E-Mail Bag 5/25 |
What are your predictions for the ACC Tournament?
I have a lot of confidence in this team heading down to Jacksonville. There has been a lot of discussion on the boards of fans being worried about the second round, but Virginia is the team that scares. They lead the ACC in ERA, and Kamrath absolutely silenced Clemson bats in the final game of the series earlier this year. There is still a great deal at stake. If Clemson goes 0-2, they may lose the opportunity to host a regional. Baseball America's Will Kimmey reiterated my point from Monday on the "Overdrive" where he said if Clemson wins the ACC they have a legitimate claim at one of top eight seeds. He also stated with Clemson's depth at pitching, they are his prediction to win the tournament. If Clemson makes a deep run look for Josh Cribb to be a major part of it. Cribb quite simply is a gamer, and he lives for these situations. He was outstanding in the Athens Regional last year, especially on Sunday. He shut down Georgia to key Clemson's game one comeback. The bats will need to stay hot for the Tigers to win, but the pitching will be the key. Does Brent Schaeffer come to Clemson and could he start? Clemson is in it, and presents a very attractive situation for Schaeffer, but in the end I believe he goes to South Florida. It would not be a total shock if he came to Clemson, but a return home is the likely option here. The answer to second question is yes he could start at Clemson after sitting out a year. For all of the progress Will Proctor has made, Schaeffer has a higher ceiling. Schaeffer lost his starting job to Erik Ainge. Ainge would start for 90% of the Division 1-A programs. Schaeffer is very talented, and his off the field problems are probably not as big as they seem. If Clemson does host a regional who are likely opponents, South Carolina? I do not believe the NCAA would send South Carolina to Clemson for a regional. There is no track record of putting rivals together in a regional. Super-Regionals is a different story. Truth be told I have no way of telling who they will send, but here is my best guess of some schools they would select from: College of Charleston, Winthrop, Coastal Carolina, Auburn, East Carolina, UNC Wilmington, Arkansas, Alabama. The two and three seeds could come from that group, but the fourth seeds are harder to project. Why did Jack not win Coach of the Year? The voting was done two weeks ago, so the Miami series was not figured. It the voting was done again, I believe there might be a different result. I take nothing away from Danny Hall, he is a great coach, but I believe Leggett did a superb coaching job this year with such a young team. This team was supposed to be outstanding next season, a second-place finish was really remarkable. Who are Clemson top five targets right now? We are currently putting this together it should be posted by next week. As it stands now, we would go with Ricky Sapp, Clifton Geathers, Jamie Cumbie, Byron Maxwell, and Carl Johnson.
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