Finish strong
University of Virginia baseball coach Brian O'Connor looks prophetic now.
Talking on last week's "ACC Nation" about his team's chances to host an NCAA regional, O'Connor - whose team took two of three from then-top-ranked North Carolina over the weekend - talked about the importance of finishing strong.
"How you finish up in the league is vital in terms of being able to potentially host a regional," O'Connor said.
"I think it's going to come down to a couple of things. If we want a chance to potentially host the NCAA tournament, I think we need to finish in the top four or five in our league. We also have to perform well in the ACC tournament," O'Connor said.
The top four or five finish seems to be in the cards - the Cavs are currently a game behind the first-place Tar Heels in the Coastal Division with a weekend series at home with league doormat Virginia Tech on deck.
Still, that means that there's work to do between now and the end of the regular season this coming weekend.
"I don't think anything is for sure with any of the ACC teams - I think it's going to come down to how these teams finish up the last couple of weekends and play in that tournament. Since they made the switch three or four years ago to not announce the NCAA regional sites until after the conference tournaments, that tells everybody out there the importance of the conference tournament in the committee's eyes on where they're going to put these regional sites," O'Connor said.
- Chris Graham