We're two days from first pitch of the
#D2baseball
season, and you're 0 days away from the preseason Power 10. The top 10, first five out, and five sleepers you'll want to watch.
Hearing Buxton may still be in play for the
#Braves
, despite the new look outfield. Obviously, this move would cost a bit more. I’ll be interested to see if it goes through, because a healthy Buxton is a fun thing, but there’s no denying Braves could use some pitching.
#Yankees
announcers just called out Urena and called it awful. Said a suspension should be for the duration of any injury Acuña, Jr. suffered. See
#Braves
fans, we’re not all bad.
It's the most wonderful time of the year. Your
#D2baseball
preseason Power 10... and then some. 31 teams listed that I will be watching as the season begins.
Your first rankings of 2022:
I started covering
#D2MBB
in 2015 and there are simply no words for what NWM Bearcats have done in that span.
🏆 1st "3-peat" in D2MBB history
🏀 17-straight D2 tourney wins
⬇️ Defense caused the lowest opponent score in history
𝟒 titles in 5 years.
Remarkable.
🚨 WOW🚨
FHSU men's hoops goes into Manhattan at 0-3 without head coach Mark Johnson and assistant Jeremy Brown... and beat K-State!
6 Tigers finish in double figures and Jared Vitztum double-doubled to lead the way!
Touki Toussaint showing why he should have been on the Opening Day roster.
Has he been perfect? No. Missing close on arm side FB and CB here and there, but he’s keeping hitters off balance, and getting some chases. He put out the fire and looks just fine.
#Braves
#Tooooooooook
The
@NCBWA
preseason First-Team All-Americans:
Faile, Barlow, Pettigrew, Anspaugh, McGeary and Walters were all on my preseason player of the year watch.
Davenport and Colorado Mesa each represented by a pair of exciting hitters.
#D2baseball
#D2BSB
8 teams left in the
#D2baseball
season. I predicted 3 of these teams would be here in the preseason. Here's my preview as the regional champs head to Cary on June 4.
All 8 teams previewed... and maybe a prediction:
Historic weekend ahead for
#D2FB
. 2 conferences have their first-ever matchups between black head coaches.
SAC sees conference HOFs: Carson-Newman's Mike Clowney vs. Catawba's Curtis Walker.
RMAC pits Colorado Mesa's Tremaine Jackson vs. Adams State's Jarrell Harrison.
I know the focus is on basketball this week but can we talk about Lincoln Memorial softball? The Railsplitters haven't allowed a run in six-straight games. It's been 37 innings since they've allowed a run, scoring 43 over the span.
The
@NSU_MBasketball
David Dennis gets emotional discussing his journey with Coach Crutchfield. From MEC freshman of the year to South Region champ, it’s been a fun and amazing ride to watch.
Another
#D2FB
player off the board in the
#NFLDraft
. WR Mike Strachan was fun to watch at Charleston (WV), putting up 19 TDs in his final season. He's a big target and I think he is in a good landing spot with the
#Colts
to make an impact.
This was a lot of fun. And definitely some
#D2baseball
pitchers you should put on your radar.
Got to geek out with coaches, SIDs and PBP guys about velocity and mechanics. It's been awhile since I could!
DII pitchers you should know:
Earlier this season, I spoke with
@PerezLuisQB
about his unique rise. The former 9th-string QB has bowled a 300 12 times & worked out with Drew Brees. Today, he's the Harlon Hill winner. Get to know the
#D2FB
Player of the Year:
@Lion_Athletics
@NCAADII
I’ve had the honor to cover these guys since 2015. Minus Ozuna, I got to watch and talk to these lads way back when they were
@TheRomeBraves
This is the moment I’ve been writing and talking about with colleagues for 5 years.
I am PUMPED for
#Braves
Country.
#MixItUp
I'm happy to announce I've joined
@TalkingChop
. While I look forward to bringing you more
@TheRomeBraves
coverage, I'm also excited to dig deeper into the
#Braves
system on a whole this season. For now, enjoy my debut and
#ChopOn
:
Continuing my look at my
#D2football
preseason top 25:
No. 8 Lenoir-Rhyne (
@LRBearsFootball
)
This defense is going to be scary. The secondary is stacked (Eric Jackson, Javoris Smith, and Kyle Dugger) while Sherrod Williams will stuff the gut at LB.
@SAC_Athletics
Fun fact:
Last time I saw
@KelsWingert
on the field for a Bryse Wilson start, he was pitching to this guy. For those wondering, Wilson got Tebow to ground out in his first AB.
#ChopOn
I know it's football season, but decided to whip up my first Power Rankings for the 2022-23
#D2MBB
season. I don't think there is much surprise as to who is on top (
#D2WBB
coming soon!).
Full rankings:
Northwest Missouri
#EliteEight
notes:
🏀 6th-straight Central Region team to make the championship.
