Dan McDonnell on Louisville Baseball's 2024 schedule, the transfer portal, and conference expansion

Louisville Baseball's Head Coach Dan McDonnell joined us to discuss the release of their 2024 schedule, ACC expansion, the transfer portal, and more...

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Four night low is in the midthirties. Okay, all right, I'm
just trying to remember my fourth gradescience class. There's a water main break
and a couple of TV stations insteadhave created an icy mess. Well,
it's fifty one degrees now the lowtonight's thirty five. Oh. I got
a guy who's connected to a schoolright now on the line. Dan McDonald's

(00:24):
head coach at the University of Louisvillebaseball team. Hey, Dan, welcome
back, am I forgetting my science. The water doesn't freeze until it's thirty
two degrees. There shouldn't be anicy mess for a water main break.
I don't know. Well, Icould tell you my paw cleaners for the
dogs were iced over this morning.The light went off, like, uh

(00:49):
oh, I better not let myvalves freeze up. So I at least
did the warning signs have already hitme? Yeah, it was cold last
night. I totally get that.Now, what explain that again? The
paw cleaners. What is it you'reapplying here, coach? Yeah, it
looks like it looks like a jugand it's got water in it with these
rubber like bristles. And when yourdog comes up from running around the backyard.

(01:15):
I got two big dogs. NowI'm ninety five pounds and one hundred
and thirty pounds. So when theycome up, you put their paw in
this, you know, with waterin it, and it helps get the
mud and the gook off it.And then you got to use a towel.
And so they were. They wereboth frozen over this morning. So
it's just like a block of ice. And I thought, uh oh.

(01:37):
And my first thought was, oh, no, I haven't turned off you
know the valve, so I don't. I don't need one of those pipes
to break. No. Well,good, you're a good dog, dad.
I like to hear that. Edand I were talking a little while
ago. Now your players have gonethrough the Omaha Challenge again, and we
like to hear how that would explainto their listeners what the Omaha Challenge is.
For your guys, it's we splitup into four teams that wraps up

(02:04):
the fall. It's kind of aphysical fitness mental training exercise. Heck,
we went down the Fort Knox theFriday before Thanksgiving, spent an afternoon down
there. They were awesome, andwe went through these challenges where we had
to get from point A to pointB, and these were the obstacles we
do, like shuttle runs, stadiumruns, slip tires, bike races,

(02:31):
hang from towels, push trucks aroundthe fair ground swim competition. Arthur Albi
Haras let us swim Tuesday morning.So it's just it's all these different events
and you're scoring individually obviously for yourself, but you're trying to score points for

(02:52):
your team. So Team Gongora,who you know, Sebastian Gongora is one
of our really good transfers from RightStay led a team to victory. And
Alex Alisea is a freshman middle infielderfrom Wisconsin, won the overall so he
beat Dan Snyder. Yeah, anduh and Morgan Davis. So we do

(03:15):
this whole thing. We have wehave, we have medals, and we
recognize it's just a fun way towrap up the fall and physically and mentally
compete after the the players get done. In their version, is there like
a coaches version that the the theeach team got to draft a coach and
pick them in a challenge because that'sthe one I want to see. Yeah,

(03:38):
I don't know about that, butwe have a little fun with usually
the it's a little punk the managers, I think kind of a little tradition.
Maybe the managers kind of jump intosome of the events and everybody has
a has a good time watching thoseguys compete. All right, coach,
you didn't it'll be long. You'reback in and of course the schedules released

(03:59):
today. Man, you're playing sometough opponents too. Fourteen of your opponents
made the NCAA tournament last year,so you have thirty games total against those
teams, so we're talking about alot of great ones. You have thirty
five games at home at Patterson.I know you're headed to Tampa for a
tournament. So give us an overallsense of what you see on your new
schedule. Yeah, you first wantto promote. Season tickets are out,

(04:21):
so it means a lot. Ilove it when I meet somebody, they
always want to point out heye,coach, I'm a season ticket holder.
It means a lot to us.Thirty five home games, eighteen of them
are free. So if you don'twant to be a season ticket holder,
that's fine. Enjoy eighteen free games. If you want to support us,
you want to have your seat forthe fifteen ACC games, along with Kentucky

(04:45):
and Indiana. Then please buy aseason ticket and then that gives you the
right to purchase a seat if wehost the Regional and the Super Regional,
so those are on sale. Wetalk about our road trip and in baseball,
it's always fun the early season onesbecause we go south. Last year
we went to Houston, had alot of fans travel, and we played

(05:09):
great at the Shriners Classic. Thisyear, we're opening up February sixteenth to
the eighteenth in Tampa, Florida,so we're going to play in a tournament
at South Florida, USF, Yukonand Indiana State. All four teams have
been in the Super Regionals in thelast three years. Great competition, great

(05:29):
weather, Don Delaney, great alumnigroup down there. They put a big
tailgate on. It's a proud weekendfor me because U ofl is represented.
A lot of our pro guys areat spring training. So if you want
to get out of the bad weatherof Louisville, I encourage you to take
that trip to Tampa, Florida,and then that following week we'll be home

(05:53):
with a slate of home free gamesto start off the year. Well.
We love we buy four season ticketsof our family and you know, different
people use them, but everybody lovespopping in you have some popcorn. It's
a great environment. There's great energyand love for that game in this city,
the history of baseball in this city, and so much great competition.

