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Wow. Awful news. Hope the best for him as he goes through the cancer treatments.

B1G standings thru week 4: 7-2 Illinois 6-3 NU 8-4 Purdue 8-4 Michigan 5-4 Indiana 5-4 Ohio St 6-6 Iowa 5-7 Maryland 5-7 Penn St 3-6 Rutgers 3-6 Minnesota 3-6 Mich St 2-7 N'western Week 5 B1G Schedule Maryland at NU Ohio St at Michigan N'western at Illinois Indiana at Minnesota Rutgers at Iowa Penn St at Michigan St Purdue OFF B1G Boyd's World RPIs (http://boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/currentrpi.html) through 9 weeks: 16 Nebraska (23-10) (+1 spot vs last week) 44 Ohio St (17-15) -- WWL (3 H) (+6) 46 Rutgers (22-13) -- LWL (3 A) (+13) 53 Maryland (23-14) (3 H) (-24) 69 Illinois (16-13)* (-1) 70 Indiana (20-16) (3 H) (-13) 71 Purdue (23-13)* (+21) 103 Michigan (17-20)* (-14) 107 N'western (12-20) -- WWW (3 A) (-11) 118 Michigan St (14-19) (3 A) (-10) 130 Iowa (18-15) (3 H) (-7) 141 Minnesota (14-16) (3 A) (+17) 152 Penn St (18-14)* (+40) * NU doesn't play Non-con opponents: 19 Oklahoma (21-14) -- L (1 N) (+5) 37 Texas Tech (26-11) -- L (1 N) (+6) 38 K-State (21-13) (1 H) (-12) 45 bluebirds (26-7) -- Lx (2 A) (1 H) (-11) 81 Coll of Charleston (24-10) -- WWW (3 A) (-10) 86 South Alabama (20-16) -- LWW (3 H) (-11) 91 Grand Canyon (19-16) -- WWLW (4 A) (+6) 93 Kansas (19-14) -- L (1 A) (1 H) (0) 100 Nicholls (24-13) -- WWW (3 H) (-36) 101 Wichita St (21-16) -- WL (2 A) (0) 117 Baylor (16-18) -- W (1 N) (+24) 201 North Dakota St (10-21) -- W (1 H) (-46) 211 New Mexico St (15-19) -- WW (2 H) (-3) 219 South Dakota St (15-18) (1 H) (-17) 289 Omaha (10-22) -- W (1 H) (+3) The Pac-4: 63 Oregon (25-10) (-9) 79 USC (17-18) (+24) 166 UCLA (13-20) (-13) 190 Washington (11-17-1) (-38) What our quads look like right now: Q1: 1-5 (7 total games) (0 change in total games from last week) L – Oklahoma (N) L – Texas Tech (N) LX – bluebirds (A) LWL – Rutgers (A) Q2: 12-4 (21 total games) (-3) WWLW – Grand Canyon (A) WWW – Coll of Charleston (A) WL – Wichita St (A) L – Kansas (A) X – K-State (H) X – bluebirds (H) WWW – Northwestern (A) WWL – Ohio St (H) XXX – Michigan St (A) Q3: 6-1 (17 total games) (+3) W – Baylor (N) LWW – South Alabama (H) WWW – Nicholls (H) X – Kansas (H) XXX – Maryland (H) XXX – Indiana (H) XXX – Minnesota (A) Q4: 4-0 (8 total games) (0) WW – New Mexico St (H) W – N Dakota St (H) W – Omaha (H) X – S Dakota St (H) XXX – Iowa (H) --------- Quad 1: Home games vs. RPI 1-25, neutral site games vs. 1-40, road games vs. 1-60 Quad 2: Home games vs. RPI 26-50, neutral site games vs. 41-80, road games vs. 61-120 Quad 3: Home games vs. RPI 51-100, neutral site games vs. 81-160, road games vs. 121-240 Quad 4: Home games vs. RPI 101+, neutral site games vs. 161+, road games vs. 241+ Maryland dropped from Q2 to Q3 this week, and that was the only major change in our RPI projections. Well, we caught a break by playing good teams on the road, even though we didn't win much. The 1-3 week didn't cost us anything in RPI ranking. Actually moved up a spot. Those benefits are not going to be there the next couple of weeks on this 8-game homestand, though. We have to start racking up wins now, or the RPI will take a nose dive, especially since Maryland & Iowa are playing like garbage. We also need to move back to the top of the league standings. We're not going to be in the host discussion unless we can win a B1G title, I'd imagine. It certainly looks like the B1G is struggling since preseason favorites like Iowa, Maryland, and Indiana are not playing great, and because NU is the only NCAA tourney 'lock' at this point, although the B1G's overall RPI is pretty solid. The bottom of the league is playing far better than expected, which helps. Nobody is really, really terrible. Maybe Iowa. Either way, I think we need to win the regular season for the 'eye' test. The NCAA committee is willing to give the best northern team the benefit of the doubt in terms of RPI, but we have to do our part and make ourselves look good. It'd probably help if Indiana State started to slide down the RPI list from #8, too. The NCAA would love two northern hosts, but they aren't going to give one of them the benefit of the doubt if the other one is solidly a host. TL;DR: Last week didn't cost us much. Huge 2-week stretch coming up. No more margin for error. Time to take out some frustration on Maryland & Iowa (& the bluebirds & Kansas).

