Indiana University Athletics
Win Now: Lemonis and Hoosiers on Same Page
7/10/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
July 10, 2014
By: Andrew Lentz (@IULentz)
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - It took just eight days for Indiana University Vice President and Director of Athletics Fred Glass to hire Chris Lemonis to lead the Hoosiers baseball program. It has taken even less time for its players to be sold on the decision.
IU established itself among the elite college baseball programs with a College World Series appearance in 2013 and a No. 4 national seed in the 2014 NCAA Tournament. Lemonis, IU’s 24th head baseball coach, is no stranger to winning either, helping his teams to 19 winning seasons in 20 years as an assistant - including three visits to the College World Series.
Neither the players that have been part of the Hoosiers’ recent success or their new head coach have plans of doing anything other than what they’re used to - winning.
“(Coach Lemonis) was upfront and said he wanted to come in and win and that’s exactly what our mindset as a team is,” junior pitcher Scott Effross said. “Our whole thing the last two years that I’ve been there is to win at all costs. It doesn’t matter who gets the credit. I think Coach Lemonis will keep up that tradition.”
Although 2015 will mark his first season as a head coach, Lemonis is used to early success as an assistant, helping The Citadel to an NCAA Regional bid in 1995 and Louisville to an Omaha trip in 2007 with a student-athlete-first mentality.
“Players want to feel like they’re your players,” Lemonis said. “Sometimes in coaching changes that gets lost a little bit. My biggest message to these guys is that they’re my guys, senior, freshman, whatever. These are players that I feel are important to Indiana baseball and the future of Indiana baseball.”
Lemonis has spent a majority of his first week as a Hoosier reaching out to his current players and to potential new ones on the recruiting trail to ensure that both the immediate future and beyond provide a sense of pride that sold-out crowds at Bart Kaufman Field can continue to enjoy.
“It’s been very positive,” Lemonis said of his dialogue with the Hoosiers. “It’s a very mature, very motivated group of guys. I don’t know if they’re as so much worried about me, they just want to win. Whoever can help them reach their goals is a guy I think they’ll stand behind. We’re going to do whatever we can to keep us at the top of the league.”
Under Tracy Smith, who departed for Arizona State in June, the Hoosiers won back-to-back Big Ten Tournament titles and 93 games during the past two seasons. Now comes the task of continuing the momentum IU has built, a goal that the Hoosiers have confidence in with the change in leadership.
“Ultimately, we want to leave the program in a better way than we found it,” redshirt junior pitcher Kyle Hart said. “I think for future Hoosiers -- I’m not even talking next year or the year after -- but five, six, seven years down the road we should be in really good shape with a guy that can pull talent all across the country.”
“He knows how to win,” redshirt senior outfielder Scott Donley said. “He knows what it takes to win and I can’t wait to get on board with that.”
Glass and the Indiana administration wanted a quick turnaround, but not without consulting with the current team members first.
“We told them ‘Whatever you do, just get somebody that expects to come in here and win now.’” Hart said. “We’re not looking to rebuild. We have the guys in here now that know we can win, that have won and expect to win next year.”
It didn’t take long for Lemonis to convince IU's decision makers or his new team that he was the right guy to meet the standards that have been set at Indiana.
