Not sure if anyone has posted a player's perspective yet about the hire. I just got of the phone with a high school buddy of mine who played for Ikenberry @ VMI from 03-06 and even he says it's a great hire. Coach is someone that is going to bring a TON of energy to the job every day, make everyone work for it (no favoritism), and knows how to motivate his players to get the most. His was very well liked and respected by most guys at VMI is what I was told and is a coach that will support his players 100%.

The more and more I read/hear about Coach Ikenberry the more I think this could be a great get for us. Even my friend says that a big issue was the VMI life, John said he had multiple guys come on campus to visit and spend the day with him and then bail due to the lifestyle. Yet, he says Coach is well known and well liked to the point that he was still able to pull some above average recruits into VMI despite the lifestyle, etc. It will be interesting to see how our players feel about it in the coming weeks and if there are any transfers in/out.

(07-06-2015 11:13 PM)CISDuke2014 Wrote:  Not sure if anyone has posted a player's perspective yet about the hire. I just got of the phone with a high school buddy of mine who played for Ikenberry @ VMI from 03-06 and even he says it's a great hire. Coach is someone that is going to bring a TON of energy to the job every day, make everyone work for it (no favoritism), and knows how to motivate his players to get the most. His was very well liked and respected by most guys at VMI is what I was told and is a coach that will support his players 100%.

The more and more I read/hear about Coach Ikenberry the more I think this could be a great get for us. Even my friend says that a big issue was the VMI life, John said he had multiple guys come on campus to visit and spend the day with him and then bail due to the lifestyle. Yet, he says Coach is well known and well liked to the point that he was still able to pull some above average recruits into VMI despite the lifestyle, etc. It will be interesting to see how our players feel about it in the coming weeks and if there are any transfers in/out.

Sounds promising CIS. Hope this hire turns out well...and that Coach Ikenberry can turn around the program. Heaven knows he has his work cut out for him just overcoming the lazy haze Spanky left in place.

(07-07-2015 12:07 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  Sounds promising CIS. Hope this hire turns out well...and that Coach Ikenberry can turn around the program. Heaven knows he has his work cut out for him just overcoming the lazy haze Spanky left in place.

I just felt it was interesting that all parties involved with baseball from coaches down to his players speak highly of him.

My friend, John is also a low level assistant at a D3 school in PA so he's still connected into the game and has a coach's perspective in addition to the players. I look forward to giving Coach Ikenberry the opportunity to prove himself. You are right though, his work is cut out for him. I wish him the best.

There was a couple of good articles in the RTD in the past week or so about coaching at VMI (they have a new football and basketball coach). For Ikenberry to even be in the neighborhood of .500 in his tenure there is impressive as far as I'm concerned.

http://www.richmond.com/sports/college/a...e8fe6.html

http://www.richmond.com/sports/article_c...39af8.html

I wonder if folks are aware....

First of all, you can put me in the camp of hoping for a somewhat more significant hire. Having said that, I follow high school baseball here in Richmond a bit and have been familiar with some of the talent Ikenberry brought to VMI in his time there. He did a pretty good job there considering he had the use of only 5 scholarships for baseball. He'll get the benefit of 11.7 as a Duke. I'll remain optimistic and, as always, will be rooting.

The more I hear, the more I am ok with the hire.

I will never be ok with the timing. We had to know Kuhn was overpriced for us, so no need to wait, and Ike could have been out recruiting in the Spring. Hell, Spanky didn't recruit anyway....so I doubt he would have cared.

Exactly, the timing and process is what I take issue with and that is all on JB and the Athletic Department.

I am just excited that we now have a coach that will actually get out of Rockingmham County and do the leg-work to recruit. If I were a returning player, especially pitcher, I would be working my butt off this summer.

Not sure if anybody saw this, but we've hired one of our two assistants:

From D1Baseball.com:

Quote:• James Madison head coach Marlin Ikenberry is in the process of putting together his coaching staff, and the Dukes have hired Radford assistant coach Alex Guerra for one of the full-time, paid openings. Guerra, a former Radford player, has spent the last two seasons with the Highlanders, working with the program’s hitters and serving as the recruiting coordinator. His change does pique some interest because going from Radford to JMU isn’t considered much of a step up. Guerra, though, is a very solid assistant.