🏀 Diego & Trevor now 16-0
🏀 They've won every '22
#D2MBB
tourney game by at least 13
🏀 Lowest ranked Bearcat team of the previous titles (10)
🏀14th MIAA title game appearance
JUST IN: Central Missouri is still good at baseball. Take a look at the latest
#D2baseball
fall report for the MIAA, and please, if you enjoy what you're reading, consider subscribing. Content will amp up once the season begins.
After Wingate's victory yesterday, we had a historic run to the top of the latest Power 10 rankings.
Take a look at the final Power 10 of the 2021
#D2BSB
season in today's DII Report ™️as well as a special shoutout to Central Missouri's Erik Webb.
👉🏼
Lost in the shuffle of the mayhem that is March on the basketball court: Lenoir-Rhyne baseball.
Bears scored 7O runs on 72 hits in a four-game sweep this weekend. That is no typo.
More impressive performances in the DII Report:
The best part of the MLB lockout is the other 95% of my Twitter TL finally realizing college baseball exists.
And what do you know? It’s actually really fun, isn’t it?
It's here. The
#D2FB
preseason Power 10. I'm excited to be bringing you DII coverage for my sixth season, and it starts today with our first rankings of '21.
Read more:
This
@GTBaseball
is going to be fun to watch.
Kyle McCann with a walkoff 💣 to upset No. 4 UCLA in Game 1 in one of the more anticipated series this weekend:
Good morning,
#Braves
fans. How about a shoutout to
@mbraves
head coach Dan Meyer.
2016, he was
@TheRomeBraves
PC with Soroka, Allard, Weigel, Fried and Touki and won the league.
2021 helps Strider, Shuster, Rangel, Elder, Tarnok all take a step forward... and won the league.
Entering 2022, I had Illinois Springfield (
@UISAthletics
) ranked No. 10, mainly because Pettigrew and Youngquist are one of the best 3-4 hitter combos in DII.
They are 0-for-5 combined in today's opener. And UIS is still up 13-1 after Vanaman's grand slam. These guys 💣
My final
#D2baseball
Power 10 before the tournament begins. It was as close as it has been all season. This DII baseball championship is going to be 🍌 🍌 🍌
Full rankings:
Latest
#D2baseball
Power 10 rankings:
🐏 Angelo State's (
@RamsASUbaseball
) stays No. 1 after wild, walk-off weekend.
🔥 Catawba wins 15th in a row, keeps climbing
😼 GC's weekend sweep of No. 20 UNG
26 teams in the mix this week ➡️
Man.
@PLNUSeaLions
Otto Kemp just reached base for the 60th-straight game with a leadoff single. The Sea Lions played 60 games this year.
That’s good. That’s very, very good.
#d2baseball
Continuing my look at my
#D2football
preseason top 25:
No. 4 Minnesota State (
@msumavericks
)
The Mavericks haven't lost in the
@NorthernSunConf
since 2016 and return RBs Nate Gunn and Justin Taormina as well as WR Shane Zylstra for an experienced and exciting offense.
Big day here for
#D2baseball
.
My first Power 10 of the regular season:
PLUS: For newsletter subscribers ONLY the first (and only one out there) DII baseball bracket prediction of the season. It's exclusive for newsletter subs and its FREE. Sign up!
If I’m seeing this correctly, Ware also cycled in reverse order, hitting a home run AND triple in the second inning, then doubled, and finally singled.
He also struck out 11. I don’t care what level of baseball you fancy, this is amazing.
@UIndyAthletics
#SCTop10
0️⃣ No
#D2FB
players selected in the 1st Rd. of the
#NFLDraft
since 1999.
7 DII football players have gone in the 2nd Rd. since 2000. The highest? Ricardo Colclough of Tusculum at 2-38.
We should all be this excited 👇🏼to see Kyle Dugger's name flying up projection lists!
It's hard to wrap your head around. The Bearcats allowed the fewest points today (43) since the implementation of the shot clock in DII
#EliteEight
play... in 1986!!!
Trevor Hudgins and Diego Bernard moved to 15-0 in
#D2MBB
tourney play.
Like... what?!?!? 🤯
ICYMI: My latest
#D2baseball
Power 10:
🐴 There's a new No. 1 in DII baseball (ATTN:
@Mules_Baseball
)
🐏 Angelo State's offense out of this world (
@RamsASUbaseball
)
🤠 One new team enters the ranks
See how it breaks down here ➡️
Only four
#D2baseball
players have gone in the
#MLBDraft
and TWO are from
@WU_Bulldogs
Mitch Farris off the board to the Atlanta Braves! You got a good one
#Braves
Country. One of my filthiest pitchers in DII this year.
DOWN GOES No. 1!!!
@BHSUAthletics
takes down Nova Southeastern in the
#D2MBB
#EliteEight
77-67!!
🏀1st time an 8 seed beat a No. 1 since re-seeding started in 2016.
🏀1st
@RMAC_SPORTS
Elite Eight win since 2014.
🏀1st Nova loss after leading at the half since 1/9/19 vs. Eckerd.
#D2FB
FACT No. 2 of the day: Notre Dame (OH) has (arguably) the best RB in DII football and (arguably) the best DL in DII football.
