The NBA and NHL playoffs are in full swing, the MLB season is well underway, and the Cumberland Bulldogs are in Lewiston Idaho. All is right in the world of sports. The Bulldogs finished the season 53-9, the most wins of any team in the nation, NAIA, NCAA DI, DII, or DIII. This Bulldogs team also has the most wins of any Cumberland team, and will also finish with the fewest losses of any previous Cumberland team. They have only lost back-to-back games once this season, and ended the regular season on a 17-game win streak.

Expectations are high as the Bulldogs enter the NAIA World Series as the number two seed after finishing the season ranked behind only Lewis-Clark State (47-3).

Cumberland punched their ticket to the World Series by first winning the TranSouth Conference, finishing with a 17-2 record in the TSC. The Bulldogs then entered the TSC tournament as the number one seed, defeating Union University 9-5 in the championship for Cumberland’s sixth straight year of winning either the regular season championship or tournament championship, and twenty-one straight years that the Bulldogs have won either a regular season or tournament championship (CU previously played in the Mid-South Conference as well as the Tennessee Collegiate Athletic Conference).

The Bulldogs followed the TSC tournament by winning a National Championship Opening Round tournament, the second year the NAIA has used this format. Cumberland defeated Campbellsville 3-0 in the tournament finale to make their first trip to the World Series since 2007.

Cumberland has dominated nearly all season, outscoring their opponents 554-253 on the season. The Bulldogs have hit 126 homeruns on the season, led by Matt Greener’s 25 and Chris Miller’s 23. CU has seven players with at least 11 homeruns. The Bulldogs pitching staff hasn’t been too shabby either. Lead by Shawn Schaefer (13-0 2.71 era) and Aaron Wilkerson (12-1 2.13 era), the Bulldogs have a team era of 3.77 and have thrown eleven shutouts on the season.

Cumberland also dominated in the TranSouth awards this season. Cumberland won 13 of a possible 22 TranSouth Conference Player and Pitcher of the Week awards with Matt Greener and Shawn Schaefer winning four each. The Bulldogs also had eight players named to the TranSouth All-Conference First Team including David Fanshawe (C), Greg Appleton (1B), Sam Kikla (SS), Matt Greener (3B), Troy Frazier (OF), Kris Miller (OF), Shawn Schaefer (SP) and Aaron Wilkerson (SP). Matt Greener was also named Player of the Year, and Coach Woody Hunt was named Coach of the Year.

The Bulldogs will be making their 11^th NAIA World Series appearance. As the number two seed in the World Series, Cumberland earned a bye in the first round, and will take on some familiar faces in the second round taking on number seven seed Embry-Riddle University. Brothers Randy (head coach) and Chuck Stegall (assistant coach) are former Cumberland Bulldogs. Cumberland and Embry-Riddle will play Saturday at 5 pm central time.  Shawn Schaefer will likely take the mound in game one, with Aaron Wilkerson, and Adam Sprague pitching games two and three respectively later on in the tournament.

Statistics courtesy of www.cumberland.edu and www.transouth.org

Photo courtesy of Jason Frost

The brackets are out; let the amount of work accomplished begin to dwindle! It seems at this time every year, every Joe Schmo is giving out his advice on how/why to make your picks. From the “do this” to “don’t do that” I’ve heard every crazy solution including pick the team who’s mascot would win in a fight. Well I’m here to give you a few tips that might just help you out. At the same time, I don’t mind if you completely ignore me, you’ll lose your bracket, and I’ll get the last laugh. If you want my pedigree, just know that of the last five pools I’ve played in, I’ve won three, finished second in the fourth, and finished in the top five in the fifth. In the past two years, I’ve finished better than 90% of the brackets on yahoo.com, hitting 93% last year. Enough about me though, here are the tips!

Pick with your smarts, not your hearts. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE in my family bracket is a Syracuse fan. Our pool name is SU is Awesome. See I’m originally from upstate New York, so I have loyalty to Syracuse. What I do not do however, is let that loyalty get in the way of my picks. In years past, everyone in my family bracket has picked Syracuse to go much deeper into the tournament than they should have, and in turn has led them to do poorly in their brackets. The key to winning your bracket is to not let your loyalty cloud your thinking. If you are an alum of a high ranking team like Syracuse is this year, it’s ok to pick them deep into the bracket. However, if you are a Robert Morris grad, PLEASE don’t pick them to get past Villanova.

Don’t just pick teams because you’ve seen them play. I’ve watched a lot of college basketball this year, according to my wife, probably too much. I’ve seen most of Syracuse’s games, several Tennessee, Vandy, and Kentucky games. I’ve also seen Vermont play. Just because I watched the Catamounts beat up on Binghamton University doesn’t mean I’m going to pick them to get past Syracuse. Now I know Vermont is a sixteen-seed so their chances of winning were already zero, but still, you get the point. Don’t just pick teams because you’ve seen them play, or more importantly because you’ve seen them win. This leads me to my next tip.

Don’t pick a team just because they have a better record. Quick, who’s better a team with a 30-4 record or a team with a 24-8 record? That 30-4 record belongs to the thirteen-seed Murray State of the Ohio Valley Conference. Other teams in the OVC include; Austin Peay, Easter Kentucky, Tennessee Tech, and TSU. The 24-8 record belongs to three-seed Vanderbilt. Vandy has wins over several other tourney teams, while Murray State would have had a hard time getting an at large bid had they not won the OVC conference championship.

Pay attention to injuries. Syracuse’s Arinze Onuaku's injury will not affect the Orange during their first round game with Vermont. SU will handle the Catamounts easily without him. The real test will come in the second round against either eight-seeded Ganzaga or the nine-seed Florida State. Should Onuaku not be able to play in round two, Syracuse may struggle but their 2-3 zone hides Onauku’s absence well. On the other hand, the number four-seeded Purdue without Robbie Hummel was destroyed in the Big 10 tournament by eleven-seeded Minnesota. Look for Siena to play upset in round one.

Pick Big East teams to go deep into the tournament. The Big East had the most teams selected from any major conference for good reason. Georgetown, ranked twenty-second in the nation in the last coaches’ poll, and given a three-seed in the NCAA tournament, was an EIGHT seed in the Big East tournament. Call it East Coast bias, but I think the eventual winner may just come from the Big East

Now that you’ve read my tips, maybe, just maybe you might think you’re ready to take me on.  Bring it.  I’ve even taken the liberty of setting up a yahoo bracket for all you HobNobbers.  If you think you’ve got what it takes to beat me in the bracket go to the HobNobWilson pool here.