LOUISIANA BASEBALL RANKINGS

[CajunT]

_ Do you understand what making it to the world series equates to???? That is the Elite 8 in the NCAA Tourney and a BCS bowl in football. Also, baseball is completely different than other sports. You have to beat the same teams several times to move on and no matter how much better you are, it is hard to beat a team 2 out of 2 times in a weekend (i.e. double elimination regional tournament).

Contrary to belief, he is still not getting the elite athletes that the big programs get. His teams have primarily been made up of local players (plus our pipeline to florida) with the majority of out-of-staters being juco transfers.

I am not content with where the baseball program is, but to say it's a disgrace?? Come on. _

Didn't you hear, we are going to fire all the coaching staffs and start from scratch CajunRage! We've all gotten together on the Ragin Pagin and raised 1.5 mil to hire better staffs.LOL!!!

[MetryCajun]

_ And with some of these successes breeds more expectations. He is also putting a much more talented group on the field every spring when compared to the other sports. This team has been ranked numerous times only to fall flat on their face. Is he truly better than his predecessor? He did get to a world series but since then, he's done nothing and last year was supposed to be one of his most talented teams, especially pitching. That is a disgrace. People always complain about accepting mediocrity but we've gotten that from the baseball team when we certainly aren't supposed to. _

Please come back to planet Earth! This program has not been a disgrace since 2000. It has had two bad teams(2001, 2008) a couple of good teams and two very good teams. The 2007 team was extremely good. Remember we were one of the 20 best teams in the counrty that year. This hardly sounds mediocre.
Last year was bad. They were weak in all phases of the game. If that is the case again this year alarm bells will need to be sounded. Lets get some perspective here.

[Duggie35]

Let's not get crazy here! Before anyone starts to panic at the demise of Cajun Baseball, let's wait to see what happens after the renovations to Tigue Moore Field are made. Since UL advanced to the College World Series in 2000, almost every school in the Sun Belt Conference, and the other top level programs in this state (LSU & Tulane) have spent BIG money and made major improvements to their facilities! Coach Robe continues to make the most our of the mediocre hand he has to play. As has been stated many times, winning at a high level includes much more than just coaching, it requires a committment and sufficiant funding from the administration.

With a new administration coming into place, I will reserve judgement for about another 12 to 18 months!

[zephyr]

_ Please come back to planet Earth! This program has not been a disgrace since 2000. It has had two bad teams(2001, 2008) a couple of good teams and two very good teams. The 2007 team was extremely good. Remember we were one of the 20 best teams in the counrty that year. This hardly sounds mediocre.
Last year was bad. They were weak in all phases of the game. If that is the case again this year alarm bells will need to be sounded. Lets get some perspective here. _

Hold on big boy! Don't start spinning what I said! I did not say the program was a disgrace. To the contrary, I said that this program is the best this university has and has been strong for years which was my comment about Robe not being better than his predecessor. I figured my comments would ruffle some of the sensitive feathers of some baseball diehards here. However, you are proving my point. Preseason rankings had us at 16 last year and all the experts had us as having one of the best pitching staffs in the country! You go .500 in a conference that's not great by any means and barely make your own conference tourney at your home field and lose out with this top 20 talent is a major letdown. We hear Bustle and Lee get a lot of grief (much of it deserved) for their records and lack of accomplishments but Bustle has improved this program from the depths of which he inherited it in the sport that relies the heaviest on athletic budget financing for which we have none. Coach Lee took a good basketball team several years ago and won 20+ games and nearly won a tourney game against Louisville but both are crucified on these same boards. Coach Robe has had success and has also been able to bring in some nice talent to his program. With this increase in talent, you should be able to have better success than what occurred last year don't you think. However, he is rarely talked about in the same manner as Bustle and Lee. Last year was as mediocre is they come and recent years have been similar. So why if everybody is screaming about not accepting mediocrity in other sports are they willing to overlook baseball which should be excelling just about every year? Seems a little hypocritical to me.

[zephyr]

_ Didn't you hear, we are going to fire all the coaching staffs and start from scratch CajunRage! We've all gotten together on the Ragin Pagin and raised 1.5 mil to hire better staffs.LOL!!! _

Again, never in my comments did I speak of firing coach Robe. I think that would be foolish. However, why does he seem to get a pass on the criticism that seems to go rampant through the other sport programs?

