throwback

#@(@$@!! Well, I expected 1-2 but this is a 1-2 kick in the nuts, as we should've split the last two games at worst. Those 2 losses are going to haunt if we're playing well in May. I'll stay positive, even though I'm not really in the mood to be. Tech and Oklahoma are really good. For us as a northern team to challenge those two on opening weekend like we did -- and outplay them for long stretches -- was really good. We definitely took advantage of being able to be outside quite a bit before going to Texas. We were really good most of the weekend without getting anything from our 4-5-6 hitters, which is encouraging, as those guys are going to get it going. The Ks are a significant concern on offense, as well as the lack of clutch hitting, but we are finding ways to manufacture runs, which is important. The bats will get going as the season goes along, they always do, and we had some good velocities off the bat that resulted in outs. But we have to cut down on Ks when we have power limitations. 8 free passes today from our pitchers = loss. For the weekend, 11 walks/HBP vs 28 Ks is solid, though, especially considering the level of opposition. Things weren't quite as sharp on the mound today, but I still think we're in good shape depth-wise there. Wouldn't surprise me to see Timmerman get a start vs GCU, as neither Clark nor Christo were too good today. We'll need 4 starters the next 2 weekends, so it's a good chance to give Timmerman a shot. Another tough weekend on tap as GCU can play. 2-2 would be a good weekend, but I'll hope for more.

Watching live, I'm pretty sure he called a double foul on the 2 guys shoving each other in the lane, which means a jump ball - but then after he blew the whistle, he wanted to be sure Iowa had the possession arrow, so the call didn't actually affect the game, so the refs got together to make sure. Maybe the refs were meeting to see if they needed to review it for a flagrant, too. It's also possible he blew the whistle to call the double foul, thought better of it, and then wasn't sure what to do with the inadvertent whistle. Either way, after the meeting, they moved the possession arrow from Iowa to Wisco but Iowa still inbounded.

Ugh - sucks to lose that game when we had so many chances, but it's hard to be discouraged after outplaying a high-level southern team for 8 innings and having the baseball gods give them quite a few breaks. Pitching staff is way ahead of where I'd have guessed they'd be. Hitters are still adjusting, but I think there are some dudes that will develop in that lineup. Really sucks that Worthley had such a rough outing - he was nails all fall and has been great in the preseason in the spring. I think he was pretty close to getting the ball to start today instead of Walsh. Speaking of, wow, Walsh was good today. Love our pitching depth. Childress is making a big difference already ... and I'm not one that completely disliked what Christy was doing. I mean, he did coach 4 pitchers who were taken in the Top 10 rounds of the draft. Still, Childress is just on another level, and it's obvious already. Tomorrow will be interesting. We'll see what Clark has. OU can really run, so having the lefty in there to keep the running game down should help. Would be awesome to come home 2-1. EDIT: OU with the short, short turnaround - but they'll be feeling pretty good after beating Tennessee 5-1 in 10 innings late last night. Hopefully they're still celebrating this morning.

With the way PSU uglied up the game and set basketball back several decades, and with the way the refs let it happen, we needed our lunch pail guys to step up and Allick, Gary, and Hoiberg were all great. We were very clearly the fresher team as the game went on, and took full advantage after a frustrating first half. We cleaned up the glass well after all those PSU bricks, outscoring them in both second chance points and points off turnovers, which are two huge areas for our team. When we have success in those areas at home, we usually win pretty easily. Someone has to explain to me how PSU can play the game the way they play defensively, and, yet, we end up with 15 total fouls to their 13 (one of which was a technical) on our home floor. Glad the guys didn't let any of that garbage bother them. Time to go get a win in Bloomington

NU 73 IU 70

At some point, I'm charging the mound .... just so I can get ejected and go ice down my body.

B1G & NU Opponents Friday 2/16 The good (for our RPI) · NU 4, Baylor 1 · Rutgers 14, Winthrop 5 · Maryland 5, Georgia Southern 4 · N’western 3, Tulane 0 The meh · Duke 6, Indiana 3 · Penn St 6, Monmouth 5 (10) · Illinois 3, Akron 1 (DH-1) · Michigan St 10, Merrimack 3 · Purdue 6, Stony Brook 0 · Iowa 5, Seton Hall 2 · Minnesota 8, CS-Bakersfield 7 (12) · New Mexico St 8, S Dakota St 6 · Nicholls 16, Sacred Heart 0 · College of Charleston 15, Marshall 3 · Grand Canyon 5, Georgetown 2 · South Alabama 3, North Alabama 2 · Cal 5, K-State 2 · Wichita St 18, UALR 5 · bluebirds 24, Coppin St 0 The ugly · W Michigan 14, Michigan 13 (11) · Akron 5, Illinois 4 (11 / DH-2) · Boston College 9, Ohio St 2 · Illinois-Chicago 11, Kansas 9 Shriners Classic – Day 1 · NU 4, Baylor 1 · Oregon 4, Oklahoma 2 · Tennessee 6, Texas Tech 2

Just noticed on those highlights that we didn't throw the ball around the horn after strikeouts. I think that's new - maybe that's a Childress thing - he certainly likes his guys to get up on the bump and throw to keep the game moving. Also noticed that I was wrong earlier, Brumbaugh did peek as he was scoring in the 6th - he didn't slow down at least, but I'd prefer he crosses the plate before he peeks.

