Brian O'Connor Q&A: Mississippi State NCAA Regional

Mississippi State head coach Brian O’Connor’s press conference with local media after the NCAA Tournament selection show on Monday.

First impressions on the field?

Brian O’Connor: The first thing I’d like to say is to congratulate Coach Ricketts and our softball team. What an awesome accomplishment for that coaching staff and that team to play in their first Women’s College World Series. It can be a program changer, and I can tell you that over here in baseball, we’re watching very closely, and certainly very excited for their team.

My thoughts on the Regional, first and foremost, I’m excited we’re hosting postseason baseball in Starkville. A lot’s to be made every year about the host sites, who should get one, who is out, all that. The committee has a responsibility to look at the body of work of all the teams under consideration. And I’ve always believed that our body of work throughout the whole season speaks for itself.

Obviously, the committee thought of that, that’s why we’re the 14th overall national seed. From a hosting standpoint, it’s awesome. I’m so happy for our guys that they get to play some more in this great stadium. I’m happy for our fans, we have the most passionate fans in college baseball. And not just the fans, everybody that works here, that pours everything into Mississippi State baseball. It’s great to have postseason baseball back here at Dudy Noble.

On the opponents

O’Connor: The Regional, the other three teams. Obviously, we know Lipscomb, we played them in a three-game series this year. The other two teams, Cincinnati and Louisiana, just from watching college baseball from afar, I know both of them had really great seasons.

We’ll dive into them over the coming days, but just looking forward to getting back out here and playing some more baseball.

How much do you take from the Lipscomb series in preparation?

O’Connor: I think you can take a little bit from playing somebody in a series. It was early on, I’m sure it’s a different ball club. We’ve got some different things as well. I recall that their No. 1 starter pitched really good against us, a nice sinker, and kept us at bay for five innings. The first two ball games were pretty tight there in the middle of the game and we pulled away a little bit.

But anytime you play a team that has won a championship, they’ve been playing great baseball to win a championship. I think Lipscomb, I just did a quick search on their schedule… I think they’ve won nine of their last 10. Won all three games to win the conference tournament. So the utmost respect for a team playing great baseball at the right time of the year.”

How soon do you figure out pitching plans, and how will Ryan McPherson be a part of it?

O’Connor: Ryan McPherson will be a big part of it. He threw on Saturday night, we scrimmaged late at night in the stadium, and he threw five shutout innings… ran his pitch count up just shy of 80 pitches, and felt great. It felt great the next day. So he’s on target for us this weekend.

We’ll spend the next 48 hours or so looking at these teams. Right-hand dominant lineup, left-handed, what do they do? Do they run a lot? Is power what it is?

You have to win the first one in a regional. There’s a huge advantage going 2-0, certainly. But it’s about winning the region. So in order to do that, you have to take them one at a time. In my experience of laying out pitching plans, many times over the years, you lay it out to win the regional. That’s what we’ll do based on matchups and the right thing for this team.

Status of Kevin Milewski

O’Connor: I think Kevin Milewski is cleared, full-go. He was not able to play the last conference tournament game through concussion protocol. He met those protocols on Saturday morning, was tested and cleared by our doctors again, and was cleared and did catch eight innings in our scrimmage on Saturday.

Do you like playing that first game on Friday?

O’Connor: Yeah, I do. I’ve been fortunate in my career to host a lot of regionals and every time after the first one I made the decision as the home team to play the first game. There’s a lot of reasons behind that. Weather is one of them (gestures to pouring rain at Dudy Noble Field).

Just get up in the morning, ready to go and play baseball. Then you get a chance to evaluate the other two opponents that evening. But there are a lot of things that drive it. A big reason behind it is potential weather and what it does to a regional if you have weather issues (thunder).

On strength of the SEC

O’Connor: To get seven host sites and 12 teams from this league in the NCAA Tournament, I think it says everything about what this league does outside of league play. The winning percentage and the RPI and whatnot.

I know the RPI is driven by playing in this conference. Everybody says that, but the reason RPI is what it is for this league is what this league does outside of conference play. So this league is absolutely deserving of that, and this league absolutely gets you battle-tested for what’s in front of you in the NCAA Tournament.

What does it mean to see the seniors earn the right to play at The Dude again?

O’Connor: It means a ton to me because I know that meeting with Bryce Chance right after I got the job, he made the decision that he wanted to play another year here at State. And that one of the reasons he shared with me was to play an NCAA Tournament in this stadium.

We as a team worked hard for that to happen. It has come to fruition, so you see guys like him and a guy like Ben Davis. He could’ve signed easily after last year and Ben Davis made a decision to come back here to State because he loves Mississippi State.

I think about Ace Reese and my conversations with him about returning for another year with the coaching change… He was clear about how important the fans here are to him, and potentially getting an opportunity to play in this stadium in an NCAA Regional. So many of these guys, that this program means so much to them, for us to have this opportunity is really cool.

Reflecting on a year ago to now and potential to advance

O’Connor: I thought about that 45 minutes ago when I was addressing this team after the selection show in the Omaha Room. The same place I addressed the team when they got back from the regional in Tallahassee.

As I was standing up there preparing to talk to thema bout the game plan for this week, I gave them an education session on what it’s like to host. Distractions, everything that goes into being a host and how do you prepare them to be successful. Before I talked to them, I looked out over the room and thought about just shy of a year ago, I was addressing last year’s team and it’s hard to believe it’s a week shy of a year.

That said… if we play winning baseball, we could be getting on a bus taking them somewhere, but we could also be here.

Assumptions are a dangerous thing. I’ve been part of a couple teams that hosted a regional and have not been a top 8 national seed, and there was an upset, and you had the opportunity to play the next round at home. We’ll see what happens. We have to control what we control, and that’s playing great winning Mississippi State baseball this week.