North Carolina Women Win Capital One Cup!
Congratulations to the North Carolina Tar Heels! Their women have claimed the Capital One Cup!
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ACC Leads the Way to Omaha and the CWS
The regionals are complete and now its on to the super regionals. This is the last stop before Omaha and the College World Series. So far there hasn’t been any real surprises this year, aka Kent State last year. There has been only two upsets with the biggest being Oregon, who was the #8 national seed, being knocked out by Rice. The other is Virginia Tech being knocked out by Oklahoma. Top national seed North Carolina was taken to extra innings by Fla Atlantic in an elimination game but other than that it has been chalk.
The ACC will have their four remaining teams play host in the super regionals while Louisville, a future ACC member, has also earned a spot. The SEC also has four teams remaining but only two of them will be hosting. The Big 12 and the Pac 12 each has two teams remaining. The next round of games will be a beast of three series which will run from Friday, June 7 until Monday, June 10.
Here is a run down on the super regionals.
Johns Hopkins to the Big 10
ESPN is reporting, and it now seems all over the Internet, that Johns Hopkins will be joining the Big 10 as an associate member. The Confidential had advocated for JHU to join, so this is a disappointment. Props to the Big 10 for getting it done. This is a win-win for both the B1G and JHU.
For 2015, the Big 10 lacrosse teams will be JHU, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers. That is a reasonable conference membership. Not the uber-conference that the ACC would have been with JHU, but good enough. And it might be better for lacrosse as a whole for this relationship to move forward.
This leaves a dilemma for the ACC. Where do they go for the 6th conference member? Do they even need one? Let us know what you think.
Defending Boston College
The recent records speak for themselves. The Boston College Eagles have been terrible lately. But ACC fans should not necessarily conclude that Boston College is not carrying its weight. In fact, Boston College has more than carried its weight since joining the ACC 10 years ago.
First, the ugly. The last few seasons for Boston College have been terrible. Charles Barkley-esque “turrible.” Just look at these recent records:
- 2012-2013 Basketball: 16-17
- 2012 Football: 2-10
- 2011-2012 Basketball: 9-22
- 2011 Football: 4-8
You do not need a calculator to understand that the Eagles have been awful.
But let’s not get carried away with Boston College’s recent woes. Did you know:
- Boston College has a winning record in football every year from 1999 to 2010?
- From 2001 to 2007, Boston College’s basketball team finished in first place in the ACC and Big East three times, and never finished below 5th place in either conference?
- That, as we recently noted, Boston College had the fifth best record of all ACC teams this past decade.
- That, as we also recently noted, Boston College had the sixth best football record of all ACC teams this past decade.
- Therefore, overall, Boston College has been the 5th best program in the ACC since joining, trailing only Florida State, Virginia Tech, Miami, and North Carolina in revenue sports performance.
- Boston College has appeared in more ACC football championship games (2), than Miami, NC State, UNC, Virginia, Duke, Wake Forest, and Maryland combined (1).
So, while Boston College has fallen on hard times, just think of where they were before this recent sports drought? In addition to opening up the Boston market to the ACC, the Eagles have more than held their own in the ACC. And all of this while on an extreme geographic island without traditional rivals (like Syracuse and Pitt).
OSU Gee Takes Shots at ACC, SEC and ND
Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee has been known to put his foot in his mouth from time to time only to later issue an apology. He did it again this past December at a meeting for the schools Athletic Counsel which The Associated Press obtained a recording of under a public record request.
On the recording Gee told members of the counsel that he negotiated with Notre Dame officials during his first term at OSU. Notre Dame has resisted Big Ten courtship for years and last September announced that they would instead join the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Gee remarks specifically referred to Rev. Ned Joyce, Notre Dames longtime vice president, who died in 2004. His comments included “The fathers are holy on Sunday, and they are holy hell the rest of the week.” His comments drew laughter from the crowd. “You just cant trust those damn Catholics on a Thursday or Friday, and so, literally, I can say that.” said Gee who is a Mormon.
