June 5, 2024 • 19 mins
The 21st year HC of UConn Baseball aka "Dead Men Walking" gets his Huskies ready for their 3rd Super Regional at Florida State this weekend.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
That fourteen hour bus ride home galvanizethis team even more getting ready for the
NCAAG. I think it certainly didn'thurt, you know, we that was
a decision made kind of quickly afterthe last out in Mason, Ohio,
and we thought we just wanted toget We didn't want to wait. You
know, we were flying commercial obviously, we always have to fly commercial,
and we were going to have towait until Sunday night to get our flights,
(00:23):
and this was Friday afternoon or Fridayevening, and kind of quickly made
a decision like if we want tocontinue, you know, to progress here
and develop, we got to gethome. So it was going to be,
you know, either wait two anda half days to come home or
get in a bus and do itin fourteen hours. And I'm glad we
did it in fourteen hours. Imean, it was arduous, but it
(00:45):
was also a lot of fun.You know, we were able to kind
of wash the you know, oftentimeswhen you leave tournaments like that, you
kind of have to wallow in privateand and your grief kind of be by
yourself. We were kind of alltogether, so it was like it was
like a nice it was it waslike a nice wake, you know,
kind of just put that part ofthe of the season together or put that
(01:07):
part of the season behind us andand moved on and got to do it
collectively, which there must be areasonable They do wakes, you know,
you do wakes by yourself. Soit was it was important and the guys
got to you know, we boughtfour or five hours in. We're somewhere
in Pennsylvania and you know, coachMack turned around. We're watching the other
games and the regional you know,are the conference tournaments that we're going to
(01:30):
have an effect on whether or notwe were on the bubble or off the
bubble, and the coaches were gettingto that. But we turned around and
Tommy Turner was mid bust, ourfreshman right handed pitcher, doesn't hasn't had
a chance to pitch all that much. But it was in the bullpen and
we finally figured out, like,hey, why did you say Jake Hyde
missed second base on the home run? And it was, oh, he
missed it, no doubt. It'slike I've been getting texts from every one
(01:51):
of my family members telling me whata moron am because I was. I
was having them replay that because thekid's foot came down right in the middle
of second base. You know whatsecond base is, right, Tommy,
And so we got a good laughout of that, and then I kind
of broke up the bus and madeit okay. You know, it's just
like the big leaguers have the MississippiRiver rule. Once she crossed the Mississippi,
(02:12):
the last night's game goes away.The tournament was then in our rearview
mirror, and we were looking forwardto getting home and working. Me.
Notice the other night, No,that was Luke Brodhers. He was on
top of it. The umpire wason top of Luke knew right. He
was looking at it the whole way. We tell our guys to do that.
It's one thing to tell him,it's another thing for them to execute
on it. And I know thatthey were ticked off because that kid was
(02:35):
a freshman too, that missed thirdbase, and that sometimes happens with freshmen.
Jim defense was So they just kindof built its way with the two
plays that Paul made on Friday andjust kind of snowball in a good way
all weekend long. What can yousay about what the job of your guys
did well? They were fantastic.I heard from so many folks that I
really trust in baseball and this itwas like a symphony watching your defense work.
(02:57):
I mean, they were all workingtogether, and they were all playing
fast. You know, I don'tknow if symphonies have to play fast or
not, but they were all inunison. They were in tune, and
they were moving to the baseball justwith incredible quickness and urgency. I think
John Wooden said be quick, butdon't hurry, and that's what they looked
like. They were quick, butthey didn't hurry. They had great clocks,
they knew how much time they hadto make the throws, and they
(03:20):
were quick without hurrying. And that'swhy the Wizard of Westwood it makes a
lot of sense. And you know, it was just fun to watch.
I mean, we coach it up, but to see them execute on a
huge stage and really hostile territory.You know, defense doesn't ever have to
go in. Defense shouldn't go ina slump, and it certainly was on
(03:40):
full display. And I know wehad a lot of former players that were
just ecstatic to see, you know, the kind of plays. And Nick
Ahmed was thrilled with the defense.He made sure that, he texted coach
Dez. And you know, whenyou're getting the attention of a guy with
like Nick Ahmed, who's just anelite defensive player at the highest level there
is in the game that tells yousomething. So I was really proud of
(04:00):
the way that they played, notjust defensively, but on the mound and
with the bats too. You've beenable to plug different guys then, and
they've made contributions. Why do youthink they've been able to deliver? And
when you calm up the bench,well, most of those guys have experience
too. Like TC Simmons, youknow, he caught the last out in
the Maryland Regional. I had nohesitation. He's got such a calming influence.
I thought Jake looked a little tensein the batter's box. And Jake's
(04:21):
a great player and he's going tobe back this weekend, I'm sure.
