Just two months ago, we all sat back and chuckled, perplexed by a program’s self-perception of its former self.
The Los Angeles head-hunters tasked with finding UCLA’s next men’s basketball head coach called around to a flurry of negative responses, shocked anyone in their right mind wouldn’t drop everything to come right a muddling ship.
They settled for Mick Cronin. The country laughed at their expense.
In that sequence, the Bruins were let into a little nationwide secret that hadn’t yet made its way to Westwood.
No one really cares what you did in the 70s.
That’s what crept into my head Sunday afternoon as I flip-flopped between Twitter and an ASU baseball game, where a larger-than-usual audience saw for themselves a program isn’t the same as the one spoken in lore around Tempe establishments and college baseball circles.
For the eighth time in as many years, ASU failed to advance to the super regionals. It did so in bewildering fashion, surrendering a 10-2 lead to Southern Mississippi, Conference USA’s tournament champion that was knocked from the postseason hours later from regional host LSU.
The Sun Devils are nearly a decade away from their last trip to Omaha. Almost 40 years past their last national championship.
That notion seems to infuriate everyone who ever put on a maroon and gold shirt, packed together by anger and embarrassment, that on Sunday, was broadcast to a national audience.
There’s a hidden benefit to games that start at 10 p.m. Eastern and are broadcast to the 150 people that can access the Pac-12 Network’s live stream: No one is really watching when things go horribly wrong.
Sunday wasn’t an anomaly. The Sun Devils had a big lead. Their bullpen came in. The big lead turned into a small lead. They lost. It wouldn’t be too arduous to go through ASU’s schedule from the last three years and find a dozen games where that situation played out.
This, though, was the first one that ended ASU’s season -- and, like, actually ended it. It wasn’t a random midseason blowup that caused one of those premature “Well, their season’s over” outcries all over twitter. This time, their season was literally over. There was no way to spin it for the next one.
ASU filed away another chapter in its extensive book full of late-game collapses, allowing seven Southern Miss runs to score in the game’s final two frames. It’s up there amongst the worst ways to get bounced from the postseason.
The squandered lead was a throat punch that stung a little longer considering what preceded it. ASU was coming off arguably the two worst seasons in program history. At 25-1, It tied the program record for best start in school history. It boasted with Top-10 draft selection today in Hunter Bishop (picked by the San Francisco Giants) and Spencer Torkelson in the 2020 MLB draft.
And Tracy Smith -- whom Vice President for University Athletics Ray Anderson held a press conference for last May, informing the media and fans that he was giving Smith another year -- was surely on the hot seat.
Like UCLA basketball, ASU baseball, on nothing more than its boisterous accolades of the past, feels let down each year if there’s no parade to conclude it. The fact that it’s a mile out of reach is “no excuse.”
A trophy-riddled history is a program’s greatest sales pitch yet its worst enemy.
The 25-1 start was a smoke-signal of hope for the Devils’ revitalization. By the time they jumped into the Top 5 of national rankings, they were back. Hosting a regional was a lock. A spot in the supers seemed like a safe bet. It would be a disappointment if they weren’t in Omaha by early June.
At the time, it was pretty easy to talk yourself into any of that. Things were just returning to the norm. Take away how ASU exited the regional for a minute. How its season ended -- with a loss on the third day of the postseason -- wasn’t all that surprising.
After a hoard of transfers in the offseason, ASU entered 2019 with 25 active roster members, by far the lowest in the Pac-12. Including two-way player Marc Lidd, the Devils’ roster was scattered with only 13 pitchers. Depth was scarce.
Absent of any injuries and playing a dozen teams during their red-hot start, all of which failed to garner a tournament bid, it didn’t show. ASU rolled. Bishop and Torkelson were seeing beach balls. Friday starter Alec Marsh’s offseason transformation turned him into one of the best pitchers in the Pac-12. And the Devils’ bottom of the order, notably Drew Swift and Alika Williams, overcame its freshman woes.
Then, USC, Oregon State and UCLA started showing up on the Devils’ schedule. Sunday starter RJ Dabovich suffered a shoulder injury. The clutch hitting fell silent. 25-1 quickly turned to 37-17 and the Devils were headed to Baton Rouge.
Run down ASU’s thin roster sheet; it’s not built for a regional. After a tournament-opening loss to Southern Miss, ASU had exhausted nearly half of its arms and needed to win four straight games to advance. That wasn’t likely.
ASU’s losses in Baton Rouge were incredible and memorable for all the wrong reasons. The fact they took the early flight home on Sunday, though, was pretty predictable in late April.
For the ninth straight year, ASU will not fly to Omaha. For the 38th consecutive year, it won’t be national champions.
So, that’s pretty much the norm, now. Right?
It might be prudent to set your expectations going forward as such, until truly proven otherwise.
