Should Nick Mingione be retained as UK baseball head coach?

In his first year as Kentucky’s head baseball coach in 2017, Nick Mingione led the Bat Cats to historic success.

The team went 43-23 and won their first-ever NCAA Tournament Regional before being swept by rival Louisville in the program’s first-ever Super Regional appearance.

Ever since then, it’s been a disappointment on the diamond for the program. In 2018, the Cats suffered a late-season collapse that resulted in them missing the NCAA Tournament.

In 2019 during their first year at Kentucky Proud Park, the Cats went 26-29 with an SEC record of 7-23 that left them out of the SEC Tournament.

In 2020 before the season was ended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the team went 11-6 but suffered a home sweep at the hands of mid-major UNC Wilmington.

In 2021 with their most experienced roster since 2018, Mingione’s Cats again struggled in the second half of the season. After starting SEC play with a series win over Missouri and road sweep of Auburn, UK went on to go 29-23 overall and 12-18 in conference play, including a season-ending loss to Florida in the first round of the SEC Tournament.

Now five seasons into the Mingione era, the team has just one NCAA Tournament appearance and just one SEC Tournament win (2017 vs. South Carolina).

It can also be argued Mingione has struggled with recruiting, as his 2017 roster was nearly entirely inherited from the prior Gary Henderson era.

With that, should UK pay up and buy out Mingione and start fresh? Or should they let him stick around and try to turn things around in Year 6?

Share your opinion in the poll below:

A Sea of Blue comes loaded with the best Kentucky Wildcats links, news, analysis and other fun stuff, so go ‘like’ our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.