By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
May 22, 2006
GAME NOTES
http://www.msnsportsnet.com/content/basetournament.pdf
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. ? Quick, can you name the only West Virginia coach to lead a Mountaineer team to a Big East postseason tournament championship? Of course Rich Rodriguez, winner of three straight conference titles, is out of the equation because football doesn?t have a Big East playoff.
West Virginia's Adam White scales the fence trying to rob South Florida of a home run during Saturday's 9-4 loss to the Bulls at Hawley Field. West Virginia takes on St. John's in a Big East tournament first-round game Tuesday at 5 pm in Clearwater, Fla.
John Beilein took West Virginia on an unforgettable march to the Big East men?s basketball tournament finals in 2005, as did Mike Carey with women?s basketball in 2006.
Women?s soccer?s Nikki Izzo-Brown has been to consecutive Big East title games in 2001 and 2002, losing to Notre Dame and Connecticut.
Yet after 10-plus years in the league the only WVU coach to lead the Mountaineers to a Big East postseason tournament title is baseball?s Greg Van Zant in 1996. The Mountaineers nearly didn?t make tournament that year, needing to win two out of three from Connecticut just to qualify.
?We didn?t go into that tournament knowing we could win it,? Van Zant said. ?We kept playing one day at a time and before you knew it we were on the last day with a chance to win. We didn?t even qualify for that tournament until the very last pitch of the regular season against Connecticut. They got the tying run on second base and the winning run on first with their best hitter at the plate.?
The Mountaineers outlasted Notre Dame, 10-8 in game one before stunning Rutgers 5-0 on a magnificent one-hit pitching performance by Chris Enochs. West Virginia got a big base hit from Scott Seabol to beat St. John?s in the third game, 6-5, and won the tournament a day later by defeating the Irish 7-4.
Despite winning seven of its last eight games during the regular season, West Virginia?s Big East tournament title that year was completely unexpected considering the Mountaineers? 18-32 record during Van Zant?s first season in 1995.
West Virginia made four straight Big East tournament appearances from 1996-1999 before the league reduced the number of teams qualifying from six to four. Since then the Mountaineers have made just one appearance in 2003, falling to Rutgers 8-7 in the semifinals.
This year represents West Virginia?s sixth trip to the yearly baseball playoff, now increased to eight teams. With five teams boasting at least 30 wins and Louisville coming on strong having won 10 of its last 11 games, this year?s tournament field could be its deepest ever.
?I think the tournament is wide open,? Van Zant said. ?You can say the eighth-place team (South Florida) got into the tournament on the last day but we?re playing in Clearwater (Fla.) which is basically their home. You can never rule out the home team in a tournament like this especially when you?ve got a bunch of northern teams playing in the heat of Florida.?
Van Zant, with a 7-9 record in Big East tournament play, admits he manages postseason games a little differently than he does regular season games.
?During the regular season you might leave your pitcher out there a little longer,? he said. ?If it?s not do-or-die you might play a kid that needs some at-bats to get him ready for the tournament.
?But when you get to the tournament and it?s a do-or-die situation you?re definitely going to manage a little differently, especially with how you use your pitching. There is really no need to save pitching ? what, are you going to save it for the Valley League??
Playing the percentages are also important in postseason play, according to Van Zant.
?Whenever you?re making decisions you have to the best of your ability weigh the odds of something happening,? he said. ?Hunches aren?t going to get you very far. You?ve got to use some common sense. Everything is a percentage. There is a percentage chance that it?s going to rain. There is a percentage chance that if you hit the ball hard it?s going to get caught.
?You don?t always know all of those percentages. That?s the interesting part of coaching,? he said.
Van Zant says most of the time spent with his coaching staff discussing strategy revolves around pitching match ups.
?Of your nine guys in the lineup you might make a move for a pinch hitter or a pinch runner,? he said. ?But as a coaching staff we probably spend 90 percent of our time discussing how we?re going to use our pitching. It?s not who?s going to start at short and what order are we hitting them in?
?It?s how long are we going to go with our starter? What happens if they jump on him in the first inning? Do we sit there and let him get us behind 6-0 or do we make a quick change?? he said. ?All of those decisions are handled a little differently at the end of the year.?
Tournament Tidbits
The Big East can realistically expect getting no more than two teams into this year?s NCAA tournament unless either league champion Notre Dame or runner-up Connecticut doesn?t win the title. Notre Dame has a 41-14-1 overall record and has been nationally ranked for most of the year but has an RPI of only 45, according to WarrenNolan.com.
Connecticut is the next best option having finished second in the league and boasting an overall record of 38-16-1. The Huskies are currently 49th according to WarrenNolan.com.
?This might be Connecticut?s best team in their school history,? Van Zant said. ?They had a good team last year but not like this.?
After UConn in the RPI is St. John?s, which dropped down to No. 75 after losing two out of three at Cincinnati last weekend. The Red Storm have a 37-17 record.
The last time the Big East sent three teams to the NCAA tournament was 2001 when Notre Dame, Rutgers and Seton Hall went.
Perhaps the team playing the best baseball right now in the conference is 28-28 Louisville, which has won 10 out of its last 11 including taking two of three at Notre Dame May 5-7. The Cardinals are ranked 104th this week.
?Louisville has absorbed a lot of injuries and they are really playing well right now,? Van Zant said. ?They?re not the same team they were earlier in the year. Plus, they have played a really good schedule.?
Van Zant believes South Florida is capable of pulling off an upset against No. 1-seeded Notre Dame in the first round Tuesday night. The Bulls are the only team in the tournament with an overall record below .500 (23-33).
?With Casey Hudspeth on the mound they have a chance,? he said. ?(USF Coach) Eddie Cardieri was real smart and pulled him out of our game with 66 pitches when it was out of hand. He?ll be on four day?s rest and he was as good as anyone we?ve seen all year.?
Van Zant is expecting some well-played games with good umpiring this week.
?It seems like the games are crisper early on because everybody is throwing their best pitchers,? Van Zant said. ?And I think the umpiring is a little better at the league tournament because they take the best umpires from the regular season and let them work the tournament.
?With the level of the Big East a lot of these umpires have worked NCAA regionals and College World Series games,? Van Zant said. ?They have a real good feel for the game and the relationship with the coaches, pitchers and the catchers.?
West Virginia is 6-9 this year against the tournament field, having faced neither St. John?s nor Notre Dame during the regular season. Six of the nine losses came in three-game sweeps against Connecticut and Rutgers.
West Virginia?s 35 victories rank fifth in school history trailing just the 1994 (40 wins), 1998 (37 wins) and 1997 and 2003 (36 wins) teams.
This year?s Mountaineer club ranks among the best hitting nines in school history. The 2006 team is second in batting average (.341), second in hits (670), second in runs scored (436), third in RBI (389), third in doubles (117) and fifth in extra base hits (175).
Casey Bowling (.400) is looking to become the first .400 hitter since Lee Fritz did it with a .407 batting average in 2003. Only seven WVU batters have achieved that mark with more than 100 at-bats since 1990.
Former major league star Wade Boggs will provide commentary for ESPNU?s telecast of the Big East championship game on Saturday, the network announced Monday. Boggs? son Brett is a freshman first baseman for South Florida.
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MSN Sports Net: Big East Tournament Notebook
