(05-29-2018 09:42 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote: (05-28-2018 08:51 PM)Hambone10 Wrote: Wait a minute?
So our target market for someone to replace one of the top coaches in the history of baseball because for the first time in a quarter century he didn't make the post-season, is a coach who didn't make the post season?
If that's the plan, then it better be Berkman WITH Pettit and then include someone like Pope AND Hallmark... At least that way we'd get some detailed college experience to go along with the 'splash' and potential.
I think it's disingenuous to suggest that the OG not making the post-season this year is the reason we decided not to renew his contract.
We've been on a steady decline for almost a decade now, as unfortunate as it is to say it, his age is now a negative for incoming recruits, and as others have alluded to, it seems as if our current players are not connecting with him as well as others used to.
College baseball has seen at least three long-time coaches step down this year (Rice, Miami, UCI). Of those three, two decided to step down because they recognized that their time had come. While we will all owe Wayne a debt forever, I do think he was a year or two late on realizing that all good things must come to an end and the torch needed to be passed.
Even the best can't be the best for forever.
Since we decided to not renew his contract long before we didn't make the tournament, It probably would be disingenuous to suggest that, which is why it isn't what I suggested.
If you're going to chastise me, I'd appreciate it if you'd stick to what I said and not simply look for reasons to keep replying with the same tired line beating the same dead horse.
The point is that if we're doing as some suggest and naming a coach within 7-14 days, that more than likely means we've already narrowed the list down and it DOESN'T include ANYONE whose season either has already ended, or will end very soon.
Unless you not only know more about what current players think, but you can also predict the tournament, that means an awful lot of people from good programs aren't even being considered.
Now to the Berkman comment.... I'm not nearly as excited about the TCU crew as others are. Saarloos is from Cali but turned down Stanford and others are after him as well, which means he won't remotely be cheap... and despite having potential, that's all it is at this point and doesn't excite me. I haven't watched them this year so perhaps there is a legitimate reason, but it sounds like they had a rather spectacular downturn this year. Taking #3 from that team is an even bigger risk. If we're going to take a big risk, I'd prefer to do it with someone who will be relatively cheap so that we can either re-deploy resources around them to help them, or we can redeploy those resources to improve other sports with more financial upside. As I understand it, Berkman could come relatively cheap for US for his own personal reasons at least up front and we could address some of the noted deficiencies/concerns around him OR we can redeploy those resources elsewhere.
The worst thing in the world for Rice Athletics and Rice Baseball would be for us to PAY top 25 money to a new baseball coach who is mostly potential and end up with top 100 results.
The biggest problem in my mind with someone like Saarloos is that he won't remotely come cheap. That's fine if he ends up returning us to Omaha with regularity... but we have to pay him as if he's already done that in order to find out, and then likely even more to keep him from leaving
(05-28-2018 09:07 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote: (05-28-2018 08:51 PM)Hambone10 Wrote: Wait a minute?
So our target market for someone to replace one of the top coaches in the history of baseball because for the first time in a quarter century he didn't make the post-season, is a coach who didn't make the post season?
If that's the plan, then it better be Berkman WITH Pettit and then include someone like Pope AND Hallmark... At least that way we'd get some detailed college experience to go along with the 'splash' and potential.
Well I think its disingenuous to suggest that making the post-season from the Southland is as easy as from Rice. Not only are the conference opponents worse, they don't have the scheduling "capital" that Rice does in the non-conference not to mention facilities, assistant salaries, etc...
Where did you remotely get anything about the Southland Conference from my comment?