The Creighton Bluejays baseball program is fresh off consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament. Winners of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament in 2011 and 2012, the Bluejays accumulated three wins in postseason play during those years.
Creighton baseball is coming off consecutive Missouri Valley Conference tournament championships and repeat trips to the NCAA tournament (Mike Spomer/WBR)
Ed Servais’ Bluejays are off to a solid start in 2013, which will be the program’s final season in the Valley. Beginning July 1, Creighton baseball will move to the Big East Conference.
The good news? Creighton is undefeated all-time against its new conference mates! A small sample size, sure, but WE’RE UNDEFEATED.
The bad news? The Big East, especially with teams like Louisville and Notre Dame moving on, isn’t exactly challenging the SEC or Pac-12 for title of most powerful baseball league in the country. Heck, Providence, Marquette, and DePaul don’t field D-I baseball programs.
As we know, RPI isn’t everything. But based on the end of last season, only one of the seven remaining “old” Big East baseball programs finished in the top 100 of the official NCAA RPI. That’d be St. John’s (34); Louisville, South Florida, UConn, and Notre Dame were in the top 100, too, but they aren’t playing baseball in the new Big East next season.
Before we jump to too many conclusions about this new baseball conference, let’s learn a little more about Creighton’s new baseball conference mates.
Butler Bulldogs
- 2012 Record: 22-34
- 2012 RPI: 275
- Record vs. Creighton All-Time: 0-0
- Twitter: @ButlerUBaseball
After a one-year stop in the Atlantic-10 Conference, Butler will move to the Big East in all sports (except football; they’ll stay in the Pioneer League) on July 1. Like the Bluejays, the Bulldogs have plenty of experience with the rigors of playing collegiate baseball as a northern school. Check out this line from a recent blog post on the baseball team’s part of butlersports.com:
What a week! From snow in Indy to warm sunshine in Arizona and then back to snow flurries in the Cincinnati metro area…it was a unique and rugged 10 days of “spring break” for the Bulldog baseball team. Eighteen games into the 2013 season and we still haven’t played a home game. We’ve only had one real practice on our field!
Georgetown Hoyas
- 2012 Record: 24-29
- 2012 RPI: 237
- Record vs. Creighton All-Time: 0-3
- Twitter: @georgetownhoyas
The Hoyas are 16-8 heading into the weekend. The “Hoya Hell Week Challenge” must have prepared them well.
St. John’s Red Storm
- 2012 Record: 40-23
- 2012 RPI: 34
- Record vs. Creighton All-Time: 0-1
- Twitter: @STJohnsRedStorm
Off the bat, Creighton’s biggest challenge in the new Big East may be St. John’s. The Red Storm finished 2012 tied for first in the conference. They won the Big East tournament and advanced to the Tucson Super Regional, where Arizona beat them twice to advance to the Omaha.
St. John’s is no stranger to postseason play. The Red Storm has appeared in 34 NCAA Tournaments and advanced to the College World Series six times.
Seton Hall Pirates
- 2012 Record: 34-24
- 2012 RPI: 102
- Record vs. Creighton All-Time: 0-0
- Twitter: @SHUAthletics
Seton Hall has fielded a baseball team since 1863. The Pirates have appeared in 17 NCAA Tournaments, the most recent of which came in 2011. Seton Hall won the Big East championship that season and went 1-2 in their NCAA Regional.
Rob Sheppard is the head coach; he graduated from Seton Hall in 1992. He is the youngest son of Mike Sheppard, Head Coach Emeritus at Seton Hall. Mike helmed the program from 1973 to 2003, taking the Pirates to the College World Series in 1974 and 1975.
Villanova Wildcats
- 2012 Record: 28-27
- 2012 RPI: 187
- Record vs. Creighton All-Time: 0-1
- Twitter: @NovaAthletics
The Wildcats finished in a tie for 8th place in the Big East last season. Villanova last won a league championship in 1991; that season also marks their last trip to the NCAA Tournament. Overall, Villanova has made seven trips to the NCAA Tournament.
Xavier Musketeers
- 2012 Record: 28-28
- 2012 RPI: 165
- Record vs. Creighton All-Time: 0-2
- Twitter: @XUBaseball
Xavier made its lone appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 2009. After losing the second game of the A-10 Tournament that year, the Musketeers beat UMass, Dayton, and Rhode Island twice in 28 hours to win the tournament championship. Xavier went 1-2 in its NCAA Regional appearance that season, beating Sam Houston State but losing to nationally ranked Kansas State and Rice in Houston.