Serrano returning for sixth year

[bowlinggreenvol]

Baseball is obviously not important to UT. The powers that be like Serrano. He keeps his players walking a pretty straight path. That's all they want. They would like to win, but are not really concerned about it. Football is king, because that's where the money is. It is what it is. I like CDS as a coach and person. I don't know who would come here that's any better.

I don't think Serrano is a bad coach by any means but I don't think you can just look at his resume and say if he can't do it no one can, simply cause he won at his previous two stops. His previous situations have to be looked at a little deeper.

Had Serrano started the UCI program back up and accomplished what he did, I would give him more credit in his ability to do so. But John Savage had the first crack at it and appeared to lay a good foundation. It's apparent he's a pretty good builder of programs based on his track record at UCI and what he's accomplished at UCLA after that program had slipped.

At CSF he took over a well oiled machine and kept it going. Meanwhile, his predecessor leaves and restarts the Oregon program and has them competing within 2 years. Now here we are 5 years in and the only results that matter; W-L isn't much, if any, better than when he took over. He's never had to build a program like he has here so no one really knows if he's capable of doing so.

 

[vol66]

How does playing crap teams get you better? Instead we get the false sense we're actually decent. Two mid-week games a year vs a GT or UofL won't kill a season. Don't twist it into every mid-week game should be vs the ACC. You're very good at exaggerating things.

AU played GT 2x
UF played FSU 3x
UK played UofL 2x
Vandy played UofL
Arkansas played Okie State

We played 21 games vs the top 50 RPI; 2 of those were OOC.

And you are absolutely one of the best at creating fake problems when the real ones are painfully obvious.

 

[ShowmeVols]

If next year for us is like Bama's year this year it will be a success. In fact I think that is the ceiling for what we have returning

And in 2015 we were on the bubble for sure. With 1-2 wins in Hoover we make a regional

Our RPI in 2015 was 74, not even close to the bubble.

 

[RollerVol]

And you are absolutely one of the best at creating fake problems when the real ones are painfully obvious.

lol:

I love this place...best fans anywhere...
PS. I'll defer to Mr Disraeli..."lies, damned lies, and statistics"...

GO BIG ORANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[bowlinggreenvol]

And you are absolutely one of the best at creating fake problems when the real ones are painfully obvious.

What's a fake problem? Not being able to pitch around good hitters, not being able to close out tough games/withstand pressure, not being able to get timely hits vs superior pitching etc. are all real problems this team has. Does a skill set develop more and are you better prepared as a hitter if you face top 5 pitcher, like Kyle Funkhouser from UofL, or someone from UTC? Acting like playing better competition doesn't breed a better team and better athlete is foolish as well.

We're not very talented, I get it. But having less opportunity to improve yourself doesn't help matters. It's not the overwhelming problem by no means and don't pretend that's what I'm positing. You've mentioned the weather cancellations in the past and its impact on our development. So why not head further South and play a ULL or Coastal in the OOC? You're getting game experience in, getting in a groove and doing so vs. solid competition.

The RPI impact is noticeable too. Racking up a solid record vs below average competition isn't getting you in the tournament as Bama is on the verge of finding out; despite going 15-15 in conference.

 

[508mikey]

Standards are obviously low for this program. He's a dead man walking on the recruiting trail and will have his least talented team of the 6 years. Thanks, Dave and Dave.

Look at the LV basketball program and the jury is still out on the mens basketball program as far as recruiting goes

 

[vol66]

What's a fake problem? Not being able to pitch around good hitters, not being able to close out tough games/withstand pressure, not being able to get timely hits vs superior pitching etc. are all real problems this team has. Does a skill set develop more and are you better prepared as a hitter if you face top 5 pitcher, like Kyle Funkhouser from UofL, or someone from UTC? Acting like playing better competition doesn't breed a better team and better athlete is foolish as well.

We're not very talented, I get it. But having less opportunity to improve yourself doesn't help matters. It's not the overwhelming problem by no means and don't pretend that's what I'm positing. You've mentioned the weather cancellations in the past and its impact on our development. So why not head further South and play a ULL or Coastal in the OOC? You're getting game experience in, getting in a groove and doing so vs. solid competition.

The RPI impact is noticeable too. Racking up a solid record vs below average competition isn't getting you in the tournament as Bama is on the verge of finding out; despite going 15-15 in conference.

Our best RPI this season was 40, the week of our 1st SEC series versus Ole Miss...it went down from there. We were in fine shape RPI wise to start the season, we just didn't win enough SEC games. We have played Houston, Texas and Rice in 2012...We played at UNLV, Arizona State, ND and Va. Tech in 2013, UNLV and at Arizona State in 2014, UCI and FIU in 2015, and WKU has been a staple on and off, maybe we should dump them for the Rajun Cajuns, be fine with me.

Scheduling is a 2 way street and like recruiting it's about relationships and our schedules reflect those relationships in my opinion. Yeah he did Quinnipiac a favor, that doesn't make or break your RPI.


And UK can trace their RPI problems to losing a series to Auburn and midweek games to EKU and Indiana late in the season.

 

[31VFL]

Our RPI in 2015 was 74, not even close to the bubble.

