By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

TUCSON, Ariz. — The following is a list of 96 college players who have an excellent chance of being drafted in the first two rounds of the 2023 MLB Draft with a good season.

The list was made after consulting with college baseball coaches across the nation along with scouts.

CF Dylan Crews
Louisiana St. Univ.
Crews could be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft.

He is an elite player who has the complete package mentally and physically. Last season for the Tigers, he hit .349 with 22 homers, 11 doubles and 72 RBI.

He was a Collegiate Baseball first team All-American last season.

RHP Chase Dollander
Univ. of Tennessee

The ace of the staff, he has a 96-99 mph fastball with a 4-pitch mix who has incredible command.

A Collegiate Baseball first team All-American and SEC Pitcher of The Year, he was 10-0 with a 2.39 ERA and fanned 108 batters with only 13 walks.

SS Jacob Gonzalez
Univ. of Mississippi
Gonzalez has developed into a superb defensive shortstop.

Offensively, he hit .273 with 18 homers, 9 doubles and 52 RBI last season.

OF Wyatt Langford
Univ. of Florida
This 5-tool player has the ability to impact games in all aspects.

Last season for the Gators, he hit .355 with 26 homers, 9 doubles and 63 RBI.

CF Enrique Bradfield
Vanderbilt Univ.
Bradfield has incredible speed which allowed him to swipe 46 bases  in 46 attempts last spring for the Commodores.

Over the last two seasons, he has stolen 93 bases in 99 attempts.

He also is a remarkable defensive centerfielder.

Last season, he hit .317 with 5 homers, 10 doubles and 36 RBI.

RHP Hurston Waldrep
Univ. of Florida
A transfer from the Univ. of Southern Mississippi, he was a third team All-American last season.

Waldrep was 6-2 with a 3.20 ERA and fanned 140 batters in 90 innings with the help of a 99 mph fastball.

Also in his pitching repertoire is a slider, curve and splitter.

SS Jacob Wilson
Grand Canyon Univ.
Wilson put up huge numbers as a sophomore at Grand Canyon last season as he hit .358 with 12 homers, 18 doubles and 65 RBI.

Then he played for Team USA last summer and was second on the team in hitting at .364.

RHP Cade Kuehler
Campbell Univ.
Kuehler had a 94-97 mph fastball which has topped out at 98 mph.

He also has four plus pitches.

Kuehler pitched for Team USA last summer.

Last season at Campbell, he fanned 111 batters with only 38 walks as he posted a 4-6 record and 4.07 ERA in 84 innings of work.

RHP/DH/C Paul Skenes
Louisiana St. Univ.
The 6-foot-6, 235-pound Skenes transferred in from the Air Force Academy where he was a Collegiate Baseball first team All-American and throws a 100 mph fastball.

In 15 starts, he was 10-3 with a  2.73 ERA and 96 strikeouts.

He also hit .314 with 13 homers, 10 doubles and 38 RBI.

OF Travis Honeyman
Boston College
Honeyman has remarkable bat to ball skills you can’t teach.

Last season, he hit .329 with 6 homers, 9 doubles and 19 RBI.

To read about 86 more top prospects for the 2023 MLB Draft, purchase the Jan. 6, 2023 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE.

The Jan. 6, 2023 College Preview edition of Collegiate Baseball newspaper features top players from every NCAA Division I Conference and projected Players and Pitchers Of The Year in each league. 

Plus, Collegiate Baseball has an in-depth report on the top 40 pre-season teams in NCAA Division I, Pre-Season All-Americans and a special in-depth story explains why LSU is No. 1, plus much more.

To see what’s in the Jan. 6, 2023 edition of Collegiate Baseball, CLICK HERE.

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

ORLANDO, Fla. — What techniques allow certain coaches to be the greatest in sports?

Do the best skippers coach by fear and intimidation with a generous supply of profanity laced tirades? Or are the best coaches those who teach in a caring, patient manner but also instill great discipline?

The choice is easy for Pat Williams, a man who has written 48 books with thousands of interviews about why certain coaches and players excel in different sports.

The clear winner is the coach who teaches with a caring mind set toward his athletes.

This type of coach becomes an important father figure to those players as relationships are cemented for life.

The former senior Vice President of the National Basketball Association’s Orlando Magic has never been a paid coach, but he has had a burning desire to learn all he can about why the elite of the coaching profession raise the performance level of their athletes.

Williams and his wife Ruth are the parents of 19 children, including 14 adopted from four nations ranging in age from 20-34. One year, 16 of his children were all teenagers.

“I prefer the servant/leader type of coach,” said Williams.

And the epitome of that type of coach is the late UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, according to Williams.

Wooden led the Bruins to seven national titles in a row from 1966-1973 and 10 NCAA crowns in 12 years from 1964-1975. From 1971-1974, the Bruins won 88 games without a loss.

One of the best servant/leader coaches in college baseball history was the late John Scolinos of Cal. Poly Pomona.

He led the Broncos to three national championships (1976, 1980 and 1983) and retired in 1991 as the winningest coach in NCAA Division II history.

One of Williams’ most important books is called How To Be Like Coach Wooden, a remarkable insight into why the Hall of Fame coach was so successful as Williams interviewed over 800 people to craft this inspiring biography.

