Radford - downward spiral

That is a long-time mystery in these parts. RU has decent facilities, a female-filled campus, and not a bad college town, and plays in a decent baseball conference. They have been pretty much a bottom-feeder in the Big South for as long as I can remember.

My guess would be that the administration just does not care that much about baseball. The coach has endured several losing seasons that probably would have resulted in a dismissal at a more baseball-oriented institution. The ODU example shows that it's not all about recruiting - a coach can come in and mold the kids who are already there with better instruction and game management, as Meyers has done for the Monarchs.

I cannot find an example of a DI head baseball coach in the country that has been given as much opportunity to not field a competitive team as Kent at Radford. It starts at above him. The athletic program has not been making progress toward meeting their own mission statement for too long. There are plenty of head coaching candidates that could build a program at RU that would not lose 2 of 3 to NC A&T or be swept by Niagra. Starting perhaps with Morris at ODU. ???

I meant to write; it starts above him. For the record: as RU goes to JMU today they are 228-365 W-L 39% overall wins and 101-134 W-L 43% wins in Big South play under Kent 1995-2006. No head coach in America gets 11 years of these results at an institution that funds and fields a baseball team to compete. At RU the problem is 1 and 2 levels above the players.

Is Radford athletics tiered b/c of gender equity?

There might be some problems regarding Radford starting at the top, but the Coach's work ethic and attitude are less than spectacular for a Div.I program.

This past summer, my son played with several Radford players. My son played at a National ranked D-III program. The players from Radford were amazied at the my son's program from the conditioning program; to how practices were run;to game day prep.

I'm a bit mystified as to why they don't just hire a new coach. They could even allow the current coach the courtesy of "resigning" rather than be fired. There are several in-state examples of coaches producing great results almost immediately: Meyers at ODU, Ikenberry at VMI, O'Connor at Virginia, etc. Radford needs a Meyers or McFarland (JMU) type of head coach who stresses pitching first and foremost.

Is there a problem with player dissatisfaction? There has to be some reason they aren't attracting top recruits.
You would think this is a place where a solid player could come in an play meaningful innings right away?

Perhaps baseball is a not priority or top concern at this school?

I agree with TR,. Maybe Radford "hangs their hat" on other things. A student can play ball along with getting a great education. Every conference has a school that does not win as much as the others, but still fields teams so the "student" can continue his education and play a sport that they enjoy.

Intramurals are for the students that want to play some ball. It is wrong to say losing should be tolerated when it does not have to be. In Division I baseball winning 39% of 593 games with decent facilities in a southern based conference from a state with a quality talent pool is not acceptable. What do you think the ride back from JMU was like last night after getting crushed by the Dukes. Do you think everyone on the RU roster is just happy to be there says thank you for the grant in aid, travel, and meal money and believes losing is ok. Losing consistently in competitive athletics breeds problems. It is not as though there is a mens or womens team at RU that competes in the top 50% of any DI sport. The entire athletic department is going nowhere. At some point enough has to be enough. The truth is there are baseball programs in DI that do more with less than RU has.
has

It is a shame that a decent school will not go after quality players. Head coach is the reason
in state players are not interested. I know of a few players that ended up playing D2-D3 instead of Radford.

I can say that, based on some limited experience, the program has a vision of what it wants or where it wants to go. I would say that, based on the results, that vision needs significant re-evaluation.

Even if one is to assume that a lot of the talent in Virginia is playing for other state schools (or even out of state powerhouses), the depth of talent in this state should assure that a school like Radford (even if they don't get top recruits) should not be losing to the Niagara's and North Carolina A&T's of the world. Heck, Baseball America did a feature last year on just how deep Virginia is with baseball players - calling the Tidewater region the "fertile crescent" - so it is a little strange to see a state school mired in a 4-26 slump.

What a horrific insult to those of us who have sons that attend one of the schools you decided to disparage....is it perhaps inconceivable to you that a team from the North could come to your home field and take 3 games from you!!!!

So, do you think UNC, Michigan State, and Connecticut basketball fans are talking about how their schools lost to a "much superior" George Mason team in the NCAA tournament, Catchermom? Of course not, they are probably still speaking of Mason in "disparaging" terms. I'm sorry you felt that was such a horrific insult, but the reality is that baseball is a warm weather sport, and southern based teams SHOULD beat their northern opponents, based on the recruiting hierarchy. Why are all the good college hockey teams from up north? But as you can attest when your son's team swept Radford (as I imagine is what happened), that's why they play the games.

