Three Takeaways From IU’s 9-7 Loss To Louisville
- Thread starter Stu Jackson
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I thought the article was quite revealing. We tend to overlook basic notions like "the bigger, stronger, faster team tends to win." Having tricks up your sleeve only carries you so far when you're up against "bigger, stronger, and faster."
Clearly, IU is now, talent-wise, at a level that is in the upper reaches of the B10, but not comparable to the elite national teams. Is it realistic for any coach (of a Northern team) to expect to reach and surpass those elites?
Clearly, IU is now, talent-wise, at a level that is in the upper reaches of the B10, but not comparable to the elite national teams. Is it realistic for any coach (of a Northern team) to expect to reach and surpass those elites?
I didn't see the game due to being at my daughter's softball tourney, but if the umpire called a pitch that hit the ground a strike, he should be done for the postseason and serve his own suspension. Every ump has his/her own strike zone but if the ball hit the ground, that's inexcusable and honestly the other umps should have been able to go up to him and correct him. I'm just hoping this lights a fire under the guys and coaches for next year.
Dan McDonnell seems to think so....Hes taken UL to 3 CWS since 2013; 4 overall in his 12 seasons. Until last year, UL had went to 5 straight Super's. And with a win tomorrow , it would 6 Super's in the past 7 seasons.
I wasn't thinking of Louisville as a "Northern" team. I realize we're talking about only a hundred mile difference between Bloomington and Louisville, but Kentucky is not Indiana.
That 100 miles plus crossing the Ohio River give Louisville a significantly milder climate than Bloomington.
But your point is well taken; the difference between Bloomington and Louisville is not a night and day difference. Still, it's been around 50 years since any Northern team was the national champion or even runner-up.
That 100 miles plus crossing the Ohio River give Louisville a significantly milder climate than Bloomington.
But your point is well taken; the difference between Bloomington and Louisville is not a night and day difference. Still, it's been around 50 years since any Northern team was the national champion or even runner-up.
The biggest reason why UL is not a 'northern' team is not that 100 miles; rather, it is that UL is in the ACC, a much better and warmer conference. It's easier to recruit players who believe they will have a pro career (ie...all of them) to an ACC school v. a BT school.
From what I saw at the games, our starting pitching is beyond suspect. A scout at the game said yesterday that we we're in deep trouble given our starter. Games were entertaining given our rally to make things respectable but our starters were not impressive.
Interesting. Curious what the tell was for the scout when he made that remark (besides things unraveling pretty early in each of the regional games)
I agree that being in the ACC sure gives Louisville a recruiting advantage over IU and other B1G schools. Louisville has also benefited from having stability at the head coaching position while we have had three different head coaches over the past few years, which doesn't help with recruiting. Louisville seems to have no problem recruiting Illinois. I noticed they had quite a few players from that state so I checked it out, and they have nine players from there compared to our three. Needless to say, they certainly have good success in cherry picking players out of Indiana also. As far as players being able to practice outdoors year-around, they don't have much advantage over IU since the climate is pretty close to the same, but I see your point about playing on the road in the ACC in early spring when it is warmer at those locales. Louisville has several good to really good juniors, so it will be interesting to see what they end of losing in the draft which starts today.
Sometimes message boards suck because I could spend a lot of time talking about this subject. There is so much to divulge, and a bit of it has been touched on already.
The B10 conference would have to change some rules to compete scholarship wise with southern conference teams.
Bottom line, Jeff Mercer needs to be strong in his recruiting evaluations and his player development. Kids want to play for proven coaches who have proven track records of development and post season success. Mercer lacks in that department currently. Big reasons why Dan Held and Scott Rolen were added to the staff to give it some “credibility”. Most teams are already recruiting the 2022/23/24 classes, and as crazy as that sounds you better identify projectable players early and get the recruiting ball rolling. If any kid in the Midwest is really good, big time programs are going to get involved. Mercer is going to have to compete hard in recruiting in the Midwest against other teams for those elite level players.
So much to this topic though.
The B10 conference would have to change some rules to compete scholarship wise with southern conference teams.
Bottom line, Jeff Mercer needs to be strong in his recruiting evaluations and his player development. Kids want to play for proven coaches who have proven track records of development and post season success. Mercer lacks in that department currently. Big reasons why Dan Held and Scott Rolen were added to the staff to give it some “credibility”. Most teams are already recruiting the 2022/23/24 classes, and as crazy as that sounds you better identify projectable players early and get the recruiting ball rolling. If any kid in the Midwest is really good, big time programs are going to get involved. Mercer is going to have to compete hard in recruiting in the Midwest against other teams for those elite level players.
So much to this topic though.
Could you share the rule areas that add to the B1G difficulties in competing with southern schools. I believe many southern schools benefit from state academic scholarship programs that help their baseball teams stretch the 11.7 athletic scholarships when homegrown talent can secure the academic $.
Mercer has been successful in his brief career, including the league championship this year with a team of gritty kids. If you go position by position with U of L we might have 2 starters, and yet we competed. Michigan and probably Illinois have more talent, but Mercer and our kids took the title. He was successful at Wright State. He didn’t fall into a loaded team. Parker, Held, and Rolen are associated with this team because of their relationship with Mercer not because of some credibility deficiency you imagine.
Having seen Louisville up here, and their size/brawn/beards versus our guys, I figured winning two down there would be tough. That said, we had a chance.
I believe the broadcast guys were harping on how much of Louisville's roster was northern Midwest guys.
We should be able to get close to their level...we got them in 2013, they got us this year. The way our program has now seemed to be a consistent B10 representative and Top 25 visitor, I see no reason why we can't be a thorn in their side for years to come.
We'll see.
I believe the broadcast guys were harping on how much of Louisville's roster was northern Midwest guys.
We should be able to get close to their level...we got them in 2013, they got us this year. The way our program has now seemed to be a consistent B10 representative and Top 25 visitor, I see no reason why we can't be a thorn in their side for years to come.
We'll see.
"Given our starter"? Idk what you mean by that, or what the scout meant. You posted it yesterday and said yesterday, which means it was on Sunday. So Gordon was our starter and he just got selected in the 6th round. Apparently he was not a Braves' scout!
I definitely don't think Illinois had more talent than IU. I think IU & Michigan were close, but IU had the talent edge.
This recruiting year will set us back some.
A site called Perfect Game has 2019 preseason AA and all-region teams. On the 2 all-region teams IU had two players--Vecrumba (1st) & Jack Walker (2nd). UL and the following Big Ten teams had:
UL: 7 (all 1st team)
MSU: 4 (all 1st team)
Michigan: 6 (4 1st team)
Iowa: 8 (3 1st)
Illinois: 5 (3 1st)
Nebraska 3(1 1st)
Purdue, PSU & Rutgers---1 2nd teamer apiece.
With regard to their 1st team AA consisting of 51 players, zero committed to BT programs or UL.
Vecrumba was listed on their 3rd team AA team.
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