Disappointment over two regional finals losses shows how far Texas A&M has come under Jim Schlossnagle

We are down to our final four games and looking at an exciting finish to this year: No more losing two regional finals in one game. That’s a huge accomplishment considering how much had gone wrong in these last two years.

But we can take heart with what has happened after this weekend. The team that played most poorly in the conference tournament has gone through massive changes, including new coach Jim Schlossnagle. He’s built his program from scratch, bringing back players who have been out of college and making some tough plays. And he’s doing it all while maintaining discipline, which was something missing during these last few losses.

Last weekend, the team lost its first game of the regular season in Miami, falling to fifth seed Florida Atlantic before beating sixth seed North Carolina State. It’s hard to look past the fact that they lost to a third-seeded team that went almost 3-0 up in the ACC regular season. But this group has since improved and started winning again. They went 8-6 against a very good Duke Blue Devil team, beat Virginia Tech at home and held Kansas State to a 1-1 game.

This coming Saturday will be another tense affair in Miami, as ninth seed Miami (23-14) faces seventh seed Alabama (23-17), who defeated West Virginia 80-71.

The Hurricanes came into the tournament as favorites for most of the regular season, but struggled late in the season after struggling defensively and going 0-4 in their NCAA Tournament play-in round against Gonzaga. With Miami needing every victory this week, let’s hope Coach Schlossnagle gets them a lot closer than he did last weekend.

It was no surprise when I got word from my friend, Sam Stumpf, that it would be the same matchup between two teams ranked in similar positions. After all, a top 10 seed like Miami can’t look past Alabama or Georgia Tech to win the national championship.

So, this game should be fun to watch as both teams try to give each other a chance. Both have strong defenses, so expect it to be a battle. Miami has a great chance to keep pace with Alabama’s offense, as the Crimson Tide lead the way in scoring, but they do need defense to stop Alabama’s potent offense and limit the damage Jalen Wade Jr. could cause.

Alabama won the toss, elected to go with the fourth pitch over the fence, and brought it home, thanks mostly to Jaxon Smith’s three-run walk-off home run. His solo act put Alabama ahead 13-3 and sent the crowd wild.

And then Jaden Hall followed with another home run for Washington. He finished off with a double, too, pushing Alabama into an early 20-point deficit. So as always, this game will be close, but we’ll see who ends up with the national championship.

Now, Florida Atlantic enters this match with a big advantage. This Hurricane squad is led by six players who were recruited directly by head coach Steve Fisher: Azuis Cespedes, Nick LeBlanc, KJ McCarron, Brandon DeQuan, Jada Jenkins, and Jalen Powell. If you want to know about any player, it’s just a matter of checking the name on the roster card.

In addition to those guys, there are also former Longhorns All-Americans Jaylen Richardson and Trey Mancini, along with former Houston Cougars guard Keldon Johnson and TCU prospect Bryce Wooten. Plus, you’ve got another former Lone Star in Trayce Jackson, who missed the entire 2020 season due to injury.

But the biggest reason why we should be concerned about this game is because we know that if Florida Atlantic wins, it will set a bad precedent. More importantly, it will show that the SEC has some serious questions to answer.

What happens if Southern California defeats LSU? Is that really supposed to happen, or just meaningless noise? There should be consequences if South Dakota State beats Tennessee. Can we even count them out now, given what was already said about the Big 12 being “disloyal”? Or is it merely a PR stunt?

There were a couple things that kept me up late last night, though. Firstly, when the ball dropped, I thought there was certainly a possibility that it would go straight to Smith. That’s something that’s been happening, especially at AT&T Park in recent weeks, where balls are flying all around. Secondly, when the game got tied, I thought the Hurricanes made a mistake not getting better after that second inning. Still, they were able to pull away in the end against UNLV, giving us at least a small confidence boost to start the spring schedule.