With 10 days left in the portal window (July 1st) effective tomorrow, there are 3114 players in the portal as of today. There are those that can still be in it and still be eligible for next season with one of the exceptions such as a head coaching change, etc.
Portal news thread...
- Thread starter ptrich
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I haven’t followed the baseball program as closely as I did under Smith and Lemonis. Is Mercer the problem? Or maybe his staff?
I assume Mercer’s not in trouble with Dolson, but then I haven’t been following it that closely. Nor do I know who the best potential replacements might be—an assistant from somewhere like Louisville or Vandy, or a head coach from a “smaller” program? IIRC, one of the candidates when Mercer was hired was the head guy at one of the smaller schools in Texas (Houston Christian or Incarnate Word maybe).
I assume Mercer’s not in trouble with Dolson, but then I haven’t been following it that closely. Nor do I know who the best potential replacements might be—an assistant from somewhere like Louisville or Vandy, or a head coach from a “smaller” program? IIRC, one of the candidates when Mercer was hired was the head guy at one of the smaller schools in Texas (Houston Christian or Incarnate Word maybe).
IU won over 30 games this season in an up and down game-to-game season and had a winning conference record, so I don't see any coaching changes assuming that Dolson is okay with a season where we didn't make the Field of 64, and Dolson would have made a change by now.
IMO, and I have brought this up in a previous post, pitching has been the primary position that has held us back although we have made the NCAA field in the past seasons except for this season. Glant's pitching staffs get off to slow starts and we seem to always be in the bottom half of team ERAs in the conference under him although his staffs seem to improve at the end of the season but not to the point of getting out of the bottom half of the ERA rankings. Actually, I believe his first pitching staff after taking over for Parker finished in the upper half of the conference, but it's gone down since then.
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So It sounds like Mercer is safe but he might have a “staff problem” that could need to be addressed at some point-either now or later on?
I've said it before and I will say it again that Mercer seems to be a little too loyal to Glant.
I saw that. He committed to IU back on June 2nd. He's a junior and IU is his 3rd school having started out at Siena and then moving on to Delaware, and on to IU. He was 2nd team all-CAA at 2B this season. Here some stats on him:
He hit .326 with 9 homers, 2 triples, and 17 doubles, with 48 RBIs. He also walked 41 times so he's good at drawing walks. He had 9 errors on the season at 2B with a fielding percentage of .959.
Sacred Heart C Joe Cilea committed to IU. He appeared in 42 games with 29 starts for SH. He wasn't much of a presence at the plate with a batting average of .214 with 19 RBIs and 3 doubles, 2 triples and 1 homer.
Jason Oliver is staying in his home state and committed to Michigan. He really regressed at the plate this past season which saw him go to the bench and become a late game utility player. He appeared in 28 games with 21 starts. He hit .179 with 18 RBIs and he had 2 doubles, 1 triple and 3 homers.
Jason Oliver is staying in his home state and committed to Michigan. He really regressed at the plate this past season which saw him go to the bench and become a late game utility player. He appeared in 28 games with 21 starts. He hit .179 with 18 RBIs and he had 2 doubles, 1 triple and 3 homers.
Thanks for all you have done following Hoosier baseball. Next season will be most interesting, hope you can find a place to continue.
Ditto this regarding @ptrich. I’m not a huge baseball fan, just a fan of all things IU and really appreciate your passion and reporting!