But it was just time to makea switch there. And the other one
was you know, wasn't by choice, but Matt Garbowski was still under the
weather. We probably rushed him backa game too early, and Ryan Hide
was ready to pick up where heleft off as the pitcher. Whisperer,
an umpire whisperer that he is,and he did a fantastic job. They
(04:42):
have slow heart beats. I wasn'tconcerned about plugging them in there. And
you know, I mean in atournament like that, you're fortunate if you
don't have to use some of yourfreshmen, some of your guys that haven't
gotten in. We didn't really haveto do that. You know, we
were able to do it in fourgames as opposed to five. You saw
the results of Oklahoma having to goto some guys on the mound that they're
not used to going to, andit was a war of attrition at some
point. But I think the keyto them being prepared is just, you
(05:04):
know, their own mindsets, knowingthat their number can be called at any
time. Gave Van Emmon hadn't starteda game in a long time. I
think the last one he had wasabysmal at Northeastern, and he was able
to flush that and he didn't getout of the first at Northeastern. It
was like a fireworks show, andhe put that behind him and only had
positive thoughts. And after he sawsomething positive happen in the first inning,
(05:25):
he was sensational we had that doubleplay and then brought Hurst with a really
nice play to end the first andno runs across, and I think that
gave him the momentum that he needed. And how did you find Paul?
What did you identify him when welook around it? So that's a coach
McDonald fine. I can't take anycredit for that one. He's a great
relationship with Keith Landers, who's thehead coach at Oswego. And Keith is
(05:46):
a really demanding coach. He coachesin the Cape Cod League. We've known
him for a long time and hiskids play hard, they're disciplined, there's
no nonsense. He's a boisterous coach. We knew that if he could handle
Coach Landers, he could handle CoachDez getting up his rear end if he
made a mistake. And Paul doesn'tmake many mistakes, you know, but
when he does, he takes coachingreally well. And you know what what
(06:08):
jumped out at him was his defense. You know, Keith told us He's
like, listen, you're he candefend anywhere in the country. This kid
is an elite defensive player. Andif he gets on the slump, just
tell him the bunt because he lovesthe bunt. He's really good at it.
And that's been an totally accurate,scattering report. You know. I
know it doesn't apply now that youhave this field here, but for a
kid like him playing on probably rockyhard Division three in field, yeah,
(06:32):
I probably field. I'm sure he'splayed on some frost field in fields,
you know, in upstate New Yorkand with all the lake effects, know
they get up there and all thatstuff, he had to, you know,
deal with some really adverse conditions.We told him to say, hey,
you're coming south to go play collegebaseball now in Stores, Connecticut,
and you know, he's just he'sa really steady guy. He's a very
(06:55):
quiet guy. But one of thethings that I'm really proud of is that
he was he was vocal when hehad to be with Gabe the other night
with Tommy Ellison. He I didn'tknow this at the time, but I
was told after the fact by histeammates that he was telling them, Hey,
I need you to come set,I need you to slow down,
I need you to breathe. Andthose guys really need to hear that.
So he was also a coach onthe field the other night. He used
his voice for once, and youknow he's he's gonna have to wear his
(07:20):
SPF in Tallahassee because he's not giftedwith a lot of pigment. So but
he's he'll be ready to go.I have no doubt, and I know
the field conditions are going to bea lot better in Tallahassee than they would
be in upstate New York. Doyou believe in momentum? Sure do.
Yeah. Momentum is you know,it's especially in college baseball, Joe,
I mean, you have you havemomentum, you have the battle half one
(07:43):
and right now we've got a lotof momentum, but so did the seminoles.
So we're going to see how thatworks out. But I'm you know,
the guys are believing in each other, believing in themselves first, believing
in each other and playing for oneanother, and it's just fun to be
a part of seen. Coach Bailecused to say moments like a flywheel.
Once you get it going, it'shard to stop, and and I think
(08:03):
that's true. As your next tapestarter, we get some good starters,
So that's good. A lot ofyour teams, even like the underdog role
played from that under dog role inthe feet off the environment. You guys
were talking about, you know,the underdogs and and hearing it from the
crowd, Is this a team differentin that way, in any way,
shape or form, and you knowteams in the past, Yeah, I
(08:24):
think they are more of an underdogthan the last couple of teams that we've
had. And I know how toI'd be honest with you. I struggle
when we're you know, the bossof the Big Easter in first place.
It's I don't always hit the rightnotes. You know, I have a
hard time with it. We wekind of brought this program up as underdogs
and it's more comfortable for me.I know how to coach that, and
(08:46):
you know, I kind of thrivein that environment. And so yeah,
I mean some reason, you know, for some reason, we played the
last game. You know, Iknow coach really does this kind of stuff,
but it's true. I mean,we played the last regional game.
We're gonna play the first super regionalgame at twelve noon on a Friday and
ninety eight degrees. But that's whatthe NCAA, you know, calls for.
