Black Monday motivation a mixed bag for Bianco as Rebels open practice
OXFORD | Ole Miss begins preseason baseball practice as a full team on Friday, getting three weeks worth of work in before the season opener against Wright State.
It’s the first step in chasing the same goal with a different team and, and it’s also the final step in moving past an offseason following Black Monday last June when Tennessee Tech took the Oxford Regional with a pair of wins. The sour ending spoiled 48 wins and SEC West and SEC Tournament titles.
“I want this team to win as much as I’ve ever wanted a team to win,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “Probably has a little to do with last year, but it has to do also with how good — and not just physically — this team can be. They are fun to be around, a lot of good kids.
“A team that came in with a lot of them as the No. 1 recruiting class. We know that there will be kids that drop out of the program to the Draft after this year. Some will graduate. This is their last shot, and they deserve more than losing in the regional final.”
While Bianco called that final day of the season this past summer the “most painful feeling I’ve ever had in baseball,” he said revenge or the like isn’t a factor. The Rebels are top 10 nationally in the preseason and one of the favorites to reach the College World Series, as they try to build off a quality bullpen and an excellent offensive lineup.
But as far as last year being the key point of motivation, Bianco believes he differs from at least some of the players.
“I don’t get motivated that way,” Bianco said. “If you ask enough of the players you’ll get a lot of yeses to that question. I think that’s why I’ve never been the guy who needs a change or needs something different. I’m going to School X or something. Every year to me is a different team… I’m past (last season) now. I’m ready for this team. And even though it has a lot of the same players and a lot of the same components as last year’s team it has new pieces too.
“And in fairness to our players (last year) should motivate them. Not just because of how they went through it but because their snapshot of this big picture is so small. Some guys have just one more shot at this.”
Bianco begins his 19th season on February 15 and currently has 710 wins at Ole Miss and 810 with his three years at McNeese State added to the total. The 710 wins as an SEC head coach put him fifth all-time in the conference.
Barring a disaster of a season, he will move to No. 3 behind only Ron Polk (MSU and UGA) and Skip Bertman (LSU) sometime this spring. Bianco is 25 wins from Keith Madison (Kentucky) and 28 wins from Ray Tanner (South Carolina).
And while he’s been in Oxford since June 2000, Bianco believes he is still in the prime of his time as the head coach of the Rebels.
“We talk about (how long to coach), but I’m 51 and feel relatively young, even though it’s a lot different from when I got here at 33 as the youngest coach in the Southeastern Conference,” Bianco said. “I’m not the youngest anymore, but I’m not the oldest either. I don’t see me stopping anytime soon — 10 plus years maybe. I don’t know.”