Todd4State
04-14-2017, 12:11 AM
To give everyone a perspective about Cann I wanted to compare him to other MSU baseball coaches in their first year. This may not surprise anyone, but he has a chance to have the best first season of any MSU baseball coach since Ron Polk stated in 1976.
I decided to start this with Polk because otherwise it wouldn't be modern and therefore that relevant. I guess I could have thrown Bragan in there but Cann has already won more games than he did in his entire career here so I just didn't I guess because it was just obvious that Cann is going to blow him away anyway.
John Cohen in year one won 25 games total and 9 SEC games. Cann can tie him for overall wins with a series win over South Carolina and pass his boss with a sweep of South Carolina while simply winning one of the three games will tie him with Cohen's SEC total and then winning the series will surpass his SEC games win total. Unless we totally collapse over the next six weeks, I think it's inevitable that Cann will get bragging rights over the guy signing his paycheck.
It's almost just as inevitable that Cann will pass Ron Polk I in 1976 however, I will say that to truly judge the two we would need to look at winning percentage at the end of the year because Polk coached in 45 games his first season or at least 11 fewer than Cann not including postseaon and totally discounting the potential for rainouts. That said, if Cann wins three more SEC games and then two of the three OOC games he will tie Polk's record of 28 wins and 11 SEC wins. One more SEC win would break that record. So, it's pretty likely that Cohen will pass Polk I at least in terms of wins and I think there's a good chance at passing him on the winning percentage front as well. Even if Cann doesn't, if we make the postseason you could still argue based on that Cann was better.
Ron Polk II will probably be passed if we keep up the pace that we are on now. In 2002 Polk II won 34 games and 14 SEC games. Aside from the SEC Tournament that team did not go to the postseason because that was the year after 9/11 and if you weren't within driving distance of a regional host you didn't get picked that year. By far the worst picked NCAA baseball tournament ever and I am pretty sure any other year that team goes as a three seed at least. It's interesting to note that Polk II only had two winning SEC seasons after he returned to MSU. I just noticed that looking at the media guide.
Pat McMahon is the answer to the question "Has there ever been a MSU coach that didn't need to totally rebuild?" While most fans revere him more as a pitching coach he had a nice short four year career. His first season was his best IMO and that team actually ended up going to Omaha. If Cann doesn't have the best overall first season it's probably going to be because of McMahon's season. That said, there is still a chance that Cann passes him but it probably wouldn't happen until the postseason. McMahon won 42 games games overall but interestingly enough he only won 14 SEC games in his first year which is a number that Cann could very realistically pass. For context purposes, that team won 35 games during the regular season and then two in the SEC Tournament and then four in a regional as that was the last year before Super Regionals started and then one win in Omaha. It was a veteran team that got hot at the right time and had been to Omaha the year before. And I enjoyed every minute of it. Anyway, I could see Cann having a better regular season than McMahon and possibly even having more wins at the end of the year and not go to Omaha. If Cann goes to Omaha this year, I don't think any of us would complain just like 1998.
I thought that this was something interesting to watch as we start the second half of the SEC season next weekend.
I decided to start this with Polk because otherwise it wouldn't be modern and therefore that relevant. I guess I could have thrown Bragan in there but Cann has already won more games than he did in his entire career here so I just didn't I guess because it was just obvious that Cann is going to blow him away anyway.
John Cohen in year one won 25 games total and 9 SEC games. Cann can tie him for overall wins with a series win over South Carolina and pass his boss with a sweep of South Carolina while simply winning one of the three games will tie him with Cohen's SEC total and then winning the series will surpass his SEC games win total. Unless we totally collapse over the next six weeks, I think it's inevitable that Cann will get bragging rights over the guy signing his paycheck.
It's almost just as inevitable that Cann will pass Ron Polk I in 1976 however, I will say that to truly judge the two we would need to look at winning percentage at the end of the year because Polk coached in 45 games his first season or at least 11 fewer than Cann not including postseaon and totally discounting the potential for rainouts. That said, if Cann wins three more SEC games and then two of the three OOC games he will tie Polk's record of 28 wins and 11 SEC wins. One more SEC win would break that record. So, it's pretty likely that Cohen will pass Polk I at least in terms of wins and I think there's a good chance at passing him on the winning percentage front as well. Even if Cann doesn't, if we make the postseason you could still argue based on that Cann was better.
Ron Polk II will probably be passed if we keep up the pace that we are on now. In 2002 Polk II won 34 games and 14 SEC games. Aside from the SEC Tournament that team did not go to the postseason because that was the year after 9/11 and if you weren't within driving distance of a regional host you didn't get picked that year. By far the worst picked NCAA baseball tournament ever and I am pretty sure any other year that team goes as a three seed at least. It's interesting to note that Polk II only had two winning SEC seasons after he returned to MSU. I just noticed that looking at the media guide.
Pat McMahon is the answer to the question "Has there ever been a MSU coach that didn't need to totally rebuild?" While most fans revere him more as a pitching coach he had a nice short four year career. His first season was his best IMO and that team actually ended up going to Omaha. If Cann doesn't have the best overall first season it's probably going to be because of McMahon's season. That said, there is still a chance that Cann passes him but it probably wouldn't happen until the postseason. McMahon won 42 games games overall but interestingly enough he only won 14 SEC games in his first year which is a number that Cann could very realistically pass. For context purposes, that team won 35 games during the regular season and then two in the SEC Tournament and then four in a regional as that was the last year before Super Regionals started and then one win in Omaha. It was a veteran team that got hot at the right time and had been to Omaha the year before. And I enjoyed every minute of it. Anyway, I could see Cann having a better regular season than McMahon and possibly even having more wins at the end of the year and not go to Omaha. If Cann goes to Omaha this year, I don't think any of us would complain just like 1998.
I thought that this was something interesting to watch as we start the second half of the SEC season next weekend.