Kendall Rogers talks NCAA Tournament, CS Regional (w/ Baseball Fan Show)

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Key quotes from Kendall Rogers interview

"I think (the committee got it right). I think there are years where you can look at what the committee did and think, "How in the world did that team get in? Like last year, how in the world did Texas A&M not get a national seed?' I thought this year, the committee did a wonderful job. I understand my A&M fans had an issue with A&M being the #4 national seed, but honestly you could rank those top four teams in any order and not be wrong. I think they did a good job of that.

Then when you look at the teams that barely got in the field or didn't get on the field ... North Carolina didn't get in. North Carolina was a team that had a 13-17 record in conference. You can debate all day long whether or not somebody with that record should or shouldn't get in. I think, for me, the only thing I would have done differently is put Oregon State in over Nebraska. When you look at the Beavers their overall resume kind of dwarfs what Nebraska did throughout the season. They could have been a dangerous club, they've got a really good lineup. They scuffled a little in the season but they started playing really well again, so somebody got a little lucky not having the Beavers in the field."

"You know what I think happened (in regards to Texas Tech getting the #5 national seed) is that they just kind of tried to mix up the ACC and the SEC teams at the top of the national seeds. At the end of the day, the national seed order doesn't mean that much so I think they just saw the ACC and the SEC teams at the top and said, 'You know what, let's throw somebody in there to mix it up.' Mississippi State fans probably have a legitimate gripe. You win the SEC regular season title and you end up the #6 national seed behind Texas Tech? I thought Tech should have been a national seed. When you win a top-three conference by four-plus games, you deserve to be a national seed. But to be ahead of Mississippi State, I thought that was a little silly."

"There is no doubt that I would much rather have Tech or Virginia in my first game in Omaha rather than LSU, I'll put it that way. I'd rather not deal with Alex Lange in the first game if I'm A&M. So, yeah I'm with you. I feel like A&M's matchup is pretty favorable. I understand why people (complain about A&M's draw), 'Oh, they put us against TCU, that's a tough matchup.' This is not the same TCU team. There's no doubt that TCU has a solid offense. This is a team that can hit the ball, but this is a team that is far, far from last year's team from a pitching perspective.

I can tell you right now that TCU was hoping not to be paired up with A&M, and I think for good reason. I think A&M matches up very well with those guys. I have a feeling A&M might be a little motivated as far as in the regional, but don't just chalk that one up just yet. Oral Roberts is a tough four seed for TCU and if they can get through that, I think Arizona State is a really good club. Gonzaga has had a pretty solid year out of the WCC, don't under estimate the fact that Gonzaga has actually played TCU in a three game series this year and that it was actually a pretty competitive series."

"Wake Forest can be an interesting team to watch this weekend. Where they might fail is just from a pitching perspective. Outside of Parker Dunshee, who will throw the opening game against Minnesota, there's not a lot of pitching there. If you look at their numbers, they have guys with four or five ERAs in the rotation and that doesn't really bode well against A&M's lineup right now. I don't think they can win the regional, but they can be dangerous. If you look at those guys from an offensive perspective, Will Craig is worth the price of admission. He's probably the best player in America, just overall. You look at what he can do on the mound, he's a guy that will sit 91-95 off the mound and offensively, he's still leads the nation in slugging percentage and OPS. He's an outstanding player."

"Minnesota is solid, this is a tested club. This is a club, who a week ago loses their pitching coach. He hadn't been their pitching coach for a while, but they lost their pitching coach, Todd Oakes, to Leukemia. He passed away a week ago, so it's been a pretty trying time for those guys/ They've had a tough season dealing with his illness and now his loss. They didn't play well in the Big 10 Tournament, but this is a solid club. Dalton Sawyer is a guy that, if they win the first game, A&M will see a talented lefty breaking ball, 89-91 touching 92. They're a good offensive club, but again, on the road against Brigham Hill, I don't really like anybody who's matched up against him right now. It will be interesting to see how they do offensively."

"I think (A&M is playing better than any team in the country right now). I look at this team right now as my national championship pick other than Florida. I think I actually picked Florida in my bracket because that's assuming Peter Alonso comes back and is his usual self, but for me it's Florida or A&M against everybody else. If you look at these two teams, Florida matches up pretty well with Omaha. I still would like to see a little bit more from those guys offensively. Looking at A&M, what aspect of this team isn't playing well? You look at this lineup, this lineup has been tough throughout the year, but then you throw a red hot Nick Banks in ... I think the most encouraging thing about Banks is, if there is one area of the plate that you can really capitalize on (as a pitcher) on Banks is that inside corner. But his two homeruns were both fast balls on the inside corner. That tells me he has an outstanding approach, he's completely zoned in, and when Nick Banks is zoned in that makes that lineup almost silly.

Then you throw in a guy like Austin Homan in the nine hole, a the guy that is now hitting .360 ... Will Bolt is doing a phenomenal job. Then you look at the pitching aspect of things, there's one concern for me moving into the post season, and I don't think it's going to matter because I think they're going to roll through the regional, but I still feel like that gap between the starting pitcher and Mark Ecker, I just feel a little bit of concern there. I just wonder how they're going to do in the middle relief role, mainly who is going to take over that role. I think they'll be fine, but that's just a little worrisome. I think Vinson is a good move into the rotation if they end up doing that. Last week, I think his breaking ball, as usual, was very sharp. He's turning himself into a pretty good little prospect. He's been 90-92 with that breaking ball, that's a real weapon pitch. I like the way that rotation looks right now. That was a question mark a few weeks ago, but I like the way it matches up. And of course, Ecker is making himself quiet a bit of money here in the past few weeks."

"(Nick Banks' struggles) were just a confidence issue. At the beginning of it, I thought it was his back at the beginning of the season and yeah, it probably was a bit of an issue. But as the season has gone on, he just didn't look like a confident guy. You could see that when he was struggling, you could see it in his body language that he wasn't a very confident hitter. On the flip side, over the weekend you could see what he was doing and see that he was a very confident hitter. It's one of those things where he just went through a rut, even the elite guys do it. Now he's zoned in and he's a scary hitter. Another thing I really liked that he did this weekend was, in addition to the two homeruns on the inside part of the plate, he had several hits over the weekend that went opposite field. That tells me he's really seeing the ball well."

"(In terms of gut feeling on top candidates for open jobs) I would say Kevin O'Sullivan at Texas. I think Texas is going to aim high. I think O'Sullivan is a guy that doesn't have a ton of fan support at Florida and I think he has seriously considered that role and I'd be shocked if he gets past that. I think for Kentucky, that one is pretty much way up in the air, I don't know what direction they're going to go in just yet. For Alabama, I think you took at Todd Whitting of Houston, David Pierce at Tulane, and I think you look at the duo of Alan Dunn and Andy Cannizaro at LSU. Cannizaro, he's a real rising star and he's done a really nice job at the lineup in Baton Rouge."