Schlossnagle (What could have been)?

[PKADogs55]

I have to admit that when we hired Coach Lemonis, I really had no idea what type of coach he was (let alone how he would do @ State). Obviously its still early in his tenure, but think he has transitioned into our program (especially with THIS team) about as good as one could ask. I know during the search last year, we were promised a Big Time Hire. Personally from what I have seen thus far, and granted he inherited a beast-of-a-team, I think we found the exact guy we needed. However, just to have a little fun and what if(s), what do you think Schlossnagle or McDonnell would be doing with this team right now? Would we be about the same, worse, better? Would either of those coaches have gelled with our roster as well as Lemonis has? Like I said, just wanted to see what some of you think.

[KOdawg1]

I like the way Lemonis manages games and puts out the best line-up. Seemed like last year, we tinkered with the lineup too much, and I know there were some reasons for it, but I'm very pleased that our players are being put in the right spots to succeed.

To answer your question though, there's no reason to believe that we'd be any worse with those two guys as our coach. They both regularly make it to Omaha, so they're high quality coaches. So far though, I'm happy with who we got.

[bulldawg28]

I doubt it could have gone any better with the current hire. He appears to be the right selection.

[Captain Falcon]

Schlossnagle and McDonnell are really good coaches, but there are other really good coaches too. We’ll know more about Lemonis in a few years when the players are ones he actually recruited, but so far I can’t imagibe a better possible start. Yeah we laid a stinker against LSU but we’re still 31-6 overall and tied for first in the league half way through conference play. And of our six losses, four of them were fluky. Lost 1-0 in extras to USM, had a home run robbed at Florida that would’ve given us a sweep, blew a big lead against Auburn, and then had the weird play at Tennessee. I don’t think coaching had anything to do with those losses.

Schloss and McDonnell probably would’ve done great here, but so far Lemonis is doing great too.

[DCdawg]

It would be hard to believe that anyone else would have a better record at this point. I really like that we don't sit back in any facet of the game - we are aggressive on the mound, at the plate, and on the basepaths.

[Lord McBuckethead]

my only criticism of Lemonis so far is the overuse of the shift on the infield. It needs to correspond to how we are pitching to the players. For some reason, we have the shift on and we are pitching outer half of the zone. It blows my mind. I would rather just play it straight up.

But we have the best record in the country, we are leading the SEC in HR and Average I believe, and we are 2 losses away from being the clear #1 team in the nation. Who is to complain.

[mstatefan91]

31-6 and #2/#3 in the polls. Tied for 1st in the SEC. I'm not going to complain.

[TNDawg35]

my only criticism of Lemonis so far is the overuse of the shift on the infield. It needs to correspond to how we are pitching to the players. For some reason, we have the shift on and we are pitching outer half of the zone. It blows my mind. I would rather just play it straight up.

But we have the best record in the country, we are leading the SEC in HR and Average I believe, and we are 2 losses away from being the clear #1 team in the nation. Who is to complain.

From what I last saw, South Carolina is leading the SEC in homers. Last I checked they were in the low 50’s and we were in the lower 40’s.

[TNDawg35]

Schloss is a hell of a coach. Baseball coaches have to start somewhere tho. Canon built this team. I want to see a team that Lemo builds. Lemo has taken this talent tho and showed he is a dang good coach. We don’t have Foxhall with Lemo and we can all agree Foxhall has turned our staff around this yr. Lemo has done as good as anyone could have wanted this yr.

[Todd4State]

I can't imagine anyone doing any better than Lemonis has to this point. Honestly, if there were issues between Schlossnagle and Cohen and McDonnell didn't want to be here and or his family didn't my guess is that we would probably doing worse right now.

[preachermatt83]

First, Lemo is winning and we haven’t even got to see his greatest assets yet, which is his recruiting. He has been called by many the greatest recruiter in college baseball. We will win and win big now and in the future. Secondly, let’s not pretend last years team was great, because it wasn’t... we got hit at the right time and caught some major breaks... Lemo has FARRRR exceeded my expectations.

[MetEdDawg]

It's harder to walk into high expectations than low ones. We all knew this team was good. Sometimes it can be hard to live up to those expectations and perform at a high level. Lemonis has lived up to it so far.

Not turning this into a Moorhead thread, but a lot of folks had high expectations for the team going into this last year. We won at a level that in the history of first year coaches at MSU has never been done. But the expectation was higher than the outcome.

It's not easy to come in as a new coach with high expectations and it doesn't always work out. One of the things that we should be looking at however is that all 3 programs had very high expectations this year. As a big 3 (big 4 since we continue to perform at a high level in women's basketball) we are in as good a shape collectively as we've been in a long long time.

We went 8-5 with a New Years Day bowl and underachieved. We lost as a 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, lost in the Elite 8 in women's basketball, and we are currently a consensus Top 3 baseball team in the country.

[Thick]

Well he’s not Moorheading, so that speaks volumes at this point in the season.

[bulldawg28]

Well he’s not Moorheading, so that speaks volumes at this point in the season.

Indeed

[ShotgunDawg]

He's done an incredible job thus far.

That being said, we just have to wait & see how he recruits, evaluates, & handles the entire program.

Baseball is such an evaluation & managing the draft sport, that I could argue that in-season management of the team is often the 2nd or 3rd most important thing that decides if a guy is really good.

[Turfdawg67]

First, Lemo is winning and we haven’t even got to see his greatest assets yet, which is his recruiting. He has been called by many the greatest recruiter in college baseball. We will win and win big now and in the future. Secondly, let’s not pretend last years team was great, because it wasn’t... we got hit at the right time and caught some major breaks... Lemo has FARRRR exceeded my expectations.

Don't agree with you often, but if Lemo is a recruiting savant, looking forward to an amazing run!

[Jack Lambert]

He has made a few in game coaching mistakes but I guess they all do.

[preachermatt83]

Don't agree with you often, but if Lemo is a recruiting savant, looking forward to an amazing run!

Well, glad we have found some common ground. Maybe we can grow from there. Lol.

[preachermatt83]

Well he’s not Moorheading, so that speaks volumes at this point in the season.

#Preach!!!!

[RocketDawg]

I have to admit that when we hired Coach Lemonis, I really had no idea what type of coach he was (let alone how he would do @ State). Obviously its still early in his tenure, but think he has transitioned into our program (especially with THIS team) about as good as one could ask. I know during the search last year, we were promised a Big Time Hire. Personally from what I have seen thus far, and granted he inherited a beast-of-a-team, I think we found the exact guy we needed. However, just to have a little fun and what if(s), what do you think Schlossnagle or McDonnell would be doing with this team right now? Would we be about the same, worse, better? Would either of those coaches have gelled with our roster as well as Lemonis has? Like I said, just wanted to see what some of you think.

Lemonis may be the next elite coach. Who knows. So far he's doing better than just about everybody though he would do. He's got the #2 team in the nation at about the season mid-point. Not bad at all.