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https://www.al.com/uab/2020/05/a-lot-of-...shoop.html

Really in-depth article about Shoop on al.com today.

@KendallRogers

COACHING SCOOP: @UAB_Baseball head man Perry Roth has added @GaStateBaseball’s Daniel Furuto to its coaching staff, sources tell @d1baseball. Furuto was the top assistant/recruiting coordinator at Georgia State last season. #UAB #CUSA

Shoop is as trustworthy and steadfast as you could ever want as a coach. He recruited me when he was at BSC. He ran a very, VERY! tight ship there which was on par with most other NAIA schools. When he came to UAB my biggest fear was that he would bring along his rigid expectations of recruits and players. He did. You can grab a guy away from Martin Methodist to BSC because the expectations on players are similar. You’re not going to steal a guy away from Southern Miss or Troy with those kinds of expectations in place.

Is Brian Shoop a great human being? Yes. He’s actually a great coach, too. Have we had any players in the baseball program that weren’t model students? With very few exceptions, no. Have baseball players left UAB as better young men? For the most part. But were talented players going to come to UAB with an extreme moral code brought over from a religious NAIA program if they are weighing D1 offers among UAB? No. I’ve always hated to say this, and I hate saying it now even when it’s proven true, but Shoop was never going to build a program that won on the field. And, in fact, he was truly fine with that. There’s just a balance to be found between training fine young men and coaching up talented young players.

And a lack of facilities, too. I’m just saying the program has needed a shift in priorities for many years.

(06-15-2020 10:34 AM)blazr Wrote:  Shoop is as trustworthy and steadfast as you could ever want as a coach. He recruited me when he was at BSC. He ran a very, VERY! tight ship there which was on par with most other NAIA schools. When he came to UAB my biggest fear was that he would bring along his rigid expectations of recruits and players. He did. You can grab a guy away from Martin Methodist to BSC because the expectations on players are similar. You’re not going to steal a guy away from Southern Miss or Troy with those kinds of expectations in place.

Is Brian Shoop a great human being? Yes. He’s actually a great coach, too. Have we had any players in the baseball program that weren’t model students? With very few exceptions, no. Have baseball players left UAB as better young men? For the most part. But were talented players going to come to UAB with an extreme moral code brought over from a religious NAIA program if they are weighing D1 offers among UAB? No. I’ve always hated to say this, and I hate saying it now even when it’s proven true, but Shoop was never going to build a program that won on the field. And, in fact, he was truly fine with that. There’s just a balance to be found between training fine young men and coaching up talented young players.

And a lack of facilities, too. I’m just saying the program has needed a shift in priorities for many years.

thats a very interesting perspective, one that ive never heard (i admit that i pretty much only follow college baseball as in depth as it is covered on BlazerTalk).

ive always heard that hes a great man who had great success before he came to UAB, but was never able to reproduce that success for us. but ive never heard any more detail than that.

thanks for the insight

(06-15-2020 10:34 AM)blazr Wrote:  Shoop is as trustworthy and steadfast as you could ever want as a coach. He recruited me when he was at BSC. He ran a very, VERY! tight ship there which was on par with most other NAIA schools. When he came to UAB my biggest fear was that he would bring along his rigid expectations of recruits and players. He did. You can grab a guy away from Martin Methodist to BSC because the expectations on players are similar. You’re not going to steal a guy away from Southern Miss or Troy with those kinds of expectations in place.

Is Brian Shoop a great human being? Yes. He’s actually a great coach, too. Have we had any players in the baseball program that weren’t model students? With very few exceptions, no. Have baseball players left UAB as better young men? For the most part. But were talented players going to come to UAB with an extreme moral code brought over from a religious NAIA program if they are weighing D1 offers among UAB? No. I’ve always hated to say this, and I hate saying it now even when it’s proven true, but Shoop was never going to build a program that won on the field. And, in fact, he was truly fine with that. There’s just a balance to be found between training fine young men and coaching up talented young players.

And a lack of facilities, too. I’m just saying the program has needed a shift in priorities for many years.

A Southern Miss fan here reading through this thread as baseball is my first love. In my opinion to get a continued successful program it takes a good coach to recruit but it also helps to have the facilities in place. Going strictly off USM's facilities and record, our record has greatly improved since we built/completed a baseball locker room facility in August 2001 at the baseball stadium. Before that our team was dressing a couple hundred yards away across a busy street in the basketball arena in a locker room that was not much bigger than what our basketball team was using....so imagine 35 guys dressing in a room that's fit more for about 15 players. Here's our win totals for 8 years before and then 8 years after it was completed

- before (starting with 2001 and going backwards) - 27, 32, 40, 30, 34, 32, 36, 37......1 regional appearance in 8 years
- after completion so 2002 through 2009 - 36, 47, 45, 41, 39 , 39, 42, 40......7 regional appearances in 8 years with the only non appearance in year 1 of new facility

Again, not saying our locker room won games for us but I feel like it was a contributing factor into helping recruit better athletes. If UAB can get the baseball locker room facility it should be the first step in better days to come for yall.

I hope this goes for sports facilities

(06-16-2020 02:16 PM)usm99 Wrote:  Again, not saying our locker room won games for us but I feel like it was a contributing factor into helping recruit better athletes. If UAB can get the baseball locker room facility it should be the first step in better days to come for yall.

That's encouraging usm99. We have a baseball/softball fieldhouse going up and I hope that will help. We have an old field, too, which needs plenty of updates. I think I read that has been planned, too. Of course, we play alot of home games at Regions Field which is top notch.

There's so much that goes into baseball recruiting I would hate to be someone responsible for it. With 11.7 (.7 ???) scholarships for a max of 27 players you could love a school's facilities but they only offer covering books. You could like a school that offers you everything but room & board yet it's too far away from home. And players are eligible for the draft out of high school BUT, unlike other sports, they can actually be drafted and still decide to play at college (the team that drafted them gets exclusive signing rights for 2 or 4 years? Something like that.). There's also the fact that almost all high schools have a baseball program so scouting for hidden gems is a needle in a haystack thing. The year I graduated I had 4 friends that receive full-ride schollys on the spot at the annual Shriners All-Star game. Just no one had scouted them before.

Then there's the fact that he who shall not be summoned harps on, which actually is a legitimate point, of students in lottery states getting free rides anywhere with HOPE scholarships. Really hard to recruit against that. The NCAA does require that any player on scholarship receives 25% towards tuition, but that's not a big barrier if you're in a HOPE state.

We so badly need a lottery.