No shortage of interest in Duke baseball job

The article was written on May 25, 2005.

My understanding is that Scott Bradley of Princeton has withdrawn his name from the candidates list.

Why anyone would want to coach baseball at Duke is beyond me!

Duke is a basketball school.

Consider that they have to compete in the ACC with Miami, Fla State, Clemson, North Carolina, NCState, Virginia (get the picture), the only likely event for the Blue Devils is that they will get spanked each and every year.

Beautiful campus and great academics.

Baseball...I don't think so.

Stanford and Rice both succeed in baseball with high academic standards (as do others). As for the basketball factor, there are many, many schools with great basketball AND baseball programs at the same time. Neither of these factors should prevent a good coach from successful recruiting for Duke baseball.

And oh yeah... here is the latest article about the job written July 6.

http://www.heraldsun.com/sports/duke/39-623791.html

Stanford commits resouces to baseball. Rice has no other sport. They hired a great coach who recruits very well and both are located in two of the hotbeds of baseball. JMO

Duke has not shown a commitment to baseball. the other two have.

Hillier's record....34-114 record in the ACC

Says it all.

Nice campus and good academics.

It's a basketball school. Deal with it.

Duke if they get a good baseball coach who can actually coach, they will win. Gary Gilmore, JIm Farr, Jim Toman and Bobby Morenda name is floating around

I would say the area Duke would recruit from (the Carolinas) has a lot of talent and Duke is the type of school that could attract players from all over the country just as Stanford does. A commitment of resources should be the prerequisite for taking the job. Their AD talks like they intend to make it happen. Obviously it is a STEEP hill to climb in the ACC but a great coach with AD backing could turn it around.

My understanding is that Duke attracts talent, but that talent has to be developed.
Duke's atheletic department has pledged to improve their program. Unfortunelty it takes HUGE funds to do so, they need to develop a better support system for funds within their atheletic department. Duke doesn't receive large pledges and endowments from their alumni being a smaller school and the money that comes in goes elsewhere. I do know they give very good scholarhips, but with a price tag of 50K a year, what the parent has to pay is HUGE.
IMO, Duke belongs in a smaller more competitive division, for baseball anyway.
You can have the BEST coach in the country there, but you need the funds to help support the program to make it competitive.

Look what Coach O'Connor did at Virginia. It is my understanding Va was not fully funded until he arrived. It can be done with the right man at the helm.

...didn't hurt that O'connor had John Grisham's boy on the team either as a means of getting new digs for the team.

My son has wanted to go to Duke since he was twelve. As college baseball emerged as a reality for him, he started looking elsewhere for the balance of excellence in academics and athletics. The problem at Duke, IMHO, is that the alumni who pony up to support the athletics, are basketball alumni. There is not a basis of support within the extended Duke family.

Keep in mind that when a new caoch comes into a program part of his negotiating may revolve around more scholarships. upgrade to facilities more asst coaches etc

I have seen it happen many times when the school wants a certain coach to run their program

Newspaper articles do not always have all the information

quote:

There is not a basis of support within the extended Duke family.

I think if ya look close that lack of support & direction for baseball comes from the Duke administration - the $$ goes in a pot & they determine how it's spent

their attitude toward baseball seemed to be "do the best you can without the means & support you need to do it"


4 yrs ago GT raised funds for general facilites & buildings improvements with a goal of about 70 million - - that included some minor upgrades to their existing Russ Chandler baseball stadium

when that goal was nearly doubled they called the coach in to give him the bad & good news

the bad - your last game in '02 will be followed by bulldozers

the good - the new Rusty C stadium will be game ready in 6 months

tho alum upgraded some things in the locker room, stadium weight room, coach's office etc