Disappointing season. UK had too much talent to be in the position of desperately needing to win to make a regional. Offense was very bad, as was the defense. Pitching had its bright spots, but wasn't deep enough as evidenced by mid-week struggles.
It's baseball, so you're going to lose some non-conference games against lesser competition, but you can't lay as many eggs as UK did this year in its midweek games and the bottom teams in the conference. UK lost to NKU (!) and EKU, WKU continued to own Henderson coached UK squads, plus other bad losses in the mid-week. UofL is now on another level than UK, and UK blundered away a big lead in he last match-up with the Cards. The Auburn and Arkansas series stung badly, as did the blowing of a 5 run lead against a highly ranked Ole Miss squad.
In spite of clear underachieving this year (and other recent years, IMHO), I'd be surprised if Henderson is let go. Could be wrong, just expect that Barnhart likes Henderson as a team player and wants to give him a chance to recruit with the new facilities finally (supposedly) coming to fruition, as it is pitiful how far behind UK is to its conference peers re facilities and fan support of baseball. Couple that with UK's historical level of success and the struggles that UT and UGA have experienced after making changes and making hires that were pretty uniformly lauded as great hires, and I'll be surprised if a move is made.
Now, the preceding paragraph aside, UK hired Floreal and Stoops just as new facilities were set to be built (was probably a factor in landing both of those coaches, by the way), and those coaches helped use the positive momentum from the facilities upgrades to recruit well. I think the new facility is one of the best selling points Barnhart would have in convincing a good coach to come to Lexington.
It's baseball, so you're going to lose some non-conference games against lesser competition, but you can't lay as many eggs as UK did this year in its midweek games and the bottom teams in the conference. UK lost to NKU (!) and EKU, WKU continued to own Henderson coached UK squads, plus other bad losses in the mid-week. UofL is now on another level than UK, and UK blundered away a big lead in he last match-up with the Cards. The Auburn and Arkansas series stung badly, as did the blowing of a 5 run lead against a highly ranked Ole Miss squad.
In spite of clear underachieving this year (and other recent years, IMHO), I'd be surprised if Henderson is let go. Could be wrong, just expect that Barnhart likes Henderson as a team player and wants to give him a chance to recruit with the new facilities finally (supposedly) coming to fruition, as it is pitiful how far behind UK is to its conference peers re facilities and fan support of baseball. Couple that with UK's historical level of success and the struggles that UT and UGA have experienced after making changes and making hires that were pretty uniformly lauded as great hires, and I'll be surprised if a move is made.
Now, the preceding paragraph aside, UK hired Floreal and Stoops just as new facilities were set to be built (was probably a factor in landing both of those coaches, by the way), and those coaches helped use the positive momentum from the facilities upgrades to recruit well. I think the new facility is one of the best selling points Barnhart would have in convincing a good coach to come to Lexington.