Who Has Basketball’s Best Fan Base?
There are a lot of college basketball fans out there. There is no denying that Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky have large and crazy fan bases–but who has the best? There are several ways you can attempt to answer this question and not be wrong.
The Emory Sports Marketing Analytics released their top 10 list based on “fan equity.” Number one on their list may come as a surprise to some, but not me, is Louisville. The ACC unsurprisingly leads the list with four teams in the top ten. Duke is third, North Carolina is fifth and Syracuse is eighth. What are your thoughts on the list?
Pitt is eliminated after controversial call
English: Logo for the athletics teams at the University of Pittsburgh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Pitt Panthers came up short in their attempt to win the BE baseball tourney on Saturday after a 10 inning 3-2 loss to Notre Dame. With an RPI of 65 the loss leaves Pitt on the bubble for the NCAA tournament. They will now have to wait until Monday for the field to be announced to learn their fait. I believe that a second place finish in the BE should be enough to get them in.
Pitts two losses of the tourney came against Notre Dame with errors at critical moments of the game. A pair of crucial errors help to lead them to a 5-3 defeat in their earlier meeting and Pitt committed 5 errors in Saturdays game.
Pitt looked poised to take the lead in the top of the 9th when they had base-runners on first and second but a controversial call stalled their rally. Notre Dame pitcher Nick McCarty threw the ball to first in an attempt to pick off the runner but the throw went into the first base stands. Both runners took two bases on the error which scored the runner from second and gave Pitt the lead but the umpires told the runners to back up a base, putting runners at second and third instead and taking the run off of the board. Pitt coach Joe Jordano protested but after a meeting from the umpires the call was upheld. The ruling made was that the pitcher threw over to first base while still in contact with the rubber which limited both runners to one base. If he had left the rubber then the runners would have been given two bases each. The first base umpire ruled that the pitcher did disengage the rubber but was over ruled by the third and home plate umpires. Still Pitt was in scoring position with one out but the next batter popped out to third and the following batter struck out to retire the side.
The bottom of the 10th started horribly for Pitt as Evan Oswald booted a ground ball from ND Charlie Markson. This was followed by Dylan Wolsonovich error on a grounder by Frank DeSico which gave ND two base runners with no outs. ND bunted the runners up to second and third and Pitt intentionally walked the next batter to load the bases and to set up a double play possibility. Instead Ryan Bull hit a sharp single to center to score the winning run.
The sixth seeded Notre Dame will take on eighth seeded Connecticut for the championship on Sunday.
Pitt is only 99 days away from their ACC and season opener on Labor Day against Florida State at Heinz Field. This will probably be one of their biggest season openers in recent memory.
If the ACC were to end the football season with a rivalry game, who would best fit that role for Pitt? Virginia Tech? Miami? Boston College? Penn St? Some other team? What are your thoughts?
ACC Basketball: A Decade in Review and Prediction for the New ACC
The ACC records for the last decade of football was posted by acaffrey earlier this week so I thought it would be fun to see the numbers for the basketball side of the conference. I believe the biggest surprise over the last decade of ACC basketball has been the emergence of Florida State as the third winningest program in the conference behind Duke and North Carolina, a period that includes an ACC tournament championship for the Noles.
1. Duke 123-39 76%: Arguable one of the most successful decades in conference history. Duke has won at least 10 conference games in 9 of the last 10 years. During the last decade Duke has won one NCAA title, 3 ACC Regular Season titles, and 6 ACC Tournament titles.
2. North Carolina 117-45 72%: The baby blue (UNC) and navy blue (Duke) have dominated the conference in hoops. Although Duke has a better conference record, North Carolina won 2 NCAA titles during the Roy Williams era (which started in 2003-04). The Heels have also won 6 ACC Regular Season titles and 2 ACC Tournament titles during that time.
