SB Nation Bay Area: All Posts by Jeremy Mauss

2013 Mountain West baseball: Day 3 schedule

2013-05-24T14:21:38Z

Two days are in the books and the top seeds have advanced so far, and the big game is top seed New Mexico going up against No. 2 UNLV. On the other part of the bracket both Nevada and Fresno State are squaring off to avoid elimination. San Diego State will take on the winner between Nevada vs. Fresno State.

2013 Mountain West Baseball Championship
Game	Time	TV/Webcast
MAY 22 (WEDNESDAY)
Game 1 - No. 3 San Diego State 15 vs. No. 6 Air Force 6	3 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network
Game 2 - No. 5 Nevada 4 vs. Fresno State No. 4 3 (12 innings	7 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network
MAY 23 (THURSDAY)
Game 3 - No. 4 Fresno State 6 No. 6 Air Force 4	11 a.m. PT	Mountain West Network
Game 4 - No. 2 UNLV 6 vs. No. 3 San Diego State 3	3 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network
Game 5 - No. 1 New Mexico 7 vs. No. 5 Nevada 3	7 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network
MAY 24 (FRIDAY)
Game 6 -No. 4 Fresno State No. 6 Air Force	11 a.m. PT	Mountain West Network
Game 7 - No. 3 San Diego State vs. Winner of game six	3 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network
Game 8 - No. 1 New Mexico vs. No. 2 UNLV	7 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network
MAY 25 (SATURDAY)
Game 9 - Winner of Game 7 vs. Loser of Game 8	3 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network
Championship Game - Winner of Game 8 vs. Winner of Game 9	7 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network
MAY 26 (SUNDAY)
If Necessary Championship Game same teams as Saturday 7 p.m. if both have one loss	1 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network

2013 MWC baseball tournament: Fresno State avoids elimination, defeats Air Force, 6-4

2013-05-24T14:13:18Z

Fresno State stays alive by avoiding elimination, and now plays Nevada.

2013 MWC all-conference baseball team: New Mexico cleans up awards

2013-05-23T23:03:57Z

New Mexico not only breezed through the Mountain West regular season, but they also made out big in the post season awards.

The Lobos had the co-players of the year in catches Mitch Garver and third baesman DJ Peterson, they also shared co-rookie of the year awards as Lobos second baseman Sam Haggerty and Fresno State pitcher Blake Quinn earned those honors. Of couse, with New Mexico winning the league, it was Ray Birmingham who won coach of the year.

2013 All-Mountain West Baseball Team
FIRST TEAM
Position	Name	Team	Ht.	Wt.	Yr.	Hometown
Catcher	Mitch Garver^	New Mexico	6-1	205	Sr.	Albuquerque, N.M.
First Base	Seth Kline^	Air Force	6-1	225	Jr.	Yakima, Wash.
Second Base	Tim Zier	San Diego State	5-10	195	Jr.	Escondido, Calif.
Third Base	DJ Peterson^	New Mexico	6-1	205	Jr.	Gilbert, Ariz.
Shortstop	Alex Allbritton^	New Mexico	6-2	185	Sr.	Aurora, Colo.
Outfielder	Aaron Judge	Fresno State	6-7	255	Jr.	Linden, Calif.
Outfielder	Josh Melendez^	New Mexico	5-11	190	Sr.	Chandler, Ariz.
Outfielder	Brandon Bayardi!^	UNLV	6-2	235	Sr.	Phoenix, Ariz.
DH/Utility	Garrett Custons!^	Air Force	5-11	200	Sr.	Sarasota, Fla.
Pitcher	Braden Shipley	Nevada	6-3	190	Jr.	Medford, Ore.
Pitcher	Sam Wolff	New Mexico	6-1	190	Sr.	Rapid City, S.D.
Pitcher	Ryan Doran	San Diego State	6-1	175	Sr.	Orange, Calif.
Pitcher	Buddy Borden	UNLV	6-3	210	Jr.	Las Vegas, Nev.
Relief Pitcher	Gabe Aguilar	New Mexico	5-8	175	Sr.	El Paso, Texas
SECOND TEAM
Catcher	Jake Romanski	San Diego State	5-10	180	Sr.	Corona, Calif.
First Base	Ryan Muno	San Diego State	6-1	195	So.	La Quinta, Calif.
First Base	Patrick Armstrong	UNLV	6-0	225	Jr.	Woodbridge, Calif.
Second Base	Sam Haggerty	New Mexico	5-11	175	Fr.	Denver, Colo.
Third Base	T.J. White	UNLV	5-11	190	So.	Las Vegas, Nev.
Shortstop	Chris Mariscal	Fresno State	5-11	175	So.	Fresno, Calif.
Outfielder	David Baska	Air Force	6-0	180	Sr.	Overland Park, Kan.
Outfielder	Brooks Klein	Nevada	6-2	190	Sr.	Blue Diamond, Nev.
Outfielder	Luke Campbell	New Mexico	6-0	200	Sr.	Arvada, Colo.
DH/Utility	Alex Real	New Mexico	6-0	215	So.	Anthem, Ariz.
DH/Utility	Mark Shannon	UNLV	6-0	180	Sr.	Littleton, Colo.
Pitcher	Blake Quinn	Fresno State	6-5	210	Fr.	Fresno, Calif.
Pitcher	Michael Cederoth	San Diego State	6-6	210	So.	San Diego, Calif.
Relief Pitcher	Bubba Derby	San Diego State	5-10	185	Fr.	Monrovia, Calif.
Co-Players of the Year - Mitch Garver, New Mexico; DJ Peterson, New Mexico
Co-Pitchers of the Year - Braden Shipley, Nevada; Buddy Borden, UNLV
Co-Freshmen of the Year - Blake Quinn, Fresno State; Sam Haggerty, New Mexico
Coach of the Year - Ray Birmingham, New Mexico
!2011 All-MW selection ^2012 All-MW selection

