It was an interesting visit.

[HuntDawg]

Really Hancock 4 year starter with the C on his chest. Why is he not considered a leader? Because he’s not mr. Rah rah? Because the team isn’t winning? I mean come on….

last year Logan? Sims? Mule? None of those guys were leaders. Sheesh.

I mean what if I told you that the best thing for the national championship team was for mangum to leave… so that Allen, Jordan, and that group could step up and mature.. and while mangum was there that couldn’t happen?

I mean I get your point, but it’s way over blown. Most players these days don’t know who the people of the past even are. No one came to Mississippi state to play with Jake mangum nor is anyone else coming because he played here.

 

[Perd Hapley]

I dont care that much bc I dont think Cohen is necessarily the greatest coach ever. But I dont think people realize how bad the pitching situation was with those teams. Polk had just flat quit.

Ok, let me see if I can tie this all together from your responses:

Lemonis = “bad coach”
Cohen = “not the greatest coach ever”
Polk II = “bad coach who flat quit”
Cannizarro = you didn’t comment but obviously not even worth mentioning

So, in the past 20 seasons from 2002 to now when we have been to the CWS 5 times, played for two national titles, won a national title, played in 8 Super Regionals, hosted 4 Super Regionals, hosted 5 regionals, played in 14 regionals, won an SEC title, and won 2 SEC Tournament titles. Is it your assertion that over that time we haven’t made a single really good hire?

I mean objectively that has to be the best 2 decade stretch in MSU baseball history, in spite of some really rough patches.

And your Polk II comment was spot on. He did quit and didn’t adapt. Lemonis has quit, too, and hasn’t adapted. But Polk was once a very good coach. What’s the difference between a guy being a good coach at one time and quitting after 8-9 years vs a guy who quits after 20-25 years? Lemonis is just Polk II in a different form, but you don’t see it.

 

[8dog]

Ok, let me see if I can tie this all together from your responses:

Lemonis = “bad coach”
Cohen = “not the greatest coach ever”
Polk II = “bad coach who flat quit”
Cannizarro = you didn’t comment but obviously not even worth mentioning

So, in the past 20 seasons from 2002 to now when we have been to the CWS 5 times, played for two national titles, won a national title, played in 8 Super Regionals, hosted 4 Super Regionals, hosted 5 regionals, played in 14 regionals, won an SEC title, and won 2 SEC Tournament titles. Is it your assertion that over that time we haven’t made a single really good hire?

I mean objectively that has to be the best 2 decade stretch in MSU baseball history, in spite of some really rough patches.

And your Polk II comment was spot on. He did quit and didn’t adapt. Lemonis has quit, too, and hasn’t adapted. But Polk was once a very good coach. What’s the difference between a guy being a good coach at one time and quitting after 8-9 years vs a guy who quits after 20-25 years? Lemonis is just Polk II in a different form, but you don’t see it.

Lem didn’t quit. Teams are built over 2-5 year periods before the portal. He has pushed a ton of wrong buttons over his 5 years here to get to this point. We would be even worse if the portal hadn’t come out of nowhere or he hadn’t won a natty. But we can agree to disagree at this point.

 

[blacklistedbully]

So, has anyone reached out to Gary Henderson to see if he got his 2021 National Champions ring in the mail? After all, in just 3 short months, he established a culture of excellence that lasted a whole 3 years after his departure. As the head coach solely responsible for the 2021 national title run, it would be a shame if he wasn’t recognized in some way.

Along those same lines, since we’re about to have an opening….it seems that Henderson should be call #’s 1, 2, and 3 to return as HC. Proven commodity who now has a natty on his resume. So what if he can’t recruit? We only need him for a few weeks to set up that sweet, juicy culture and then we can fire him again and get a recruiter.

Good Lord I hope you are kidding! Hard to think of a more terrible decision than bringing GH back as HC. Truly awful idea. GH didn't do much more than ease the tension, mostly stay out of the way & let the team leaders take over. In fact, our kids had to overcome several obvious GH blunders during games.

BTW, GH's Utah team is now 10-13 with only 2 of those losses to a ranked team. Lost a series to the same Arizona State team we took 2 of 3 from. Lost 3 of 4 games vs a crappy University of San Francisco team for Pete's sake!

 

[dawgphd]

Took Indiana backwards? When he took over for Tracey Smith, Indiana had been to exactly 4 regionals in 65 years. That’s making a regional 6% of the time. He took them to 3 regionals in 4 years - made regionals 75% of the time. Don’t really believe I’d call that “backwards”.

The team with his recruits in the current coach’s first year also made the regionals in 2019. And they haven’t been back since.

Three years prior to Lemonis, Indiana was 1, 1 & 2 in the Big 10.

Then Lemonis went 6, T3, 6 & 5 in the Big 10.

That's regression.

 

[Perd Hapley]

Good Lord I hope you are kidding! Hard to think of a more terrible decision than bringing GH back as HC. Truly awful idea. GH didn't do much more than ease the tension, mostly stay out of the way & let the team leaders take over. In fact, our kids had to overcome several obvious GH blunders during games.

BTW, GH's Utah team is now 10-13 with only 2 of those losses to a ranked team. Lost a series to the same Arizona State team we took 2 of 3 from. Lost 3 of 4 games vs a crappy University of San Francisco team for Pete's sake!

 

[MSUDOG24]

Late season, outside of Bednar, Hootie, and PJ, we had no starter. ZERO. Macleod, Stinnet, Fristoe were absolute head cases who fell apart late and simply couldn't throw a strike under any circumstance. That has to be remembered. If not for Sims and the other three already mentioned, our pitching was already going bad. If not for Bednar turning in the single greatest athletic performance during the whole CWS run, we could not have advanced with the remaining pitching. Flash forward to 2022, even with the pitching change of Sims to starter, our pitching was still very, very poor before the injuries and wheels fell off. (Sims was 0-2 I believe.)

Good summary and my recollection as well. Also points to the luck/magic/stars aligning nature of winning a NC.