Don't kill the messenger. Just relaying what I found...

[ellitor 33,110]

It's apparently not as far fetched as most of us think. I found 5 projections and 3 of them had us in the tourney. 1 had us the 1st team out. 4 projections were yesterday before the loss to Jax St. The projection that came out today had us in and in NC State's regional. Getting 2 from Arky and beating Bama in the first round of the SEC tourney may be enough to get us in after all.

[penguin149 391]

I would like for nothing more than AU baseball to win the SEC tourney, make the NCAAs, advance to the CWS and win it all!! Make everyone on here that has been critical of CJP eat crow. Make us all wonder how anyone could have doubted his ability to lead this team.

Do I think all that will happen? Probably not. Right now I'd settle for getting deep into the SEC tourney and making it well into the regionals in the NCAAs. An early exit from either would be a disappointment but not unexpected.

[TigerPaw1 0]

It's apparently not as far fetched as most of us think. I found 5 projections and 3 of them had us in the tourney. 1 had us the 1st team out. 4 projections were yesterday before the loss to Jax St. The projection that came out today had us in and in NC State's regional. Getting 2 from Arky and beating Bama in the first round of the SEC tourney may be enough to get us in after all.

Good News! As critical as I am about this team and Coach P I would love for us to get into the postseason. Very disappointed in our showing last night but hopefully this weekend we can continue our hot SEC streak. Would love for one AU team to get to postseason play this season

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

Based on our rpi from this past week of 28, although it will go down due to the Jacksonville state loss, I do think that if Auburn is able to win the series this weekend, the sec tournament will not be terribly important to go deep in in order to make a regional; I think we can slip in without it; however, that does not take away the need to win, and if the opportunity presents itself, sweep this series. If we are not able to put up a good showing this weekend, I think winning 2 or 3 in Hoover will be necessary for this team to move on. I don't know what it will take, but I wish we'd just win out to insure ourselves a spot!

[ellitor 33,110]

Based on our rpi from this past week of 28, although it will go down due to the Jacksonville state loss, I do think that if Auburn is able to win the series this weekend, the sec tournament will not be terribly important to go deep in in order to make a regional; I think we can slip in without it; however, that does not take away the need to win, and if the opportunity presents itself, sweep this series. If we are not able to put up a good showing this weekend, I think winning 2 or 3 in Hoover will be necessary for this team to move on. I don't know what it will take, but I wish we'd just win out to insure ourselves a spot!

Auburn's updated RPI is 35.

[autigeremt 6,652]

I would like for nothing more than AU baseball to win the SEC tourney, make the NCAAs, advance to the CWS and win it all!! Make everyone on here that has been critical of CJP eat crow. Make us all wonder how anyone could have doubted his ability to lead this team.

Do I think all that will happen? Probably not. Right now I'd settle for getting deep into the SEC tourney and making it well into the regionals in the NCAAs. An early exit from either would be a disappointment but not unexpected.

Really? Ha! His product on the field over the last two years should be plenty to doubt his ability. If they were to do what you wish, I'd gladly eat a whole flock of crows. Good enough for you?

[Mikey 16,645]

I would like for nothing more than AU baseball to win the SEC tourney, make the NCAAs, advance to the CWS and win it all!! Make everyone on here that has been critical of CJP eat crow. Make us all wonder how anyone could have doubted his ability to lead this team.

Do I think all that will happen? Probably not. Right now I'd settle for getting deep into the SEC tourney and making it well into the regionals in the NCAAs. An early exit from either would be a disappointment but not unexpected.

No matter what they do or do not accomplish the rest of this season I won't be eating any crow. My opinion of Coach Pawloski's lack of ability is based of five full seasons of careful observation. In 2010, when he had the most talented team in the history of AU baseball he couldn't win the SEC tournament and failed to get out of the regional hosted at Auburn. Don't hold your breath for his own recruits to do better than what he got out of Slater's outstanding bunch back then.

[ellitor 33,110]

I would like for nothing more than AU baseball to win the SEC tourney, make the NCAAs, advance to the CWS and win it all!! Make everyone on here that has been critical of CJP eat crow. Make us all wonder how anyone could have doubted his ability to lead this team.

Do I think all that will happen? Probably not. Right now I'd settle for getting deep into the SEC tourney and making it well into the regionals in the NCAAs. An early exit from either would be a disappointment but not unexpected.

No matter what they do or do not accomplish the rest of this season I won't be eating any crow. My opinion of Coach Pawloski's lack of ability is based of five full seasons of careful observation. In 2010, when he had the most talented team in the history of AU baseball he couldn't win the SEC tournament and failed to get out of the regional hosted at Auburn. Don't hold your breath for his own recruits to do better than what he got out of Slater's outstanding bunch back then.

