Sunday night while reading one of the Gamecock message boards and I noticed a couple of posts that basically said “the pollsters will find a way to screw us out of a number one national ranking”. A couple of thoughts on that…
First, I’m not sure any rational person would’ve given us more than a 50-50 shot of taking over the #1 spot, so I really don’t see how we got “screwed”. Virginia is having an outstanding season, and went 5-0 last week. And even though we took a series from the previous #1 team, we still have seven losses, and went 2-2 for the week with a pretty awful loss to The Citadel.
Second, and more importantly, who the heck cares? Sure, being #1 is nice, and it’s better to be #1 than #2 (insert bathroom joke here), but what does that really get you on April 18 other than a puffed out chest? Without using a readily available search engine, tell me who was #1 on April 18 last year. OK, now tell me who was #1 on June 30 last year.
And how many times in 2010 was USC ranked #1 prior to June 30? Get my point?
Let’s secure a national seed and go from there, shall we?
Some other baseball and non-baseball related notes:
- I said this earlier in the year, but this baseball team is unlike any Gamecock team I can remember in any sport. Maybe it’s the fact they’ve carried over the swagger from their National Championship run last year, but I just don’t expect them to lose a big game or a close game. I certainly can’t say that about any of our other prominent programs.
- Jackie Bradley, Jr. is injured. That’s the only reason I can think that he is batting below .280. I don’t know if it’s his back or what, but if he was 100%, he’d be batting fifty points higher. Get well soon JBJr.
- Micheal Roth is one of the great stories in the history of South Carolina athletics. To go from a situational lefty out of the bullpen to College World Series hero last year, and then to dominant starter in the SEC this year, is stuff of legend. Now, if Coach Tanner will stop trying to ruin his legacy by pinch-hitting him in critical situations…
- But mad kudos to Tanner and his decision to DH Stephen Neff on Sunday. I don’t know if it was a hunch or simply out of desperation, but it sure makes Tanner look like a baseball genius (which he is).
- Watched the end of the first South Carolina-Auburn game last night on ESPNU. I must say, all people have talked about were Connor Shaw’s two interceptions on two drives in that game, but for the most part I thought he really looked poised and in control for a true freshman. As a comparison,go back and look at the pants-wetting of A.J. McCarron for ‘Bama at the end of their game against Auburn.
- Maybe I’m sensitive to this because I live in metro Atlanta, but for a team that went 6-7, lost 10-6 in their bowl game to Central Florida, and lost their best offensive player and best defensive player, the University of Georgia football team is getting a lot of love this spring. I just don’t get it…
- I’ll send you out with a cheap promo for a friend. Tad Wilson is a fellow South Carolinian and rising Broadway and country music star. Check out the duo 10th and Carlisle on iTunes and support one of our home boys.
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