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LSU not even getting the nod under the honorable mentions for their 2001-2011 run is a decent troll, intentional or otherwise. Four conference titles, two national titles, and a third title appearance. Finished with two losses or fewer six times. Finished 6–2 in conference or better seven times.

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Basketball

2001-02 lost to Indiana 73-64 Semi’s
2015-16 lost to Villanova 95-51 Semi’s

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Why didn't you just say Final Four like a normal human being?

I knew there were actual differences, but not being an OU fan, I'm not aware of all the minutia. I just remember that 2022 OU team being unranked and not very impressive, and then overcoming every obstacle in the tournament, just like this year. At a glance, 2022 Oklahoma was 45–22 and undefeated in Omaha going into the CWS finals. 2026 is 41–22 and undefeated. '22 was 15–9 in the Big 12, '26 was 14–16 in the SEC. The only real difference seems to be the '22 squad won their conference tournament and this year got bounced on the first game.

Coastal Carolina has a unique brand of efficiency. They're not a team that would ever be expected to compete, and they've only made the CWS twice. But they finished as the national champions and the runner-up for those two appearances.

I appreciate more what he did for Tennessee.

I'm just saying I bet they'd find Regionals Auburn a much different animal when they don't have the luxury of being a designated trap game.

USC, with 12 national championships in baseball, has a field that seats only 2,500 people. In a place with perfect weather 12 months of the year.

You say "another" year like it happens often, lol. The last time we were a 2-seed was in 2022, and 2015 before that (we did miss the tourney altogether in 2016, though).

Interestingly, both of those times were the Stillwater Regional, and both times we advanced to the CWS.

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Might as well quit watching every sport we play if this is what it takes to show up for a game.

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I agree with this. And furthermore, even the CWS isn't the goal every year. We're occasionally going to have disappointing years like this one where we weren't who we thought we were (and it's still always possible for us to get hot during the Regionals and go on a run), but the tournament in baseball is not the same as basketball. Getting to host the Regionals and Super Regionals is an insane advantage, especially to a team that has a home crowd advantage like Arkansas. When you're in the top five - if not #1 - when the Regionals roll around, and you just DO NOT lose at home, you should be a lock for the CWS 90% of the time.

As tiring as it is to keep falling short for seemingly no reason, it's gotten even more frustrating in that nothing ever gets done about it. There seems to be no investigation into what goes wrong. No one gets replaced. No philosophy gets changed. We just try it again next year to the same results.

How can you really blame people for being tepid?

I'm not sure I fully agree with him, but it's not fickle. In 2021, 2023, and 2024 we were ranked #1 for most of the year, all three years. We didn't lose a single home series one time in any of those three seasons. We didn't make it out of Fayetteville in any of the three. I'm not saying we need to win the CWS every year, but when you're the consensus #1 team who has never lost at home, you don't lose at home for the first time during the postseason. You at least make it to Omaha for a two and queue.

Then we had the dropped ball debacle in 2018 that would have made all of this moot, had we brought home the trophy we deserved.

Then we spend time as a top ten team in 2017, only to get eliminated in the Fayetteville regional again. We at least lost one other home series that year.

We've found embarrassing ways to become choke artists over 50% of the time since 2017, and people are getting tired of it going on a full decade later. At least this year we were just overrated and not legitimately a contender, only to lose the very second losing starts to matter for the first time in 60 games.

Getting your hopes up to that degree and then having the fall is no way to live every other season. All while eight of the other 15 conference members win a national championship during DVH's tenure. I don't blame anyone for losing patience at this point.