Disappointing

[KernCobb]

I understand the out of conference schedule was extremely tough this year but man did this team underachieve. Hitting the team finished 10th out of 11 teams and Pitching the team finished 8th out of 11 teams. In the final standings the team was predicted 6th and finished 10th. There were zero improvements under Coach Prothro. Additionally, it seemed that every game I went to,the coach was arguing with the umpires for ridiculous reasons. Maybe he knew it was the last year in the OVC so he wanted push their buttons and see what he could get away with, but it made a bunch of games uncomfortable to watch. Hopefully the team gets a new hitting coach and a new pitching coach and they can turn it around next year in the ASUN.

[KYsportsnut]

Agreed. Very disappointing that a team that returned so many players underperformed to this degree. You cannot get a new pitching coach unless you get a new head coach since Coach Prothro was the pitching coach. Definitely a concern in year over year mound performance which illustrates the impact that Coach Cole made over the last few years as the dedicated pitching coach. Never heard where he landed.

Also appears that there will be a mass player exodus from the team with numerours voluntary departures of players who started which is another major cause for concern. This may be more of a rebuild than what was expected after the transition from Coach Thompson to Coach Prothro.

[Colonel12]

How much is the departures because theft previous coach built upon racial diversity and the new coach doesn't look like that diversity?

[KYsportsnut]

I guess time will tell regarding the diversity of next year’s team. That is something that cannot be hidden obviously. 21 players from EKU baseball team are now in the NCAA Transfer Portal which is a significant amount with probably more to come in the next week. More shocking is that 8-9 of these players were significant contributors which speaks to the point made above that a lot of guys wanted out versus being asked to leave. Something just doesn’t seem right with that considering the success the team had in 2019 & 2020 with these same players.

[Colonel Grad]

I'll start by saying I wasn't a fan of Edwin Thompson or Sean Cole.

Cole embarassed the university and the athletics department when he went crazy at Murray State, throwing balls onto the field and getting ejected. As the pitching coach he got ejected twice that I know of. Who has ever heard of a pitching coach getting ejected even once. Based on resume alone, he should have never been at EKU to start with. Add in his apparent lack of ability to control his emotions and things start to add up.

The two things that I really liked about Thompson is that he diversified the make up of the team and his teams were involved in the community. The shoe program was amazing. But he won a lot of games against weak competition (started 12-2 in 2020 with 11 wins against teams that were a combined 5-64). He also had a horrible record (9-20) against Murray STate and Morehead State. And his teams were not strong defensively. While position player recruiting was pretty good under Thompson, pitching recruiting by Thompson/Cole was suspect.

Also appears that there will be a mass player exodus from the team with numerours voluntary departures of players who started which is another major cause for concern. This may be more of a rebuild than what was expected after the transition from Coach Thompson to Coach Prothro.

I think this is the start of a new trend in all college sports with coaching changes. With the ability to transfer and play immediately for nearly everyone, it isn't surprising that there will be high turnover when coaching changes are made. Those players signed up to play for one coach, now they can essentially go through the recruiting process all over again with no penalty. Why would they stay and play for a coach that didn't recruit them?

So far, not a single Prothro recruit has left the program (he only has 1 on the team that I know of in Will King). This is not an equal comparison, but I count 8 Walt Wells recruits who have left.

Something just doesn’t seem right with that considering the success the team had in 2019 & 2020 with these same players.

Wasn't the same players - losing Nick Howie, AJ Lewis and Jacob Ferris were big

Seems like comparing apples to oranges to me. What success in 2019? That team played a weak non-conference schedule and won 3 more conference games than the 2021 team and was swept by Morehead State and Murray State). Success in 2020 came against weak schedule. This year's non-conference schedule was brutal and future conference schedules will be much tougher in the Atlantic Sun.

Additionally, it seemed that every game I went to,the coach was arguing with the umpires for ridiculous reasons. Maybe he knew it was the last year in the OVC so he wanted push their buttons and see what he could get away with, but it made a bunch of games uncomfortable to watch. Hopefully the team gets a new hitting coach and a new pitching coach and they can turn it around next year in the ASUN.