[CajunAmos]

And with some of these successes breeds more expectations. He is also putting a much more talented group on the field every spring when compared to the other sports. This team has been ranked numerous times only to fall flat on their face. Is he truly better than his predecessor? He did get to a world series but since then, he's done nothing and last year was supposed to be one of his most talented teams, especially pitching. That is a disgrace. People always complain about accepting mediocrity but we've gotten that from the baseball team when we certainly aren't supposed to.

Actually, pitching wasn't our downfall last year. Our inconsistant hitting was our issue all year. We were lead by a freshman, when our experienced upperclassmen didn't show up at the plate.

[zephyr]

_ Actually, pitching wasn't our downfall last year. Our inconsistant hitting was our issue all year. We were lead by a freshman, when our experienced upperclassmen didn't show up at the plate. _

While you are correct that we were a horrible hitting team, our pitching staff didn't fare much better especially with the depth and rotation we had.

[CajunAmos]

Hold on big boy! Don't start spinning what I said! I did not say the program was a disgrace. To the contrary, I said that this program is the best this university has and has been strong for years which was my comment about Robe not being better than his predecessor. I figured my comments would ruffle some of the sensitive feathers of some baseball diehards here. However, you are proving my point. Preseason rankings had us at 16 last year and all the experts had us as having one of the best pitching staffs in the country! You go .500 in a conference that's not great by any means and barely make your own conference tourney at your home field and lose out with this top 20 talent is a major letdown. We hear Bustle and Lee get a lot of grief (much of it deserved) for their records and lack of accomplishments but Bustle has improved this program from the depths of which he inherited it in the sport that relies the heaviest on athletic budget financing for which we have none. Coach Lee took a good basketball team several years ago and won 20+ games and nearly won a tourney game against Louisville but both are crucified on these same boards. Coach Robe has had success and has also been able to bring in some nice talent to his program. With this increase in talent, you should be able to have better success than what occurred last year don't you think. However, he is rarely talked about in the same manner as Bustle and Lee. Last year was as mediocre is they come and recent years have been similar. So why if everybody is screaming about not accepting mediocrity in other sports are they willing to overlook baseball which should be excelling just about every year? Seems a little hypocritical to me.

I know you were making a point about the treatment of other coaches, but on one item I'll comment. I'll beg to disagree that we've ever had top 20 talent, unless they were coached to be top 20 performers. We typically (with a very few exceptions) offer the players that the top baseball programs don't sign. We have a field that's in horrible shape, and facilities that aren't much better. Our facilities don't even qualify to host a regional if we happen to earn it on the field. Needless to say, this is not a major recruiting tool. Virtually every team in our conference (except possibly ULM) has facilities that are superior to ours.

Additionally, with virtually no funding from the university (salaries excepted), I think it's our only sport that works in the black. Despite all the negatives, the program consistantly has an attendance ranking near the top 20 in the country year after year, and a large portion of that I attribute to Coach Robe. For those who don't follow college baseball (and perhaps attend Diamond Club meeting to get the updated scoop), there are a number of changes going on in college baseball that will change the "playing field" in the future as well (roster limits, no "redshirt" players, JUCO restrictions), and I'm happy with the leadership of this program to keep us in the game. I sound like i'm preaching, but I think there are a lot of things that go into a program, and if anyone at the university deserves a "pass" (Lotiefs excepted), it's Coach Robe.

[Frenchie35]

_ He did get to a world series but since then, he's done nothing and last year was supposed to be one of his most talented teams, especially pitching. That is a disgrace. _

Well, exactly what did you say?

[zephyr]

_ Well, exactly what did you say? _

I said that with the expectations put on this team last year with the rankings and great pitching staff that is supposed to be an elite staff, last year's performance and .500 season were a disgrace...Not the program itself. Remember, success breeds higher levels of accountability and expectations. I am included in the group of fans that screams and hopes that we can get away from accepting mediocrity in our athletic programs and take a pro-active stance to change that. Baseball is in a position almost yearly to be successful and our fans should hold a coach just as accountable as the other coaches when that team fails to live up to expectations.