Kentucky snubbed as NCAA regional host ...

[westsider]

Reports are that Kentucky, despite being ranked in the national top 10 for much of the year, wasn't selected as one of the 16 schools to host an NCAA tournament regional. Kentucky's ballpark is apparently cited as one of the factors.

 

Hard to believe.

[OlDog75]

Reports are that Kentucky, despite being ranked in the national top 10 for much of the year, wasn't selected as one of the 16 schools to host an NCAA tournament regional. Kentucky's ballpark is apparently cited as one of the factors.

 

Hard to believe.

 

I'm assuming NCAA wants bigger parks for more fannies?

[KY Thorobred]

The park would have to be the factor. They need to work something out with the Legends in future years so that they are on a road trip around the time of Regionals.

[PurplePride92]

#motivation

 

 

Good luck, Cats!!!!

[Wireman]

They need some motivation in my opinion. They've choked it up late in the season. They were 1-7 against Miss State and Louisville and even lost to Murray State. Hopefully, this will get them back on the right track.

[NKYThreeFer]

I saw J.T. Riddle complaining of this on his Facebook page. It's a shame, really.

[Wireman]

After looking at the field, I'm honestly dumbfounded.

[DragonFire]

The RPI surely changed since the 22nd, but the last RPI had UK at 19th. Arizona was the lowest RPI to get a regional and they are 17th. Arkansas (16th) was the only top 16 RPI team from that date that did not get to host one. So it appears to me that the RPI was probably their undoing as much as anything. I tend to lean towards the thinking they did this to themselves with that late season fade.

[JohnsonQ]

Gary Indiana is an armpit. I've seen the Cats play a few games this year, but a road trip to Gary is not very enticing!

[Da champ]

If I'm Coach Henderson, I'm tickled to death. This team has not played like a top 25 team the past month. Let's get fired up and prove something ! Go Big Blue !!

[gchs_uk9]

Gary Indiana is an armpit. I've seen the Cats play a few games this year, but a road trip to Gary is not very enticing!

 

The park they are going to is really nice, however. You can see it from Interstate-90 as you head toward Chicago.

 

U.S. Steel Yard - Gary, Indiana

[gchs_uk9]

The RPI surely changed since the 22nd, but the last RPI had UK at 19th. Arizona was the lowest RPI to get a regional and they are 17th. Arkansas (16th) was the only top 16 RPI team from that date that did not get to host one. So it appears to me that the RPI was probably their undoing as much as anything. I tend to lean towards the thinking they did this to themselves with that late season fade.

 

Kentucky has never done this, but I think they would benefit from an early season 3-game set with someone from a power conference like the ACC, Big 12, or Pac-12. The experience would be nice and the RPI boost would be there all season. I hope they schedule that way next year.

[letabrotherspeak]

They were 6-3 versus the National Seeds.

They were one win in final series from winning the SEC.

They lost one game in the SEC Tourney and was eliminated.

They should have been at minimum a regional host. Miami, Florida got one?

[BaseballIsLife]

The field is not an issue for hosting as Kentucky as already hosted in the past. This is clearly a snubb by the NCAA. You can point out that Kentucky had a horrible OOC schedule. However, go and look at Miami's OOC schedule. It may be better but they played many of their games at home. LSU got slammed for having too many home OOC games last year and the committee pointed out. However, they did not apply the same standard to Miami. Heck, Miami was one lost game away from going .500 in conference and they get a #1 seed.

 

Kentucky deserved it, plain and simple.

[DragonFire]

The latest RPI came out, and UK still checked in at #17. Arizona State at #16 was the only higher RPI team to not get a regional. Rice was tied with Kentucky at #17, so it really looks like they're the team you should compare resumes with.