Basebulls lose to Bethune 4-3

[Paisa el Toro]

How can Prado go from Louisville, where he left them in a great position to make multiple post-season appearances after he left, and totally do the opposite here at USF? I don't follow college baseball enough to know whether it was Prado's supporting staff or the facilities at the Ville that made such a drastic difference over there.

[Cow Pie]

This loss is embarrassing Evansville, Elon, Bethune Cookman are high school like teams that we should be pounding into the ground... hopefully this is just all fallout from playing in a high school stadium for so long... now that we have a world class facility we need to be consistently getting better and improving.

[SattyBull]

Eddie won without the benefit of better facilites.

I see this statement all the time. I didn't start going to USF until a couple years ago, but I have been following college baseball since I was pretty young.

The great push in facilities in college baseball did not come until the past 5 years. Cardieri's last postseason appearance was 2002.

Jay Bergman Field at UCF opened in 2001.

Mckethan Stadium at UF underwent extensive renovation in 2006.

**** Howser at FSU was renovated (2 yr $12 mill) in 2004

Melching Field at Stetson opened in 1999.

I won't even go into the stadium construction going on around other parts of the country.

Also, teams like UNF and FGCU weren't around and they're pretty competitive in baseball.

So yes, Cardieri technically won with those facilities back in the 90's, but college baseball is not the same it used to be.

[SattyBull]

Elon, Bethune Cookman are high school like teams that we should be pounding into the ground...

Anyone that says this is oblivious to college baseball. While Bethune Cookman benefits from playing in a weak conference, both schools have been to the NCAA tournament more times in the past few years than we've been in the last decade.

And I'm not justifying Prado in any way. I said on the last page I'm disappointed with how he is performing and think we should give him just one more year.

[Bullpride08]

Might be a bit harsh to let him go without really having the benefit of the new facilities for a year or two.  Would you have come to USF to play ball in that glorified high school stadium we had last year?  

Not harsh at all.  The 'lack of facilities' excuse has become a major crutch for coaches at USF who do not produce.  No one is asking for exceptional production at USF, just solid competitiveness and the occasional post-season runs.  Saying 'lack of facilities' to even producing winning teams and lose to lowly DI schools is a cope out plain and simple.  Cardieri always produced a competitive team and often won a lot.

I'd rather think of coaches that produce well with poor facilities and imagine what they can do with good facilities-- coaches like Erickson, Cardieri Leavitt, Skip Holtz, and our men's soccer coach.  Don't listen to the excuses for coaches that don't produce like Prado and Heath.

[jg]

We have to do better. I think all involved know this and are not happy with the results thus far. Our new palace of a stadium should absolutely help recruiting better players and can no longer be used as an excuse.  Softball is not very good either, if we are bashing people. They lost to a 1 win Toledo team. That is pretty awful as well.

Prado is a great guy and I think he will turn it around. Barbosa and Carlin getting hurt does not help us for sure this year.

[Bull94]

Might be a bit harsh to let him go without really having the benefit of the new facilities for a year or two.  Would you have come to USF to play ball in that glorified high school stadium we had last year?  

Not harsh at all.  The 'lack of facilities' excuse has become a major crutch for coaches at USF who do not produce.  No one is asking for exceptional production at USF, just solid competitiveness and the occasional post-season runs.  Saying 'lack of facilities' to even producing winning teams and lose to lowly DI schools is a cope out plain and simple.  Cardieri always produced a competitive team and often won a lot.

I'd rather think of coaches that produce well with poor facilities and imagine what they can do with good facilities-- coaches like Erickson, Cardieri Leavitt, Skip Holtz, and our men's soccer coach.  Don't listen to the excuses for coaches that don't produce like Prado and Heath.

weren't you the one that argued that Leavitt's constant whining about needing a dining hall in order to compete was justified?

successful coaches succeed no matter the obstacles. Kelly won at Cincy with by far the worst facilities in the big east.

Prado's job at Uofl might have been easier because he had a top 2 program in the state. He had his pick of top players.

this state has a ton of really good programs and not just in D-1. we would be lucky to be the 4th choice behind the big 3 which have tremendous programs. I agree he needs to do better especially with all the money that's been dumped into the facilities.

[Cow Pie]

Elon, Bethune Cookman are high school like teams that we should be pounding into the ground...

Anyone that says this is oblivious to college baseball. While Bethune Cookman benefits from playing in a weak conference, both schools have been to the NCAA tournament more times in the past few years than we've been in the last decade.

