Baseball America’s Preseason 2012 College All-Star Teams are out and guess who’s NOT on the First, Second, or Third teams?  That’s right – two time College World Series hero, 2011 National ERA leader (1.10), and post-season BA first-team All-American, Michael Roth.

Based on these opening sentences, you would think that we at TRC are miffed by this obvious omission.  Well, think again.  We follow BA pretty closely and think a lot of Aaron Fitt and their college baseball coverage.  We really do.  That said, we are thanking BA for yet again giving Roth and the Gamecock baseballers some motivation.

Sure, BA came up with an entirely new category of featured players call “Roth Stars,” headlined by none other than – you guessed it – Michael Roth.  These “Roth Stars” are guys BA considers great college baseball players but not “top propects.”

Well, there it is again.  While Roth is a “great” pitcher, he’s not a “top prospect” in the eyes of BA.  This line of thinking by BA is oh-so-familiar around here, and quite frankly just what the Doctor ordered.

I remember a couple of years ago when Blake Cooper was left off all of BA’s post season All-America teams while guys like Drew Pomeranz (First Team) and Gerrit Cole (Second Team)  were selected.  What happened next?  Well, I think we all remember Blake beating UCLA (with Cole on the mound, no less) on three days rest in Game 1 of the CWS Finals. (Oh, for good measure Cooper out dueled Pomeranz as the Gamecocks beat Ole Miss in a masterpiece earlier that season.)

That CWS performance, as well as the 2010 National Championship by the Gamecocks, were chalked up by BA as gritty overachievements by a team of only modest talent.  In 2011, there was more of the same from BA.  Sure, the Gamecocks were pretty good, but the talent at UVA, Vanderbilt, and Florida (whoa, those STUDS at Florida) was going to be too much.

Even UConn was considered by BA to be superior to the 2011 Gamecocks.  I remember listening to a BA Super Regional Preview podcast where Fitt and John Manuel couldn’t resist picking the uber-talented Huskies with future first-rounder George Springer and some 6-6 pitcher who threw something like 150 mph over the “good” but “at the end of the line” Gamecocks.  (Lest you guys forgot, the Cocks swept Springer and his mates).

In the 2011 CWS, BA continued to fawn over anyone not in a Gamecock uniform.  After all, UVA, with BA’s All-American Boy Danny Hultzen, was on our side of the bracket.  There was no way we were going to come out of it.

“Nice work Gamecocks, but here’s where you get off” was the attitude of the BA guys.   Of course, BA foresaw a UVA-Florida final since those teams (like UCLA the year before with Cole and ESPN Wunderkind Trevor “I’m the Greatest But I Never Pitched” Bauer) had all the “top prospects.”  Well, after disposing of UVA, the scrappy, David-like Gamecocks slew the Goliath-like Gators  in two games (including one with Mr. Less than Top Prospect Michael Roth on the mound).  So much for those BA prognostications.

We realize that the Gamecock baseball program has gotten some love.  Heck, BA featured Roth on the cover of its season preview magazine.  Thanks BA, but thanks also for continuing to devalue the Gamecocks on occasion.  This team seems to thrive on the notion that the establishment continues to doubt the ability of guys like Roth (there’s no mention of Matt Price either).

BA and others get all caught up in “measurables” and “draftability” when picking All-Star teams.  What writers sometimes overlook are the intangibles like desire, work ethic, and attitude that make a good player into a great player.  Remember that First-team BA All-American Mark Zunino sailed a key throw into center field last year in Game 1 of the CWS Finals.  Compare that to the stellar defense played by the “no names” on the Gamecock roster.  Guys like Wingo, Beary, and Williams.

So, thank you BA for lumping Roth in on the “Roth Stars”, while including some guy from Duke who won 3 games last year compared to Roth’s 12 on your AA team.  It’s ok.  It really is.  The Gamecock baseball team needs to remain anti-establishment as long as it can.  That’s our edge.  It’s what sets us apart.

Oh, and here’s hoping that Greg Maddux has a son one day who looks kind of scrawny and doesn’t throw too hard. Could be our future #1 starter.

Actual, non-retouched, screencap from the website of our favorite, loveable, CTU Head Cheerleader.

