Have there been any quotes from Baylor players or fans about The Box? It sure seems that there coach isn't very impressed with the crowd. Baylor has a great team and I hope them well next year. I hope that they had a memorable trip to the Box as did Northeastern. Let's win this World series for Wally and the seniors!!!
I'm sure you'll hear a few tommorrow. I've heard lots of quotes, but most of them are from disgruntled Baylor fans, so I doubt those are what you're looking for.
from http://www.lsusports.net/ BAYLOR QUOTES Head Coach Steve Smith "First of all, I want to congratulate Smoke (Laval) and his staff and their program on wining not only the SEC but this Super Regional. I want to wish them the very best as they progress to Omaha. As much as I want to say that, I also want to commend what I truly believe may be the premiere crowd in all of college baseball. You're hearing that from a guy that grew up in the state of Mississippi and spent five years at Mississippi State. I don't want to make LSU's media guide but that is a special, special, special crowd out there. I know there is a lot of pressure on coaching baseball here at LSU. I could not imagine a bigger monster to try to handle then this program. It is one reason why I feel so good for Smoke that he is able to get this thing done like he did. I also want to say that the way the fans have responded all weekend to just excellence and outstanding play leaves me to believe that they truly do appreciate the difficulty of his job and the difficulty of playing this game. That is so rare, it is rare among fans, and if you don't mind me saying it's also rare among the media. It's just flat out rare that anybody truly appreciates how absolutely amazing that billboard is out there and how difficult it is to play this game at the level that so many people play it. I am just glad to have played in front of a crowd and I'm glad to have our players play in front of a crowd that I truly believe appreciated their performance." "On a practical side, the game came down to one inning. I felt like I had taken (Mark) McCormick out at a good spot in the game. I thought that he had done us a good job. I felt like the guys we had to follow him were capable. I thought Andy Pape was a good match up because he is a change up guy and after seeing 95 mph fastballs two or three times in the order, I thought it was a good place in a row to bring him out there. Obviously, he wasn't on and neither were several that followed him. That's disappointing to me but it's more disappointed to them. They're the ones who work hard, they're the ones who practice and the one's who have invested the time. They are the one's who are hurting. Centerfielder Chris Durbin "I think he mixed his (Justin Meier) pitches up a little bit better and kind of stayed away from our hitters. Anytime he came in, we hit it hard to the left side. You have to give him credit. He kept the ball down and came after a lot of our good hitters and shut us down. A lot of our guys hit the ball hard all day but it seemed like we were hitting them right to their players. On the flip side of it, I think LSU hit the ball really well and when they were hitting the ball good, they were finding the gaps and finding the holes."
Smoke following Skip is like whoever the next coach is after a legend retires. Its like being the next coach after Bear Bryant, Vince Lombardi, or John Wooden. It took the Packers 30 years to win another Superbowl after Lombardi. Alabama won the NC 11 years after Bryant with their 3rd AB (After Bear) coach. It took Ohio State 34 years after Woody Hayes to win another one. For Smoke to do what he has done this year with the loss of Wally Pontiff and 9 season ending injuries to both star pitchers and position players he deserves to be the National Coach of the Year whether the Tigers win the CWS or not. Congratulations on a fantastic job Smoke
Amen Bengal B. It hasn't been easy and Smoke deserves some praise, whether he brings home the big trophy or not. All the Smoke-haters can just shut their mouths right now as far as I'm concerned. He is definitely national Coach of the Year for the job he has done.
What? No quotes about the Baylor van that got burned? The urine bags and whiskey bottles that got thrown at Bear fans? The cancer-stricken leader of the Bear Walk getting beaned outside the Box? The brutal assault on the Baylor team bus after Sunday's game???
Sounds to me like he was damn impressed. Of course, he had been there before as an assistant with the Castraters.
