The baseball schedule looks weak
- Thread starter TPIPER36
- Start date
We seem to have dailed back the schedule this early season, but with our record for the last two years, who would want us in their national showcase weekends?
For what it's worth, Warren Nolan predicts us to go 26-0 OOC and 8-22 SEC. Obviously, we'll lose a couple, but we shouldn't lose more than that. And I'll be surprised if we don't win at least 10 SEC games.
After back to back 9-21 SEC seasons, there's no chance we go 8-22 in the SEC........ right?
Or 2015. Which ended very differently than 2013.
Pathetic to have a 8-22 SEC record.
If don’t win 15 he needs to be fired before we have a chance to be a 3 seed in someone’s Regional.
Really disgusting what Lemonis has done to our program.
We are still a big brand and most every showcase would want us on name alone.
We made the schedule easy intentionally.
I'm assuming your trolling, but Lemon juice is the greatest coach in MSU history. We have a total of one natty in over 100 years of futility. Can you imaging the perpetual meltdown you guys would be in if OM won a baseball title before us?
There certainly aren't any big names on the non-conference schedule, but both Georgia Southern & Evansville are supposed to have good clubs this season. I've seen each on several preseason tournament projections. Regardless, I'm sure people will melt down when we inevitably drop a game to one of those teams.
Worst non-conference schedule in a long time. By far the worst in the SEC.
Really wont find anything out about the team during this stretch which is really frustrating... or it will only tell us if we are bad. No way we should lose more than 1 in this non conference stretch. 2 at the absolute most.
I'm shocked we were even allowed to schedule something this week. Our baseball program deserves better. This schedule is the equivlant of Kentucky playing South Carolinas non conference during basketball this season. Its really is that bad.
Really wont find anything out about the team during this stretch which is really frustrating... or it will only tell us if we are bad. No way we should lose more than 1 in this non conference stretch. 2 at the absolute most.
I'm shocked we were even allowed to schedule something this week. Our baseball program deserves better. This schedule is the equivlant of Kentucky playing South Carolinas non conference during basketball this season. Its really is that bad.
We will find out if we are going to be able to consistently throw strikes and make plays on defense or walk 8 batter a game and make a bunch of errors.
Maybe so. But there a few of those games where you can throw it right down the middle all game and still come out with a win.
Keep in mind in the entire non conference schedule we never leave the state of mississippi.
Again this is suppose to be a baseball school. This is sad.
Looks weak based on what?
Kentucky played a bunch of nobodies in their OOC last year and wound up with the #1 nonconference SOS in the country. You can’t judge anythjust the team names right now.
2 years ago right after the natty, everyone thought preseason that we had a great OOC schedule with Wichita State and a few others. Wound up being maybe the worst nonconference schedule in SEC history.
This schedule has exactly what it needs - a bunch of teams set to finish in RPI 100-200, a few against likely Top 100, and minimal RPI killer games against 300+ teams (only 2 SWAC games, plus one against UNA). It should be sufficient to not be an obstacle in us making a regional if we win at least 13-14 SEC games, which is the goal as far as making the schedule.
the schedule is what it needs to be? Every SEC team goes and plays some type of good compeition in the pre-sec schedule.
In the SEC you dont worry about SOS. Everyone is going to have a good SOS. You worry about getting your team ready for SEC play. We arent going to find out anything about our players or team in the non conference schedule this season unfortunatley.
2 years ago our OOC schedule was fine. in the pre-sec. We played Texas Tech, Tulane and Southern Miss 7 games. What killed the schedule that year was scheduling teams like: Grambling State, Princeton, Binginton, Southern, Jack State, North Alabama--- the bottom was simpyl way too low. Think we've learned our lesson with that. Even so our SOS ended up 41.
Kentucky's OOC schedule last year was 7th in the country. Yes they got a little bit lucky by Indiana State making a run. But both them and Elon are solid programs. Indiana State is very similar to Southern Miss-- and you dont see us playing a 3 game set with Southern Miss this season. Elon is very similar to Tulane... again both those schools are head and shoulders above anything we are playing or attempting to play. But both Elon and Indiana State are solid programs.
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Kentucky played a pretty solid OOC schedule last year. 6 quad 1 games, 7 quad 2 games, 5 quad 3 games and only 5 quad 4 games. We're projected to have 16 quad 4 OOC games this year.
Early? We should have started last year. We are just prolonging the inevitable.
Nobody repeats their mistakes like Mississippi State does. We can't fire Jackie after just 2 bad years. HE WON THE SEC WEST for crying out loud.
Of course they did. And they did so without scheduling any “name” opponents. They were getting quality wins over the likes of Elon, etc.
And I can damn sure guarantee you that wasn’t their “projection” of Quad wins, either. WarrenNolan’s projections there are completely worthless. You don’t know who is going to fall into what quadrant with any degree of accuracy until at least halfway through the season. Trying to guess at it when everyone is 0-0 is a fool’s errand.
This is nonsense. In 2022, we needed 16-17 SEC wins just to make a regional…..just based on the math. That’s what it was going to take to get us in the Top 50 of the RPI, due to how historically bad our OOC slate was. And do you know how many people were saying that scheduled sucked preseason? Not a damn soul.
LOL…It was literally the worst in the league at the end of the year….and one of the worst ever for an SEC team.