2013 NBA Draft: Jamaal Franklin's combine interview

2013-05-23T18:12:08Z

DraftExpress interviews San Diego State's Jamaal Franklin at the NBA Combine.

Craig Thompson: 'I don't know' if playoff will remain at four teams

2013-05-23T13:00:10Z

Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson has almost always gone against the grain compared to other leagues. For example, The Mtn. was the first conference specific network and his want for a college football playoff, or adjustments to the BCS.

Thompson is speaking up once again, this time it is about the upcoming College Football Playoff. So it comes to no shock that Thompson has his doubts that the current format will stay at four teams.

Thompson also obvious likes the playoff since it gives more teams a chance to play for the national title. All of these comments came when he appeared on SiriusXM College Sports Nation (Via Eye on College Football):

"I like it for several reasons," Thompson said. "I've been espousing a playoff (during) the 14-year history of the Mountain West. I testified in Congress. I think it's a great step forward.

"I'm probably in the minority in that I don't know we're going to stay at four [teams] for the next 12 years. I know that's what the contracts say and everybody's following the script these days. We'll see. Who knows where we'll be down the road."

Everyone from ESPN, Bill Hancock and other major conference commissioners are on board for keeping the playoff at four teams for the duration of the 12-year contract. While they want to keep it small to keep it inclusive to the power leagues, plus those in charge now are likely not going to be around for the next rounds of negotiations.

Here is a quote from a higher up at ESPN about the contract length toward the playoff:

"The commissioners and presidents wanted to go long because they wanted to stop further speculation about eight teams and 16 teams," ESPN boss John Skipper said earlier this year.

The four-team playoff is in place through the 2026-27, but things can definetly change. Thompson obviously wants a larger playoff so that his league champion can get into the mix, because right now the Mountain West is on the wrong side of the five power conferences. If a playoff were to be at eight teams then there would be a realistic chance that the league champ could get in most of the time.

As it stands now, a Mountain West team will need an amazing year by, obviously, going 13-0, hope that they are ahead of at least two league champions from the power leagues and a SEC team to just have a chance.

Here is the full interview:

2013 college football bowl schedule announced

2013-05-23T02:30:12Z

The 2013 college football season is just about 100 days away (so long), so the news of the day is that the complete bowl schedule has been set. It includes dates, times and networks. The Mountain West has six bowl slots, and with 12 teams hopefully can fill them all, and maybe more.

Once again, a Mountian West team will help ring in thew which will be played on Saturday Dec. 21 for a 2 p.m. ET. In fact, three Mountain West teams will be in action as the Las Vegas and then Famous Idaho Potato Bowl also are in action on that Saturday.

The only problem is that the bowls overlap each other due to the New Mexico and Idaho Bowl being on ESPN, while the Las Vegas Bowl gets prime location on ABC. By staggering these games, the Mountain West teams take a hit from national exposure, well for those teams not named Boise State. However, if the Mountain West goes 3-0 on the first weekend of the bowls the league will get some good publicity.

The others bowls that the Mountain West are a part of is the Hawaii, Poinsettia and Armed Forces Bowl.

