M SB is #24 in RPI

Submitted by MGoSoftball on

The University of Michigan Softball team came in at #24 this week in the RPI.  The mid-week loss to Western Michigan (1-0) at home did not help.  We did not get a bump from smoking moo u.

Other teams of note: ND at #32, NWU at #47, Purdue at #48, Wiskey at #53, Illinois St at #60, Miami (NTM) at #68, one of my personal favs Valpo #74, ohio #74 and Illinois #79.

Only 64 teams make the tournament, 4 teams in one of 16 host sites.  We better not lose anymore games if we want to host a regional.  We don't play anyone the reminder of the year that will give us bonus points. 

Alton

April 16th, 2012 at 11:30 PM ^

Many people care about softball bracketology.

So...in the region, if the season ended today, we have Louisville as a #1 seed, Michigan, DePaul and Notre Dame as #2 seeds, Kentucky and Purdue as #3 seeds, and Miami (NTM) and Valparaiso as #4 seeds.

Hawaii is a #1 seed, but there is no way that they would consider having a regional in Hawaii.

So let's try to put these teams together...

Louisville regional:  #1 Louisville v #4 Miami (NTM), #2 Michigan v #3 Kentucky

South Bend regional:  #1 Hawaii v #4 Valparaiso, #2 Notre Dame v #3 Purdue

It looks right now that the Big East domination of the region will hurt Michigan:  Louisville, Notre Dame and DePaul all have to be separated from each other since teams from the same conference can't be in the same regional. 

There are many ways that these teams can be put together, but the most fair involves Louisville hosting a regional, which probably hurts Michigan's chances of hosting.  Michigan wants to root against Notre Dame, hopefully knocking them down to a #3 seed.  They are much less likely to have a #3 seed as a host.

justingoblue

April 16th, 2012 at 11:48 PM ^

A good break (in my opinion) would be an Ann Arbor, Evanston or less ideally, South Bend regional. They're going to be underdogs no matter where they end up, although I do think they're a dangerous team, so I don't know how much help they would get being in any one particular regional.

Since you mentioned her, I'd add that she's given up like eight hits and two earned runs against three walks in her past twenty-one innings. It's much more fun to watch when she can perform like that, even though the first two games were against less than stellar competition.

MGoSoftball

April 17th, 2012 at 9:58 AM ^

is ranked 80+ in the RPI.  So the only real chance for them to make it is to win their conference.  They are currently 2 games out of first so it is possible.  Last year's champion made it to the tourney.

They have a decent chance too because they play the #2 team 3 times yet this year.  Then they need some help to jump into first place.  We are all rooting for her and would love to see her in an Ann Arbor Regional.

justingoblue

April 17th, 2012 at 11:10 AM ^

Her league isn't sending two teams. Their autobid format takes the top four teams in conference play and pits them together in a double elimination tournament at the home field of the previous year's champion. Currently they're sitting in third, with a road trip to the second place team this weekend; they can do anything from take sole possession of first (not likely) to dropping to fourth with the fifth place team knocking on their door (even less likely). I would bet they take second this weekend, though with a four team tournament it doesn't really matter as long as they stay off the four seed line.

I'd also add that they would end up scaring people in a regional. I don't know what the odds of them even making it to the final day are, but their pitching will keep them in just about any game (with maybe the exception of an Alabama or Cal type team) and it'll just be a prayer that someone other than a slapper can hit the ball. Hopefully today they can get up to 33 wins, and she can pick up twelve innings this week so we can see her included in the NCAA statistics.