Future of University of Maryland Baseball

quote:

Originally posted by baseballguy:
I agree with the need for new/upgraded facilities. And, yes, I've been to other top ACC facilities, so I think I've got a pretty good handle on the requirements to be considered among the elite in the conference. Coach May....you are right. They will need much better facilities to get the recruits who have their pick of ACC/SEC schools. I understand that.

All I have been saying is that this new coaching staff has yet to coach a game ... and, already the program seems much improved. Let them play hard, win some games that they are not supposed to, and turn a few heads - in season # 1.

Coach Bakich and staff have done a great PR job to this point. They have also gotten money for their program, as said above. They now need to go put a good product out on the field, which I believe will happen.

Facility upgrades will come, no doubt. For now however, I am more interested in seeing the 'on the field' product. If the product is good (and this doesn't mean winning the ACC)...the rest will follow.

But, for now, to focus so much on facilities to me is not a good use of time or energy. I would rather see the program get better, with facility improvements coming along as well as the program improves. I think there's a lot of room to improve the program overall, while the facility upgrade is being worked on.

Cart before the horse....Maryland is not going to attract players nationally if they do not improve their facilities. Sure there will be players from the State of Maryland that will consider the University but........if you scan through the rosters of the ACC teams you will note that many of their players are from out of state.......I know of several recent Maryland High School players that have gone elsewhere because of the third rate facilities at Maryland. When your introductory meeting with the coach is in a trailer parked behind right field -- it does not compare to the UVA, NC and the rest of the ACC teams.

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
trepfan

is your name misspelled intentionally or is that sarcasm

I am a Maryland grad (twice) and only wish the best for the University. I would have wanted to send my kid to the University but.....besides Coach Farr, there was not much upside. In fact, we met the current Coach at Maryland when he was recruiting for Vanderblit. He is driven and will turn the program around .... I just hope the University supports his program financially ---

quote:

Originally posted by Trepfan:

I just hope the University supports his program financially ---

Trepfan, did you see the link I posted about the major contribution given to the program just last month? Whether the University supports them or not it seems that the Coach already has fans...fans with deep pockets!

quote:

I know of several recent Maryland High School players that have gone elsewhere because of the third rate facilities at Maryland. When your introductory meeting with the coach is in a trailer parked behind right field -- it does not compare to the UVA, NC and the rest of the ACC teams.

Oh yes the trailer issue, very important for recruits to see the coach in a fine office. What a bunch of garbage.

Here it right from the Coach. The school asked Coach Bakich if they wanted to move into new offices in the Cole Center - response "No thanks, if we are going to spend money lets spend it on making the facilities better for the players." Sounds like a great leader to me who puts his troops before himself!

We met Coach Aoki (great guy) of BC in his beautiful office overlooking Alumni Field. On the ride home my kid never said "I want to go to BC because Coach Aoki has a great office."

I wouldn't think that players want to see the inside of that trailer. Probably means issues. The first time I talked with Coach Bakich, it was in those "miserable seats" at Shipley. I enjoyed every minute of it.

Trepfan,

Have you seen their recruiting class they have signed so far for 2010? Looks to me that Coach Bakich is recruiting nationally.Alot of those kids had the choice of going to other ACC and SEC and other major conference schools but chose Maryland.And unless you have talked to Coach Bakich and his staff you probably won't understand but he is actually using the lack of superb facilities to his advantage by selling the blue collar attitude to recruits and it is working.As NHMonty said he wants kids that will go to war with him-the ones that like to get dirty or run thru the wall for him and not the ones that are worried about the way they look.One look at who he has signed so far and I would say hes doing pretty good for not having great faclities.

Thats great warriordad. I hope he turns the program around. So you think the other programs in the ACC dont have any blue collar players on them? Dont have any players that like to get dirty as well? Dont have any guys that will run through a wall as well? So you think if a kid chooses Clemson instead of Maryland its because he is more worried about the way he looks?

If the facilities are a plus in this regard then save the money on the renovations and just leave things the way they are. Continue to get all the players that have these attributes and let the ones that only care about the way they look go to the other ACC schools.

You guys are totally missing treps point.

Coach may,

I know its great-thats why I said it.I don't know what the other schools have and I don't pretend too-I'll leave that up to you.My point is Coach Bakich is doing the best with what he has.

Its funny you bring up Clemson and the way you look thing though.One of the first things they showed us on our visit was their uniforms and how they tailor fit each player.Doesn't mean a thing though!

I hope Coach Bakich gets it done at Maryland. There is no reason Maryland can not be a very competitive program in the ACC.

quote:

Originally posted by Coach_May:
Thats great warriordad. I hope he turns the program around. So you think the other programs in the ACC dont have any blue collar players on them? Dont have any players that like to get dirty as well? Dont have any guys that will run through a wall as well? So you think if a kid chooses Clemson instead of Maryland its because he is more worried about the way he looks?

If the facilities are a plus in this regard then save the money on the renovations and just leave things the way they are. Continue to get all the players that have these attributes and let the ones that only care about the way they look go to the other ACC schools.

You guys are totally missing treps point.

