Raymond Church is congratulated after scoring the go ahead run in the third inning of FAU's 14-10 victory over FIU on Sunday. (FAUOwlAccess.com photo)
Morning after
FAU coach John McCormack is fielding congratulations and preparing for the Sun Belt tournament.
Originally published on
5/23/2010
by
Chuck King
BOCA RATON – Less than 24 hours after his Owls defeated FIU to claim the Sun Belt Conference regular season crown, FAU coach John McCormack received what he considered to be a pretty good complement from the Golden Panthers’ coach.
“He said, ‘You guys were really good all year. You won every series except for just the one. That’s consistency and setting things up right,’” McCormack said Turtle Thomas told him while the two coaches were at a baseball recruiting showcase in West Palm Beach on Sunday morning.
Thomas isn’t the only one paying his respects. McCormack’s phone and e-mail have been busy over the last day fielding plenty of compliments from former players, friends and members of the FAU community.
“When we win, the whole (athletic) department wins - we certainly don’t do this by ourselves,” McCormack said. “We’re trying to get the football stadium done. We’re trying to generate some interest in a baseball stadium. We win and maybe this will help and [some will] say, Hey, that legitimizes the athletic department even more.”
After the recruiting showcase, McCormack met with the Owls for about 45 minutes back in Boca Raton on Sunday to go over travel arrangements for this week’s Sun Belt tournament in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
FAU learned on Sunday that its opening-round game against Western Kentucky will be played at 1:30 on Wednesday. The No. 1 seed is generally slated for the late game on opening day, but Sun Belt rules give the host team, which this year is Middle Tennessee, the option of choosing the time it wants to play, and the schedule gets adjusted accordingly.
FAU and Louisiana-Lafayette posted identical 21-9 conference records during the regular season, but FAU earned the No. 1 seed by taking two of three regular season games from ULL.
The FAU-WKU game moved to the afternoon and not the 5 p.m. slot because the Owls aren’t in the Blue Raiders’ side of the bracket.
McCormack said the earlier start has its advantages.
“I think the players like playing at night but I’d play at 7:30 in the morning if we could,” said McCormack, a self-professed morning person who also likes the opportunity early games provide to scout upcoming opponents.
“The night games kill me, because you are sitting around and you are waiting, and you’re waiting and you’re waiting.”
Aside from going over the schedule, McCormack offered the Owls one other piece of advice.
“I just told them, don’t be satisfied,” he said. “We certainly accomplished step one. Don’t think this is easy. Now that we are at the tournament, everybody is 0-0, so what we have done up to this point is meaningless.”