Oklahoma baseball dancing, not looking back
As Oklahoma State closed out a 8-3 victory Friday night eliminating Oklahoma baseball from the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship, a number of Oklahoma players stood in the visiting first base dugout with their arms draped over the railing.
You’ve seen the emotional shot before. It’s become synonymous with this time of the year in collegiate athletics. Seniors watching on as thoughts race through their head, ‘is it really over?’
Braden Carmichael was part of the mix. Diego Muniz, too. With Oklahoma’s NCAA Tournament hopes largely unknown and on the bubble, the next few days were sure to be no fun.
Fast forward to Monday, and there was Carmichael on the front row of the Oklahoma team watch party. Next came pure emotion and joy. The season continues.
“I don’t know if you saw the video, but he was on the front row. They were really excited. Even more so than anytime I’ve been around a team that got into a regional,” said Oklahoma head coach Skip Johnson during a Zoom call Monday. “They were really excited. It was almost like something was lifted off their shoulders so to speak.”
Oklahoma is in. For the 40th time in school history, it is headed back to the NCAA Tournament. The Sooners open vs No. 2-seed East Carolina at the Charlottesville Regional on Friday at 6 p.m. (ESPN2).
Carmichael will get the ball one more time.
“I thought our conference probably deserved seven teams getting in the tournament, but I’m not on the selection committee. I’m just the coach that’s excited about our team continuing our journey to Omaha,” said Johnson.
NEW LEASE ON LIFE
Oklahoma saw firsthand what can happen when a team is given a new lease on life. Just look at the team that was dogpiling in the middle of Charles Schwab Field last year.
Mississippi was the last team to earn an at-large bid last season. Oklahoma was team No. 63 — second-to -last — this year. Johnson hopes his team has found something over the last month when it’s won 12 of 19, including a number of wins over fellow tournament teams Texas, West Virginia, Oklahoma State and Dallas Baptist.
“I think it does a couple things,” said Johnson. “As you said they can relax and just go play and another thing they know they accomplished something. One of the goals is to go make a regional if not host a regional that was one of our goals.
“I think those guys are relieved that we played really good baseball over the last month and we’ve played really good on the road so I think those guys are extremely excited about that.”
TOUGH SCHEDULE VALIDATED
Oklahoma’s season will continue because of the schedule it played. The 12 wins over top-50 RPI teams is second most in the conference. OU split a four-game set versus national seed Stanford, seeded No. 8. The Sooners swept Texas. Even wins over Rider (MAAC Champion) at the very beginning of the season proved to be important.
There were a number of highs within the season but the lows were so low there was reason for pause heading into Monday morning’s selection show.
“It was like you had a pit in your stomach,” Johnson said. “We just didn’t know what was going to happen from that point. You feel like you finished pretty strong, the last month strong.
“You played a hell of schedule, you know you built this RPI up. They talk about the strength of schedule. They talk about the non-conference strength of schedule, and they talk about the RPI.”
It’s all a formula. And one that Oklahoma Director of Baseball Operations Ryan Gaines understands and follows as he puts together the Sooners schedule every season. There’s a method to the madness. Monday served as a validation of sorts for the front office.
“He’s done it for 16 years, and it’s a tribute to how much he really knows about the scheduling. There are times I looked at him like damn, this is pretty tough,” Johnson said. “But, you know, at the end of the day…look at Rider. Rider ended up making it in.
“That was a team that we might not schedule but look at what they did. That’s a thing that looking forward, I think it had a lot to do with our RPI, how we scheduled and how we went about our business.”
OU IN, KSU OUT
Oklahoma’s six wins against RPI top-25 teams is the second most in the Big 12 with ten wins against teams that won regular season titles. They finished No. 40 in the final NCAA RPI, 15 spots higher than Kansas State who did not get the call despite a better conference record and head-to-head series win.
“There’s no doubt about that. I think that 100 percent had a lot to do with why we got in. We had a meeting this summer, a Big 12 meeting,” Johnson said. “And we had a guy that was in there talking about scheduling the RPI… how you schedule the RPI and how you go about it.
“Those three elements were really good in our metrics. People are blowing up the metrics deal, but there has to be some sort of basis by what you go by. If we’re the No. 3 RPI league, us getting six or seven teams in. And I really believe we should have gotten seven teams. But that’s not my (call), I’m not a committee member. I’m just excited about our team moving on and getting the opportunity to move on in our journey to Omaha.”
BUILDING ON TO WHAT’S ALREADY HERE
There’s plenty of obvious reasons why it’s important to make the NCAA Tournament. Heck, it’s why they play.
But it’s stories like Braden Carmichael getting an opportunity to play in a Sooner uniform again that are part of the fabric of collegiate athletics. Perhaps something we are losing in the transfer portal era.
Then there’s the continued building of a program on the heels of last season’s trip to Omaha. Heading back to the Big Dance for the second consecutive year is healthy for a program regardless of the results on the scoreboard next weekend.
“That’s one of the visions our coaching staff and I had as a head coach coming in here is to build it up where you see the whole berm packed. You see people excited about baseball. We’re on our way home, and I think the Savannah Bananas had 15,000 people,” said Johnson.
Interest that Oklahoma hopes continues as a move to the SEC looms. Oklahoma broke the single-season all-time attendance record at L. Dale Mitchell Ballpark this season. Long overdue renovations could begin as early as next summer.
“For people just to get excited about baseball is a key component of the vision that I had coming in here. I wanted to play good and be a good coach,” Johnson said. “To leave a legacy as a coach in what you do for the kids.
“I mean, I love to win. I want to win a national championship. There’s no doubt about it. But to build a program? That’s what it’s about. You’re building a culture and a program not to be around for a year.”
The Schedule
Friday: No. 1-seed Virginia vs. No. 4-seed Army West Point (11 a.m., ESPN+).
Friday: No. 2-seed East Carolina vs. No. 3-seed Oklahoma (6 p.m., ESPN2).
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