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NCAA Baseball in May/June

scrivener

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Jan 19, 2002
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I love it every year....now with televised Regionals anfd Super's, it makes the sport even more interesting. And it makes me embarrassed thinking about our PSU program. I've been on here many times preaching how bad we are, in a substandard league. We see Illinois, IU, Michigan, occasionally Minn and others make the dance and we can't. It just adds to my frustrating spring and summer post - football season. Sure would be nice to have relevance the first half of every year.
 
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I love it every year....now with televised Regionals anfd Super's, it makes the sport even more interesting. And it makes me embarrassed thinking about our PSU program. I've been on here many times preaching how bad we are, in a substandard league. We see Illinois, IU, Michigan, occasionally Minn and others make the dance and we can't. It just adds to my frustrating spring and summer post - football season. Sure would be nice to have relevance the first half of every year.
Unless you're Stanford, most schools are good in some sports and bad in others. We suck in baseball. I see no desire on the part of our leadership to change that by investing the necessary resources (primarily money) to turn it around and it will not happen on its own. If I was the AD I would dump baseball and use the money saved to invest more in basketball (men's and women's).
 
I see no desire on the part of our leadership to change that by investing the necessary resources (primarily money) to turn it around and it will not happen on its own.

What resources does our baseball team lack in contrast to our B1G brethern? We have a highly respected coach and one of the best stadiums in the country. Recruiting is getting better. Give Cooper a little time, please. Robbie Wine left the cupboard pretty bare.
 
What resources does our baseball team lack in contrast to our B1G brethern? We have a highly respected coach and one of the best stadiums in the country. Recruiting is getting better. Give Cooper a little time, please. Robbie Wine left the cupboard pretty bare.
Perhaps none, but then the BigTen is not a serious player in college baseball. You may be right about Cooper, and I certainly hope you are, but it seems like for the past 50 years, in all the sports we have done poorly in, the answer is always give the coach more time....and we do...and nothing much changes...and they bring in another coach...and we are told to give that coach more time. In baseball I just don't ever seeing us as more than a marginal program.
 
Perhaps none, but then the BigTen is not a serious player in college baseball. You may be right about Cooper, and I certainly hope you are, but it seems like for the past 50 years, in all the sports we have done poorly in, the answer is always give the coach more time....and we do...and nothing much changes...and they bring in another coach...and we are told to give that coach more time. In baseball I just don't ever seeing us as more than a marginal program.
Rob Cooper was a very good hire with a much better pedigree than any other baseball coach we've hired in as long as I can remember. We have the infrastructure and stadium to succeed here, but Wine was just not the right guy for the job - and in somewhat typical fashion for the Athletic Department's old leadership (see DeChellis), there was almost no desire to make a change to upgrade the coaching staff. You've seen definite improvements in baseball recruiting with Cooper over Wine, and if that continues I think you'll see improvements in the record. It's certainly true about the conference's relative baseball strength, but baseball can succeed in this conference - Pitt is certainly a northern school and has had a very nice program for the past 20 or so years, although the transition to the ACC has been rough for them. There's no reason why we can't compete in this conference, but I think if Cooper can't do it I'm not sure who can.
 
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Rob Cooper was a very good hire with a much better pedigree than any other baseball coach we've hired in as long as I can remember. We have the infrastructure and stadium to succeed here, but Wine was just not the right guy for the job - and in somewhat typical fashion for the Athletic Department's old leadership (see DeChellis), there was almost no desire to make a change to upgrade the coaching staff. You've seen definite improvements in baseball recruiting with Cooper over Wine, and if that continues I think you'll see improvements in the record. It's certainly true about the conference's relative baseball strength, but baseball can succeed in this conference - Pitt is certainly a northern school and has had a very nice program for the past 20 or so years, although the transition to the ACC has been rough for them. There's no reason why we can't compete in this conference, but I think if Cooper can't do it I'm not sure who can.
You, and others who post here, certainly know more about the program than I do, so I'll accept what you're saying and hope we improve. Let's see where we are in 5 years.
 
