Nebraska, Big Ten and other relevant questions transcribed here
d1baseball.com
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Casey: Who comes out ahead next weekend in Eugene? Nebraska looks pretty strong right now and recently took 2/3 in Ann Arbor from the same team that just won the series against Oregon.
Aaron Fitt: Nebraska is on a roll and looks like a slam-dunk regional team with a legit shot to host. I'll give the Ducks a bit of a pass for dropping the road series in the bitter cold, especially with the quick turnaround before Game 1 due to a schedule change. Ultimately I still think Oregon is an Omaha-type team, and I'm not quite there with Nebraska (despite the differing results against common opponent Michigan), so I lean Oregon at home. But the Huskers are certainly good enough to win that series on the road. Should be a good one.
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Hardball Fan: Is it time for a coaching change in Bloomington? Indiana continues to underachieve and sits at 5-10 in the Big Ten and 12-19 overall. RPI is 105.
Kendall Rogers: I wouldn't go that far just yet. Let's see how the season plays out. It really depends on what IU's expectations are as a program. IU made back-to-back NCAA Tournament trips in '23 and '24 and then nothing last year, and are obviously not going to make it this year barring a surprise. The one interesting caveat here is that Chris Lemonis, who took the Hoosiers to three NCAA trips, is available. What would cause IU to pull the trigger and bring back their old skipper? Maybe so.
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DDawg: Does UCLA go 30-0 in the Big Ten?
Aaron Fitt: UCLA is on its way to an all-time great season, and the fact that I had to stop and think about this is pretty telling. But it's just so hard to run the table in baseball, I have to imagine UCLA gets tripped up at some point along the way (even though the Bruins are very clearly the class of the Big Ten by a wide margin). Still -- it's baseball, not football. Nobody goes undefeated.........right?
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DMan: I know USC's pitching got hit around like a pinata this weekend against UCLA, but is there ceiling Omaha or a Super Regional this year? Clearly they do not have the horses yet to win it all or win against the best teams.
Aaron Fitt: Frankly, I was always reserving judgment a little bit on USC, just because the level of competition they dominated during the first half of the season was not elite. I thought Cal Poly had a chance to be a regional team (but their stock is dropping) -- but nobody else USC beat will be anywhere close to an at-large type of team. Clearly you have to be GOOD to start the season 27-3 -- but exactly how good the Trojans really are felt like it was still unknown to me. I think now we know a little bit more -- they are good; they are not elite. Doesn't mean they can't host, doesn't mean they can't make a run to a super or Omaha, but right now I don't have them on my personal board of top title contenders. Let's see how they do in upcoming tests at Nebraska, vs. Purdue and later vs. Oregon.
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Sad Duck: Any major concerns for Oregon after that week? Or could you just chalk it up to an off week on the road?
Kendall Rogers: I'll chalk it up as an off weekend on the road in pretty miserable conditions -- I believe the first two games of the series were played in 30 degree temperatures, which obviously is not very conducive to massive run production for a team like Oregon that really relies on offense, and to some degree, the long ball. With that said, the Ducks better buckle up because a series against Nebraska is coming up this weekend. I'm going to take a wild guess and say UO scores more than 7 runs in three games this weekend.
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Ryan: UCLA is obviously awesome and there's no reason to think they are going to stumble the rest of the regular season, but baseball is a funny sport. With a relatively weak schedule the rest of the way maybe hurting their metrics, what kind of stumble do you think it would take for them to fall out of the top eight? Or maybe to make it simpler -- how much margin for error have the Bruins built themselves?
Kendall Rogers: I'm actually more curious to see if UCLA loses two or more consecutive games than I am the Bruins falling out of the top eight. UCLA is in insanely good shape for a Top 8, and would probably need to drop 2-3 series to drop out of a top five seed in the NCAA Tournament. That's a damn good baseball team across the board.
D1Baseball Weekly Chat: April 6 • D1Baseball
Another big week of college baseball action is in the books, and we answer your burning questions.
d1baseball.com
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Casey: Who comes out ahead next weekend in Eugene? Nebraska looks pretty strong right now and recently took 2/3 in Ann Arbor from the same team that just won the series against Oregon.
Aaron Fitt: Nebraska is on a roll and looks like a slam-dunk regional team with a legit shot to host. I'll give the Ducks a bit of a pass for dropping the road series in the bitter cold, especially with the quick turnaround before Game 1 due to a schedule change. Ultimately I still think Oregon is an Omaha-type team, and I'm not quite there with Nebraska (despite the differing results against common opponent Michigan), so I lean Oregon at home. But the Huskers are certainly good enough to win that series on the road. Should be a good one.
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Hardball Fan: Is it time for a coaching change in Bloomington? Indiana continues to underachieve and sits at 5-10 in the Big Ten and 12-19 overall. RPI is 105.
Kendall Rogers: I wouldn't go that far just yet. Let's see how the season plays out. It really depends on what IU's expectations are as a program. IU made back-to-back NCAA Tournament trips in '23 and '24 and then nothing last year, and are obviously not going to make it this year barring a surprise. The one interesting caveat here is that Chris Lemonis, who took the Hoosiers to three NCAA trips, is available. What would cause IU to pull the trigger and bring back their old skipper? Maybe so.
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DDawg: Does UCLA go 30-0 in the Big Ten?
Aaron Fitt: UCLA is on its way to an all-time great season, and the fact that I had to stop and think about this is pretty telling. But it's just so hard to run the table in baseball, I have to imagine UCLA gets tripped up at some point along the way (even though the Bruins are very clearly the class of the Big Ten by a wide margin). Still -- it's baseball, not football. Nobody goes undefeated.........right?
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DMan: I know USC's pitching got hit around like a pinata this weekend against UCLA, but is there ceiling Omaha or a Super Regional this year? Clearly they do not have the horses yet to win it all or win against the best teams.
Aaron Fitt: Frankly, I was always reserving judgment a little bit on USC, just because the level of competition they dominated during the first half of the season was not elite. I thought Cal Poly had a chance to be a regional team (but their stock is dropping) -- but nobody else USC beat will be anywhere close to an at-large type of team. Clearly you have to be GOOD to start the season 27-3 -- but exactly how good the Trojans really are felt like it was still unknown to me. I think now we know a little bit more -- they are good; they are not elite. Doesn't mean they can't host, doesn't mean they can't make a run to a super or Omaha, but right now I don't have them on my personal board of top title contenders. Let's see how they do in upcoming tests at Nebraska, vs. Purdue and later vs. Oregon.
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Sad Duck: Any major concerns for Oregon after that week? Or could you just chalk it up to an off week on the road?
Kendall Rogers: I'll chalk it up as an off weekend on the road in pretty miserable conditions -- I believe the first two games of the series were played in 30 degree temperatures, which obviously is not very conducive to massive run production for a team like Oregon that really relies on offense, and to some degree, the long ball. With that said, the Ducks better buckle up because a series against Nebraska is coming up this weekend. I'm going to take a wild guess and say UO scores more than 7 runs in three games this weekend.
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Ryan: UCLA is obviously awesome and there's no reason to think they are going to stumble the rest of the regular season, but baseball is a funny sport. With a relatively weak schedule the rest of the way maybe hurting their metrics, what kind of stumble do you think it would take for them to fall out of the top eight? Or maybe to make it simpler -- how much margin for error have the Bruins built themselves?
Kendall Rogers: I'm actually more curious to see if UCLA loses two or more consecutive games than I am the Bruins falling out of the top eight. UCLA is in insanely good shape for a Top 8, and would probably need to drop 2-3 series to drop out of a top five seed in the NCAA Tournament. That's a damn good baseball team across the board.