Now you’re getting it. That has to be the #1 focus of the nonconference schedule. Avoid playing tons of games against RPI anvil opponents. We played something like over 50% of our nonconference schedule against teams in the RPI 200+ range with many of those in the 250~300 range. Unacceptable. You know those teams are going to suck from history. This year, we have 6 such games that could likely fall into that category at first glance - the Mt. St. Mary series, 2 SWAC games. And UNA. That’s closer to 20-25% of the schedule. Much better ratio. I can almost 100% guarantee you that this year’s schedule will be stronger than 2022, by quite a bit.
i agree with the last paragraph. have to limit the bad baseball schools, however we have those on the schedule this year as well. However EVERY sec team plays a quality opponent in the pre-comference schedule.. if we are a true baseball school and a true baseball power. Then we should as well.
As stated. The schedule we are playing would be like if Kentucky in basketball played South Carolina's pre-conference schedule. There would be a revolt. Same applies.
in 2022. We didnt need 16-17 wins. Our RPI was 100, with a 26-32 record. Our SOS was 41. Had we just won 6 more SEC games. Finished 15-15, and 32-24 overall with the 41 SOS, you are in not out. We would have been squarely inside the tournament. As someone else stated, after the OM series that season. We were very much a tournament team. We finished 1-11 down the stretch. Had we finished 6-6 down the stretch and beaten Samford, we were without question in.
Elon is a solid program????
Elon has not been to a regional in 11 years. They’ve gotten just 3 at-large bids ever, none since 2010.
They have never won a regional.
They are not a solid or even above-average program.
They are an extremely mediocre program.
But, they are not a BAD program…..so this goes along exactly with what I’ve been saying. They are the exact profile of teams that SEC teams need to target in the nonconference schedule. They provide a great foundation for the metrics, often provide halfway decent competition, but still usually are close to automatic wins (but a loss doesn’t kill you). There are no shortage of Elon’s out there to schedule. It pretty much locks you into a great overall schedule as an SEC team if you get as many of them as you can.
Indiana State is certainly a better program than Elon, but they are nowhere close to USM. That comparison is laughable. USM has been a perennial regional team for a long time. ISU is not at that level at all.
Elon plays in a 1 bid league. Theyve been one of the best teams in the SoCon and CAA every year minus a few here or there for the last 20 years. 3 win-40 win seasons. And they've averaged over 30 wins a year during that time. They are a very solid pre-conference team to play. VERY Solid. Their RPI til recently was always near or in the 50-70 range. A lot depends hwo the rest of the conference is.... but again better than anyone we have scheduled.
Elon is a solid program????
Elon has not been to a regional in 11 years. They’ve gotten just 3 at-large bids ever, none since 2010.
They have never won a regional.
They are not a solid or even above-average program.
They are an extremely mediocre program.
But, they are not a BAD program…..so this goes along exactly with what I’ve been saying. They are the exact profile of teams that SEC teams need to target in the nonconference schedule. They provide a great foundation for the metrics, often provide halfway decent competition, but still usually are close to automatic wins (but a loss doesn’t kill you).
Indiana State is certainly a better program than Elon, but they are nowhere close to USM. That comparison is laughable. USM has been a perennial regional team for a long time. ISU is not at that level at all.
ISU- hasnt had a below 500 record in the last 15 years. Finished inside the RPI top 50, 5 times. They probably arent on USMs level. But was saying that is a similar type school for Kentucky to play as a southern miss is to us. A smaller school near by that is still good competition. They also play Indiana out of conference alogn with Louisville and West Viriginia. So UK didnt schedule the sisters of the poor.
Cant even remotely act like the schedule kentucky played last season and ours is even in the same ballpark.
RPI of our 4 weekend OOC opponents last year: 140, 238, 199, 104.
RPI of KY's 2023 weekend OOC opponents: 63, 80, 9 (super regional team), 136
Yeah, KY's schedule was a joke. **
I never said they scheduled the sisters of the poor. Are you following anything I’m saying? UK’s schedule last year was excellent which is what I’ve been saying the whole time. It was a low risk subset of teams, with a few of those teams becoming far better than expected. No one looked at their schedule preseason and said “this is an outstanding Top 10 (or even Top 50) OOC slate”. In fact, this very board was full of folks calling them frauds who would come back to earth before we opened up the season with them, because “they hadn’t played anybody” in spite of being 16-1 or whatever it was.
And it was excellent without them having to play a 3-game series against Texas or somebody like that. It was excellent because they played a lot of non-terrible teams, which should be our goal. Minimize BAD teams. You can’t perfectly predict who might have a better than expected or worse than expected season before the year starts, but you know programs like SWAC teams, UNA, and tiny schools in the far Northeast are all going to have 250+ RPI’s at season’s end EVERY year. So they are to be avoided at all costs. Nothing at all to gain from playing those games.
And I’m not saying our schedule this year will be equivalent to last year’s UK schedule. But it doesn’t have to be. If our non-conference SOS lands in the Top 120 or so, we’ll be more than fine, with anything above that being gravy. This year there are not a lot of truly awful opponents like we’ve had in past years….which is a good thing. It bears that particular similarity to last season’s UK OOC.
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I follow what you’re saying.
I don’t see Indiana, Louisville, or West Virginia or anything comparable on our ooc schedule. Nor do I see again other schools I mentioned. It’s a very poor schedule and it’s not something a baseball school should schedule.
listen do what your saying. We want to model our baseball program after Kentucky. Not lsu, no Arkansas… Kentucky….
if we want to model our programs after Kentucky so be it. I’d prefer we model it after some of the better programs in the country since we are a baseball school. Again most baseball programs go out and play at least a wekeend of real competition. We don’t. We are the only school in the sec that doenst play someone of true quality in the pre conference stretch… you seem to be ok with that. I’m opposed to that idea.. I think it sets us up for failure down the road for reasons mentioned in previous posts
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