oxfordrebel wrote:lewindha wrote:oxfordrebel wrote:I've been one of the biggest Bianco supporters on here, and I still am. I was disappointed that he was out-coached this weekend (and he was, IMHO), but our guys were still the better team. This came down to exactly what I've been talking about all year--execution. We failed to execute. Saturday we left the door open and they scored 2 runs to win. Today we left the door open and they kicked it in.
What Bianco has done for this program is nothing short of amazing. I'm as disappointed as anyone. This afternoon I actually started calling the Diamond Rebs the Cubs of college baseball! I still think the curse viewpoint holds a lot of merit...LOL J/k...I hope! But while Bianco may have gotten out-coached this weekend (again, my opinion), he still was able to put us in position to win every single game. We made mental miscues and errors at the worst possible time and that's how you lose a SR.
You don't fire someone for taking you to 4 SRs in 5 years. That's just stupid. As long as we keep making this level it's only a matter of time before we break though. And if you look at teams that go to Omaha...Arizona State, Texas, LSU, Cal State-Fullerton, etc....they don't just go one year, it's like it's every year. Once we break through the Rebels will be a mainstay. And Bianco is the person who will get us there. I have faith in him. Yes, I think if nothing else he needs to re-evaluate some things. Perhaps situational hitting (why bunt when you have Henry at 2nd, Power at the plate and NO OUTS??), perhaps assistant coaches, perhaps pitching scenarios (146 pitches is a little excessive, even for Pom...). But in the end, Bianco took a team several folks on here and many Rebel fans left for dead back in March and led them the closest the Rebel program has ever been to Omaha. 5 outs. That's just 5 small outs away. One error that opened the door. 5 outs. That's pretty dadgum close.
So he has 8 months to pull it all together and do it all over again. And football in between that. Yeah, we're all disappointed, no doubt, but that's what SPORTS are all about. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Let's not lose sight of the great season this team had this season. And let's not sum up their entire season with a SR loss. These guys deserve our support for a job well done (overall) and we can get ready to go again next season.
While I don't share your optimism. And I look at this season as a failure, I'm not sure firing Bianco is the answer. You can't say give him another year when most already think next year should/could be a down year for us. I'm so frustrated right now, I don't know what to do.
I'm sick of this "let's congratulate them on an outstanding year and get ready for season" crap. Oxfordrebel, I hate to single you out, but you could've saved time by just inserting one of your season ending posts from the last four or five years. You guys like to compare Bianco to Nutt at Ark. In my mind I equate Atlanta in Football to Omaha in baseball. Maybe that's unfair, but most will agree, make it to Atlanta and you're either playing the title game or the Sugar. That's how I compare them and Nutt went to Atl what 2/3 times
don't really remember)? Bianco 9 years = 5 years of complete frustration in Super Regionals or 4 years. Whatever, you know what I'm saying.
I know I started the 'should Bianco be fired' thread a couple of weeks back and played Devil's Advocate, but I don't think that's the right call here. Pitching was good for the most part. Offense was pretty much non-existent after the Arkansas series. I think new hitting coaches are needed for sure. And make sure the new guy can teach players how to bunt since we're so determined to do it.
That's where you and I differ. See, my opinion is probably much different than...well...ANYONE on here. We all want to win a national championship. I'm no different. I was extremely upset this afternoon for a little bit. But I keep one thing in perspective. This is a SPORT. A game. It's not life and death here. These are also 18-22 year old kids playing the game, not paid pro athletes. They have little to no scholarship money and they do it for pride and the faint hope of being picked up after college by a pro organization, and to get an education. And for Bianco and his assistants, this is their career. Their life. It's not like this is something they can just do for fun. But we do. We do this entirely for fun. I don't like seeing them lose and that's no fun for me, but in the end it all comes down to the fact that for us, the fans, this is a game.
Want to call this season that these kids played their hearts out for a failure? That's your decision. As for me, there's nothing I can do about the loss today and the season ended, and it's certainly not my call as to who stays and who goes (thank goodness!), so I choose to focus on the good things rather than the bad...for the most part. Sure I could make you a list of negatives, but I'm not going to. Instead I'm just as proud as can be that our guys out there represented Ole Miss with class and strength. They laid it all on the line and came up just 5 outs short. Only 8 teams are going to make it out of this weekend and it's going to take a ton of luck for them to make it. If Ole Miss is one of them, all the better. If not, I'm not going to ignore all the good things that were done this season and call it a failure. And I don't believe not one single player on this team would call it a failure either.