That's what we got to do.So nobody's gonna feel sorry for us,
(09:07):
but got a hell of a test. That's an underdog. That's you
know, where the underdogs again,and that's that's a comfortable place for us
to be. And I know you'veheard from Jim how you hurt, from
Gino. You hear from a lota lot of coaches here. What are
some of the texts that you've gottenfrom your coaches more than you? And
oh boy, I mean it's toughwhen you're getting text from Geno Orema and
(09:30):
Jim Calhoun. I mean that's sohumbling. You know, Dan Hurley said
some really nice words, I guesslast night, and they're just you know,
they're my inspiration. I mean,those guys one more than I'll ever
think about winning. And and youknow, to be recognized by your peers
is something that's really special to me. You know. It's one thing to
get accolades from from you know,I don't know, media, from wherever.
(09:56):
It's another thing. Nothing against you, guys, but when your peers
have nice things to say about you, especially peers like that, peers that
have won national championships, it's prettydarn powerful, you know. But also
you know, guys like Ray Reed, Paul Mnieri, who I've always looked
up to as a mentor. TimCorbyn, Gary Gilmour, a guy who
brought an underdog Coastal Carolina program fromnowhere commuter school Division three or Naia at
(10:20):
one point to the to Omaha andwins it. I mean, those are
pretty awesome to get, you know, Jack Leggett, legendary New Englander who
excelled at Clemson University. And it'sJohn Savage at u c l A.
You know, guys in the inthe game that recognized something in our team.
(10:41):
It's those are really really special.And again those Manolis, now,
he promised me kenoli's. It lookslike you can afford a few. Now
it's a new deal. So now, I said, I think I texted
him, you know, he waswishing us good luck, and I said,
aren't you glad you don't live inOklahoma? And he said, holy
cow, is it is had inthe in the spring of early summer as
(11:01):
it is in the winter. Isaid, it's pretty bad, but we're
happy to be here. I said, I can't find a good canoli,
though, And he goes, what'snext. I said, tallahassee if we
win it. He goes, that'seven worse though, Canoli's there either,
he goes I'll bring him though,So I guess it's Canoly. He would
he would get on me because theplural and Italian is Canoli, not Canoles's
you about Corey real quick? Youknow, he's been such a good,
(11:22):
you know guy for you for fouryears and just talk about the year and
he's had what he's meant to youwith the programing and what are you expecting
him going into this situation? Yeah, Corey is a self made guy,
you know. And people laugh whenI say that because his father was a
major leaguer, But Kevin's a selfmade guy too. You know, he
had to work his butt off toget that that year in the major leagues,
and you know, as long beforeCorey was born. But Corey's self
(11:45):
made. I mean, there's noother way to say it. He's a
guy who just today I know,I'm I'm in here this morning and we've
got recruits. We have three recruits. We have three recruits in today in
the portal that never stops. Recruitings. Like shaving, you got to do
it every day. You look likea bum. So that's Bobo Brayton from
Washington State. But you know,it doesn't stop. So Corey, you
know, coming in early, andhe's the ping of the bat is him.
(12:07):
It's always him. You know,he's in there working on his craft
all of the time, and sohe's made himself into the player that he
is. I'm just so proud ofhis defense to you know, a year
ago and he makes that catch inthe eighth inning the other night, and
it's like a year ago, hedoesn't make that catch because he's close to
the wall and he was sheepish aboutthe wall a year ago. He's gotten
over that. You know, hecan hit a breaking ball, he can
(12:28):
hit the ball on the right side. He couldn't do that two years ago.
He can bunt at any time,but he can drive up all over
a fence at any time. Hecouldn't do that three years ago. So
it's it's been extremely satisfying. Youknow. It's really great as a coach
when you have a guy that youcan just point to and say, just
do what he does. If youdo it he does, we're going to
have success. And he's a greatexample of hard work and dedication to one's
(12:50):
craft. And he's gonna be ahe's gonna be a professional and he's earned
every second of that opportunity. He'vedone all of this a long, long
enough time and just the waves ofemotion you talk about feel like a week
after the Big East Tournament, tothe highs of this, how do you
manage that? How do you translatethat to the kids to kind of I
mean, this is baseball, Iguess right, Yeah, you know,
a great advice from And he's goingto be in attendance this weekend. He's
(13:13):
driving up from his home in Bradenton. Dave Turgen is a turgent name in
Connecticut's anonymous with baseball and a bunchof brothers. Three brothers played professionally from
Grotten and he's been a longtime coachmanager in the minor leagues. And I
was fortunate enough to have him asmy right hand my first two years here
as the head coach, and heremembered, I remember this like it was
(13:33):
yesterday. We were in a jailChristian Field, and my emotions got the
best of me at some point andhe said, hey, look at thirty
three. Who happened to be JoshMcDonald, probably a sophomore or junior pitcher
on that team. He said,he's hearing and feeling everything that you are
projecting. So if you go here, he's going to be here. If
you go there, he's going tobe there. You need to be Joe
Torri. You need to be seventytwo and sunny all the time. Or
(13:56):
you can look half that that's finetoo, but don't show emotion. And
it's very difficult. You know,people say, oh, you look calm
in the dug up, But Ihave to be. I'm the barometer.
