It’s a weird format for sure. From what I understand, the purpose of it is to benefit teams for earning a top 4 seed (if every team goes 1-1 the high seed advances) and it also works to help teams manage their pitching staffs. In the previous format every team had to play at least three games which at times left teams without some of their pitching options going into the NCAAT.
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If GT loses to UNC then the 1st game is meaningless so do a start a lesser pitcher? If you lose because you don’t go all in and then lose to UNC you might drop any chance of getting a top 8 seed.
Yes this.
They’re trying to balance giving teams a chance to make a push for a tourney bid while also rewarding the best regular season teams and preserving arms for the tourney that matters.
The downside is that everyone plays a meaningless game in pool play.
The upcoming SEC tourney is going to be a war of attrition at the other end of the spectrum which is fine because their top programs typically have the pitching depth to withstand that type of gauntlet.
As far as I know, the ACC is the only conference with this format though.
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The selection committee typically doesn’t weigh the conference tourney too heavily.
We’ll see how Oak plays it but he may just use the week to set up his NCAA tourney pitching to make sure guys get the right work to get them ready for how he anticipates using them then.
Or he could go balls out to win this but history shows that we don’t chase ACC Tournament titles.
These things would be solved with a knockout bracket though with the top 4 seeds getting a bye.
I guess the extra meaningless game is the compromise for the teams on the bubble, but thay still doesnt seem like enough to make it worth it.
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I meant in the case of a three-way tie. But yes, if there’s a 2-0, 1-1, 0-2, the 2-0 advances.
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D1 Baseball has the Hoos as the overall 8 seed in their projection this afternoon.
- UVA (8)
- West Virginia
- Iowa
- Penn
They’re paired with the Lexington Regional hosted by 9 overall seed Kentucky.
- Kentucky (9)
- Indiana State
- Notre Dame
- Morehead State
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All ACC awards and teams were announced today. The Hoos cleaned up.
ACC Player of the Year: Teel
1st Team All ACC
C: Teel
SS: O’Ferrall
3B: Gelof
OF: O’Donnell
3rd Team All ACC:
1B: Anderson
SP: Early
SP: Edgington
That’s the most first team and overall team members since we had 5/8 in 2014. It also ties for our second most first team members ever.
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Tourney primer
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Will you be pulling for GT or UNC in the first game? I guess if GT wins, our first game instantly becomes a win and go to the finals, lose and be eliminated game. But if UNC wins, we just have to win one of the two games we play. Is that right?
My understanding is that the game we play against the team that loses is irrelevant and the game we play against the team that wins is for all the marbles.
Edit - To clarify, calling it a round-robin where we have the tie-breaker is accurate but unnecessarily complex. Really, it’s a single-elimination tournament in which the other two have to play first, then their winner gets the right to play us with the winner advancing.
And then we play an exhibition game against the loser in there as well.
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if UNC wins, we have to specifically win against them, not just one of the two (b/c if we beat GT but lost to UNC, they’d be 2-0 and we’d be 1-1).
we have the benefit of advancing if we’re all 1-1, so in the above scenario we could tank the GT game (making us 0-1, GT 1-1, and UNC 1-0 with the UVA/UNC game pending). then us beating UNC makes us all 1-1, and we advance.
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Yup - realized my error this morning. It just boils down to we need to beat the winner of the first game. I guess I’ll kind of pull for GT then - guessing they are a little more vulnerable.
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yep. regardless, think we want a wild game today with lots of pitchers used.
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Nice win. Looks like UNC beat GT before this game so it’s win or be eliminated against UNC.
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I think the most important thing from today’s game is to see if we have a #2 pitcher that we can count on during the regional. I think Early is that guy but he joined the weekend rotation late in the season–UNC is a good test.
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Answer is no
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UVA is the 7 seed overall.
Cville Regional
- UVA (7)
- East Carolina
- Oklahoma
- Army
Cville is paired with the Conway, SC Regional hosted by Coastal Carolina.
Conway Regional
- Coastal Carolina (10)
- Duke
- UNCW
- Rider
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