Nick Mingione not taking Wildcats success for granted: 'This has been a special season'
Kentucky will host a regional tournament for the second-straight season for the first time in program history after being selected as the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament on Monday.
Leading the history-making group, Wildcats head coach Nick Mingione has been soaking in his team’s success after leading Kentucky to back-to-back 40-win seasons.
“This has been a special season for us in so many ways, and I can tell you guys that I’ve done a good job of taking it in and just being thankful and so appreciative,” Mingione said during an appearance on the SEC Network. “The first time I was in a situation in my first year here in this position — guys, I just thought it was easy. Like yeah, we make regionals and you host and blah, blah, blah, and I quite frankly took it a little bit for granted.”
Mingione led Kentucky to a 43-23 record during his first season with the Wildcats, good enough to host a regional — Kentucky’s first since 2006. He wouldn’t find similar success until 2023.
“So I’ve done a good job of being thankful and I’ve really enjoyed being around this team,” he said. “As you guys know to sit there and to lead and win this league from the first game of the year all the way to the end to be a champion, to lead it the entire time — it’s not easy.”
Kentucky got back to Lexington from their time in Hoover over Saturday night where Mingione rewarded his guys with a rest day on Sunday. The Wildcats coach used Monday as an opportunity to “refine and refresh” not only his team’s mindset, but his own as well.
For his players, it’s a time to make sure his guys have down the basics, whether that’s understanding plays, bunting, etc. It’s a different mindset from last season, where the Wildcats had over a week to prepare for their regional matchup.
“We play at our best when we are a team that is attacking on all levels in every facet of the game,” Mingione continued. “We have a pitching staff that’s ramming the ball in the strike zone, we’ve got an attacking defense, and then offensively we want to attack. … For us to be concerned about Kentucky not anybody else and for us to focus and execute at a high level with what we’re trying to do — if we believed from the very beginning that if we did that, then we would have success and if we didn’t [believe], then we wouldn’t [suceed].”
The Wildcats will kick off their NCAA Tournament slate against Western Michigan on Friday. First pitch us scheduled for Noon ET live on the SEC Network.