BB: USAC: USA South Athletic Conference

[D-BAT]

Shenandoah is no secret - they will be the team to beat this year.  That said, there are several teams bunched up right behind them ready to take their place.

If you don't bring your A-game then you will not win in the USA-South.  From what I saw last year during the USA-South tourney and with what everyone has returning.

1-Methodist
2-SU
3-NCWC
4-CNU
5-Ferrum
6-Greensboro
7-Averett

I know it's early but I may have missed the boat on Averett as well as everyone else ... BUT this upcoming weekend is opening for conference play which will tell a lot about everyone!


Preseason Ranking by USA-South Coaches:
(Rank/Pts/Team/1st place votes)
1.    (35) Shenandoah (5)    
2.    (29) Methodist    
3.    (25) NCW (1)    
4.    (24) CNU (1)    
5.    (17) Ferrum    
6.    (09) Greensboro
7.    (08) Averett    


Current Standings:
9-2    AU
3-1    SU
5-2    CNU
6-3    MU
2-1    FC
2-3    NCW
3-4    GB

[usasouthisnumber1]

Yep the first weekend of conference play will determine alot! But just a side note, Shenandoah has only beaten Bates who went 12-22 and Richard Stockton who went 15-17 last year...not to mention they lost to Richard Stockton once. (Since everyone is concerned about teams records from the year before) So, they have only beaten teams who are a combined 27-39, does that take away from those wins?? I think not. 

[vabaseball]

I think everyone learned that lesson last year with regard to Shenandoah.  They played a pretty "weak" schedule early in the season and then went on to the D3 world series.

[LTBB1971]

NCWC finished so so weekend.  Beat EMORY twice and lost to #17 Cortland State twice.  I think I counted 33 of 42 players on Red Dragons roster were over 6'0"...big boys.  Pitching was great for NCWC as I saw many young arms do well and both our nbr 1 and 2's get a win.  Bats were dreadful until last game of the tournament vs. Emory.  Hopefully we can keep it going vs RMC Wednesday.

[usasouthisnumber1]

So I was checking out the rosters/stats for the teams in the USA South so far and when I got to CNU their slugger Despins has only played in 3 games? Does anyone who follow the Captains know why he is not playing? Is he injured?

[narch]

Regardless of how many loses UMPI had last year you still forgot to count Bridgewater, which was apart of the winning streak, who went 23-17 which would make it 73-91, so all I'm saying is the numbers were blown out of proportion.  

read the original post by pauperboy...he said "7 wins coming against teams that went a combined 50-100 last season", so I'm assuming that the BC win wasn't in the mix...

i, for one, am happy to see au off to a 9-2 start (good for the conference), but honestly, against that competition, i would expect EVERY usasac team to have a similar record just as I would expect most usasac schools to have a 6-3 or better record against the mu schedule or a 3-1 record against the su schedule - i think the point is that averett hasn't done anything that should surprise anyone who has followed this conference, yet...and as vabaseball correctly points out, a weak non-conference schedule doesn't necessarily hurt a team in the long run...su parlayed a weak ooc schedule into a 4th place usasac finish and a shot in the regional and made the absolute best of it last year....

[usasouthisnumber1]

Well BC was in the mix of the winning streak...but I totally agree a weak nonconference schedule does not hurt a team one bit! I am excited for conference play to start to see how the teams in the conference will match up against each other! 

[boysofsummer]

I don't put to much stock into the first games of the season, especially this year as it was the first time a lot of the coaches got to see what they had. I think that conference play will determine a lot as they now know what they have and how they are going to use it.

[vabaseball]

Re: Despins.  I heard he's not playing anymore but that is the extent of my knowledge. Well the extent of my knowledge of that particular subject anyway.

[cnuball25]

Reading over the past couple pages, I've seen a couple of you bickering back and forth about opponents W-L record and schedule strength. Historically speaking, Shenandoah and Averett would play a team of blind, deaf mutes if possible...thus the reason they usually don't garner much respect. Last year, however, Shenandoah took that OOC "schedule" (I thought they should have been called "advanced practices", but whatever) and gained confidence, turned that confidence into victories, and those victories resulted in the best year in school history.

I do agree with what a couple of you said above in that tough OOC games usually aren't rewarded. A tough loss to a good team from your respective region seemingly gets less respect than beating the piss out of Philadelphia Bible Virgin School (if that is a real university...sorry). It makes absolutely no sense to me, but obviously Shenandoah did something with it last year so maybe we should all start doing that, who knows.

As far as Averett is concerned, watch out!! The Roaring Lions of Penn State Fayette come storming into town March 11!! I hear they have a short stop with one leg and play with invisible runners...look to take advantage of that!!

[cnuball25]

By the way, I don't play for CNU anymore...just to clarify...

[usasouthisnumber1]

Well it sounds like you want the bickering to continue some more with the way you are trying to dog both Averett and Shenandoah. If I remember correctly CNU lost to both of them last year, so it seems to not matter who they are playing. Also, I am sure the players would much rather be beating teams then getting beat 20-2 or whatever that beating was CNU took for RMC. 

[vabaseball]

Yep CNU has had its share of beatings.  And a nice 5 game winning streak since the RMC blowout including a 10-3 win over RMC.

[cnufan]

As for last year CNU also made the regional tournament for the second straight year, when was the last time Averett did that? If you had any baseball knowledge you would know that any team can beat any one on any given day.  Yes Averette did beat CNU last year, but they also lost to them on the same day.  If your comparing CNU and AU then you have to look at how far they made it last year. On another note, Im not going to say SU was a bad team last year, because they could hit the dog piss out of the baseball,  but they are living proof that the best team every year doesnt win, its all about who gets hot at the right time.  Any team could lose every game in the regular season and win the conference tournament and go to regionals win that and see themselves playin the the world series. 

[usasouthisnumber1]

Well my baseball knowledge must be pretty good because you are exactly right any team can beat anyone on any given day! And no I wasn't comparing teams because Averett hasn't done anything worth comparing in the past few years, and like you said CNU has made it to the regionals 2 consecutive years. With all the talent in the USA South every team should be able to beat each other..its just whose hot at the right time like you previously mentioned!