Hitting is timing. Pitching is interrupting timing.
For Monte Lee’s at-bat as Clemson head coach, the timing couldn’t have been worse, a 2016 debut coinciding with the year of Coastal Carolina’s stunning College World Series championship.
Ultimately, a guy with proven mid-major success (four NCAA Tournament appearances at College of Charleston including a Super Regional) was done in at the major college level by parity brought on by the Cinderella Chanticleers’ inspiring other mid-major programs and boosters.
And while the major conferences have dominated the precious eight Omaha spots in recent years, it was harder to get there – on the field and in recruiting – when Lee was fired May 31 than when he was hired after the 2015 season.
The last of Lee’s seven Clemson teams finished a mediocre No. 34 in the NCAA’s official Ratings Percentage Index. The Tigers, if not their program resources, were behind Georgia Southern (11), Dallas Baptist (23), Texas State (26), Gonzaga (27), Coastal Carolina (30) and Liberty (31).
Also East Carolina (8), Southern Miss (17) and Louisiana Tech (32).
And, oh the double-dose of irony and agony that knocked Clemson out of the 2022 NCAA Tournament field: the final two non-conference games for Lee, the former College of Charleston coach who started at Clemson the year Coastal Carolina won the national title, were a 7-5 loss to College of Charleston in Columbia on May 10 and a 17-2 disaster at Coastal Carolina on May 17.
Graham Neff seems to feel fan pain.
Clemson’s new athletic director publicly chastised basketball coach Brad Brownell for a 2021-22 season Neff said wasn’t up to Tiger standards, though Brownell reached two of the previous three NCAA Tournaments.
Neff’s vow to “win big” and “invest big” in baseball surely sounds better to Clemson fans than Kenny Chesney’s “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” blast played at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
The wait for a new head coach might take a while. Which is fine, because the next person in the Bill Wilhelm-Jack Leggett-Monte Lee line likely is involved in NCAA Tournament play that starts June 3.
Clemson must get it right, adapting to a wider college baseball competitive landscape by hiring a proven someone. Per Neff’s financial incentive plan, it almost certainly will involve pursuit of a highly successful major conference head coach or an elite assistant with mad recruiting skills.
Vandy, Strider, hard luck
The Clemson experience started out so well for Lee.
An ACC Tournament championship his first season.
Three straight regionals at Clemson from 2016-2018, the Seth Beer years.
But hard luck went into a defensive shift against Lee’s Tigers.
Oklahoma State got hot at the 2016 Clemson Regional (and stayed hot at the Columbia Super Regional).
Mighty tournament-tested Vanderbilt was a tough draw as a No. 2 seed in the 2017 Clemson Regional.
And again in 2018.
Clemson in 2020 got off to a 14-3 start, including 3-0 in the ACC and winning the South Carolina series. Starting pitchers included fireballer Spencer Strider, now of the Atlanta Braves, and Sam Weatherly, a 2020 third-round draft pick of the Colorado Rockies. Only to have COVID-19 wipe out the rest of the college baseball season.
Strider, the best pitcher Lee signed at Clemson, was limited to one full season because of an arm injury and the COVID season.
Parity fun and distress
Lee, 45, is an exceptionally class act who wants to be back in a dugout in some capacity in 2023.
Loyalty to a fault – with rosters, batting orders and pitching rotations – was an admirable but nagging Lee trait at Clemson, common in the coaching ranks and easily tweakable at his next stop.
Wherever he goes, he will find the excitement and distress that is college baseball parity.
It was a 2022 problem for the South Carolina Gamecocks, grounded by mid-week losses to Xavier, The Citadel, Presbyterian, USC Upstate and Charlotte.
Winning is harder for Chad Holbrook at College of Charleston, which hasn’t been back to the NCAA Tournament since Lee left.
Clemson doesn’t have to match Florida State’s ridiculously incredible run of 44 straight NCAA Tournament appearances. But Graham Neff knows the road to Clemson’s first Super Regional appearance since 2010 starts with the Tigers playing baseball the first week of June instead of watching nine other ACC programs take part in an NCAA Tournament Clemson fans should enjoy almost every year.
Follow Gene Sapakoff on Twitter @sapakoff
