Steve Sabins Reacts to Hosting Regional, Respect of the Big 12, Pitching Plans + More

Monday afternoon, the West Virginia Mountaineers found out that Wake Forest, Kentucky, and Binghamton will be in the Morgantown regional this weekend while also learning that they are the No. 16 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Shortly after the bracket reveal, WVU head coach Steve Sabins spent roughly 10 minutes with the media at The Goat to discuss the upcoming weekend.

Getting to host a regional

“Just excited. It was an incredible atmosphere. So many people came out to support the team. We did this here at this location last year, and to see it grow, the excitement of our players, and to be able to go to four consecutive regionals is certainly special. And mixing in a hosting situation for the community and the state, there’s nothing better. The people of this state are passionate about our program, they are passionate about WVU, so to be able to bring an event like this here is meaningful to me. I’m proud of the staff and the players.”

Not having to worry about being in the field

“Fortunately, we hadn’t been on the bubble for an at-large in a few years. If you are, you probably aren’t at The Gaot eating pretzels and cheese dip, so I think in general, we haven’t had to sweat that side out too much, but you’re always sweating something out. Whether it’s a host or a national seed. You could always look at it like you’re being hosed or you’re just fortunate to be in the tournament. Once you’re in the tournament, my philosophy is you have a chance to win the whole thing.”

Any pitching plans yet

“Not yet. We got to go look. My wife, as soon as Binghamton was announced, she was like, ‘Is that good?’ I said, ‘I haven’t done a lot of scouting reports on Binghamton in my free time this spring.’ So I have no idea what they’re doing. Obviously, they’re an incredible team. I remember years ago, they had an $80 million anonymous donation to their program, where they built a state-of-the-art facility. Incredible resources, and it’s obviously helped them recruit at a high level and be successful. They’re going to be a hell of a team, but we just need to go look at some general matchup stuff. Left versus right and how they’ve done offensively, and where they stack up, and what pitcher may be a good matchup for them.”

If he feels there is a lack of respect for Kansas, WVU, and the Big 12

“No. Like I said, I don’t go there. You could view it that way, or the fact that there were zero Big 12 hosts last year. So maybe a ton of respect for the league this year. Those were the two clearly best teams in our league this season. One and two in just about everything, and then you look at the statistics and the analytics, and we’re almost identical to each other. Our league plays incredible baseball. I would have really liked to see TCU get in the field. They’re deserving. They have a lot of history. They have a great team. They were injured in the middle of the year and then got healthier down the stretch. Being able to have half of our league make the postseason felt appropriate, and that didn’t happen, but we got two hosts in.”

How different the program is now compared to the 2019 team that hosted

“Immensely. College athletics is completely different. I mean, we weren’t paying players, we had half the staff members, we hadn’t hosted in 65 years, we didn’t have offices upstairs. I mean, the list goes on and on. Everything has been built from scratch. I would say almost every year, this program is unrecognizable from the year before. And that far back, it’s very different. The depth of the team is very different. In 2019, (Alek) Manoah led us to that regional. It’s just a different makeup of the team. We have more depth. A different university, a different college, a different program.”

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