Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Rooting interests in NCAA baseball tournament

Along with cheering for Sam Houston State, the Southland Conference's representative in the NCAA baseball regional tournaments this weekend, there are plenty of former Demons to root on.

Alabama, with NSU graduate and former head coach Jim Wells (1990-94) as the skipper, and former NSU assistant (1993-94) and later head coach (2002-2007) Mitch Gaspard as Wells' assistant, will be in the Coastal Carolina regional playing East Carolina.

Kentucky, led by former Demon head coach John Cohen (1998-2001), is heading up to Ann Arbor to play the regional hosts, Michigan.

Arkansas, with former Demon head coach (1995-97) Dave Van Horn running the show, is headed to Palo Alto, Calif., for the Stanford Regional, where the Razorbacks will play Pepperdine.

Ole Miss, whose bench boss is former Demon assistant coach (1991-92) Mike Bianco, gets some national TV exposure (ESPNU) in the Coral Gables regional hosted by top-seeded Miami. The Rebels open against Missouri.

Texas A&M has the heaviest contingent of people formerly wearing purple. Head coach Rob Childress was Van Horn's pitching coach in 1995-97 and was chiefly responsible for recruiting three of the four major league baseball draft picks in 1998 -- MLB veteran Brian Lawrence, Alan Davis and Chris Brown. Aggie third base/hitting coach Matt Deggs was a Van Horn assistant in 1996-97. First base coach Andy Sawyers was a Van Horn and Cohen assistant in 1997-98.

The Aggies are hosting a regional and will open against Illinois-Chicago.

Kentucky and Ole Miss could meet in a super regional.

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