Coach May -- thanks -- they do not get the point. When you are talking about the top fifty kids in the nation -- AFLAC, Perfect Game etc. these kids are the ones that make a significant impact on a program. These kids are NOT predominately in Maryland. These kids do look at the entire picture when making a decision to attend a University. I am speaking from first hand knowledge --- Again, the decision centers around relationship/reputation of the coach/pitching coach, the facilities and three the location. The further south the better the ability of the University to attract TOP-RATED (top fifty) players. That is reality. We are not talking about kids that may be opting for smaller division one schools (i.e., Towson, James Madison etc.). No knock on these University........We are talking about kids that have the option of attending most of the top baseball programs in the Country. We (my son and I) met Coach Rupp and Farr in the trailer at Maryland and that meeting was compared with meetings at UVA, NC Stanford, etc. NO COMPARISON. And yes it is very much part of the decision -- I have met/spoken with most of the AFLAC kids and have received their feedback on why they decided on a specific University and again, it comes down to the coach, facilities and location.

The three things Trep mentioned are very important. You can add a fourth and its tradition.

Now there is nothing Maryland can do about location. But they can do something about the other three. Coach , facilities , tradition. It seems they have done a great job on getting the right coach in place. Now they have to work on the facilities. Then with some wins they can change the tradition or reputation if you will.

One thing is for sure you have to win the recruiting battle for your home town boys. If your losing you best home grown talent then you have to get someone else's best home grown talent to make up for the loss. The chances you can get someone else's best players when you can not keep your own is a stretch at best. If you look at the schools in the ACC that have proven they can win consistently in this conference you will find that they do it with mostly in state players. Then they are capable of going out of state and stealing enough good players to fill in the gaps.

Now there are programs in the conference that have to go out of state in order to be successful for a large part of their team. Wake , Duke , BC for example. Those reasons are obvious. And if they do not recruit very well out of state they are going to struggle big time. Maryland and the immediate surrounding areas has more than enough highly talented players to sustain that program and help them reach the level they are striving for. But they have to convince them that Maryland is the place for them.

That is one reason the facilities are critical. Its something that you can fix. It speaks to the seriousness of the University and the staff to their desire to build a winning program. Its very hard to convince a young man that you are serious about your program and desire to build a winning program when your facilities are second class.

So I am one person that hopes that this staff can turn this thing around. They can upgrade the facilities and win the recruiting wars at home so they can reach out and bring in other solid players to join them. You will never build a competitive team in the ACC unless you win your home turf in the recruiting game. It sounds like this program in on the right track.

You only need to look a few miles south of you and see what UVA has done and is doing. It was not very long ago they were way behind. Now there are alot of peoples favorite to not only get back to Omaha but bring home the title.

Good friend who is college coach sent me breakdown of top 500 Ranked 2010 HS players by Perfect Game, sorted by college committment. Perfect Game is probably the best known ranking serivce of HS players.

BC 3; Clemson 6; Duke 5; Florida 9; FSU 7; Georgia Tech 15; Maryland 7; Miami 9; North Carolina 16; NC State 3; Virginia 6; Virgina Tech 2 and WF 3.

Doesn't look like the Maryland facilities hurt them to much this year.

Other notables Alabama 8; Arizona State 7; Arkansas 13; Auburn 8; Georgia 3; Kentucky 5; LSU 14; Oregon 10; Oregon State 8; Rice 6; San Diego (not State) 9;
South Carolina 8; Tenn 4; Texas 6 and Vandy 6

If Maryland had the facilities that UVA has, would that number be different? I believe it might. Coach Bakich is doing a great job of getting great players with what he has to work with, but I believe that some other people on here are simply saying that with better facilities his job of recruiting top talent would be alot easier, as there would be even that much more to offer.

quote:

Originally posted by orioles13:
If Maryland had the facilities that UVA has, would that number be different? I believe it might. Coach Bakich is doing a great job of getting great players with what he has to work with, but I believe that some other people on here are simply saying that with better facilities his job of recruiting top talent would be alot easier, as there would be even that much more to offer.

Yep like Hultzen/Silverstein (UVA), Routt (Miss State), Brady Clemson) etc.

quote:

Hultzen/Silverstein (UVA

Trepfan your new name is Mr. Negative.

The players you mentioned where recruited in 2008!

If I am correct, Coach Bakich was at Vanderbilt and Coach Burton was a student assistant at Louisville.

I may be wrong but in 2008 neither of these men had the chance to recruit the players you mentioned for Maryland.

Trepfan.....Steve.....

Since you have sought my advise for several years during your talented son pre-teen years...either at my house, at the ball field, or on the telephone, I understand your point of view most of the times however don't you think it's time for you to turn the page and start fresh for 2010? Of course I continue to hope Scotty get's healthy and get more AB's and gets back on the bump.

Of course I will be rooting for the Terps on the front and back end during Conference Play late April 2010

quote:

Originally posted by Bear:
Trepfan.....Steve.....

Since you have sought my advise for several years during your talented son pre-teen years...either at my house, at the ball field, or on the telephone, I understand your point of view most of the times however don't you think it's time for you to turn the page and start fresh for 2010? Of course I continue to hope Scotty get's healthy and get more AB's and gets back on the bump.

Of course I will be rooting for the Terps on the front and back end during Conference Play late April 2010

Hi Bear. Yes he saw James Andrews in September and is healthy -- 100%/ Also, Nick Howard from Saint Johns committed last week to UVA. See you at U of M.

Kory Britton 2011, P, 3B from Atholton HS committed to U of MD last week

quote:

Yes he saw James Andrews in September and is healthy -- 100%/

Great news, Steve. Someone had told me otherwise. Such is the (un)reliability of the rumor mill. Glad to know the truth.

Sorry we won't see you guys this year, though given last year's games, maybe I shouldn't be sorry! Maybe at the tourney, if we can get there this time around!

Midlo Dad:

Thanks --- how are the new Wake Forest Coaches shaking out.