Baseball: ACC Tournament Central

With late spring comes the excitement of post-season baseball. Wednesday is the start of the ACC baseball tournament, so I thought I would provide all relevant links and some thoughts on the event.


THE LAYOUT
Here are the final ACC standings:


The top 8 teams got into the tourney (#1 Miami, #2 FSU, #3 UNC, #4 NCST, #5 GT, #6 UVA, #7 WF, #8 Clemson). There are 2 brackets - #1,4,5,8 and #2,3,6,7. You play every team in your bracket in a 3-game round-robin through Saturday. Then the championship game is held Sunday at 1:00pm between the winner of each bracket. There are a whole set of tie-breaker rules in place.


THE JACKETS LANDSCAPE
GAME 1: GT will face NCST on Wednesday at 10:00am
GAME 2: GT will face Miami on Thursday at 5:00 pm
GAME 3: GT will face Clemson on Saturday at 10:00 am

Might be worth somebody checking to see how the Jackets have fared in early games.

OUR CHANCES
I like our chances against NCST and Clemson but don't like them against Miami. Clearly the Jackets can beat anyone on a given day. However, the Jackets were also clearly rocked by Miami in a 3-game beatdown right after the Michael Hutts tragedy. So was that a funk only, or an indication of the superiority of Jim Morris's Miami team? They're #1 in the country for a reason. In general the Jackets played mediocre at best against the best competition they played. Sure, they dominated the non-conference schedule, and took care of the bad and mediocre ACC teams (mostly). However, they were handled pretty well by the best teams they played this season in conference.

We also know that Danny Hall's teams have had rocky roller-coaster post-seasons. What will this year bring to a very young squad? Personally, I give put the odds of winning their 4-man bracket as follows:

60% Miami
20% GT
10% NCST
10% Clemson

FYI - in terms of the NCAA regionals, our strength of schedule should help. We are currently sitting with the #8 RPI from the NCAA, #7 RPI from Boyds Nation and #7 RPI from Warren Nolan

MORRIS RENOUNCES HIS PAST
Jim Morris, Miami's current coach and former Georgia Tech coach was just named the ACC's Coach-of-the-Year. Well deserved for sure. When asked about the award he had the requisite pat-answer - I'm focusing on our team and winning games, blah, blah, blah. When asked about the 3 COY awards he won while at Georgia Tech ('83, '87, '93), here's what he had to say:

"I don't have those plaques anymore," Morris said of the three coaching awards won with the Yellow Jackets. "I'm a Miami guy."

Maybe I'm being a little sensitive here, but it's not like he spent a year here and left. The guy was here 12 years, and did some nice things while he was here. Why on earth would you renounce it, as if it never happened? Why would you get rid of your hardware? ON second thought, maybe he's right. It's not like he ever took us to the College World Series. He won 4 ACC titles in a row, got us to a bunch of NCAA regionals, and that's about it. It wasn't until he left that Danny Hall was able to break-through and make it to the CWS finals.

So Jim Morris, I say good-riddance. You don't want to remember where you came from - fine. Take a hike........... and I hope with a passion that we take you down like the squeeling pig that you are!!

TOURNEY LINKS

ACC PRESS RELEASE
ACC TOURNEY SITE
ACC TOURNEY BRACKET (PDF)
ACC BASEBALL SITE
ACC WEEKLY RELEASE
BEESBALL.COM (THE GT site for beesball info)


TEAM INFORMATION
Atlantic Coast Conference
• ACC Release• Statistics• Home Page

#1 Miami
• Roster• Schedule
• Statistics• Home Page

#2 Florida State
• Roster• Schedule
• Statistics• Home Page

#3 North Carolina
• Roster• Schedule
• Statistics• Home Page

#4 NC State
• Roster• Schedule
• Statistics• Home Page

#5 Georgia Tech
• Roster• Schedule
• Statistics• Home Page

#6 Virginia
• Roster• Schedule
• Statistics• Home Page

#7 Wake Forest
• Roster• Schedule
• Statistics• Home Page

#8 Clemson
• Roster• Schedule
• Statistics• Home Page