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Bradley baseball

BuB said:
Congrats to the baseball team. :D Keep extending the season. I am a little surprised they got an at large bid and very surprised at the Louisville Regional #2 seed. I see the NCAA lists Bradleys record as 35-19 for their bracket. Does that mean the committee counted/allowed the 4 wins vs D3 teams when choosing at large teams? Just Illinois, Iowa, and maybe one other team, out of the 64 teams, even played non D1 teams and I think they all did it just once.
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I'm not surprised they got a bid, but am surprised they are a 2 seed.
 
First off congrats to the Men's baseball team for making it to the big dance. 1st time in almost 50 years. 2nd I'm glad that I was proven wrong. There have been plenty of times over the last few years where I didn't think this was going to be possible so it's great to see it finally happen. Kudos to Elvis, his staff and the players for getting it done. Go get em boys.
 
BuB said:
Congrats to the baseball team. :D Keep extending the season. I am a little surprised they got an at large bid and very surprised at the Louisville Regional #2 seed. I see the NCAA lists Bradleys record as 35-19 for their bracket. Does that mean the committee counted/allowed the 4 wins vs D3 teams when choosing at large teams? Just Illinois, Iowa, and maybe one other team, out of the 64 teams, even played non D1 teams and I think they all did it just once.
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The non-D-I games didn't really have anything to do with it. Bradley got the at-large and a #2 seed based on the strength of their RPI (#19).
 
The 16 regional sites, with host institutions and records are:

• Baton Rouge, Louisiana – LSU (48-10)
• Champaign, Illinois – Illinois (47-8-1)
• College Station, Texas – Texas A&M (45-11)
• Coral Gables, Florida – Miami (Fla.) (44-14)
• Dallas, Texas – Dallas Baptist (43-13)
• Fort Worth, Texas – TCU (43-11)
• Fullerton, California – Cal State Fullerton (34-22)
• Gainesville, Florida – Florida (*43-16)
• Houston, Texas – Houston (42-18 )
• Lake Elsinore, California – UC Santa Barbara (40-15-1)
• Los Angeles, California – UCLA (42-14)
• Louisville, Kentucky – Louisville (43-16)
• Nashville, Tennessee – Vanderbilt (*42-18 )
• Springfield, Missouri – Missouri State (45-10)
• Stillwater, Oklahoma – Oklahoma State (37-18 )
• Tallahassee, Florida – Florida State (41-19)
(*record through Saturday, May 23, 2015)

Each of the 16 Regionals host 4 teams who will play a double-elimination format. Here are all 64 teams that qualified-
http://www.ncaa.com/news/baseball/a...ittee-releases-field-64-teams-2015-tournament

The Bradley-Michigan game will be played at 1 PM Central time, Friday (5/29), and will be broadcast on ESPN3.

Article about the Bradley-Michigan matchup from Michigan newspaper-
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2015/05/michigan_baseball_team_draws_b.html

And from the PJ Star-
http://www.pjstar.com/article/20150525/SPORTS/150529565/11130/SPORTS

Full bracket-

NCAA-baseball-bracket-2015-052515.jpg
 
BuB said:
Congrats to the baseball team. :D Keep extending the season. I am a little surprised they got an at large bid and very surprised at the Louisville Regional #2 seed. I see the NCAA lists Bradleys record as 35-19 for their bracket. Does that mean the committee counted/allowed the 4 wins vs D3 teams when choosing at large teams? Just Illinois, Iowa, and maybe one other team, out of the 64 teams, even played non D1 teams and I think they all did it just once.
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Iowa played 3 non-D1s.

http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2015/schedule/Iowa

I would imagine the selection committee just ignores the non-D1 games, like the RPI does, and so it makes sense to play a non-D1 if your alternative as a midwest team seeking a midweek game is some SOS killer like #300 Chicago State. There aren't too many decent teams in the region for BU to schedule midweek, and the same goes for Iowa which is the only D1 team in its state now. BU was apparently selective when it came to their midweek opponents and it paid off with a #22 SOS which I'm sure had a big influence on the committee. Illinois took a different tack and stocked up on Chicago State and directionals for midweek games and that led to a whopping 143 SOS, but fortunately their record was too gaudy for the committee to ignore.
 
Oh and congrats and good luck to the Braves! :)

My dad played baseball for Bradley in the 70s and it's incredible to think he hasn't seen them in the NCAA since he graduated. I'm going down with him Friday for the Louisville Regional weather permitting. This is a proud program with many major leaguers and successful alumni backing it, and now it has top notch game day and practice facilities-- a long way from Meinen and Haussler-- so there's no reason why it can't fight for NCAA bids on a consistent basis.

I was not a fan of Elvis, and would have pulled the trigger this past offseason, so I guess that shows what I know. I still think it took too long to get this far, but if he can keep the program at this level then that will all be water under the bridge.
 
I agree somewhat, but I actually believe most schools would have made a coaching change after a new coach failed to have a winning record for his first 6 seasons, considering he took over a program with upgraded facilities, more money to pay for full-time assistants and recruiting, and a program that had already had 3 winning seasons over the previous 5 years with far less support.

I suspect Bradley would have done the same if the President and AD had stepped down a year earlier, but Elvis was given another year because of his relationship to Joanne, and he has made the most of it. It's changed a lot of fans' opinions about him as a coach. So let's enjoy it. This has been a great season, and I hope it leads to many more.
 
