higher.

That being said, it would be a real mistake for anyone to overlook Austin and Southwestern.  There will be no easy games in this tournament and I'll be surprised if any game is stopped early because of the 10 run rule.

[Spence]

Rhodes kind of wins, yet loses here. They get the 1 seed, but have to play the home team.

I have to admit, I'm rooting for the underdog here. I'd love to see how a team like Rhodes can do in regionals.

[Ralph Turner]

The SCAC tourney was by geographic designation.

Georgetown would have hosted if they had not made the tourney.

[Spence]

I know...just saying it's kind of a tough break to get the 1 seed, which is bizzarro.

[frank_ezelle]

Now that the seedings have been set, I still have a problem with the Saturday schedule.

At noon the losers of the Friday games play.  The winner of that game gets to eat a meal, get reorganized and refocused, get some rest, and scout the 3:30 game which will provide their next opponent.

At 3:30 the Friday winners play.  One of those teams will lose and they will have to turn around and play an elimination game at 7:00.  It seems like the team that wins at noon has a scheduling advantage over the team that wins on Friday and then loses at 3:30.

To me, it seems like the teams that win on Friday earn the right to a schedule advantage rather than a schedule disadvantage.  Certainly every team wants to win 3 straight and win the crown, but for the 3 teams that go to the loser's bracket it is better to be the teams that lose early--that doesn't seem right to me. 

Am I wrong here or should it be that the first game on noon is between the two teams that won on Friday?

[historymajor]

Frank, even in the 'old format', the #1 seed was 'in the driver's seat', and it was a tough challenge to unseat/seed them.  This time Rhodes draws #1 and their three deep staff may be tough to beat, but if Millsaps takes care of business, the Majors are still my pick.

[frank_ezelle]

Actually, I don't think the seeding between #1 and #2 matters in this tournament--I couldn't pick between Austin or Southwestern as to which I would prefer to play in the first round.  As someone has pointed out already, maybe Southwestern is the tougher draw because they are at home.  I think the tougher draw is the team that has the best #1 starter but I don't know if that would be Austin or SW.

My point about the schedule has nothing to do with the seeding.  If Austin and Southwestern win on the first day then the loser of the Austin-SW game on the second day will be at a scheduling disadvantage timewise when they play at 7:00 Saturday evening. 

No doubt that a team that gets 3 good starting performances could sweep through to the crown and Rhodes has 3 good starters.  Of course, Millsaps has 3 starters with a 7-1 record (Bogue, Ingram, and Hollenbeck) and Brent Buffa is at 6-2 with a 2.09 ERA.  Backing them up is Tait Hendrix who has really pitched well of late, including the win against NAIA #11 Belhaven.  I hope Millsaps doesn't get in the loser's bracket but they certainly have the starting pitching it would take to win 4 of 5 games.

[Northeastdad]

I'm new to the board, a northeast dad with a son on the Rhodes baseball team. The latest D3 rankings are out --- Millsaps 15, Rhodes 25 -- and it seems respect for the SCAC is begruding at best. I live in the snow belt and I don't believe the quality of D3 baseball up here is comparable to what I've seen in teh SCAC. Also Rhodes has more wins -- 35 --than any school on the list. They've had a great year with more quality games to come.

[Spence]

Frank,

You're right. That's pretty unusual. Usually the first game of the day would be W1 vs. W2, then L1 vs. L2. Course you might say that not making a winner come back early the next day is helping them as well.

[Doc Nelson]

Friends,

Please check out my new web site-still a work in progress, but a start.

Here's the link: http://seriousplaythebook.com

[frank_ezelle]

Doc, I look forward to reading your reports from the tournament and good luck with the book. 

I don't know if there will be any webcast from the tournament like the Trinity folks so kindly provided last weekend, but the Millsaps games from here through the end of the season are all scheduled to be broadcast on 1240 AM in the metro Jackson area and webcast at:

http://www.espnradio1240.com/listenlive.php

Ther first game for Millsaps will be this Friday at 4:30 vs. Austin College.  I imagine that the broadcast will start at about 4:15 or 4:20 with a pregame show.

[frank_ezelle]

Maybe I'm the only one who will find this interesting.  Earlier in the year I had a post prior to Millsaps playing Belhaven College, a local NAIA school.  I said they might be the toughest team on the Millsaps schedule and I still think that is a valid statement.

Millsaps, now ranked #15 in the D3 polls, won 2 out of 3 from Belhaven.  Belhaven, now ranked #9 in the NAIA polls, beat Delta State last night to complete a home and away sweep for the season.  Delta State came into the game with a 15-game winning streak and a #11 ranking in the D2 polls.

I know that comparing scores like this and coming to conclusions is bad science (see http://www.cfbanalyzer.com/index.html ), but I do think it is some indication of the quality of the teams that are at the higher level in the SCAC.

[frank_ezelle]

The latest ABCA poll came out and didn't spark much interest.  Millsaps moved from 22nd to 15th after going 8-0 between the poll dates.  Rhodes moved from 30th to 25th after going 5-4 between the poll dates.

I think we all know that the ABCA poll has results that will leave you scratching your head.  I thought it was interesting that Washington went 2-3 between the polls and only fell from 10th to 13th.  Those losses were to DePauw, Rhodes and Emory but still, that's not much of a fall for a losing stretch.

Even more interesting is that Emory only fell from 3rd to 4th while going 4-3 over the two weeks.  I looked to see who they lost to and saw that one of the losses was them getting hammered 18-13 by Huntingdon.  Okay, maybe it was a pitch by committee deal on the road that Huntingdon took advantage of so I check and it turns out that the Emory ace Jason Glushon was the starting pitcher and he took his first loss of the year, yielding 13 hits, 10 runs (8 earned) in 5 innings and it was a home game for Emory (http://www.go.emory.edu/Statistics/Current/Base/eu36.htm).

Huntingdon is 25-14 at the moment but that record includes 2-6 against SCAC teams (0-2 vs Millsaps and Rhodes and 2-2 with OU).  Millsaps beat them by a combined score of 37-6 which makes a Huntingdon win over Glushon and Emory a truly surprising result.  (For the record, Glushon gave up 4 hits and 1 run in 8 innings when Emory defeated Millsaps.)

(I coming back to this post because I was looking at the Emory schedule after Emory was ranked #1 in the South and Millsaps was unranked.  Emory lost both of thier games to Huntingdon, a team that went 0-4 against the better teams in the SCAC.  Something seems a little off with this picture.)

[frank_ezelle]

Looks like Millsaps needs to win the SCAC Tournament--they are not ranked in the South Region.  Rhodes is 5th in the South.  Here's the link:  http://www.ncaasports.com/baseball/mens/polls/diviii

[consultant]

Regarding the NCAA rankings -- that's ridiculous that Millsaps is not ranked in the South region.  They will have to win the tournament to get a bid.  The NCAA selection committee will not go outside the rankings to put a team in. 

Although not as suspect as the Millsaps snub, Wooster is second in the mideast behind Otterbein. Not sure I get that one either.