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Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - Pete24 - 06-04-2017 10:03 PM

Just watched Davidson baseball beat UNC for the second time in three days to win the Chapel Hill Regional in the NCAA baseball tournament and advance to the Super Regionals. The Wildcats are now only two wins from the College World Series.

Interestingly, there are a lot of parallels between Davidson & W&M. Both highly-selective with regard to admissions and very demanding academically. And like W&M, Davidson's athletics are not well-funded compared to power conference schools. Davidson has only 3 baseball scholarships. Davidson's roster is filled with smart kids whose future is not in baseball ... for example, their top pitcher is going to Pharmacy school when the season ends.

Given the similarities between Davidson & W&M, it makes you realize that as well as Tribe baseball did in 2016 -- winning the CAA tourney, eliminating UVA in the Charlottesville Regional and making it to the NCAA Regional final -- with a few breaks, the Tribe could have potentially advanced to the Super Regionals. Also gives you hope for W&M's Cinderella chances in future NCAA post-season play.


Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - Tribeheart - 06-05-2017 07:39 AM

Just shows what can happen in NCAA baseball when a team gets hot and gains confidence this time of year. They certainly punched their own ticket with those last two outs.

Have many family members who are alums or current students, and needless to say, they are punch drunk on Davidson baseball and Steph Curry right now.

With Bethune-Cookman one win away from advancing and knocking Florida out, I hope for the sake of interest that at least one of these teams will stay hot and find themselves in Omaha.

I, also, find it laughable when UVA cries about having to go on the road. Put your britches on and earn it like everybody else!

Sent from my SM-N910V using CSNbbs mobile app


RE: Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - billymac - 06-05-2017 07:47 AM

(06-05-2017 07:39 AM)Tribeheart Wrote:  I, also, find it laughable when UVA cries about having to go on the road. Put your britches on and earn it like everybody else!

...or, in today's case, galoshes.

03-wink


RE: Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - LeadBolt - 06-05-2017 08:11 AM

(06-05-2017 07:47 AM)billymac Wrote:  
(06-05-2017 07:39 AM)Tribeheart Wrote:  I, also, find it laughable when UVA cries about having to go on the road. Put your britches on and earn it like everybody else!

...or, in today's case, galoshes.

03-wink

Hip waders with spikes would be a great invention...


RE: Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - nj alum - 06-05-2017 12:32 PM

I get what the OP is saying .... but ....

This is a sport where Coastal Carolina won the whole thing last year, and fellow CAA member Stony Brook (football only) reached the College WS just a few years ago.

Congrats to Davidson, but this door has been open for the last few years.

Guess it's time for the powers that be to shut it!


RE: Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - billymac - 06-05-2017 03:31 PM

Also interesting, in that Davidson is one of those schools that have made the committment to have one particular sport as it's key sports face. They fully fund and support Men's and Women's Basketball and all the other coaches know, up front, that their sport will be under-funded (Baseball has 3 scholarships to divide up). The coaches are told that when they interview for the job.

For us, it would be the Big 2 (FB and Men's & Women's B-Ball - tied at the hip) fully funded, while everyone else would have to just split up what was left and then fund raise, on their own, to pay for more scholarships for their team. (I know, some teams are already in that position...)

That scenario is probably the only way we would actually be able to find the funds needed to push Basketball to the next level. I have no idea if that would work here or what kind of push-back it would have from the multitude of other sports that would be affected.

I certainly have no idea how that fits in with Ms. Huge's philosophy of running a program.


RE: Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - nj alum - 06-05-2017 06:02 PM

Billy-

This is what I don't get.

It was my understanding that, from the mid-1980's through the present, the various athletics programs were told to row their own oar. Football, men's basketball, and baseball have done that to a large extent.

Now, thirty years later, some programs have nada, and the men's hoops program gets private donations which result in general fund money going from men's hoops to other programs, stifling the ability of men's hoops to get ahead.

This is all so confusing to me.

I support football. I support men's hoops. I support the Olympic sports. I don't want to choose among them, nor do I think we should have to.

Hopefully, SH will have a candid conversation with all of us, spell this out, and be transparent about it.


RE: Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - SoCal Frank - 06-05-2017 07:19 PM

The UVA juggernaut has been scuttled by Dallas Baptist. More evidence that our baseball team has tremendous potential. Fight on DBU Patriots


RE: Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - LeadBolt - 06-05-2017 07:47 PM

It would seem to me that funding b'ball (mbb & wbb) would result in more recognition and eventually more funding for all sports. While it would no doubt be a hit for Olympic sports initially, I would think that would change over a 5-7 year time horizon.
I don't see football and baseball being impacted by this as they are already fund raising reasonably well, although other sports would take it in the teeth initially, as funds raised from these sports aren't replacing budgeted monies being drained off to fund other sports in our current seemingly bait and switch like atmosphere.


RE: Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - billymac - 06-05-2017 08:34 PM

I'm in the dark here, as well. I guess we'll know more about support, as Ms H's plans and personal preferences become more clear. I was just pondering, a bit, out loud, about how the For The Bold program might manifest itself. I'm watching, along with everyone else, at this point.


Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - SoCal Frank - 06-05-2017 09:02 PM

There are schools out there, Eastern Washington, Grand Canyon, Liberty(not so much), Charleston, Stony Brook, Dallas Baptist, to name a few that most fans have never heard of. Kind of like us performance wise, but different in that many people have heard of Wm and Mary. Each of these schools is making their mark. What can we learn from them? Are we looking for something big(TP)? Or what?


