Lol shit emansky is back
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Lol shit emansky is back
Totally disagree that this team looked crappy. They looked inexperienced. They looked inattentive. They looked a little overwhelmed with everything they were facing - new coaches, new players, lots of injuries to key guys, and blowing winnable games. You could see the talent. The Seniors stepping up and saying "this isn't how we do things" was huge, and pulled everyone together. People melting after the Arkansas series were melting about the wrong things. Making assumptions that Cann couldn't handle the situation, talking about how millennials are a bunch of soft pussies who aren't mentally tough, and giving up on talented kids 1 series into SEC play all shows impatience and a total lack of understanding of the game. This team has talent, it just needed to know what was expected and learn how to win.
Yep, we lost a lot of close games and blew some leads which we did early last year. People forget Canny didn't have fall ball to figure out his team so the beginning of this year was the first time he got to see firsthand what everyone could do. Blake Smith was our closer last year and at the beginning of this year. He folded a couple of times early when we didn't know he was pitching with a bad elbow. You can't blame Canny for thinking Blake should be able to close out a game early when he did it all last year. This might be one of the best coaching jobs I have seen and it is his first year. I can see why Cohen just went straight to him and offered.
It's a lot like last year, or 2011, 2012, 2013, or 2016. Each of those years we blew a lot of games early. Then we dinked around in SEC play. In 2011 it took until May 6th -8th, where we go and sweep a ranked Tennessee on the road, take 2 of three at OM, and win 1 of 3 against LSU. That got us over the hump (with a 14-16 SEC record no less) and set up the run in Atlanta and then the great Super against UF. 2012 we get swept in 2 games at home by SE Louisiana and sucking against LSU, Ark, and AU and everybody freaks. We finally kick in the first weekend of April taking 2/3 from Vandy, then "roll" to a 16-14 SEC record. 2013 - there was a ton of melt on this board after dropping 2 to Central Arkansas, sucking against LSU, Uk, and Ark before talking 2/3 from UF and "rolling" to 16-14 in SEC play and a 50 win season and CWS Finals appearance. And like you said, last year we dinked around early and caught fire as SEC play started and never looked back. Of course in 2014 and 2015 we looked damn good until SEC play, then went into the tank around the 3rd SEC series. All of that is why I never get too high or low about a team until the 2nd or 3rd week of April.
No one said cann couldn't handle the situation or that millenials are pussies. They said that the 7 injuries to pitchers and inexperience were going to limit our ceiling (a totally reasonable take). Literally no one said we'd be tied for 2nd in the conference 1 game out of 1st after 5 series and in position to host a regional. Some said a good season would be to sneak into a regional as a 3 seed, but let's not act like this was something predictable or normal.
If after the Ark series with Cyr and Marrero getting kicked off, we would have been offered a .500 record and a 3 seed somewhere everyone on this board would have taken it. What this team has done is phenomenal. Even Cohen's run to the title game, he didn't have that team playing like this. That team didn't have half the adversity this team is going through.
Anybody think after our Sunday starter punched a wall and broke his hand that we could win a series at #11 USCe?
Yeah, they did. And there were people talking about this being the start of a 3 year rebuild. If I was better at searching old threads, I'd go pull them.
Now, I'll agree that no one was predicting that we would be doing what we are doing. And, as you say, there were realists saying the injuries were going to limit us and this may be a "mulligan" type season. My point is still the same - as early as it was, there were way too many people totally writing off the talent that we do have and assuming the worst.
Because people watched how they were playing and thought that the leap they'd need to make to be a good team would be too great of a leap to make within the season.
The problem is the people trying to equate people thinking this would be a mulligan season 5 weeks ago to the people that would prefer stans or rick ray lose basketball games so that we'd fire them instead of winning just enough to keep their job. These are completely different scenarios, there's no one that would prefer to see us losing right now in order to have been right in their realistic outlook back in mid-march.