Super Regional @ Louisville -- Schedule and Discussion

With this Super Regional appearance, all the JD haters need to just know that there is literally zero circumstance where he isn't our coach for at least 2 more seasons. And really with this appearance he's likely to get a little more money to spend on the roster which should build a good enough roster to where making regionals is basically sure-thing. Which means he is probably here even longer. Id think he gets minimum 5 years here tbh. Unless the Admin wants a Championship, and isn't happy with a super regional appearance every 4yrs or so, I don't see him going anywhere

Rudy Fernandez was in DBC twitter space post game last night, and he had strong words of encouragement for JD, and said something like JD is here to stay
 
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Louisville has won only 2 weekend series since April 1 (plus went 3-0 in the regional)

Swept BC (home)
Lost 2/3 to NCST (away)
Lost 2/3 to Clemson (away)
Won 2/3 over FSU (home)
Lost 2/3 to ND (away)
Lost 2/3 to GT (away)
Lost 2/3 to WF (home)

Not the easiest slate by any means but still notable

27-7 record at home had me nervous but their only real challenge at home was UNC and FSU (which they won both of those series). They didn't lose a home series until the last one of the year against Wake. Then you had Western Michigan, St Johns, UIC, Cal, BC, and mid-weeks with Northern KY, Bellarmine, Eastern KY, Oakland, Liscomb, Morehead St, Butler, Xavier, etc. - that makes up 23 of those 34 games. Maybe not that impressive.
Louisville – opponents have a 7.81 ERA, and the team has a .306 batting average with 77 home runs.

Miami- opponents have a 5.88 ERA (and UM’s hit 76 home runs)
 
Rudy Fernandez was in DBC twitter space post game last night, and he had strong words of encouragement for JD, and said something like JD is here to stay
Thats fine...(and not directed at you)

But take a step back. Losing record last year. Horrible start this year, a nice 12-15 game spurt that saved our season where Hugus, Ciscar and Cuvet carried us...along with a lot of bottom feeder teams (NC State and Tech were good series wins).

Then we bomb the final few games, get humiliated in the ACC Tourney. Get in due to our SOS and have the planets align with a mediocre region the lowest 1 seed, an Ivy and a Bama team that since April was middle of the pack.

Now all of the sudden we have the second coming of Coach Fraser and he isnt going anywhere? I shouldnt be surprised with how some of you say Miami works from the inside but if we lose this super and then next year hover just above .500 again and go 0-2/1-2 in a regional as a 2-3 seed does that make you think JD is getting better year after year? Its 2025 and if you are running an athletic program where you try to win you should be evaluating all sports almost yearly if not every other year. (Football contracts can be massive so sometimes you have to roll with it for a few years).

I dont know...I watch this team and I dont see anything where I go "Wow this team is coached so well we do __________ better than anyone." I see a gritty team that wins despite its shortcomings and just seems to have some magic in it. But with the roster next year it will be fairly young but it will be as talented as almost anyone in the ACC short of FSU, Clemson and GTech (Tech is going to be outstanding next year if they keep everyone).

All that being said I'm ready cheer my face off this weekend and in the back of my mind I'm thinking how can I pull off a few days in Omaha.
 
Rudy Fernandez was in DBC twitter space post game last night, and he had strong words of encouragement for JD, and said something like JD is here to stay
Buddy only shows up when the teams are winning. Took his victory laps when he supposedly claimed that he hired Mario and had completely disappeared by MTSU in 2022. Hasn't said a thing about JD since his comments about how impressive he was in his interview and how it was a no brainer. Then, they had a losing record year 1 and he just now came out of the wood works.

The most unlikeable guy around this university by a long shot.
 
Thats fine...(and not directed at you)

But take a step back. Losing record last year. Horrible start this year, a nice 12-15 game spurt that saved our season where Hugus, Ciscar and Cuvet carried us...along with a lot of bottom feeder teams (NC State and Tech were good series wins).

Then we bomb the final few games, get humiliated in the ACC Tourney. Get in due to our SOS and have the planets align with a mediocre region the lowest 1 seed, an Ivy and a Bama team that since April was middle of the pack.

Now all of the sudden we have the second coming of Coach Fraser and he isnt going anywhere? I shouldnt be surprised with how some of you say Miami works from the inside but if we lose this super and then next year hover just above .500 again and go 0-2/1-2 in a regional as a 2-3 seed does that make you think JD is getting better year after year? Its 2025 and if you are running an athletic program where you try to win you should be evaluating all sports almost yearly if not every other year. (Football contracts can be massive so sometimes you have to roll with it for a few years).

