Why are we starting the game so late today against Valley?...

[maroonmania]

4:00 seems an awfully late start on a Sunday.

 

[patdog]

nm

 

[maroonmania]

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[OzarkaNSW]

nm</p>

 

[maroonmania]

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[maroonmania]

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[MSUArrowCS]

He's got cussin' in the dugout swag. Argument swag. HBP take-one-for-the-team swag. National CotY swag. Super in my third season swag. Lookin' like W swag. His swagger knows no foul pole.

 

[patdog]

I'm a fan of winning. And the jury's still out on him as to whether he's going to win enough at MSU. Last postseason was a good start, but the season was pretty average and we caught some good breaks in the regional when USM collapsed in their last 10 games and GA Tech got beat in the first round. I'm cautiously optimistic about him, but everybody jumping up and down and getting so excited about making a super regional last year needs to keep in mind that Crxxm got us to a Liberty Bowl and Polk II got us to a CWS. Both were fired for imcompetence a year later.

 

[Goat Grindin]

You and 8dog tried repeatedly to run down Cohen last year and you both looked foolish at the end. And this:<div><span style="font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">

Last postseason was a good start, but the season was pretty average and we caught some good breaks in the regional when USM collapsed in their last 10 games and GA Tech got beat in the first round.

</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">What the hell? Do you not cut him any breaks? Should Alabama blame their probable NCAA tourney bid on our collapse? That's ridiculous reasoning that only an MSU fan could make. We won the mf-ing regional, man. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">You NEVER give us the benefit of the doubt about anything. I mean, damn, what the hell do you want? I'll give you a hint: If Cohen can't get it done at MSU, the golden days of MSU baseball will never return. I don't see how anyone who loves baseball can be anything but ecstatic about what Cohen has done for our program: Embraces (and is part of) the MSU tradition, brought back our uniforms, started upgrading the field again, installed a work ethic, recruiting at the highest clip since the mid-90's, went to a Super Regional, and by damn he's starting to try different things to get our fans back in the seats, no matter how ghey (Dudes). </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">
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[patdog]

and the CWS trip. I'm not running Cohen down. Did you miss the part about being cautiously optimistic about him? But the fact is he barely got us in the tournament at allin year 3(we were a #3 seed), and we're picked to finish in the lower half of the SEC again in year 4. He inherited a disaster, so it's natural that it would take him a little while to turn it around. It looks like he may be doing so, but at some point soon he's got to start winning more games, getting better seeds, etc. </p>

 

[MSUArrowCS]

Ozarka is our resident expert on swag, is he not? If you like swag, then in my opinion, Cohen's your guy.

But as for the actual results, you won't find me defending much about our regular season performance last year. But getting to a Super and even the elimination game (6 outs from winning that too) was remarkable. Of course there was some luck involved, but making it that far by any means is an accomplishment worth jumping up and down for and increasing confidence in the coach. I think it's silly to suggest that we have to be cautious about enjoying that level of success.

If he tanks at some point, does anyone doubt that he'll be fired at that point? In the meantime, things are looking up.

 

[Goat Grindin]

Congratulations if you were right about both of those. I don't care.<div>
</div><div>Now, back to last year. If you're going to point out how many times Cohen got lucky, you also have to point to the fact that the SEC in baseball is akin to football, the past National Champs have come from there. Easily the toughest conference in the country. That sends all your #3 seed crap out the window. Obviously #8 in the SEC is good for Top 16 nationally, give or take. Cohen probably had a bigger rebuilding job than Mullen....at least Mullen was left a few SEC players.</div>

 

[patdog]

That year we actually beat the #1 seed in the winners bracket game instead of the #4 seed. As for sending "your #3 seed crap out the window," the fact is we were a #3 seed. It's not like they don't take into account how tough the SEC is when they assign seeds.

 

[Todd4State]

in basketball. It's hard to equate it to a bowl, but assuming you are one of the top 16 teams in the country, that's probably what? A NYD bowl like the Cotton maybe?

Anyway- I agree with you Pat in that we need to continue to make progress. Our program has made the CWS before and so we need to climb that mountain and get there year after to year to have a chance to win the NC. I think most would agree that we're at least headed in the right direction.

As far as your comment about the NCAA and the SEC- I'll be honest- I think the NCAA sometimes screws over the SEC to "be fair" to the northern teams. It's pretty silly. LSU probably should have gotten into the NCAA's last year in my opinion. Just an example.

I did think we got a good draw last year. But to Cohen's credit, he matched up Pollorena with USM- something Polk would not have done- and then he matched up Evan Mitchell with Austin Peay and saved our best starter Nick Routt for GT.

And I do agree too- that last year's team was not all that great. But they kind of endeared themselves to State fans because they played hard and they never gave up. And I think State fans noticed and appreciated that. There's something to be said for that. They certainly went as far as they could and if they had not had to play Florida, they go to Omaha I think. But, as it is we have to put ourselves in position to host regionals and things like that- just like the basketball team- to give us a better chance.

 

[patdog]

But to Cohen's credit, he matched up Pollorena with USM- something Polk would not have done- and then he matched up Evan Mitchell with Austin Peay and saved our best starter Nick Routt for GT.

Cohen managed the team to win the regional, not to win the first game. I understand that it takes a little guts to take a chance on losing game 1 without your best starter, but if your goal is to win the regional, it's the right move. Great decision by Cohen.