Is It Really a Rivalry When One Side Leads By 50 Games?

[ArcherSPS]

**

 

[Russ Wheeler]

We weathered their surge forward in the 2000s, and now have pulled solidly ahead of them now as a program once we finally got our stuff together. I keep expecting them to fall back to total irrelevancy, but Bianco just won't go away. That said, they generally very overrated. Not only to they have help at the CL, D1 baseball (specially Rogers) is a big proponent of theirs'. Something about how Bianco helped him at PG or something.

 

[ZombieKissinger]

That’s not fair. You really have to look at recent history, like since 2016**

 

[fishwater99]

Nope. Don’t buy it not their hype.

 

[wsjmsu75]

We weathered their surge forward in the 2000s, and now have pulled solidly ahead of them now as a program once we finally got our stuff together. I keep expecting them to fall back to total irrelevancy, but Bianco just won't go away. That said, they generally very overrated. Not only to they have help at the CL, D1 baseball (specially Rogers) is a big proponent of theirs'. Something about how Bianco helped him at PG or something.

I think it is marvelous to see them get hyped up literally every year, only to fail miserably when it counts the most in the postseason. It has become their baseball tradition, just as going to Omaha is ours.

 

[wsjmsu75]

That’s not fair. You really have to look at recent history, like since 2016**

Just curious. What is our record against them since 2016?

 

[DoggieDaddy13]

That is a loaded baseball team. On paper, they look more talented, although they probably lack our depth on the mound. But their best pitchers are just as good as ours, maybe better.
All that typed, they are clearly a bunch a whack-a-doos and arrogant pricks in the UM tradition of Henderson, Corral and Fourcade.
Let's just win this upcoming series and hopefully not speak of them again.

 

[Arthur2478]

but Bianco just won't go away.

Meh, he puts together good regular seasons but college baseball is a post season sport. He's been head coach there since 2001 and has only made it to Omaha once. Compare that with the rest of the SEC since 2001 and it really highlights how much he's underachieved:

CWS appearances since 2001:
Florida - 8
LSU - 7
Arkansas - 6
South Carolina - 6
Georgia - 4
State - 4
Vanderbilt - 4
Tennessee - 2
Texas A&M - 2
Auburn - 1
Ole Miss - 1
Alabama - 0
Kentucky - 0
Missouri - 0

 

[Russ Wheeler]

Meh, he puts together good regular seasons but college baseball is a post season sport. He's been head coach there since 2001 and has only made it to Omaha once. Compare that with the rest of the SEC since 2001 and it really highlights how much he's underachieved:

CWS appearances since 2001:
Florida - 8
LSU - 7
Arkansas - 6
South Carolina - 6
Georgia - 4
State - 4
Vanderbilt - 4
Tennessee - 2
Texas A&M - 2
Auburn - 1
Ole Miss - 1
Alabama - 0
Kentucky - 0
Missouri - 0

This is kind of a fallacy (I'm talking specifically about a certain team being a regular season team vs. a postseason team). Baseball is all about number, percentages, etc. Good teams will be good teams, over a longer sample size, regardless of regular vs. postseason. Bottom line is that Ole Miss simply hasn't been as good of a team over Bianco's tenure (but they've certainly been very good, just not elite) as they'd have you believe.

The key is to look at the right metrics. Simply looking at records doesn't get it done.

 

[wsjmsu75]

That is a loaded baseball team. On paper, they look more talented, although they probably lack our depth on the mound. But their best pitchers are just as good as ours, maybe better.
All that typed, they are clearly a bunch a whack-a-doos and arrogant pricks in the UM tradition of Henderson, Corral and Fourcade.
Let's just win this upcoming series and hopefully not speak of them again.

Sounds like good candidates for their next nickname.

 

[MSUDC11]

That is a loaded baseball team. On paper, they look more talented, although they probably lack our depth on the mound. But their best pitchers are just as good as ours, maybe better.
All that typed, they are clearly a bunch a whack-a-doos and arrogant pricks in the UM tradition of Henderson, Corral and Fourcade.
Let's just win this upcoming series and hopefully not speak of them again.

Their lineup definitely has more pop. Our bullpen seems pretty clearly better. Starting pitching is kind of a push. We have shown more mental fortitude than them in this series the last few years. If we keep that up I expect us to win the series, particularly at home.

 

[johnson86-1]

Just curious. What is our record against them since 2016?

10-2 (Conference Games)
4-0 (Governor's Cups)

The Jake Mangum era was a pretty good one. Don't feel like compiling his average but I think it was probably north of .550 against the bears.

2016
2-1 (SEC)
1-0 (Governors)
2017
3-0
1-0
2018
2-1
1-0
2019
3-0
1-0

 

[Russ Wheeler]

Their lineup definitely has more pop. Our bullpen seems pretty clearly better. Starting pitching is kind of a push. We have shown more mental fortitude than them in this series the last few years. If we keep that up I expect us to win the series, particularly at home.

While it's not as big of a deal as it once was, relying solely on the bomb still doesn't play well in Omaha.

 

[wsjmsu75]

10-2 (Conference Games)
4-0 (Governor's Cups)

The Jake Mangum era was a pretty good one. Don't feel like compiling his average but I think it was probably north of .550 against the bears.

2016
2-1 (SEC)
1-0 (Governors)
2017
3-0
1-0
2018
2-1
1-0
2019
3-0
1-0

So, 14-2 overall. That is dominance. Need to continue that trend this weekend.

 

[johnson86-1]

Their lineup definitely has more pop. Our bullpen seems pretty clearly better. Starting pitching is kind of a push. We have shown more mental fortitude than them in this series the last few years. If we keep that up I expect us to win the series, particularly at home.

I guess I'd give us the slight edge since it's at home, but I really think the margin for error is so small against any of the top say 5 SEC teams, every weekend is just a crapshoot. That's what makes the sweep by Arkansas so painful. Not going to be many sweeps between top teams. Not going to be that many sweeps against the mediocre teams, so we at least sort of made up some ground the last two weekends.