Should Miami Name Gino DiMare Head Coach?

All has been quiet in Coral Gables since the Miami Hurricanes were ousted from the Louisville Regional last Sunday.

Miami beat Oklahoma State in the opening round, earning a shot at host Louisville in the winner’s bracket, fell and then fell again in a rematch with the Cowboys, who were quickly done away with by the Cardinals as UL advances to this weekend’s Super Regional.

All of this took place with Miami skipper Jim Morris laid up in a Durham hospital, where he’s been since the Hurricanes trekked north for the ACC Tournament a week and a half ago.

Miami was curb-stomped 10-0 in game one by top-seeded North Carolina and fell 7-1 to North Carolina State in game two. The following morning, Morris fell ill, was hospitalized for pneumonia and long-time assistant Gino DiMare was tabbed to take over. The result; a 7-0 win over Clemson, that meant nothing from a conference standpoint, but was a nice springboard for a pending regional appearance.

The DiMare magic carried over to game one of the Louisville Regional, and for the first two thirds of game two. Miami upended Oklahoma State, 7-0 and held a 1-0 lead over top-seeded Louisville in the bottom of the seventh before the wheels fell off in an eventual 6-4 loss.

Come Sunday, the wind had been let out of the sails and the Cowboys exacted revenge over the Canes, fighting out of the loser’s bracket against the Canes, 7-1, ending Miami’s season. Oklahoma State went on to lose to host Louisville, 12-4 a few hours later.

Miami wrapped the regular season, 35-21 overall and 14-16 in the ACC. The Canes then went 1-2 in the conference tourney and 1-2 in the regionals. The final month of regular season action also saw Miami dropping two winnable series against very bad squads; Boston College and Wake Forest, both on the road.

Season highlights? There weren’t many. Miami did peel off a 10-0 start to the season, albeit against lesser talent. From there, two straight losses to a sub-par Florida squad killed some early momentum.

Embarrassment set in weeks later when dropping a home series to Duke and then suffering a 17-6 mid-week loss to the likes of Illinois State. Three days later, Miami topped number one North Carolina, 4-1, handing the Tar Heels their first loss of the season, but dropped the next two games, 14-2 and 4-1.

Soon thereafter, a 4-1 loss to Florida Atlantic, a dropped series at Virginia and a 5-3 loss to Bethune-Cookman in the span of a week.

Florida State continued their in-state dominance over Miami with another series win, but the Canes bounced back taking two-of-three from Clemson, at home.

The Boston College and Wake Forest debacles soon followed and then a series win over Georgia Tech, with a 10-1 game three loss to end the regular season.

Stating that Miami baseball is at a crossroads is an understatement. This team has been a shell of itself since the 2009 season when getting beaten in the opening round of the College World Series, never recovering and having not returned to Omaha since.

Recruiting has taken a hit, with top-flight players choosing professional money over college, while scholarship reductions have made the private school / public school debate more prevalent than ever.

While the recruiting approach needs some fine tuning and the private-versus-public issue is never going to change, the approach to fundamentals, overall attitude and the way this team carries itself can.

After an ACC Tournament loss to North Carolina State, Morris was quoted as saying that a four-run second inning by the Wolfpack took the Hurricanes “right out of the ballgame”. In college baseball, a four run inning is like giving up a ten-point first quarter in football. There’s more than enough time to recover. Hell, look at Louisville’s six-run seventh inning when Miami led a 1-0 pitcher’s duel into the bottom of the seventh.

The point isn’t to chastise Morris over one comment, but it’d be foolish to not admit there was a real attitude-swing with Miami as soon as DiMare took the reigns in Durham. After getting thumped by a combined score of 17-1 in games one and two of the ACC Tournament, a 7-0 win over the Tigers in a nothing-on-the-line game was that much more impressive. As was the opening round win over Oklahoma State in the regionals, and almost seven stellar innings of play against host Louisville.

Miami had more pep in its step with DiMare, as he coached aggressively and seemed to get more out of a bunch that was relatively flat the entire season. No, these Hurricanes weren’t going to make a deep post-season run, but after watching this squad get run out of the Coral Gables regional at a top seed last year by the likes of Stony Brook and Missouri State, it was refreshing to see some life breathed into this program.

For the record, this isn’t a call for Morris to step down or an official endorsement of DiMare to take over today. The question is simply being posed; with the steady decline of the past five Morris-led teams, another health scare for the legendary head coach, and the shot in the arm shown by this squad when a long-time assistant took over, might that signal a perfect storm and logical time for change?

DiMare took three years off, starting in 2008, to spend more time with family. He returned in 2011 and this past season marked his fourteenth year as a Miami assistant. DiMare was a local star at Westminster Christian, played for the Hurricanes between 1989 and 1992, and has bled orange and green for the better part of his existence.

Make no mistake, DiMare will earn his shot as a head coach sooner than later, though one would think the options would be limited for the South Florida product as he’s a family-first kind of guy and wouldn’t want to uproot his wife and four daughters for a game he wasn’t afraid to walk away from a few years back. Still, don’t let that distract from his skills set, knowledge of the game and level of understanding regarding the local culture and this beloved program.

Morris turned sixty-three this past February and has two years left on his contract. One would assume that based on how the season ended, the accomplished coach would want a crack at redemption next season.

The Hurricanes, behind DiMare’s hustle, have the making of a top five recruiting class and should be an improved team in 2014, but would things be even better with a minor coaching shake-up?

One would assume that Morris will coach out the final two seasons of his contract, barring he’s healthy enough to do so, and upon his departure, DiMare, who will be on the latter side of his forties, will be handed the reigns.

Some will talk about conducting a national search and what not, but that won’t be the case. DiMare is a logical choice for a unique program that simply cannot bring in any up and comer-type to take over. Just look at Miami’s last two hot-shot athletic directors for proof.

Both Kirby Hocutt and Shawn Eichorst didn’t have South Florida in their blood and proved to be ladder climbers and job hoppers, both leaping at other opportunities when presented, and never looking back.

Conversely, head coach Al Golden has weathered the storm of an NCAA investigation and two years of hell because he and his family have fallen in love with South Florida, like many northeastern snowbird-types before them.

The DiMare family – including Paul DiMare, father of Gino, well-respected UM Board of Trustees member and successful local businessman – is South Florida through and through. It’s a perfect fit all the way around, when the time is right, which remains the million dollar question this off-season.

DiMare taking over seems to be fait accompli, as does Morris stepping down in no more than two years, when his contract expires. But could it happen sooner due to the decline in play, health issues or any behind-closed-doors conversations outsiders might not be privy to?

Neither scenario would be surprise but fact remains, this program needs a shot in the arm before the start of the 2014 season, be it a rejuvenated Morris, or the more aggressive style of the unofficial coach in waiting that is DiMare.

That said, if all road are leading to DiMare and Morris is just riding out those final two years, then doesn’t logic dictate making the switch sooner than later, politics be damned?

The past few years were unacceptable and this post-season proved that even the slightest coaching attitude change can make an on-the-field difference.

Here’s to that notion being accepted and embraced.

(Editor’s Note: Coach Morris was released from the Durham area hospital on Thursday June 6th and is making the drive back to South Florida, through a tropical storm, no less. We wish him all the best in his recovery.)

Christian Bello has been covering Miami Hurricanes athletics since the mid-1990s. After spending almost a decade as a columnist for CanesTime, he launched allCanesBlog.com. – the official blog for allCanes.com : The #1 Canes Shop Since 1959. Bello has joined up with XOFan.com and will be a guest columnist at CaneInsider.com this fall. Follow him on Twitter @ChristianRBello.

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