Anyone else think this dude's name was FLGOR MILICIC at first glance. Because I sure didn't. Hope Brice can reel him in.

Have to completely disagree - we're still very much in the discussion for hosting. I don't disagree that we should be focusing on trying to win the B1G title, as that should always be the #1 goal, but we earned the opportunity to be in the discussion for a host spot with how we played in the first half. Now, I don't think an NCAA host will happen, you just have so little margin for error when you're in the B1G. But what we did in the non-con was more than enough to be in the discussion as a regional host. And we still are in the discussion with an RPI in the teens. We have to be really good from here - probably in the 18-4 range - so it'll be really difficult, but not impossible. We've already had a 19-3 stretch this season against solid competition, so we are more than capable of doing it again. We're just slumping a bit now. It happens to every team, but especially to northern teams in mid-April as the early-season road trips start to catch up to them a bit. Whether we can flip it around quickly is the key. The offense is starting to come around again, and the defense was outstanding last night (for a change), but now we have some issues in the bullpen and with pitching depth. A couple of our younger guys who were really good early are scuffling now. And Perry has been lights out most of this season, so hopefully last night was just a blip. In hindsight, we probably should've had Daiss ready to go earlier against RU's tough righties in the 9th, but it's hard to fault the coaches for relying on Perry as good as he's been. Just the ups and downs of a baseball season. We won a few games early in the year with crazy late-inning comebacks, so eventually the law of averages were almost certainly going to catch up to us. Hopefully we bounce back strong today and start a big run to close out the season. Very important for Mac and Christo to be sharp against some great RU hitters the next couple of days, but I'd guess we're going to have two wild back and forth games.

Yeah, Sears is going to be a draft pick oddity. He'll be 24 years old, he's a late bloomer, and he has no leverage as a super senior, so teams can really low-ball him. Plus, he's going to have to be great out of the gate. Teams aren't waiting around for a 24-year-old to develop over a few years. However, if someone loves his makeup, he could end up going in the first 10 rounds, especially when they can sign him for quite a bit below slot value and give that money to other top 10-round draft picks. Tough to project where he'll go, but I'd guess someone will take a flyer. He's someone where his value to a team may be higher in the first 10 rounds, because he has no leverage, than in the back half. He also could go undrafted and have to try a free agent route. He's definitely in a unique situation.

No change to the rotation - should be a great pitching matchup tonight - two of the best in the league tonight ... well, the best in the league and the guy who's a distant second or third. RU's pitching depth has been a mess of late, but they can really hit and score. The games could get back and forth squirrely Saturday and Sunday.

Board of Regents is discussing this right now - apparently NU and the Saltdogs negotiated an agreement that both could live with. Going to guess the Saltdogs got a bit of pushback from the public for not negotiating fairly, so they caved a bit. It looks like there will be beer sales, starting Tuesday. It's nice of us to make sure bluebird fans will be the first to feel right at home - they can even gather down the first base line and turn their backs on the game and everything, just like they do in Omaha.

Welp, I think we're officially in a mini-slump. So many things went right early in the year, and it's going the other way a bit here of late. Can't believe we scored 11 runs and lost with as much pitching depth as we've had this season. It's pretty common for NU and other northern teams to slump a bit around the middle of the season. Those long road trips early in the year start to take their toll. It's just a matter of us getting it flipped around as quick as possible. Taking a loooong East Coast road trip probably isn't the best remedy for this right now, though, I'd imagine. At least it's a charter flight this weekend. I did like the way we fought back tonight, as it had to be extremely deflating to claw back to a 5-5 tie, only to give up 6 unanswered. Yet, we didn't let the game end right there. Fighting back a second time from a big deficit is a good sign. RU has been a pain in the a$$ over the last several years, as they've beaten us 8 of the last 12 meetings. Hopefully Sears is able to get us off to a good start Friday in NJ and we can take advantage of RU, which is slumping more than we are right now, to get things turned around.

