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We went 9-11 vs our toughest opponents.

k9_r

Offensive Coordinator
Jul 31, 2010
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9-11 against the seven best teams we faced. Twenty of our 48 games were with teams finishing with RPIs from 11 (TT) to 47 (MI) and we nearly played them even. And, of course, everyone who beat us (even NW) got a top 50 win. Now, to be sure, these RPIs will change by selection day b/c more games will be played, Michigan may actually drop out of the group.

But the regular season is over and that's what we did.

This is the kinda thing that usually gets my brag on but... NW, right? Northwestern, Iowa, Minnesota, damn, what could have been. Three walk-off losses to lesser teams and then that NW debacle somehow adds more heft to my general funk over this season.

Unlike most, I'm a regular season kind of guy. Post season play is fine and can be fun but if you're a regional champ what in the world happened to you in the season play?

Maybe it's just me but this season kinda has me in a funk. Hope we do well in post season play though.
 
In a way though, does Fresno State care that they were only a 4 seed when they won the Natty? Or Virginia when they barely made their own conference tourney to eventually winning the Natty. I myself believe the regular season is for setting up your ability to host a regional or at least make one. But at the end of the day the post season is what decides ones success over the long haul.

One nice thing is it appears we are playing much better entering the Big Ten Tourney than years past. Even when we won the league a couple years ago we somewhat staggered our way to the finish line.

I thought we would finish about 4th this year, said it all year. Pitching was better than I expected and hitting was a little worse than expected.
 
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Postseason is where overall success is defined. Nobody usually remembers the teams that tore it up in the regular season but faltered in the postseason. Louisiana-Lafayette had a team that went 49-7 in the regular season in 2014. They got to the super regionals(they even hosted). But they failed to make it to the CWS. Few people outside of their fanbase probably remember that team. Yet any college baseball fan remembers 2008 Fresno State who only went 33-27 in the regular season but won the national championship. Bottom line-the regular season is nice, but the memorable teams are the ones that make noise in the postseason.
 
In a way though, does Fresno State care that they were only a 4 seed when they won the Natty? Or Virginia when they barely made their own conference tourney to eventually winning the Natty. I myself believe the regular season is for setting up your ability to host a regional or at least make one. But at the end of the day the post season is what decides ones success over the long haul.

One nice thing is it appears we are playing much better entering the Big Ten Tourney than years past. Even when we won the league a couple years ago we somewhat staggered our way to the finish line.

I thought we would finish about 4th this year, said it all year. Pitching was better than I expected and hitting was a little worse than expected.

I know it's sounds weird but post season play is just extra baseball to me. I don't learn a thing from it and tournament hot teams don't trip my trigger. I actually have little respect for Virginia's title and a few years earlier both Arizona an UCLA raced through the tourney undefeated for their titles - neither returned to a regional the next year. Zona took two years to get back to a regional. I don't know, in a funk.

Still, hope we do well going forward.
 
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I know it's sounds weird but post season play is just extra baseball to me. I don't learn a thing from it and tournament hot teams don't trip my trigger. I actually have little respect for Virginia's title and a few years earlier both Arizona an UCLA raced through the tourney undefeated for their titles - neither returned to a regional the next year. Zona took two years to get back to a regional. I don't know, in a funk.

Still, hope we do well going forward.
Yeah, I mean we all have our own way to gauge success. I for one could care less about our regular season title a couple years ago because we finished 0-4 in post season play. Had we gone on a tear it would probably matter more to me.

With that said I do feel we underperformed this year and by no means do I feel good about the season. However, at this time my focus is 100% on the post season.
 
I think the season had a "funk" feeling to it simply because of schedule/sequencing...

- Slaughtered early by Oregon State
- Somehow beat Texas Tech but blew a huge lead the next day to Sam Houston State
- Winning the Baylor series but having the next four games cancelled
- Beating a poor MSU team, then two walkoff losses at Minnesota
- Knocking the crap out of Purdue, but mostly because of their self-inflicted wounds
- Batting sub-.200 at PSU but somehow sweeping
- Losing 8 of 11 games (including shutout vs. KSU and having to come from behind against Omaha) before salvaging a game at Northwestern
- And now beating two quality teams to end the year regular season

Even when we won early in conference play, it felt like fools' gold. Sure, we were happy to be atop the conference standings, but we knew what was coming. Then Northwestern.

That being said, the last two weekends were a very pleasant surprise and this is the best the team has been playing going into the conference tournament for quite some time. As @RobsterMobster said, even the year we won the regular season title, we played poorly to start the Penn State series (lost game 1 to a team the was 3-18 at the time in the league).
 
Yeah, I mean we all have our own way to gauge success. I for one could care less about our regular season title a couple years ago because we finished 0-4 in post season play. Had we gone on a tear it would probably matter more to me.

With that said I do feel we underperformed this year and by no means do I feel good about the season. However, at this time my focus is 100% on the post season.
Of course we always remember that a conference title is another trophy in the ol' trophy case, right? Something Iowa doesn't have. Hee hee.
 
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Of course we always remember that a conference title is another trophy in the ol' trophy case, right? Something Iowa doesn't have. Hee hee.
Ironically, Iowa won the conference tournament that season.
 
Are we really excited about being 9-11 against decent competition when that only contains 2-3 of the top teams in the nation?
 
Are we really excited about being 9-11 against decent competition when that only contains 2-3 of the top teams in the nation?
I don’t believe anyone on this board is “really excited” about how the season went but rather recognizing one of the more influencing measurables the committee likes to consider.
 
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Yeah, I mean we all have our own way to gauge success. I for one could care less about our regular season title a couple years ago because we finished 0-4 in post season play. Had we gone on a tear it would probably matter more to me.

With that said I do feel we underperformed this year and by no means do I feel good about the season. However, at this time my focus is 100% on the post season.
Yeah, I don't feel great about the season as a whole, but it's nice to at least be playing well for the most part at the end. There was little reason to believe we would finish well after what happened at Northwestern and now there's at least reason to have some hope that we can do do something in the postseason.
 
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