Big favorites again Saturday - we have 5 straight outright wins when we're favored in B1G games. Expecting to get #6 tomorrow.

Great win - yes, some hiccups with all the strikeouts, but for a northern team to play as solidly fundamentally as we did today was very impressive. Being able to get outside regularly was a big help. Thought it'd be a high-scoring game, shows what I know. Man, our pitchers were awesome. Baylor can hit, but we did a great job attacking the zone. No walks vs 9 Ks is going to win college baseball games 99 times out of 100. Exactly what Childress demands. Sears was brilliant. Timmerman's heart had to be thumping in his debut, but he did just enough. There's a lot to like there. Perry looked like a different guy today, another year removed from his injury, and Daiss was nasty at the back end. Offense was hit and miss, but I loved the fundamentals we showed. Brumbaugh scoring on the Carey double in the 6th where he didn't slow down until he crossed the plate, knowing there might be a play at 2nd, so he could count that run before the potential third out was made at 2nd base. He never peeked until he crossed the plate. Great base running fundamentals. Instead of hanging his head, Silva runs out that dropped 3rd strike in the 9th, steals a base, and lets us manufacture an insurance run. Also loved how Brumbaugh took the ball the other way to drive in that late run. Didn't try to do too much on a pitch over the outside part of the plate. Carey did the same thing on his RBI double in the 6th. Then Carey and Anglim both yanked pitches in the upper part of the zone and drove in runs, too. They were smartly aggressive with their swings when they got the chance to be because of the pitch location. (Yes, Carey popped his up, but it was still smart hitting.) Those are good fundamentals. Pretty solid day defensively, again that's where being able to get outside quite a bit paid off. Quite a different feeling compared to last year's opener. Will be very interesting to see how tomorrow goes.

We're a slight favorite today - regular-season college baseball betting lines will always seem odd to me, though. I think I'd like the over for sure.

2024 Projected RPI from Boyd’s World http://boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/rpi_projections2024.html (New quad splits for 2024) 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+ NU Projection RPI 99 Record 28-28 Q1 Games (5) 2 (N) Tex Tech (30 – 1 gm) / Okla (28 – 1 gm) 3 (A) Rutgers (53 – 3 gms) Q2 Games (17) 1 (N) Baylor (74 – 1 gm) 3 (H) Maryland (31 – 3 gms) 13 (A) K-State (79 – 1 gm) / Grand Canyon (64 – 4 gms) / Coll of Char (78 – 4 gms) / Wichita St (115 – 2 gms) / Creigh (77 – 2 gms) Q3 Games (15) 8 (H) Iowa (84 – 3 gms) / K-State (79 – 1 gm) / Creigh (77 – 1 gm) / So. Alabama (55 – 3 gms) 7 (A) Kansas (160 – 1 gm) / Michigan St (189 / 3 gms) / N’western (157 – 3 gms) Q4 Games (19) 16 (H) Indiana (104 – 3 gms) / Ohio St (139 – 3 gms) / Nicholls (156 – 3 gms) / No. Dakota St (117 – 1 gm) / New Mexico St (214 – 3 gms) / Kansas (160 – 1 gm) / Omaha (197 – 1 gm) / So. Dakota St. (226 – 1 gm) 3 (A) Minnesota (256 – 3 gms) Well, this isn’t super encouraging, although I can’t say I’m too surprised where it puts NU. The predictive metrics simply aren’t going to like NU with so many key players to replace. However, if Iowa has an 84 RPI and Indiana is at 104, the B1G might be a one bid league this season. These projections say the B1G will be extremely weak top to bottom. I hope not, but this site was almost dead on when projecting NU a year ago, so who knows? If these projections are at all accurate, we’ll play 11 of our Q1 and Q2 games the first 3 weekends with only 11 more spread throughout the rest of the year. Brutal. And 5 of those final 11 are mid-week games. I guess the good news is we’re #99 in RPI at a projected 28-28 record. Get to 36 to 38 regular season wins and we’ll probably be top 50 RPI, which puts us probably on the right side of the bubble, as long as we don’t tank these first 3 weekends. B1G projected RPIs 2024 (NU doesn’t play underlined teams) Maryland 31 (38-15 projected record) Rutgers 53 (37-18) Iowa 84 (38-18) Michigan 88 (34-22) NU 99 (28-28) Indiana 104 (29-27) Illinois 112 (29-21) Penn St 132 (25-30) Ohio St 139 (25-31) Purdue 152 (28-29) N’western 157 (23-29) Michigan St 189 (24-31) Minnesota 256 (11-38) RPIs for Pac-4 2024 Oregon 14 (33-20) UCLA 25 (33-21) Washington 97 (20-28) USC 100 (23-31) B1G 2023 projections vs actual record / RPI (Boyd’s World) Illinois #98 (28-23) vs #95 (25-27) Indiana #94 (30-24) vs #31 (43-20) Iowa #77 (35-16) vs #32 (44-16) Maryland #37 (41-14) vs #36 (42-21) Michigan #82 (33-20) vs #122 (28-28) Mich St #186 (21-34) vs #69 (33-22) Minny #246 (12-43) vs #209 (18-34) NU #104 (30-25) vs #98 (33-23) N’wstrn #147 (22-30) vs #262 (10-40) Ohio St #116 (26-31) vs #78 (31-25) Penn St #157 (25-30) vs #141 (25-25) Purdue #174 (29-27) vs #207 (24-29) Rutgers #53 (34-21) vs #68 (33-23) 2 missed horribly – Indiana (+63), Mich St (+117) 5 missed average amount – Iowa (+45 spots), Michigan (-40 spots), Ohio St (+38), Minny (+37), Purdue (-33) 5 incredibly close – Illinois (+3), Maryland (+1), NU (+6), Penn St (+16), Rutgers (-15) Missed horribly on N’western, too, but I can’t ding the site for that one considering what a mess their coaching situation was. Generally, though, the site underestimated the B1G last season, so hopefully that’s the case this season as well.