I love and have followed Auburn baseball for years and that team on a whole was no where near as close in talent as the Hudson led team in 1997. The rest of your post is valid however.

[PowerOfDixieland 3,226]

I love and have followed Auburn baseball for years and that team on a whole was no where near as close in talent as the Hudson led team in 1997 or the Bo Jackson led team that was screwed over by the Tampa Bay Bucs in 1985 or 1986. The rest of your post is valid however.

I can tell you first hand there was not much talent there in '85 (Baird's first year). Bo was about it, there were mostly a bunch of future high school coaches in that group, including Renfroe (Briarwood) who was the hitting coach at the time, Tim Lemmons (Chattahoochee), and Daryl Zarbnisky (Pope). The '86 team only added Olson (which was a huge get at the time).

[cptau 169]

It's apparently not as far fetched as most of us think. I found 5 projections and 3 of them had us in the tourney. 1 had us the 1st team out. 4 projections were yesterday before the loss to Jax St. The projection that came out today had us in and in NC State's regional. Getting 2 from Arky and beating Bama in the first round of the SEC tourney may be enough to get us in after all.

Good News! As critical as I am about this team and Coach P I would love for us to get into the postseason. Very disappointed in our showing last night but hopefully this weekend we can continue our hot SEC streak. Would love for one AU team to get to postseason play this season

Unless you are just talking about the men's teams, don't forget the AU women's basketball team in the NIT. They made it to the quarterfinals of the NIT losing to Drexel, the eventual Women's NIT Champion.

[penguin149 391]

I guess I need to use the sarcasm font! I too have been underwhelmed with CJP's tenure at AU. I would have to have a taste of that crow should AU win the SEC tourney and CWS!

I don't fell at all comfortable that we will win the series this weeknd. I also fear that we will be unceremoniously (sp) dumped quickly in the SEC tourney. I hope I'm wrong....

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

I'll be happy to eat crow when we start to consistently play sound baseball, but that hasn't happened over the course of a full season. No matter how you spin it, Auburn will still end up with a losing conference record for the 3rd straight year and a losing record in SEC play at home barring a sweep this weekend. The inflated overall W/L record can be greatly attributed to replacing quality non-conference series (Arizona State, Arizona, etc) with patsies (Maine, EIU, Brown). Hoping that we squeak into the NCAA tournament is not and should not be the standard for this program. Unfortunately that is what we have been reduced to over the last few years.

Also, don't be shocked with an early exit from the SEC tourney. Our seeding means we have to play a win-or-go-home game on Day 1. Double elimination doesn't start until Day 2, so one bad start can ruin any chance of an NCAA berth.

[PowerOfDixieland 3,226]

So if we're relying on RPI to get us in, does anyone believe Maryland would get into a regional? 28-24 record overall, 9-18 and tied for ninth place overall in the twelve team Atlantic Coast Conference? The ACC has the highest combined conference RPI ranking.

Or that West Virginia won't? 30-23 overall, 12-9 and tied for second in the nine team Big Twelve which has the fourth highest conference RPI ranking.

[ellitor 33,110]

Maryland's conference record keeps them out. West Va. has 3 bad over 200 RPI team losses which Auburn does not have. Plus their SOS is 131 to Auburn's 28. Resumes are not even close IMO.

[AU64 10,122]

I'll be happy to eat crow when we start to consistently play sound baseball, but that hasn't happened over the course of a full season. No matter how you spin it, Auburn will still end up with a losing conference record for the 3rd straight year and a losing record in SEC play at home barring a sweep this weekend. The inflated overall W/L record can be greatly attributed to replacing quality non-conference series (Arizona State, Arizona, etc) with patsies (Maine, EIU, Brown). Hoping that we squeak into the NCAA tournament is not and should not be the standard for this program. Unfortunately that is what we have been reduced to over the last few years.

Also, don't be shocked with an early exit from the SEC tourney. Our seeding means we have to play a win-or-go-home game on Day 1. Double elimination doesn't start until Day 2, so one bad start can ruin any chance of an NCAA berth.

Your assessment about the early games could be true but I notice Ariz swapped AU for the privilege of playing Chopin State, Utah Valley or maybe it was Columbia that had the appeal. Just for the record, look at any top team's schedule and you will see the same kind of teams that AU played. There is no spring training for college baseball, unlike in the majors where they play up to 20 games that don't count on the record. Virtually every Div I baseball team schedules a handful the FCS teams as their "spring training". #1 ranked UNC opened with Seton Hall and Stony Brook with Davidson tossed in also. It would be fun to see the Pac 12 or Big 10 early in the season, but that's probably not a good idea when trying to get a team ready for the SEC season....JMO. Of course when you schedule those "spring games" you had better win them.

