Wednesday March 07, 2007

Candidates at Arkansas and Minnesota?;Tourney Time, Baseball Schedule; Bubble

TDP
Last week I wrote that I would be surprised if Terry Don Phillips was very interested in the athletic director job at Arkansas. As I said last week, I do not know Dr. Phillips but was told by some close to him that he was not interested. He later issued a statement saying he was a candidate for the job.

However, late last week I got word out of Arkansas that Phillips was a leading candidate and Arkansas could be very aggressive in their pursuit of Phillips. Obviously Phillips has made his statement about his alma mater but sources close to Phillips tell me he will at least look at the job. Stay tuned.

Purnell a Candidate?
Published reports have Clemson basketball coach Oliver Purnell as a candidate for the Minnesota job. My basketball contacts are limited here but I would be surprised if he chose to leave the ACC for the Big Ten. That is only an opinion and I have not talked to anyone that would know if Purnell would be interested. I know Minnesota would open up the checkbook but I am not sure where Purnell ranks among the candidates. I promise to make some phone calls this week to gauge the interest but again be patient because of my limited contacts in basketball. I should also say that I have zero contracts in Big Ten basketball so this would have to come from the Clemson end of the speculation.

ACC Tournament
I have only been to the ACC basketball tournament twice and recently have not been a big fanatic of the event. I guess if the Tigers had more success I would have been more interested. The FSU match up is one of the most interested in years for the Tigers so I will put aside my bias against the tournament but it will be from my couch instead of the stands.

Baseball Schedule
Clemson continues its difficult baseball schedule today with a game against 17th-ranked Coastal Carolina. Recently I looked at the remaining schedule and came away encouraged. I know I should never look ahead too far and that point was reiterated to us with the basketball and football seasons. But I do too often and did it again on baseball. I think the ACC schedule should give the Tigers reason to be very excited.

Clemson faces the toughest part of the schedule at home. I know they just dropped a game against USC 12-0 and lost at home to George Mason but I still think you would rather face the tougher teams at Doug Kingsmore.

Once again this year Clemson does not face top-ranked North Carolina in the regular season. There are four other ranked programs in the ACC in the latest Baseball America poll and Clemson plays three of the four at home. Fourth-ranked Virginia comes to Clemson April 20-22, 11th-ranked Miami visits Clemson March 30-31 and April 1, 21st-ranked Georgia Tech will play in Clemson April 27-29. The only ACC team currently ranked that hosts Clemson is fifth-ranked FSU who hosts the Tigers May 11-13.

The Tigers ACC home series are against Duke, Miami, Virginia, Georgia Tech and Boston College. The Tigers have three-game sets at Maryland, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Florida State and N.C. State.

I know it is too early to analyze the schedule too much but on paper this schedule appears to favor the Tigers.

Bubble Watch
ESPN's bracketologist Joe Lunardi follows the brackets starting about November 1st. He has Purdue, Illinois, Old Dominion and Missouri State as the last four in the tournament. He has Kansas State, West Virginia, Massachusetts and Drexel as the first four out of the tournament. He then has Florida State, Michigan, Mississippi State and Mississippi and the next four out.

Wright State, who has a 72 RPI, upset Butler in the finals of the Horizon Conference last night and that hurt the bubble teams. Butler will now get one of the at-large bids.

Yesterday we looked at some bubble teams and continue today with a look at the resume of a few more teams:

Missouri State-Currently they are 38th in the RPI. They are 21-10 overall and 1-5 against teams ranked 1-25 in the RPI, 2-0 against teams ranked 26-50 in the RPI and 6-4 against teams ranked 51-100 in the RPI.. Missouri State is 7-3 in their last ten games.

Kansas State-Their RPI is 60 after a 21-10 regular-season. The Wildcats are 0-3 against top 25 teams, 1-2 against 26-50 teams and 4-3 against 51-100 teams. They are also 6-4 in their last ten contest. To me this team is w\one of the weakest on the bubble.

West Virginia-The Mountaineers' RPI is 57. Their 20-8 record included a 2-4 record against teams 1-25 in the RPI, 0-2 vs. 26-50 and 1-1 against 51-100 teams. They are also 6-4 in their last ten.

Massachusetts-UMass has an RPI of 55. .Their 23-7 record is impressive but they went 0-2 against 1-25 teams, 1-2 against 26-50 teams but 5-0 against 51-100 squads. UMass is 9-1 in their last ten contest.

Drexel-Their RPI is 39. They are 22-8 with a schedule that was ranked 91st. Drexel went 2-0 against RPI teams ranked from 1-25, 0-4 against teams ranked 26-50 in the RPI and 5-2 against teams ranked from 51-100 in the RPI. Drexel is also 7-3 in its last ten games.

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