Experience Is Not Talent
Michael Murphy has done a mostly good job with the UH Cougar beat (aside from falling down once in a big way), which is why I suppose it's so noticeable when someone else is writing about UH athletics.
Today, Megan Manfull has a mostly good column about last night's UH baseball win that begins:
The Houston Cougars didn't enter the baseball season expecting to overwhelm teams withtalent. Coach Rayner Noble fields a team short on experience.
But Noble saw a few early signs of the intangibles he expects will make up for the lack of know-how.
I wish an editor would have taken the time to explain to Manfull that actually, this recruiting class that Rayner Noble has brought in is one that many folks think is one of the more talented he's brought to UH, and that EXPERIENCE and TALENT are two different things.
This UH team may not expect to "overwhelm teams with talent," but that's mainly because Rayner Noble always puts together one of the toughest nonconference schedules in the country, NOT because the team has little talent. One of those "intangibles" she mentions is that Noble is hoping his talented recruits can overcome lack of experience and help out right away.
Indeed, this year's team can throw lots of snappy arms at teams, mainly because Noble's recruited a lot of talent (like freshman Aaron Brown, a 6-6 kid who can bring it and who closed out the game last night, or Ricky Hargrove, a freshman who pitched well enough to win the Oklahoma State game with a better bounce here or there). That was a luxury Noble did not have last year, when there just weren't enough healthy arms period, let alone talented arms.
Early in the season last year, I was awfully frustrated watching the Coogs play baseball. In addition to a lack of pitching depth/talent (in part because of injuries), they just didn't look like a typical Rayner Noble team, even though they played better ball by the end of the season. This year's team looks much scrappier and isn't making all of those silly mistakes. They are young -- yes -- but it looks like they're going to be competitive if they keep playing this way. That's what I hope for as a fan.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/19/05 10:27 | Sports | Technorati
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