Baseball America has named the three Rice pitching starters as the top 3 of 8 college prospects for 2004. Niemann #2, Townsend #3, and Humber #8, and that should be another NCAA championship.

Rice will be a preseason top 5 team (likely #1), but repeating isn't easy. We could have awarded the championship this year to Texas, LSU, Florida St., or Stanford in Febraury, but decided to play the season out. Remember Houston took game 1 of the SR from the Owls and had a 1st round draft pick on the mound in game 2. However, he didn't have his stuff together this year. It was all potential. Everything has to fall into place to win it all. What happened to Justin Simmons in Austin this year?

Not saying the Owls won't be good, because they will. It just isn't easy to repeat. So, lets not award them a championship right now.

I only think LSU will be computation for Rice in 2004.

computation?

jrodwhoop, I'm sure you have never hit the wrong key. I know you are perfect, and I applaud you for this. Give me a reason Rice won't be the favorite?

He just means we will chew them up like so much code.

Rice could lose because of injury, if some of the pitching regresses like Simmons from UT this past year, or if the hitting slumps due to losing players to MLB.

You have to be lucky to win and the Owls have only shown well at the CWS once out of four times previously.

That being said I like the Owls' chances as much as anyone else's. UT will have many losses to make up for in the lineup.

Rice should definitely be FAVORED to win it again. That doesn't mean they will...anything can happen but...if we had those 3 starters with Josh Baker on the bench (8-0 with a 3.20 era) I would be pretty excited.

If pitching wins championships...then Rice should win it. UT lost 2 out their 3 weekend starters and the third had an off year...Rice's got 'em all back.

My early prediction for the 2004 national championship is Fullerton over Florida State. No real reason why...just a hunch.

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Rice's got 'em all back.
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Aardsma's gone.

I'll be happy to take a straight up bet right now taking the field against Rice. Any takers?

Sure Rice is the fave right now, but they play the season for a reason, you know...

Computation---LMAO.

There's a lot of good teams with a lot back next year. Whoever the "favorite" is still has AT BEST a 10-15% chance of winning it all, so this discussion is all pretty academic. I think the interesting and more germane question is how will the Big XII be next year. This was probably y'alls "peak" year and y'all got only one team to Omaha. There's a good chance y'all will be back to 4th in the pecking order next year. But who knows?

Call me crazy, but I think Humber has the most potential of the three. Townsend throws 2 pitches and doesn't have the best composure. Neimann is good, but I like Humber and his mid 90's fastball. Seems like his star might burn the brightest.

"Call me crazy, but I think Humber has the most potential of the three."

Humber was the best of the three their Freshman year.

With the addition of Miami, the ACC will quickly become the best baseball conference in 2005.

The SEC will always be good (especially in the NCAA's eyes).

However, I think the Big XII will always be on an even keel with the Pac 10. Other than Stanford, they don't have a true dominant team (ASU kind of fizzled in the post season...after being #1 for a lot of the year.) USC has potential as does Arizona and sometimes Cal, but that's about it.

But, if we've learned anything, your conference ranking means nothing when it comes to the post season. If so, Southwest Missouri State should not have been in the CWS and Ohio State shouldn't have hosted a Super Regional. College baseball playoffs (like many other sports playoffs) is all about who gets hot at the right time. Had Rice played the post season like they played in mid-April, they wouldn't have won the title.

I agree that the Big XII (namely UT and A&M) won't be as good in '04 as they were in '03, but I also think that the next tier of teams (tech, Missouri, Oklahoma State) will be much stronger next year. I don't see the '04 Big XII having a dominant, runaway type team like Rice is in the WAC, but I do see them having about 7 teams that are virtually equal...kind of like the Big 10 is in football most years.


[This message has been edited by Luke The Drifter (edited 7/1/2003 4:58p).]

Get ready --

Wayne Graham will have a string of National Championships before he calls it quits.

Rice is losing the meat of their lineup next year. They will play a lot of low scoring games.

They're gonna be on a roll for a while, and rightfully so. They deserve it.