Remember in 1997 when the Spurs finished with the third worst record in the NBA and somehow struck NBA draft gold by landing Timmmmmay D. with the #1 overall pick?
That’s pretty much exactly how I feel with OSU’s baseball team right now. Except that Josh Holliday is playing the David Robinson role and Rob Walton is a 6’11” black man from the Virgin Islands.
This time last week we were all wondering who the other favorites were in what appeared to be the Walton sweepstakes for OSU’s head coaching position.
Then on Friday Mike Holder calmly handed the keys to OSU’s most historic of the big three collegiate sports to young Josh Holliday. And Holliday turned around and hired Walton to an assistant coaching position.
To put it in terms we can all understand: this would be like if Brooks Thompson and Doug Gottlieb were up for the next iteration of the OSU basketball head coaching position and Gottlieb got it but retained Thompson as his head assistant.
Apparently Walton hadn’t gotten a raise from his $108,000 salary at ORU in the last three years. That’s about to change. Last year associate head coach, Greg Evans, made $135,496. Walton will certainly get more than that.
And given his propensity to trot out top-notch staffs (five of the last six years, ORU has ranked in the top 25 in ERA), he’s going to be more than worth it.
It’s just crazy to me that in seven days OSU went from “has no coach” to “has one of the three best assistants in the country and stole the head man from one of the two best programs in the state.”
I didn’t think I could be any more in than I was after Holliday’s presser last week but then this happened and Walton climbed aboard and…let’s just say the future of baseball in Stillwater hasn’t been this bright in quite a while.
Hol(l)iday…Celebrate…
Hol(l)iday…Celebrate…
I feel like when Ward and T. Holliday were at th helm, they were “the coaches.” Ward was obviously the head coach, but Holliday was a solid next in command. (That was my perception as a kid watching the Fariss, Ventura, Beanblossom, Burnitz teams.) It seems like Josh has reinstated that type of staff with “the coaches.” I hope it is as successful.
Am I crazy to think OSU basketball is more “historic” than OSU baseball? They have more national championships and two of the greatest coaches to ever coach the sport.
You need to learn the real meaning of PROGRAM.
With this news, Kyle can go ahead and get his CWS tickets next year to go along with his Final Four tickets he already bought.
Hah, never said FF, I said Sweet 16. That’s it.
Does anyone else think it’s crazy an assistant baseball coach can make well over $100k? Didn’t Oregon offer Walton $150k to be their pitching coach recently?