That makes the
@NDCFalcons
contenders for their first 🏈 title in school history.
@TheMountainEast
Ignore the box score. Anderson’s looked good on his strike outs, got a bunch of swing and miss on the curve and was mixing up off-speed with confidence. Just missed his spots.
First start with a weird ball in a hitter friendly league. Plenty of positives tonight.
#Braves
There it is. Former
@CSUCougarsBSB
Bryson Horne —
@brysonhorne10
— launches his first Augusta home run. An oppo 🌮... and some nice fielding by that young fan.
#Braves
JUST IN: Lubbock Christian wins its 100th-straight home game to pass UConn women's team on the all-time list.
Look back at the streak and where the
@LCUCHAPS
stand in college basketball history.
@LoneStarConf
STORY:
Huge interception by the
@NorthernSunConf
Giant Killers
@wscwildcats
Looking to knock off nationally-ranked Minnesota State, up 35-24 with minutes left.
#D2FB
BRACKET BUSTED!!! The DII football championship started today and man, did DII football happen!
Down go the defending champs in upset fashion! Three other upsets and some impressive victories as well. It's all here in the first-round recap:
➡️
This is the second time I've gotten to cover a deep
@CMUMavericks
run in the championship. What a class-act of a program. I'll tell you what. Coach Hanks is one of the best in
#d2baseball
, with this young team, I feel confident saying I'll see you
#RumbleMavs
again in 2020.
👀
@TheRomeBraves
have announced their roster.
I like the Justin Dean, Trey Harris, Andrew Moritz OF.
De La Cruz, Nolan Kingham, Trey Riley, Victor Vodnik, and Jake Higginbotham provide plenty of intriguing 💪🏼
#Braves
#ChopOn
Reminder.
@GUKnights
was 3-23 last year. 29 wins AND won a tough
@PSACsports
@CoachJordanFee
went from a top assistant to arguably one of the best single-season bounce backs from a head coach we’ve ever seen. Welcome to March… a little something he knows plenty about
#d2mbb
Nice RBI-single the other way by Bryson Horne -
@brysonhorne10
- to get the lead back for the Augusta Greenjackets. I spoke about him last night on the Road Atlanta pod. A lot to like from the
@CSUCougars
alum.
#D2Baseball
#Braves
I'm not waiting until the summer. I took a look at the rosters, crunched some stats, and came up with the first
#D2FB
Power 10 of 2020. This will probably change a few times in the next few months, but why wait?
🏈📊 ➡️
A team coached by Tobin Anderson with 3 players on the floor that were
#D2MBB
last year just took down a No. 1 seed.
LET’S GOOOOOOOOO!!!!
@smcollegehoops
Riley Martin off the board! The
@QUHawks
ace struck out an absurd 17.39-per-nine to lead
#D2BSB
this past year and is now heading to the
#Cubs
.
He's worked hard to refine his mechanics, has a nice FB and curve to go with it that, obviously, missed a lot of bats this spring.
My latest
#D2baseball
Power 10 rankings are out. Tampa stays at No. 1... for now, but this is the tightest the top-10 has been all season.
Full rankings:
THEY'RE HEEEEERE:
The DII men's basketball preseason Power 10 rankings. This was no easy task. A slew of big-time transfers, teams returning after a year off and of course, the Bearcats.
Top 10, five 5 out and many more considered ⬇️
🏀 📈
With Millersville alum Chas McCormick in the
#WorldSeries
, this week's
#D2baseball
fall report takes a look at what's been going on in the PSAC.
Take a look, and if you like what you see, please subscribe.
ICYMI: Get caught up with the DII Report newsletter and conference previews for the coming
#D2baseball
season. Players to watch, newcomers to watch, and under-the-radar players to get... on your radar.
SSC:
SAC:
Check out the final Power 10 rankings before tonight's selection show in the DII Report
🐴 A new No. 1
💣💪🏼👼🏻 First-ever yearly honors for player, pitcher and freshmen of the year
See the full report:
Sorry for the delay,
#D2baseball
fans. Here is the final Power 10 rankings of the season, and the player, pitchers and freshmen of the year honors.
READ:
😮Seth Corry is filthy. Pretty simple, smooth delivery, tough to pick up the ball, doesn't throw particularly hard, but holding velocity into the 4th (sitting 92).
Just struck out the side for the second time, 9 Ks through 4 IP. He hasn't allowed a run in 27.2 IP.
#SFGiants
My first
#D2baseball
notebook of the season for The DII Report Newsletter. Some takeaways from the first two weeks of what I've been watching.
Please subscribe and join the newsletter!
Zero surprises really.
@NWBearcat_FB
needed a big win and some help and came through. It’s amazing postseason streak continues… almost two decades 🤯
#d2fb
Continuing my look at my
#D2football
preseason top 25:
No. 11 UIndy (
@UIndyAthletics
)
The kings of the
@GLVCsports
of late, return all-purpose monster Toriano Clinton and RB Al McKellar in the backfield that will be a nightmare for opposing defenses once again.