Poll Watch

JDeck2

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Feb 16, 2004
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Unimaginable just two months ago that this team would be Top 10.
I am absolutely fired up right now!
Also, to be ranked #10 and be 6th in your own conference is WILD. What a damn meat-grinder this conference is. But it certainly makes for rowdy environments and atmospheres that you just can't get anywhere else. Man, I love college baseball.
 

Tskware

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Jan 26, 2003
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That is awesome, I went yesterday and had a great time, season has been an amazing surprise so far. But football and basketball were also both ranked in top 10 early in the season before the wheels came off, and our schedule will only get much tougher from here on out . . . so keeping my fingers crossed that baseball can continue on a Cinderella season

I will say UK pitching seems legit, very solid top to bottom and should keep us in a lot of games.
 
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SeanCain

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I would never have thought a Mingione team at UK would crack the top 30, let alone the top 10. I agree with Comebak, I want to see this more consistently before a new contract is negotiated.
 
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trueblujr

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Unimaginable just two months ago that this team would be Top 10.
I am absolutely fired up right now!
Also, to be ranked #10 and be 6th in your own conference is WILD. What a damn meat-grinder this conference is. But it certainly makes for rowdy environments and atmospheres that you just can't get anywhere else. Man, I love college baseball.
Enjoy it while it lasts. It's kinda like football, we start out strong, ranking goes up, up,up, then we crap the bed against somebody we should beat and lose it all.

We have a BRUTAL stretch ahead and have to play four of those teams in front of us, Including numbers 1 & 2, as well as the team right behind us.
 

trueblujr

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That is awesome, I went yesterday and had a great time, season has been an amazing surprise so far. But football and basketball were also both ranked in top 10 early in the season before the wheels came off, and our schedule will only get much tougher from here on out . . . so keeping my fingers crossed that baseball can continue on a Cinderella season

I will say UK pitching seems legit, very solid top to bottom and should keep us in a lot of games.
If we can manage to play .500 ball the rest of the way, and avoid getting swept in any of our series, we should consider this season a monumental success compared to previous seasons. UGA seems pretty beatable right now too, hopefully we can notch another sweep or series win there.
 

Comebakatz3

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Aug 8, 2008
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Enjoy it while it lasts. It's kinda like football, we start out strong, ranking goes up, up,up, then we crap the bed against somebody we should beat and lose it all.

We have a BRUTAL stretch ahead and have to play four of those teams in front of us, Including numbers 1 & 2, as well as the team right behind us.

Outside of the next two of the next three weekends there aren't a whole lot of 'teams we should beat,' on the schedule. Midweek games left are Dayton, Louisville (x2), Xavier and Tennessee Tech. Obviously, losing to Louisville would stink, but they wouldn't be 'bad', losses since it is against a top 15 team. Xavier is 16-12 and has an RPI of 27, so even losing to them wouldn't be 'bad.' The only two 'bad,' losses would be against Dayton and Tennessee Tech. Even still, those would be excusable as long as we take care of business on the weekend.

Weekend wise, all SEC can be dangerous but obviously Georgia and TAMU are 'should win,' weekends. Amazingly, if we just get series wins in those then we're up to 12 wins, and we'd really need to grab just 3 more wins out of 15 games to solidify 15 league wins, which is pretty much a lock to the NCAA tournament. Having the number 1 RPI overall, which won't drop much, means that we may not have to hit that 15 win mark to get into the tournament and might be able to get in with just 13 or 14 wins.

So far this team has shown amazing resiliency. They got essentially punched in the mouth on day 1 and they got back up and won the series. They got punched in the mouth in numerous games and were behind late only to respond and come back to win. They got punched in the mouth giving up some late leads and even went to extras to get wins. We don't yet know what it will be like if they lose something like a series, or if they actually get killed in a game, but if history of this team is an indicator, it seems more like it will motivate them rather than break them. So, I have a hard time believing that a collapse is coming and I have a hard time believing that they will be swept more than once, if it happens at all.
 

Mr Schwump

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How the eff does TN stay in the Top Ten with 8 or 9 losses, whatever it is? Those losses are being ignored, as if they never happened. Ridiculous.
 

backinky2018

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How the eff does TN stay in the Top Ten with 8 or 9 losses, whatever it is? Those losses are being ignored, as if they never happened. Ridiculous.

Well, to be fair, their talent base is top 3 in the country and don't have many "bad" losses (unless you count getting swept by Mizzou). But, no doubt, their performance to date is not befitting a top ten team. Unfortunately, I think they're going to be a bear to deal with by the time we get to Knoxville.
 

Comebakatz3

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How the eff does TN stay in the Top Ten with 8 or 9 losses, whatever it is? Those losses are being ignored, as if they never happened. Ridiculous.

Ehh... Tennessee may just now be finding their feet. They replaced a ton offensively and I think it has taken time for them to find the right pieces. They lost 2 of 3 to LSU this weekend, but admittedly, they were a play or two away from getting a sweep in that series. They got swept by Missouri, but that was before Missouri had some devastating injuries to their pitching staff. They have a very good team with absolute stud weekend starters. I could see them making a deep run if they continue to figure things out on offense.
 

OldRed

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Jun 7, 2001
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The walks and HBP's are going up as we hit harder competition. That is expected. It is interesting watching the season unfold with teams that were expected at the top faltering, and teams like UK looking up. It becomes clearer as each series paints a picture of a team's capabilities. Georgia for instance. Their record would seem to describe a pretty bad team but they got swept by South Carolina and Vanderbilt, and lost the series to Auburn. They very easily could be better than their SEC record seems to indicate.
 
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Mr Schwump

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Ehh... Tennessee may just now be finding their feet. They replaced a ton offensively and I think it has taken time for them to find the right pieces. They lost 2 of 3 to LSU this weekend, but admittedly, they were a play or two away from getting a sweep in that series. They got swept by Missouri, but that was before Missouri had some devastating injuries to their pitching staff. They have a very good team with absolute stud weekend starters. I could see them making a deep run if they continue to figure things out on offense.
And if Reeves hits more shots UK's playing tonight for a NC. Everybody can say that to some degree. That's playing Claiborne's old "iffin" game. That stuff didn't happen and they lost those games. Let them earn their rank, right now it's being given to them.