Sigh. I really wish our radio guys would stop telling us how dominant pitcher "X" is looking. A crooked number is sure to follow (other than Sears).

B1G Boyd's World RPIs (http://boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/currentrpi.html) through 8 weeks: 17 Nebraska (22-7) (-5 spots vs last week) 29 Maryland (22-10) (3 H) (+3) 50 Ohio St (13-14) -- WWL (3 H) (+16) 57 Indiana (18-15) (3 H) (+43) 59 Rutgers (19-12) (3 A) (-16) 68 Illinois (16-13)* (+18) 89 Michigan (14-18)* (+15) 92 Purdue (20-12)* (+23) 96 N'western (10-18) -- WWW (3 A) (-15) 108 Michigan St (14-15) (3 A) (+9) 137 Iowa (16-13) (3 H) (-35) 158 Minnesota (12-14) (3 A) (-13) 192 Penn St (16-12)* (+15) * NU doesn't play Non-con opponents: 24 Oklahoma (17-14) -- L (1 N) (+5) 26 K-State (20-10) (1 H) (+11) 34 bluebirds (24-5) -- Lx (2 A) (1 H) (+5) 43 Texas Tech (24-9) -- L (1 N) (+16) 64 Nicholls (23-11) -- WWW (3 H) (+30) 71 Coll of Charleston (20-10) -- WWW (3 A) (+30) 75 South Alabama (17-15) -- LWW (3 H) (-19) 93 Kansas (15-14) (1 A) (1 H) (-33) 97 Grand Canyon (16-15) -- WWLW (4 A) (-8) 101 Wichita St (19-13) -- WL (2 A) (-24) 141 Baylor (13-18) -- W (1 N) (+13) 155 North Dakota St (8-19) -- W (1 H) (-20) 202 South Dakota St (13-16) (1 H) (+6) 208 New Mexico St (12-18) -- WW (2 H) (-5) 292 Omaha (8-20) -- W (1 H) (+6) The Pac-4: 54 Oregon (22-8) (+11) 103 USC (15-16) (+5) 152 Washington (9-15-1) (-56) 153 UCLA (12-17) (+21) What our quads look like right now: Q1: 0-3 (7 total games) (0 change in total games from last week) L – Oklahoma (N) L – Texas Tech (N) LX – bluebirds (A) XXX – Rutgers (A) Q2: 12-3 (24 total games) (+3) WWLW – Grand Canyon (A) WWW – Coll of Charleston (A) WL – Wichita St (A) X – K-State (H) X – Kansas (A) X – bluebirds (H) WWW – Northwestern (A) WWL – Ohio St (H) XXX – Michigan St (A) XXX – Maryland (H) Q3: 6-1 (14 total games) (-3) W – Baylor (N) LWW – South Alabama (H) WWW – Nicholls (H) X – Kansas (H) XXX – Indiana (H) XXX – Minnesota (A) Q4: 4-0 (8 total games) (0) WW – New Mexico St (H) W – N Dakota St (H) W – Omaha (H) X – S Dakota St (H) XXX – Iowa (H) --------- Quad 1: Home games vs. RPI 1-25, neutral site games vs. 1-40, road games vs. 1-60 Quad 2: Home games vs. RPI 26-50, neutral site games vs. 41-80, road games vs. 61-120 Quad 3: Home games vs. RPI 51-100, neutral site games vs. 81-160, road games vs. 121-240 Quad 4: Home games vs. RPI 101+, neutral site games vs. 161+, road games vs. 241+ Not a huge change from last week, other than Ohio St moving into Q2. Kind of surprised Maryland hasn't lost more ground with back to back series losses. Big week upcoming with 4 Top-100 RPI road games, although if we win the series at Rutgers, they probably fall to Q2. Iowa has solidly placed itself in Q4. Definitely didn't have that on my bingo card back in February. Indiana made a huge surge, though, and they're approaching Q2, as did Nicholls.