[PowerOfDixieland 3,226]

Virtually every Div I baseball team schedules a handful the FCS teams as their "spring training". #1 ranked UNC opened with Seton Hall and Stony Brook with Davidson tossed in also.

Seton Hall is currently 34-17, tied for second in the Big East and ranked in the top 40 RPI. Stony Brook was one of the last eight teams playing in Omaha last year, and Davidson (while not a power house) is in the Southern Conference and 130 miles from Chapel Hill. They also played Rice, Cal and aTm pre-conference.

[ellitor 33,110]

Virtually every Div I baseball team schedules a handful the FCS teams as their "spring training". #1 ranked UNC opened with Seton Hall and Stony Brook with Davidson tossed in also.

Seton Hall is currently 34-17, tied for second in the Big East and ranked in the top 40 RPI. Stony Brook was one of the last eight teams playing in Omaha last year, and Davidson (while not a power house) is in the Southern Conference and 130 miles from Chapel Hill. They also played Rice, Cal and aTm pre-conference.

POD is correct. UNC has played 15 nonconference games versus the top 100 in the RPI while Auburn has only played 6. Furthermore, UNC has played 9 nonconference games versus teams in the RPI top 50 while Auburn has played only 1.

[AU64 10,122]

Virtually every Div I baseball team schedules a handful the FCS teams as their "spring training". #1 ranked UNC opened with Seton Hall and Stony Brook with Davidson tossed in also.

Seton Hall is currently 34-17, tied for second in the Big East and ranked in the top 40 RPI. Stony Brook was one of the last eight teams playing in Omaha last year, and Davidson (while not a power house) is in the Southern Conference and 130 miles from Chapel Hill. They also played Rice, Cal and aTm pre-conference.

POD is correct. UNC has played 15 nonconference games versus the top 100 in the RPI while Auburn has only played 6. Furthermore, UNC has played 9 nonconference games versus teams in the RPI top 50 while Auburn has played only 1.

That's fine...if you want to cherry pick to make your arguments....then take a look at Vandy and see how may big schools they played to open the season. I'm just saying that all the big schools play the smaller schools early in the season.....AU's schedule might have been weak but it was not that different than any other SEC or ACC team. Just a suggestion but if you doubt it, check a few schedules.

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

Virtually every Div I baseball team schedules a handful the FCS teams as their "spring training". #1 ranked UNC opened with Seton Hall and Stony Brook with Davidson tossed in also.

Seton Hall is currently 34-17, tied for second in the Big East and ranked in the top 40 RPI. Stony Brook was one of the last eight teams playing in Omaha last year, and Davidson (while not a power house) is in the Southern Conference and 130 miles from Chapel Hill. They also played Rice, Cal and aTm pre-conference.

POD is correct. UNC has played 15 nonconference games versus the top 100 in the RPI while Auburn has only played 6. Furthermore, UNC has played 9 nonconference games versus teams in the RPI top 50 while Auburn has played only 1.

That's fine...if you want to cherry pick to make your arguments....then take a look at Vandy and see how may big schools they played to open the season. I'm just saying that all the big schools play the smaller schools early in the season.....AU's schedule might have been weak but it was not that different than any other SEC or ACC team. Just a suggestion but if you doubt it, check a few schedules.

It may not be that different from other schools (I don't have the time or energy to look it up), but that wasn't the original point. The point I was making is that our overall record could easily be construed as somewhat inflated this season based on us not playing as many quality non-conference opponents, thus it's nothing to get too excited about. Remember that we also dropped South Alabama this year, a team that is easily in the field of 64 right now.

[ellitor 33,110]

Virtually every Div I baseball team schedules a handful the FCS teams as their "spring training". #1 ranked UNC opened with Seton Hall and Stony Brook with Davidson tossed in also.

Seton Hall is currently 34-17, tied for second in the Big East and ranked in the top 40 RPI. Stony Brook was one of the last eight teams playing in Omaha last year, and Davidson (while not a power house) is in the Southern Conference and 130 miles from Chapel Hill. They also played Rice, Cal and aTm pre-conference.

POD is correct. UNC has played 15 nonconference games versus the top 100 in the RPI while Auburn has only played 6. Furthermore, UNC has played 9 nonconference games versus teams in the RPI top 50 while Auburn has played only 1.

That's fine...if you want to cherry pick to make your arguments....then take a look at Vandy and see how may big schools they played to open the season. I'm just saying that all the big schools play the smaller schools early in the season.....AU's schedule might have been weak but it was not that different than any other SEC or ACC team. Just a suggestion but if you doubt it, check a few schedules.

There again, you make our point. Vandy has played 9 NC games versus the top 100 and 4 versus the top 50. Yes all teams play some cup cakes but Auburn does it more so than some of the bigger schools this year.