Please provide your own caption:

As a new feature of TRC, and because the college sports world is dead as a doornail at the moment, we have decided to sift through the thousands of hundreds of dozens of email question we received this week and actually take the time to provide an answer.  After all, we have a civic duty to share with the general public the unending wealth of know-it-all-ness that has been bestowed upon us.  So please send us your email questions and from time to time we will maybe think about possibly answering. As always, your privacy is of utmost importance to us, so only your first name, last initial, and city and state will be shared.

This week’s question comes to us from Eric:

 Dear TRC,

I am the athletic director at a major university in the state of South Carolina that plays in the Southeastern Conference, and am coming up on a huge decision on whether or not to keep my men’s basketball coach.  A few years ago, I had to relieve the previous head coach because of consistently average performance.  He only made it to one NCAA tournament in eight years, and had just come off two consecutive losing seasons.  I will confess that this coach did win back-to-back NIT Championships while in our employ, but in my mind winning the NIT is about like being the smartest person at a Clemson football banquet.  Sure, it sounds impressive, but once you look at the competition it turns out to not be such a big deal.

Anyway, we relieved said coach of his duties, and proceeded to hire a guy who looked like a real up-and-comer from a mid-major school that had just finished a run to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament.  He hadn’t really been a hot commodity prior to the tournament, but I admit it’s easy to get caught up in all that March Madness hype and Gus Johnson screaming through the TV like he’s fallen from an airplane.  I was mesmerized, and we brought the guy and his up-tempo style and purported recruiting prowess to our school.  

His first year went pretty well, as he led the team to a 21-10 record, and even though we lost in the first round of the NIT to a school from North Carolina (all schools from North Carolina are really really good in basketball) we felt like the program was on the right track.  Fan support was the best it had been in years, and I thought the hire was a real home run (sorry for the baseball reference, but I love that sport).  

But the last three years our teams have been progressively worse.  In his fourth year the team is 9-15 and in last place in the conference by two games.  Our recruiting class for next year has fallen apart, attendance is embarrassingly low, and unless the young guys on the team now learn to shoot, pass and rebound in the next few months, 2012-2013 doesn’t look much better.

There’s only a small faction of supporters for this coach now, and their only reasoning seems to be that they don’t want to start over again with a new coach.  They’re asking for patience. 

Oh, and one last thing I should mention – in our excitement early on we accidentally gave this coach a contract extension and his buyout is currently $2 million dollars if I fire him.  The good news is the buyout drops to $1.5 million in April.  

Help me TRC, what should I do?

Sincerely,

Eric H., Columbia, SC

Dear Eric,

Sounds like quite a mess you have yourself in there.  Hopefully your other sports are in much better shape than basketball.

My first piece of advice – don’t do contract negotiations/extensions while drinking.

Second, the world of sports in 2012 is a “win now” business.  A coach might not have to win big right away – unless they’re at a school like Kentucky, North Carolina or Kansas – but it’s reasonable to expect steady progress after four years.  And to be in last place in the SEC, a conference that hasn’t exactly been lighting it up in basketball recently, after four years on the job is simply not acceptable.  I don’t care about history or tradition, you have to be better than that.

It’s a tough call, Eric, and I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes.  But think about next year and the year after.  What if you keep coming in last, and people continue to stay away from your games?  What about the impact in ticket sales, and the overall perception of your program?  One and a quarter million dollars is a painful price to pay, but the long-term price could be much higher if you bet on this guy long-term and lose.  Plus, starting over isn’t always such a bad thing.

Let him go, Eric.  And give your wife the keys to the scotch cabinet.

Sincerely,

Ask TRC

You know what would be a bad idea?  A really, really BAD idea?

Trying to foist a football rivalry on two schools that have only played each other a couple/three times and are separated by almost 900 miles, that’s a BAD idea.  It seems forced.  It seems desperate.  It seems amateurish.

It seems to imply that we don’t have rivalries, when in fact we have rivalries galore.  Our rivalry with CTU to the side (I mean, at some point don’t they have to actually beat us in a major sport again to qualify this as a rivalry? (Tweet that.  (yes I’m now in the third parenthetical thought (deal with it)))) we still have a pretty heated contest each year with the folks up in Athens.  And the UT/SC Halloween game is always a spectacle.  The HBC has added a dimension to the UF/SC tilt.  And then we have the natural rivalry that pops up every year with whatever North Carolina school volunteers for their inevitable spanking.

