(05-24-2021 10:17 PM)illiniowl Wrote:  

(05-24-2021 09:41 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(05-24-2021 09:22 PM)illiniowl Wrote:  Is Jesus a candidate? Because I do think it would take a miracle to reach the heights that are expected by a lot of folks here. This is (IMO) a lot tougher structural situation to step into now than the one WG arrived at, which was still an SWC program and all. But no question we can be a significantly better program than we are.

I also continue to think a lot of "where we are" is traceable to WG hanging on too long and the toll it took on recruiting. Period. Not Bragga's fault, not JK's fault. WG's fault. Still deserves a statue and every accolade there is, don't get me wrong, but wasn't infallible.

With the program's decline bound to keep accelerating, we needed a "shock to the system" hire last time to have any chance of arresting it, but instead made a pretty conventional hire who probably had in mind a pretty typical multiyear plan to turn things around, which then got decimated by COVID. So now we're really in the ditch and IMO we need that shock to the system more than ever.

Do tell what "structural situation" you're talking about? The baseball budget has never been higher...Reckling is still one of the Top 25 facilities in the country...over the last 3 years the program has purchased a myriad of state of the art technologies, including Trackman which was deployed this past season (and manned/analyzed in-game by Dominic Cox, sitting adjacent to the Rice dugout). There's also the RBI Club and Baseball Endowment to supplement the budget for things deemed necessary to further enhance the program and the student-athlete experience. And we're located in one of the 2 - 3 hotbeds in the country for college recruits.

Yes, but it remains to be seen if all that can accomplish national relevance from this conference, a conference that is uniquely ill suited for us. I'd rather we have all these things than not, and I'm sure they do a lot of good for us, but I think the conference association is an anchor. And I'm sure you're going to spout about how the conference RPI isn't bad and about how there are no other viable options, and you'd be right on both counts. Doesn't change the fact that there is no and never will be innate enthusiasm at Rice for competing in this conference.

The job of a baseball coach here is to convince kids to come here for the skills development, facilities, visibility with scouts, and world-class academics. The types of programs we want to be peers with can offer the first 3, some can offer all 4, and all of them can offer a 5th thing that we can't: full schedules of games that their students, alumni, and fans are passionate about. So yeah, it's a challenging situation.

Tuition is still clearly an issue. And let's be honest, college BB was not the "thing" it is now when Wayne was hired, so doing something then was a way different situation than now. Now I am now way disparaging his incredible accomplishments, but as per one of the lines in the Godfather, it was pretty clear that "he was slipping". Illiniowl's observations are right on the button....