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It looks as though the Kentucky Wildcats have found their new baseball coach, and it comes from the John Cohen coaching tree.
According to multiple media reports, Mississippi State Bulldogs assistant coach Nick Mingione will be the next head coach of UK Baseball.
Source confirms MSU assistant coach Nick Mingione will be Kentucky's new head baseball coach. @ChrisJungKNE had it first.
— Michael Bonner (@MikeBBonner) June 13, 2016
According to sources, Mississippi State assistant Nick Mingione will be named new head baseball coach at Kentucky. pic.twitter.com/tRLrzA4KUu
— Chris Jung (@ChrisJungKNE) June 13, 2016
On the outset, this looks like a good hire in that it's a guy who coached at UK during Cohen's tenure and has been one of his top assistants in Starkville. Mingione has been an assistant at MSU since 2009, and before that, served as an assistant at UK from 2006-2007.
During Mingione's time with the Bulldogs, they've become an SEC power with a trip to the College World Series in 2013, where they lost to UCLA in the national championship. MSU has also made the NCAA Tournament five times in the past six seasons with three trips to the Super Regionals.
That kind of success is what UK needed to find in its next head coach. They've fallen too far behind in the SEC to have a successful program, not to mention actually making it past the Regionals when they do get the Big Dance.