Rutgers baseball can’t get no respect. No respect at all.
Jeff Leise doesn’t seem to be giving Rutgers baseball much of a chance in the Big Ten Tournament, the Big Ten Network baseball analyst leaving the Scarlet Knights out from his list of teams that could challenge Maryland.
A former standout centerfielder at Nebraska, Leise was a draft pick of the San Diego Padres in 2003.
On the Big Ten Network on Tuesday, Leise was asked if, after No. 1 Maryland and No. 2 Rutgers, what teams could potentially make a run in the Big Ten Tournament. The network analyst said that after Maryland, the team he likes the most in the tournament is Iowa.
He then rattled off several other teams, not including Rutgers in the mix.
[lawrence-related id=16186]
Leise twice mentioned other teams that can win the Big Ten baseball tournament if Maryland isn’t the pick.
“I think Iowa probably would be my pick to win it out if I wasn’t picking Maryland, right? If I’m going take the chalk I’d go with Maryland; [if not] I’ll go with Iowa,” Leise said on the Big Ten Network.
“But like I said, Illinois…Illinois is dangerous, a very well rounded team. They can swing it pretty good. They’ve got good guys on the mound, they can play defense. So, I like that that Illinois team; like I said, Michigan’s got a lot of talent. Those are kind of the teams to me if you weren’t picking Maryland – [it would be] Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, [the] three, four, five seed all are kind of a live dog, if you will.”
Earlier in the broadcast, Leise said he didn’t think Rutgers was sharp in their regular season finale where they lost two of three at Michigan. This might be impacting his outlook for the conference tournament.
Rutgers did lose two games in their three-game home series to Maryland earlier this month. To back Leise’s point, the Scarlet Knights only lost three series all year: Iowa, Maryland and then this past weekend to Michigan.
That certainly must factor in to why Leise is mentioning Maryland and then several other teams in his list of teams to watch this week.
Rutgers finished the regular season 41-14 (17-7 Big Ten). They won this past Saturday to salvage their three-game series at Michigan. Another Big Ten analyst, Michael Huff, thinks Rutgers needs three wins from this week to book their spot in the NCAA Tournament.
They won four of their last six games and are receiving votes in the last regular season USA TODAY Sports baseball coaches poll.
[lawrence-related id=16174]
This season was the first time in program history that the Scarlet Knights finished as a second seed in the Big Ten Tournament. The program hasn’t made an NCAA Tournament since 2007.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01fc3gzhz7qrm49z6q player_id=none image=https://rutgerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]