UK Athletics Photo
Nick Mingione understands the difficulty of winning any game in the Southeastern Conference even after he led Kentucky to a share of its second SEC regular-season championship.
“You just don’t take wins in this league for granted,” Mingione said. “I am fortunate to have been part of this (winning a league title) three times and they are all so hard.
“My first year here was an amazing year and we went to a Super Regional. Then we missed the NCAA by one and two games the next two years. It was hard. The transfer portal and NIL became things in college athletics. You have to have the ability to make adjustments in sports, pitch-by-pitch or in life in general.
“The transfer portal has been great for us but we have also done a good job developing talent that we had on campus.”
Mingione was named SEC Coach of the Year Monday for the second time in his eight seasons at UK in a vote by league coaches. Mingione also won both SEC and National Coach of the Year in 2017, his first season at Kentucky.
The Wildcats set a school record with 22 SEC victories and 11 SEC road victories. By virtue of a 9-1 start for the second straight league slate, UK became the first team in 32 years to accomplish that feat. UK’s 15-1 start to conference play also was the best in school history.
Kentucky led the league in SEC-only batting average, was third in SEC-only fielding percentage, and fifth in SEC-only ERA. Only one other school (Texas A&M) was top-five in all three major categories in conference competition this season.
Kentucky’s offense was dominant at times as the Cats also led the league in OBP, runs scored, hits, RBI, doubles, sacrifice bunts, sacrifice flies and stolen bases.
Ryan Waldschmidt led the league in doubles and stolen bases in SEC play, and was also top-five in batting average, on-base percentage, runs scored, and hits.
Ryan Nicholson provided major power for the Cats in SEC play, finding himself in the top-five for slugging percentage, home runs, and runs batted in.
UK will open SEC Tournament play at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday in Hoover, Ala., against the winner of LSU/No. 8 Georgia.
