Home-phone disadvantage
May 26th, 2008, 5:24 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Dan Zeiger
Pat Murphy
Arizona State coach Pat Murphy discovered that telecommuting is not the best way to serve on the Division I baseball committee, especially if one has NCAA tournament interests he would like to see served.
“As part of a committee, you are one of 10 voices, and sitting in Arizona, I think I might have been muted at times,” Murphy said on Monday, the day the 64-team field was unveiled. “There’s some things that didn’t happen the way I’d like, but I’m only one of 10. But the committee worked very hard.”
In his second year of a committee term that runs through September 2010, Murphy attended last year’s meetings in Indianapolis. He opted to stay in Arizona this year because the Sun Devils played at Arizona Thursday through Saturday, and he would not have been able to arrive in Indianapolis until at least Sunday afternoon.
Next year, Murphy said, he will personally attend, even if it means missing an ASU game or two.
Murphy, who Friday through Monday took part in tournament selection discussions via conference call, said that he went 0-for-2 in his goals: Getting two-time defending national champion Oregon State in and a more equitable distribution of West-coast schools around the bracket.
Due to the way this year’s bracket is constructed, a maximum of four West-coast schools can reach the College World Series. Four such teams — ASU, UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton and Oregon State — made it last year.
The champions of the Tempe and Long Beach (Calif.) regionals and winners of the Palo Alto (Calif.) and Fullerton (Calif.) regionals will square off in super regionals. The only West-coast schools slotted outside of those regionals are Arizona, the No. 1 seed in Ann Arbor (Mich.), and UC Irvine, the No. 2 seed at Lincoln (Neb.).
“It’s disappointing that all of the West teams are paired together,” Murphy said. “Geographics plays a part in our region’s (tournament placement), but it doesn’t seem to be for a lot of other regions. I’d like to see that changed.”
Also, ASU — which is the No. 3 national seed — might have gotten a more favorable draw, or at least a Tempe Regional that did not involve Vanderbilt, which is coached by Tim Corbin, a close friend of Murphy’s.
“Tim is coming to town for a regional, so that will be a little weird,” Murphy said. “Also, Vanderbilt is pretty much the same team that was the No. 1 overall seed last year, minus David Price.”
Price, a left-handed pitcher, was drafted No. 1 overall by the Tampa Bay Rays last June and is expected to reach the major leagues soon.