Mike Bianco reveals who he reached out to for advice on playing CWS Final

One year ago, Mike Bianco was interviewing for the LSU (his alma mater) head coaching job – a move that left a sour taste in a lot of Ole Miss faithful’s mouths. Now that Bianco has led the Rebels back to the College World Series for the first time since 2014, all seems to be forgiven.

That hasn’t stopped Bianco from connection to his roots. The Rebels headman learned first hand what it’s like to build a championship culture in Baton Rouge, as he helped the Tigers win three national titles between 1993 and 1997 as an assistant coach.

Legendary LSU coach Skip Bertman was the man who hired Bianco for the position, and made sure to ring his former coaches’ phone for advice for him and his players ahead of Saturday’s CWS Final Game 1 against the Oklahoma Sooners.

“Don’t want to be too specific with it, but talked about some of the things that I talked about earlier,” Bianco said about their conversation. “I think, especially with the beat writers, about being conscious of the time and the time off to make sure that [I] keep them busy, that it’s structured, that you know what you’re doing, but you give them time to enjoy it, to stay loose and stay calm.”

Now, the Rebels are rested and ready to take a title back to Oxford, Mississippi for the first time in program history. After experiencing a scare in a Game 1 loss to Arkansas in the national semifinal, Bianco’s squad is looking to be two-and-done in Omaha against the Sooners.

“Now it becomes fast and furious,” Bianco said. “We got back to the hotel last night, eat dinner and try to answer a lot of texts and emails, as many as you can, anyway.

“And then you wake up this morning and have all of this. You’ve got a couple of hours of media and ESPN and photo shoots and those types of things, then you’ve got practice. We’ll have a team dinner tonight with all the players and their families and whatnot. But yeah, the only one I’ve spoken to is Coach.”

We’ll see if Bertman’s advice pays off for Bianco as the first pitch for Game 1 of the College World Series Final is set for 7 p.m. ET. ESPN will carry the national broadcast for the entire series.