We get by with a lotta help from our friends...

May 17, 2009, 7:29 AM

A quick tip of the hat to Duke, which managed to work through their fear of thunder to upend the Jackets yesterday. Our win, plus the Dookies (who barely squeeze into the tourney) give the Tigers the 3rd spot over the supposed national seed Bumbles.

A grudging tip of the hat to the Gaspumpers, who really seem to be hitting their stride, including a sweep of former national seed JawJaw.

Elsewhere, Virginia finally beat the non-tournament Hokies, but not before VPI dropped the Hoos to No. 6 in the tourney field. They become Clemson's first-round foe and unless they really respond in the tourney, I don't see them in serious Region talk.

Elsewhere, a few other games to sort out the regions:

Kansas upends No. 19 K State 9-3
No. 22 Cal Poly falls to .500 Long Beach State
Auburn continues a late-season run, beating No. 10 Bama 3-1
No. 13 Ole Miss makes its case as a host, shedding No. 16 Arkansas 16-3 in Fayetteville
Sub-.500 Penn State upends No. 24 Minnesota 10-8
UA-B takes a series from No. 9 Rice 15-12
Oklahoma guts No. 19 Texas A&M 9-0, taking that series

So, heading into tourney week, Clemson is No. 7 in RPI, No. 10 in SoS, boasts a plus-.500 in road games, tied for 10 in total number of wins, and tied for 3rd in total number of wins over top 50 teams. Sounds like a Region host to me.

A national? Well, let's see: in the past week:

Barring unbelievable collapse, UNC, Fullerton, LSU, Texas UC-Irvine and Arizona State look like the top 5 seeds in some order. Lord knows why ASU and Irvine are locks, other than the NCAA needs western representatives...but neither has beaten more then 8 top 50 foes. That's Virginia-esque in number.

Others in the conversation are GTech, Florida and Rice.

GTech, once thought of as a lock, has gone 6-4, dropping 2 to tourney non-qualifier Duke. One other loss was no sin, to FSU, but losing to JawJaw these days is damaging.

Florida rode a hot streak into consideration (plus with Miami tailing off, there was room in Florida for a second spot). Then they got drilled by LSU, lost 1 to Kentucky and to Gulf Cosat Community College. Shaky at best.

Rice beat Texas a month ago to get a needed po in the rankings. Since then, they've dropped a series to UA-B, lost to Central Florida, lost to Houston, and lost to Marshall ... all schools well below 100 in the RPI. With Texas locked in as a national, I'm betting Rice drops out.

Meanwhile Clemson has gone 5-0, and overall won 14 of 17. We've got to be considered (with Florida State and Ole Miss) to be at least knocking on the door for a national spot. My feeling is that if Clemson and FSU get to the ACC finals, the winner of that game gets a national seed. If we don't make the finals and GTech does, then they'll be playing for that spot.

And that's something to play for in Durham.

Message was edited by: RevDodd®

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We get by with a lotta help from our friends...

Bully! Point for you***

UVA has something mental about VT ...

Re: UVA has something mental about VT ...

Article above says Duke plays UNC.***

Indeed it does. thank goodness for editing function!***

LOL, "fear of thunder". You do have a way with words.***

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