The Blue Workhorse

Starting at 4 o’clock today, 12 college baseball teams will attempt to stave off elimination and extend their seasons for at least one more week.

While Miami, Arizona, North Carolina State, Wichita State, North Carolina, Coastal Carolina, UC-Irvine, LSU, Rice, and Arizona State have already solidified their spot in next weekend’s Super Regionals, today there will be 12 other squads fighting to join them.

Coaches will have to make tough decisions as almost every team is running low of quality arms at this point in a regional tournament. One of the biggest decisions is whether or not to bring back the ace of the staff on only two days rest, especially if you are a team such as the San Diego Toreros or the Tulane Green Wave, who have two of the top starters in college baseball (and two first round draft picks) in Brian Matusz and Shooter Hunt.

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On Monday, the NCAA announced the 64 collegiate baseball teams to earn the honor to be a part of the Division I national tournament, which will begin Friday at noon when the Missouri Tigers take on the Ole Miss Rebels. In preview of the regional tournaments that will be held this weekend, throughout the week our resident college baseball fanatic Rosenblogger will examine each individual regional:

Fullerton Regional

1. Cal-State Fullerton Titans (37-19) vs 4. Rider Broncs (29-26)
2. UCLA Bruins (31-25) vs 3. Virginia Cavaliers (38-21)

It took some rough free throw shooting by Memphis and a miraculous 3-point shot by Mario Chalmers to send the game into overtime before the Jayhawks outscored the John Calipari’s Tigers 12-5 in overtime to take home the national championship.

To continue our ‘Workhorse candidates’ series that we’ve been compiling after each round of the NCAA men’s basketball national tournament, we’re going to go ahead and hand over the NCAA ‘Championship Workhorse’ award to Chalmers, even though Darrell Arthur did have a hell of a game as well (20 points on 9-13 FG, 10 rebounds, assist, steal).

North Carolina head coach Roy Williams has to console Wayne Ellington after the guard finds out he’s not on a candidate for the ‘Final Four Workhorse.’ (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
And then there were two…
Two teams remain after Kansas assaulted former coach Roy Williams and his North Carolina Tar Heels and Memphis steamrolled past the UCLA Bruins. [...]

The weak were weeded out. What once was a field of 65 is now down to 4.

Everyone thought all four #1 seeds wouldn’t make it to the Final Four, but they proved the naysayers wrong. UCLA, North Carolina, Memphis, and Kansas each punched their tickets to the Final Four. Each will head to San Antonio with thoughts of national championship, and it is only thanks to some great individual performances throughout the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

But who had the most outstanding individual performance in the Elite Eight? Who has earned the right to be named the ‘Elite Eight Workhorse?’ In honor of the elite eight, here are the eight candidates:

While there have been some great team performances this year in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, it has been the individual performances of players such as Stephen Curry, Kevin Love, Michael Beasley, and Tyler Hansbrough that everyone is talking about.

So who had the single most outstanding performance? Who deserves the honor of being the ‘Sweet 16 Workhorse?’ The candidates:

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is traditionally about great and, often improbable, team runs spurred by uncanny individual performances, and this year’s tournament has been no different. There have been upsets and a lot of near upsets as any of the four #2 seeds could tell you after their second round contests as they each had to battle down to the wire against three #7 seeds and a Goliath-slaying #10 seed in Davidson. Those contests each had their own outstanding performances.

But who had the most outstanding performance to make them worthy of the distinction of being named the ‘2nd Round Workhorse?’ Here are our candidates (in alphabetical order):