My father and I have this same discussion all the time, but I don't believe it's all about 'W's and 'L's. Leave that outlook for the pro game when it becomes an athlete's job. In college it's about did they go out there and leave it all on the field. And as a fan, did you enjoy the ride this season? I did. I would enjoy seeing it last past today, but I can handle it ending. It's still just a game.
Yeah, I probably could just copy and paste last year's post, but now you know why. To each his own.
I truly am glad you can have the Joel Osteen attitude about this entire situation, I wish I could. I am exhausted, sunburned, and very frustrated. People might not agree with my opinion, I really don’t care. In no way do I think I have the magic answer to getting Ole Miss to Omaha, if somebody does please share it so we will stop being heartbroken year after year. I do know that what they are doing is not working. I will share what I observed today:
We did not take the field with the same energy Virginia displayed. Their catcher ran around the team in circles like a lunatic, pumping them up.
Bianco got outcoached and did some things a little league coach could question. Here are a few. Bunting with Henry at 2nd with no outs and your career rbi leader at the plate… Also, bunting when everybody in the world knows it’s coming and not being able to execute the d*** thing. I think he messed up with at least 2 personnel decisions. I don’t know David Phillips and he might be a beast in practice but I just can’t justify playing him over guys like Hubbard and Travis, based on his game performances. Virginia coaches were very proactive in making sure their pitchers did not let the game get away from them. They kept people in the pen a good bit. We did not. Bianco waits until a pitcher is in shambles to warm somebody up. That is killer when there is no next game.
The bats were stone cold..We could have used plastic bats and I don’t know if we would have been any less productive. Not getting hits is one thing but there were several horrible at bats, guys just getting k’ed up holding the bat.
Having said all of that, we just didn’t look like we were playing with a sense of urgency. There were several times players that just looked like they were playing a regular season game. I sat on top of our dugout and the only players I saw really trying to pump players up were Brett Bukvich and Rory Mckean. I am sure there were others and I just missed them, but that is the only two I noticed. That is a problem. I agree with what somebody else said about changing recruiting. I don’t necessarily think you have to recruit size but you have to start getting guys with home run power. I also think you have to start recruiting guys that would rather die than lose. You can’t coach competitiveness and pride, you either have it or you don’t.
Pitching was not the problem. They pitched well enough all weekend to win but you cannot commit errors, not get timely hits, and then expect to win.
I also became really aggravated when I looked over to my right to see Pete Boone walk to the Virginia fans, point to them and start clapping. He then walks to some guy, smiles and gives him 5. I am all for being a good sport, but I would like to see a little more disappointment from the athletic director after playing like *beep* in the deciding game of another super regional. I understand it is a game but it is not to him, but it is part of his job.
I would also like Bianco to start taking some of the blame. He is a coach, comes with the territory. He gets the praise when they win. He should be willing to shoulder some of the blame and at least say, I have to evaluate some of my decision making and try to improve as a coach because we just aren’t getting it done when it counts most. I know this regular season was a success but the goal was not to win the SEC. The goal was to get to Omaha. So we did fail. I am all for seeing the glass half full and I might sound like the sky is falling. It just seems like most people are playing the law of averages and thinking we will eventually get lucky and break through because some team will *beep* up worse than we do! It’s embarrassing, we have been the premier baseball program in MS for years, but we are the only team that hasn’t earned a trip to Omaha. I am sorry that *beep* me off. It wouldn’t be as bad if Southern and Arkansas weren’t in. What in hell do they have that we do not?
Again, I am not saying fire Bianco but I think people that think we would somehow fall from grace are flat out wrong. If you haven’t looked around at our facilities, they are as nice as anybody’s in the country. If you haven’t looked at our girls they are as pretty as any in the country. Like it or not, for the most part college baseball, in the south anyway, is a game played by well of whites. We can recruit with anybody. Our football and basketball programs have a harder time recruiting against some perennial powers for various reasons. Lsu is really the only team I can think of that would have a recruiting advantage over us in the SEC.
I guess I am just disappointed but it gets old. I am through rambling. Can somebody put up the countdown till kickoff clock?
