Tracy Archuleta named 30th Indiana State head baseball coach

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Archuleta hopes to be latest small-town guy to bring ISU success

Tracy Archuleta, named Indiana State's baseball coach June 21, shares a lineage with other successful Sycamores coaches of the recent past. He's a small-town guy who believes in the value
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Alright, alright, alright…we’ve all been (and are) worried about the baseball program and the lack of any chatter, but we finally have a glimpse of info with this article.

My favorite quote…

“I’m going to say the majority [of the incoming freshmen] that we’ve signed we’ve been able to retain. As far as the 26 that ended up being in the portal, I’d say 10 to 15 are coming back, maybe closer to 10. It’s what was expected. We still have about three or four guys that if we can get them to come back it would be big,” said Archuleta, without saying which players they were.
 

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I nicely questioned this hire when it was announced. Like i said then, I am here in Evansville and had the opportunity to casually observe what he did at USI. As I said then two things are red flags the day he was announced and i don't see this leopard changing his spots when moving to a bigger stage of the MVC. First is the what he has done lately. All his accolades are 5-10 years old. since then he has had mediocre years at best in a D2 GLVC league.

The second is what scares me the most. his recruiting MUST change. He has a let's go recruit the local talent first approach. Lansing tried that and look at what it got his win loss record. I am not saying there is no local talent but the MVC is a different beast than the GLVC or OVC. That is one thing Coach Hannah did well is extend his recruiting net to find the talent he needed either in the USA or Caribbean connection.

I am trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I have already had a person in USI's Sports Dept say "Thanks for taking Archuleta off our hands". This on top of what I have seen the last 10 years at USI I am worried! Prove me wrong Tracey, Prove me wrong.
 
EvilleSycamore said:
I nicely questioned this hire when it was announced. Like i said then, I am here in Evansville and had the opportunity to casually observe what he did at USI. As I said then two things are red flags the day he was announced and i don't see this leopard changing his spots when moving to a bigger stage of the MVC. First is the what he has done lately. All his accolades are 5-10 years old. since then he has had mediocre years at best in a D2 GLVC league.

The second is what scares me the most. his recruiting MUST change. He has a let's go recruit the local talent first approach. Lansing tried that and look at what it got his win loss record. I am not saying there is no local talent but the MVC is a different beast than the GLVC or OVC. That is one thing Coach Hannah did well is extend his recruiting net to find the talent he needed either in the USA or Caribbean connection.

I am trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I have already had a person in USI's Sports Dept say "Thanks for taking Archuleta off our hands". This on top of what I have seen the last 10 years at USI I am worried! Prove me wrong Tracey, Prove me wrong.
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I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on the last 5 years down at USI. He was pretty darn successful before than and when USI made the switch to D1 they were ineligible for the postseason. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to recruit when your players know there is no chance at a postseason birth. I think any coach would struggle with that transition.

I agree. He must expand his recruiting ties and do what Hannahs was doing. We aren't going to be too successful recruiting locally. Local kids are great, they are great for the program, but you have to cast a wide net to compete how we were competing.

He isn't going to reinvent the game of baseball and holding him to the standard that has been our last 2 seasons is completely ridiculous. Any coach at any program would have a hard time sustaining what we did the last 2 seasons. I have a feeling it's going to be Rick Hellerish where we will win more games than we lose, get to the tournament every so often and have a solid/respectable team year in year out. The biggest difference is we don't have Dallas Baptist and Wichita in the way anymore
 
treeman said:
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on the last 5 years down at USI. He was pretty darn successful before than and when USI made the switch to D1 they were ineligible for the postseason. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to recruit when your players know there is no chance at a postseason birth. I think any coach would struggle with that transition.

I agree. He must expand his recruiting ties and do what Hannahs was doing. We aren't going to be too successful recruiting locally. Local kids are great, they are great for the program, but you have to cast a wide net to compete how we were competing.

He isn't going to reinvent the game of baseball and holding him to the standard that has been our last 2 seasons is completely ridiculous. Any coach at any program would have a hard time sustaining what we did the last 2 seasons. I have a feeling it's going to be Rick Hellerish where we will win more games than we lose, get to the tournament every so often and have a solid/respectable team year in year out. The biggest difference is we don't have Dallas Baptist and Wichita in the way anymore
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The Terre Haute area and areas like Evansville, Indy and so on produces 1-2 players about every year that could help us. The problem is getting those guys. There have been several just from Terre Haute go to IU and Kentucky. Hell there’s a Junior to be at North who’s already verballed to Kentucky. I really hope the Puerto Rico/Venezuela connection continues.
 
EvilleSycamore said:
The second is what scares me the most. his recruiting MUST change. He has a let's go recruit the local talent first approach. Lansing tried that and look at what it got his win loss record. I am not saying there is no local talent but the MVC is a different beast than the GLVC or OVC.
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The "local recruiting" thing hasn't worked out too well for Curt Mallory either.
 
Sycamorefan96 said:
The "local recruiting" thing hasn't worked out too well for Curt Mallory either.
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Well there is a difference between recruiting the local kid that is all-state with a list of other D1 offers and recruiting the local kid that is 2nd team all-conference and team captain.
 

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True Blue said:
Let’s give the guy a chance. He did win national championships and in all fairness, didn’t do terrible even when they transitioned to D-1. At least they improved.
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Again- What have you done for me lately?!?! He is the Bill Hodges of baseball. Win a national championship the disappear. I just hope when this experiment fails we are prepared to pull the plug sooner than later when it damages the program.
 
The guy hasn't even coached a game yet and we have people already calling for his job. Jeez. Let the guy have some time. I expected a down year after the previous 2 and all the guys graduating or getting drafted. It happens. Ole Miss and Mississippi State have struggled after winning a natty. It took Hannahs a bit to get this program humming.
 

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EvilleSycamore said:
Again- What have you done for me lately?!?! He is the Bill Hodges of baseball. Win a national championship the disappear. I just hope when this experiment fails we are prepared to pull the plug sooner than later when it damages the program.
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Well his first recruit he brought with him from USI is actually from California.

Also, furthering the comment on the move up to D1, we don't know how USI is funded and what restrictions he had. He could have gone from being a better funded D2 program to very underfunded D1. Some food for thought.
 
A little disappointed in myself for only just now noticing this, but…the USI 2024 roster had three student-athletes from Puerto Rico and one from Venezuela, not to mention one from Japan too.

New coach already has one commit from PR in Jorge Cartagena.

Definitely gives me a little more optimism than I had even one week ago.
 
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