Another great regular season of college baseball is officially in the books as the conference tournaments wrapped up last weekend. But don’t worry, there is plenty of baseball still left as the Field of 64 has been set. This year, the Big 12 got six teams in the postseason (Kansas, West Virginia, Arizona State, Cincinnati, Oklahoma State, and UCF), including two regional hosts. As always, some teams got a better draw than others. But with the field set, I thought I would give my top three takeaways from a Big 12 perspective.
Two Hosts, One Problem.
It’s not often that the Big 12 gets two regional hosting bids. In fact, most years it’s always been one, especially with Texas and Oklahoma out of the conference. However, this year, there were two teams that were head and shoulders above the rest: Kansas and West Virginia.
As great as that is, I felt like both teams were a bit disrespected by the selection committee, as they got the final two hosting bids with the 15th and 16th seeds. Kansas has Arkansas in its regional, which is coming off a deep run in the SEC tournament. And if you know anything about college baseball, Arkansas isn’t typically lacking talent.
Meanwhile, West Virginia got a slightly better draw, but not by much, with the 16th seed. Binghamton is tricky, and throwing Kentucky and Wake Forest into the mix makes things even more interesting. Then, of course, the winner out of the Morgantown regional will likely face top-seeded UCLA in the Supers. Two teams hosting are great, but they didn’t deserve to be ranked that poorly.
Bad Year For TCU
Speaking of getting hosed, how about TCU not getting in? During the selection show, they showed the Horned Frogs as one of the first four teams out. To me, they had a better resume than some of the teams that got in, but the bigger point is that TCU should never have put themselves in this position in the first place.
The Horned Frogs were the preseason favorite to win the conference this year by a large margin. And he was going into the postseason, and they are nowhere to be found. They spent weeks on the bubble and couldn’t finish.
This team had a chance to climb back in during the Big 12 tournament, but instead lost its first game. Between that, a subpar RPI, and a not-so-great overall record, it was very much a disappointing year for TCU.
Will There Be A Cinderella?
Every year, I like to pick a team that could make that magical run nobody expected. When I look at the rest of the field for the Big 12, I believe that team could be Oklahoma State.
I know I picked them to win the Big 12 tournament, but their pitching fell flat against Kansas, letting them down. Now the Cowboys are heading to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for the regional, along with USC Upstate and Alabama State.
Oklahoma State has enough to get past USC Upstate even on a mediocre day, but it will take more than that to make it out of that regional with a potential showdown against Alabama. The Crimson Tide is good, no doubt about it, but they aren’t unbeatable. The bats for Oklahoma State are good enough to win, but if they are going to make out, they will need the pitching to back it up too, and I think they can.