Sounds like a good hire, particularly from the recruiting standpoint (Radford has acquired some good guys recently), but I hate that our program has got to a point where "Radford to JMU isn't considered much of a step up" is an accurate statement...

Thanks for the update --- that looks like a solid asst hire by Marlin.

(07-15-2015 07:34 AM)JMUDukeDawg Wrote:  Not sure if anybody saw this, but we've hired one of our two assistants:

From D1Baseball.com:

Quote:• James Madison head coach Marlin Ikenberry is in the process of putting together his coaching staff, and the Dukes have hired Radford assistant coach Alex Guerra for one of the full-time, paid openings. Guerra, a former Radford player, has spent the last two seasons with the Highlanders, working with the program’s hitters and serving as the recruiting coordinator. His change does pique some interest because going from Radford to JMU isn’t considered much of a step up. Guerra, though, is a very solid assistant.

Sounds like a good hire, particularly from the recruiting standpoint (Radford has acquired some good guys recently), but I hate that our program has got to a point where "Radford to JMU isn't considered much of a step up" is an accurate statement...

Looks like his local ties may be an advantage for putting a staff together. But we may need to get used to Radford passing us in men's athletics. Their basketball is certainly on a path to passing us by.

(07-15-2015 08:38 AM)2Buck Wrote:  

(07-15-2015 07:34 AM)JMUDukeDawg Wrote:  Not sure if anybody saw this, but we've hired one of our two assistants:

From D1Baseball.com:

Quote:• James Madison head coach Marlin Ikenberry is in the process of putting together his coaching staff, and the Dukes have hired Radford assistant coach Alex Guerra for one of the full-time, paid openings. Guerra, a former Radford player, has spent the last two seasons with the Highlanders, working with the program’s hitters and serving as the recruiting coordinator. His change does pique some interest because going from Radford to JMU isn’t considered much of a step up. Guerra, though, is a very solid assistant.

Sounds like a good hire, particularly from the recruiting standpoint (Radford has acquired some good guys recently), but I hate that our program has got to a point where "Radford to JMU isn't considered much of a step up" is an accurate statement...

Looks like his local ties may be an advantage for putting a staff together. But we may need to get used to Radford passing us in men's athletics. Their basketball is certainly on a path to passing us by.

Over the years, Radford has had times where its MBB program has been ahead of JMU, but I don't think that can ever be sustained over a long period like a decade or more. This should apply to all sports. They have a huge shadow in their neighborhood that will always hold them back.

(07-15-2015 08:45 AM)BleedingPurple Wrote:  

(07-15-2015 08:38 AM)2Buck Wrote:  

(07-15-2015 07:34 AM)JMUDukeDawg Wrote:  Not sure if anybody saw this, but we've hired one of our two assistants:

From D1Baseball.com:

Quote:• James Madison head coach Marlin Ikenberry is in the process of putting together his coaching staff, and the Dukes have hired Radford assistant coach Alex Guerra for one of the full-time, paid openings. Guerra, a former Radford player, has spent the last two seasons with the Highlanders, working with the program’s hitters and serving as the recruiting coordinator. His change does pique some interest because going from Radford to JMU isn’t considered much of a step up. Guerra, though, is a very solid assistant.

Sounds like a good hire, particularly from the recruiting standpoint (Radford has acquired some good guys recently), but I hate that our program has got to a point where "Radford to JMU isn't considered much of a step up" is an accurate statement...

Looks like his local ties may be an advantage for putting a staff together. But we may need to get used to Radford passing us in men's athletics. Their basketball is certainly on a path to passing us by.

Over the years, Radford has had times where its MBB program has been ahead of JMU, but I don't think that can ever be sustained over a long period like a decade or more. This should apply to all sports. They have a huge shadow in their neighborhood that will always hold them back.

I guess it's just a sad state of affairs when they're better than us at all. We barely beat them at home last year and they had a better season. The year before wasn't even close. Maybe part of our national branding strategy will be avoiding their shadow.