Sports

UConn - the No. 9 Baseball School in the Country

That's Right - Baseball Has Arrived at Storrs, on the Shoulders of Coach Penders

The best coach in Storrs right now doesn’t go by "Calhoun" or "Auriemma."

That's right.

The best coach in Storrs is named Jim Penders and he’s the head coach of the No. 9 UConn Huskies baseball team.

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Go read that last sentence again. It wasn’t a typo. UConn, a team that plays in the frozen tundra of New England, has a Top 10 baseball team in the Baseball America preseason poll. And if you don’t know Penders, you better get to know that name quick. Penders (certainly not Edsall) is the hottest name in coaching right now.

Full disclosure – I was a beat writer for UConn baseball in Penders’ first year as head coach (2003). And while covering men’s basketball and women’s basketball at UConn was certainly exciting, there’s no question who my favorite person to cover on campus was – it was Jim Penders. He was always willing to give an interview and was always nothing but reasoned in his analysis. He might not have been a quip machine like Geno Auriemma, but there’s no question he was the smartest interviewee I covered at UConn.

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When Penders took over for Andy Baylock – a legend at UConn – I knew he would be a good coach. But this good? I don’t think anyone could have predicted this. Penders won the Big East Coach of the Year in 2010. He took UConn to its first NCAA tournament in 16 years (when Penders was a player) and snuck into the national rankings for the first time since 1979. Yeah, that was 31 years prior. Penders was a couple years into elementary school.

I don’t imagine most people in the state of Connecticut are experts on college baseball, but you should know that what Penders has done is nothing short of remarkable. It is right in line with what Jim Calhoun did building the men’s basketball program from nothing in the 1980s and 1990s.

If you asked college baseball writers in 2003 whether UConn could be a Top 10 program in the country they would have laughed at you. After five or six minutes of laughing they would’ve told you that Northeast baseball stinks and everyone knows South and West teams rule the sport – Florida, Texas, southern California. Baseball is religion down there and they play the sport year round. It’s hard to do that when there’s 16 inches of snow in Storrs.

Now, UConn is ranked one spot behind Cal State-Fullerton – a team that has won four national titles since 1979 and produced MLB players like Mark Kotsay, Kurt Suzuki, Ricky Romero and former No. 1 overall draft pick Phil Nevin. Think that’s impressive? Well, they’re ranked two spots ahead of Arizona State – a program that has produced names you might recognize, such as Barry Bonds, Dustin Pedroia and Reggie Jackson.

UConn hasn’t produced names like that … yet. (Former Indians pitcher Charles Nagy is their most notable alum.) But over the past few years Penders has recruited a tremendous level of talent to the program.

George Springer and Matt Barnes are two of the best players in the country. Not in the Big East. Not in Northeast. Overall. In the entire country. Baseball America has Springer ranked as the fifth best college player in the country. Perfect Game (a well-known baseball recruiting and ranking organization) has him as the No. 3 prospect in the 2011 draft. It’s not crazy to think he could be the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. Barnes, he’s in seventh place. These aren’t potential MLB players. They are potential MLB stars.

Springer, a New Britain native whom Penders kept in state, is a legitimate five-tool athlete (speed, power, average, arm, defense). All he did last year was hit .337 with 18 homers, a .491 on-base percentage and 33 steals in 35 attempts. And he’s a centerfielder with tremendous range who made just one error. He reminds me of Indians’ outfielder Grady Sizemore.

Barnes, well he’s the ace of the squad. He was 8-3 last year with a 3.96 ERA and 75 strikeouts in 82.2 innings. More impressively to scouts, he projects very well at the next level at 6-foot-4, 205 pounds. It also doesn’t hurt that he went 3-0 with a 1.42 ERA playing against top competition last summer for the USA Collegiate team.

And don’t worry, this isn’t a flash in the pan. There are more players coming. Players like former Yankees coach (and Baltimore manager) Lee Mazzilli’s son, LJ Mazzilli, who is entering his junior year.

And the best news? Penders is a Connecticut native and a UConn grad. This is his dream job. Here’s to UConn – the baseball school.


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