The athletic department is about to announce that FIU baseball fans should confine their parking to Lot 7, across the street from the baseball stadium in the lot bordered by the Fieldhouse and the art studio. Lot 7 will be open one hour before first pitch and one hour after game's end.
No parking in the Campus Support Complex lot, west of the field; at the FIU Soccer Stadium; or on the dance floor.
The baseball team's Wednesday afternoon playdate with Missouri, ranked in some preseason polls, didn't go as well as their dinner plans with St. Thomas did Tuesday night. But FIU's best program and other 2015 Conference USA champions made up for it Wednesday night.
As the Conference USA Swimming & Diving Championships opened Wednesday, FIU let the rest of the conference know the title isn't up for grabs -- it must be taken from the Panthers or it's coming back to Camp Mitch. FIU swept the first day's two events, the 200 Medley Relay and the 800 Free Relay, to take a 14-point lead into Thursday against Rice and Marshall.
Here's what should worry Rice and Marshall and give FIU that first bite of Ben & Jerry's feeling: last year, FIU started slowly in the relays.
This year, freshman Naomi Ruele, sophomores Chase Harris and Letizia Bertelli and junior Jenny Deist took the 200 Medley Relay in 1:40.60, 61 hundredths of a second over Marshall which beat Rice by a blink (three hundredths of a second) for second. Bertelli's 23.77 butterfly leg took FIU from fifth to first and Deist's 22.66 freestyle anchor leg brought home the win and a school record, beating the 1:41.78 at last year's conference meet by Silvia Scalia, Klara Andersson, Bertelli and Deist.
The 800 free relay gave everybody else the wake view from sophomore Skye Carey's 1:48.08 opening leg through senior Jessica Piper's 1:49.03, senior Becky Wilde's 1:48.38 and sophomore Kyna Pereira's 1:47.43 anchor leg. The 7:12.92 provided a 4.9-second victory over Rice and was the second fastest in FIU history behind Johanna Gustafsdottir, Sonia Perez, Dani Albright and Marina Ribi at the 2013 Sun Belt Conference meet.
After Missouri slapped around starter Cody Crouse, the baseball team rallied from a 7-1 deficit to 7-6 and had Kolby Follis on third with no outs in the eighth. The inning died with Follis on third, just as the ninth did with a runner on second. Baseball fell to 1-4 going into this weekend's series with Seton Hall.
UPCOMING HOME GAMES/MATCHES
Tuesday -- Baseball vs. St. Thomas, 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday -- Baseball vs. Missouri, 3 p.m.
Thursday -- Softball vs. Central Connecticut State, 7 p.m.
Friday -- Softball vs. Siena, 4:30 p.m.
Friday -- Softball vs. Central Connecticut State, 7 p.m.
Friday -- Baseball vs. Seton Hall, 6:30
Saturday -- Softball vs. Central Connecticut State, 4 p.m.
Saturday -- Softball vs. Deleware, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday -- Baseball vs. Seton Hall, 6:30
Sunday -- Baseball vs. Seton Hall, 1 p.m.
Sunday -- Softball vs. Siena, 12:30 p.m.
So, last weekend, men's basketball and baseball went 0 for 5 while softball (8-2) went 4 for 5.
Granted, baseball played Ole Miss, ranked in some polls, receiving votes in others. What's men's basketball's excuse for refunding a game to North Texas, then getting treated by Rice the way teenage George Foreman used to treat other Houston kids before somebody put boxing gloves on his hands?
Men's hoop gets the week off to practice before Saturday's run up the Glades Road exit to FAU. Baseball gets to build its confidence on St. Thomas during Tuesday's home opener.
SWIMMING & DIVING
FIU goes into this week's Conference USA meet ranked second to Rice in CUSA according to CollegeSwimming.com. Expect FIU to crush all 'round in diving, led by sophomore Rebecca Quesnel. But it'll be swimming depth that decides the meet.
INDOOR TRACK AND FIELD
The Conference USA meet, in Birmingham, 'Bama, starts Wednesday. FIU fans can binge watch Better Call Saul until 11 a.m. Thursday, the start time for the men's shot put and women's high jump. FIU's got the No. 3 seed in each. Freshman Clarissa Cutliff's 5-8 3/4 and two other jumpers are 1 3/4 inches under top seed Middle Tennessee State's Barbara Vilson's 5-10 1/2. Senior Luka Mustafic's school record set last year of 59-1/2 is about halfway between his best this year, 56-2 1/2, and the 61-8 1/4 best from Western Kentucky's Nick Demaline.
While all this is going on, junior Alton Eliphar (200 meters) and senior Cam'ree Jackson (60 meters) could be contending in their events.
UPCOMING HOME GAMES/MATCHES
Thursday -- Men's Basketball vs. UTEP, 7 p.m.
Friday -- Softball vs. Florida State, 7 p.m.
Saturday -- Softball vs. St. John's, 5:30 p.m.
Saturday -- Men's Basketball vs. UTSA, 7 p.m.
Saturday -- Softball vs. Illinois, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday -- Softball vs. LIU-Brooklyn, 1 p.m.
Sunday -- Softball vs. Valparaiso, 3:30 p.m.
The Futures market sells big in FIU Athletics these days.
Make no mistake, it always has. Talk of what could be, should be, will be (maybe) always seems to draw more interest at FIU than what is. Maybe it's just I'm noticing this confluence this year.
Softball starts this Friday at home. Baseball begins a week from Friday at Ole Miss. Sand Volleyball will start soon after finishing last season ranked No. 4 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll. And, of course, we just had Signing Day with the football coaching staff likely looking at a Pack For a Bowl or Pack Up the Office season.