Why the B1G only releases the top 6 teams in its preseason poll is one of those questions for the ages that will never receive a satisfactory answer. https://bigten.org/news/2024/2/9/baseball-postseason-honors.aspx

https://huskers.com/news/2024/02/14/coach-bolt-announces-starting-rotation-and-previews-the-2024-nebraska-baseball-season

Playing with house money tonight. Tall, tall order to bounce back after the emotion of Sunday. No matter what happens tonight, just win the last 4 and get the double bye.

With the especially fat wallets that the B1G and SEC teams now have, it's going to be an interesting off season to see whether Big East, ACC, and Big XII schools are going to be able to complete financially to keep their coaches. At some point that massive dollar discrepancy from the TV deals has to start showing up, whether it's in facilities, head coaching salaries, staff salaries, NIL, etc.

Probably a good idea by Ohio St to get a jump on some of the other potential big name job openings in the B1G alone - Michigan ? Indiana ? USC ?? Has Izzo had enough of NIL and the transfer portal at MSU ?? What about Altman at Oregon ?? With all the money B1G schools have, there are going to be quite a few coaches who are going to get big raises if a chunk of these jobs actually open. I'd expect OSU will swing for the fences and try to lure a currently employed P5 top-end coach. That'll likely be a huge contract that'll reset the market.

That would be my solution, too You could even do it all season - with the odd number of conference teams, having at least one 3-team pod each week would work perfectly. Nobody would need a bye once conference play starts. However, the coaches hate it. So it's an idea that's dead on arrival, unfortunately. Maybe they'll change their minds down the road, but it's not on the table right now.

Best Games - Big Ten - Week 1 Friday Duke v Indiana NU v Baylor Maryland at Geo. Southern Ohio State v Boston Coll. Saturday Illinois v Wake Forest Maryland at Geo. Southern Minnesota v Oregon St Indiana at Coastal Carolina NU v Texas Tech Sunday Maryland at Geo. Southern NU v Oklahoma Ohio State v USC Monday Minnesota v Oregon St

I'm guessing you're right. It's probably going to be a roller coaster of a weekend on the bump. I like Sears' arm talent, and he's probably had the best combo of arm talent + consistency so far this spring, so I'm not surprised to see him get the Friday role to start out. We need to win that first game against a struggling Baylor program, so I'm sure we'll go all in on Friday, whatever it takes. (Feels weird to type 'struggling Baylor' after how good they always were when we were together in the Big XII.) I also like throwing a change of pace arm (and lefty) like Walsh against Tech - their big bats aren't intimidated by hard throwers, so maybe Walsh can keep them off balance. Plus Tech gets Tennessee Friday night, so they'll see a high MLB draft pick kind of arm in Beam, who's also a righty. Walsh provides the perfect counter to that the next day. And the NU coaches have certainly liked Clark's arm since he arrived on campus. I'm sure he's more prepared for a weekend role now than he was as a true frosh last year. Ultimately, I hope our offense is ready to roll. Probably will be a lot of back and forth in these games.