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Baseball Changes=Smallcomb Gone??

anon22

Active member
I am starting to entertain the fact that I think UNC should look into the recent performance of the baseball team and consider canning Smallcomb. Any thoughts?
 
There record of late has certainly been bad but I always wonder what our baseball program is up against. Do they have the same recruiting resources as other programs. One would think that they would have better resources that a team like houston Baptist (that swept the Bears). It's hard to tell what the problem is from here in Maryland.
 
Baseball has tended to be the sacrificial lamb, but this year's struggles are more from a change in philosophy: fewer JUCO recruits into the program, more freshmen, esp. pitching. On the positive side, Kevin's coaching staff is as strong as its been since he's been here, and recruits well. Also, next year, FWIW, baseball moves into the Great West, which, at least, assures of home games in conference, but the travel still will suck.

With one series at home weathered out, baseball's been on the road for 23 straight before today's game v. Air Force, and they have 3 this weekend at Dallas Baptist before playing eight of nine at Jackson.

I'll still argue Jackson upgrades need to happen--esp. when home baseball games at night could be a draw, and help the finances, as opposed to softball, where the fan interest is much less, yet lights were put in at their field.
 
Here are my thoughts and frustrations behind my reasoning to consider firing Smallcomb.

1) UNC baseball has been a storied program, is rich with tradition, and basically put UNC division-I athletics "on the map" so to speak back before they moved to D-II. In my opinion, I think that both the administration, and Smallcomb do not reflect or impose that tradition upon its players, assistant coaches, and members of the Greeley community, and it is time for a change.

2) Recent performance on the field has regressed over the years. In the early years of the transition back to D-I, baseball had some big wins over top ranked teams - which I believe supported the fact that UNC is a desirable place for local and regional talent to play. Colorado has a talented pool of high school players to recruit from, and always entertain the fact of playing baseball in state at the only state-funded D-I baseball program in Colorado. In addition, junior colleges in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Northwest Texas, Utah and even Arizona boast a great talent pool to recruit from. However, more recently, assistant coaches have been conducting the recruiting (which is not odd, and is more common among all baseball programs across the country), however, the turnover among these assistants does not add any value to a players decision to come play at the school. So when the recruiting is turned over to Smallcomb who is not a superb recruiter, it translates to sub-par on the field performance.

3) Troy, to your point about the current assistant coaches. I do agree that these coaches add great value to the baseball program, which relates to my previous point. I do not want to see these coaches move on, like previous ones in recent years. I believe that Ryan Strain is a perfect fit for the head man of this program, and it should happen soon before another opportunity becomes available. Strain is young, can relate to a younger generation of players, especially the freshmen that are being brought in, is approachable, and has tremendous baseball roots within his family--especially UNC baseball roots (His father played for UNC when they last reached the College World Series in the '70s, and currently has ties to a major league baseball organization)

In my opinion, I think its about time that a change is made.
 
Ya I didn't realize how good UNC was back in the day, one night I was bored and I found the history of baseball at UNC on their sports website, they made the college world series a few of times.

I haven't had to chance to go watch UNC this year, well they haven't played that many homes games, but I knew they were going to struggle this year because they are VERY young. They had only a hand full of returning guys, and the rest were freshman and juco transfers. The up side is maybe these freshman can develop into some solid ball players.

I agree. The talent in Colorado is very solid. I played high school baseball at the 3A level, and even at that level there's some good talent, not as much as the 4A and 5A levels. You see plenty of kids from Colorado go play for big D1 schools, mostly the Big 12 schools, look at Burns from Rocky Mountain went to Kentucky just think if UNC were able to land that kind of talent. I always wonder why kids don't go to UNC, it's D1 and close to home, they play a lot of the big name programs. I guess there's more to it than just that. Also Colorado does have some good juco programs, lamarcc is always nationally ranked.

I feel that should be one of the main priorities as well making upgrades to jackson, is keeping that talent here, for instance look at Tyler Wallace from Eaton. Was gonna go to Nebraska, decided against it and now going to UNC, and he's a stud. I watched him play my old high school and he's someone that can come in and help right away.

The other thing too is now that UNC is finally getting into a conference and being eligible for post season play might draw some of that talent. I feel UNC can have some success in this new conference, because it is going to be kinda weak.

Don't know what to say about Smallcomb's future, this team has had some quality wins, they beat southern miss, Nebraska and should've beat new mexico and kansas. But got swept by houston baptist who had only won 2 or 3 games prior to that series with UNC. I'm sure he is definitely on the hot seat.
 
Ridiculous post. If you look at Smallcomb's tenure at UNC, the argument can be made that he is the most successful coach.

Name me one other UNC program (especially male programs) that has topped a nationally-ranked foe? Which UNC programs could go on the road and beat Nebraska or Arkansas? Well the baseball program has done that. They've won independent championships and put people into professional baseball.

Look at the football program. They are fully funded, have a decent stadium to play in and get all the benefits of a nice practice field, etc. Everything they could hope for. But they are PATHETIC.

Baseball has NOTHING. Smallcomb actually has less scholarships than he did when he got there 6 years ago. They play at a field that hasn't had any renovations in many years. No lights, a horrible visitors dugout, not much of a home locker room, etc. With just a little investment, Jackson Field could be a great place to play baseball. Get some lights, have some nightgames, get a liquor license and sell some beer. People would flock to games there (more than will ever go to any softball game).