I dont know...I watch this team and I dont see anything where I go "Wow this team is coached so well we do __________ better than anyone." I see a gritty team that wins despite its shortcomings and just seems to have some magic in it. But with the roster next year it will be fairly young but it will be as talented as almost anyone in the ACC short of FSU, Clemson and GTech (Tech is going to be outstanding next year if they keep everyone).

All that being said I'm ready cheer my face off this weekend and in the back of my mind I'm thinking how can I pull off a few days in Omaha.
By RPI we had one of the strongest regionals as a whole actually.
 
Rudy Fernandez was in DBC twitter space post game last night, and he had strong words of encouragement for JD, and said something like JD is here to stay
which is fine.... but then give him overwhelming support to supplement his coaching issues... Full scholarship roster, or at least lead the ACC in scholarships... build out w/e other tech/facility upgrades we need to be top10 in country.. and finally put some decent NIL towards baseball.. top 10 in the country.....
 
Correct, if we'd have won on Sunday night, we'd have gotten the extra day of rest that Louisville got.

All the brackets on the left side are Fri-Sun, all the others are Sat-Mon. So we screwed ourselves out of a day of rest by not winning Sunday night. And the NCAA of course decided that we play until 12:30am on Monday, and have to turn right back around and play Friday at 3:00. Wheras Louisville was probably back home by midnight Sunday night. Oh well, no excuses, play like a champion.
Call me crazy, but in a sport like baseball, I prefer the shorter turnaround. Our friday starter will be on a weeks rest. Every position player should be good to go with 2 days rest.

This isn't like football where the body is just beat up completely and needs time to recover. Its baseball. Keep them in a rhythm and keep going.

I wouldnt call our shorter rest period a disadvantage at all.
 
Call me crazy, but in a sport like baseball, I prefer the shorter turnaround. Our friday starter will be on a weeks rest. Every position player should be good to go with 2 days rest.

This isn't like football where the body is just beat up completely and needs time to recover. Its baseball. Keep them in a rhythm and keep going.

I wouldnt call our shorter rest period a disadvantage at all.

I won't argue with you. You could be right. I just wish the kids had one more day to relax and recover at home. But if you're playing well, you want to keep playing.
 
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By RPI we had one of the strongest regionals as a whole actually.
Bama was certainly one of the toughest 2 seeds out there. Easily better than NCST, Oklahoma, WVU, Louisville, Florida, TCU, Arizona, Kansas, Wake, UC Irvine, and Northeastern.

Of the 4 not mentioned... probably better talent than GT but I'll give the nod to the ACC champion. DBU looked like a national seed until they lost their conference tournament. Alabama is probably tougher than them. Duke is playing good ball but I'd rather see them than Bama. Hard to judge UTSA but they're clearly a tough matchup.

USM is a hard place to play. Top 10 attendance, probably top 5 intimidating atmosphere when they get going. And then it ended up being one of the few regions that had a 4 seed get hot.

Top to bottom, I'd say Hattiesburg was in the top 3 just by the eye test and ignoring RPI. Oxford was up there, Conway, Clemson, and Austin round out the top 5. Knoxville, Fayetteville, Auburn, Chapel Hill, Eugene, Tallahassee, LA, and Nashville were super weak.
 
By RPI we had one of the strongest regionals as a whole actually.
Thats fine......but look at who Southern Miss Played (Sun belt is solid but it had 3 other teams over .500 this year and Southern Miss didnt play Coastal Carolina until the playoffs and lost, and they lost 2/3 to Marshall. Alabama the second half of the season played .500 baseball

All that said Im thrilled. I hope JD goes on a 20 year run that matches the greats and he can personally come on this board and call me out. But he has been here for much of the downslide. So I'm rooting for us to win it all but I also know 1 year doesnt absolve him of the downturn I need to see 2-3 years of results.
 
Call me crazy, but in a sport like baseball, I prefer the shorter turnaround. Our friday starter will be on a weeks rest. Every position player should be good to go with 2 days rest.

This isn't like football where the body is just beat up completely and needs time to recover. Its baseball. Keep them in a rhythm and keep going.

