Author Archive for Dr. BadgerPack

College Football Saturday- Week 1 Open Thread

Published by Dr. BadgerPack on 08/30/2008 in General. 79 Comments

I thought I’d put this up to leave a place for folks to comment on the first Saturday of college football. If you’re like me, this marks the first of many Saturdays filled with grilled food and the beverage of your choice.

Plenty of action today, VT and ECU are at it now, and in a surprise Hawaii and Florida are in a low scoring game in the Swamp. Later in the day we get Virginia/USC (the Yankees of college football- read into that what you will) and Clemson/Alabama in a night game. Plus a smattering of other games, some more interesting than others. (Me for example, I’m enjoying Wisconsin vs. partial qualifier university, err, Akron.)

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Closing the Book on ‘08 Baseball

Published by Dr. BadgerPack on 08/16/2008 in Baseball and Non-Revenue. 14 Comments

For some of us, the last memories of ‘07-’08 Wolfpack sports is a good one: the great run of the baseball team that ended one win away from a berth in Omaha. Included in this run was a win in the first regional hosted at home for the Wolfpack (and two nice wins over a loaded South Carolina team in the process).

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More Fun With Rankings- ACC Coaches

Published by Dr. BadgerPack on 08/07/2008 in ACC, Coaches, Football, General, Rankings / Lists and Tom O'Brien. 43 Comments

Here’s something to play with on a Thursday morning in August. Our favorite ESPN ACC blogger is at it again. (I suppose I’m using a “neutral” favorite there– neither a compliment nor in the perjorative.) Since we had so much fun with the stadium rankings, here is a ranking of the ACC coaches.

Now, these lists are rather subjective, but there are some things that are just common-freaking-sense. Like using a set of parameters to rank one coach (Cutcliffe) #4– FOUR! in the ACC and not applying the same standards to Paul Johnson. A few more of these, and I’ll dub Heather the Courtney Fells of bloggers– maddeningly inconsistent. Tom O’Brien is listed 6th in this list. While the positioning give or take (well, give) a spot or two is fine, some of the names above and below are curious.

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NC State vs. Georgia: Super Regional Preview

Published by Dr. BadgerPack on 06/03/2008 in Baseball and General. 28 Comments

The Wolfpack Nine will travel to Athens to take on the SEC regular season champion Georgia Bulldogs (18-6 winners over Georgia Tech in a decisive regional contest) in the Super Regional round of the NCAA baseball tournament, which opens at noon on Friday. Super Regional format has the host team “home” for the first and the guest team “home” for the second game. For that and more superfluous information that is a sure-fire cure for insomnia, I invite you to check out the NCAA Baseball Championship handbook. ESPN indicates we would be visitors in the third game, but I have no idea if the coin toss has in fact been conducted yet after looking into this (thanks for the heads up WolfpackCoach17). Yes, the Super Regionals are one step away from Omaha, home of the college world series.

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“Raleigh Regional” Preview- What to Watch For (Updated 9:05 am)

Published by Dr. BadgerPack on 05/29/2008 in ACC and Baseball. 12 Comments

We’ve known the participants since Monday, we might as well meet them and look for things to watch for in the first regional hosted by the Wolfpack since 2003 (and the first in Raleigh, as the 2003 regional was in Wilson). Let’s take a look at some team stats first. RPIs are from warrennolan.com. State’s matchup with James Madison is slated for 7:00 tonight. Charlotte tackles South Carolina in the 2:00 opener.

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State Falls 5-2 to Miami in ACC Tournament Showdown

Published by Dr. BadgerPack on 05/24/2008 in ACC, Baseball and General. 27 Comments

Clemson defeated Georgia Tech 10-4 to set up a showdown between State and Miami. Quite simply, win and advance to the championship game; lose and go home. After the meltdown against GT in game 1, it was unlikely the Wolfpack would find themselves in the is position. But, the necessary scenario unfolded (though not without some stress– the GT/Miami game was a nailbiter).

State obliterated Clemson Thursday night (10-0, 7 innings behind Shunick), so the pitching staff should be well rested. Miami used 4 pitchers in their 15-12 win over GT Thursday. I would guess everybody but Shunick is available for State today, Miami may not lose availability of any pitchers, as none exceeded 50 pitches Thursday- but they may be limited by pitch count and/or innings pitched.

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Jackets win 10-9; Pack needs a miracle to advance

Published by Dr. BadgerPack on 05/21/2008 in ACC, Baseball, General and Non-Revenue. 72 Comments

The Pack lost a heartbreaker today. They were up 7-2 after the seventh inning, but the Yellow Jackets scored eight runs the rest of the way to win the 1st game of this year’s ACC tournament 10-9. The Pack did score two runs in the eight inning to retake the lead 9-8, but State’s shortstop was thrown out at home in a collision with the catcher. On the play, the umpire ejected shortstop Tommy Foschi due to a crazy rule in college baseball that protects fielders who make a choice to block the path of the runner.

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Baseball to Wrap Regular Season @ FSU

Published by Dr. BadgerPack on 05/15/2008 in ACC, Baseball, General and Non-Revenue. 21 Comments

A three game set at Florida State is all that remains in the regular season for the Wolfpack Nine (36-16 Overall, 17-9 ACC). This should be an interesting measurement of where the squad currently stands. As some may recall, we played the bulk of the ACC’s top squads early in the season, which was BEFORE the bats heated up. Now we get a chance to see how the revamped offense fares against one of the top teams in the country, let alone the league. I would guess these games could turn into slugfests, although everytime I prognosticate that the game ends up being a 2-1 pitchers duel (fine by me, as an ex-pitching coach I love ‘em). As of this post, Eric Surkamp will take the ball in game 1 tonight, facing FSU’s Matt Fairel (9-1, 2.84). For those in the Florida area, you can catch these games on Sunsports; I’ll try to post observations periodically provided there is interest.

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Baseball Double-Dip vs Wake Forest Today

Published by Dr. BadgerPack on 04/06/2008 in ACC, Baseball and Non-Revenue. 15 Comments

Mother Nature decided not to cooperate yesterday, so a double header is underway. I’ve commented on these before- I love double headers against a superior opponent, hate ‘em against inferior competition. The basic reason is, well, they’re hard to sweep! State took Friday’s season opener 7-2 behind an outstanding pitching performance by Clayton Shunick including a career high 12 strikeouts. So we need a split today to (1) win the series and (2) come out with a 0.500 conference record. A sweep puts State at 8-6 on the year, and in very nice shape after beating both ECU and Elon earlier (RPI top 50 by some rankings, with the former having previously appeared in BaseballAmerica’s top 25).

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Non-Conference Gets Upgrade for ‘09, ‘10, ‘11 (Updated)

Published by Dr. BadgerPack on 03/26/2008 in '08-09 Basketball. 32 Comments

UF

Those looking for tough out-of-conference scheduling need look no further than January 3, 2009 when NC State comes down to Gainesville to pay me a visit in a showdown with the Florida Gators. Of course we have yet to see how the conference schedule pans out, but most likely this will be the “tune-up” game leading into ACC play (at the very least leading into the meat of the ACC schedule). Florida returns the visit a year later to the day.

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The Late Baseball “Preview” Or, “I’m Slow”

Published by Dr. BadgerPack on 03/11/2008 in Baseball, General and Non-Revenue. 27 Comments

Note: This is about, oh, 3 weeks late- but it is still relevant I suppose as a “getting to know you” for those not as attached to baseball as I.

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