As I see there is no comparision between the sports you mention...basketball is an indoor sport..played indoors by all teams from the beginning till the end of the season...hockey has been and always will be a Northern sport till we can keep ice firm in warm weather climates and again it is always played indoors by all teams...in the case of baseball the South has the advantage of the warmer weather and your teams can play outdoors while we up here remain inside and maybe going outdoors on a warm winters afternoon with perhaps 6 inches of snow in the outfield....does this mean our teams work less diligently..no..does it mean we lack talent...no...our coaches are out there with all the rest recruiting in just the same way...some kids prefer to remain closer to home...does not mean there is a lack of talent up here...as a matter of fact, we had 3 drafted from our team last year and 2 of them were in the 5th round...several others are being heavily scouted this year as evidenced by the numbers of scouts attending our games..so do not think that just because you are playing a team from the North it is an easy win...our kids come ready to play...play with heart and if we win then all the hard work and determination has been profitable...BTW I was in Radford for the 3 game sweep by Niagara...nice town and beautiful campus

catchermom:

You raise some interesting points that are worthy of discussion. Penn State came down to play Arizona State a couple of weeks ago and lost three games, but I will say that no one would have been surprised if PSU had won -- or even swept -- the series. PSU has a strong program with support from the administration and an outstanding coach. The best players in the north would be among the best players anywhere. However, many of the best players in the north head south to play college baseball. Many other potentially best players play other sports instead because of the weather where more in the south are playing baseball (also because of the weather).

Niagara ought to be proud of its accomplishment and Radford ought be better and it is a shame that college baseball is not played later in the spring and further into the summer so that weather were not such an issue. But it isn't and it is and teams from the south by and large will strongly disdain losing to cold-weather schools, which will take those infrequent victories and celebrate nearly every time.

It has been awhile since a team from the Big 10 won the College World Series.

Jemaz illustrated the point I wanted to make better than I did. Also, Catchermom - I wasn't trying to belittle the players, coaches, or heart of a northern team like Niagara, just wanted to state a broader claim - that recruiting and weather favors southern schools. Radford had Marist on the schedule last year and blew them out in both games the teams played...and obviously Marist and Niagara are both in the MAAC. The easy assumption to make is that when southern schools schedule far north opponents, they expect/hope the series will provide easy wins to boost the record. Incidentally, Radford (and Virginia Tech) are nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountain region of Virginia, which takes away from the "southern" school weather advantage - it is often cold into April. But this hasn't caused Va Tech to suffer through a 4-27 record or thereabouts- again bringing up the point that started this thread: Radford's coaching.

Edit: After checking, Radford swept a three games series from Marist last year, but the scores were 12-3, 4-1, and 6-4.

I would like to poiny out that schools like Salem International are full of Canadians. I believe Salem has 7-8. I don't think you can polarize were talent comes from based on weather anymore. I am familiar with Niagara, Canisius and Buffalo on a personal level and these team all have draftable talent.

Bobblehead:

I understand your point, but I must disagree. Weather has -- and will continue to have -- a huge, huge impace. And Niagara, Canisius and Buffalo may have draftable talent, but not very much of it. As I said, most of the players from those areas who are draftable, head south to play in college. A great example of this is Ryan Sontag of Arizona State, who I believe a year ago was freshman of the year in the Big 10 at Michigan State. As soon as he had the chance, he got out. There are, of course, exceptions, but that is what they are -- exceptions. And most of the best athletes in Canada are playing hockey, Steve Nash excepted, of course.

The problem a lot of southern folks have is they think their smaller schools should be able to whip anything that comes from the north. Scholarship levels, facilities and timing make this a very false belief. No doubt, a lot of northern kids want to go south to play in warmer weather. But we haven't cornered the market on talent, not by a long shot.

For the record, OldVaman grew up YoungNYguy, which, of course, makes me a **** Yankee (A Yankee is one who visits the south, a **** Yankee is one who stays).

Let's get back to the key point of this thread. Radford is a state school. There is a lot of baseball talent in VA. AND it appears that Radford is not getting enough of that talent. AND they should be.............sonewhere along the way the results are mot fulfilling the vision.

quote:

Credit second-year coach Jerry Meyers with the turnaround, much of it coming with the same roster with which ODU played the 2005 season.