And I'm not justifying Prado in any way. I said on the last page I'm disappointed with how he is performing and think we should give him just one more year.

Baseball aside, USF and all of its sports are supposed to be better then your average JUCO'ish program which Elon, Evansville, and Cookman are. Thus when we lose to a no-name school in any sport its embarrassing.

[Bullpride08]

Might be a bit harsh to let him go without really having the benefit of the new facilities for a year or two.  Would you have come to USF to play ball in that glorified high school stadium we had last year?  

Not harsh at all.  The 'lack of facilities' excuse has become a major crutch for coaches at USF who do not produce.  No one is asking for exceptional production at USF, just solid competitiveness and the occasional post-season runs.  Saying 'lack of facilities' to even producing winning teams and lose to lowly DI schools is a cope out plain and simple.  Cardieri always produced a competitive team and often won a lot.

I'd rather think of coaches that produce well with poor facilities and imagine what they can do with good facilities-- coaches like Erickson, Cardieri Leavitt, Skip Holtz, and our men's soccer coach.  Don't listen to the excuses for coaches that don't produce like Prado and Heath.

weren't you the one that argued that Leavitt's constant whining about needing a dining hall in order to compete was justified?

successful coaches succeed no matter the obstacles. Kelly won at Cincy with by far the worst facilities in the big east.

Prado's job at Uofl might have been easier because he had a top 2 program in the state. He had his pick of top players.

this state has a ton of really good programs and not just in D-1. we would be lucky to be the 4th choice behind the big 3 which have tremendous programs. I agree he needs to do better especially with all the money that's been dumped into the facilities.

Do you read much?  I don't mind a coach whining as long as he is winning.  Read what I said above and that is I prefer to lend credence, and are excited about our coaches who complain or desire better facilities but have produced with sub-par facilities.  Eddie Cardieri produced with the 'dump' you called, he came up short a lot but still won.  If you want to condemn me then talk about the fact I grew tired of Eddie and wanted a change, but in reality in that scenario it is careful what you wish for because Eddie was producing with what he had, relatively speaking of course.  So I can only imagine what he would have done with more in the facilities and budget department.

The same holds true with Leavitt.  Jim Leavitt did amazingly with NOTHING....working out of trailers, and he produced every step of the way.  So as a donor my excitement was thinking what he could have done with great facilities like a dining hall, and new practice fields etc.  Now Skip Holtz has done the same, produced with nothing at Uconn, ECU, and now USF...so it will be exciting to see them produce with state-of-the-art facilities.

The same argument goes for our soccer coach who's done amazing with nothing...  and for those that want to talk about softball...step back, take a chill pill, and go back and read Erickson's resume for a sec, and look at his overall record at USF.  Da man produced, and produced HUGE while coaching a team out of the SunDome basement, and playing on a field unworthy of most high school teams!!!!!

The problem I have, or rather I can't stomach, is giving a Prado or Heath the use of the 'poor facilities' argument.  Let me see them build there programs up to at least respectable levels before hearing incessant whining about facilities.  Lack of facilities, or for that matter new facilities, does not make up for an inability to recruit, coach, or manage...adding those facilities those weaknesses will still be present.

Look at Prado's record at Louisville, it is good but not great, and then look to see what UL has done in the 4.5 years since he left.  Just saying stats don't lie, and Louisville seems to have benefited by the departure of Prado...go figure that out.

[Ruger7mmmag]

There are more GREAT baseball prospects than UF, FSU and um can use so there shouldn't be any reason we shouldn't be able to generate the type of offense that should at the minimum beat these teams.  Just bc they went to the tournament, doesn't always mean they were really good if their conference stinks. 

It's pretty disheartening when we can't hit ANYONE regardless of who they are.  It's expected to struggle against teams like UM, FSU or whatever, but not against the majority of the teams on this schedule.  Especially in the BE where they are drawing from a much weaker pool of players.

Come on, baseball is played year round now in the south and starts at an early age where I'm seeing our 7 year old play Fall and Spring along with summer if we wanted to on travel teams.  Even if he's not playing, he's practicing bc that's what it takes baseball is so competitive these days in the south. 

Now contrast that with schools up north where playing baseball isn't even an option 5-6 months a year due to weather and you're telling me we can't field a team that can hit pitching that one usually would see in a decent 5A high school team here in the south?

In college with these bats, it doesn't take much to generate runs if you can make contact and run the bases with any sort of sense...