The RPI is BS most of time - only vaguely descriptive in my opinion. Ole Piss had an RPI of #17 and was ranked #11 in the country. They won it all a couple of years ago. In three games against them, Murray scored 29 runs and had 47 hits! (Also scored 13 runs on 14 hits against 41 win ACC Champion Georgia Tech.)
Next up is ACC 6th place #20 ranked Duke. Would not be surprised to see Murray pull another upset.
I know everyone thought losing Bichita was bad news, but they haven't been to the NCAA since firing Gene Stephenson years ago, who took them to 28 NCAAs and several College World Series. Gotta love that.
As far as scheduling, it's a shame we're no longer at least playing Illinois. Hard to get excited about S. Indiana and Bellarmine...
Hopefully the NCAA will do something about the portal/NIL craziness and prevent the mid-majors from becoming farm teams for the big guys.
The portal/NIL isn't even that big an issue in college baseball compared to basketball and football. Let's use Texas and LSU for example. Power programs. Big money. Of their rosters and main 16 hitters, 4 of them were transfers. And 2 of those 4 were from other SEC teams.
It's just Rhodes excuse for his lazy recruiting.
I think Rhodes does a good job recruiting. He's brought in some pretty talented JUCO guys, I just wish they were combined with some guys they developed out of high school. I watched Wright State this weekend beat Vanderbilt with about 5 Freshmen in their lineup.
It's weird Rhodes came up as a pitching coach but they've made their mark finding talented hitters and haven't had many great pitchers come through/developed.
I think you are being too kind. IMHO, with only maybe an exception or two, the pitching has been horrendous during the Rhodes years. I wonder how long the current pitching coach can keep his job.
I think Rhodes does a good job recruiting. He's brought in some pretty talented JUCO guys
He hasn't and he hasn't. The talent gulf between SIU and the actual good teams in the conference is pretty evident year to year as they aren't remotely competitive against the top teams and struggle in the Valley tournament. And in the rare instance he schedules a decent team in OOC SIU is outclassed both offensively and defensively.
When you have zero freshman for multiple years(and 1 sophomore, himself a JUCO transfer) but have given 3 scholarships to 2 NAIA players and a D3 player transfer; when 1/3 of your roster is made up of castoffs from other programs(again, with too many from non D1 programs); when your entire strategy is to just turn the roster over year to year and hope for lighting in a bottle, you are objectively a shit recruiter.
Back in 2022 we had talented guys like Olivia-Boucher, Bloemer, Steidl, Epps, Rogg, Weber, Farmer, Hagedorn, etc. Some were inherited (Weber, Farmer, etc.) Rog was an All-American, Weber and others were outstanding.
Won series against Mo St, Ind St, Dallas Baptist, and Illinois and won 44 games and the MVC title. Lost the tournament and did not get an at-large bid - huge screw job by the worthless NCAA. They gave DBU an at-large bid despite the fact that SIU kicked their butt all-season.
I have to agree that since then, the recruiting has been mediocre at best, with a few bright spots. With a few exceptions, pitching has not been great since.
In 2022, Rhodes signed an extension good through the 2027 season. Two more years to get it done. Let's hope next year's schedule is not another smoke and mirrors special.
SIU had the 196th SoS in D1 in 2022. Dallas Baptist had the 16th. Dallas Bapist was 30th in the RPI. SIU was 65th. IIRC losing the series to SIU was considered a bad loss for DBU according to the committee even though SIU won the conference.
Rhodes is just genuinely the Hinson of college baseball.
And while baseball recruiting is hard to keep track the only signees I have seen are of course both JUCOs.
SIU had the 196th SoS in D1 in 2022. Dallas Baptist had the 16th. Dallas Bapist was 30th in the RPI. SIU was 65th. IIRC losing the series to SIU was considered a bad loss for DBU according to the committee even though SIU won the conference.
Rhodes is just genuinely the Hinson of college baseball.
And while baseball recruiting is hard to keep track the only signees I have seen are of course both JUCOs.
I take it the glass is always half empty for you.
The RPI is pretty much horseshit. We beat DBU 2 of 3 at their place and then eliminated them from the MVC tournament at a neutral site...3 of 4 head to head. They had a conference record of 11-9-1. Ours was 16 - 5 and we won the MVC championship. I don't care what their non-conference schedule was early in the season. We got to the championship game of the MVC tournament and lost to Mo. State, a team we swept three straight at their place during the regular season. That was a darn good SIU team - the only one so far in the Rhodes era.
Using to RPI to give DBU an at-large instead of SIU, who was obviously superior, was complete horseshit!
