Nick Mingione opens up on changes from first NCAA Tournament with Kentucky

Ever since Kentucky head baseball coach Nick Mingione led the Wildcats to the NCAA Tournament in his first season on the job in 2017, he’s been working to get his team back, which he finally did this season as the Wildcats will be hosting the Lexington Regional starting this Friday.

Following their tournament bid, Mingione was asked how the emotions from this year compare to 2017, as he drew inspiration from a bright figure in U.S. history.

“Someone asked Thomas Edison one time what it felt like to fail ten thousand times when he was trying to invent the lightbulb. And his answer was I never failed one time, it just happened to be a ten thousand-step process, and that’s how I feel about here,’ Mingione said.

Many focus on Edison’s finished product on the lightbulb more than his 10,000 attempts that got him there, and similarly, the Wildcats’ four-year tournament drought can be overlooked now that they’ve attained newfound success. But Mingione made it clear that the past five seasons have played an integral part in where the team now sees themselves today, hosting a regional series for just the third time in program history.

“The first year of that team they’ve already texted me, they’ve reached out, they’re fired up, but it’s been a process. We’ve been close, I talked about that at media day, I wanted it so bad for those others teams,” Mingione said. “Two of the last three years we’ve been one or two wins away and we haven’t been able to get over the hump, and I put a lot of that on me. To try to put them in a better position with the schedule and ultimately you have to go out there and execute, and this team has done that.”

The Wildcats definitely executed this season posting an impressive 36-17 record to end the regular season, handling business in conference play and in their meticulously crafted and difficult non-conference schedule. They’re one of ten SEC teams in the Field of 64 bracket this postseason, and know that an invitation to the party is all they need to potentially make some noise in this year’s tournament.

“But just thankful for all those people, but it does seem like it’s been a little while. But at the same time any time you can get your team into the postseason, whether it’s hosting or not, I think you saw that last year with Ole Miss, our ninth-place team in our league, wins the whole thing and that’s the power of our conference,” Mingione said.

Nick Mingione and Kentucky will kick things off Friday as they take on Ball State at noon ET in a regional matchup airing on SEC Network.