3. Florida State 85-77 52%: How in the world did the biggest name in ACC college football climb so high in the basketball centric ACC? Leonard Hamilton. Hamilton’s teams consistently play above their talent level through hard work and relentless defense. However, FSU could be hit the hardest from the most recent conference expansion as the competition for 3rd place in the conference gets considerably tougher.
ACC Baseball
As we near the end of the regular season in baseball, lets check in on the ACC. Which conference is having the best year? Looking at this weeks top 20 the standouts are the ACC and the SEC. The SEC has 5 teams in the top 20 with 2 in the top 5 while the ACC has 6, counting Louisville, and 4 in the top 10. As in other sports, there are multiple polls to watch and all have different rankings. College Baseball Insider has a composite poll that combines the 5 primary national polls; Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, NCBWA, Perfect Game and the USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll.
CBI Composite Poll (5/6/13)
1 North Carolina (42-4)
2 Vanderbilt (41-6)
3 LSU (43-6)
4 Cal State Fullerton (39-7)
5 Oregon State (37-8)
6 NC State (37-11)
7 Virginia (39-8)
8 Oregon (37-11)
9 Florida State (38-9)
10 UCLA (31-13)
11 Louisville (37-10)
12 Arkansas (32-16)
13 South Carolina (33-14)
14 Arizona State (30-14-1)
15 Oklahoma (34-14)
16 Indiana (35-9)
17 Mississippi State (36-13)
18 Rice (31-15)
19 Clemson (30-15)
20 Stanford (26-16)
North Carolina has spent 12 consecutive weeks at #1 in the CBI poll. They have faired well in NCAA team stats this season which include 7th in batting avg., 13th in HR, 1st in runs per game at 8.8, 4th in slugging %, and 18th in KO per 9 innings. N. Carolina and Florida St. lead their divisions. The ACC tourney will be held May 22-26 at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, NC.
Louisville has been ranked as high as 8th this season. Struggling in the power game, they have relied on their pitching and speed. They are 3rd in the NCAA in stolen bases with 126 and 1st in KO per game with 478 total KO for an incredible 9.7 KO per 9 innings. Louisville is hoping to host a regional when the post season begins. The Big East tourney will be held May 22-26 at Bright House Field in Clearwater, Fla.
Early projections for baseballs round of 64 has 9 ACC teams making the field led by top ranked North Carolina 44-5 (19-4). Virginia 39-8 (17-7), Florida St 40-9 (16-8) & NC State 38-11 (15-8) are probable national seeds as well. Joining them could be Virginia Tech 31-19 (13-14), Clemson 35-15 (17-10), Miami 33-18 (12-13), Georgia Tech 31-19 (13-12) and Maryland 28-24 (9-18). If you include Louisville, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame, who are the Big East projections, then the ACC dominates the field with 12 current and future members. The SEC has 9 teams projected to make the field while the B1G has 2, Big 12 has 4 and the Pac 12 has 5. The ACC also leads in the conference RPI and are followed in order by the SEC, Pac 12, Big 12, Sun Belt, B1G and the Big East at #8. The ACC continues its domination and only looks to get stronger in the future.
(As Of May 10)
ATLANTIC DIVISION
School Conference Pct. Overall Pct.
Florida State 16-8 .667 40-9-0 .816
NC State 15-8 .652 38-11-0 .776
Clemson 17-10 .630 35-15-0 .700
Maryland 9-18 .333 28-24-0 .538
Wake Forest 7-18 .280 26-24-0 .520
Boston College 3-23 .115 11-37-0 .229
COASTAL DIVISION
School Conference Pct. Overall Pct.
North Carolina 19-4 .826 44-5-0 .898
Virginia 18-7 .720 40-8-0 .833
Georgia Tech 13-12 .520 31-19-0 .620
Virginia Tech 13-14 .481 31-19-0 .620
Miami 12-13 .480 33-18-0 .647
Duke 9-16 .360 25-24-0 .510
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