Tag: virginia cavaliers

Duke moves up to No. 7 in latest D1 Baseball poll after five straight wins and a weekend sweep of Miami

Duke baseball back on the rise in latest D1Baseball poll.

The Duke Blue Devils have found their groove.

After a 4-0 week, the Duke baseball team has won its previous five games. If you look further past that, the Blue Devils won eight of their last nine baseball games.

Duke dominated Liberty midweek on the road 9-4 before returning to Durham and sweeping the Miami Hurricanes for the first time in Duke baseball history. They took care of Miami with some heroics, too, walking off the Hurricanes on both Friday and Sunday and overcoming a six-run deficit in the final game.

Duke enters week eight of the season after moving up two spots to No. 7 in the latest D1 Baseball poll for their efforts. They moved up two spots from ninth and are now knocking on the door to cracking the top five.

 

The rest of the ACC remains well-represented in the Top 25, as Clemson remains steady as the second-ranked team in the poll. Florida State is now the 10th-ranked team, while Virginia and UNC are 11th and 13th, respectively. Wake Forest, the preseason No. 1, has started to play much better and is back up to 14th. Virginia Tech rounds out the ACC’s involvement as they place 16th.

Duke closes out this four-game homestand with William & Mary on Tuesday and is scheduled for a 6 p.m. first pitch. They return to ACC action next weekend with a three-game road series against the Pitt Panthers.

Duke softball makes program history rising to No. 1 in latest Softball America poll

Duke Softball is the new No. 1 team in the country.

After a crazy weekend in softball that saw the sport’s premier team, Oklahoma, lose a tough series to its fiercest rival, Softball America has a new number-one squad, and it resides in Durham, North Carolina.

That’s correct; the Duke Blue Devils are the No. 1 softball team in the country, according to Softball America’s latest poll.

Duke’s ascension to number one marks the first time this season that a team other than Oklahoma has topped SA’s poll. It also marks the first time in Duke softball’s short history that it has been ranked as a number one team.

Duke entered last week as the No. 2 team, and after beating UNC-Charlotte 6-1 in a midweek matchup and sweeping their Tobacco Road rivals, UNC, Duke is now the nation’s top team.

Oklahoma has an early season win over Duke, but things have changed for both programs since that game.

Duke is joined by Virginia Tech (16), Florida State (20), Virginia (24), and Clemson (25) as the ACC accounts for 20% of the poll.

Duke returns to action this week when it travels to Greenville, N.C., for a non-conference matchup with East Carolina. The first pitch is slated for 5 p.m. at Max R. Joyner Family Stadium.

After securing second ACC series over UVA, Duke moves up to No. 9 in latest D1Baseball poll

Duke pushes back into top 10 in latest D1Baseball Poll.

Duke baseball is back in the top 10.

After a little bit of a bump in the road, Chris Pollard’s team desperately needed a big week on the diamond to shift the momentum. They got just that with a 3-1 week that saw them take down ACC foe UVA for the Blue Devils’ second ACC series win of the season.

The week started with the Blue Devils hammering in-state opponent Campbell 11-1 on Tuesday. The Blue Devils got back after it on Thursday when they hosted a top-25 Virginia team. Ace pitcher Jonathan Santucci dazzled, working five innings of two-hit baseball to improve his record to 5-0, and Duke won 9-4.

On Friday, UVA bounced back with a 7-3 win to even the series at one game apiece. Another Duke comeback spearheaded Saturday’s rubber match. After the Blue Devils were down 2-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth inning, they exploded for five runs in the seventh and pulled out a 7-4 win to take the series.

Joined by UNC and Clemson, Duke now gives the ACC three teams ranked in the top 10. Arkansas remains number one for another week, Clemson is number two, and Texas A&M rose from fourth to third.

The fourth spot belongs to Tennessee with the fifth going to Oregon State. Virginia Tech (11), Florida State (14), Virginia (15), NC State (19), and Wake Forest (21) make up the rest of the ACC teams on this week’s poll.

Duke was named the No. 9 team in the country by Baseball America and the No. 7 team by Perfect Game.

The Blue Devils will be back in action on Tuesday to take on Liberty in Lynchburg, Va., for a midweek game before returning home to host Miami for ACC play at Jack Coombs Field next weekend.

A fan perfectly summed up Virginia’s awful March Madness First Four game with a hilarious t-shirt

This guy summed it up perfectly.

This fan nailed it on the head.

Virginia was already a questionable choice to be part of men’s March Madness in 2024, but then the proof was their performance on Tuesday in their First Four blowout loss to Colorado State, a 67-42 drubbing that had everyone pining for Indiana State to have replaced the Cavaliers.

Back to the aforementioned fan — cameras caught his amazing t-shirt that had everyone laughing: “Virginia basketball is Iowa football.”

