BB: Top Teams in West Region

[TexasBB]

IMHO, the best option is the one that coaches have already created, the Arizona mid-February tourney.  It is in the best interest of everyone to keep supporting it.  Three or four of the better teams from the four conferences, ASC, NWC, SCAC and SCIAC, can go and we fans can get a good idea of who is really good out of the gate.

I just don't put much stock in an early pre-conference tournament. I think the games would be entertaining and would be a big hit with the players. It is always exciting to travel and play in a tournament type setting. However, in so far as determining how good a team is at the end of the season and use it as some form of tie breaker with respect to Pool C qualifiers, not so much. I tend to agree that the overall record against DIII opponents as a better less subjective gage. The danger there is schedule manipulation. Strong teams may try to deliberately schedule weak teams so they can stack their DIII winning %.  This is less likely to occur in the West than in the East do to the lack of opponents to choose from.

[forheavendial4999]

SOS sucks IMO...

How about D3 winning percentage?  Yes it is not perfect but at least your winning it on the field.

So then it doesn't matter at all who you play, and no incentive to even play another good team unless you have to? No way.

I'm excited for the game-is-a-game era. I think there will be even more incentive to play the best competition. There were so many heavyweight matchups that "didn't count" this year that will next year. That aspect of your schedule will matter, and the strength of the opponents you play. Whether a team is 197 or 203 miles away won't matter anymore. All that matters is baseball.

[CrashDavisD3]

 

I bet you are all surprised.....3 Texas teams in a Texas Regional.

Guess what SOS don't mean as much as it used to....I am glad to see the West Region gets all the west teams in the West in one place. I guess George Fox did not have enough to take out TLU.

I bet there are lot of people not happy. Remember I did not see the NCAA publish their criteria for picking teams in 2013. Maybe they don't use what they used in 2012 and prior years.

West Regional at Tornado Field; Austin, Texas
1. Linfield
2. Cal Lutheran
3. Texas-Tyler
4. Pomona-Pitzer
5. Trinity (Texas)
6. Texas Lutheran

[CrashDavisD3]

SOS sucks IMO...

How about D3 winning percentage?  Yes it is not perfect but at least your winning it on the field.

So then it doesn't matter at all who you play, and no incentive to even play another good team unless you have to? No way.

I'm excited for the game-is-a-game era. I think there will be even more incentive to play the best competition. There were so many heavyweight matchups that "didn't count" this year that will next year. That aspect of your schedule will matter, and the strength of the opponents you play. Whether a team is 197 or 203 miles away won't matter anymore. All that matters is baseball.

Don't expect teams from the East to play games in West. Ithaca and Kean are 2 that come to mind. Why risk a loss in the West.

[CrashDavisD3]

I bet you are all surprised.....3 Texas teams in a Texas Regional.

Guess what SOS don't mean as much as it used to....I am glad to see the West Region gets all the west teams in the West in one place. I guess George Fox did not have enough to take out TLU.

I bet there are lot of people not happy. Remember I did not see the NCAA publish their criteria for picking teams in 2013. Maybe they don't use what they used in 2012 and prior years.

West Regional at Tornado Field; Austin, Texas
1. Linfield
2. Cal Lutheran
3. Texas-Tyler
4. Pomona-Pitzer   
5. Trinity (Texas)
6. Texas Lutheran 

SOS What's that

[tigerfan_2001]

I bet you are all surprised.....3 Texas teams in a Texas Regional.

Guess what SOS don't mean as much as it used to....I am glad to see the West Region gets all the west teams in the West in one place. I guess George Fox did not have enough to take out TLU.

I bet there are lot of people not happy. Remember I did not see the NCAA publish their criteria for picking teams in 2013. Maybe they don't use what they used in 2012 and prior years.

West Regional at Tornado Field; Austin, Texas
1. Linfield
2. Cal Lutheran
3. Texas-Tyler
4. Pomona-Pitzer   
5. Trinity (Texas)
6. Texas Lutheran 

SOS What's that

going to be a great regional and all first round matchups have teams playing eachother for the first time. 

[108 Stitches]

You have to beat the team you are playing but CLU got shafted on this one. I would not want to be playing TU as a 5 seed. Will be a fun regional to watch with 3 Texas teams playing in Texas. Should be a big fan draw for Concordia, too bad they are not in it.

[forheavendial4999]

SOS sucks IMO...

How about D3 winning percentage?  Yes it is not perfect but at least your winning it on the field.

So then it doesn't matter at all who you play, and no incentive to even play another good team unless you have to? No way.

I'm excited for the game-is-a-game era. I think there will be even more incentive to play the best competition. There were so many heavyweight matchups that "didn't count" this year that will next year. That aspect of your schedule will matter, and the strength of the opponents you play. Whether a team is 197 or 203 miles away won't matter anymore. All that matters is baseball.

