Your thoughts on the coaching changes at UK and MSU? Ron Polk ain't happy! It is reported that he will personally remove his name from the baseball stadium and move away from Starkville, MS

I have followed the UK team. I have to say that I think UK has upgraded their Coach. The guy that left (I am assuming to take the Miss State position) had some defects imho. One is loyalty. UK had torn up his previous contract and rewarded him handsomely. So he uses that as a steppingstone to a more desirable position?

More importantly, he had an ego the size of New York City. Success was mostly because of him and failure was mostly on the players. I have seen them on TV several times and observed the guy dressing down his players for all the world to see. Classless imho. Worst of all things never seem to be his fault. Kentucky was recently eliminated from the NCAA tournament and he made the comment they were not the most talented team in the country. Problem is, he recruited every player on that team I am guessing the recruiting problem was that it was difficult to recruit kids to come to Lexington and play in that no-name conference known as the SEC (sarcasim off). I am sure jumping ship will take care of all of his problems

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Originally posted by Fungo:
Your thoughts on the coaching changes at UK and MSU? Ron Polk ain't happy! It is reported that he will personally remove his name from the baseball stadium and move away from Starkville, MS

That's the report here as far as Polk is concerned. Fungo, as you and CD know, I am not a Cohen fan. I do think he's very baseball smart and has done things for the UK program. I do not care for his style at all and honestly won't miss him as our coach. I find it interesting that they've already hired his assistant, Henderson, to replace him. UK's AD, is far from being my favorite AD though and I haven't agreed with most of his decisions since he's come to UK. He seems to play favorites and is very much a "my guy" kind of AD. So, personally, while I think many wish Cohen well as he moves on... I'm not so sure that they'll be any happier with the new head coach. I'm very disappointed that some time and energy wasn't put into a replacement here at UK.

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Originally posted by Fungo:
Your thoughts on the coaching changes at UK and MSU? Ron Polk ain't happy! It is reported that he will personally remove his name from the baseball stadium and move away from Starkville, MS

Why? We all know that he doesn't like the NCAA, is he unhappy with MSU?

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Originally posted by TPM:

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Originally posted by Fungo:
Your thoughts on the coaching changes at UK and MSU? Ron Polk ain't happy! It is reported that he will personally remove his name from the baseball stadium and move away from Starkville, MS

Why? We all know that he doesn't like the NCAA, is he unhappy with MSU?

Polk is unhappy because he wanted to handpick his replacement with it being one of his assistants. This assistant use actually play with UK's Coach Cohen and Cohen got the job. While I certainly don't know any intimate details of the MSU program, I've never cared for Polk neither and haven't heard good things about him from many. He's obviously a legend in many people's minds though and appears he wanted to dictate the future of the program which the AD there didn't agree with. Therefore, Polk is a bit upset.

I haven't posted here in some time, but when I saw the headlines in the Lexington paper this AM I just knew there would be a thread here

I'm with CD and laf - though Cohen has improved UK's baseball program of late, I believe his personality and integrity leaves a lot to be desired. Good riddance! CD mentioned his lack of loyalty. One rumor I had heard but never had confirmed was that he was ready to jump ship and had put his hat in the ring for another SEC program's job after he was in Lexington but before his first season even started

I do hope Henderson can continue the excitement here over UK's recent baseball success, but I'm with lafmom , it would have been nice for Barnhart to have looked around a little bit before making a decision.

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Originally posted by topdogfan:
I do hope Henderson can continue the excitement here over UK's recent baseball success, but I'm with lafmom , it would have been nice for Barnhart to have looked around a little bit before making a decision.

Since the judge and jury are still out over his most recent hire, perhaps he decided to play it safe?!?!

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Originally posted by lafmom:

Since the judge and jury are still out over his most recent hire, perhaps he decided to play it safe?!?!

Hehe...you are probably right. At least he has thought WAYYYY ahead on our next football coach

Coach Henderson should do just fine! He is a first class individual who is an intense competitor just lik Cohen was. Henderson treats his players with great respect and the players return that respect. The returning players are exicited that Coach Henderson is there new Coach. I think communication will improve between staff and players in the future and that will improve team unity. You will see a Kentucky team that will play loose and with more spirit in the years to come. Cohen puts so much pressure on his team from the start of the season to the end that the team wears down both physically and mentally at the end of the season. Hendeson and Bohannon did most of the recruiting anyway so there should be no change there. Cohen did a nice job in jump starting the Kentucky program but if his heart was in Mississippi than good luck and lets move on. Let's just hope that Kentucky now gets to Omaha before Mississippi State!