Wouldn't be surprised if we tried someone else on the bump on Sunday next week. Christo still just gets too much of the plate - been a problem since he arrived. Probably Walsh. Maybe we try moving Christo to midweeks. Or maybe we let him throw as Walsh's backup, as those two have completely different styles and can complement each other. Regardless, the bats have to get going. Just slumping a bit right now with runners on base and especially with runners in scoring position. We needed the offense to seize control of the game in the middle innings when Walsh gave us a chance. Still, as mentioned earlier, tough to be upset about a 2-1 B1G weekend. Huge week coming up from an RPI perspective with winnable road games. Need to take advantage of Rutgers while they are scuffling, because they're too good not to going to get it going at some point. And KU is sneaky good. Throwing Walsh as much as we did today probably leaves him out of the equation at KU, so not sure what we're going to do on the mound for such a big game. For our chances of hosting a regional, this upcoming week could end up being make or break when we look back at it in late May. Have to find a way to score some runs.

The preseason B1G predictions don't look so good thru the nearly 1/3 point of league play. B1G Standings 5-0 NU 7-2 Illinois 6-3 Michigan 3-2 Indiana 5-4 Iowa 4-4 Purdue 3-3 Mich St 2-3 Ohio St 3-5 Maryland 3-5 Penn St 2-4 Minnesota 1-4 Rutgers 0-5 N'western Woof. Although it's fun to see Iowa, Rutgers, and Maryland scuffling, and although their struggles help us work toward winning a B1G regular-season title, this isn't helping our hopes to host a regional. It'd be nice if Maryland could win tomorrow vs Indiana and salvage one game in that series. At this rate, if we want to host a regional, we're probably looking at needing to get to 19-plus B1G wins in the regular season and be nearly perfect in the remaining non-con games. Not a lot of room for error, but at least we're in control of our own destiny for the most part. Just keep winning.

The way B1G play has started, the league is far closer to a 1-bid league than a 4-bid league.

Yeah that was really important for Worthley to finish things, although he had to be running out of gas by the end. If Christo can at least give us 4 or 5 innings tomorrow and leave with a lead, we're in really good shape for the sweep.

19 wins in our last 22 games - quite a heater the boys are on.

Before last night, Sears was 4th nationally in ERA (among those who qualify) and 2nd among starters - he's down to a 1.14 ERA after last night. I don't know if Baseball America and D1 Baseball still do mid-season All-American teams, but Sears should be on the list right now. 0.56 Izaak Martinez, UC San Diego 32.1 IP (2-1) 0.66 Jamie Arnold, Florida State 40.2 (5-1) 0.90 Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman, East Carolina 30 (3-1) 1.36 Brett Sears, Nebraska 46.1 (4-0) --- (now 1.14, 55.1, and 5-0) 1.38 Luke Holman, LSU 39 (5-1) 1.41 Kyson Witherspoon, Oklahoma 32 (2-2) 1.47 Brian Curley, VCU 30.2 (5-0) 1.49 Charlie McDaniel, Presbyterian 42.1 (4-0) 1.57 Nate Knowles, William & Mary 34.1 (5-0) 1.59 Josh Salinas, Incarnate Word 34 (3-0) He leads the B1G in ERA by almost a run and a half (among those who qualify). Sears is at 1.14 - Powers of Michigan State is second at 2.57. Sears has been insanely good to this point.

Sears was brilliant again - at age 24 at the time of the draft, I don't know what MLB teams will think of him, but they'd be crazy not to take a flyer early in the draft. Wow. In a year where offense is ruling the day in the B1G, Sears is the clear front runner for B1G pitcher of the year. Even as good as our pitching has been, our offense simply has to get it going if we want this season to be a special one. I know tonight was tough to hit, but the wind doesn't explain all the Ks. Been a season long problem. Should've been up 5 or 6-0 after 3 innings. ESE and SE winds tomorrow as high as they're going to be will be pretty rare at Haymarket - we get strong south or north winds several times a year, but rarely blowing straight in. That wind screaming in from dead center will make small ball a must. Mac needs to be ready to hold down the OSU running game if they get anyone on base. Both teams will be running a bunch if anyone gets on. Hell, the throw from the catcher to 2nd base on a steal attempt will be dicey into that kind of a wind. As a plus, the pitchers should get an extra few MPH on their fastballs. Huge day for throwing strikes tomorrow. Must make hitters put the ball in play in those kinds of weather conditions.

Dana Altman has some thoughts.