Don't expect teams from the East to play games in West. Ithaca and Kean are 2 that come to mind. Why risk a loss in the West.

I agree with the idea but not the reason. "Risking a loss" is not what it's about. Like I say, do a home and home and you have room to make that argument. Expect them to always play on the road, early season, when they could just as easily go to Florida or somewhere else on the eastern seaboard...and you really don't.

Neither of the schools you mention are afraid to play strong opponents.

[forheavendial4999]

I bet you are all surprised.....3 Texas teams in a Texas Regional.

Guess what SOS don't mean as much as it used to....I am glad to see the West Region gets all the west teams in the West in one place. I guess George Fox did not have enough to take out TLU.

I bet there are lot of people not happy. Remember I did not see the NCAA publish their criteria for picking teams in 2013. Maybe they don't use what they used in 2012 and prior years.

West Regional at Tornado Field; Austin, Texas
1. Linfield
2. Cal Lutheran
3. Texas-Tyler
4. Pomona-Pitzer   
5. Trinity (Texas)
6. Texas Lutheran 

SOS What's that

I guess you don't really have to play anyone as long as a regional is in your very large state. Better teams have been left out in the past...

[TexasBB]

I am glad that the West was able to field 6 teams. The big surprise for me was Trinity being ranked 5th. I did not see that coming at all.  That certainly is at total odds with all the National Polls which have Trinity as a top 10 team nationwide. The last two regional rankings had them in 4th or tied with UTT for 3rd. They won their conference tournament and beat a good  Centenary team to do so. How they ended up 5th behind P-P is a mystery to me.

[tigerfan_2001]

I am glad that the West was able to field 6 teams. The big surprise for me was Trinity being ranked 5th. I did not see that coming at all.  That certainly is at total odds with all the National Polls which have Trinity as a top 10 team nationwide. The last two regional rankings had them in 4th or tied with UTT for 3rd. They won their conference tournament and beat a good  Centenary team to do so. How they ended up 5th behind P-P is a mystery to me.

i am guessing it had to do with matchups and maybe the committed wanted all first round games vs teams who havent played yet. 

[Teddy_Ballgame]

I am glad that the West was able to field 6 teams. The big surprise for me was Trinity being ranked 5th. I did not see that coming at all.  That certainly is at total odds with all the National Polls which have Trinity as a top 10 team nationwide. The last two regional rankings had them in 4th or tied with UTT for 3rd. They won their conference tournament and beat a good  Centenary team to do so. How they ended up 5th behind P-P is a mystery to me.

i am guessing it had to do with matchups and maybe the committed wanted all first round games vs teams who havent played yet.

It seems the primary reason was to prevent PP and CLU, two teams from the same conference, from playing each other in the first game. But then flipping PP and Trinity instead of PP and TLU prevents a PP-Linfield matchup after those two teams played a 3 game set earlier this year.

As a Sagehen fan, I'll take it. Clearly Linfield and CLU had our number this year, so seeing someone different is fine by me. I do think it's a little bizarre to have, as Texas BB mentioned, a Trinity team that is ranked 3rd in the country in the ABCA poll (granted, slightly different criteria) as a 5 seed in a regional.

But I don't actually think it's a bad matchup for them. Getting to face CLU early is probably your best shot against them. The difference between their three starters isn't all that big (Petersen is good, but by no means dominant), and you get to throw Lucero against that absurd offense they have. Now, in a double elimination tournament, there's nothing that prevents you from seeing them later and having matchup issues then. But having the opportunity to give them a loss and put them in the losers' bracket right off the bat is probably a good thing.

[Ralph Turner]

Let's not write off TLU so quickly.

The West Region has always been known for its balance.

Both TU games were mid-week games.

Here are the box scores for its games against regional opponents

March 12, 2013.

TU 8, TLU 6.  It is TU who has the bad inning with 5 unearned runs on

http://www.d3baseball.com/seasons/2013/boxscores/20130312_wj98.xml

TU 3, TLU 2  TU has two unearned runs in the 3-run 5th inning on 04/16/2013

http://www.d3baseball.com/seasons/2013/boxscores/20130416_816s.xml

UTT got to Aleman in game #2 of the ASC Finals.

http://www.d3baseball.com/seasons/2013/boxscores/20130504_f8k9.xml

[forheavendial4999]

Let's not write off TLU so quickly.

The West Region has always been known for its balance.

It has? I thought it was known for Chapman usually roaring through except when they're down.

[CrashDavisD3]

Let's not write off TLU so quickly.

The West Region has always been known for its balance.

.

It has? I thought it was known for Chapman usually roaring through except when they're down.

Last time I checked it has been mostly Chapman and Linfield that has ended up in Appleton more than once in the past 10 years. Not sure you would call that BALANCE....I expect Linfield to make it there again