(06:13):
So you've taken in some new players. Obviously you mentioned a right State player
and Ian brought that up a littleearlier and said, well, he's pretty
good. Well we got I thinkit was a tenth ranked recruiting class in
the country. We still have toget high level high school kids, a
couple junior college kids, but youknow, we had to get into the

(06:34):
transfer portal to fill some holes andbe an active player in that. So
we did bring in a catcher,a middle infielder, and two pitchers,
but really good high school signees.We return a really good group, you
know, you know, a JT. Benz and a Logan Beard and Isaac

(06:55):
coumphrey, a Ryan McCoy. Alot of older kids returned, so you
know, we'll be very optimistic.You gotta stay healthy. You got to
catch a couple of breaks, butwe feel really good with where we're at
and right now it's hey, makesure people know our schedules up and make
some plans whether you want to travelwith the cards or especially see us at

(07:17):
home. And then also our leadoffbanquet, we're gonna release that on Friday,
and that'll be Friday, February second. Republic Bank will sponsor us again
and at the Gold House, we'regonna put Brian Hoeing been in the big
leagues the last two years with theMarlins, and Bobby Miller, who made

(07:39):
his debut this year with the Dodgers. Phenomenal rookie stint. Even though Henry
Davis and Tyler Fitzgerald also debuted thisyear, we're gonna We're gonna hold them
off for another year. I thinkwe had fourteen guys from u of L
in the big leagues at some pointlast year. And for the first time
we'll put these these two new guys. It'll be the first time for them.

(08:03):
We're gonna put them on stage andrecognize them. That's always a special
event. Absolutely, the lead offenner. I've been a few times. It's
a great event to just kind of, you know, get the season started
and start thinking about baseball and actuallyget to get to see all the faces,
get to meet all the players,and you know you always have a
lot of pass players come to thatevent as well. It's a it's a
great deal if you can get intothat. Like you said, details coming

(08:26):
out on Friday. My question foryour coach, since we're talking about schedules,
this is the last schedule of theACC as we know it. Right
next year you get another influx ofa couple of good teams in Stanford and
cal coming on board. What doyou think about the conference expansion? And
I guess the ACC's West Coast Division. Now, well, Stanford's been to

(08:52):
Omaha the last two years. There'sonly eight spots in Omaha. Right there's
three hundred Division one teams that playbaseball, So we just picked up one
of the best in all of collegebaseball. Calus has had some really good
years as well. I think it'sexciting. We'll do like probably most as

(09:16):
you see, the divisions might mightbreak away. We might just have to
go to one overall. And sono, I think I think for our
fans to see a Stanford or acow come to Jim Patterson Stadium or hey,
you know, we'll travel out toCalifornia, maybe just once a year,
and maybe our fans might might wantto be a part of a unique

(09:39):
trip like that. So it's justit's part of college baseball and and uh,
we're looking forward to it. Yeah, great to have them. Add
on back to that transfer portal.Just to wrap up here, the universe
has changed obviously in the last severalyears with all this transfer portal And are
you like one of those guys wesee on TV like a stock, you

(10:01):
know, the guy's selling stocks andall the screamings going on. I mean,
you feel like you're in the pitwhen you're trying to keep an eye
on who's going where and who's upfor grabs. It's it's made for an
interesting dynamic in the summer because oursummers have always been pretty crazy in a
good way. That the season ends, it ends in a regional, super

(10:22):
regional or Omaha, and then yougot to get ready for the draft.
You don't know who's coming and goingcamps. You got all these little guys
on campus running around, you're teachingthe game of baseball. And then oh
yeah, by the way, there'sthis extra caveat now where some really good

(10:43):
players are in the transfer portals.So you have to be an active participant
and I mean I flew to summerleagues last year. Our coaches are flying
to watch kids play. We're goingin kids' houses, they're coming on campus.
It's just like it's like, waita second, didn't you already do
all this? And then it allgets thrown into this like thirty day window.

(11:07):
So it's part of it. Imean, you know, you just
were competitive. We have to beable to adapt, and I thought we
did a really good job last summerof bringing in a catcher, middle infielder
and two two talented pitchers. Butagain it's older players fill a spot,
fill a need. I mean,we're we're gonna recruit high end young talent.

(11:28):
We're gonna develop kids like we've beendoing. We just got to be
able to be a player in thetransfer portal as well. All right,
jump online get your tickets season ticketsfor Louisville Baseball Go cards dot com.
Dan, it is always great talkingto you, and we hope get a
chance to chat whether he once theseason gets rolling as well. Thank you,
guys, I have a happy holiday. Appreciate it. Dan McDonald,

(11:52):
head coach for Louisville Baseball, Gocards dot com and then slash DSB I
think so. Yeah, BSPs.Oh that's for the schedule, but you
can find it. Just go togo cards dot com and get your season
tickets. They really do appreciate thesupport they've gotten in this community. And
to be quite honest with you,I don't bring it up to him when
he's on here. A lot ofschools have come after that guy over the

(12:13):
years. We're lucky to hang onto a successful guy like Dann McDonald.
Yeah, it's the it's the peoplethat show up and then the uh and
the facilities and filling them up andgetting all those players and all the things
that keep him around. So yeah, come on out watch some excellent baseball.
And and he mentioned and we talkedabout Sebastian Gongora. He's just one

(12:33):
of the transfers that I got tosee in the fall that look pretty good.
Uh. I know it's been acouple of rough seasons for for Dan
and the Cardinals there at Third andCentral, but I think they might have
found a Friday guy and if thatfalls into place, everything else I think
is gonna click for them. Theythey're gonna be right there in the hunt
for the acc again. Love it. Get your season tickets and then the

(12:56):
leadoff dinners February seconds. So youcan find all that online a go car
yards dot com