2014 was the year we were on the bubble. We had a mid-week loss late in the year that crushed the RPI.

 

[ShowmeVols]

2014 was the year we were on the bubble. We had a mid-week loss late in the year that crushed the RPI.

Yeah, and we still ended up around 50.

RPI and regional bids will take care of themselves if we get to about 14 conference wins--unless they really barf all over themselves multiple times in nonconf play.

And Georgia is expected to demonstrate this weekend that an apparent bubble-ish RPI in the 30's isn't enough with an 11-19 SEC record.

So for SEC teams, conference record is almost everything for getting in. Nonconf SOS and road wins come into play if they are scrapping for a host bid or national seed.

 

[ShowmeVols]

I didn't care for the one-year extension, but the decision is made.

I'm over it, ready to make the best of it.

This time next year, I'd love to be saying the Coach and AD Daves knew what they were doing and I should have trusted them.

 

[vol66]

I didn't care for the one-year extension, but the decision is made.

I'm over it, ready to make the best of it.

This time next year, I'd love to be saying the Coach and AD Daves knew what they were doing and I should have trusted them.

That about covers it for me too. It is what it is and there isn't a thing we can do about it.

 

[BruinVol]

2014 was the year we were on the bubble. We had a mid-week loss late in the year that crushed the RPI.

Thanks I confused the years

 

[StarRaider]

This decision is part of a huge military industrial complex conspiracy to divert attention away from Ole Miss and Hugh Freeze

 

[bowlinggreenvol]

Our best RPI this season was 40, the week of our 1st SEC series versus Ole Miss...it went down from there. We were in fine shape RPI wise to start the season, we just didn't win enough SEC games. We have played Houston, Texas and Rice in 2012...We played at UNLV, Arizona State, ND and Va. Tech in 2013, UNLV and at Arizona State in 2014, UCI and FIU in 2015, and WKU has been a staple on and off, maybe we should dump them for the Rajun Cajuns, be fine with me.

Scheduling is a 2 way street and like recruiting it's about relationships and our schedules reflect those relationships in my opinion. Yeah he did Quinnipiac a favor, that doesn't make or break your RPI.


And UK can trace their RPI problems to losing a series to Auburn and midweek games to EKU and Indiana late in the season.

The pre-SEC RPI is somewhat irrelevant because of the mid-week games still to come, that's obviously going to affect it. Playing the pre-conference schedule we did, to still have an overall OOC SOS of 209 shows how bad the mid-week games have been.

I didn't mention anything about UK, I referenced Bama.

 

[vol66]

The pre-SEC RPI is somewhat irrelevant because of the mid-week games still to come, that's obviously going to affect it. Playing the pre-conference schedule we did, to still have an overall OOC SOS of 209 shows how bad the mid-week games have been.

I didn't mention anything about UK, I referenced Bama.

Guess we'll have to agree to disagree I don't think the OOC RPI games matter much, unless you lose them at home to really bad teams, then they matter. Playing one mid week game with ULL ain't gonna matter much either, especially if you lose it.


Bama lost to Samford late, dropped their RPI and they haven't been able to do enough to get it back up, they probably needed to win 1 more game in the tournament, playing UK, even though they won didn't do anything for their RPI.

This is all fine and dandy but it's moot when you can't win SEC games. That's our problem and it's due to pitching. Losing series' to Auburn, UK and Mizzou...it doesn't matter who ya play in the midweek.

As a fan I'd love for us to play a Louisville or an NC State in the run up to the season, I wouldn't even mind having one in the mid week, the Va Tech thing was fun. I just don't think it matters for RPI. What South Carolina and Clemson do in Greenville makes since, or the Florida schools playing each other.

 

[Vfledits]

Finally, Hart does something the fan base wanted. He's improved on his part since hiring Butch

 

[arkyvol]

Jimmy Hyams
@JimmyHyams: UT baseball struggles: 3 NCAA tourneys in past 19 yrs, 0 in last 11 yrs. UT has had 2 winning SEC records in 19 yrs, one in the last 15 yrs

The way I figure it, that makes us about due. The old blind pig finds an acorn bit.

 

[zachpack]

I have been reading all of these posts about getting more recruits from CA, FL, GA etc. etc., and how they are the key to winning in the SEC and we can't do anything unless we get them. I'm calling BS on all of that! After watching the ACC and SEC pretty closely this year, where would this TN team be if it had Dakota Hudson (MS state via Dunlap), Ben Breazeale (Wake Forest via Blount Co), Patrick Raby (Vandy via Knoxvegas), Will Craig (Wake Forest via Johnson City), Wil Crowe (hurt this yr but SC via Pigeon Forge). Not to mention that the only reason we have Nick Sensel is that the GA coach he signed with originally was fired.

You add these players and you are at least in a regional if not hosting one! Instead of traveling to CA and FL, let's lock up EAST TN! I don't know the story on all of these but I know for a fact that several were never offered and others were only offered after they were first offered by the schools they ended up signing with. IMO the 2016 class does have the best East Tennesseans; Lingerfelter, Carter, Walsh, Pense and Heflin but we need to keep these types every year!