YES! Iowa won some games this year but mostly in ugly contests. So, yeah, this was just perfect and people agreed on X (formerly Twitter) by featuring this guy:

Were the Oklahoma Sooners snubbed from the NCAA Tournament?

The Oklahoma Sooners missed out on the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year but were they snubbed?

We’ve now had a couple of days to digest what went down on Selection Sunday. The Oklahoma Sooners found out they would not make the [autotag]NCAA Tournament[/autotag] and instead would be the first team left out.

They then declined to participate in the NIT tournament. But were the Sooners snubbed from being in the tournament? The short answer is, yes. The Sooners should have been over both the [autotag]Virginia Cavaliers[/autotag] and the Michigan State Spartans. Both of them got in due to their recent history in the NCAA Tournament in my opinion.

More: Social media reacts to Oklahoma Sooners NCAA Tournament Snub

Let’s look at Virginia first. Oklahoma had a higher net rating (46 to 54). They had more Quad 1 wins (4 to 2). Virginia went 21-3 in Quad 2-4 games. Oklahoma went 16-0. So, the things the committee claims to look at the most, Oklahoma was better than.

Now, let’s look at Michigan State. Michigan State did have the better net rating (24 to 46). But Oklahoma had more Quad 1 wins (4 to 3). Michigan State went 16-5 in Quad 2-4 games and as I said earlier, Oklahoma went 16-0.

If you want to argue Oklahoma played more Quad 1 games and that’s why they had more wins than both, that’s fine. But neither of the three had a good Quad 1 record.

But if you are Oklahoma and are upset by not getting in, don’t put it in the committee’s hands. Win one more game. Don’t blow a nine-point lead with 7:30 left against the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Do what everyone in the conference but yourself and Oklahoma State did and beat the Kansas Jayhawks on your home court. Close out that close game against the No. 1 ranked Houston Cougars. Don’t lay an egg vs. an average at best [autotag]UCF Knights[/autotag] team.

The Sooners had their chances but ultimately left it up to other teams and the committee to decide their fate. When you do that, you have no one else to blame but yourself.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Jaron on Twitter @JaronSpor.

Duke slides in latest D1Baseball rankings after series loss to Clemson; remains in top 10

Duke lost its first series of the year, an ACC matchup with Clemson, and slid down three spots to ninth in latest D1Baseball poll.

The Duke Blue Devils have lost a series for the first time all season. It wasn’t as if they lost a team to be ashamed of, but this is the first series loss Chris Pollard and his team will have to bounce back from.

The Clemson Tigers came to Durham for Duke’s home ACC opening weekend, and the Tigers spoiled it, taking the Saturday and Sunday games to claim the series. With that series loss, the Blue Devils have slid in the latest D1Baseball rankings. Duke remains a top-10 team, but they are now ninth after their three-spot slide.

Arkansas continues to cruise atop the rankings, while Oregon State and Vanderbilt round out the top three. The Commodores jumped six spots.

Clemson shot up six spots to fourth, now the highest-ranked ACC team in the poll. A slew of SEC teams follow with LSU and Florida at fifth and sixth, respectively, and Texas A&M and Tennessee rounding out the teams in front of Duke.

Fellow North Carolina-based team ECU officially cracked the top 10 for the first time this season.

Florida State debuted at 12, joining the ranks of ACC teams inside the top 25. The Seminoles have reeled off 18 straight wins to start the season and are the only undefeated team in the poll.

Virginia is 14th after taking a series from Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons continue to slide after their second straight series loss. They are now 16th after holding the seventh spot last week.

Virginia Tech also enters the poll after being unranked last week. They are 19th, one place ahead of UNC at 20. After a week that saw them go winless, getting swept by Georgia Tech, the NC State Wolfpack are officially out of the poll.

Duke will end its six-game homestand on Tuesday when it hosts Towson at Jack Coombs Field. The first pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Duke and their Tobacco Road counterparts lead the way as ACC lands five teams in the tournament

Duke and the rest of the ACC ready to roll in NCAA Tournament.

Duke was never in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament, but in the last two weeks, they had the chance to solidify themselves as a No. 2 seed.

That didn’t come to fruition, however, as Duke lost to their rivals, UNC, on senior night and then to NC State in the quarterfinals of the 2024 ACC Tournament.

Those two teams met Saturday night in the ACC Championship game, and NC State pulled off an improbable win to cap off one of the most incredible ACC Tournament runs in the league’s illustrious history. They won five games in five days to punch an automatic ticket to the Big Dance.

All of the Tobacco Road schools are going dancing. UNC is the fourth No. 1 seed in the West region, while Duke is the fourth seed in the South region. NC State is an 11-seed in the South region with Duke.

Clemson and UVA made five teams for the ACC in this year’s tournament.