I have to if they have toget here, I got to stay.
Even if I'm not even we're goingto get too far north or too far
south, and you got to stayright in the middle. So I've tried
to be that example. And Ithink you know, Josh McDonald is a
(14:20):
guy who can go up and down. Coach Pedeeswa is a guy that can
go up and down. Jeff andI try to stay in the middle,
and I think it works for us. It's a good balance. Thoughts on
Florida State, they're really really good, you know. Looking at their numbers
is frightening, to be honest.I mean they've got over I think it's
over one hundred and twenty homers orsomewhere around that. They hit the long
ball, the starter, you know, their number one starter is sensational.
(14:45):
I don't think we've seen a guywith that kind of stuff all year.
It's going to be a heck ofa challenge. But you know, link
Jarreeded teams are really really tough,especially offensively. They play really good defense
too. I think their fielding nineeighty as a team. So it's a
complete Florida state based team and theyhave a legendary program. But fortunately we
don't have to play, you know, all those legends. We just have
(15:05):
to be better than them. Twoout of three. You have your rotations.
Yeah, that's let me keep closeto the cup. No, we
know Ian Cook is going on gameone. As far as Game two goes,
you know, I don't want tosay it definitely depends on the outcome.
It really depends on Steven quickly andhis recoverability is his health. You
know, we asked an awful lotof Steven this weekend, but he was
(15:26):
he wanted to be up on Sundayto give you an idea about his mentality
as a competitor. And he toldus, hey, listen, I just
pr and I had a personal recordon my arm care score. It's it's
a device that we have that kindof measures internal external rotation and overall arm
health and recoverability. And he wasexcited to tell us that I just got
a personal record. You're gonna putme up on the board and said,
no, we're not, but maybetomorrow. And we did it on Monday
(15:50):
instead of Sunday. So it dependson his health. And but we do
feel like we've got four or fivequality options that we can start, and
all those guys have gotten previous NCdouble A you know, postseason starts in
the past. He's got that bulldogto him like that. You know,
he just says he doesn't like tothink out there, and I just talk
(16:10):
about you know what, you know, what you're expecting from him and what
he's he's done for you, andhow you feel confident of growing him up
there. Yeah, I really feellike he's hit his stride. You know,
he's worked on his mental health andhis and his not to say that
we all need to work on ourmental health, but he's been really diligent
and really public about it, andreally proud of him for kind of talking
about that and and saying, yeah, you know I got people that helped
(16:30):
me with that and being able toflush and reset in between pitches, and
and I think that's awesome. It'sbrave of him too. I'm sure there's
a lot of baseball players that canbe a lot of people that can benefit
from that, but uh, youknow, I think that's been kind of
the The next frontier for him iskind of going there and exploring that and
and finding different ways to cope withthe stress and anxiety of having to compete
(16:52):
at this level. And because ifhe can do that, he is as
special as of a pitcher in termsof his stuff that we've ever had here.
So I think that's the final chapterfor him. If you can put
the mental together with the physical,he can be unstoppable thanks to their team
known as Zoomers. But it feelslike you've built all three in different ways,
right. Pitching has been the constant, I'd say, But yes,
(17:15):
I mean we've built them with differentpersonnel from different walks of life, different
areas of the country, different schools, Division three, Division two, Division
one, junior college commispers, highschool kids, Connecticut kids. But yeah,
build their rosters differently. But I'dsay pitching it starts and ends with
pitching. If you don't If youcan't pitch, you can't compete. And
(17:37):
you know obviously we've pitched it.I think, really really well, especially
the second half of the season,how you evaluate kids coming from those lower
levels like D three or JUCO andbe able to say, Okay, they
were good here, but this iswhat what we know they can do if
they come to Ukon. Yeah,you look at the metrics, certainly,
but I'm more interested in just howlong has that young man played the position
(17:59):
and be counted on by his teammates, so especially on the mound, if
they've been an ace on their staff, even if it's like jvs. ACE
Varsity Baseballs, that puts for alot baseball as your high school team in
Connecticut. Probably the amount of refugeif you're years, especially because that's saying
(18:22):
that you've got the trust of yourteammates, your coaches to go out there
and beat somebody once every five sixdays. So that's really powerful. But
that you know the metrics are whatthey are. We look at their foot
speed, look at their arm strength, look at their bathketball skills. On
the position players side, but I'mnot a big into exit v lows,
I'm not kind of. There's amix of analytics, but a lot of
(18:44):
old school stats too. If youdon't hit four hundred in high school baseball,
you're probably not going to hit threehundred at UK. So we still
look at batting average. We stilllook at it. I look at one
loss record, you know, Isee less and less guys telling me what
their one loss record is on themound, and more we're telling them about
