Directors Cup Thread

[BWilk55]

Softball started the day with a 1-2 loss to Washington after taking a 1-0 lead in the 6th.

In the 2nd game, Texas was able to score 2 wins in the 6th and add a 3rd in the top of the 7th. An error allowed Washington to rally in the 7th scoring two runs but a strikeout sealed the deal and Texas advances to face off with #4 Arkansas in the super regionals. 

Stanford pulled off an upset by advancing out of the regional hosted by #6 Alabama. Stanford with some luck in the draw as they will advance to face off with Oregon State in the super regional after their upset of #11 Tennessee. Michigan was eliminated after 1 win in their regional and finish tied for 33rd. 

[BWilk55]

Current Standings:                              Projected Standings:

Michigan 1210.25                                 Texas 1368.25

Stanford 1079.25                                 Stanford 1302.75

Texas 843.5                                          Michigan 1232.25

Despite being the current leader, I do expect Michigan to fall to 3rd place when all is said and done. They have been eliminated in both golf tournaments, softball and won't make the baseball tournament. Their track and field teams will score a few points but won't be included in their top 19 sports. Rowing will likely have a top 10 finish and add to their score but otherwise they are done. 

Stanford has continued to put together solid NCAA finishes and has increased their previously predicted score by about 85 points. With a fortunate draw in the softball regionals, that team has a chance to make the CWS and greatly overachieve for a team that was just outside of the top 25 most of the season. They continue to perform like the #1 women's golf team and a Championship there would be the expectation and not surprising. If they trip up in match play, they would end up dropping points from their predicted score. A top 3 finish in rowing is also expected. Men's baseball has also risen through the ranks and looks poised for a CWS run. Like their softball team, they were outside of the top 25 mid-season but have really turned it on lately. Men's golf and both track and field teams will likely post solid finishes but won't do much to increase the overall score based on other sports that have concluded.

Texas clearly has work to do. Do remember, Texas has only had 13 sports complete their seasons so far and have 6 blank spots on their scorecard (Michigan and Stanford have both filled up their scorecards and then some). Texas looks to add some big numbers in these empty spots. Women's T&F and Rowing are strong favorites for championships while men's track will battle Alabama for the crown. Women's golf, Men's Golf and Softball are still competing but have set pretty high floors for themselves with guaranteed finishes no worse than 15th, 36th and 9th. Baseball is a bit of a wildcard but as a likely 2 seed in a regional, a #17 overall finish would be expected. 

Stanford's rise through the rankings in several sports will make this a tight finish but I still see Texas coming out on top. A series of Texas failures plus Stanford exceeding current expectations would be required for the Cardinal to re-claim their crown. 

 

 

 

[Oldmanastro]

1 hour ago, BWilk55 said:

Current Standings:                              Projected Standings:

Michigan 1210.25                                 Texas 1368.25

Stanford 1079.25                                 Stanford 1302.75

Texas 843.5                                          Michigan 1232.25

Despite being the current leader, I do expect Michigan to fall to 3rd place when all is said and done. They have been eliminated in both golf tournaments, softball and won't make the baseball tournament. Their track and field teams will score a few points but won't be included in their top 19 sports. Rowing will likely have a top 10 finish and add to their score but otherwise they are done. 

Stanford has continued to put together solid NCAA finishes and has increased their previously predicted score by about 85 points. With a fortunate draw in the softball regionals, that team has a chance to make the CWS and greatly overachieve for a team that was just outside of the top 25 most of the season. They continue to perform like the #1 women's golf team and a Championship there would be the expectation and not surprising. If they trip up in match play, they would end up dropping points from their predicted score. A top 3 finish in rowing is also expected. Men's baseball has also risen through the ranks and looks poised for a CWS run. Like their softball team, they were outside of the top 25 mid-season but have really turned it on lately. Men's golf and both track and field teams will likely post solid finishes but won't do much to increase the overall score based on other sports that have concluded.

Texas clearly has work to do. Do remember, Texas has only had 13 sports complete their seasons so far and have 6 blank spots on their scorecard (Michigan and Stanford have both filled up their scorecards and then some). Texas looks to add some big numbers in these empty spots. Women's T&F and Rowing are strong favorites for championships while men's track will battle Alabama for the crown. Women's golf, Men's Golf and Softball are still competing but have set pretty high floors for themselves with guaranteed finishes no worse than 15th, 36th and 9th. Baseball is a bit of a wildcard but as a likely 2 seed in a regional, a #17 overall finish would be expected. 

Stanford's rise through the rankings in several sports will make this a tight finish but I still see Texas coming out on top. A series of Texas failures plus Stanford exceeding current expectations would be required for the Cardinal to re-claim their crown. 

 

 

 

Thanks for all the updates BW. I only have one issue. You state "Cardinal to re-claim THEIR crown?" 

Last I checked, we own it.

[BWilk55]

1 hour ago, Oldmanastro said:

Thanks for all the updates BW. I only have one issue. You state "Cardinal to re-claim THEIR crown?" 

Last I checked, we own it.

That's fair. For a quarter of a century they've worn the crown so I'd consider us to be borrowing it until we can show that we can consistently beat them out. 

