Yep. I canāt help but think āsame ole, same oleā as I compare today to TN football and basketball. At least we have tomorrow. Lose this and we wonāt hear the end of it while everyone will pile on Coach TV.
If itās a close game then weāre in trouble as we will press as the pressure will be all on us. This is the type old game where we need to jump on them quick, keep down the gas pedal and break their will.
Edit - but as I posted earlier, we will be Omaha bound in 24 hours.
People are going to talk about 2022 until they win tomorrow. It isnāt wrong to do that. Those parallels exist until they donāt. And if they donāt win, theyāll be talking about 2022 and 2024 until they win a title. You can think thatās unfair to Tony, and perhaps it is, but he signed up for that the day we gave him $100 million for stadium renovations and made him a top 3 paid coach in the country.
The Vols were clearly a top team if not the top team all season. You canāt lose a series at home against a lesser opponent to get to Omaha and it not leave a mark. Evansville is good, but this would be a massive choke.
They aren't losing their bats, that's what I'm worried about. The Aces are a veteran squad, they'll come ready to play. They hit like they did today, it's going to be a battle.
People are going to talk about 2022 until they win tomorrow. It isnāt wrong to do that. Those parallels exist until they donāt. And if they donāt win, theyāll be talking about 2022 and 2024 until they win a title. You can think thatās unfair to Tony, and perhaps it is, but he signed up for that the day we gave him $100 million for stadium renovations and made him a top 3 paid coach in the country.
I don't think it's unfair at all. I don't think it should define him or take away from what he's done, but it's fair criticism if it happens again tomorrow.
We lose a game after 8 straight wins against ncaa tournament/sec competition and the chicken little component of our fanbase seem to be rooting for a choke job. No.
Hell No. iām gonna go Oddball on all of you imbeciles that are radiating those negative waves.
That bridge will be there tomorrow evening.
And it will be a beautiful bridge
GBO
What Volstylexx said. I'll add that there's an unfortunate baseball reality
which would only be fixed by something radical, like reducing fielders to 8,
where making contact ā if the ball doesn't go over the fence ā kinda sucks. It makes an out most of the time. BABIP hovers around 30%, which demonstrates the extent to which contact is overrated, (again, unfortunately) and especially so in 0 and 1 strike counts. (except when that contact is a bomb over the fence, of course!)
You, as the batter, have three strikes as leverage. It turns out that being very conservative in counts of 0-0, 1-0, 2-0, and 3-0 is best (that's to say, laying off of almost anything besides a fastball in your wheelhouse, i.e. your batters should have a very good SLG on zero-strike swings!!) because the worst case leaves you still having a strike to give before you go into 2-strike approach mode, but the alternative is that (1) if you make contact, you're often hitting the ball into an out [unfortunate baseball reality, so much athleticism on defense], and (2) your batters are going to foul off/swing-and-miss at pitches that the umpire was going to call a ball, keeping your batters out of the juiciest OBP, BA, SLG, etc.-favorable counts.
And all of the above is exacerbated if the pitcher your facing isn't even doing a good job of throwing strikes anyway. Make them throw strikes, and have a good 1 and 2-strike approach. Don't make contact when you don't need to, that's the direction the game is going because it's already the reality of making contact. It's so much more luck-dependent than having a good eye and working a walk.
But wheelhouse fastballs should be crushed, hopefully over the fence, no matter what the count is.
I partially blame the crowd for that. I know itās going to rain tomorrow, but the crowd needs to stay in it all night. This team feeds off the energy of the crowd and once we got up 3-0 in the first, the crowd immediately fell asleep and became disinterested in the game today.
I partially blame the crowd for that. I know itās going to rain tomorrow, but the crowd needs to stay in it all night. This team feeds off the energy of the crowd and once we got up 3-0 in the first, the crowd immediately fell asleep and became disinterested in the game today.
I hear ya, not disagreeing either, but kinda the way itās been going this season. We lost. I went and did the hedges. Itās a baseball game. Honestly if the stadium got as loud as it gets up in here, Iād be cool with it.
We lose a game after 8 straight wins against ncaa tournament/sec competition and the chicken little component of our fanbase seem to be rooting for a choke job. No.
Hell No. iām gonna go Oddball on all of you imbeciles that are radiating those negative waves.
That bridge will be there tomorrow evening.
And it will be a beautiful bridge
GBO
Donāt talk bad about all the keyboard coaches out there who probably never playedā¦ā¦ā¦now itās time to start a new win streak and roll through Omaha.
I partially blame the crowd for that. I know itās going to rain tomorrow, but the crowd needs to stay in it all night. This team feeds off the energy of the crowd and once we got up 3-0 in the first, the crowd immediately fell asleep and became disinterested in the game today.
People are going to talk about 2022 until they win tomorrow. It isnāt wrong to do that. Those parallels exist until they donāt. And if they donāt win, theyāll be talking about 2022 and 2024 until they win a title. You can think thatās unfair to Tony, and perhaps it is, but he signed up for that the day we gave him $100 million for stadium renovations and made him a top 3 paid coach in the country.
And itāll be very dumb to pile on him. Bianco up until 2 years ago had been to Omaha 1x in 20 years, DVH has been 5-7x and never won, while bowing out in home regionals way more than his talent should indicate. Yet the media and general public will continue to question CTVās post season acumen and make jokes about a guy who took a program coming off multiple years of 7-8 SEC wins and took them to Omaha 3x in 6 years of opportunity.
Welk, that was a very tough loss today my friends. And it was, at least to me, an unexpected loss and that makes it worse. But listen, that gut wrenching feeling all of you have right now, is a large part of what defines you as a fanbase. Itās a passion and love for something greater than any individual, and even with a loss, thatās a beautiful thing.
The Vols will bounce back tomorrow and take the series. Ultimately, today is going to serve as a bit of a wake up call, and this loss will ultimately serve as a driving force that puts the Vols over the top for their first NC in baseball. This is the adversity that great teams overcome, and yāall need to keep the faith. I have a ton of respect for Evansville, and those boys came to play. But, their tourney ends tomorrow!
I hear ya, not disagreeing either, but kinda the way itās been going this season. We lost. I went and did the hedges. Itās a baseball game. Honestly if the stadium got as loud as it gets up in here, Iād be cool with it.
I partially blame the crowd for that. I know itās going to rain tomorrow, but the crowd needs to stay in it all night. This team feeds off the energy of the crowd and once we got up 3-0 in the first, the crowd immediately fell asleep and became disinterested in the game today.
Definitely felt lackadaisical there for a while, me included. But i have an excuse. Today is my wifeās birthday and sheās working tonight so we did lunch together. I quit paying attention after we went up by 4 so fast, so I will take some blame too.
Not tomorrow dammit. I will be screaming at the tv the entire time.