Feb. 16, 2006

By Eric Sorenson

Special to CSTV.com

	ERIC SORENSON Eric Sorenson is a regular contributor to CSTV.com, covering football, basketball & baseball. E-mail here!

        ---   Column Archive   --- FOOTBALL 12/10: The Way It Should Be 12/3: 10 Questions, Postseason Edition 11/26: 10 Questions, Week 14: Loving Missouri, Not Daniel 11/22: No. 2 Not For Many 11/19: 10 Questions, Week 13: Injury, Insult and Intensity 11/12: 10 Questions, Week 12: Warriors and Jayhawks? Why not? 11/6: 10 Questions, Week 11: Not Cool To Be No. 2 10/29: 10 Questions, Week 10: Month Two In The Books 10/22: 10 Questions, Week 9: Goodbye, Normalcy 10/15: 10 Questions, Week 8: Are You Ready For A Repeat? 10/12: Ten Overblown Topics 10/8: 10 Questions, Week 7: Is This Really Happening? 10/5: 10 Most Underrated Things About College Football 10/1: 10 Questions, Week 6 9/30: Shake-Up Saturdays 9/24: 10 Questions, Week 5 9/17: 10 Questions, Week 4 9/11: 10 Questions, Week 3 9/4: 10 Questions, Week 2 9/1: Top Five Upsets 8/28: 10 Questions, Week 1 1/2: USC Points To Next Year 12/11: The Road Awards 12/5: 10 Questions, Week 14 Roundup 11/28: 10 Questions, Week 13 Roundup 11/18: Bring On Round 2 11/18: Things Kicking Into High Gear in Columbus 11/17: The Ultimate Irony Hits Punk Band 11/14: 10 Questions, Week 11 Roundup 11/12: No Drama In The Coliseum 11/7: 10 Questions, Week 10 Roundup 11/3: Cards Sing BCS Song 10/31: 10 Questions, Week 9 Roundup 10/24: 10 Questions, Week 8 Roundup 10/21: Texas, Shaking and Cold, Still Stays On Top 10/16: 10 Questions: Week 8 Roundup 10/10: 10 Questions: Week 7 Roundup 10/3: 10 Questions: Week 5 Roundup 10/1: Buckeyes Road Warriors 9/23: The Day In Michigan 9/18: 10 Questions: Week 3 Roundup 9/12: 10 Questions: Week 2 Roundup 9/9: OSU Gets Total Team Effort 9/5: 10 Questions: Week 1 Roundup 8/29: 10 Questions, Pre-Season Edition 1/5: Rose Bowl Redemption 1/5: Previewing the Rose Bowl 1/3: Point/Counterpoint - Round 14 BASEBALL 2/2: Hope List For 2007 1/29: First Pitch Observations 1/25: Lincoln and Clemson Regions 1/24: Chapel Hill and Nashville Regions 1/23: Tempe and Fullerton Regions 1/22: Columbia and Charlottesville Regions 1/19: Coral Gables and Palo Alto Regions 1/18: SoCal Style, Straight From Long Beach 1/18: Austin and New Orelans Regions 1/17: Fayetteville and Wichita Regions 1/16: Houston and Oxford Regions 6/27: Best of Omaha 6/6: Grading The Regionals 5/28: Tournament Quick Hits 5/28: Saturday Statements 5/26: Thursday Thoughts 5/23: Teams of the Week 5/21: Saturday Statements 5/20: Friday First Takes 5/19: Thursday Thoughts 5/17: Q&A With Vance Law 5/16: Teams of the Week 5/15: Sunday Summations 5/13: Friday First Takes 5/12: Thursday Thoughts 5/09: Favorite Stadiums 5/09: Teams of the Week 5/08: Sunday Summations 5/07: Saturday Statements 5/06: Friday First Takes 5/05: Thursday Thoughts 5/01: Teams of the Week 4/28: Thursday Thoughts 4/26: Q&A With Pat Murphy 4/25: Teams of the Week 4/23: Saturday Statements 4/22: Friday First Takes 4/21: Thursday Thoughts 4/17: Teams of the Week 4/16: Saturday Statements 4/15: Friday First Takes 4/14: Thursday Thoughts 4/12: Q&A with John Savage 4/11: Teams of the Week 4/10: Sunday Summations 4/08: Friday First Takes 4/07: Thursday Thoughts 4/04: Teams of the Week 4/03: Sunday Statements 4/02: Saturday Statements 4/01: Friday First Takes M. BASKETBALL 11/3: Expanding The Field: Yes or No? 2/2: UCLA Leaves No Doubt This Time 12/09: SoCal Hosts Not So Kind To Visitors At Wooden Classic 11/26: Kansas Win Is An Insider Job 3/25: Bruins Do it Howland Way 3/12: Quick Bracket Hits 3/07: Ten to Watch: Bubbles Bursting

I got the chance to speak with one of the best coaches in all of college baseball on Sunday: Miami's Jim Morris.

