Though they have had a bit of trouble staying consistent in non-conference play this year, USF baseball is preparing to head into the postseason. Beginning in about two weeks, the Big East tournament will decide who gets the league's automatic bid for the 2012 NCAA Tournament. Spoiler alert: I don't expect USF to win the Big East. They're up in to top of the standings, but I'm not sure this team is built for tournament play. In the event that the Bulls don't end up getting the automatic spot, it's time to look at how they can make it into the tournament with an at-large bid.
According to Baseball America, USF is sitting right on the bubble. The Bulls currently sit at 30-18 (13-8) with seven games left in the regular season. If you break that down, that means USF is 17-10 in non-conference play. They opened the season with a sweep of the Big East/Big Ten tournament, beating Ohio State, Minnesota, and Michigan State. They then lost four of their next five games, all to in-state opponents. USF is 5-8 against teams from the state of Florida, with a last game against UNF coming up next Tuesday. Right now, the only two things that's helping USF's cause in the race for the tournament are the win over Florida last month and the fact that they're from Florida. Their RPI isn't ridiculously high, but the selection committee is likely going to be more inclined to invite an at-large team from Florida or California or Texas than from somewhere in the Midwest or the Northeast. The best thing USF can do now is let themselves get into a good seeding for the Big East tournament and try to advance as far as possible. If they win it, then obviously this whole post is null. But if they don't, then there's still hope.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment