Iowa v. South Alabama … good win

[AuroraHawk]

Based upon results this weekend, I may have been wrong about South Alabama being the “best of the rest” at this tournament.

That written, crazy that Iowa batters struck out 17 times but came away with a 6-2 win.

Previous commitment kept me from watching but I tracked a bit on my phone. Will be curious to dig deeper later but it appears that Morgan had a decent outing. Looks like Simpson pitched out of a number of dicey situations.

Survive. Advance.

Today’s game is the only one where an Iowa win means positive RPI points.

Don’t have time now to look but earlier in week I noticed that Pepperdine’s Sunday starter has ‘t fared well and they’ve used an array of pitchers on Sunday. Two relatively easy wins for them so far so there bullpen should be rested.

 

[obfuscating]

Heller is a heck of a coach, he's made Iowa baseball relevant again. If he can keep recruiting and building, we should see some CWS games for the boys.

 

[Randy Marsh]

Today’s game is the only one where an Iowa win means positive RPI points.

I don’t follow college baseball as closely as some, why would this be?

 

[AuroraHawk]

I don’t follow college baseball as closely as some, why would this be?

RPI is a fickle beast. If the opponent isn’t a strong one, even a win can mean negative RPI points.

It has been pointed out by several others that Iowa’s B1G schedule isn’t exactly loaded with opportunities to get signature wins and rack up RPI points.

That’s why the performance to date has been encouraging. Secured a headline-grabbing win and beaten everyone but SHU.

Winning a road series this weekend would go a long way towards building a Regional resume if Iowa can perform well in B1G season.

Maryland was widely predicted to be cream of the B1G crop and Iowa hosts them at the end of March. Early returns suggest (at least to me) that Nebraska and Indiana will be stronger than early season predictions.

Iowa’s schedule includes both Minnesota (0-11) and Northwestern (0-9). Even though those are road series, it is hard to envision Iowa breaking even in RPI points even with a sweep. Winning the series 2-1 would almost certainly cost Iowa more than 100 RPI points.

It’s a f’ed up system (IMO). If you don’t believe me, just ask Rutgers’ baseball program.

Best thing that could happen to Iowa is teams like Sam Houston State, Indiana State, Kansas State, Pepperdine, South Alabama, etc to start winning a bunch of games. Iowa needs the RPI of its opponents to be as respectable as possible.

KSU went 3-0 this weekend and beat Army twice.
Indiana State got swept in 3 close games against Kentucky.
Sam Houston salvaged the final game if a 3 game set against Illinois.

It’s too early to be paying a ton of attention to RPI … but not too early to be rooting for Iowa’s early season opponents to not suck ass.

 

[Randy Marsh]

Thank you for the detailed response. That helps a ton. I guess at the end of the day, just keep winning and it’ll work itself out.

 

[AuroraHawk]

Thank you for the detailed response. That helps a ton. I guess at the end of the day, just keep winning and it’ll work itself out.

To a large extent, yes . . . but Rutgers did a hell of a lot of winning last year and it did not work itself out.

I've got too much on my radar today to go back and find it but last year I did a detailed breakdown of the # of Regional bids earned by B1G teams based upon season ending RPI and where they finished in regular season B1G standings.

If you are a fan of B1G baseball, it was sobering.

 

[ssckelley]

If you're going to play a bad team at least be on the road or a neutral site, which is what these games are. RPI records gives a team credit for a .7 win if it's at home, 1.0 for neutral, and 1.3 for a road win. The teams winning % makes up a 1/3rd of it's RPI score with another 1/3 being the opponents record and another 1/3 being their opponents opponents record. So playing a Minnesota or Northwestern does hurt but Iowa at least gets to play both of them on the road so if they sweep the RPI isn't hurt too much.

 

[AuroraHawk]

So playing a Minnesota or Northwestern does hurt but Iowa at least gets to play both of them on the road so if they sweep the RPI isn't hurt too much.

But winning a series 2 games to 1 will still result in a blow to the RPI.

Perhaps it is here where I remind everyone that even the worst MLB teams (as a Pirates fan, I'm an expert on this issue) win, on average, 1/3 of the games played.

NCAA baseball isn't MLB but I don't like a system that basically punishes a team for not winning 3/3 because the opponent isn't very good. Baseball is an odd sport that way.

Even the worst B1G teams will send a pretty good pitcher to the mound on Fridays. Sweeping series is hard work.