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How High Can Alabama Baseball Rise in NCAA Seedings? All Things CW
We're going to start this off by admitting that we're getting ahead of ourselves. Maybe a little. Maybe a lot.
But the way the Alabama Crimson Tide baseball team is playing this week, and the results that have recently been posted in other conferences including the postseason tournaments, yeah, we're beginning to think there's a chance that it could eventually be in position to host a Super Regional (if it advances).
It sounds kinda crazy, right? Well, D1Baseball has been updating its field of 64 projections almost daily and on Wednesday morning it had the Crimson Tide as the No. 11 seed before it went out and eliminated Auburn from the SEC Tournament. The Tigers were No. 10, so that seems an easy switch to make, which it did Thursday morning.
No. 8 and 9 were Virginia and Coastal Carolina, respectively. The Cavaliers were upset in the ACC Tournament by unranked North Carolina, and Coastal Carolina can't do too much to add to its resume while playing the Sun Belt Tournament. It can go down, though.
No. 7 was the team Alabama plays next, Vanderbilt, and the Crimson Tide recently won a series against the Commodores. The 7- and 10-seeded regions will also meet to play a Super Regional. So how big is that game Friday evening now?
With two impressive wins in the SEC Tournament, 40-win Alabama appears to be a lock to host a regional when the selection committee announces this year's tournament on Monday. But with the 9-16 teams close in terms of their tournament resumes, could the Crimson Tide move up even more, or possibly squeeze to the top of that group and maybe into No. 8, with a chance to host a Super Regional (if it advances)?
Would it need one more win to have a chance? How about two? Plus there's no way of knowing if D1Baseball is adequately reflecting what the committee is thinking ....
We're just sayin'. But since we're already out there with the speculation, Omaha is about 870 miles away from Hoover, a 13-hour drive, in case you're wondering. This team is playing well enough to get there.
Incidentally:
• The last time Alabama played in a Super Regional was at Clemson in 2010. It won the first game, but dropped the next two.
• The last time Tuscaloosa hosted a Super Regional was 2006. North Carolina won in a sweep, but the games were first-rate.
• The last time Alabama won a Super Regional was in 1999, when it took two against LSU.
Here are five other things that turned our head(s) this week:
1) Alabama letting fans into Rhoads Stadium an hour before game time for the Tuscaloosa Regional last week led to some really long lines, especially as the start of the Alabama games approached. If you're planning to go to softball's Super Regional against Northwestern this weekend make a point to get there early, just in case.
2) Gambling remains a hot topic after Brad Bohannon was fired, and a second former Crimson Tide football player was recently suspended by the NFL for violating the league's policy.
On Wednesday, the NCAA announced the results of a survey it commissioned to explore the prevalence of sports wagering behaviors of 18- to 22-year-olds among college and non-college students. The survey found 58 percent of respondents acknowledged having made at least one sports wager, while 67 percent of students living on campuses said they are bettors and tend to bet at a higher frequency. The NCAA said it would commission an athlete-only survey this fall.
Either way, Alabama needs to be very pro-active in this area, and not just short-term.
3) The situation with Jonah Williams and the Cincinnati Bengals will likely come to a head soon as he asked for a trade after the team signed former Chiefs left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. to a massive deal in free agency. The Bengals want to shift Williams over to right tackle for the final year of his initial contract with La'el Collins recovering from a torn ACL.
Don't look for the team to budge from it's stance. It's already made it's investment, four-year, $64 million for Brown.
Meanwhile, Alabama fans were probably the least surprised that Williams refuses to switch positions? Why? Because he wouldn't move from left tackle when he played for the Crimson Tide.
4) Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa looked visibly different, thicker if you will, when he practiced with teammates for the first time since suffering a season-ending concussion on Christmas Day.
But what got our attention was his helmet, for two reasons. 1) It's a new design to help prevent head injuries, and 2) The Dolphins have mounted a small camera to the side so the coaches can see what's he's seeing during practices.
It probably wont take long for other NFL and college teams to do something similar.
5) The NBA’s competition committee is discussing the potential of an in-game penalty for flops that would result in a technical foul free throw. Can we have the equivalent of that in all sports?
Christopher Walsh's notes column regularly appears on BamaCentral.
SEE ALSO: Nick Saban the Dean of SEC Football, but not at Alabama: All Things CW
