ASU Baseball: Indiana’s Smith Tapped as Next Coach

ASU has announced that they have hired Indiana’s Tracy Smith to be their next baseball coach.

Smith will be officially introduced to the public and the media on Thursday.  Smith’s hiring was somewhat of a surprise in major media outlets, as his name was not one that was kicked around as a possible replacement for Tim Esmay.  (Esmay resigned last week).

Tracy Smith’s resume is impressive and it’s easy to see why new Athletic Director Ray Anderson moved quickly to hire him.  At Indiana, Smith was the National Coach of the Year in 2013, the year he took the Hoosiers to their only College World Series Appearance.

Smith has 18 years of experience as a head college baseball coach.  He coached nine years at the University of Miami-Ohio and nine years at Indiana.  He took both programs to two NCAA Regional appearances and has over 600 victories as a head coach.  In the last two seasons, he led Indiana to consecutive  Big 10 Championships.  This season, he led the Hoosiers to a program-best 21  conference victories.

Coach Smith, 48, has developed a reputation for evaluating and developing talent, as he has taken a traditionally unremarkable Indiana baseball program to a level of somewhat national prominence by producing many professional prospects.  He’s also developed a reputation for making excellent Academic Progress at both universities he has coached at.  Furthermore, he is regarded as an excellent fundraiser, having overseen the design and construction of new baseball facilities at both Miami-Ohio and Indiana.

Smith is a native of Indiana and is a graduate of Miami-Ohio and got his start as a coach there.

From the perspective of an ASU fan, this appears to be an excellent hire.  Tracy Smith has proven himself worthy of the chance to coach at a place like ASU.  Sun Devil fans are hoping that he can continue to work his magic of elevating programs to another level.