Nick Mingione explains what this season taught him about himself as a coach

After a few years of struggles before and after the breakout of the COVID pandemic, Kentucky and head coach Nick Mingione had a breakthrough 2023 campaign. The team finished the year with a 40-21 record and earned a top-12 national seed in the NCAA Tournament.

It was the team’s first tournament since Mingione’s first year on the job in 2017.

The 44-year-old coach said that he feels like he has learned a lot as a coach over the past season.

“I’ve really grown and learned a lot as a coach,” Mingione said. “I’ve made good decisions. I’ve made bad decisions. One thing I believe in is feedback. And feedback is the breakfast of champions. I have called former players. I’ve picked their brain. They’ve shared some tough things with me that I didn’t want to hear but were true. And I’ve tried to make adjustments and become a better coach.”

The Wildcats program has not been a historical power at all in the SEC, making it a difficult job for anyone. But Mingione has seen greater postseason success than any other coach has had in just six years on the job.

Kentucky had never won a Regional prior to his arrival in 2017. Now the program has won two Regionals, back in that first year and now in 2023.

It is unfortunate for the Wildcats and their fans that they ran into a potent and locked-in LSU squad in the Baton Rouge Super Regional. But the year is still one that could be used a building block for the program over the coming years.

“The players are the ones that make coaches look good,” Mingione said. “We don’t do the pitches. We don’t take swings in the box. We don’t do any of that. They’re the ones that do all that. And they’ve made our coaching staff look really good. But they’re really the ones that have done it all.”

Pitcher Darren Williams said the season, which featured a 17-game winning streak, was a “dream campaign.”

“To be able to do what this team did? I’ll never forget it,” said Williams. “Nobody picked us at all at the beginning of the year. Just the togetherness, the grittiness, the unselfishness. Like coach always talks about, man. It’s so true. That team loves each other, man. Tight group, on and off the field. Like, the dream season, what a Kentucky kid wants to do if he plays for Kentucky.”