Now, take men's basketball, 11-13 overall, 5-6 in Conference USA, zero for four in its last four. You knew the season had entered the "just get ready for the conference tournament" phase when when coach Anthony Evans exuded an almost sanguine air after the Jan. 30 men's basketball home loss to Old Dominion. FIU did some things well, not enough or as many as Old Dominion and took a four-point loss. They're still trying to gain the cohesion and consistency of a team, which is where they seem to be at this point every year. Even in Evans' third year, there's still a chop shop quality to the roster -- this part from a Hialeah body shop, this piece from Sanford & Son's area, these pieces driven down from Tallahassee. There's not wholesale roster changes, but enough key players change each year that FIU seems perpetually trying to get past the dating stage.
The good news for the women's basketball team (3-19, 1-10)? Everybody makes the conference tournament. The bad news? FIU has to play with this year's team instead of next year's. This year's Panthers show about 72 times more pluck than they did last year. They're still tax refund light on talent and focus. Nobody's looked forward to next year like this since the Brooklyn Dodgers ("Wait 'til next year!") or 1960s Dallas Cowboys (Next Year's Champions).
Here's what FIU gains next year: a pair of three-star freshman forwards, 6-1 Sydney Fields from Lilburn (Ga.) Parkview and 6-2 Jamesia Amand from Dallas Skyline; three-star 5-7 point guard Alexis Gordon from Palm Bay Covenant Christian; point guard Kayla Rogers, who runs the show for Jacksonville Ribault, which has been nationally ranked this year; and 6-4 transfer Erin Garner, a former three-star recruit who transferred from Georgia Tech. Oh, and last year's CUSA Freshman of the Year, 6-1 forward Kiandre'a Pound, will be back from spending a redshirt season becoming a mommy.
Swim & Dive just finished its dual meet season at 8-5 by beating FAU 115-71 and the defending Conference USA champions enter conference meet prep. With the variation how much stress some programs put on earlier season meets, checking out top conference times can be like looking at a Kandinsky -- looks wonderful, but you might not be seeing what you think you're seeing. Still, FIU's got one of the top two CUSA times this year in the 50 freestyle, 100 free, 200 free, 500 free, 1000 free, 1,650 free (sophomores Kyna Periera and Naomi Ruele, take a bow); 100 back (Ruele), 400 free relay, 800 free relay, 400 medley relay; and sophomore Rebecca Quesnel could sweep the three diving competitions.
But FIU's owned the best individuals at conference meets before and been left to celebrate them while finishing from here to Hollywood from the team title. That changed in 2015 with FIU's depth burying second place Rice. The challenge is to repeat that feat Feb. 24-27 in Atlanta.
FIU baseball's the athletic department's Duane Bobick or Gerry Cooney. Like those Great White Hope's, FIU possesses talent, but something happens to that talent on the way to harvest. They've been up, down, diagonal, planking, down against the best, up against the rest: losing record in 2013, 36 wins but went one-two-and-out (i.e., Bobick vs. Ken Norton or John Tate) in the 2014 Conference USA tournament, under .500 until battering their way to a CUSA tournament title.
Conference USA's coaches rank FIU at No. 4 in their preseason poll. They went with Rice, 10 for 10 on winning the regular season or tournament title since joining CUSA, as the preseason favorite. No FIU players made the preseason All-Conference USA team. Big deal. The 2014 team had postseason Player of the Year, Aramis Garcia, working his way up in San Francisco's system; Freshman of the Year, pitcher Chris Mourelle; and all-conference starting pitcher Mike Franco.
Conference tournament? KO'd by 2.
Tickets remain available for the Feb. 6 Diamond Dinner and auction (items listed here), with former Detroit pitcher Jack Morris as featured speaker. To buy the $120 per person tickets, call 305-348-7297 or e-mail Carla Garcia at [email protected].
Curious about how FIU ranks among its Conference USA peers since moving from the Sun Belt Fun Belt in 2013, a curiosity prodded by several people inside and outside the athletic department asking the same thing, I did a little record hunting.
Now, obviously, the best answer to the above would be found by compiling the records of each CUSA school in each sport that FIU plays, weighting for things like missed conference tournaments, NCAA runs, conference tournament runs, individual brilliance (such as FIU's Meghan MacLaren tearing up the 2015 conference golf tournament). But all that would take up way too large a portion of whatever time I have left on this plane of existence. So, here's what I did:
I ranked the schools on overall and conference records since 2013 in football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball and then a wild card sport -- each school's best sport in which FIU also participates.
You play to win championships, so when ranking in conference play, the title winners eat first. When I assign point values later to determine an overall ranking, conference play will get greater weight. You get more credit for beating your peers than you do gorging on lesser punks.
I see the obvious flaws. With a relatively small sample size, one great or abysmal season can swing the results too hard in one direction. That's even more the case with schools that entered CUSA after the Great Sun Belt Migration of 2013 brought FIU, FAU, North Texas and Middle Tennessee State to the league. But, outside of Intelligent Benevolent Dictatorship, no perfect systems exist.
Here's the rankings for each sport:
FOOTBALL OVERALL
1. Marshall – 33-8, three bowl wins
2. Western Kentucky – 20-7, two bowl wins.
3. Rice – 23-16, two bowl appearances, one win.
4. Louisiana Tech – 22-17, two bowl wins.
5. Middle Tennessee State -- 21-17, two bowl appearances.
6. Old Dominion – 11-13
7. North Texas -- 14-23, won one bowl game.
8. UTEP – 14-23, one bowl appearance
9. UTSA – 14-22 (ranked behind UTEP and North Texas despite a smidge better record because UTEP’s extra loss came in a bowl game and North Texas’ extra game was a bowl win).
10. Southern Mississippi – 13-25, one bowl appearance
11. FAU – 12-24
12. UAB – 8-16 (loses tiebreaker with FAU on, you know, the program being dead, then revived to two-season coma).
13. FIU – 10-26
14. Charlotte – 2-10
FOOTBALL CONFERENCE
1. Marshall -- 20-4, one conference title
2. Western Kentucky -- 12-4, one conference title.
3. Rice – 15-9, one conference title.
4. Middle Tennessee State – 17-7
5. Louisiana Tech -- 16-8
6. UTSA – 12-12
7. Old Dominion – 7-9
8. Southern Mississippi – 9-15 (gets the tiebreaker over UTEP, North Texas and FAU based on a Conference USA West Division title.)
9. UTEP 9-15 (gets the tiebreaker over North Texas and FAU on combined head-to-head record)
10. North Texas -- 9-15 (head-to-head tiebreaker over FAU)
11. FAU -- 9-15
12. UAB – 5-11
13. FIU – 7-17
14. Charlotte – 0-8
MEN’S BASKETBALL OVERALL
1. Louisiana Tech – 68-19
2. UTEP – 55-27
3. Old Dominion – 53-32
4. Middle Tennessee State -- 51-31
5. UAB – 49-32
6. Western Kentucky -- 28-18
7. FIU – 38-40
8. North Texas 36-42
9. Charlotte – 17-28
10. Marshall – 27-52
11. UTSA – 25-50
12. Rice – 24-53
13. FAU – 21-53
14. Southern Mississippi – 41-36 (placed down here for two years of self-imposed postseason bans after fundamental NCAA violations, such as completing homework assignments for recruits).
MEN’S BASKETBALL CONFERENCE
1. UAB -- 20-15, one Conference USA title
2. Louisiana Tech – 31-6
3. UTEP -- 27-9
4. Western Kentucky -- 12-7
5. Old Dominion – 23-12
6. Middle Tennessee State – 22-13
7. FIU – 16-19
8. North Texas -- 17-21
9. Charlotte – 7-12
10. UTSA -- 13-23
11. Marshall – 12-23
12. Rice – 10-26
13. FAU – 7-27
14. Southern Mississippi -- 17-18 (See above)
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL OVERALL
1. Western Kentucky – 40-7
2. Middle Tennessee State – 60-20
3. Southern Mississippi – 60-22
4. UTEP – 52-25
5. UAB – 41-33
6. Old Dominion – 44-37
7. FAU -- 38-34
8. Marshall – 38-37
9. Charlotte – 22-22
10. UTSA – 34-40
11. Louisiana Tech – 33-42
12. Rice – 24-49
13. North Texas -- 23-48
14. FIU -- 20-54
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL CONFERENCE
1. Western Kentucky – 17-2, one conference title
2. Middle Tennessee State 30-5, one conference title
3. Southern Mississippi -- 27-8
4. Old Dominion -- 21-14
5. UTEP – 21-15
6. Charlotte – 10-9
7. UAB – 18-17
8. Louisiana Tech – 15-20
9. UTSA -- 15-21
10. FAU -- 14-21
11. Marshall -- 11-24
12. Rice – 11-25
13. North Texas -- 11-25
14. FIU – 6-29
BASEBALL OVERALL
1. Rice – 79-42, one NCAA at-large bid
2. Southern Mississippi – 71-43-1
3. FAU – 70-44, one NCAA at-large bid
4. UAB – 68-46
5. UTSA – 68-51
6. FIU – 66-51
7. Old Dominion – 63-54
8. Middle Tennessee State – 63-54
9. Western Kentucky – 24-28
10. Louisiana Tech – 40-62
11. Marshall – 40-63
12. Charlotte – 38-60-1
North Texas & UTEP – No team
BASEBALL CONFERENCE
1. Rice -- 45-15, one conference title
2. FIU – 29-31, one conference title
3. Southern Mississippi – 38-21
4. Middle Tennesse State – 37-24
5. UAB -- 35-25
6. FAU -- 33-26
7. UTSA -- 33-28
8. Old Dominion – 30-30
9. Marshall -- 22-37
10. Charlotte -- 21-38
11. Western Kentucky – 10-19
12. Louisiana Tech – 13-46
North Texas & UTEP – No team
WILD CARD SPORT
1. Western Kentucky – Volleyball. 62-10, 30-2 in conference, two conference tournament titles.
2. UTSA -- Men’s Track & Field. Two outdoor conference titles.
3. Charlotte -- Men’s Soccer. 37-16-7 overall, 16-5-4 in conference, one conference title, two other at-large NCAA tournament bids.
4. UTEP – Men’s Cross Country. One conference title, one conference runner-up (tell me I was the only one who thought the Miners won this every year).
5. Old Dominion -- Men’s Soccer. 32-18-5, 14-8-3, one conference title (a men's soccer championship is worth more than any other conference title because it's Conference USA’s best sport, by far).
6. FIU – Swimming & Diving. 22-3 in dual meets, one conference title (2015), one conference runner-up (2014).
7. Rice – Swimming & Diving. One conference title (2014), one conference runner-up (2015).
8. North Texas -- Women’s Soccer. 49-16-3 overall, 22-5-3 in conference, one conference tournament title.
9. Middle Tennessee State – Women’s Golf. One conference title.
10. UAB – Softball. 64-46 overall, 30-15 in conference, one NCAA at-large bid (gets close nod over FAU softball on incrementally better conference record).