I agree on this. My hope is it was a learning experience for a first time head coach. I'd like to see improvement there.


I was encouraged by the improvement that the team made over the season. Toward the end of the season they were playing pretty good baseball.

[KernCobb]

25 players in the transfer portal as of today. What the heck is going on?

[KYsportsnut]

Although Colonel Grad made some valid points above, I do agree that the high number of people coming out of the program could be a cause of concern. There are anywhere from 20 - 30 head coaching changes per year in D1 baseball, and the average number of players exiting those teams is no where near 25.
Furthermore, having First & Second Team All-OVC players with eligibility leaving the program is odd regardless if they were not recruited by the current HC.

I often wondered too how Coach Cole got to EKU after being the Pitching Coach of the Year for the team that won the National Championship. His name was mentioned today in a D1 Baseball article about being HC candidate for Utah Valley out of the WAC. I still think that not having a dedicated pitching coach will not bode well in 2022 for this team.

2022 will be revealing as it looks like Coach Pro will pretty much have a completely new roster with all of his own players. Until then, looking forward to this years NCAA tournament!!

[Colonel Grad]

Although Colonel Grad made some valid points above, I do agree that the high number of people coming out of the program could be a cause of concern. There are anywhere from 20 - 30 head coaching changes per year in D1 baseball, and the average number of players exiting those teams is no where near 25.
Furthermore, having First & Second Team All-OVC players with eligibility leaving the program is odd regardless if they were not recruited by the current HC.

I often wondered too how Coach Cole got to EKU after being the Pitching Coach of the Year for the team that won the National Championship. His name was mentioned today in a D1 Baseball article about being HC candidate for Utah Valley out of the WAC. I still think that not having a dedicated pitching coach will not bode well in 2022 for this team.

2022 will be revealing as it looks like Coach Pro will pretty much have a completely new roster with all of his own players. Until then, looking forward to this years NCAA tournament!!

Good points. But, I'd stress this point again, you can't compare the number of players leaving to any previous year because of the change in the transfer rule and the ability to leave and play immediately somewhere else. I don't know what site has transfer portal stats, but I wonder what the numbers look like for coaching changes this year at other schools.

Having all-conference players leave is going to be the norm now just like it is going to be for basketball and football. Wendal Green leaving for Auburn/Trey King to Georgetown is similar to Darren Williams leaving for UK or wherever he ends up. Players that have great seasons are going to want to try playing at a power conference school. It is going to be harder to hold on to high quality players. I'd say it might even be harder in baseball because of the scholarship situation. If I'm getting 25% of a scholarship at EKU and make all-conference, maybe another school will offer me 40%. Or, if I'm getting 25% at EKU and UK offers me 10%, maybe I think 'well I'm already paying a lot for school, if it gives me a chance to compete in the SEC maybe it will be worth paying more'

I think for baseball, it will help a little playing in the ASUN because the level of competition is higher than the OVC. I'd be curious to know how many MLB draft picks the ASUN has averaged over the last five years compared to the OVC. I might look into that this weekend.

I guess my view for all college sports right now is they have completely changed. You can't look at past years and compare to this year and the next couple. Things are just too different. Whatever our definition of normal is -- is going to change. No one knows how it is going to turn out in a couple years. But it is crazy right now.

[KernCobb]

The transfer list is long
There is at least one player on the list from about 300 different schools.
Average is 4 players per school.
LaSalle and NC Central lead the way with 31 and 30 players entering the portal (programs cancelled)
EKU is next with 25
74 different schools with just one player in the portal
23% look to be graduates with an extra year of eligibility to use
34 schools only have grad students in the portal
after filtering out grad students, the average is 3.5 and the median is just 2 players from each school

[KYsportsnut]

Those are interesting transfers stats. Thanks for compiling. EKU deviates significantly.