[PowerOfDixieland 3,226]

"Anybody in the SEC that has 35 total wins and 14-15 conference wins is in. Not being able to get 20 out of conference wins cost Pawlowski dearly last year. I have no problem with not letting that scenario play out again this year."

That was a post I made on 2/26/13 in the CofC game discussion. I said then, as now, Pawlowski made a calculated gamble based on recent (painful) experience. I don't think playing a dozen marshmallows does a whole lot for a team, but I get why he did it. I will give him credit for knowing his RPI and SOS would get all the help it needed simply by way of playing the conference schedule. He was right. I have wavered over the season as to whether 14 conference wins will absolutely get us in. Under the current circumstances, with two to play at home against Arkansas, I would say it should. Just WIN TODAY. Then, WIN TOMORROW.

[AU64 10,122]

AU's pre-season schedule probably suited our prospects at the beginning of the year. UNC, Vandy, etc were picked in top 5 so was helpful for them to play some tougher teams. I'm not sure that our cupcake schedule really makes any difference at this point...they are mostly wins with no RPI benefit but on the other hand, seeing the start the team got off to with a number of new players, losses to some slightly better teams would have been a detriment. Everyone can view it the way they wish but IMO at least, the way this schedule played out has probably been a benefit to AU at this point in the season. Despite our griping about the early season schedule (and I include myself in that camp) it probably played out OK. We were pre-season as last in the SEC West and forecast as either 13th or 14th in the conference. So, considering where we are now, it's hard to deny that AU has well exceeded the expectations of outside observers. Nobody gave us a chance to be in Hoover this month ....and certainly no one would have considered that we could be on the bubble for the NCAA tourney. This team has finished strong, no matter what happens from here on out...and they deserve some credit for what they've done this season....JMO.

[ellitor 33,110]

"Anybody in the SEC that has 35 total wins and 14-15 conference wins is in. Not being able to get 20 out of conference wins cost Pawlowski dearly last year. I have no problem with not letting that scenario play out again this year."

That was a post I made on 2/26/13 in the CofC game discussion. I said then, as now, Pawlowski made a calculated gamble based on recent (painful) experience. I don't think playing a dozen marshmallows does a whole lot for a team, but I get why he did it. I will give him credit for knowing his RPI and SOS would get all the help it needed simply by way of playing the conference schedule. He was right. I have wavered over the season as to whether 14 conference wins will absolutely get us in. Under the current circumstances, with two to play at home against Arkansas, I would say it should. Just WIN TODAY. Then, WIN TOMORROW.

I can answer part of your post. I think the reason CJP softened the nonconference was because we ended 2011 at 29-29 overall having a very tough non conference schedule. Even at 13-17 in the conference we were projected in by everybody if we had gotten over .500 overall. The only rule in making the NCAA tourney is to qualify a team must be over .500 overall. With the SEC being as tough as it is CJP correctly realized he can dial it back some on the nonconference schedule and would make the NCAAs with 14 SEC wins. Also every team that has had 14 SEC wins and been over 500 overall has made the NCAAs from the SEC.

[PowerOfDixieland 3,226]

"Anybody in the SEC that has 35 total wins and 14-15 conference wins is in. Not being able to get 20 out of conference wins cost Pawlowski dearly last year. I have no problem with not letting that scenario play out again this year."

That was a post I made on 2/26/13 in the CofC game discussion. I said then, as now, Pawlowski made a calculated gamble based on recent (painful) experience. I don't think playing a dozen marshmallows does a whole lot for a team, but I get why he did it. I will give him credit for knowing his RPI and SOS would get all the help it needed simply by way of playing the conference schedule. He was right. I have wavered over the season as to whether 14 conference wins will absolutely get us in. Under the current circumstances, with two to play at home against Arkansas, I would say it should. Just WIN TODAY. Then, WIN TOMORROW.

I can answer part of your post. I think the reason CJP softened the nonconference was because we ended 2011 at 29-29 overall having a very tough non conference schedule. Even at 13-17 in the conference we were projected in by everybody if we had gotten over .500 overall. The only rule in making the NCAA tourney is to qualify a team must be over .500 overall. With the SEC being as tough as it is CJP correctly realized he can dial it back some on the nonconference schedule and would make the NCAAs with 14 SEC wins. Also every team that has had 14 SEC wins and been over 500 overall has made the NCAAs from the SEC.

I think there's an echo in here.

Miss St '02, Ole Miss '02, Vandy '03, bammer '07, UGa '12,

[AUFightingSoldiers 685]

Am I reading the sec records right... If everything falls perfectly (which is a long shot), we could be the 6 in the sec tourny...