11. FAU – Softball. 72-41-1, 31-16 in conference, one NCAA at-large bid.
12. Marshall -- Women’s soccer. 32-18-11, 14-9-7 in conference.
13. Southern Mississippi – Volleyball. 61-39 overall, 26-21 in conference.
14. Louisiana Tech -- Women’s soccer. 34-24-3 overall, 14-14-2 in conference.
As this is a multi-part post, the master of the multi-part hit...
Senior center Adrian Diaz wound up the only winner in men's basketball from last week.
While the team compiled a hat trick of losses to Stetson, Elon and Florida Gulf Coast, Diaz averaged 19.3 points, 8.3 rebounds and 5.0 blocks in the three games. For this, he was honored for the second time this season as Conference USA Player of the Week.
2016 FIU Panthers Baseball Schedule
Date Day Opponent Location Time (ET)
Feb. 19................. Friday at Ole Miss....................................... Oxford, Miss............................ TBA
Feb. 20................. Saturday at. Ole Miss...................................... Oxford, Miss............................ TBA
Feb. 21................. Sunday at Ole Miss....................................... Oxford, Miss............................ TBA
Feb. 23................. Tuesday ST. THOMAS................................... FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
Feb. 24................. Wednesday MISSOURI....................................... FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
Feb. 26................. Friday SETON HALL.................................. FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
Feb. 27................. Saturday SETON HALL.................................. FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
Feb. 28................. Sunday SETON HALL.................................. FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
March 1................ Tuesday SETON HALL.................................. FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
March 4................ Friday LOYOLA MARYMOUNT................ FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
March 5................ Saturday LOYOLA MARYMOUNT (DH)...... FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
March 6................ Sunday LOYOLA MARYMOUNT................ FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
March 8................ Tuesday STETSON........................................ FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
March 9................ Wednesday ILLINOIS STATE............................. FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
March 11............. Friday MANHATTAN.................................. FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
March 12............. Saturday MANHATTAN (DH)........................ FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
March 13............. Sunday MANHATTAN.................................. FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
March 15.............. Tuesday at Jacksonville................................ Jacksonville, Fla..................... TBA
March 16.............. Wednesday at Jacksonville................................ Jacksonville, Fla..................... TBA
March 18.............. Friday at Charlotte*.................................... Charlotte, N.C......................... TBA
March 19.............. Saturday at Charlotte*.................................... Charlotte, N.C......................... TBA
March 20.............. Sunday at Charlotte*.................................... Charlotte, N.C......................... TBA
March 24............. Thursday MARSHALL*................................... FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
March 25............. Friday MARSHALL*................................... FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
March 26............. Saturday MARSHALL*................................... FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
March 29.............. Sunday at Bethune-Cookman.................... Daytona, Fla............................ TBA
April 1................... Friday at UTSA*.......................................... San Antonio, Texas................ TBA
April 2................... Saturday at UTSA*.......................................... San Antonio, Texas................ TBA
April 3................... Sunday at UTSA*.......................................... San Antonio, Texas................ TBA
April 8................... Friday OLD DOMINION*............................ FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
April 9................... Saturday OLD DOMINION*............................ FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
April 10................. Sunday OLD DOMINION*............................ FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
April 13................. Wednesday BETHUNE-COOKMAN................. FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
April 15................. Friday at LA Tech*...................................... Ruston, La................................ TBA
April 16................. Saturday at LA Tech*...................................... Ruston, La................................ TBA
April 17................. Sunday at LA Tech*...................................... Ruston, La................................ TBA
April 22................. Friday FLORIDA ATLANTIC*.................... FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
April 23................. Friday FLORIDA ATLANTIC*.................... FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
April 24................. Sunday FLORIDA ATLANTIC*.................... FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
April 26................. Tuesday at USF............................................... Tampa, Fla.............................. TBA
April 27................. Wednesday at Louisville..................................... Louisville, Ky........................... TBA
April 29................. Friday at WKU*............................................ Bowling Green, Ky................. TBA
April 30................. Saturday at WKU*............................................ Bowling Green, Ky................. TBA
May 1.................... Sunday at WKU*............................................ Bowling Green, Ky................. TBA
May 6.................... Friday RICE*................................................ FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
May 7.................... Saturday RICE*................................................ FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
May 8.................... Sunday RICE*................................................ FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
May 13.................. Friday at UAB*............................................. Birmingham, Ala.................... TBA
May 14.................. Saturday at UAB*............................................. Birmingham, Ala.................... TBA
May 15.................. Sunday at UAB*............................................. Birmingham, Ala.................... TBA
May 19.................. Thursday SOUTHERN MISS*........................ FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
