Revisiting Nick Mingione's first press conference

With Kentucky one win away from its first ever College World Series, Bat Cats Central revisits Nick Mingione's first press conference at Kentucky.

Photo by Britney Howard of UK Athletics

Nick Mingione’s first press conference as Kentucky’s baseball coach took place in the Kroger Field media room nearly eight years ago. On June 14, 2016, athletics director Mitch Barnhart told reporters that 51 coaches had shown interest in the job but that he knew Mingione — who worked as an assistant for John Cohen at Mississippi State from 2009-16 and as a volunteer assistant at Kentucky in 2006 and 2007 — would one day be Kentucky’s head coach.

“When you look at the way he began his career, the things that he has done, the sacrifices he has made personally, to have him sitting here as our head baseball coach is a real joy, a real honor, and I’m looking forward to all the things he will do at Kentucky,” Barnhart said.

The baseball program at that point in time was unrecognizable to the one that now needs just one more win against Oregon State in the Lexington Super Regional to advance to its first College World Series.

Kentucky played its home games at the charming, yet outdated for SEC standards, Cliff Hagan Stadium. Since the NCAA baseball tournament changed to its current format in 1999, the Wildcats had been to the NCAA Tournament just four times and had never advanced out of the regional stage. The 2006 SEC championship under Cohen was the best accomplishment in program history at that juncture.

Simply put, the Kentucky job was considered one of the toughest jobs in college baseball circles.

“People may say the job’s tough. I’m going to say any job in the Southeastern Conference is tough,” Mingione said during his opening presser. “Every job has its challenges, right? But this is a place I wanted to be at because I believe in my heart we can win here and we’re going to win here. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t have come. As much as I respect Mitch and everything we have going on here, if I didn’t feel like we could win, I wouldn’t take that job. Sure, every job has its challenges, but this is a place we can win at and have won at.”