Rivals and CBI NCAA bracket projections for April 29, Gophers in great position

JohnnyGopher

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College Baseball Insider http://www.collegebaseballinsider.com/FieldofDreamers/FOD090428.html

Big 10 (2) – First-place Ohio State (11-4, 31-10, RPI 29) and Minnesota (10-4, 27-12, RPI 21) are in great shape for bids. Illinois (11-4, 26-12, RPI 47) won three at Penn State (5-10, 21-19, RPI 100) to move into a tie for first with the Buckeyes and is in the at-large picture – we have them square on the bubble. The Illini hosts OSU next weekend. Indiana (10-4, 20-21, RPI 120) took two of three at Michigan (6-9, 23-19, RPI 184) to pull into a tie for third. It should be a fun conference tourney.

RPI
http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/currentrpi.html
Division I Overall
Rank Rating W L W L Team

1 0.633 35 11 35 11 North Carolina
2 0.633 28 11 28 11 Georgia Tech
3 0.631 28 10 28 10 Rice
4 0.631 29 11 29 11 Cal State Fullerton
5 0.621 27 15 29 15 Miami, Florida
6 0.619 30 11 30 11 Texas
7 0.619 31 11 31 11 UC Irvine
8 0.615 30 15 30 15 Clemson
9 0.613 30 12 30 12 Arkansas
10 0.613 31 9 31 9 Arizona State
11 0.608 27 13 27 13 Texas Christian
12 0.606 33 11 33 11 Georgia
13 0.605 35 9 35 9 Virginia
14 0.604 31 14 31 14 Florida
15 0.598 33 12 33 12 Louisiana State
16 0.595 33 12 33 12 Oklahoma
17 0.593 26 16 26 16 Hawaii
18 0.593 29 15 29 15 Texas A&M
19 0.592 32 13 32 13 Mississippi
20 0.591 30 12 30 12 Florida State
21 0.589 25 17 25 17 Baylor
22 0.589 27 12 27 13 Minnesota


Here is Rivals latest projections http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/baseball
Kendall Rogers is the college baseball editor for Rivals.com and Yahoo! Sports. In addition to covering games across the country, Rogers has 11 years of experience covering college baseball. Rivals.com’s NCAA Regional Projections will be released every week until Selection Monday.

HOUSTON REGIONAL
Host: Rice
1. Rice* (1)
4. Dartmouth*
2. TCU
3. Washington State
OXFORD REGIONAL
Host: Mississippi
1. Mississippi
4. Eastern Illinois*
2. Ohio State*
3. Middle Tennessee St.
CHAPEL HILL REGIONAL
Host: North Carolina
1. North Carolina* (2)
4. Maine*
2. Elon*
3. Rhode Island*
GAINESVILLE REGIONAL
Host: Florida
1. Florida
4. Jacksonville*
2. Miami (FL)
3. Illinois
TEMPE REGIONAL
Host: Arizona State
1. Arizona State* (3)
4. Nevada*
2. Cal Poly
3. New Mexico*
FULLERTON REGIONAL
Host: Cal State Fullerton
1. Cal State Fullerton
4. Manhattan*
2. Hawaii
3. San Diego
IRVINE REGIONAL
Host: UC Irvine
1. UC Irvine* (4)
4. Illinois-Chicago*
2. San Diego State
3. Gonzaga*
COLLEGE STATION REGIONAL
Host: Texas A&M
1. Texas A&M*
4. Oral Roberts*
2. Virginia
3. Texas State*
FAYETTEVILLE REGIONAL
Host: Arkansas
1. Arkansas (5)
4. Army* 2. Kansas State
3. Kent State*
NORMAN REGIONAL
Host: Oklahoma
1. Oklahoma
4. Missouri State*
2. Minnesota
3. Oregon State

BATON ROUGE REGIONAL
Host: LSU
1. LSU* (6)
4. Miss. Valley State*
2. Baylor
3. Western Kentucky*
CLEMSON REGIONAL
Host: Clemson
1. Clemson
4. Liberty*
2. East Carolina
3. South Carolina
AUSTIN REGIONAL
Host: Texas
1. Texas (7)
4. Central Conn. State*
2. Vanderbilt
3. UC Riverside
TALLAHASSEE REGIONAL
Host: Florida State
1. Florida State
4. South Florida*
2. Alabama
3. Missouri
ATHENS REGIONAL
Host: Georgia
1. Georgia (8)
4. George Mason*
2. Georgia Southern
3. Boston College
ATLANTA REGIONAL
Host: Georgia Tech
1. Georgia Tech
4. Bethune-Cookman*
2. Coastal Carolina
3. Kansas
Last Five: Washington State, Kansas, Illinois, Boston College, UC Riverside
Next 15: BYU, Auburn, Oklahoma State, Southeastern Louisiana, College of Charleston, Southern California, Sam Houston State, Duke, Florida International, Western Carolina, Dallas Baptist, Louisville, The Citadel, Troy, Virginia
 

I agree they are in great shape

Rivals has had the Gophers as a 2 seed almost from his first bracket projection on. I said it before, the difference between a 2 and a 4 seed is huge. Gophers haven't had that advantage in a regional for a long time.
 

The importance between earning a 2 and a 4 seed cannot be overstated. If you look at the few projections I have seen out there, this week they have us both going to Oklahoma, the difference between playing Oklahoma in the 1st round or OSU is unreal. Oklahoma is a top notch team, OSU, which is a 2 time champion is down this year (althought still an excellent team). In other notes Baseball America has the Gophers being in a regional with Oral Roberts which would be fun with since Lakes decided that he needed to go talk trash to Oral Roberts fans on behalf of gopher fans.

Also, the Gophs could really use a sweep this weekend. Would put them in a great position to secure at least a 2 seed in the conference tourney and get a bye. With Illinois and Ohio State playing next weekend, one of those teams has to come out a loser which could potentially move us up.

The B10 race is very exciting this year. Minnesota, Ohio State, Illinois are top notch. Indiana start slowly, but in conference play have been playing great and atleast according to Baseball America, has a chance in the tourney with their pitching, making the 2 seed even more important. Our mid week starters have not been great this year, so having that bye would really help in the tourney. I hope that many of you can get out to enjoy some Gopher baseball at Siebert this weekend. I know the facility is terrible, but there is nothing like taking in an outdoor baseball game.

GO GOPHERS!!
 

One more note, one site I saw said the Gophers could host a regional. I know that 14 (Coach Anderson) always puts in a bid if he has a chance. I am not sure if they dome would be open that weekend or not, but if it is that is a great advantage for us. We would never win a bid at Siebert, but lets cross our fingers that the dome is open (I do not have time to research right now) because home field advantage is big for a couple reasons. 1st and foremost, being at home is always better than the road. 2nd MN could come out and really support the team and hopefully get more publicity by the media, and last but certaintly not least, teams absolutly hate playing in the Dome. I know when I played for the Gophers, we hosted Michigan, which came in highly ranked and on a roll, and Coach Maloney had a fit. I think the coaches put so much emphasis to their team on how hard the dome is to play in (which it really is not) that the team came in and struggled and we took all 4 from them.
 

I heard our bid for a regional would be at Midway. Glad these games are at Siebert, hoping to make it too all three, love standing on the catwalk above the first base dugout.
 


Midway would be nice. Still the home field advantage. But no roof to confuse teams though. Probably a much better atmosphere though, as the dome is just to quite when no one is in there. It will be a big few weeks for the Gophs if they hope to secure a regional host.
 




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