The idea is based, apparently, on the fact that our two universities are located in cities with the same name.   Nevermind that we call ours “Cola” while they call their’s “CoMo.”  Forget that the football history between the two schools includes basically two games – both of which found the Gamecock players completely losing interest at halftime. And forget that the mean temperature of Columbia, MO is a cool 64 degrees while the same measurement is never even taken in Columbia, SC (our thermometers melt every July). Pastides believes we MUST have a football rivalry!

Count me as a solid “Nay” vote on this proposition.

Or wait, lets go the OTHER way – lets make EVERYONE our rival based on random similarities between completely disconnected facts.  For Example:

– Battle for the Tailgate:  South Carolina’s Fairgrounds and The Grove at Ole Miss

– Battle for the Bag of Fried Chicken:  We have a Bojangles right next to the Stadium and CTU has a Chick-fila on its campus – wait, it doesn’t?

– Battle for the Towns that Sherman Burned Down:  Savannah doesn’t have D1 football, so I’ll go with SC/GTech

– Battle for the Holtz:  SC/Arkansas (although Lou still loves us and hate the stinking hog crap outa them for some reason)

– Battle for the Blowfish:  We had Hootie, Kansas had Mangino

– Battle for the Base:  We can see Fort Jackson, The Cuban National Soccer Team can see Gitmo.

See how ridiculous it is to partner random similarities and try to extract some meaning?

Dr. Pastides, let me offer the following illustration to assist you in discussing our rivalries.  Starting with the top left and traveling clockwise around the photo below, our rivals must 1) have fans in line there today, 2) be located east of this thing, 3) been sponsored at some point by this, and 4) always consider mustard as a condiment here.

OK, I’ve been really hesitant to go to this place, because Andy Demetra seems like a nice enough guy, and there’s no doubt he loves what he’s doing.  The Gamecock Nation seems to be really neutral towards him.  I honestly never see anything written about him anywhere, good or bad. 

But following him on Twitter is a maddening exercise in positivity overload, and it came to a crescendo last night with this:

The fact that this was retweeted 14 times and favorited twice notwithstanding, WHAT THE HELL?!?

I love Scott Wingo, he’s one of the great Gamecocks of all time, and I’m a diehard Gamecock fan as evidenced by the fact that I write for free about it on an independent blog (looooooserrrrrr). 

BUT MR. WINGO WOULD NOT BE SHOWING MR. MANNING INTO ANYTHING.  MR. WINGO WOULD BE PARKING MR. MANNING’S CAR BECAUSE MR. WINGO HAD NOT PLAYED A SINGLE GAME AT SOUTH CAROLINA WHEN MR. MANNING WAS WINNING HIS FIRST SUPER BOWL!!!

I know, I know, it’s harmless.  Because of his employment situation, Andy is a Gamecock superhomer and into pandering.  I have accepted that.  But sometimes the fact that Mike Morgan is no longer our play-by-play guy hits me and I get a little flustered. 

I’ve calmed down…wait, he tweeted WHAT?!?

I think (Horn) is doing a fine job. South Carolina’s hard. Hard deal to get going. That’s why you’ve got to stick with a guy, and you’ve got to give him seven, eight years, and let him get it going.

– John Calipari, University of Kentucky Head Coach

We should really thank Coach Cal for his opinion, even though he appears to be trying to wave down a train that left the station about a month ago. And it’s pretty easy for a guy like him to chime in: secure in his job; secure for life financially; leading one of the premiere programs in the country; able to look at the top 20 high school players in America and say, “OK, I’ll take him, him, him, annnnd the 6’10” guy over there who can step on campus and average 15 and 10 every night.”

In last night’s post game, after Kentucky’s 86-52 win over South Carolina (the score makes the game look closer than it really was, folks), Calipari continued to lobby for Horn by saying something to the effect, “If South Carolina or its fans want to restart every three or four years that’s their business but that’s not how I would run things.”