RE: Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - Sitting bull - 06-06-2017 07:27 AM

Nice run by Davidson.

If the point of all this though is to shed light on an ignored oppprtunity, it would make more sense. Our baseball program has been a more recent success story. We've been to the CWS twice now in the last four years and picked up 4 wins, including the elimination last year over the defending National Champs.


Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - SoCal Frank - 06-07-2017 08:38 PM

(06-06-2017 07:27 AM)Sitting bull Wrote:  Nice run by Davidson.

If the point of all this though is to shed light on an ignored oppprtunity, it would make more sense. Our baseball program has been a more recent success story. We've been to the CWS twice now in the last four years and picked up 4 wins, including the elimination last year over the defending National Champs.

SB. We've been to the post season. Have yet to reach Omaha. You're preaching to the choir. Boosting baseball makes perfect sense. A key, that I have made in the past, is to ignite the locals. There's not much locally in the way of baseball for the locals. Get them involved. Look at the crowds at Blair Field in Long Beach. Precious few college kids. Stands are packed with locals. LBSU whacked the hornettes from Austin.


RE: Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - bubbadog57 - 06-08-2017 05:32 AM

We have reached the level of having a solid program that can compete realistically for the CAA championship every season and have a shot in any NCAA first round. Very good, no-nonsense coach and staff recruiting talented, smart kids. Our outstanding stadium and recent indoor facility combined, of course, with the attractiveness of W&M and the number of Tribe players drafted in recent years gives us every opportunity to attract top prospects.

The coaching staff has also greatly improved our schedule, having us play many more Power Five level teams not only on the road, but at home (UVA, Maryland, Va Tech, Rutgers have played at
Plumeri in recent seasons).

One step badly needed: spend some money on marketing the team locally to drive attendance...we
do virtually nothing now. No reason this program--with an improved team and an outstanding home park---can't draw upwards of a thousand people on nice days for a ballgame. The large retired and military populations in the area are full of baseball fans.

To achieve the next level where we can almost automatically get an at-large bid if we don't win the CAA and also advance our of the first NCAA round we need to recruit one or two elite pitchers who can dominate opponents.


RE: Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - bubbadog57 - 06-08-2017 05:45 AM

To top off my above comments we just learned that freshman outfielder, Brandon Raquet has been named to the Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American team! Watching him play this spring I was most impressed by his sweet swing, his ability to drive the ball to all fields, and his game situation awareness.

A solid cornerstone for the program to keep building on.


RE: Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - Sitting bull - 06-10-2017 07:13 AM

The run came to a close yesterday in an emotional, extra inning game at Texas A&M, which Davidson lost 7-6 in 15 innings.

For perspective, this was Davidson's first ever trip to the NCAA baseball tournament and they mentioned the school has a total of 3 baseball scholarships. Davidson happenned to win their first four NCAA tourney games before the loss yesterday.

While this was a great story and fun to follow for a week, it's not a poster child example of how W&M somehow again is sitting around with its head in the sand on baseball development. When I heard their program history above and looked at Davidson's facilities, they suddenly didn't just break on the scene because they are investing where we are not. Actually it's the opposite in this case.

Still, a nice story.


RE: Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - Tribe32 - 06-10-2017 08:01 AM

We need to pay our coaches more and increase the recruiting budget. Baseball is strange in that you only get 13(?) scholarships, but they are spread out for the most part across as many as 25-30 kids. Unlike football and basketball where the scholarship limit approximates the team size, baseball teams carry 30-40 players. This year we had 35 on the roster. I agree on the comments about getting more locals involved. Advertise! Our facilities are great.


RE: Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - HyperDuke - 06-10-2017 09:21 AM

(06-10-2017 07:13 AM)Sitting bull Wrote:  The run came to a close yesterday in an emotional, extra inning game at Texas A&M, which Davidson lost 7-6 in 15 innings.

Davidson's not out. That was only Game 1 of the Super Regional.

Also was surprised to read your post saying the Tribe had made two trips to the CWS. Strangely enough, there's no record of that ever occurring...


RE: Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - Rocco - 06-10-2017 09:22 AM

(06-10-2017 07:13 AM)Sitting bull Wrote:  The run came to a close yesterday in an emotional, extra inning game at Texas A&M, which Davidson lost 7-6 in 15 innings.

For perspective, this was Davidson's first ever trip to the NCAA baseball tournament and they mentioned the school has a total of 3 baseball scholarships. Davidson happenned to win their first four NCAA tourney games before the loss yesterday.

While this was a great story and fun to follow for a week, it's not a poster child example of how W&M somehow again is sitting around with its head in the sand on baseball development. When I heard their program history above and looked at Davidson's facilities, they suddenly didn't just break on the scene because they are investing where we are not. Actually it's the opposite in this case.

Still, a nice story.

It was Game 1 of a Best of 3 series. They're still alive.


RE: Davidson baseball / similarities to W&M - billymac - 06-10-2017 09:33 AM

(06-10-2017 09:21 AM)HyperDuke Wrote:  Also was surprised to read your post saying the Tribe had made two trips to the CWS. Strangely enough, there's no record of that ever occurring...

Hyper, that was just a bit of an "overspeak" by that poster. He meant, I think, that we had reached the tournament twice recently.
Actually, The Tribe have played in four NCAA tournaments, 1983, 2001, 2013, and 2016, but have never qualified for the College World Series.