Cats vs Vols (Thursday)
- Thread starter Big_Blue_1018
- Start date
I was just about ready to quit watching with bases loaded and no outs in the 3rd already on our 3rd pitcher, when they did the rain delay. I don't expect to watch after the rain delay. Pitching is falling apart. Too many walks, HBP's, mistake pitches (put the shift on, then pitch a change up to the outside edge of the plate). This team needs a reset button. They all seem to come down with the bubonic at the same time and this looks like one of those double digit beatdowns.
Raining down here in TN, but I don't think there is any thunder or lightning in the area, so once the rain passes they should be able to get back to it fairly quickly.
I had a softball game, so I've missed all of it... or basically nothing, but you know.
Sounds like the rain that was in Knoxville has now hit my house... or more rain is heading to Knoxville... not sure which way it's coming from.
Point is, it's pouring.
Holy crap, we are so bad. We miss an infield popup. Then we go to turn a double play and Estep thinks it's out 3 when it was the first out of the inning. I mean... what the hell, kids!?
Point is, it's pouring.
Holy crap, we are so bad. We miss an infield popup. Then we go to turn a double play and Estep thinks it's out 3 when it was the first out of the inning. I mean... what the hell, kids!?
This has been an absolute joke of a game. These are mistakes that should not be made this deep into the season.
Yep me either. I turned on the SEC network and saw the highlights or lowlights.
I'll remind all that TN lost to Lipscomb 2 days ago, was pushed into the bottom of the 9th the week before by a really bad TN Tech team. This isn't the '27 Yankees we're talking about here folks., stop making them look like it.
Although I agree with the intent of what you’re saying. Let’s not pretend that UK didn’t struggle with EKU. Had to score 4 in the bottom of the 9th to beat a bad Butler team. Midweek games are an enigma. It’s usually an all staff game but Tennessee has been very good in conference play. Usually don’t have blowouts like this and play teams close. Hopefully tonight was just a blip and UK can rebound.
UK didn't play last night. Tennessee did, but we did not
I think it is more important to remind everyone that in 2017 Kentucky was the 3 seed in the SEC tournament and ranked 10th in the nation while Tennessee finished 13th in the league and failed to make the SEC tournament. They won just 7 league games that year.
They hired Tony Vitello after that season. In his second year they won 40 games and they were poised to have a great season in 2020. This was supposed to be a bit of a rebuilding year for them and he has them in the top 10. Meanwhile, UK is reeling and once again looking like they might not make the NCAA tournament, which they haven't done since 2017.
UK has 3 traditional rivals across multiple sports: Tennessee, Louisville, and Indiana. UK began taking baseball more seriously in roughly the mid-2000s. Since approximately that same time, Louisville has been to the CWS 5 times, Indiana has gone 1 time, and Tennessee looks like they will host a regional this year and be a possible top 8 national seed, meaning they might host a Super Regional, giving them a good chance of heading to Omaha this season. UK remains the only SEC team not to make it to Omaha.
Our three biggest rivals have improved their baseball programs immensely in the last decade or so, and they have passed UK by. That cannot be allowed to continue.
You're right, just a few short years ago TN was at the bottom of the SEC baseball ladder, went thru several head coaches then made their current hire. UK looked as if they were finally going to make noise then hired NM and have completely fizzled. A frequently used excuse for decades was :"UK can't win at baseball, they're located too far north." Vandy, UVA, U6, Michigan et al have blown that out of the water. UK has a bright, new, flashy facility housing one of the SEC's worst baseball programs. What's being done to correct this?
When you have an incompetent AD like Barnhart, it looks as if it will continue. Anyone with a functioning brain would have waited until after this season to evaluate Ming’s future.
I will at least defend that excuse when it was being made. It doesn't apply as much anymore because of rules changes and better facilities and such, but 15-20+ years ago being a northern school was a major hindrance. Part of the reason for that was that there was no universal start date. So, southern schools would start playing very early in the spring while northern schools would wait for the thaw. The southern schools would be several weeks into their seasons before the northern schools even got started. So, when they played one another, the northern schools would always be lagging behind because the southern schools would be in midseason form before the northern ones got it kicked off. Sometime in the mid-2000s (I think) they went to a universal start date and basically gave everyone the same time frame to get in games. This helped even the playing field for northern teams. They still have some disadvantage because they can't practice outside as much as southern teams, but the universal start date has certainly helped a lot. Even so, some very prominent northern coaches (Michigan's Bakich for instance) still argue heavily that the season should be pushed back several weeks.
Why Michigan baseball coach Erik Bakich's new model for college season is gaining traction
Michigan baseball coach Erik Bakich is the leader of the proposed "New Baseball Model" that projects to cut costs and increasing revenue
www.freep.com
I am a big fan of Barnhart's. I think he has done great here and made UK a much more complete athletic department. That being said, I am not a fan of two of the three baseball hires.
Cohen was excellent. Henderson was bad and we gave him too long. The writing was on the wall. Mingione is worse.
