OXFORD | Eight days after the season ended with a doubleheader sweep to Tennessee Tech in the regional final, Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco tried the put the abrupt end to a promising season in perspective.
The leader of the program for the last 18 seasons said Monday night was “about as tough a night as I can remember here,” and that he hurts the same or more after nearly two decades at the helm.
The Rebels tied the season school record with 48 wins, claimed the SEC West and SEC Tournament titles and won their first two games of the regional. But as Tennessee Tech dog piled at Swayze Field it became the eighth time in the last nine seasons that the super regional round of the NCAA Tournament hasn’t included the Rebels.
Bianco said analysis would take place in every facet of the program.
“You’ve got to be a big guy and look in the mirror and say it starts with me,” Bianco said. “What do I need to do to improve to have more success next year and going forward in this program, from assistant coaches down to trainers, equipment managers and strength coaches? Where can we get better? Where didn’t we succeed? Where did we succeed and how can we continue that path? Some of it’s personnel and players. Some of it is what we do right here in this office. I take a lot of pride in that we do that as well as anybody and don’t just say, ‘Hey, we had a good year’ and try to repeat that.
“It’s not like we don’t want to rock the boat. We want to win a national championship next year. What do we need to do to do that?”
Ole Miss has won 40 or more games three of the past five seasons but are 2-6 in the NCAA Tournament the last four years. The 2014 team went 7-3 and finished No. 3 nationally. The Rebels were 30-4 at home prior to the Golden Eagles’ back-to-back wins to eliminate the host school. Tennessee Tech lost in a winner-take-all super regional game three at Texas over the weekend.
“I felt so bad for those kids,” Bianco said. “I thought they deserved better than that, from life and baseball. Baseball is great, but, man, it can be really cruel, and you can watch it in the same moment. It’s a tough game … that hurt to watch those kids that I thought deserved better.
“You’ve got to do it on the field. But this is a team that’s done it on the field for 64 games and just didn’t do it in the last one. As far as going forward, I think every year I don’t look at it where, hey, gives you a pass (because) you had a good year. I think it’s worse when you had a bad year. You’re really super critical. But I would hope we’re always critical. People that know me and know how we run this place, I think nothing’s off limits.”
