Baylor, Minnesota battle for respect

• By GARY LANEY
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: May 29, 2009 - Page: 1C

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Call it the outsider against the team wanting to shake the label of underachiever.

When No. 2 seed Minnesota and No. 3 seed Baylor take the field for the second game of the Baton Rouge regional at Alex Box Stadium tonight, a talented but struggling Baylor team will be looking to prove it belongs after getting into the 64-team NCAA tournament field despite a 29-24 record. And Minnesota (38-17) will play the role of the northern team trying to win a regional in the South.

“I think we’re more of a small-market team (in the field),” said veteran Minnesota coach John Anderson, in his 28th year as coach. “We’re from the snow banks, we’re from the North. So I think we’re a little bit of an outsider here with these three schools from the South.

“But that’s OK. It is what it is. We’re used to that. I’ve been at Minnesota my whole career and I know what that’s like.”

While the Golden Gophers bring to town exotic stories of blizzards and hockey pucks, the rest of the field can commiserate with each other. LSU and SU are the local neighbors.

Even Baylor, from a moderately lengthy drive from Waco, Texas, can tell neighborly stories. Bears coach Steve Smith is from Gulfport, Miss., and shared stories Wednesday about his family’s experience with Hurricane Katrina. He can also share Southeastern Conference stories from his days as an assistant coach for Ron Polk at Mississippi State in the 1990s.

What he would like to be able to share is a story of how his Bears, who lost 12 of their last 14 regular-season games before winning two of three games at the Big 12 Tournament, turned things around in the postseason and lived up to the hype that has followed his bunch since the juniors arrived in 2007 as Baseball America’s top-rated recruiting class.

“That’s part of the pressure this junior class has been under since the day they showed up three years ago,” Smith said. “They’ve done everything a coach would ask them to do. But it’s not that simple. You don’t just roll out there and win. Everybody else is playing well too.

“I think our league this year has been far and away the best it’s ever been, especially on the mound. Whatever advantage or perceived advantage we had or people perceived we had going into the season, it dissipated pretty quickly when the other guy walked on the mound.”

Minnesota knows that, like Fresno State, which climbed from a No. 4 regional seed to a national championship last year, or Oregon State, which won the 2007 national championship after starting as a regional 3 seed, Baylor has the pedigree that says it can make a run.

“The season’s not over yet,” Anderson said. “They may figure this out before it’s over. And they do have the talent to play at a more consistent, high level.”

Despite its struggles, Baylor never stopped being a team scouts like. Two of its players, outfielder-pitcher Aaron Miller and right-handed pitcher Kendal Volz, are likely high draft picks in the upcoming June draft. For the Bears, it’s a matter of playing well at the right time.

“It’s kind of been a theme,” said Miller, who hits .328 with 12 home runs. “Nobody wants to talk about hot streaks or luck in baseball because you always want to think the best team wins. But same as basketball and football, whoever gets hot can win like Fresno and Oregon State the year before after they barely squeaked in.