I am still holding some judgment on the contract extension because I don’t know the plan yet. It could be 1 of 2 things:
1. He intends to fire Mingione in the near future. If this is the case then I can actually understand the extension. The reason for that is because 2020 screwed things up. 2020 could have been so so so bad. I think it could have been so bad that Barnhart would have fired Mingione. When the pandemic cut the season short, the badness never happened and it delayed the decision. The delay meant that Mingione would run out of his contract by the end of the 2021 year, which makes it much harder for him to recruit because recruits don’t trust that he will be here for 2022 if UK doesn’t extend the contract. So, they made the extension, but made sure the liability was minimal if they did fire him. I think this was a rock and a hard place for Barnhart. It wasn’t ideal to give him an extension in this situation, but you pretty much have to do something, because leaving it in limbo can hurt UK recruiting and their future.
2. He intends to keep Mingione and give him more time to turn it around. I disagree with this decision and it will make me very mad. Maybe that is what he is signaling with the extension. I don’t know. It is possible, but IMO it is the wrong decision.
I don’t share your feelings about Barnhart. He could have handled Ming better. I see what you are saying about recruiting but if he is fired those players probably aren’t coming here anyway- and based on his previous coaching, getting fired after this year was highly likely.
Mitch also screwed up the women’s basketball hire this year and all but acknowledged it when hiring the previous Duke coach as an assistant coach. Throw in Billy G and Joker Phillips and he has made terrible decision after terrible decision.
Alright. I’ve got to say this is one of my favorite comments ever on this board. Thanks for the laugh.
Barnhartt was in a tough spot when Henderson left. Before yelling at me hear me out. Mitch went after an absolute home run of a coach to replace Henderson. Two actually and was turned down by both. Then he went after his third and fourth option. And was turned down. Mingione wasn’t even on his radar until Cohen recommended him.
As for his other hires, I’m still on the fence but if I was being honest, I’d lean towards MB on the plus side. He had to scramble when Matthew Mitchell stepped down. Now, should he have went ahead and named, I’m sorry the name slips my mind, the head coach and sign a contract. Maybe or maybe not. But I know part of the reason why he did it. He’s made some good hires. Just look at softball. But, you’re absolutely right. He’s made some questionable ones as well.
I think option 2 is the most likely to happen. Do I like it, no. As I’ve said in other threads, there’s no real incentive to make a change.
The issue with option 1 to me is, yes you give him an extension that was clearly not warranted. But, if you fire him right after that, what kind of message does that send to the next guy? And if you do make a coaching change, what direction do you go? I have my picks but realistically does Kentucky have the pull to get them in Lexington. That I don’t know.
He made the right hires in Skinner, Cal and Stoops. He hasn’t with Billy G, Joker or the current women’s basketball coach. He should have let the women’s basketball coach lead the team this year to make his decision on offering a contract. He needs to fire Ming which I don’t think he will. IF he does fire Ming, then I will say that makes his overall performance lean towards the positive side considering the upgrade in sports facilities during his tenure. But I think he will retain Ming and he is obviously keeping the women’s basketball coach, both clearly terrible decisions in two high profile sports.
Brian O’Conner from Virginia was the home run Barnhartt swung for. He also reached out to Dan Heefner from Dallas Baptist. And there was talk that the job was offered to Andrew Checketts also.
Oh, I get it. My son played for a mid-major late 1990s-early 2000s. They'd opened the season the first week in Feb in Florida, Georgia or South Carolina and those teams were so far ahead it wasn't funny. Son's team had been on the field for 2 weeks, opponents since previous fall. Glad changes have been made, hope more on the way. I just hope at some point UK decides to invest in baseball.I will at least defend that excuse when it was being made. It doesn't apply as much anymore because of rules changes and better facilities and such, but 15-20+ years ago being a northern school was a major hindrance. Part of the reason for that was that there was no universal start date. So, southern schools would start playing very early in the spring while northern schools would wait for the thaw. The southern schools would be several weeks into their seasons before the northern schools even got started. So, when they played one another, the northern schools would always be lagging behind because the southern schools would be in midseason form before the northern ones got it kicked off. Sometime in the mid-2000s (I think) they went to a universal start date and basically gave everyone the same time frame to get in games. This helped even the playing field for northern teams. They still have some disadvantage because they can't practice outside as much as southern teams, but the universal start date has certainly helped a lot. Even so, some very prominent northern coaches (Michigan's Bakich for instance) still argue heavily that the season should be pushed back several weeks.
Why Michigan baseball coach Erik Bakich's new model for college season is gaining traction
Michigan baseball coach Erik Bakich is the leader of the proposed "New Baseball Model" that projects to cut costs and increasing revenuewww.freep.com
O'Conner would have been a home run, but was way way too pie in the sky. I mean, he had just won a national championship with Virginia in 2015... why the hell would he want to leave that for the SEC and a perennial bottom feeder in the toughest league? Glad Barnhart swung for the fences, but that is some kind of crazy. haha
Checketts had a good year, but west coast guys don't often translate to doing well over here. Look at the guy that UT hired prior to Vitello, Dave Serrano. Had been to the CWS with UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton before going to UT, but at UT won less than half his games and never finished better than 6th in the SEC East. So, that would have scared me.
Heefner would have been a good one. He has continually done well with DBU.
I don't remember too much of the rumblings back then, but I drink a lot. lol
2 is the correct answer. Barnhart overall has been a really good AD. Made tremendous improvements in football practice facility, soccer and baseball. Just won NC in volleyball, etc.
But baseball is not an afterthought, it is a big sport in the SEC, and NM is looking more and more like a bad hire. Not knocking MB, I have made bad hires myself. Anyone who has run a business has made bad hires. It remains to be seen what he is going to do about it.
