‘We were on a roll.’ UK coach saw makings of a ‘championship team’ before virus hit.
Before the coronavirus pandemic shut down college sports, the University of Kentucky baseball team had turned a corner.
The Wildcats were about to carry a ton of momentum into their first Southeastern Conference series of the season. They had just won their sixth straight game to improve to 11-6, averaging 11 runs per contest and outscoring their opponents 66-25 during the streak.
“We were on a roll,” UK Coach Nick Mingione said during a phone call with the Herald-Leader last week. “In the last six games we were hitting almost .400 as a team. We were producing runs, our ERA had dipped below 4.00 for the first time all year. We were pitching well, we were defending the field better than we had all year.”
Then, the unthinkable struck. The day after the NBA announced the 2019-20 season was suspended, the NCAA canceled all remaining winter and spring championships. Kentucky’s drive to reach the College World Series for the first time in program history was over just as it was picking up a head of steam.
“We went from going down to Vanderbilt — where we literally had our bags packed, our suitcases on the floor in the locker room. Then all of a sudden it’s, ‘Guys, we’re not going down to Vanderbilt. By the way, that series has been postponed,’” Mingione said. “Shortly after that, ‘Oh wait, the season has been postponed.’ Shortly after that, ‘Hey, there’s no Omaha or College World Series.’ For that to all happen so fast was crazy.”
Mingione’s first order of business after the season’s cancellation was to make sure his players were in the right place mentally.
“The first thing I wanted to communicate to our guys was that what we’re doing here is the right thing, let’s not lose sight of that,” Mingione said. “But at the same time we had to help them understand that just because it’s right doesn’t mean it’s easy. Doing the right thing is sometimes really difficult.
“We had to tell them ‘there is no Omaha.’ That was really hard, because there were some tears shed. We’ve worked so hard for this moment and for those seniors at that time not knowing they’d have the chance to come back … I think sometimes not knowing what the future holds makes things harder.”
Another chance
The NCAA’s decision last week to grant spring sports athletes an extra year of eligibility leaves a lot of questions unanswered, but it does at least provide a framework for seniors around the country to return to school when the crisis passes and spend one more season pursuing their dreams.
“For the NCAA to rule that everyone will get an additional year of eligibility was the right thing to do,” Mingione said. “But with that comes a whole other layer. Obviously, there are a lot of questions. We had our seniors who we thought would be gone, now they have the opportunity to potentially come back. Just a ton of questions still, but I’m thankful we did the right thing giving these guys some opportunity to do something they wanted to do their entire life, and that’s play baseball.”
In college baseball, 11.7 scholarships are spread among the entire roster. Unlike in revenue sports such as basketball and football, most baseball players have partial, not full, scholarships.
“Which is kind of crazy, when you think about it,” Mingione said.
The NCAA decided that seniors who elect to return will not count against the scholarship limit in baseball, but schools will have the discretion to decide whether or not to honor those scholarships and allow a particular player to return. Such decisions are still a bit down the road, but Mingione expressed confidence UK will do right by its players.
“There haven’t been any decisions made, but one thing I know about (UK Athletics Director) Mitch Barnhart is that he’s going to do whatever is right. He’ll have a plan and process he’ll work through,” Mingione said. “Obviously, we’re just excited the NCAA has even put us in this position to allow these guys and these women in other sports to have the chance for another year of eligibility.”
Mingione also touched on the uncertainty surrounding recruiting in these unusual circumstances.
“The recruits are curious too about what’s going to happen because they’re sitting there thinking, ‘Will some of these seniors come back? I thought that guy was going to be gone, what does that mean for me and my opportunities?’” Mingione said. “Honestly. there are just more questions right now than answers.”
Making the adjustment
For the first time in more than half his life, Mingione is navigating a spring season during which he is not immersed in baseball.
“At first it was really, really hard,” Mingione said. “It had been over 25 years for me, going back to when I played, where this time of year I was either playing baseball or I’d been training people in baseball and competing. To get that taken away has been hard. Again, it’s clearly the right thing, but it’s been an adjustment. I so badly want to be training our team and preparing them for an opponent and competing.”
How has Mingione adjusted to this strange new world so far?
“The biggest thing I’ve had to do is create a routine. That has really helped me because I’m a process-driven person. I’m used to routines and our routines were taken away from us,” he said. “I continue to get up early, enjoy my quiet time and read God’s word. After breakfast I stay in my office at home, doing some email, phone calls, interview requests in the morning. I’ll do some research about how to advance our program. In the late afternoon and the evenings I spend that time with that little man (Mingione’s 5-year-old son Reeves) and my wife. I don’t want to miss that time.”
While it has been challenging for Mingione to be away from his players, he cherishes the extra time the circumstances have allowed him to spend with family.
“One of my neighbors said to me, ‘Nick, you may never get a spring like this with your son again,’” Mingione said. “I’ve definitely tried to take advantage of that while at the same time working behind the scenes to advance our program.”
What might have been?
Mingione believes this year’s Wildcats had the right formula to push the program to new heights. And, he’ll always regret missing out on the chance to learn exactly how good they would have become.
“I loved how much they cared about each other. When you can see other people celebrate their teammates’ successes like they were their own those are some really good teams. Mix that with the competitive edge and spirit these guys had and there’s something special,” Mingione said.
“I’m always going to wonder ‘what would that have been like, how would it have ended up?’ You could see the makings of a championship team coming. I’ll always wonder what these guys would have done.”
