MICHIGAN #8 Seed in NCAA Tourney

Submitted by MGoSoftball on

1. Oklahoma

2. Florida

3. Oregon

4. Texas

5. Arizona St.

6. Missouri

7. Tennessee

8. Michigan  (Valpo with Head Coach Jordan Stevens from Marysville Michigan, CMU and Cal).

The NCAA Softball Tournament pairings are released tonight.  We had a bad loss against the ultimate Big Ten Tournament winner, Wiskey, in the Semis.  It will be interesting to see if we drop out of the top 8.

The NCAA selects 64 teams.  The top 16 get to host the Regionals.  Each Regional host site will be assigned 3 additional teams primarily based on geography although not in all cases.  Each team will be seeded 1-4 in the Region based on their overall RPI ranking.  

Each Regional Host is seeded 1-16, so the #1 seed will play the #16 seed provided each wins their Regional.  The higher seed is the host site for the Super Regional.  Both the Regional and Super Regional are double elimination formats.

 

justingoblue

May 13th, 2013 at 4:54 PM ^

They're a good team (though not without their issues) with all but two returning from last year's 45 win team that was one game away from the tournament. They have two very good pitchers by Summit League standards, a solid slapping corps and two girls with a lot of power.

I like the Louisville matchup a lot better than a hypothetical Michigan matchup, and if the pitching comes to play they can stay in a game with Louisville, UCLA or UAB. Headed down to Louisville for the first time this Friday, and I'm probably more excited than I would be for any other sporting event, Rose Bowl and a Stanley Cup final included.

MGoBender

May 12th, 2013 at 10:43 PM ^

Am I the only one that abbreviates Wisconsin as "Wisco" and shutters every time someone writes "Wisky" or "Wiskey" or something of the nature?

/off-topic

Can't wait to get down to Alumni Field!

Scorekeeper

May 12th, 2013 at 11:11 PM ^

Super Regionals are best of 3. The higher seed hosts unless they lose their regional. So UM would host LSU if both teams prevail in their regionals. If UM doesn't win, LSU would host the winner of the Michigan regional. 

Last  year, Hofstra and South Florida both upset the regional hosts (UCLA & Florida respectively) and South Florida hosted the super-regional and ended up advancing to the College World Series.

 

maizenblue92

May 12th, 2013 at 11:07 PM ^

My quick picks based on my limeted knowledge:

Cinderella(unseeded to WCWS): Georgia

Seeded team to lose first: LSU

FInals: Oklahoma vs. Oregon

EDIT: What is Jolene Henderson's status for the regional? This greatly affects our chances to advance. 

 

 

Scorekeeper

May 12th, 2013 at 11:18 PM ^

Cal is one of the 1 pitcher teams in the tournament. Others are A&M, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Hofstra, and Baylor.  Frankly, Minnesota and Wisconsin could also be classified that way.

Henderson was injured and hasn't played much for several weeks. She finally won in their last game of the season:

http://www.calbears.com/sports/w-softbl/recaps/051113aad.html

She pitched earlier this weekend and got the loss - giving up several runs in the first inning.

UM needs to worry about their own pitching, hitting, defense.  We don't want to sneak into the Super regional.

 

Alton

May 13th, 2013 at 10:53 AM ^

They don't re-seed, so if Michigan and Oklahoma both advance to Oklahoma City, they will play each other in the first round.

There is a twist in how they do the double elimination brackets compared to the men's CWS, so two teams from the same half of the bracket could end up meeting again in the finals.  For example, if Michigan advances but loses to Oklahoma, they could still end up working their way back through the brackets and could possibly end up playing Oklahoma again in the best-of-three finals (if Oklahoma has certain results as well), and the result of the earlier game between the two teams would be erased.

Stonecoldwolv

May 13th, 2013 at 10:45 AM ^

AA and Oregon have to the tougher brackets. Look at south Alabama, Kentucky and Louisville. A lot better draws considering we are the lower seed. If Cal's pitcher is back they are a top 20 rpi team. I get the other two teams are not but cal will be difficult. Lsu already took us out so I hope we do not get them in the supers.

I worry more about us. We looked shaky against Nebraska then Wisconsin just dominated us. Our bats have to get going. Honestly Sarah is the pitcher this year the only way she pitches is if we lose to cal the first time and have to play valpo or cmu. Wagner was hurt a lot this year. She is a stud but does not have it unfortunately.

Alton

May 13th, 2013 at 12:15 PM ^

It's an interesting regional; California might be the best team outside of the top 16:  they were #17 in RPI going in to last week, and would probably have been in the top 16 if their #1 pitcher had been healthy the entire season.

On the other hand, Valparaiso and Central Michigan should by all rights both be #4 seeds.  Neither of them is in the top 100 in RPI.  I assume that the NCAA assigned a very very weak #3 seed because they had assigned a very strong #2 seed.

It all depends on how you measure the toughness of a regional.  It is probably one of the toughest in terms of the likelihood of the top seed to advance, but it is just about the easiest in terms of the likelihood of the 3-seed or the 4-seed to advance.

 

justingoblue

May 13th, 2013 at 12:21 PM ^

That's how I was looking at it, and I think that's the right way to look at a regional. If the question had been "is this a tough regional for Michigan" then I would completely agree about Cal being the most important factor.

Henderson is healthy now, by all accounts, and will be a really tough draw. She gave an interview last year that will stick with me for a long time, funny stuff.