Getting to know Duke's new baseball coach

Hint. He goes by "Moose."

So. Duke baseball. Still a thing?

Well, there are signs of life. A staff is in place—I’ll have more on that down the line—and they’re trying to put together a team and the shovels will resume their work in a few months.

Signs of life.

Before we leave behind Chris Pollard and the Cavaliers, I want to introduce a couple of data points into the discussion.

Virginia is a state-supported institution and apparently subject to FOIA requests. According to the Charlottesville-based Daily Progress Pollard signed a seven-year contract averaging 1.2 million dollars per year. That’s about a 50% bump from his speculated salary at Duke.

Shortly after he was signed at Virginia the school announced a gift from Tim and Jennifer Smith that included “$4 million for athletics to support scholarships in baseball & 5 women’s sports [plus] a current use gift for operating support for baseball.”

The cost of doing business keeps going up.

Which begs the question. Does Duke baseball have a Brooks, a Koskinen, an Ambler?

Above my pay grade. But in Wednesday’s ZOOM baseball presser Duke AD Nina King said part two of the Coombs renovation project would start this fall but part three was awaiting funding.

Naming rights available folks. Step right up.

For the record, new coach Corey Muscara said that Duke had the resources it needed to compete, which is what one would expect him to say. After all, if resource allocation were not to his liking, he and his wife wouldn’t be house hunting in Durham.

“Everyone wants to improve all the time. If we’re not trying to improve ourselves, what are we doing? But we have more than enough to be incredibly successful here. Everyone talks about what they need, what they need, what they need. Winners don’t talk about what they need. Winners find solutions. Winners are creative. Winners make players better. We have every single resource necessary to get the most out of our guys.”

As an aside, Muscaro prefers to go by “Moose.” Nobody calls him Corey.

Well, not anymore.

Muscara has never been a head coach. Maybe it signifies something significant about Duke’s commitment to baseball moving forward, although presumptive-front-runner-until-he-wasn’t Josh Jordan also is an assistant.

Some of the most successful coaches in Duke history had never been head coaches at the collegiate level before Duke. Start with Vic Bubas or Steve Spurrier for example. Dan Brooks had never been a head coach when he took over the Duke women’s golf program. His teams have won seven NCAA titles. Jamie Ashworth was an assistant for the Duke women’s tennis team when he took over in 1997. He’s still trucking. Kara Lawson. Marissa Young. Mike Elko is pretty toxic but it was cool for awhile. Duke just promoted internally for women’s soccer and men’s golf.

Muscara may or may not succeed at Duke but a lack of head coaching experience won’t be the cause of any failures.

If Muscara is as good at his new job as he was in his old job, Duke is going to be in pretty good shape. He’s been a pitching-coach par excellence for a number of schools. In his four seasons seasons at Wake Forest his Deacon staffs consistently ranked at or near the top in assorted NCAA pitching stats.

“We’re going to be rooted in player development. It’s going to be maximizing everyone’s skill set, both individually and as a team. We’re going to be a Swiss army knife as a team, with different styles and options.”

He adds that “great learners” thrive in his system.

“We’re going to be a program that dreams big. We’re going to be a program that finds solutions and not problems. We’re going to have relentless energy. Our work ethic is going to be tireless.”

Of course, you have to have talent to develop. Short term Muscara and staff are in 24/7 find-players-now mode, trying to put together a competitive roster in a short period of time. He used the word “fluid” to describe his roster and I don’t think he meant it in a good way.

“We have a lot of people coming in [for visits] and we’re going to fill this roster this year with a lot of transfers.”

Long-term? Muscara says he’ll built his program around high-school players, with transfers filling the gaps.

“The high-school crop is where we’re going to lay our foundation. There are academic requirements that make Duke the special place that it is. But because of that you need time to cultivate the person. The transfer-portal is like speed dating. You don’t really get to learn anything about anybody. For me it’s got to start with high school. You have more time to select the right people. It’s not about getting the best players, it’s about getting the best fit, the best person. That’s going to be the lion’s share of our roster. I want to be able to work with people over a period of time and see how they develop.”

Transfers?

“We do live in some crazy times. But I don’t think any coach got into this to make phone calls all day and day-trade on players. I think we got into this to develop players. The [Ivy-League] grad-transfer thing here is awesome because it helps with our admission standards and requirements. We know that they can handle their sports and academics because they’ve done it. We know that they can handle that at Duke. We’d like to add some grads here and there to fill some holes.”

Muscara says he’s doing what he’s always wanted to do.

“This is something I’ve visualized my entire life. Some people want to play professional sports or be a doctor or lawyer or whatever. As long as I can remember I’ve always wanted to be a [head] college baseball coach. That’s why I get out of bed every morning. I want to use baseball as a vehicle to help players become the best versions of themselves. That’s why Duke University is such a good fit.”

I suspect Muscara didn't dream about NIL and the portal and agents and all that when he was growing up. But it goes with the turf and he seems to be going into it with eyes wide open. And he’s going to have a honeymoon period long enough to use those developmental skills to put Duke back into the national mix.