I went to Jackie Robinson Stadium an hour and a half before the `Canes were to take on UCLA for the last of three games, and Miami S.I.D. Evan Koch was nice enough to hook me up with Coach, just as they were about to take batting practice.

After waiting for about 10 minutes for Coach Morris to finish visiting some friends and taking some pictures with the guy's youngins, I was able to squeeze in a few questions before he had to go. So while the stadium P.A. blared out Iggy Pop's "The Passenger", here's what Morris had to say:

Eric Sorenson: Coach, first off, I just got through looking at your family picture and I really love your dog, Fenway.

Jim Morris: Oh yeah, from the media guide. You know, the funny thing is that it's the perfect photo of the dog -- but me and Denise (his wife) don't look so good. But yes, the picture of the dog is great. (Laughs)

ES: I know you have batting practice coming up, so I'll just ask you a few quick questions. First, I notice you're playing a good number of freshmen this weekend, how do you rate this current class compared to other freshmen classes you've had?

JM: You know, it's hard to tell. I think they're a very good class and we've got some good young players. And they better be good or we're going to be in some trouble because we had 10 guys sign with the pros last year and you've got to throw the new guys in and get their feet wet, quick. Those first-timers made some mistakes yesterday against a good pitcher (UCLA's David Huff) and it's a learning experience, a learning curve for those guys. But that's the reason we play good teams. I think they're good and they're going to get better as we go.

ES: By the way, I think some of your young guys looked bad ass this weekend. They look like they're going to be great. Playing in the ACC last year, how did that effect your team since it was the first time you've played in a conference and all that. Did that present a big change for your team? Was that something to adjust to?

JM: It was an adjustment for our guys, even though I was in a conference for 12 years with Georgia Tech. The biggest adjustment was that we had to travel a bit more.

ES: Let's talk about the ACC tournament, which is something new for your guys. Having to play that tournament at that time: Is that something bothersome for you? Or is it something you're all right with?

JM: I think the better competition that you play, the more it helps your players. And I also think the more tournaments you play, it gets you ready for other tournaments. So I like the ACC tournament. It's great exposure for our players to the pro people and it's a great experience in general for them. So I like it a lot, it's good for our program. I think going to the ACC is something that's great for our athletic program and the University of Miami.

Then, Coach stopped me.

JM: Hold on for a second.

He looks at two or three of his players confused over who should be taking cuts in the batting cage and yells over to an assistant, "Hey, what are we doing here? Come on."

That appears to be enough to get the pre-game warm-ups back in correct order as Coach Morris walks back over to me a short five seconds later.

JM: Sorry `bout that.

ES: No prob, Coach. I'll keep this short. What are you more concerned with this season, developing your pitching or replacing the hitting from players like Ryan Braun and the Figueroa brothers?

JM: Well, you know 75 percent of the game is pitching. You've got to have pitching and you've got to have those pitchers ready. But we do have a lot of hitters to replace. It's just really a total team effort. We've got a lot of work to do with a lot of guys and get them ready to play by tournament time.

ES: Okay, that's it. Thanks for the time, Coach.

JM: Okay. Sorry `bout making you wait earlier. That was a scout that I'd known for 20 years or so and he lives out here now.

ES: No worries. I didn't mind. Good luck this year Coach.

JM: Thank you.

We shook hands, he patted me on the back and we we're done. Nice man. I dig the guy. He seemed genuinely sorry that I had to wait for him. But as I said, it wasn't a problem.

Coach Morris is right, there's a lot of work ahead for his team. But a 6-3 start, including a series win at a markedly improved UCLA team isn't too shabby. The series loss to Winthrop was a bit of an eye-opener, but my feeling is that the Eagles are certainly going to be a worthy team this year. So we'll see.

This weekend's upcoming series with top-ranked Florida will also tell us a whole lot.

Still, thought it was cool for Coach Morris to take the time to talk.