Mikovio said:
I was not a fan of Elvis, and would have pulled the trigger this past offseason, so I guess that shows what I know. I still think it took too long to get this far, but if he can keep the program at this level then that will all be water under the bridge.
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many weren't - as we were way too bad for too long...
but since we did not make a change and weren't going to do more buyouts - Elvis took the chance and had a great year - kudos...
I actually have always been a proponent of giving a guy plenty of chance - something we have selective not done and run good coaches out like DV, Mo, and others..
But the entire atmosphere & environment in our Athletic Dept is different now - ever since certain actions by the Board last January - and I think we will see more & more evidence of it...


BTW - one guy who is really into covering and writing college baseball is a Bradley grad!
https://twitter.com/BDrevalas
https://twitter.com/BDrevalas/status/602920185532649472
https://twitter.com/BDrevalas/status/602521010974420993
 
As a BU Baseball alum. I'm incredibly proud of these guys. Did Elvis get a longer rope than many would because of his relationship with the former President? Absolutely. But until he isn't the leader of my program, I'm going to support him and the guys that have chosen to be members of that team. If I look in the mirror, there weren't great seasons every year I was at BU either.

The first time I met Elvis, he said..."This is YOUR program. I'm charged to be the leader of it, but it's yours." He's always been more than welcoming even though I'm certain he has no memories of me during my playing days (Unless coaches gather round at conference meetings and talk about the academic accomplishments of their back up catchers) so even though things haven't even been good, I've always liked him. I realize that doesn't mean you get free reign forever....but we are where we are...and I'm glad we are discussing a regional bid and not a new coach.
 
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Mikovio said:
I would imagine the selection committee just ignores the non-D1 games, like the RPI does, and so it makes sense to play a non-D1 if your alternative as a midwest team seeking a midweek game is some SOS killer like #300 Chicago State. There aren't too many decent teams in the region for BU to schedule midweek, and the same goes for Iowa which is the only D1 team in its state now. BU was apparently selective when it came to their midweek opponents and it paid off with a #22 SOS which I'm sure had a big influence on the committee. Illinois took a different tack and stocked up on Chicago State and directionals for midweek games and that led to a whopping 143 SOS, but fortunately their record was too gaudy for the committee to ignore.
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Ok. This is what I was trying to figure out. So if the NCAA committee ignores non D1 games for SOS and RPI, why would they still count them in the W-L columns?

Doesn't really matter though as we are in and its awesome. :D 8) Lets go down to Louisville and make some noise. It is great to see the Valley and a Northern baseball school be recognized. I still think we are fortunate to get a bid. 4 D3 wins, being outscored by your D1 opponents over the season, and a sub .500 conference record are not selling points. At large selections just don't have that on their resumes. Lets take advantage of this rare opportunity. We can beat Michigan.
 
BuB said:
Ok. This is what I was trying to figure out. So if the NCAA committee ignores non D1 games for SOS and RPI, why would they still count them in the W-L columns?

Doesn't really matter though as we are in and its awesome. :D 8) Lets go down to Louisville and make some noise. It is great to see the Valley and a Northern baseball school be recognized. I still think we are fortunate to get a bid. 4 D3 wins, being outscored by your D1 opponents over the season, and a sub .500 conference record are not selling points. At large selections just don't have that on their resumes. Lets take advantage of this rare opportunity. We can beat Michigan.
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I don't know why. I think I've read that the basketball selection committee ignores non-D1 games, but they're listed as part of the records when they release those brackets, so I'm just assuming it's the same with baseball. Like I said, if that's the case, it makes sense to fill your midweek schedule with D3 teams rather than the bad D1 teams within driving distance like WIU, NIU, EIU and Chicago State. If BU's SOS was 50 and RPI was 30 with the same record they probably wouldn't be dancing. So I hope this was intentional and they carry the same philosophy into next year.

The "being outscored" line is pretty much just thanks to that 30 run Grand Canyon game, and putting a lot of stock in a runaway when teams emptied their bullpens like that is silly. It's not like Ashbeck got 30 scored on him. This team's last two games were a 3-1 win over the #2 RPI team and a loss to the #8 national seed in which the game was tied in the 7th inning. I don't know what to expect but I think they're equipped to compete here. It's fair to suggest teams with losing conference records shouldn't get at larges but the NCAA abandoned that unwritten rule years ago in basketball and technically they had a winning conference record if you count the tournament. If Bradley didn't get picked they would have been the highest RPI snub in history by like 6 spots, so it wasn't very surprising.
 
Bradley takes an early 1-0 lead..in the bottom of the 1st with a couple singles by Isaac Smith & Spencer Gaa then a sac fly
Michigan up in 2nd
 
all of a sudden in the 2nd then again the 4th Michigan started hitting the ball well - now they are up 6-1
...with 8 hits over 4 innings and Elliott Ashbeck has been subbed out on the mound - David Koll now pitching for Bradley
 
nice late rally for the Braves but too little - and unable to complete the comeback from the 10-1 deficit
Michigan 10 - Bradley 5
 
Braves score 3 in the first to go up 3-0. We had runners on 2nd and 1st but the runner on second got picked off to end the inning.

The game is on ESPN3.
 
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