TexGator

2018 - last tournament appearance 2017 - host a Regional 2014 - last SuperRegional (only one since 2003) - this is the year they and Texas were both 2-seeds (they knocked out LSU... Texas knocked out Rice and part of the reason the SR was in Austin was that Disch-Falk is bigger (Houston should have contacted the Astros about having it at Minute Maid Park)

That's 100% understandable- Tampa's a very nice city and I'm sure he's being supported. The counter to that is the fact he's won a LOT at Tampa and there's little else to prove so the chance to build something elsewhere might be appetizing since the donors obviously will support the program. But I want to focus on this game. O'Malley knows what he's doing.

OK- I looked at the D2 and D3 ranks. I feel like the first call needs to be Joe Urso at Tampa. - 13 College World Series appearances. - 7 CWS titles - 1110-302-1 in 26 seasons (43-12 average... record even with only a combined 51 games between the two COVID seasons) Interesting that he never got tapped by a college to take over their program in spite of his insanely good record.

Okay... who should coach then? Hatten and Hutchins are also going to UH.

Just saw that he's bringing Hutchins and Hatten with him. Guess that means we're starting from scratch. And this after the high of the last 3-1/2 days. Do we go after his old player and try to convince Nolan Cain to leave being an assistant at Texas to take the gig? Do we go after Chris Lemonis? (Dude won a title at Mississippi State and got Indiana to the tournament 3 of his 4 years there before getting the job in Starkville- though I'd have questions about what caused the wheels to fall off after that year) Do we try to convince Hatten to stick around? Do we steal Barbier from Southeastern with the thought being that he got Southeastern a pair of RS titles with fewer resources (it would be his 3rd different SLC school)? Any thoughts on what O'Malley has up his sleeve?

The signees are definitely the sort of two-way players that Fee seems to like. Let's hope they gel as a team and there are couple more guys in the pipeline to join them.

Tied for the conference lead with a series against Southeastern Louisiana coming up. This is a big opportunity for the team to show their mettle. We've stunk in mid-week games but have a matchup with Rice in front of us. A 3-1 or 4-0 week would be HUGE for us.

For those watching the D2 title game- Gannon is the school that Fee turned around. Their current HC was an assistant working with Fee that season before Fee moved back down to Florida to be an assistant at FAU.

Jeff Goodman has a tweet about it. Coach Fee has a breakdown on what each brings to the table. All it's missing is him saying "We're going to put the dang ball in the hoop. I only met Coach Tubbs a few times, but I want us to run the court in a way that will make him proud to have his name on the court.

How would it go awry before it started? He's posting about it on the socials. I respect him for not pushing to move his wife while she's "late with child"- means that when he puts down roots in Beaumont he's going to want to build something and won't just jump to another mid-major job just because it pays 20% more. He'll give O'Malley the chance to keep him happy in on MLK.

https://lamarcardinals.com/news/2026/3/14/mens-basketball-jordan-fee-tabbed-to-lead-cardinals-basketball-program.aspx (For those who need the link) The things I noticed: - he's young (about 36YO) - his guys put the ball in the hoop (100.4 PPG in his year as a HC) - I was looking at Nova Southeastern's resume but their HC is ~70... so we stole a former NSU assistant (and I'd bet that O'Malley talked with Crutchfield about Fee If he can turn around a D2 program that fast a good NIL budget should be helpful in turning the Cardinals into a must-watch program.

I'm actually intrigued that we haven't heard anything. This makes me think O'Malley is working this like the operator he is. He had a coach already lined up before he'd officially let Brooks go because he knew he was making the move.

The real way we know they're trying to look down on the SLC is that they didn't find a way to keep their chief rival on the schedule. They could have kept the "Battle of the Piney Woods" going but they turned their back on it in favor of the paychecks for being an "FBS School" Given that they were last in FBS attendance last year from playing their games at Shell Energy their boosters are probably strapped.

They still have to get their 24 credits annually. Regardless of what they're doing, they're still likely taking 3 classes a semester (and 2 online summer classes- most of their classes are probably online). Getting back to the "hired gun" thing- it makes the need for a coach who can connect with the players where they feel like "he's MY coach"