Here is the bowl schedule for the Mountain West:

Gildan New Mexixo Bowl
MWC vs. Pac-12 Albuquerque, N.M.
University Stadium Sat., Dec. 21
2:00 p.m. ET ESPN

Las Vegas Bowl
MWC vs. Pac-12 Las Vegas, Nev.
Sam Boyd Stadium Sat., Dec. 21
3:30 p.m. ET ABC

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
MAC vs. MWC Boise, Idaho
Bronco Stadium Sat., Dec. 21
5:30 p.m. ET ESPN

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
C-USA vs. MWC Honolulu
Aloha Stadium Tue., Dec. 24
8:00 p.m. ET ESPN

San Diego County CU Poinsettia Bowl
Army vs. MWC San Diego, Calif.
Qualcomm Stadium Thu., Dec. 26
9:30 p.m. ET ESPN

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl
MWC vs. Navy Fort Worth, Texas
Amon G. Carter Stadium Mon., Dec. 30
11:45 a.m. ET ESPN

2013 Mountain West baseball tournament: New Mexico claims top seed

2013-05-20T17:00:07Z

The 2013 Mountain West baseball regular season is in the books with New Mexico winning the regular season title, and thus earning the top seed for the conference tournament. The conference tournament is taking place at Fresno State's Pete Beiden Field and begins with the opening round games on Wednesday May 22, and goes through Sunday May 26.

More: Complete NCAA baseball coverage Follow MWC tournament

New Mexico is the heavy favorite as they finished the regular season with a 35-15 overall record, and 25-5 in league play. The Lobos are also the only team ranked out of the Mountain West as they are No. 16 in Baseball America's top 25, however the USBWA and USA Today have the Lobos in the others receiving vote category.

UNLV earned the second seed and was the only other Mountain West team to have a winning league record by finishing at 18-12, and they are followed by San Diego State who finished with a 15-15 record.

The big news about the conference tournament is that all games are shown live online, and for free.

Here is the schedule for the tournament:

2013 Mountain West Baseball Championship
Game	Time	TV/Webcast
MAY 22 (WEDNESDAY)
Game 1 - #3 San Diego State vs. #6 Air Force	3 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network
Game 2 - #4 Fresno State vs. #5 Nevada	7 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network
MAY 23 (THURSDAY)
Game 3 - Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser	11 a.m. PT	Mountain West Network
Game 4 - #2 UNLV vs. Highest winning seed of Game 1/2	3 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network
Game 5 - #1 New Mexico vs. Lowest winning seed of Game 1/2	7 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network
MAY 24 (FRIDAY)
Game 6 - Winner of Game 3 vs.Lowest losing seed of Game 4/5	11 a.m. PT	Mountain West Network
Game 7 - Winner of Game 6 vs. Highest losing seed of Game 4/5	3 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network
Game 8 - Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5	7 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network
MAY 25 (SATURDAY)
Game 9 - Winner of Game 7 vs. Loser of Game 8	3 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network
Championship Game - Winner of Game 8 vs. Winner of Game 9	7 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network
MAY 26 (SUNDAY)
If Necessary Championship Game same teams as Saturday 7 p.m. if both have one loss	1 p.m. PT	Mountain West Network

2013 NCAA baseball bracketology: New Mexico expected to be in the field of 64

2013-05-20T12:00:06Z

The New Mexico Lobos were the best team in the Mountain West all year as they won the league's regular season title, and also are nationally ranked by Baseball America. With conference tournaments getting underway, there are plenty of NCAA tournament projections.

First off, New Mexico is not expected to be hosting a regional round, mainly because they are not considered one of the nation's 16 best teams. The Lobos are pretty much guaranteed to earn a NCAA tournament berth, but to rest comfortably New Mexico should win the conference tournament since their RPI is No. 61.

Here are websites that predict New Mexico to be part of the field fo 64:

College Sports Madness:

Tempe Region:

No. 1 Arizona State vs. No. 4 Rice
No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 3 New Mexico

ESPN:

Corvallis Regional

No. 1 (No. 4 national seed) Oregon State vs. No. 4 Oklahoma State
No. 2 New Mexico vs. No. 3 South Dakota State

College Baseball Daily:

Eugene Regional

No. 1 Oregon (No. 7 national seed) vs. No. 4 South Dakota State
No. 2 New Mexico vs. No. 3 San Francisco

Chasing Omaha:Tempe Regional

No. 1 Arizona State vs. No. 3 Columbia
No. 2 New Mexico vs. No. 4 Columbia