Nick Mingione reflects on whether 2025 has been ‘rebuilding’ year

Kentucky was selected to the 2025 NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive year, marking a new program record in Lexington. The ‘Cats will head to the Clemson Regional, where they’ll join No. 1 seed Clemson, No. 2 seed West Virginia and No. 4 seed USC Upstate.

During a media opportunity on Tuesday, Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione was asked whether or not this season had been a rebuilding year.

“When you bring in, I think it was 30 new players, I wish I could tell you I knew how this would turn out but I didn’t,” Mingione said on Tuesday. “But what I did do was we were very intentional with how we tried to mesh and build our team from our leadership sessions to what we did in December with our lock-in.”

Kentucky staff overhauled the roster

Following the departure of seven of Kentucky’s nine offensive starters along with its entire starting rotation and multiple bullpen pieces, expectations were not that high for the program this season. However, the ‘Cats have scraped to a 29-24 (13-17) record and are dancing once again.

Things looked somewhat grim for a Kentucky program that ended its season on a four-game losing streak, but it was safely in the field and wasn’t even included in the “Last Four In”.

“The job our seniors have done and the guys that have been in our program for three or more years, I had them stand up yesterday after the Selection Show. All the players and staff members that have been here for three or more years and say ‘hey, you guys have done something that’s never been done.’ It wouldn’t have been possible without them. I knew it would be an absolute grind and even from our staff’s perspective, we were very intentional.”

This includes players such as graduate catcher Devin Burkes, senior third baseman Patrick Herrera and senior left-handed pitchers Jackson Nove and Evan Byers. This foursome is the lone in Kentucky Baseball history to experience three NCAA Tournament appearances.

“I challenged our staff this year that I would do whatever we can… financially we would pay, do whatever it is for them to get better. Including myself. Our staff has done that from our athletic trainers to getting more certifications to our coaches watching an attending clinics, we knew we had to be at our best for these guys for us to do something.”

No. 3 seed Kentucky opens play against No. 2 seed West Virginia on Friday at noon EST in the Clemson Regional.