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Originally posted by topdogfan:


Hehe...you are probably right. At least he has thought WAYYYY ahead on our next football coach

LOL Thanks to the graciousness of Brooks' early announcement! Brooks is actually the only hire that I've really been behind of Barnhart's. He's my kinda coach!

Buckeyecat - Hopefully Henderson will do ok. He has his own set of quirks, but his style certainly isn't as angry as Cohens (or at least not as consistently). I really would have liked to see the former long time assistant and recruiting coach, Jan Weisberg, given a shot.... not that he would have had any interest that I know of. Still think they should have done a search.

I think Cohen did a tremendous job of changing the culture at UK. Like all of us, he had some faults.

Hendu getting a shot is AWESOME! He'll do a great job. UK baseball will be competitive for a long time.

Coach Baioni - welcome to the hsbbweb!

Please feel free to start topics here (or post in others) as often as you like. Nice to see someone from Kentucky posting here again

.



"Ah say suh...Ah nevuh did figguh out how thum new fangled computuhs wooked. Have anothuh piece a chickun suh...it's finguh lickin' good!"

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Originally posted by ClevelandDad:
Coach Baioni - welcome to the hsbbweb!

Please feel free to start topics here (or post in others) as often as you like. Nice to see someone from Kentucky posting here again

Ok CD!!! I've been trying to be present and accounted for! I think we need a SOS to johnlex, topdogfan, 03parent, tasmit, bluegrass.... Where are my big blue buddies!?!?!

Yes, welcome Coach Baioni. I'm a tiny bit familiar with N KY baseball teams. A lot of good talent in that area. Your thoughts are appreciated and valued around here.

Thanks ClevelandDad and lafmom. This is a great site! I love talking about all levels of baseball.

I wish John Cohen would have stayed at UK. IMO hes the best hitting coach in the nation, and this year KY's offense proved they needed him.

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Originally posted by baseballboydeuce:
I wish John Cohen would have stayed at UK. IMO hes the best hitting coach in the nation, and this year KY's offense proved they needed him.

It's nice to have someone posting in here again!

I'll take you up on some of those premises. I have also heard that Cohen was an excellent hitting instructor. Coaching can only take you so far however. At the end of the day, there has to be some underlying talent there so I am wondering out loud if Cohen's best attribute is his ability to recruit. Kentucky has lost some monster hitters from their program the last few years who were all recruited by Cohen.

Moreover, I checked the numbers at Mississippi State this year and they were arguably worse than UK. UK hit .297 as a team this year and scored 372 runs. MSU hit .298 as a team and only scored 356 runs. UK also had an rpi of 46 and an above .500 winning percentage whereas MSU had a below .500 winning percentage and an RPI of 89. This year it appears the former assisstant Coach Henderson out-coached his former boss Coach Cohen. We'll see how all that holds up in the coming years after they both have had a chance to recruit their own players.

I'll bet there are many out there who feel the same way as you. Coach Cohen put UK baseball back on the map.

I'll have to jump into this interesting conversation on a local level and a more general level.

First, my own son was a big fan of Cohen's teaching ability with the art of hitting. I think most people would agree with that line of thought.

However, many of the players that were "big hitters" that have been lost over the last couple of years were recruited in large part by Weisberg that I mentioned earlier who was the recruiting coach years ago when Cohen first came to UK. Also, they have maintained one assistant from Madison through the current coach Henderson. When you check Weisberg's record, you see that he played a major part in turning around Transylvania U here in Lexington and doing an amazing job at Birmingham Southern in AL under difficult circumstances (from DI to DIII).

I share all that because it makes me ponder coaching and success on several levels. How important are those assistants - especially the one(s) that have large recruiting responsibilities. How important is a coach's ability to teach. Then what importance do the ability of the players contribute.

Winning is such a complex issue. Recruiting plays such a big part because I would assume a coach is looking at "fit" on many different levels just as a player does.

Not sure you could go wrong with either coach. Coach Cohen is an offensive guy and Coach Henderson is a pitching guy. They'll both surround, and have surrounded themselves, with great coaches.

Prime example, UK hitting coach Brian Green is as good as it gets at working with hitters.