telling me about exit there, pitchingvelocity, or their vertical break on their
(19:07):
break in ball, their horizontal break, or their spin rate. And I
don't really know what to make ofthat stuff. If you can't get guys
out and win games for your team, all those other mentors stone them out
to hilopines. So we look atthem one last first
That fourteen hour bus ride home galvanizethis team even more getting ready for the
NCAAG. I think it certainly didn'thurt, you know, we that was
a decision made kind of quickly afterthe last out in Mason, Ohio,
and we thought we just wanted toget We didn't want to wait. You
know, we were flying commercial obviously, we always have to fly commercial,
and we were going to have towait until Sunday night to get our flights,
(00:23):
and this was Friday afternoon or Fridayevening, and kind of quickly made
a decision like if we want tocontinue, you know, to progress here
and develop, we got to gethome. So it was going to be,
you know, either wait two anda half days to come home or
get in a bus and do itin fourteen hours. And I'm glad we
did it in fourteen hours. Imean, it was arduous, but it
(00:45):
was also a lot of fun.You know, we were able to kind
of wash the you know, oftentimeswhen you leave tournaments like that, you
kind of have to wallow in privateand and your grief kind of be by
yourself. We were kind of alltogether, so it was like it was
like a nice it was it waslike a nice wake, you know,
kind of just put that part ofthe of the season together or put that
(01:07):
part of the season behind us andand moved on and got to do it
collectively, which there must be areasonable They do wakes, you know,
you do wakes by yourself. Soit was it was important and the guys
got to you know, we boughtfour or five hours in. We're somewhere
in Pennsylvania and you know, coachMack turned around. We're watching the other
games and the regional you know,are the conference tournaments that we're going to
(01:30):
have an effect on whether or notwe were on the bubble or off the
bubble, and the coaches were gettingto that. But we turned around and
Tommy Turner was mid bust, ourfreshman right handed pitcher, doesn't hasn't had
a chance to pitch all that much. But it was in the bullpen and
we finally figured out, like,hey, why did you say Jake Hyde
missed second base on the home run? And it was, oh, he
missed it, no doubt. It'slike I've been getting texts from every one
(01:51):
of my family members telling me whata moron am because I was. I
was having them replay that because thekid's foot came down right in the middle
of second base. You know whatsecond base is, right, Tommy,
And so we got a good laughout of that, and then I kind
of broke up the bus and madeit okay. You know, it's just
like the big leaguers have the MississippiRiver rule. Once she crossed the Mississippi,
(02:12):
the last night's game goes away.The tournament was then in our rearview
mirror, and we were looking forwardto getting home and working. Me.
Notice the other night, No,that was Luke Brodhers. He was on
top of it. The umpire wason top of Luke knew right. He
was looking at it the whole way. We tell our guys to do that.
It's one thing to tell him,it's another thing for them to execute
on it. And I know thatthey were ticked off because that kid was
(02:35):
a freshman too, that missed thirdbase, and that sometimes happens with freshmen.
Jim defense was So they just kindof built its way with the two
plays that Paul made on Friday andjust kind of snowball in a good way
all weekend long. What can yousay about what the job of your guys
did well? They were fantastic.I heard from so many folks that I
really trust in baseball and this itwas like a symphony watching your defense work.
(02:57):
I mean, they were all workingtogether, and they were all playing
fast. You know, I don'tknow if symphonies have to play fast or
not, but they were all inunison. They were in tune, and
they were moving to the baseball justwith incredible quickness and urgency. I think
John Wooden said be quick, butdon't hurry, and that's what they looked
like. They were quick, butthey didn't hurry. They had great clocks,
they knew how much time they hadto make the throws, and they
(03:20):
were quick without hurrying. And that'swhy the Wizard of Westwood it makes a
lot of sense. And you know, it was just fun to watch.
I mean, we coach it up, but to see them execute on a
huge stage and really hostile territory.You know, defense doesn't ever have to
go in. Defense shouldn't go ina slump, and it certainly was on
(03:40):
full display. And I know wehad a lot of former players that were
just ecstatic to see, you know, the kind of plays. And Nick
Ahmed was thrilled with the defense.He made sure that, he texted coach
Dez. And you know, whenyou're getting the attention of a guy with
like Nick Ahmed, who's just anelite defensive player at the highest level there
is in the game that tells yousomething. So I was really proud of
(04:00):
the way that they played, notjust defensively, but on the mound and
with the bats too. You've beenable to plug different guys then, and
they've made contributions. Why do youthink they've been able to deliver? And
when you calm up the bench,well, most of those guys have experience
too. Like TC Simmons, youknow, he caught the last out in
the Maryland Regional. I had nohesitation. He's got such a calming influence.
I thought Jake looked a little tensein the batter's box. And Jake's
(04:21):
a great player and he's going tobe back this weekend, I'm sure.
