There will be no PAC teams in the CWS, including #1 seed UCLA, that was eliminated at home by #3 Maryland in their regional...
Zero, Nada, Zilch, None...
Eleven of sixteen #1 seeds advanced including Cal-State Fullerton, who ASU fought tooth and nail for 14 innings before losing...
What does this all mean..??
It means, to me at least, that neither ASU and/or most of its PAC brethren were "loaded" in a national elite sense, although the Bruins definitely were the class act in the PAC and were worthy of their national ranking...
We haven't been loaded since Pat Murphy was fired over six years ago and when the Sun Devils won three straight conference championships (2007-08-09) and appeared in two CWS (2007-09)...
Tim Esmay inherited a "loaded" team from Murphy which he parlayed into a PAC championship and CWS appearance as a #1 seed...
However, in fairly short order, keeping in mind that he faced some NCAA sanctions due to Murphy, the Devils started to fall in the PAC pecking order, which is why he was fired after last season and Tracy Smith was hired to replace him...
Therefore, TS did not inherit a "loaded" team by any stretch of the imagination and the Devils met preseason expectations, when they were picked third in the PAC by the media and that's where they ended up, tied with a couple of other teams...
If the Devils had found a way to beat Fullerton we might all be basking in that accomplishment, if they had then advanced to a Super Regional, which is where you will find 16 regional winners this morning...
You know that I am an advocate of the Talent Is Destiny philosophy and, in this case, I think that again proved true with our baseball team, as the overall talent level needs to be resuscitated by TS to get us back to a national stature and the top of the PAC...
So, although there was some disappointment on my part for the way the season ended, I definitely think the Devils are headed in the right direction under TS...
Regarding softball, there was an article in the Star this morning about how softball has grown into a big time sport in the past couple of decades, as it has grown from 143 teams in 1982 to 293 this year and from 16 WCWS teams in 1982 to 64 teams this year...attendance at the series has grown from 17,740 to over 150,000 during that time...
But, this is the important part of the article to me..."it's no coincidence that the top eight softball schools this year...Florida, Mich, Oregon, Bama, LSU, Tenn, UCLA and Auburn are traditional football powerhouses...the money filters down from the football programs and top players follow the funds"...
The Tenn coach said "it's all due to football...that's what generates the money for the other sports, believe me...if you don't know that, you don't know what's happening"...
Go Graham Go and Go Devils!!!
Zero, Nada, Zilch, None...
Eleven of sixteen #1 seeds advanced including Cal-State Fullerton, who ASU fought tooth and nail for 14 innings before losing...
What does this all mean..??
It means, to me at least, that neither ASU and/or most of its PAC brethren were "loaded" in a national elite sense, although the Bruins definitely were the class act in the PAC and were worthy of their national ranking...
We haven't been loaded since Pat Murphy was fired over six years ago and when the Sun Devils won three straight conference championships (2007-08-09) and appeared in two CWS (2007-09)...
Tim Esmay inherited a "loaded" team from Murphy which he parlayed into a PAC championship and CWS appearance as a #1 seed...
However, in fairly short order, keeping in mind that he faced some NCAA sanctions due to Murphy, the Devils started to fall in the PAC pecking order, which is why he was fired after last season and Tracy Smith was hired to replace him...
Therefore, TS did not inherit a "loaded" team by any stretch of the imagination and the Devils met preseason expectations, when they were picked third in the PAC by the media and that's where they ended up, tied with a couple of other teams...
If the Devils had found a way to beat Fullerton we might all be basking in that accomplishment, if they had then advanced to a Super Regional, which is where you will find 16 regional winners this morning...
You know that I am an advocate of the Talent Is Destiny philosophy and, in this case, I think that again proved true with our baseball team, as the overall talent level needs to be resuscitated by TS to get us back to a national stature and the top of the PAC...
So, although there was some disappointment on my part for the way the season ended, I definitely think the Devils are headed in the right direction under TS...
Regarding softball, there was an article in the Star this morning about how softball has grown into a big time sport in the past couple of decades, as it has grown from 143 teams in 1982 to 293 this year and from 16 WCWS teams in 1982 to 64 teams this year...attendance at the series has grown from 17,740 to over 150,000 during that time...
But, this is the important part of the article to me..."it's no coincidence that the top eight softball schools this year...Florida, Mich, Oregon, Bama, LSU, Tenn, UCLA and Auburn are traditional football powerhouses...the money filters down from the football programs and top players follow the funds"...
The Tenn coach said "it's all due to football...that's what generates the money for the other sports, believe me...if you don't know that, you don't know what's happening"...
Go Graham Go and Go Devils!!!