Thanks Coach, but it’s obvious you’re trying to protect one of your own. Trying to single-handedly stabilize the college coaching profession. Your effort is noble and appreciated, but the defense of Darrin Horn is growing weaker by the game.

First of all, nobody associated with the Gamecock program WANTS to restart every three or four years.  Prior to Horn, Eddie Fogler had eight years and Dave Odom had seven years at the helm.  Both guys had moderate success, but followed that success with average to poor seasons that led to their respective retirements. Enter the young guy, the hot coaching prospect fresh off a Sweet 16 with Western Kentucky to bring long-term stability to our program.

But anyone with eyes can see that things have gone in the tank for our program at lightning speed under the leadership of Darrin Horn, and when you look ahead to 2012-2013 and beyond I’m not sure it makes us feel better that this is the proverbial “young” team.  Allow me to rehash a few tidbits from the end of last year until now:

• Ramon Galloway, one of our top returning players, mysteriously transfers out of the program. I don’t know if anyone knows the real story of why he left, but he would be a nice piece to have on this team. Currently averaging 15 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists for LaSalle.
• Murphy Holloway, in one of the more bizarre transfer stories of all time, transfers to USC from Ole Miss, sits on our bench and practices with us for an entire season, then decides to transfer back to Ole Miss.  Currently averaging 10 points and 9 rebounds for Ole Miss.
• November brings losses to Elon on the road and Tennessee State at home
• In December our top two commitments for 2012-2013, Ian Baker and Carlos Morris, jump ship due to perceived instability with the program
• Currently ranked 284th in the country in points per game
• Currently ranked 289th in the country in rebounds per game
• Currently ranked 328th in the country in assists per game
• Currently ranked 266th in the country in shooting percentage

Besides those facts, just watching our team gives you the sinking feeling that we’re either a) sorely lacking in talent or b) not coached very well.  I’m certainly not here to bash the players.  I appreciate those guys, that they chose to attend USC, and that they pour their heart out every chance they get to play.  But you can’t escape from the fact that players like Brian Richardson and Lakeem Jackson were brought in to be cornerstones of the program, and now they’re fighting to just get a few minutes every game.

Whose fault is that?  I’m going to give the players the benefit of the doubt that they’re working hard and trying to get better every day.  And if that’s the case, then the coaching staff is not developing these guys, or they’re not being put into a system that gives them a chance to complete, much less win.

Look, a lot of people have been talking about “realistic expectations” in defense of Horn when it comes to our program.  I get that.  There is not a single program in a major conference with resources like ours that has underachieved more in the last 40 years.  (Name one, please, to make me feel better.)

But that doesn’t mean we should accept it.  And it doesn’t mean we should turn a blind eye to all the arguments that are starting to build up against Darrin Horn. He wasn’t brought in to be a miracle worker, but he also wasn’t brought in to a bare cupboard either, as evidenced by our 21-10 record his first year.

I’m not screaming for the dismissal of Darrin Horn. Despite taking the time to jot these few words down, I quite frankly don’t care a whole lot at this point.

And that may be the biggest indictment of all.

Someone has one last Letter of Intent to send you.

Happy National Signing Day Y’all!

If you aren’t reading the NSD Game Thread on the College Football Reddit, then you are missing a ton of this:

Help me out here, how many stages of grief are there?  Upon hearing about the Jeep Hunter dismissal, the editorial staff at TRC probably blew through them all in short order.  We went from #1 Groggy Comprehension (Huh, who?  Hey, I was asleep – don’t call me right after lunch!), to #2 Curious Googling (Oh, THAT Jeep Hunter), to #3 Bargaining (Look, I’ll buy you a beer if you will STOP talking about Jeep Hunter) to #4 Acceptance (Hey, Whaddyagonnado?) in the short span of a half work day.

With that now behind us (and a long weekend to drink off the other, more upsetting, news that decrepit Madonna is providing the Super Bowl halftime show) we here at TRC are now mentally prepared to give you our rundown of the top ten DB coaching candidates, with unassailable reasons why they will all-ALL, MIND YOU- be considered by the HBC:

10.  Willie Martinez.  Former Defensive Coordinator for UGa, Martinez is well-known for having roomed with Mark Richt during their mutual time on the University of Miami’s football team.  Think about that for a minute:  he survived rooming with the most boring man in all of sport.  That alone is a strong testimony to his will and self-determination.

