As I noted on Tuesday, I felt that if Baylor came to OKC and beat Texas in the opener, then pulled out ONE other victory - the Bears would earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.  Now that it has happened, I feel even more strongly that the Bears are in the field of 64.

 

After going 2-and-1 in the Big 12 tournament, Baylor's RPI is back into the high 20's.  Plus, BU's STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE is #7.  Sure Oklahoma State might have an argument, and the Cowboys are 3-to-4 spots higher in RPI than Baylor - but the Pokes didn't even qualify for the conference tournament and their schedule is ranked easier than the Bears'.

 

When the NCAA field of 64 is released on Monday at 11:30am, I expect to see Baylor (as a 3-seed) headed to a regional site within a 400 mile radius of Waco.

 

The ONLY thing that has me second guessing the Bears' fate is all of the upsets taking place in conference tournaments across the nation.  Xavier (Atlantic 10), Sam Houston State (Southland), Indiana (Big 10), and Utah (Mountain West) all played the part of bid-snatchers by winning the conference tournaments and earning their league's automatic berth.  Now, conference regular season champions Rhode Island (Atlantic 10), Texas State (Southland), Ohio State (Big 10), and TCU (Mountain West) will gobble up at-large bids that could keep teams like Baylor, Oklahoma State, Kansas, and Dallas Baptist out of the tournament.

 

On Thursday, I compared this year's Baylor baseball team to this year's Baylor basketball team.  As it turns out, Steve Smith's 2009 Bears may actually be more like Scott Drew's hoops team from TWO years ago - when the Bears were one of the last five teams into the "dance".

 

***

 

I found it odd that Steve Smith didn't exchange his line-up card with the umpires prior to Saturday's game vs Kansas.  Assistant Coach "Hoot" Johnigan walked the card out.  It's the first time I've ever seen anyone other than Coach Smith meet with the umpires and the opposing coach at home plate.  So...I did a little digging.

 

And after talking to a couple of sources, I found out that Coach Smith had more than just one reason for staying in the dugout on Saturday morning.

 

Patrick Spieler was the home plate umpire for Saturday's game between Baylor and Kansas.  Patrick Spieler was also the third base umpire for Thursday's game between Baylor and Kansas State.  Patrick Spieler was also the third base umpire who EJECTED Coach Smith from Thursday's game between Baylor and Kansas State for arguing a questionable check swing (non) call. 

 

But that's not the end of it...

 

Patrick Spieler was the first base umpire for Friday's game between Texas A&M and Oklahoma.  A game that started at 7:33pm and did not end until 11:32pm.  It's probably safe to presume that the umpires didn't leave Bricktown Ballpark until nearly midnight.  Not only was Spieler the ONLY umpire from that late-night A&M vs OU affair to work the 9am Baylor vs Kansas game the next morning, but he was working BEHIND THE PLATE.  Spieler was expected to call balls and strikes - arguably the most demanding task in baseball, merely nine hours after walking off the field the night before?  Don't forget, his other three crew members for Saturday morning's game worked the FIRST game played on Friday afternoon, a contest between Texas Tech and Missouri that ended at 5:43pm.