I wouldnt call our shorter rest period a disadvantage at all.
Definitely a non-issue. One day difference from a normal week with a Tuesday midweek game, and a pretty standard first pitch time for a Friday road ACC game.
 
Rudy Fernandez was in DBC twitter space post game last night, and he had strong words of encouragement for JD, and said something like JD is here to stay
Everyone's ecstatic w last night's outcome, but a smart administrator would have congratulated the team and coaches and left it at that. There's only down side by pounding your chest too early.
 
Rudy Fernandez was in DBC twitter space post game last night, and he had strong words of encouragement for JD, and said something like JD is here to stay
Episode 5 Reaction GIF by The Office
 
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The unique thing about college sports is that the front office and the coach are merged.

I think even those critical of JD will acknowledge that we’ve maxed out (or even exceeded) the projected ceiling of this year’s roster. That’s a credit to what JD has done as a manager.

But I’d say all of us (including those in the building) agree that we need to continue to build on the talent level to get to the program standard of sustained success.

The first year was a wash in terms of talent acquisition because the hire was so late in the Portal period. We improved the roster in Year 2 but not to the level of the top teams, on paper. Let’s see how this story ends and then hope for continued elevation of talent through the Portal and high school recruiting. That’s what will ultimately determine success.
 
The unique thing about college sports is that the front office and the coach are merged.

I think even those critical of JD will acknowledge that we’ve maxed out (or even exceeded) the projected ceiling of this year’s roster. That’s a credit to what JD has done as a manager.

But I’d say all of us (including those in the building) agree that we need to continue to build on the talent level to get to the program standard of sustained success.

The first year was a wash in terms of talent acquisition because the hire was so late in the Portal period. We improved the roster in Year 2 but not to the level of the top teams, on paper. Let’s see how this story ends and then hope for continued elevation of talent through the Portal and high school recruiting. That’s what will ultimately determine success.
We need more athleticism out there. Ogden is a great example. No way can we pass on kids like Justin LeBron from our own back yard and get back to being the Miami of old
 
The unique thing about college sports is that the front office and the coach are merged.

I think even those critical of JD will acknowledge that we’ve maxed out (or even exceeded) the projected ceiling of this year’s roster. That’s a credit to what JD has done as a manager.

But I’d say all of us (including those in the building) agree that we need to continue to build on the talent level to get to the program standard of sustained success.

The first year was a wash in terms of talent acquisition because the hire was so late in the Portal period. We improved the roster in Year 2 but not to the level of the top teams, on paper. Let’s see how this story ends and then hope for continued elevation of talent through the Portal and high school recruiting. That’s what will ultimately determine success.

I’ve said all year the talent is not where it needs to be playing at Miami, they’re definitely playing above their talent level.

I hope in the off season we can upgrade this roster with talent that mimic's Cuvet. Can’t keep rolling out this level of talent every year
 
The unique thing about college sports is that the front office and the coach are merged.

I think even those critical of JD will acknowledge that we’ve maxed out (or even exceeded) the projected ceiling of this year’s roster. That’s a credit to what JD has done as a manager.

But I’d say all of us (including those in the building) agree that we need to continue to build on the talent level to get to the program standard of sustained success.

The first year was a wash in terms of talent acquisition because the hire was so late in the Portal period. We improved the roster in Year 2 but not to the level of the top teams, on paper. Let’s see how this story ends and then hope for continued elevation of talent through the Portal and high school recruiting. That’s what will ultimately determine success.

There is no one more critical of JD than me. And honestly not him personally, but the people who gave him a job he clearly didn't deserve. So I am fully on the record, both feet directly in the paint, that it was an atrocious hire and will end badly. Obviously, as a life-long supporter of the program, I hope I'm flat-on-my-*** wrong. Clearly. But that's how I feel.

However, as I just said in another thread, while 4 days in Hattiesburg doesn't erase the stench of 2 seasons, you cannot ignore results. At this school, you're judged from regionals on. Making a regional is non-negotiable. It should happen in your sleep. Winning one should be almost regular. And making Omaha should be frequent. That's the standard here. So, again while I feel the best move for the program in the long-run would be to fire JD the minute the season ends, even I can admit that by winning a regional, he afforded himself another year. I think it's to the determent of the health of the program, long-term. But he found a way to win a regional, and that shouldn't be completely dismissed, so, for better or worse, he should be here next year. And it's all moot because his besties weren't going to fire him anyway, even if we lost last night.
 
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