9.  Charlize Theron.  Well, more accurately the character she played in Three Days in the Valley.  Or maybe that Sci-Fi flick where she jumped around in the black unitard.  Hot as hell in both those movies, and I’d pay some serious scratch to watch her prowl the sweaty sidelines at the WB.

8. Charlize Theron in all the other movies she did.  Except Monster – that was gross.

7.  Troy Douglas.  Formerly of UNCarolina, Mr. Douglas has a solid reputation of joining programs on the verge of NCAA probation, and then reconstructing a serviceable pass defense despite the eligibility Armageddon.  Not saying that is about to happen here BUT OH MY GOD WHAT IF WE GET HAMMERED FOR WHITNEYGATE I HATE YOU JOE PERSON!!!

6.  Dr. T. Berry Brazelton.  You may or may not remember him, but his “touchpoints” approach to defense got me through a rough ten years or so of dealing with young people.

5.  Duce Staley/ Terry Cousins/ Chris Rumph/ Steve Taneyhill/ Mark Dantonio.  Because this is the internet, and that is the sort of nonsense we are required to discuss.

4.  Vic Koenning.  He is available still, right?  Got let go with the Zooker up at Illinois, I think.  He should be considered just because it would royally hack off Mr. Dabo Cornelius Swinney.  That’s right, I’ve invented a middle name for Dabo.  Tweet that.

3.  Brad Scott.  Just to make him run around a little.  Hey, I’m concerned for his health, and it looks like he makes the CTU guys carry him around all the time.

2.  A Pellini.  Don’t care which one.  Hire one just for the faces they make.

1.  Steven Orr Spurrier.  You figure he would call an all-out double zero coverage blitz on EVERY snap.  Guaranteed to get the ball back one way or the other, right?

Think that should cover it.

Signing Day Adam being, of course, the day before Signing Day Eve.

Feel free to use that one, and you’re welcome.

That to the side, longtime followers of TRC will remember  that I profess absolutely no interest in recruiting.  This representation of ambivalence is carefully crafted with an eye toward giving me an aloof detachment from the entire dirty process.

But it’s all a lie – I absolutely DO follow recruiting – just not the daily ebb and flow of commitments, decommits, bags of cash doled out at the local Mcdonalds (that’s a CTU fan conspiracy favorite from back in the Squeaky Watson days), etc.  Instead of getting wrapped up in all the drama, I prefer to take a million-mile view based on the final class rank.

I then sit back and wait a year or two and see who from the class actually enrolled and whether or not they actually contribute to the team.

To illustrate by contrast: this morning on WCCP’s Mickey Plyler Show, the co-host (name escapes me but he sounds young and over-eager) was waxing enthusiastic about all things recruiting and remembering what he described as the “most free publicity Clemson has ever received until the big winning streak this year in football” (quick aside here – no idea what winning streak he is talking about, so it must not-a-been much).  That event, he opined, was the signing day press conference from 2008, where Jamie Harper, Daquan Bowers, and Kyle Parker all inked with the Tigers as a part of the supposed #2 class in the country.

How’d that work out for them?  Counting, of course, the redshirt year for some of the signees, I guess that great class did win the coastal division and the ACC championship, but it also lost three straight to the Gamecocks, lost a Charlotte Bowl to South Freakin Florida, and set the all-time NCAA record for a lopsided bowl loss.

They couldn’t see that coming in the 2008 press conference, could they?

My point here is this:  enjoy signing day, but don’t stress out about it.  It will all work out in the end, and signing day braggadocio notwithstanding, all of our football programs will be about where they were before all the ink hit all the Wednesday paperwork.

One prediction – there’s gonna be a big surprise or three.  I base this entirely upon the following: its been quiet in the southeast this recruiting cycle.  Too Quiet.  All of the pundits are talking about how the recruiting game has changed and is now pretty straightforward, standardized, and boring.  This guarantees, of course, that recruiting Armageddon will arrive on Wednesday.  So prepare yourself accordingly.

Not that any of it really matters.