The ACC was unusually weak this year, with Louisville and Syracuse unable to live up to their usual standards. For stretches of the season, it looked like Duke and UNC were the only locks to make the tournament. Yet, when the dust settled, the ACC still found a way to produce five teams.

The ACC has had at least one team reach the Elite Eight in 34 of 38 tournaments and at least one Final Four team in 26 of 38 tournaments.

We will see which of this year’s ACC participants makes the most significant run.

Oklahoma snubbed from NCAA Tournament for third straight year; dubbed first team out

Oklahoma is the first team out in this year’s NCAA Tournament, narrowly missing the cut.

[autotag]Porter Moser[/autotag] and the Oklahoma Sooners will not be participating in this year’s NCAA Tournament, as the Sooners found out on Sunday when the brackets were unveiled to the world.

The Sooners will remain in an NCAA Tournament drought for yet another year as the Sooners found out their fate.

Despite winning twenty games and finishing with zero losses to teams in Quad 2-4, the Sooners narrowly missed the cut and were ranked as the first team out, meaning the Sooners finished 69th instead of 68th.

Oklahoma sputtered to the end of the season, losing four of its last five games due to injuries, rigid scheduling, and lackluster play. However, Porter Moser and bracketologists like Joe Lunardi stood firm that Oklahoma would be good enough to make the cut narrowly.

The Virginia Cavaliers are the most surprising team to make it over the Sooners. The Cavaliers played in a weaker conference and had a lower NET rating than the Sooners.

All told, when Oklahoma was fully healthy, they were 18-6 and worthy of an NCAA Tournament spot. Oklahoma was victim over an unprecedented conference tournament weekend as teams like Oregon stole bids from right under the nose of Oklahoma. Oregon upset Colorado to win the final Pac-12 tournament. The Ducks were dead in the water before their conference tournament started, and they had only one hope: Win their conference tournament. They did that and punched their ticket.

The Sooners missing this year’s NCAA Tournament brings their tournament drought to three years.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow John on Twitter @john9williams.

Twitter rips Tony Bennett in upset for not having Virginia use a foul before NC State’s game-tying 3

Why didn’t he have Virginia foul??

Virginia got taken down by NC State in an intense overtime game in the 2024 ACC tournament, and it’s head coach Tony Bennett who’s taking the heat.

With the Cavaliers up 58-55 and with just seconds to go, Isaac McKneely missed a free throw, and the Wolfpack’s Michael O’Connell launched a three at the buzzer that banked off the glass, rattled around and went in to force overtime. NC State went on to win and advance.

IT’S BRACKET MADNESS: Enter USA TODAY’s NCAA tournament bracket contest for a chance at $1 million prize.

So what did Bennett do? It’s what he didn’t do, actually — Virginia had fouls to give and could have perhaps fouled as the ball was coming up to stop the clock and reset everything.

Bennett’s explanation, as you’ll see below, was to NOT foul when O’Connell was getting close to pulling up for three, which made sense:

Fans were mad:

Duke now top ACC team at No. 6 in latest D1Baseball poll, the highest rank in school history

Duke ascends to No. 6 in latest D1Baseball poll after a series victory over top-ranked Wake Forest, the highest ranking in program history.

Duke’s series win over the then-No. 1 Wake Forest Demon Deacons sent some pretty sizable ripples through the rest of the collegiate baseball landscape.

The series win vindicated Duke as a team that everyone should be cognizant of going forward, and it also sent a message to the rest of the ACC that things will not be a breeze for Wake Forest to just coast to a regular-season title.

Duke made the trip from Durham, NC, to Winston-Salem this past weekend and took two of three from the previously top-ranked Demon Deacons. That win had a massive effect on the latest D1Baseball poll.

Duke is now the highest-ranked ACC team in the country, having leaped from 12th to 6th, which marks the highest ranking in program history by D1Baseball.

Duke had a 3-1 week in total, which started with a 28-2 dismantling of the Appalachian State Mountaineers in the middle of the week before they made their trip to take on Wake Forest to open ACC play.

Arkansas is now the No. 1-ranked team in the country. Wake Forest dropped six spots to seventh.

Elsewhere in the ACC, Clemson remains steady at 10th after another undefeated week of action. NC State moved up one spot to No. 13 in the newest poll. UNC also moved up one place, going from 16th to 15th. Virginia suffered two losses to the Miami Hurricanes last week and fell four spots from 13th to 17th.

In their latest rankings, Baseball America ranked Duke No. 3, and Perfect Game ranked the Blue Devils No. 5.

The Blue Devils will continue its journey to ascend into the top five with two midweek games against Rider starting Tuesday. They follow that up with another top-10 matchup as Clemson gets set to come to town to start a three-game set on Friday.