May 20.................. Friday SOUTHERN MISS *....................... FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
May 21.................. Saturday SOUTHERN MISS *....................... FIU Baseball Stadium.......... TBA
May 25-29............ Wed.-Sun. Conference USA Tournament..... Hattiesburg, Miss.................... TBA
May 29-31............ Sun-Tues NCAA Regionals............................ TBA........................................... TBA
TBA....................... Fri.-Sun. NCAA Super Regionals................ TBA........................................... TBA
TBA....................... Sat.-Tues. College World Series.................... Omaha, Neb............................ TBA
2016 FIU Softball Schedule
Date Day Opponent Location Time
FIU Invitational
Feb. 12 Fri. Florida State Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
Feb. 13 Sat. St. John’s Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
Feb. 13 Sat. Illinois Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
Feb. 14 Sun. LIU Brooklyn Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
Feb. 14 Sun. Valparaiso Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
Panther Invitational
Feb. 19 Fri. Holy Cross Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
Feb. 19 Fri. Indiana Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
Feb. 20 Sat. Delaware Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
Feb. 20 Sat. Holy Cross Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
Feb. 21 Sun. Holy Cross Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
Feb. 25 Thurs. Central Connecticut State Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
Felsberg Invitational
Feb. 26 Fri. Siena Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
Feb. 26 Fri. Central Connecticut State Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
Feb. 27 Sat. Central Connecticut State Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
Feb. 27 Sat. Delaware Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
Feb. 28 Sun. Siena Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
UF Invitational
March 4 Fri. vs. Illinois State Gainesville, Fla. TBA
March 4 Fri. at Florida Gainesville, Fla. TBA
March 5 Sat. at Florida Gainesville, Fla. TBA
March 5 Sat. vs. Florida A&M Gainesville, Fla. TBA
March 6 Sun. vs. South Alabama Gainesville, Fla. TBA
March 8 Tues. East Carolina Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
March 9 Wed. Notre Dame (DH) Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
March 12 Sat. Charlotte (DH)* Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
March 13 Sun. Charlotte* Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
March 15 Tues. Rutgers (DH) Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
March 19 Sat. at WKU (DH)* Bowling Green, Ky. TBA
March 20 Sun. at WKU* Bowling Green, Ky. TBA
March 25 Fri. UTEP (DH)* Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
March 26 Sat. UTEP* Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
April 2 Sat. at North Texas (DH)* Denton, Texas TBA
April 3 Sun. at North Texas* Denton, Texas TBA
April 9 Sat. Florida Atlantic (DH)* Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
April 10 Sun. Florida Atlantic Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
April 13 Wed. at Bethune-Cookman (DH) Daytona Beach, Fla. TBA
April 16 Sat. at UAB (DH)* Birmingham, Ala. TBA
April 17 Sun. at UAB* Birmingham, Ala. TBA
April 23 Sat. at Florida Gulf Coast (DH) Fort Myers, Fla. TBA
April 24 Sun. at Florida Gulf Coast Fort Myers, Fla. TBA
April 30 Sat. at Marshall (DH)* Huntington, W.Va. TBA
May 1 Sun. at Marshall* Huntington, W.Va. TBA
May 7 Sat. Middle Tennessee (DH)* Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
May 8 Sun. Middle Tennessee* Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium TBA
May 12-14 Thurs-Sat. C-USA Championship Denton, Texas TBA
May 20-22 Fri.-Sun. NCAA Regionals Campus Sites TBA
May 26-29 Thurs.-Sun. NCAA Super Regionals Campus Sites TBA
June 2-8 Wed.-Sun. NCAA WCWS Oklahoma City, Okla. TBA
* - Conference USA game
Suddenly Sam in San Diego?
Kendall Rogers of D1baseball.com is reporting that FIU's pitching coach Sam Peraza will be headed to San Diego State as the Aztecs head baseball coach. Anybody who felt FIU underachieved the last two seasons before storming through this year's Conference USA tournament can't blame the arms. The pitchers provided what little consistency existed for FIU this season a year after setting Conference USA records for staff ERA and shutouts.
FIU's also posted the Compliance Director job on the NCAA website. I'll write more about this later, but Hank Harrawood's done an excellent job cutting the bumbling out of that department in his year and a half there.
When Cindy Russo retired after seemingly a century as FIU women's basketball head coach, she already counted as something of a dinosaur -- a female head coach at FIU. The hiring of Marlin Chinn as her replacement cemented Russo's brontosaurus status.
This article puts FIU's dearth of female head coaches in perspective. Only 29 of the 138 schools with FBS football or Big East basketball have a lower percentage of women coaching women than FIU's 30 percent. Of the 10 women's sports at FIU, only three have female head coaches and the school's getting three sports for two women -- Rita Buck-Crockett is the head coach for volleyball and sand volleyball. Katarina Petrovic coaches the tennis team.
A case-by-case look at FIU's women's teams coaches reminded me of the 1980s Boston Celtics, which often included three white guys among five starters. The bombastic declarations that this melanin split demonstrated racism in the Celtics organization were countered with, "OK, who do you not want to start? Perennial All-Star Larry Bird, perennial All-Star Kevin McHale or Danny Ainge, for whom every NBA coach would find a spot?"
Similar situation among FIU's women's teams. Randy Horner's turned FIU's swimming and diving team from what one former swimmer called "a glorified high school team" into one of the best mid-major programs in the nation. Before the last two disappointing seasons, FIU's most consistent winners played soccer under the direction of Thomas Chestnutt. Joe Vogel coaches golf. That covers FIU's last three conference championship programs before the baseball team battered Conference USA into submission in May.
Softball coach Gator Rebhan came recommended by some of his current players. Track & field and cross country's Ryan Heberling ascended to head coach of both programs off convenience and his work with FIU's women's throwers, the strongest part of the track program in recent years. As has been noted here often, the women's teams consistently perform well academically despite so many FIU female athletes growing up with English as a second or third language.
In the overall athletic department, coaches who have shown progress but yet to prove definitively they can get it done consistently -- football's Ron Turner, men's basketball's Anthony Evans, men's soccer's Scott Calabrese -- occupy jobs women's coaches won't get as things stand now.
And that's the legitimate beef women's coaches and their advocates have with the steady stream of men into jobs coaching women's teams. Nobody's truly an equal opportunity employer.