But it was just time to makea switch there. And the other one
was you know, wasn't by choice, but Matt Garbowski was still under the
weather. We probably rushed him backa game too early, and Ryan Hide
was ready to pick up where heleft off as the pitcher. Whisperer,
an umpire whisperer that he is,and he did a fantastic job. They
(04:42):
have slow heart beats. I wasn'tconcerned about plugging them in there. And
you know, I mean in atournament like that, you're fortunate if you
don't have to use some of yourfreshmen, some of your guys that haven't
gotten in. We didn't really haveto do that. You know, we
were able to do it in fourgames as opposed to five. You saw
the results of Oklahoma having to goto some guys on the mound that they're
not used to going to, andit was a war of attrition at some
point. But I think the keyto them being prepared is just, you
(05:04):
know, their own mindsets, knowingthat their number can be called at any
time. Gave Van Emmon hadn't starteda game in a long time. I
think the last one he had wasabysmal at Northeastern, and he was able
to flush that and he didn't getout of the first at Northeastern. It
was like a fireworks show, andhe put that behind him and only had
positive thoughts. And after he sawsomething positive happen in the first inning,
(05:25):
he was sensational we had that doubleplay and then brought Hurst with a really
nice play to end the first andno runs across, and I think that
gave him the momentum that he needed. And how did you find Paul?
What did you identify him when welook around it? So that's a coach
McDonald fine. I can't take anycredit for that one. He's a great
relationship with Keith Landers, who's thehead coach at Oswego. And Keith is
(05:46):
a really demanding coach. He coachesin the Cape Cod League. We've known
him for a long time and hiskids play hard, they're disciplined, there's
no nonsense. He's a boisterous coach. We knew that if he could handle
Coach Landers, he could handle CoachDez getting up his rear end if he
made a mistake. And Paul doesn'tmake many mistakes, you know, but
when he does, he takes coachingreally well. And you know what what
(06:08):
jumped out at him was his defense. You know, Keith told us He's
like, listen, you're he candefend anywhere in the country. This kid
is an elite defensive player. Andif he gets on the slump, just
tell him the bunt because he lovesthe bunt. He's really good at it.
And that's been an totally accurate,scattering report. You know. I
know it doesn't apply now that youhave this field here, but for a
kid like him playing on probably rockyhard Division three in field, yeah,
(06:32):
I probably field. I'm sure he'splayed on some frost field in fields,
you know, in upstate New Yorkand with all the lake effects, know
they get up there and all thatstuff, he had to, you know,
deal with some really adverse conditions.We told him to say, hey,
you're coming south to go play collegebaseball now in Stores, Connecticut,
and you know, he's just he'sa really steady guy. He's a very
(06:55):
quiet guy. But one of thethings that I'm really proud of is that
he was he was vocal when hehad to be with Gabe the other night
with Tommy Ellison. He I didn'tknow this at the time, but I
was told after the fact by histeammates that he was telling them, Hey,
I need you to come set,I need you to slow down,
I need you to breathe. Andthose guys really need to hear that.
So he was also a coach onthe field the other night. He used
his voice for once, and youknow he's he's gonna have to wear his
(07:20):
SPF in Tallahassee because he's not giftedwith a lot of pigment. So but
he's he'll be ready to go.I have no doubt, and I know
the field conditions are going to bea lot better in Tallahassee than they would
be in upstate New York. Doyou believe in momentum? Sure do.
Yeah. Momentum is you know,it's especially in college baseball, Joe,
I mean, you have you havemomentum, you have the battle half one
(07:43):
and right now we've got a lotof momentum, but so did the seminoles.
So we're going to see how thatworks out. But I'm you know,
the guys are believing in each other, believing in themselves first, believing
in each other and playing for oneanother, and it's just fun to be
a part of seen. Coach Bailecused to say moments like a flywheel.
Once you get it going, it'shard to stop, and and I think
(08:03):
that's true. As your next tapestarter, we get some good starters,
So that's good. A lot ofyour teams, even like the underdog role
played from that under dog role inthe feet off the environment. You guys
were talking about, you know,the underdogs and and hearing it from the
crowd, Is this a team differentin that way, in any way,
shape or form, and you knowteams in the past, Yeah, I
(08:24):
think they are more of an underdogthan the last couple of teams that we've
had. And I know how toI'd be honest with you. I struggle
when we're you know, the bossof the Big Easter in first place.
It's I don't always hit the rightnotes. You know, I have a
hard time with it. We wekind of brought this program up as underdogs
and it's more comfortable for me.I know how to coach that, and
(08:46):
you know, I kind of thrivein that environment. And so yeah,
I mean some reason, you know, for some reason, we played the
last game. You know, Iknow coach really does this kind of stuff,
but it's true. I mean,we played the last regional game.
We're gonna play the first super regionalgame at twelve noon on a Friday and
ninety eight degrees. But that's whatthe NCAA, you know, calls for.
