Mark Kingston joined Jay Phillips, Tommy Moody and Pearson Fowler on 107.5 Thursday, making his first public comments since the season was canceled.
He was able to talk about the program, the extra year of eligibility for spring sport athletes, the MLB Draft and what might be next for the Gamecocks.
Below is a few key questions and answers from his spot. Listen to the full interview here.
On the extra year of eligibility for spring athletes
“Well number one I think it was the right thing to do. These student athletes deserve the opportunity to play four years of collegiate athletics. They worked their whole lives to get to this point and I think the NCAA Did the right thing to provide that opportunity. In terms of how much coaches lobbied, I think how the process worked is we got together as coaches on a conference call and voiced what we thought should, and hopefully, could be done. We got those messages to our athletic directors and I talked with coach (Ray) Tanner and all sent our thoughts up the chain. Athletic directors then talked with Greg Sankey, the SEC commissioner and he got the message to the powers that be. As coaches we all wanted an opportunity to provide a fourth year for all our guys, not just the seniors. If you don’t grant a freshman or sophomore that extra year, they could conceivable have just a two or three year career. I think the NCAA did the right thing. As coaches we’re always provided the platform to give our opinions but it just goes up the chain to the athletic director to the president to the councils and committees.”
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Continuing on with extra eligibility
“With every answer come more questions. We have to put our trust in our athletic directors, our presidents, our conference commissioners and the NCAA that we will continue to get guidance to manage all the situations we have. We have tough situations but we have to keep in perspective. I told my team this from day one when this whole process began: we have to keep the bigger picture in mind. We need to understand the problems we may interpret we have right now are very small compared to some of the problems families are dealing with around the world. It’s a challenge; it’s a life experience. Now as a leader of a baseball team, my job is to make sure our team and the people around me are doing everything to help solve problems and be a part of the solution.”
On talking with seniors compared to potential draft-eligible juniors
“It’s different. It’s unprecedented. Everybody in the country has been given an extra year back. As it pertains to the draft, everyone has another year of leverage. Sophomores have a year back of leverage. Carmen Mlodzinski, if he really wanted to come back, would still have junior-year type of leverage. That’s the same with all the juniors. It’s part of the conversation. It’s our job as coaches to guide and provide information that’s helpful to our guys to help them make good decisions. That has not changed. The circumstances are a little different and the layers are greater but at the end of the day our job is to help guys make good decisions. We will continue to do that.”
On the good he saw from this year's team
“That pitching staff really took a nice turn. I don’t even know where to start in terms of who you want to highlight there’s just so many really good performances out of our pitchers this year. You start with Brannon Jordan at the top, a new guy who’s coming in and gave up seven hits in 21 innings. That’s amazing. Julian Bosnic, who we had to redshirt last year coming off Tommy John surgery, he threw seven innings and gave up no hits. Brett Thomas, a freshman for us out of the bullpen, was just starting to get healthy again after having battled some injuries in high school pitched four innings and gave up no hits and no walks and five strikeouts. Josiah Sightler was starting to come into his own as a pitcher threw two innings, gave up one hit and struck out five guys. Thomas Farr, a new JUCO guy we brought in, threw 25 innings and gave up six hits. You can just go on and on. TJ Shook was really coming into his own in his new role as a bullpen guy: eight innings, three hits, 16 strikeouts. That’s incredible. Trey Tujetsch, a freshman we brought in this year, had a 2.70 ERA. Cam Tringali after a slow start started to dominate again: 13 strikeouts to two walks. Then Brett Kerry, we started the year with him as a starter but we hit a couple bumps in the road early on with our bullpen and put him back there and our bullpen became as dominant as any pitching staff’s in the country. On top of that you had Danny Lloyd who was starting to find his groove: 13 strikeouts in nine innings. It was a tremendous pitching staff that was getting better by the week as we figured out how to use them and what makes them tick. I was really, really pleased with where that pitching staff was. Last year our pitching staff—between the injuries and what have you—was not a strength for us. This year, we had developed quickly into one of the best pitching staffs in the country.”
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Does this make dealing with the high school signees any different?
“No, you don’t know how this will go. The biggest mistake anyone can make in this process is rushing into too many decisions. Whether it’s the NCAA, conference, coaches, and players. Good decisions are not made in haste and hurried situations. We need to continue to evaluate. The draft, really will have the biggest impact on our roster moving forward: who’s drafted, who’s not, who’s coming back, who’s not. At the end of the day, what we all feel is very, very optimistic about the future of our program and of this team. We started to see glimpses of what it can be. We have a top five recruiting class in the country signed up right now. When all’s said and done, I feel very, very optimistic about our future.”
On how bright the future of the roster is
“The impact of the shrunken draft will have an impact on decisions made as we move forward. I think the NCAA is still finding ways to try and help everyone in every situation. We’ll continue to lean on that impact. It’s real easy in times like this to sit back and think about all the struggles and the bad things that are happening, but I think we need to find silver linings. The silver linings in a very small way for our Gamecock baseball program, it’s small in the grand scheme of what’s going on in the world…as it relates to our baseball team I feel great about where we’re going.”
With so many guys potentially coming back, is this the best college baseball's been in a while?
“Major league baseball’s made a decision to shrink their draft significantly. It used to be a 40-round draft. Last year we dealt with a 40-round draft. That takes a lot of guys off of college rosters, off of junior college rosters, out of high school baseball and puts them directly into professional baseball. They’re talking about potentially having a five-round draft this year. That’s significant. That’s a lot of guys in the past would have moved on to professional baseball that would now be coming into our college baseball programs. I think you might start to see a golden age of college baseball as we move forward. It’s never been promoted better, it’s never been bigger in terms of TV ratings and attendance and commitment by athletic departments. I think you’ll start to see a golden age of talent coming into and staying in college baseball. As a college baseball coach, I’m all for it. I think it’s the best stage for kids to grow up and develop and prepare for professional baseball but get an education at the same time. I think you’re going to see a lot of great baseball at the college level moving forward.”
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On if he anticipates any departures with the draft?
“If Carmen Mlodzinski is projected to be a first-round pick, which he still is you could have a one round draft and you’d anticipate Carmen would move on. That’s something we support. We’re in no rush and no hurry to make rash decisions. The draft may not be until mid-July. It doesn’t make any sense right now. We’re in the middle of the semester with our guys. There’s no rush to make any major decisions yet knowing the draft is still months and months away with guys having months of academics yet…at this point our focus is on making sure guys are doing the right things academically…our job is to provide guidance and getting all the assistance they need. As coaches we talk on a regular basis on all the what-ifs that could happen over the next coming months. At this point, it’s all just what-ifs. We can speculate on the draft, about continuing legislation but at this point, our job is to just continue to nurture our players.”