Pat Summitt racked up 1,098 wins over 38 years as Tennessee's women's basketball coach. If you sat on a pile of her credentials and honors, you do your best Mongo Santamaria on Shaq's head. Handling the Tennessee program from the days when she had to drive the van and wash the uniforms herself, Summitt's knowledge of running a successful college basketball program is oceanic. Tennessee reportedly twice approached Summitt about coaching the men's team.
Yet, you never heard of, say, Louisiana Tech, nosing around Pat Summitt about coaching its men's hoop team. But Tyler Summitt with two years as an assistant at Marquette and 23 chromosomes from his mother gets the women's basketball job at La Tech, where all the coaches of women's teams have a Y chromosome.
Can you imagine one of Mike Krzyzewski's daughters doing two years as an assistant men's coach at Butler then applying to be the head coach at FIU? Can you imagine one of Mike Krzyzewski's daughters getting the chance even to be an assistant at Butler?
Though I'm a black man with a daughter, I don't get crazy about the gender/race role model thing. It's too limiting. There's too much to be learned from too many people of all skin tones and genitalia. And if nobody who looks like you has achieved something before, I say to that person what my mother used to say to me: "Guess you'll have to be the first."
But what about when you don't even get the chance to be the first? Because there's too much to be learned from diverse voices, the reduced volume of female coach voices matters at FIU and elsewhere.
A hit-and-run by a Toyota or Lexus SUV killed former FIU infielder Corey Lozano Sunday according to this report from Channel 25 in Palm Beach.
Lozano's FIU career, from 2005-08, put his name in the baseball program's record book beyond all-time roster. He played 216 games (sixth all-time), produced 250 hits (tied for fourth), 173 runs (sixth) and 44 doubles (seventh).
Anyone with any possible information on this, please contact Palm Beach Gardens police at 561-799-4406.
So, here's the final count for FIU in the Major League Baseball draft, at least, among those who've worn the blue and gold:
*Junior 1B/2B/SS Edwin Rios, sixth round, 192nd overall, Los Angeles Dodgers
*Junior righthanded pitcher Danny Dopico, 11th round, 322nd overall, Chicago White Sox
*Senior shortstop Julius Gaines, 33rd round, 995th overall, Seattle Mariners
*Junior righthanded pitcher Gianni Zayas, 35th round, 1,055th overall, Seattle Mariners (My mock draft had Zayas going 1,043rd. Can't imagine how he slipped...)
*Senior third baseman Josh Anderson, 38th round, 1,126th overall, Arizona Diamondbacks.
FOOTBALL
Punter/quarterback Luke Medlock came out of spring fourth at best on the quarterback depth chart behind sophomore Alex McGough, freshman Christian Alexander and redshirt freshman Bud Martin, who looks about 73 times better than he did a year ago. Former Homestead and Booker T. Washington quarterback Maurice Alexander expects to compete for a job, too, when he arrives in August.
Nobody who threw a pass for Fordham in 2014 remains on the 2015 roster. That's where Medlock landed as a transfer, the school announced Wednesday. Sam Medlock, a long-snapper, remains on the roster. Senior Jake Medlock, also a quarterback, transferred to Valdosta State for his senior year, 2014.
The Major League Baseball draft picked another Panther, righthanded relief pitcher Danny Dopico, Wednesday. He went in the 11th round, 322nd overall, to the Chicago White Sox. I almost put that in the headline just so I could use "Chisox."
Senior shortstop Julius Gaines was honored by Conference USA with one of the conference's Spirit of Service Awards. The honor shines a light on the athletes doing the best jobs of community service while also excelling academically and athletically. Gaines 500 volunteer hours led the baseball team and makes me wonder when he slept. He has a 3.63 grade point average as a recreation and sports management major while, of course, starting all but one game for the conference championship baseball team.
And so is Rios' current value set by t0he Los Angeles Dodgers drafting him in the sixth round. FIU's junior first baseman (and second baseman and outfielder) made First Team All-Conference USA this season after finishing third in the nation in home runs (18) and second in Conference USA in RBI (56).
*Amazing how many balls well hit by FIU Sunday either died on the way to beyond the fence or nearly assaulted fielders, who used their gloves for run defense and self-defense. Junior first baseman Edwin Rios, in possibly his last game as a Panther, crushed three balls. One got dropped near the right field fence in the first inning, one got caught after a long ride to deep left center field and a third found Columbia counterpart Nick Maguire's glove.
*For the third consecutive game, FIU scored in the eighth inning. Had the Panthers scored two runs Sunday, as they did Friday night against the Hurricanes and Saturday afternoon against East Carolina, we might still be playing the afternoon game. And but for FIU doing what everybody does, a bigger inning might've been there.
In the eighth, down 4-2, senior Brian Portelli got a leadoff walk. Senior Josh Anderson singled. With first and second, nobody out, sixth in the order Sophomore JC Escarra was coming to the plate. Senior Julius Gaines was on deck.
The book says have Escarra bunt to move the runners into scoring position. It's what coaches from Forest Manor to Marlins Park do in that situation. It's what FIU did Sunday. Escarra bunted the runners over, Gaines walked on four pitches. After Adam Cline took over from Columbia freshman reliever Harrisen Egly, a sacrifice fly scored Portelli and pinch hitter Spencer Levine grounded into a fielders choice.
As Escarra squared to bunt, I asked out loud in the press box: why? Why not let Escarra swing away? Why give Egly an out? Why not make him show he can still get a guy out?