That's what we got to do.So nobody's gonna feel sorry for us,
(09:07):
but got a hell of a test. That's an underdog. That's you
know, where the underdogs again,and that's that's a comfortable place for us
to be. And I know you'veheard from Jim how you hurt, from
Gino. You hear from a lota lot of coaches here. What are
some of the texts that you've gottenfrom your coaches more than you? And
oh boy, I mean it's toughwhen you're getting text from Geno Orema and
(09:30):
Jim Calhoun. I mean that's sohumbling. You know, Dan Hurley said
some really nice words, I guesslast night, and they're just you know,
they're my inspiration. I mean,those guys one more than I'll ever
think about winning. And and youknow, to be recognized by your peers
is something that's really special to me. You know. It's one thing to
get accolades from from you know,I don't know, media, from wherever.
(09:56):
It's another thing. Nothing against you, guys, but when your peers
have nice things to say about you, especially peers like that, peers that
have won national championships, it's prettydarn powerful, you know. But also
you know, guys like Ray Reed, Paul Mnieri, who I've always looked
up to as a mentor. TimCorbyn, Gary Gilmour, a guy who
brought an underdog Coastal Carolina program fromnowhere commuter school Division three or Naia at
(10:20):
one point to the to Omaha andwins it. I mean, those are
pretty awesome to get, you know, Jack Leggett, legendary New Englander who
excelled at Clemson University. And it'sJohn Savage at u c l A.
You know, guys in the inthe game that recognized something in our team.
(10:41):
It's those are really really special.And again those Manolis, now,
he promised me kenoli's. It lookslike you can afford a few. Now
it's a new deal. So now, I said, I think I texted
him, you know, he waswishing us good luck, and I said,
aren't you glad you don't live inOklahoma? And he said, holy
cow, is it is had inthe in the spring of early summer as
(11:01):
it is in the winter. Isaid, it's pretty bad, but we're
happy to be here. I said, I can't find a good canoli,
though, And he goes, what'snext. I said, tallahassee if we
win it. He goes, that'seven worse though, Canoli's there either,
he goes I'll bring him though,So I guess it's Canoly. He would
he would get on me because theplural and Italian is Canoli, not Canoles's
you about Corey real quick? Youknow, he's been such a good,
(11:22):
you know guy for you for fouryears and just talk about the year and
he's had what he's meant to youwith the programing and what are you expecting
him going into this situation? Yeah, Corey is a self made guy,
you know. And people laugh whenI say that because his father was a
major leaguer, But Kevin's a selfmade guy too. You know, he
had to work his butt off toget that that year in the major leagues,
and you know, as long beforeCorey was born. But Corey's self
(11:45):
made. I mean, there's noother way to say it. He's a
guy who just today I know,I'm I'm in here this morning and we've
got recruits. We have three recruits. We have three recruits in today in
the portal that never stops. Recruitings. Like shaving, you got to do
it every day. You look likea bum. So that's Bobo Brayton from
Washington State. But you know,it doesn't stop. So Corey, you
know, coming in early, andhe's the ping of the bat is him.
(12:07):
It's always him. You know,he's in there working on his craft
all of the time, and sohe's made himself into the player that he
is. I'm just so proud ofhis defense to you know, a year
ago and he makes that catch inthe eighth inning the other night, and
it's like a year ago, hedoesn't make that catch because he's close to
the wall and he was sheepish aboutthe wall a year ago. He's gotten
over that. You know, hecan hit a breaking ball, he can
(12:28):
hit the ball on the right side. He couldn't do that two years ago.
He can bunt at any time,but he can drive up all over
a fence at any time. Hecouldn't do that three years ago. So
it's it's been extremely satisfying. Youknow. It's really great as a coach
when you have a guy that youcan just point to and say, just
do what he does. If youdo it he does, we're going to
have success. And he's a greatexample of hard work and dedication to one's
(12:50):
craft. And he's gonna be ahe's gonna be a professional and he's earned
every second of that opportunity. He'vedone all of this a long, long
enough time and just the waves ofemotion you talk about feel like a week
after the Big East Tournament, tothe highs of this, how do you
manage that? How do you translatethat to the kids to kind of I
mean, this is baseball, Iguess right, Yeah, you know,
a great advice from And he's goingto be in attendance this weekend. He's
(13:13):
driving up from his home in Bradenton. Dave Turgen is a turgent name in
Connecticut's anonymous with baseball and a bunchof brothers. Three brothers played professionally from
Grotten and he's been a longtime coachmanager in the minor leagues. And I
was fortunate enough to have him asmy right hand my first two years here
as the head coach, and heremembered, I remember this like it was
(13:33):
yesterday. We were in a jailChristian Field, and my emotions got the
best of me at some point andhe said, hey, look at thirty
three. Who happened to be JoshMcDonald, probably a sophomore or junior pitcher
on that team. He said,he's hearing and feeling everything that you are
projecting. So if you go here, he's going to be here. If
you go there, he's going tobe there. You need to be Joe
Torri. You need to be seventytwo and sunny all the time. Or
(13:56):
you can look half that that's finetoo, but don't show emotion. And
it's very difficult. You know,people say, oh, you look calm
in the dug up, But Ihave to be. I'm the barometer.
I have to if they have toget here, I got to stay.
