February 4, 1999
Coach Madison Quotes
Opening statement:
“It’s hard to believe we’re starting another season. I’m real excited about it. I’m starting my 21st season here and Kentucky and I still get butterflies when I think about the first pitch. So, it’s neat that I still have that enthusiasm and love of the game that I had back when I was doing this at the age of 27. So, it’s a fun time of the year for us. We’ve been blessed with some good weather. We’ve been able to prepare our team a little bit better than we have in many years in the past. We’ve been out on the field in intersquad games. That gives us a little more enthusiasm than usual.”
On the young team:
“This time last year, I was talking about how we were a young team. We’re basically a freshman and sophomore team. It’s exciting, because last year, at the end of the season, when we started getting hot and starting beating some tough teams – Arkansas, Mississippi State and South Carolina – we did it with a young team. The guys that were really making huge contributions were our young guys like freshman John Wilson and some sophomores – Aaron McGlone and Andy Green. Those guys know how to win and know what it takes to win in the SEC, because they did during those last five weekends. That gives us a very positive outlook going into the season, even though we’re young, we have much more experience than we did last year.”
On starting the season on the road:
“Unlike other teams in our league, we have to start off playing on the road a lot. That always takes its toll. It’s tough to compete against teams that have already competed several games and possibly competed in 10 or 12 intersquad games, where we may have had only two or three intersquad games. So, that makes it a little tough. But I think the difference is last year, when we started off poorly on the road, it had a sort of snowball effect and guys started to doubt themselves a little bit. I don’t think that will happen this year, because they know they can win. Every team goes through adversity and so I think they’ve grown up to the point where they know that we might take a few lumps early in the season, but we’re going to get started on a winning note much earlier this year than we did in 98. So, hopefully that extra year of maturity will help in that area.”
On the SEC:
“Florida is always good. LSU is always good. I think Auburn may be the surprise team in the nation this year, because they have so many quality guys returning from a fine team last year. But, Andy Green, John Wilson, Aaron McGlone, Josh Paxton – those guys that really contributed down the stretch last year – they know that we can beat the South Carolinas and Mississippi States. South Carolina came into our place ranked fourth in the nation last year and we beat them two out of three. Mississippi State was a College World Series competitor last year and we beat them two out of three at Mississippi State. So, they know they can and that’s a big part of it. We all know that. The confidence factor is huge. I think that may get us through a lot of those tough SEC opponents this year.”
On being selected to coach the USA National Team:
“To be honest, my first reaction was ‘wow, I don’t know if I want to be away from home for two months.’ But, after talking to my assistant coaches about it, they were so excited. I don’t know if they wanted to get rid of me or not. After I saw how excited they were, I sort of jumped on the bandwagon and started to feel really good about it. Mark Johnson, the head coach, is a guy that I respect tremendously. Just for him to want me to be a part of his staff is a great honor. To be able to compete against teams like Cuba, Japan and Nicaragua, and some of the great amateur teams of the world, that’s going to be a great challenge. It’s going to be exciting to coach some of the future major league players on that pitching staff. There are going to be some great arms and great talent to work with. That sort of gets the competitive juices flowing, too. So, I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be a great summer. I know it’s going to be a learning experience for me, too.”