Because that wasn't assured. Egly had retired only one of the previous five batters. He'd walked two. He''d gone to full counts on two. Freshman fissures? Just losing his stuff after two innings work? Whatever, FIU decided to give up an out to put runners in scoring position for Gaines, who was 0 for 11 in the regional.
The four-pitch walk to Gaines, after which Egly got yanked, didn't make the bunt choice look any better. If Egly's going to attack anyone in that situation, it's a slumping singles hitter he's facing with one out. Get him and Columbia's a long way to escaping the inning. Egly came close to the plate on maybe one pitch to Gaines. My 96-year-old grandmother could've stood on the Metrorail tracks and called those pitches.
Not saying Escarra definitely would've gotten a hit. He'd grounded out against Egly in the sixth and was 0 for 3 for the day. But, with the pitcher starting to fall apart, I kind of like Escarra's chances to do something positive that didn't involve an out: walk, hit, get hit.
*These last two weeks helped baseball coach Turtle Thomas not just keep his job for another year, maybe earned him an extension, but also got him $6,000 in bonuses: $2,000 for winning Conference USA, $2,000 for participating in an NCAA Regional and $2,000 for a team 2013-14 APR over 925.
Earlier this season, when FIU got ranked in the Baseball America Top 25, Thomas received an extra $2,000. The baseball program overall gets $5,000 in extra retail product from Adidas for winning Conference USA.
*Speaking of Adidas, in the regional, using Adidas bats solely, FIU managed seven runs and 20 hits in three games. Now, certainly, the Former Sunblazers faced better pitching in Coral Gables than they did at the Conference USA tournament they treated like the Baseball Furies. Still an interesting contrast.
*Saturday counts as karma for sophomore pitcher Chris Mourelle.
Too much of this season, Mourelle's received less support than a single mama with a deadbeat daddy. We've discussed the lack of offensive support. Occasionally, the defense doesn't help him either, especially on the FIU dirt that combines the cement hardness of 1970s artificial turf with the randomness of a natural field. That's a problem for a guy like Mourelle, who has the fewest strikeouts per inning of any FIU regular pitcher, but keeps opponents banging out a stream of grounders.
(Always makes me think of 1976 Cy Young Award winner Randy Jones, who played with Dave Winfield and a young Ozzie Smith on some otherwise bad, bland San Diego Padres teams. I used to cringe when I'd see Jones throwing at my beloved Big Red Machine, which he reduced to working out the Padres infield for nine innings.)
Sunday, Mourelle got defensive help, not harm. In the sixth inning, Josh Anderson made a nice pickup and throw of a bunt that successfully moved the runners over. But without that slightly off balance throw, East Carolina has bases loaded, no outs and maybe Mourelle doesn't get out of the inning. The sliding catches by Zack Soria and Jack Schaaf in the fifth and ninth innings kept runs off the board also.
In all, no errors and no walks. The only gift East Carolina got was a hit batsman by Mourelle.
*FIU needs to visit Miss Rudolph to get that lefty voodoo removed. As soon as East Carolina brought in freshman righty Joe Ingle to relieve senior lefthander Reid Love, I thought, "Game." Sure enough, the Panthes drove in the necessary runs when Ingle left a couple of pitches higher than he wanted.
At least an emergency trip to any chicken killers won't be necessary late Sunday afternoon. If the Panthers win Sunday afternoon, they'll face Hurricanes righthander Enrique Sosa Sunday night.
*FIU used only four pitchers Friday and Saturday and haven't allowed a run in 16 consecutive innings. The Former Sunblazers' preserved their arm arsenal about as well as they could for coming out of the losers bracket and needing three wins over two days.
*Columbia's played two marathon games that of little note otherwise. FIU's played two swift games, one that drew the best crowd of the regional thus far, the other being the best game. Just based on that, the officially impartial press box -- and people who like to read game stories in their morning print newspaper -- might share a few quiet smiles if FIU's the team that comes back to play the Sunday night 7 p.m. game.
I always love a little slow Ray on Sunday mornings...
*Senior shortstop Julius Gaines is a man.
In the midst of the worst first inning since the Bad News Bears lost their opener to the Denny's-sponsored Yankees -- two errors defensively, hitting into a double play offensively -- Gaines refused to wallow in self-pity, self-flogging or just self. He went to the mound to steady freshman pitcher Andres Nunez by telling him, basically, don't let my struggles mess up your game.
Afterwards, in a postgame media session he could've avoided if he chose (or coach Turtle Thomas chose for him), Gaines said exactly what most present and paying attention had to think after the four-run first: Nunez started off throwing well. FIU should've been out of that inning with little or no damage. The errors extended things into the badlands.
*East Carolina used five pitchers in losing to Columbia Friday afternoon. FIU used two.
*Nunez allowed one extra base hit. Once his curve got going, he confounded Hurricanes hitters. They didn't hit him hard at all. The decision to start him produced plenty of "Huh?" but with a little more defensive help, he'd have given FIU a pitching gem instead of a rock.
*You won't get that kind of THE-place-to-be energy for every FIU-Hurricanes regular season game, especially if the teams play more often than every four score and seven (minus four score) years ago. But, how could anybody at Mark Light Friday night not want two or three games a year with even half that atmosphere? It clearly demonstrated that whatever issues prevent these teams from playing yearly count as high school clique-type pettiness unworthy of grown folks making six figures a year. To paraphrase Cordelia Chase, get over it -- embrace the pain, spank your inner moppet or go out back and punch everybody's accents out of them.
Then come back and get this thing going again.
As the baseball team practiced (with adidas bats -- more on that later), the 2013-14 Academic Progress Rate numbers dropped. Not literally, but in the modern popular music vernacular.
