Vicky Graff Photo
If there is one area where Kentucky baseball coach Nick Mingione never has an off day it is with his quotes.
Media members consider him a “quote machine” because he always provides more than just a typical answer and he did again Monday night after UK beat Indiana 4-2 to advance to the Super Regional this weekend at LSU.
“One thing we’ve told our team from day one is that every win and every loss has an expiration date. And they can celebrate and be happy today. But after tomorrow it expires. It’s over. And we’re back to zero,” Mingione said.
“One thing I shared with our team this year I thought was really good. I don’t know where I learned this, but yesterday’s history, tomorrow is a mystery. Today is the present. That’s why they call it a gift. So let’s just stay right here in the right now.
“Yesterday’s history, tomorrow’s a mystery, today is the present and it’s a gift. Let’s stay right here. That’s a good, healthy place to be. But after midnight, this win expires and we’ve got to move on to the next thing.”
Mingione noted that philosophy can help young athletes who have “so many things going on” stay grounded.
Kentucky had a record crowd Saturday night when it lost to Indiana but surpassed that record crowd when almost 7,000 fans turned out for Monday night’s regional win over the Hoosiers.
“One thing I will tell you about UK fans and the Big Blue Nation is they want to get behind you. They want to cheer for you. And they appreciate toughness. They appreciate hard work. They appreciate energy. They appreciate selflessness,” Mingione said.
“I paused when I went out there earlier in the game and I was just thankful. I just did a look-around and I just saw all the people and I was just so very thankful.
“One thing I’ll say about the fans is, earlier in the year, when it’s really cold and there’s not as many people, a lot of times we have to create our own energy. And the fans created it for us. And that was special.”
There will be plenty of LSU fans at games this weekend. The Cats went 1-2 at LSU earlier this season but as many as 14,000 fans might show up to watch the Tigers try to earn a berth in the College World Series.
“Great team, great program. I know their head coach well. We’re good friends. He’s one of the premier coaches in the country,” Mingione said. “I think anytime that you can go somewhere that you’ve already been, that definitely helps. And I told them, I don’t know how to prepare you to have 13,000 people go against you.
“But we’ve been there. They have great fans. They’re great people. And it will definitely be a different environment now. It’s a really good one, but it will go up another level. But the fact that our guys have experienced that definitely helps.”