This is from Baseball America in reference to the positive turnaround at Old Dominion. As others have noted, it is certainly feasible that another coach could come in at Radford and coax much better results from the kids than their current, school-record 15 game losing streak.

quote:

Originally posted by jbbaseball:
Let's get back to the key point of this thread. Radford is a state school. There is a lot of baseball talent in VA. AND it appears that Radford is not getting enough of that talent. AND they should be.............sonewhere along the way the results are mot fulfilling the vision.

Agreed JB.

Bottom line there is no reason any school should be a bottom feeder of a conference on an on-going basis. As far as I can tell Radford does not do a very good job in proactively recruiting players. I tend to agree that a coaching change may be in order but I do not know enough about the programs interworkings. Do they have a recruiting budget, if so how does it compare with other Big South schools. It seems that they do their recruiting based on who's not signed vs. going after players. RU has some fine players but they need a more consistent recruiting, and coaching effort.

It only gets worse. RU now 4-29 and 1-10 in the Big South after getting swept this weekend.

The Highlanders have a very real chance of ending their losing streak Wednesday vs Norfolk State in Radford. Although, the current losing streak should never have reached this length, as they led UNC-Asheville 9-5 with two outs in the 9th inning a few weeks ago. Read that again: a 9-5 lead with two outs in the 9th. After that lead was blown, people were walking around at the game with their mouths hanging open, like they had just realized they'd lost a winning lottery ticket. I'm not kidding.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Philler:
The Highlanders have a very real chance of ending their losing streak Wednesday vs Norfolk State in Radford. QUOTE]

I meant to ask about this prior to the game...Norfolk State is 14-16 ...Radford 4- and too many.

By the way Radford drowning 13-0 in top of 8. Norfolk State 18 hits Radford 2.

quote:

Originally posted by Novice Dad:
I meant to ask about this prior to the game...Norfolk State is 14-16 ...Radford 4- and too many.

By the way Radford drowning 13-0 in top of 8. Norfolk State 18 hits Radford 2.

Hindsight is 20/20...but Radford drubbed NSU 11-0 in Norfolk earlier in the year and also led late in the second game of that doubleheader before falling. Records aside, NSU isn't exactly a powerhouse, and it seemed logical that the Spartans could be the team to end RU's losing streak. In actuality, this is probably the lowest point of the season (as if it could get any worse): a blowout loss to Norfolk St at home that extends the losing streak.

quote:

Originally posted by Philler:
[ In actuality, this is probably the lowest point of the season (as if it could get any worse): a blowout loss to Norfolk St at home that extends the losing streak.

Will it ever end??????????????

As of today no team in DI has more losses this season than Radfordat 4-30 W-L. They are RPI #265 of 293 only because they have some power opponents on their schedule.

The most compelling evidence that can be found as to why Kent should fall directly on his own sword is that during the 9 seasons RU has competed totaly with players he recuited up until today before the VMI game he is 152-289 overall and 66-107 against the Big South. With players left over from the previous coach Kent went 76-82 overall and 35-31 in th Big South. Is record indicates he was a great assistant coach and is a distaster as a head coach.

Radford managed to break its 19 game losing streak today with a 12-7 win over VMI on Saturday. The Highlanders and now 5-32 overall, and 2-13 in the Big South.

With those numbers, and the fact that they are in the middle of the signing period, you would think the administration would go ahead and announce the change now--so they can start gathering applications. If they drag their feet and make the change AFTER the season, it will be getting late to get some additional talent.

quote:

Originally posted by JT:
With those numbers, and the fact that they are in the middle of the signing period, you would think the administration would go ahead and announce the change now--so they can start gathering applications. If they drag their feet and make the change AFTER the season, it will be getting late to get some additional talent.

2 thoughts...
1- You're assuming the administration cares or is going to do something.

2- Announcing a change in mid-season I believe leaves the coach and assts as well as current players in a no win situation )no pun intended!

Make a decision as the season winds down and make a quick change to have a positive impact on the following years early signing class.

I see your point. It certainly would not be the first time a coach has been notified late in the season about a contract non-renewal.

In all, it seems the entire RU athletic department has gone down hill under the new President/chancellor.

Look at the present Athletic Director before the President. He has been nowhere near his Mission Statement.

Wintrop beats Radford 15-1. Now 5-34 on the year. Looking at the rest of the schedule, I can only see 1 win, maybe.

Falcon probably wasn't thinking of this particular game, but in a way, he was correct:

Radford 5
#23 Winthrop 2

Highlanders stun the Eagles in Rock Hill, SC

Baseball is a funny sport