If we win this year, we will move into sole ownership of 2nd place in titles won with UNC in third with 1. 

[BWilk55]

Women's golf had their best round of the NCAA Championship by shooting a +1, the 2nd best round of any team today. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to move up the rankings and they ended the day in 13th place, an appropriate finish for the #13 ranked team. 

Stanford finished the stroke play rounds in 1st place and take on Georgia in the match play quarterfinals tomorrow. We can root for a Stanford upset which will cost them some valuable points in the Director's Cup.

[BWilk55]

On 5/23/2022 at 10:08 PM, BWilk55 said:

Women's golf had their best round of the NCAA Championship by shooting a +1, the 2nd best round of any team today. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to move up the rankings and they ended the day in 13th place, an appropriate finish for the #13 ranked team. 

Stanford finished the stroke play rounds in 1st place and take on Georgia in the match play quarterfinals tomorrow. We can root for a Stanford upset which will cost them some valuable points in the Director's Cup.

Stanford won 3 straight match play matchups 3-2 to take home the national championship. As the #1 seed, this was the finish I have been predicting for them. 

Side note, Match play is such a weird format to decide a champion. Heck, they play 12 rounds of golf to select the 24 finalists, followed by 16 rounds to whittle the field down to 8. But from the quarterfinals on, you get 1 round of 5 person match play in order to advance.

[BWilk55]

This is a good watch and pertinent as rowing hits the water this week to defend their championship. The finish last year was dramatic and hearing the behind the scenes from the teams perspective makes it even more so.

 

[BWilk55]

On 5/26/2022 at 10:00 AM, BWilk55 said:

This is a good watch and pertinent as rowing hits the water this week to defend their championship. The finish last year was dramatic and hearing the behind the scenes from the teams perspective makes it even more so.

 

Rowing advances 1st and 2nd eights boats to the grand finals (top 6 teams) with the fasting qualifying times. The four boat also advances to the grand final. The 4 did finish 2nd in their race to Washington, and had the 3rd best qualifying time. No need to win the qualifying races so perhaps saving themselves a bit but it may be the one kink in the armor. 

If there is any race that not placing first is okay, its the 4s. That race is only worth 22 points and each place below 1st drops your score 1 point. The 2nd eights is worth 44 with minus 2 points for each place below 1st and the 1st eight is worth 66 points and it's minus 3. 

 

[BWilk55]

 

Softball with a dramatic win over Arkansas today to move on to the CWS. Texas took a 3 run lead in the 6th and held off rallies by the hogs in the 6th and 7th innings with the final out coming on a warning track fly out, a few feet further would have been the tying HR. Now guaranteed at least a 7th place finish with wins in OKC bumping us up to 5th and then 3rd place.

Stanford lost 2 straight to Oregon State and is eliminated. They were unable to take advantage of lucking into hosting a super regional.

[BWilk55]

Men's golf is currently in a tie for 8th place after 2 rounds of golf at the national championship. Needs a few more solid rounds to advance to match play but certainly in the thick of things currently.

[BWilk55]

 

[BWilk55]

5 hours ago, BWilk55 said:

 

Rowing wins their second consecutive title in dramatic (surprisingly so) fashion.

I mentioned that the 4 person boat could potentially finish 3rd and that is what did indeed occur. The two teams who edged them out, Princeton and Ohio State were quite surprising and importantly, Stanford finished 1 spot and 1 point behind Texas in 4th. 

Texas looked like a strong favorite in the 2nd 8 person boat but ended up finishing in 4th place. Importantly Stanford took 2nd, being edged out by Yale. Princeton finished 1 spot and 2 points behind Texas in this race.

Going into the final race, Stanford had a 3 point lead on Texas, Princeton and Washington which meant that whichever team out of these 4 had the best finish would win the championship. Texas was fortunate to control their own destiny at this point after subpar finishes to the first 2 races.

Texas would go on to blow the other boats out of the water with a 5 second victory. This put them tied with Stanford who finished 2nd at 124 points and on the basis of the tiebreaker (higher finish in 1st eights) Texas was crowned champion. 

[BWilk55]

After back to back +11s, Men's Golf had a stellar performance on the links today shooting a -2. The best score of the day was a -3 which 4 teams shot. This helped Texas move into sole possession of 7th place and in a strong position to qualify for match play (top 8 teams). They are 1 stroke behind 6th place and, 6 ahead of 8th and most importantly 9 strokes ahead of the two teams sitting in 9th. 

Stanford finished 18th and their tournament is over. Also, fun side note, A&M finished in 16th, missing the top 15 cut by 2 strokes.

[BWilk55]

Michigan and Stanford only have baseball and track and field championships remaining.

Michigan is unlikely to make the baseball tournament and predicted to finish poorly in track and field for both men and women. It does not seem that they will improve their overall score further at this point. 

Stanford is poised for a deep run in baseball. If they slip up prior to omaha, their director's cup chances are shot. Their track teams will likely finish in the 15-25 range and will only add a handful of points to their overall score.

Texas is still competing in Men's Golf and softball, in addition to the 3 sports mentioned above. 

