The NCAA tournament bubble is filling up

#1
YankeeVol

YankeeVol

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#1
Tennessee
Numbers: 28-18, 10-14 SEC; No. 30 RPI


Pluses: Though series wins over Vanderbilt and Kentucky will help, it's the impressive nonconference series wins over UNLV and at Arizona State that will be even louder. The Volunteers' strength of schedule is No. 37, according to Boyd's World.

Minuses: The Vols are just 10-14 in SEC play and 4-6 in their last 10 games. With Mississippi State and Florida in the final two weekends, getting over .500 is just not going to happen.

What they must do: First, don't wear down. UT has a trip to Mississippi State and home vs. Florida left. If the Volunteers can at least go 3-3, they will stay in the hunt. They have to hope the NCAA committee can overlook their losing record in conference play.
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Tennessee, North Carolina and other teams on the NCAA tournament bubble - ESPN
 
#2
#2
Sounds about right, though if we make the SEC tourney and win a game or two there, that might make up for our less than .500 record.
 
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#4
#4
What are our chances against Cowbell U? I know that we struggle on Friday nights and we have a bad habit of leaving runners in scoring position but what are the Bulldogs' weaknesses?
 
#6
#6
lonelawyer said:
What are our chances against Cowbell U? I know that we struggle on Friday nights and we have a bad habit of leaving runners in scoring position but what are the Bulldogs' weaknesses?
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They aren't a great offensive team. Their pitching is solid and experienced, but it's not like Vandy or SC or LSU. Biggest strength is their defense, which leads the league and of course they have a wicked home field advantage.
 
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#8
#8
vol66 said:
They aren't a great offensive team. Their pitching is solid and experienced, but it's not like Vandy or SC or LSU. Biggest strength is their defense, which leads the league and of course they have a wicked home field advantage.
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Thanks for the information.
 
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#10
#10
Freak said:
I thought our RPI had dipped into the 40s after the UNCA loss? Did I misread that?
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The article uses Boyd's World RPI...must have been written before the change, we are now at 41 on Boyd's and Warren Nolan.
 
#11
#11
The one advantage we may have against Florida is that they will likely have the SEC title sewn up by end of weekend.

they have a 5-game lead over Vandy for the East and 3-1/2 game lead over Ole Miss overall.

They have a #2 RPI so if they sweep Vandy (a real possibility) and Ole Miss loses a game to Georgia, then the Gators have won the SEC with a wekeend to go. Since they have won the SEC, and will have practially clinched a national seed, I suspect they will view the long road trip to Knoxville differently. They may view it like a midweek series to get some depth on the staff befroe post season. Especialy the #2 and #3 games on Friday and Saturday.
 
#12
#12
fryeguy93 said:
The one advantage we may have against Florida is that they will likely have the SEC title sewn up by end of weekend.

they have a 5-game lead over Vandy for the East and 3-1/2 game lead over Ole Miss overall.

They have a #2 RPI so if they sweep Vandy (a real possibility) and Ole Miss loses a game to Georgia, then the Gators have won the SEC with a wekeend to go. Since they have won the SEC, and will have practially clinched a national seed, I suspect they will view the long road trip to Knoxville differently. They may view it like a midweek series to get some depth on the staff befroe post season. Especialy the #2 and #3 games on Friday and Saturday.
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So mostly just keep Using the starters even with a title clinched similar to nfl teams?

Double digit for conference wins not sure how many expected that hopefully we increase it to 14 or above.

The final twos weekends are major opportunities to make thunder to get noticed.
While vols have scars or dust it's something that could get overlooked if the vols can win the final week weekend conference series.
It's hard to win conference series, and also hard to win 3 consecutive conference series considering these aren't scrub teams which finishes with the best for last the bigshot gators.


Getting swept in either series would be detrimental.
For the vols to produce two sweeps would be topnotch but a large longshot or very slim.
Winning 2 of 3 in one of them is a possibility a hard one but not impossible, winning 2 of 3 in both of them is hard but not astronomical including of the gators wrap up the title by clinching this weekend.
 
#17
#17
99gator said:
after winning 12 sec games in a row.

they are still slightly warm
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Maybe there will be a massive cooldown before they play us. We're playing the best baseball we've played all year except the midweek games.
 
#23
#23
Vol knight said:
No kidding. Vandy is up 8-0 in the bottom of the 2nd inning.
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Its like they have a baseball version of the 2013 denver broncos offense.

Vandy brought out a army tank and its only the 2nd inning. I cant recall a team scoring that much in 2 freakin innings.
 
#24
#24
Vandy bats finally heated up and won their 3rd series in a row. Vandy will be pulling for the Vols next week as Vanderbilt still has a slight chance at the title, though both Vanderbilt and UT sweeping next week is highly unlikely.

Vols need to get to 14 SEC wins IMO to get an invite.
 
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