Even if I'm not even we're goingto get too far north or too far
south, and you got to stayright in the middle. So I've tried
to be that example. And Ithink you know, Josh McDonald is a
(14:20):
guy who can go up and down. Coach Pedeeswa is a guy that can
go up and down. Jeff andI try to stay in the middle,
and I think it works for us. It's a good balance. Thoughts on
Florida State, they're really really good, you know. Looking at their numbers
is frightening, to be honest.I mean they've got over I think it's
over one hundred and twenty homers orsomewhere around that. They hit the long
ball, the starter, you know, their number one starter is sensational.
(14:45):
I don't think we've seen a guywith that kind of stuff all year.
It's going to be a heck ofa challenge. But you know, link
Jarreeded teams are really really tough,especially offensively. They play really good defense
too. I think their fielding nineeighty as a team. So it's a
complete Florida state based team and theyhave a legendary program. But fortunately we
don't have to play, you know, all those legends. We just have
(15:05):
to be better than them. Twoout of three. You have your rotations.
Yeah, that's let me keep closeto the cup. No, we
know Ian Cook is going on gameone. As far as Game two goes,
you know, I don't want tosay it definitely depends on the outcome.
It really depends on Steven quickly andhis recoverability is his health. You
know, we asked an awful lotof Steven this weekend, but he was
(15:26):
he wanted to be up on Sundayto give you an idea about his mentality
as a competitor. And he toldus, hey, listen, I just
pr and I had a personal recordon my arm care score. It's it's
a device that we have that kindof measures internal external rotation and overall arm
health and recoverability. And he wasexcited to tell us that I just got
a personal record. You're gonna putme up on the board and said,
no, we're not, but maybetomorrow. And we did it on Monday
(15:50):
instead of Sunday. So it dependson his health. And but we do
feel like we've got four or fivequality options that we can start, and
all those guys have gotten previous NCdouble A you know, postseason starts in
the past. He's got that bulldogto him like that. You know,
he just says he doesn't like tothink out there, and I just talk
(16:10):
about you know what, you know, what you're expecting from him and what
he's he's done for you, andhow you feel confident of growing him up
there. Yeah, I really feellike he's hit his stride. You know,
he's worked on his mental health andhis and his not to say that
we all need to work on ourmental health, but he's been really diligent
and really public about it, andreally proud of him for kind of talking
about that and and saying, yeah, you know I got people that helped
(16:30):
me with that and being able toflush and reset in between pitches, and
and I think that's awesome. It'sbrave of him too. I'm sure there's
a lot of baseball players that canbe a lot of people that can benefit
from that, but uh, youknow, I think that's been kind of
the The next frontier for him iskind of going there and exploring that and
and finding different ways to cope withthe stress and anxiety of having to compete
(16:52):
at this level. And because ifhe can do that, he is as
special as of a pitcher in termsof his stuff that we've ever had here.
So I think that's the final chapterfor him. If you can put
the mental together with the physical,he can be unstoppable thanks to their team
known as Zoomers. But it feelslike you've built all three in different ways,
right. Pitching has been the constant, I'd say, But yes,
(17:15):
I mean we've built them with differentpersonnel from different walks of life, different
areas of the country, different schools, Division three, Division two, Division
one, junior college commispers, highschool kids, Connecticut kids. But yeah,
build their rosters differently. But I'dsay pitching it starts and ends with
pitching. If you don't If youcan't pitch, you can't compete. And
(17:37):
you know obviously we've pitched it.I think, really really well, especially
the second half of the season,how you evaluate kids coming from those lower
levels like D three or JUCO andbe able to say, Okay, they
were good here, but this iswhat what we know they can do if
they come to Ukon. Yeah,you look at the metrics, certainly,
but I'm more interested in just howlong has that young man played the position
(17:59):
and be counted on by his teammates, so especially on the mound, if
they've been an ace on their staff, even if it's like jvs. ACE
Varsity Baseballs, that puts for alot baseball as your high school team in
Connecticut. Probably the amount of refugeif you're years, especially because that's saying
(18:22):
that you've got the trust of yourteammates, your coaches to go out there
and beat somebody once every five sixdays. So that's really powerful. But
that you know the metrics are whatthey are. We look at their foot
speed, look at their arm strength, look at their bathketball skills. On
the position players side, but I'mnot a big into exit v lows,
I'm not kind of. There's amix of analytics, but a lot of
(18:44):
old school stats too. If youdon't hit four hundred in high school baseball,
you're probably not going to hit threehundred at UK. So we still
look at batting average. We stilllook at it. I look at one
loss record, you know, Isee less and less guys telling me what
their one loss record is on themound, and more we're telling them about
telling me about exit there, pitchingvelocity, or their vertical break on their
(19:07):
break in ball, their horizontal break, or their spin rate. And I
don't really know what to make ofthat stuff. If you can't get guys
out and win games for your team, all those other mentors stone them out
to hilopines. So we look atthem one last first
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