Bradley baseball

[tornado]

couple links if you want to print a bracket

http://www.ncaa.com/interactive-bracket/baseball/d1

http://i.turner.ncaa.com/sites/default/files/external/gametool/brackets/baseball_d1_2014.pdf

[bradleyfan124]

Congrats! Bradley baseball team!! I was kind of down on the Coach because he was "her" choice but heh proof is in the pudding. He is finally starting to win and had a good recruiting year. Keep it going Coach!!

[Bobby Parker]

Bradley Baseball's final Peoria practice before heading to Louisville will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Dozer Park and the public is invited to attend, then send the team off to the regional. Gates and concessions stands will be open at Dozer Park. http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArt...CLID=210107988

[Chico]

Congrats! Bradley baseball team!! I was kind of down on the Coach because he was "her" choice but heh proof is in the pudding. He is finally starting to win and had a good recruiting year. Keep it going Coach!!

I think many of us had the same feeling mainly because, IMO, certain posters were putting that in our heads. I'm not a big "her" fan either, but I'm glad the baseball program has improved. Next years recruiting class will only make the program better. Surprised by the lack of comments on the success of the team. Go get em guys.

[BuB]

Congrats to the baseball team. 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.

[Chico]

Congrats to the baseball team. 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.

I'm not surprised they got a bid, but am surprised they are a 2 seed.

[bigjimmy]

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.

[Old Coach]

Congrats to the baseball team. 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.

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).

[Da Coach]

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/article/2015-05-25/di-baseball-committee-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-

[Mikovio]

Congrats to the baseball team. 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.

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.

[Mikovio]

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.

[Da Coach]

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.

[tornado]

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.

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

[RickBB]

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.

[BuB]

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.

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. 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.