What is Mississippi State getting in new baseball coach Chris Lemonis?
What is Mississippi State getting in Chris Lemonis? Let's talk about it.
With the news that Mississippi State has hired Indiana's Chris Lemonis to be its new baseball coach, Clarion Ledger sports editor Hugh Kellenberger and Indianapolis Star IU insider Zach Osterman had an email conversation about the hire and what it means for both schools.
Hugh Kellenberger: "OK Zach, Indiana baseball coach Chris Lemonis is now the head coach at Mississippi State. I guess we should start with the basic, obvious question that most MSU fans are asking themselves today: Is this a good hire?"
Zach Osterman: "I think it is. Having grown up in SEC country (Y'all need to get more Publix in that state), I'm well aware of expectations at a place like Mississippi State. And while I know Lemonis doesn't necessarily have every resume trimming you'd want, he's a proven recruiter, a college baseball lifer and a guy who in four years at Indiana did things nobody else has done in the history of IU's oldest varsity program. His teams are balanced and deep, and in all four seasons, I covered him, the best way I could describe his style is that he brings a high floor virtually every year. Will his ceiling raise with time and the advantages of a Mississippi State? Obviously, I can't tell you that for sure. But I think there's every chance."
Kellenberger: "That's I think the biggest question right now with Mississippi State: what is the ceiling? So Lemonis did a nice job taking the baton from Tracy Smith at Indiana and he had some success, including three regionals in four years. That's all very nice. But success at Mississippi State is not judged by trips to the regionals. It's super regionals and trips to Omaha. Lemonis has been to Omaha, albeit as an assistant at Louisville. So he knows what it takes to get there. But what do you think he has to do differently than he did at Indiana in order to unlock that higher ceiling? Or is it simply a matter of when you load the bus with better players, you're going to get better results?"
Osterman: "I tend to think it's probably more the latter. Most casual college baseball fans (for understandable reasons) don't realize all the obstacles Big Ten programs face — weather, scheduling, recruiting base, prestige, restrictive recruiting rules. The conference has at least invested more in recent years, and loosening a few things up, but look at it this way: Since 2013, Indiana has made five NCAA regionals in six seasons, and one College World Series. Of those five regionals, the three Lemonis landed represent the program's three at-large berths ever. No Big Ten team since Ohio State in the mid-1990s has been in the tournament as often, and IU's World Series appearance (pre-Lemonis, I know) was the conference's first in 29 years. The point is, as much as IU baseball has improved — and it undoubtedly has — sustaining that level of success at a Big Ten program is a generational accomplishment. If you told me 36 wins a year would become 47 wins a year with the talent and advantages of a top-tier SEC program, I'd believe you. There are clear areas for Lemonis to improve. But he's done more here than a lot of folks probably realize."
Kellenberger: "So let's talk about the recruiting because that's probably one of the biggest reasons why national baseball writers are liking this hire: Lemonis' reputation is that he's excellent at it, first at Louisville and then at Indiana. But there are two very different kinds of recruiting I think, especially in college baseball where you could have a very nice recruiting ranking that means very little when your whole class just used you as leverage with MLB teams and never show up on campus. So can you point to any players in Lemonis' past that are either A) Guys that he shouldn't have gotten in the first place but did, either because he kept them from blue bloods or the MLB Draft and B) Players that he "discovered," for lack of a better word, and have developed into key contributors for Indiana."
Osterman: "Yea, this is a tougher one for me to judge, because there are so many layers to college baseball recruiting. When I say his teams always had high floors, that came first from solid recruiting. His staffs were deep, whether they had a true ace or not. His lineups never fell off after the four or five guy. IU admittedly sometimes lacked some of the star power of the Tracy Smith era (was there ever a Schwarber or a Travis or a Phegley?) but his teams were always, always deep. He also had some bad luck with committing guys early who took huge leaps late, and looked like the kinds of talents that would get drafted but then thrive in college, before they wound up going higher or getting greater slot money than anyone expected.
"He's still hit on a combination of good local recruiting -- many of Indiana's best players are either in state or regional, Illinois and Ohio -- and smart junior college additions to fill gaps created by unexpected attrition. Lemonis' reputation, as you said, precedes him as a recruiter. He'll emphasize local ties as much as possible. He's 100 percent the guy that will go to every tournament, watch every game, work 14-hour days. And like Dan McDonnell at Louisville, he'll happily commit a kid young (although he's not exclusive to that policy)."
Kellenberger: "Alright, last question: Where do you think Indiana goes from here? Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen made it quite clear he was going big-game hunting when he began his search, and it ended up with TCU's Jim Schlossnagle and Louisville's Dan McDonnell both publicly saying they were staying where they were and not going to Mississippi State. Part of Cohen's problem in the pursuit of those guys, I think, was that those guys just don't leave where they are. College baseball is a sport where coaches are much more apt to go to a place, build it up and then stay for the long-term. And now that salaries have risen to the point where generational wealth is at play, there's even less reason to jump into the unknown. So, from that perspective, MSU hiring someone who has been to Omaha as an assistant and has won a lot of games at the best school in a not-great baseball conference makes sense. And if Cohen got this right, then maybe Lemonis is that guy who stays 15-20 years. But if you're Indiana, what's your move? I would guess Fred Glass would want his own McDonnell, but that's easier said than done. Do any of the assistants have a chance at the gig? Does Glass look to the mid-majors for someone else on the rise and hope for the best?"
Osterman: "That's an interesting question without a clear answer right now. Indiana is in this weird place where it's paying better than just about the rest of the Big Ten, and its facilities are really good, but it's still a clear step or two below say, Mississippi State in resources. Again, IU's having a generational level of success right now. If Glass, IU's AD, wants that to continue, he could easily justify taking that spending up another level and trying to get a home-run hire. Or he could do what Indiana's done the last two times the job came open: stick with someone young, up-and-coming and in the Midwest. Jeff Mercer at Wright State sort of straddles those two possibilities. Either way, I think Indiana will look external before considering the existing staff, and I think Glass will probably step up his financial commitment again. There's an argument to be made for IU basically just bridging the financial gap, paying high six figures (or more) for a head coach and making it harder for this to happen again. I think Glass would probably prefer this be his last baseball hire."