If the worst case realistic scenario for Texas (Men's golf drops to 15th, softball goes 0-2 in CWS, baseball goes 0-2 in their regional, and T&F teams both finish 3rd) and best case scenario for Stanford (win baseball CWS, T&F teams finish 15th) Stanford would edge out Texas by a few points. Any better finishes for Texas or worse for Stanford and Texas will be back to back Directors Cup champions!

Current Predicted Finish

Texas 1391.25

Stanford 1304.25

Michigan 1220.25

Ohio State 1173

[Eastexhorn]

Mens golf has betteroddsthan softball. Ladies are in bracket with OU.

[BWilk55]

10 minutes ago, Eastexhorn said:

Mens golf has betteroddsthan softball. Ladies are in bracket with OU.

Men's golf is in a good position to make the match play round (the finish of 15th I mentioned above it literally a worst case scenario). They may also end up paired with OU who is really good at golf but match play golf is very unpredictable.

Softball has had a tough draw throughout. They end up in the bracket with teams ranked 1, 5 and 9 while the other side of the bracket has teams seeded 7, 14 and 2 unseeded. 

 

[BWilk55]

On 5/29/2022 at 7:57 PM, BWilk55 said:

After back to back +11s, Men's Golf had a stellar performance on the links today shooting a -2. The best score of the day was a -3 which 4 teams shot. This helped Texas move into sole possession of 7th place and in a strong position to qualify for match play (top 8 teams). They are 1 stroke behind 6th place and, 6 ahead of 8th and most importantly 9 strokes ahead of the two teams sitting in 9th. 

Stanford finished 18th and their tournament is over. Also, fun side note, A&M finished in 16th, missing the top 15 cut by 2 strokes.

Texas had a stellar 4th round, shooting a 3 under. The 2nd best score on the day was a +4. Texas finished stroke play in 4th place.

In what has to be a rare occurrence, all top 8 ranked teams advanced to the quarterfinals. Texas will face off with #2 ranked Oklahoma state in match play tomorrow. 

Parker Coody ended the day as part of a 4 way tie for first place, though he would lose on the first playoff hole to finish tied second. 

[Hiwood]

Horns knocks out Ok State to advance to the semi finals of match play vs #1 seed Vandy this afternoon...both OU and OSU got beat in match play which made the day sweeter

[BWilk55]

1 hour ago, Hiwood said:

Horns knocks out Ok State to advance to the semi finals of match play vs #1 seed Vandy this afternoon...both OU and OSU got beat in match play which made the day sweeter

#1 ranked OU and #2 ranked OSU gone. Texas now paired with #3 Vanderbilt so things don't necessarily get much easier, it was very close between #8 Tech and Vandy and facing the #8 ranked team would have been preferred. 

[BWilk55]

The final track and field rankings were published today after the NCAA regionals were completed this weekend. These rankings will be the most useful as they are only including athletes who will be moving on to the championship meet this weekend. 

The women's team continues to look like an overwhelming favorite as they have all season. They will score lots of points in the 100, 200, 400 and the 4X100 and 4x400. Tyra Gittens (HJ, LJ) and Ackelia Smith (LJ, TJ) will look to score some points in jumping events. Kristine Blazevica will contend for the Heptathalon crown. 

The men's team drops out of the top spot for the first time all year as Georgia barely edges them out. This will be a very close meet between these two teams with no other squad looking to push for the overall title. Micaiah Harris (100, 200) and Jonathon Jones (400, 800) will lead the team in track events. Adrian Piperi is the top ranked shot putter and Leo Nugebauer will push for the podium in the decathalon. 

Regarding the directors cup, Stanford is now ranked as the #9 men's team which is a nice jump from last week and I would predict they could finish as high as 7th. The women also improved their ranking to #19 overall and with a good meet could finish at 13th. 

[Hiwood]

HORNS advance to the National Championship in Men's Golf, they will play Arizona St tomorrow

 

on paper they should beat ASU but the Sun Devils are the host team and know the course well

 

Horns need to play smart golf and not give holes away with unforced errors

[BWilk55]

2 hours ago, Hiwood said:

on paper they should beat ASU but the Sun Devils are the host team and know the course well

ASU has home course advantage but Texas bested them in stroke play as well. Horns are playing great golf these past 3 days, just gotta do it 1 more time!

[BWilk55]

Update to Best case for Stanford vs. Worst Case for Texas:

Best case finish for Stanford includes baseball national championship and Women's T&F finish 13th and Mens T&F finish 7th for a final score of :1328.75

Worst case finish for Texas includes baseball and softball going 0-2, M Golf finishing 2nd, and both T&F teams finishing 3rd for a final score of: 1342

Our worst case is better than their best case and I think this Director's Cup is in the bag! Will have to wait until T&F wraps up next Saturday to be able to say so definitively. 

[Hiwood]

7 hours ago, BWilk55 said:

ASU has home course advantage but Texas bested them in stroke play as well. Horns are playing great golf these past 3 days, just gotta do it 1 more time!

Karsten GC in Tempe is the Sun Devil home course, Grayhawk is nearby but ASU plays it often

[Oldmanastro]

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