Fairgambit
I agree with u....every ailing sport is in the same repetitive cycle of replacing one unknown coach with another and saying. .."they need time". Its not like Maryland trying to survive in the ridiculously tough ACC for baseball. The Big Ten is not a juggernaut with a clear cut set of favorites. ..for psu to not put it together and have a big season once in awhile is a freaking joke
 
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I agree with u....every ailing sport is in the same repetitive cycle of replacing one unknown coach with another and saying. .."they need time". Its not like Maryland trying to survive in the ridiculously tough ACC for baseball. The Big Ten is not a juggernaut with a clear cut set of favorites. ..for psu to not put it together and have a big season once in awhile is a freaking joke
Well, let's hope Raffycorn is right. Maybe this is the time the program will finally turn it around. It would be nice to see us in postseason play in baseball on a regular basis. I still think the weather is a big factor for Northern teams, but, as you say, we should be able to put together a big season at least once in a while. Maybe Cooper is the guy.
 
I'm old enough to remember when Penn State threw a no-hitter at Rider College in the NCAA playoffs (might even have been in the CWS, but I can't remember with certainty) in the 60's. Chuck Medlar might have been the coach then. Anyway, that's the last time I recall Penn State having a championship-caliber baseball squad. Sometimes in the not-too-distant past the Lions have come to San Antonio or Austin for a few games, but usually the local schools beat them.


What some of you need to remember is that athletics is a different creature outside PA. Down here, for example, where football is a god, high schools traditionally emphasize only 4 sports for boys: football in the fall, basketball in the winter, baseball in the spring, and soccer in the winter (nothing -- NOTHING -- interferes with fall football). Football players can opt out of spring football only by playing baseball; track season ends by the time spring drills begin. Texas does not hold inter-scholastic wrestling, or boys volleyball and gymnastics. Only a few very wealthy school districts have swimming teams. There is interscholastic tennis and golf, but neither sport infringes on football and only wealthy, suburban districts sport any competitive squads.


I understand that several Northern colleges have excellent baseball traditions, but I don’t think Penn State is among them. Thus, it is likely more difficult to recruit rifle-armed hurlers and dynamic sluggers to Penn State when such athletes have better options in the South or at more traditionally successful Northern schools. I love baseball almost as much as I love college football (ok, there’s a large gap in that “almost”), but I can accept that Penn State is a powerhouse in wrestling, gymnastics, fencing, and men’s volleyball over its status in baseball.

I still don’t get the problem with basketball, however.
 
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I love it every year....now with televised Regionals anfd Super's, it makes the sport even more interesting. And it makes me embarrassed thinking about our PSU program. I've been on here many times preaching how bad we are, in a substandard league. We see Illinois, IU, Michigan, occasionally Minn and others make the dance and we can't. It just adds to my frustrating spring and summer post - football season. Sure would be nice to have relevance the first half of every year.
LOL ignorance gone to seed. School is over. The season is way too long. It is time for the adults in academia to rein in college sports. PS baseball is as exciting as Hillary Clinton in a bathing suit.
 
LOL ignorance gone to seed. School is over. The season is way too long. It is time for the adults in academia to rein in college sports. PS baseball is as exciting as Hillary Clinton in a bathing suit.
Hmm......
hillarybathing.jpg
 
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I love it every year....now with televised Regionals anfd Super's, it makes the sport even more interesting. And it makes me embarrassed thinking about our PSU program. I've been on here many times preaching how bad we are, in a substandard league. We see Illinois, IU, Michigan, occasionally Minn and others make the dance and we can't. It just adds to my frustrating spring and summer post - football season. Sure would be nice to have relevance the first half of every year.

PA has GREAT youth baseball talent. If cooper can keep some of the best from heading south and convince one or two studs to sign instead of going pro he can field a strong team based on PA talent. Wine ignored PA players and that was his biggest mistake (among many others). I do not know Cooper personally but I hear great things about him. I think he could get this thing going. I have had multiple baseball people tell me what a great hire Cooper was.
 
Hindelang and Ford werent great recruiters either. They recruited plenty of in state kids but they were all central or eastern PA kids. The good kids from western PA and Ohio thay made their way to campus quickly realized that they were going to be behind average Joes who were from the east. Take away Nate Bump and they really didnt have any pro talent on those teams. Heck the football team probably had as many guys drafted with McDuffie, Collins, Casey.
 
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