Houston College Classic--why not play?

[MsStateBaseball]

Gene just posted that Cohen cancelled early last year bc we didn't have enough home games scheduled. I don't think that is the reason. Gene went on to say about the 2015 schedule, the Louisiana tournament he says is still on but I emailed a reporter in New Orleans and he told me we had pulled out of that tournament too.

As of right now, I don't see any good reason to cancel Houston. Reward the players by playing in MLB stadium, great recruiting area, fan exposure, etc., these all out way in my opinion whatever the excuse is.

If the Louisiana tourney is a no go, then we better be playing some really good teams at home. I really hate we can't find out more info than this.

Now, we better play in the Dodgertown classic, if he wants to continue to recruit out there.

[messageboardsuperhero]

Not enough home games? That's such a bullshit excuse. Yeah, we really need more home games in early March so 3,000 people can see us beat La Monroe- instead of bettering our program and hosting chances by playing in the premier early season college baseball event.**

We need to be going on the road more in the non-conference for RPI purposes. And yes, we sure as hell better not drop out of the Dodgertown Classic.

[Goat Holder]

I'm guessing there's more to the story than what Pornfro knows. Because yes, not much downside to playing in Houston. Unless Cohen thinks we will suck and get embarrassed. If we go 0-4 that will bury us, no matter the RPI.

[Todd4State]

While I wanted to play in those tournaments, I understand why we aren't. Cohen uses the early part of the season to evaluate our players and our team early. That puts us more at risk of losing to a Holy Cross, much less a team like Baylor. Playing in two tournaments, and then a three game set with Arizona early in the year and then road games with South Alabama and Memphis plus the two games at Trustmark Park is overscheduling for anybody. Maybe more importantly, it limits the playing time of our back-ups who use that time for the future.

Now, I am OK with either a major tournament or a big name power for week four. But it really needs to be one or the other. If it were me, I would have kept the Houston Tournament and then pulled out of the NOLA tournament and moved the Arizona series. That said, if we played four weekend series like we did in 2013, OOC, that wouldn't bother me either. I don't feel like a major tournament or a big name series HAS to be part of the schedule. I've gone to series where we played USC or Arizona in Starkville and those didn't draw noticeably larger crowds.

And as far as RPI and SOS, I don't think it will affect us all that much simply because we are in the SEC. You really have to win those major tournaments for it to really boost your RPI.


This is the Ole Miss schedule, and I think it firmly established their team and got them off to a great start to the season that they had. We had a similar schedule in 2013.



at Stetson
at Stetson
at Stetson
Tennessee-Martin
Georgia State
Georgia State
Georgia State
Louisiana-Monroe
Louisiana-Monroe
UCF
UCF
UCF
Memphis
Arkansas-Little Rock
Arkansas-Little Rock
Arkansas-Little Rock
at Southeastern Louisiana
at Southeastern Louisiana


Not exactly world beaters. They played us and USM at Trustmark, and I believe they played USM and Memphis again and Arkansas State a couple of times. And yet somehow despite the fact that we played Arizona and Cal Santa-Barbara, along with Western Carolina they had a higher RPI and SOS than us. A lot of it is because they won most of those games and yes, us losing to Holy Cross hurt us bad.

But a schedule like this probably is more conducive to us going to Omaha and setting us up to go to regionals and go to Omaha.

[Todd4State]

I'm guessing there's more to the story than what Pornfro knows. Because yes, not much downside to playing in Houston. Unless Cohen thinks we will suck and get embarrassed. If we go 0-4 that will bury us, no matter the RPI.

My guess is because we overscheduled and it would have cost us more to buy out/move the Arizona series than it would have to pull out of the tournaments.

[I seen it dawg]

Gene just posted that Cohen cancelled early last year bc we didn't have enough home games scheduled. I don't think that is the reason. Gene went on to say about the 2015 schedule, the Louisiana tournament he says is still on but I emailed a reporter in New Orleans and he told me we had pulled out of that tournament too.

As of right now, I don't see any good reason to cancel Houston. Reward the players by playing in MLB stadium, great recruiting area, fan exposure, etc., these all out way in my opinion whatever the excuse is.

If the Louisiana tourney is a no go, then we better be playing some really good teams at home. I really hate we can't find out more info than this.

Now, we better play in the Dodgertown classic, if he wants to continue to recruit out there.

The most telling part of the whole post.

[Todd4State]

The most telling part of the whole post.


Something I thought was hilarious about Gene- he did these interviews with our baseball commits, and instead of asking how they were doing, he asked every single one of them about the low seam baseball.

[messageboardsuperhero]

Something I thought was hilarious about Gene- he did these interviews with our baseball commits, and instead of asking how they were doing, he asked every single one of them about the low seam baseball.

I saw that too...

After reading/watching interviews and stories from him the past several years, I'm convinced that Gene is the worst interviewer in sports history. He asks the dumbest questions- and when he does a video interview, Gene ALWAYS interrupts the person he's interviewing in the middle of the response.

Sometimes I just want to slap the guy and say: "Nobody gives a shit about what you think. I'm only listening to this because I want to hear what the subject of the story has to say." Gene just gives off the vibe that he wants to steal the show instead of just being the guy who reports news on the internet.

[Todd4State]

Gene just gives me the vibe that he's a nerd.

But yeah- I guess the low seam ball stuff is interesting, but common sense says that fans want to know stats and things like that. That's what people pay for.

Gene, David, and Rosebowl = Goof Troop. If we were still in junior or high school, they would be sitting together at the nerd table at lunch.

[Goat Holder]

While I wanted to play in those tournaments, I understand why we aren't. Cohen uses the early part of the season to evaluate our players and our team early. That puts us more at risk of losing to a Holy Cross, much less a team like Baylor. Playing in two tournaments, and then a three game set with Arizona early in the year and then road games with South Alabama and Memphis plus the two games at Trustmark Park is overscheduling for anybody. Maybe more importantly, it limits the playing time of our back-ups who use that time for the future.

Now, I am OK with either a major tournament or a big name power for week four. But it really needs to be one or the other. If it were me, I would have kept the Houston Tournament and then pulled out of the NOLA tournament and moved the Arizona series. That said, if we played four weekend series like we did in 2013, OOC, that wouldn't bother me either. I don't feel like a major tournament or a big name series HAS to be part of the schedule. I've gone to series where we played USC or Arizona in Starkville and those didn't draw noticeably larger crowds.

And as far as RPI and SOS, I don't think it will affect us all that much simply because we are in the SEC. You really have to win those major tournaments for it to really boost your RPI.


This is the Ole Miss schedule, and I think it firmly established their team and got them off to a great start to the season that they had. We had a similar schedule in 2013.



at Stetson
at Stetson
at Stetson
Tennessee-Martin
Georgia State
Georgia State
Georgia State
Louisiana-Monroe
Louisiana-Monroe
UCF
UCF
UCF
Memphis
Arkansas-Little Rock
Arkansas-Little Rock
Arkansas-Little Rock
at Southeastern Louisiana
at Southeastern Louisiana


Not exactly world beaters. They played us and USM at Trustmark, and I believe they played USM and Memphis again and Arkansas State a couple of times. And yet somehow despite the fact that we played Arizona and Cal Santa-Barbara, along with Western Carolina they had a higher RPI and SOS than us. A lot of it is because they won most of those games and yes, us losing to Holy Cross hurt us bad.

But a schedule like this probably is more conducive to us going to Omaha and setting us up to go to regionals and go to Omaha.

I agree that we need to give ourselves advantages, but let's not act like a charity case. Northern teams usually play their entire OOC season on the road.

Let's just own the truth, instead of hiding behind overscheduling.