But the administration isn't serious about supporting baseball. I'm surprised it hasn't been cut yet, but I'm guessing Hinrichs would suffer a big backlash from the baseball community and alums who built the program.

I agree about the assistants. You should realize they don't make a lot of money. For Smallcomb's first 4-5 years he had one assistant coach that was paid and he made a ridiculously low amount of money (and that is why he isn't there anymore). You can't expect assistants to stick around when they aren't getting paid anything.

Hopefully with baseball joining the Great West they'll have some more home games and can win a few more contests. You aren't going to win much playing independent baseball (which makes what Smallcomb did in his early years with the team even more impressive).
 
UNCBearsSupporter said:
Ridiculous post. If you look at Smallcomb's tenure at UNC, the argument can be made that he is the most successful coach.

Name me one other UNC program (especially male programs) that has topped a nationally-ranked foe? Which UNC programs could go on the road and beat Nebraska or Arkansas? Well the baseball program has done that. They've won independent championships and put people into professional baseball.

But the administration isn't serious about supporting baseball. I'm surprised it hasn't been cut yet, but I'm guessing Hinrichs would suffer a big backlash from the baseball community and alums who built the program.

I'm not disputing the fact that UNC baseball may be one of the most successful programs at the school since moving to D-I, but I don't want to get caught up in comparing different sports within the same university. I would rather compare UNC baseball to elite (yet viable, and attainable) BASEBALL programs within the region, not with football or other sports at UNC. In my opinion, this train of thought leads straight to mediocrity. Tell me this. How does a team beat the likes of Arkansas, Nebraska, sweep Kansas, battle Wichita State for 14 innings, but find ways to lose to Utah Valley, Air Force, and South Dakota State in the same season? There must already be some sort of talent (evident in the big wins) but there also must be complacecy, and lack of focus (evindent in the bad losses). Trust me, I was in the dugout for the big wins and the independent championships, and also there for the losses to Air Force, and all of Smallcomb's teams emulate his coaching nature, and his personality. The talent was there, and still will continue to be there, its a matter of being able to have 30 guys on your roster to want to play for your coaches, school, and community....that was never there, and this pride starts at the top--the head coach.

As far as the adminstration goes: It has never supported baseball since the transition. It was first in line to get axed a few years ago, yet alumni and boosters would not let this happen. Major changes need to be made to the facilities and scholarships increased. Hinrichs has seen what it takes to make this happen. He made it happen at Kansas, where in his final year of his AD tenure he aided in adding a state of the art scoreboard to the baseball field. There are budget constraints at UNC that aren't at Kansas, I recognize that, however, it is difficult to get started in the right direction when the head coach and AD are not on the same page.
 
UNCBearsSupporter said:
Ridiculous post. If you look at Smallcomb's tenure at UNC, the argument can be made that he is the most successful coach.

Name me one other UNC program (especially male programs) that has topped a nationally-ranked foe? Which UNC programs could go on the road and beat Nebraska or Arkansas? Well the baseball program has done that. They've won independent championships and put people into professional baseball.

Look at the football program. They are fully funded, have a decent stadium to play in and get all the benefits of a nice practice field, etc. Everything they could hope for. But they are PATHETIC.

Baseball has NOTHING. Smallcomb actually has less scholarships than he did when he got there 6 years ago. They play at a field that hasn't had any renovations in many years. No lights, a horrible visitors dugout, not much of a home locker room, etc. With just a little investment, Jackson Field could be a great place to play baseball. Get some lights, have some nightgames, get a liquor license and sell some beer. People would flock to games there (more than will ever go to any softball game).

But the administration isn't serious about supporting baseball. I'm surprised it hasn't been cut yet, but I'm guessing Hinrichs would suffer a big backlash from the baseball community and alums who built the program.

I agree about the assistants. You should realize they don't make a lot of money. For Smallcomb's first 4-5 years he had one assistant coach that was paid and he made a ridiculously low amount of money (and that is why he isn't there anymore). You can't expect assistants to stick around when they aren't getting paid anything.

Hopefully with baseball joining the Great West they'll have some more home games and can win a few more contests. You aren't going to win much playing independent baseball (which makes what Smallcomb did in his early years with the team even more impressive).


To be honest college baseball is probably the ONLY, maybe college basketball, college sport where you'll see lower level D1 schools beat higher level schools frequently. I've seen NAIA schools take down D1 schools. Not to say UNC's wins over bigger school was luck. I'm sure the talents there, but something is up when you beat a team like Southern Miss or Nebraska, and then turn around and get swept by Houston Baptist who had only won 2 or 3 PRIOR to that series with UNC.

I agree football will always be the golden child at any school, and baseball will be treated like a red headed step child. Smallcomb has made due with what he's got, but people said the same thing about Dowining that he wasn't getting the money, scholarships etc. Still he hasn't produced much either.
 
Something else to note: 3 pitchers had the season end with Tommy John surgeries. I haven't heard the latest, but a 4th may have been headed that way. Pure, dumb, bad luck has as much to do with this year's woes as anything.
 

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