Terry McMillan's Waiting to Exhale concerned African-American women and early 1990s relationships, not APR. But, it does tend to describe FIU around this time of the year. It's entirely possible one of the breezes I felt at the baseball stadium today came from the department exhaling over an APR report without any red flags or even yellow flags.
Men's track (indoor and outdoor), women's track, volleyball, softball, golf, women's cross country each registered perfect single-year APRs of 1000. Golf owned the lone perfect multiyear APR.
Proving that bad APR falls somewhere between tires and herpes in durability, men's basketball came in with the lowest multiyear APR, 879. That's still represents progress from 858 in 2011-12 and 866 in 2012-13 and allows basketball to proceed penalty free for the first time since the Richard Pitino-coached season of 2012-13.
Multiyear APR
Golf 1000
Women's basketball 995
Women's cross country 987
Tennis 982
Men's cross country 977
Women's outdoor track 977
Women's indoor track 975
Swimming & Diving 973
Volleyball 973
Softball 971
Men's soccer 970
Women's soccer 969
Men's outdoor track 958
Men's indoor track 956
Baseball 938
Football 933
Men's Basketball 879
2013-14 Single Year APR
Men's indoor track 1000
Women's indoor track 1000
Women's outdoor track 1000
Men's outdoor track 1000
Women's cross country 1000
Volleyball 1000
Golf 1000
Softball 1000
Women's soccer 979
Women's basketball 967
Swimming & Diving 962
Tennis 955
Football 935
Men's basketball 933
Men's Soccer 932
Baseball 931
BASEBALL
Businesses show love by showing material and money. As detailed here in the February post "Getting Dressed," the FIU athletic team Adidas loves most is baseball. No other program gets the amount of equipment under Adidas' agreement with FIU Athletics that baseball does. No other FIU head coach gets $4,000 of free product annually as FIU's baseball coach does.
According to Camp Mitch sources, baseball's love of its Adidas clothes and gear didn't extend to the bats. So FIU brought other brands along with Adidas to the plate throughout the season.
Apparently, somebody at Adidas noticed FIU's bat diversity as the Panthers battered Conference USA tournament opponents. That's not a problem unless there's a clause in the agreement between the school and the athletic wear company stating "each Sport...shall exclusively use or wear Adidas products whenever School's athletic teams are playing one of the Sports (including games and practice sessions)..." and that failure to do so constitutes a material breach of contract.
FIU swung Adidas bats at practice Wednesday and you can bet they'll do so this weekend in Coral Gables.
MONEY
USA Today's annual college athletics finances report demonstrated little of surprise beyond Oregon taking over the Total Revenue title from Texas.
Of the 230 schools ranked, FIU placed 90th in total revenue ($28,104,962), 92nd in total expenses ($27,542,910), 16th in subsidy ($22,540,365) and 36th overall, second to Eastern Michigan among FBS football schools, in percentage of total revenue that comes from subsidies (80.2%).
FORMER FOOTBALL
Click here to see the current real world job of former FIU running back Darian Mallary.
The NCAA didn't overthink this one.
FIU, which started the season ranked in some national baseball Top 25s and played like it over the last week in the Conference USA tournament, gets its first shot at the Hurricanes since 2008 in the NCAA tournament's Coral Gables Regional: Friday, 7 p.m., on Mark Light Field at Alex Rodriguez Park.
The Hurricanes come into the double elimination regional as the No. 5 national seed with a 44-14 record. FIU, 29-29, rolled up 11 runs per game in the conference tournament against some redoubtable pitching.
GOLF
Meghan MacLaren moved up four spots to finish in a tie for 25th at the NCAA Women's Golf Championship. MacLaren's 2-over 74 final round Monday gave her a 13-over 301 for the tournament.
I thought I saw a finishing kick with Juan Pablo Montoya surviving a terrible start and torn up wing to win the Indianapolis 500. Montoya ran third in that regard to some athletic types from Camp Mitch.
An FIU baseball team that didn't seem to have much chemistry or gumption all season showed it in beating Rice twice when it needed to just to get into the tournament and survive the first round of the Conference USA tournament. Then, they looked like the Big Blue & Gold Machine -- a .370 team batting average, 44 runs in four games -- as they blasted through the tournament to their first conference title since the 2010 Sun Belt championship, possibly saving coach Turtle Thomas' job in the process.
What a storybook finish for senior Josh Anderson after a tough testicle injury (is there any other kind?) earlier this year: hitting .467 with three homers and nine RBI.
So, now everybody waits for lunch to find out of FIU stays local to face the rivals in Coral Gables they never play or head for somewhere like Louisiana for the NCAA Regional.
In women's golf, junior Meghan MacLaren as she did in the Conference USA meet, scorched her third round with an even par 72, jumping 24 spots up the NCAA Women's Division I Championships leaderboard into a tie for 29th. Then, she beat Tulane's Gemma Drybaugh in a playoff for the ninth and final individual position that keeps her playing Monday.
A little baseball before I go watch some baseball on vacation...
Junior Edwin Rios led Conference USA in home runs (18), RBI (55) and slugging percentage (.633) while hitting .314 overall. That's why Rios made First Team all-conference, the lone FIU player to do so.
No Panther hit better than senior outfielder Brian Portelli's .336 average. Junior reliever Danny Dopico piled up 49 strikeouts in only 39.1 innings with a 1.60 earned run average. Both made Second Team all-conference.
FIU opens Conference USA tournament play against top-seeded Rice Wednesday.
