A month ago, talk centered around the possibility of hosting a regional. Now chances are fading to simply even make a regional. Nobody has an answer for this complete slide. As I've said before, some breaks went UCF's way early and masked some deficiencies, but I don't think this team is as bad as they the one we've been seeing the last few weeks. But it is what it is.
I'm Captain Obvious over here, but UCF wants to avoid missing a regional for the third consecutive year they will have to start winning in a hurry.
UCF's current RPI is 55. Still fairly decent considering the recent trend. If you haven't noticed, we're no longer talking about the American being a top five or six baseball conference. According to the RPI, the AAC is ranked No. 3 in the country and they're very close to overtaking the ACC for the #2 spot (SEC is No. 1, of course). The league should be able to get half of their teams in regionals, which would be four of eight.
In RPI, UCF is sitting behind USF (24), Houston (26), UConn (39), Memphis (42), East Carolina (44) and Tulane (45). UCF is seventh (55) while Cincinnati is clearly dragging up their rear (197).
RPI is fun to look at, but a lot can change between now and when it really matters which is the end of the season.
UCF is 26-19 with 11 games left. That's three league series (USF, Memphis, @USF) and two midweek road games (at FAU, at UNF).
An unofficial selection criteria is conference record as the committee rarely rewards teams with a losing conference record. For UCF to hit the .500 mark, they must finish the league season 7-2 (one sweep, winning the other two series, or two sweeps and winning 1 of 2 in the third series). But that's going to be an incredibly tough task considering the competition: USF and Memphis are among the four teams tied for first in the conference.
This coming weekend will be telling. Of course there's always the carrot of winning the conference tournament (this year it's back to double elimination) but USF has the real potential to end UCF's dreams of an at-large bid. Maybe this backs against the wall situation - and the fact it's a rival series - is what the team needs to snap out of it.
I'm Captain Obvious over here, but UCF wants to avoid missing a regional for the third consecutive year they will have to start winning in a hurry.
UCF's current RPI is 55. Still fairly decent considering the recent trend. If you haven't noticed, we're no longer talking about the American being a top five or six baseball conference. According to the RPI, the AAC is ranked No. 3 in the country and they're very close to overtaking the ACC for the #2 spot (SEC is No. 1, of course). The league should be able to get half of their teams in regionals, which would be four of eight.
In RPI, UCF is sitting behind USF (24), Houston (26), UConn (39), Memphis (42), East Carolina (44) and Tulane (45). UCF is seventh (55) while Cincinnati is clearly dragging up their rear (197).
RPI is fun to look at, but a lot can change between now and when it really matters which is the end of the season.
UCF is 26-19 with 11 games left. That's three league series (USF, Memphis, @USF) and two midweek road games (at FAU, at UNF).
An unofficial selection criteria is conference record as the committee rarely rewards teams with a losing conference record. For UCF to hit the .500 mark, they must finish the league season 7-2 (one sweep, winning the other two series, or two sweeps and winning 1 of 2 in the third series). But that's going to be an incredibly tough task considering the competition: USF and Memphis are among the four teams tied for first in the conference.
This coming weekend will be telling. Of course there's always the carrot of winning the conference tournament (this year it's back to double elimination) but USF has the real potential to end UCF's dreams of an at-large bid. Maybe this backs against the wall situation - and the fact it's a rival series - is what the team needs to snap out of it.