 “That doesn’t mean these types of coaches have to be pushovers. As I talked to Coach John Wooden’s former players, they feared him. Even to this day, there is a certain respect/fear there. I felt a little intimidated when I was with him. But there is that certain sense of values he had. He was a gracious, sweet, loving man. But that doesn’t mean he was a lamb chop as a coach.

“You don’t have to be a screamer who is vile and profane and out of control. There is a balance. And by the way, that was coach Wooden’s favorite word — balance.

“It’s not just balance as an athlete but balance in your life. Coach Wooden had a long marriage that was a classic with wife Nell, and he raised his children well. I talked to all of his grandchildren and all of his great grandchildren. They absolutely revered him and adored him.

To read more of this in-depth article, purchase the Jan. 6, 2023 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE.

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

FORT WORTH, Tex. — Proper sleep is one of the most valuable components to athletic success.

When a pattern of sleep deprivation takes place, serious consequences happen as performances on the field suffer as well as academics and dramatic mood changes.

Those in the game of baseball have broken down almost everything in the quest to see athletes perform at the highest level possible.

And that can take the form of better nutrition, weight training and teaching concepts specific to the different skills required.

 But focusing on sleep has not been a high priority for coaches.

Dr. James Maas is a leading authority and international consultant on sleep and performance who has studied the subject more than four decades as a professor at Cornell University.

He wrote a book with Haley Davis called Sleep To Win! Secrets To Unlocking Your Athletic Excellence In Every Sport.

The staff of Sleep To Win have presented highly successful programs on sleep to scores of corporations, the U.S. Navy, U.S. Figure Skating Association, as well as NFL, NBA and National Hockey League teams.

Research from Harvard University clearly shows that if you practice a motor skill and get proper sleep the evening before, sleep spindles will bind together a motor muscle chain of memory and make a physical record in your brain in the motor cortex.

In short, muscle memory can be achieved more efficiently with 9.25 hours of sleep for those from puberty to age 26, according to Dr. Maas.

He presented a graphic example of the link between muscle memory and ideal sleep with figure skater Sarah Hughes who nearly quit at the age of 15. She simply could not perform high level jumps at this time even practicing two sessions a day in the morning and evening with the best coach in the world and the best sports psychologist.

Dr. Maas discovered she was essentially a walking zombie and asked her to consider cutting out her morning practices to get the 9.25 hours of sleep she needed. Within five weeks, she was suddenly doing jumps and moves she could never do before. The only explanation was the extra rest she had.

Hughes went on to earn a gold medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City, Utah Winter Olympics.

Choosing Mattress, Pillow
Dr. Maas said that it was vital to choose the correct mattress and pillow for sleeping soundly.

His book said that as you sleep, you must have your head, neck and spinal cord aligned just as if you were standing.

If you have a waterbed, he said that you should have a thick vinyl cover which is at least 20 mil. And if you are in a hotel and have a terrible mattress, either ask to change rooms or have the mattress replaced.

“The pillow is as important as the mattress. If you are really sleep deprived as most high school and college kids are, you can sleep on concrete. The best mattress is one that will give you body and lumbar support that ultimately will make you feel comfortable.

“And there are different strokes for different folks. Some people like hard mattresses and others like soft mattresses. Whatever doesn’t make you sore and doesn’t make you toss and turn excessively is fine. So many people go to a mattress store and only put their fingers on the mattress and press down. You’re not buying a piano. You’re buying a mattress. Lie down on it and take a power nap for 10 or 15 minutes to see if you relax or the mattress makes you stiff.

“For the most part, you want an individual pocketed coil innerspring mattress that conforms to your body and has low motion transfer. This type of mattress will not cause your partner to be awakened by tossing and turning or your animals if they sleep with you. Stay away from foam mattresses. They are usually too hot and ruin your sleep or they mold to your body in such a way that there will be hills and valleys in that mattress after a fairly short period of time.

“It also is important to ask for the proper coil count for a bed (above 400 for a queen and 480 for a king). If the salesman doesn’t know what the coil count is, walk away. Cheap mattresses have very low coil counts, and the coils are all yoked together by wires so that if one part of your body moves, then the motion transfers to the rest of your body. And it is not a good, stable surface.

“As important is the pillow. You can be on a $10,000 mattress. But if you have a bad pillow, you will have a bad night’s sleep. I feel a good down (such as goose down) or down alternative pillow is the best. Memory pillows build heat, and they are terrible. Some people want water pillows or foam pillows.

“A good pillow can save you as much as 20 percent better delta or deep sleep time which is so important for muscle, body, brain development and growth. There is no doubt about it.

“When traveling, a lot of people are smart enough to bring their own pillows which allows for better sleep at hotels. On airline flights, you can purchase a travel pillow from Bed, Bath and Beyond which is a little bit bigger than a paperback book. Most airlines don’t have pillows any more. And if they do, God knows what’s in them. Using this neck pillow for sleeping on a plane helps. Then when you get to the hotel, this pillow unzips and is made of down. Then you put the hotel pillow inside this down pillowcase. Now you have a sanitized pillowcase and a good feel of down.

“Any time a team is traveling for an hour or more on a plane, you will need some form of neck support.”

To read more of this article, purchase the Jan. 6, 2023 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE. It explains why limiting the use of electronics an hour before bed is vital, how to handle jet lag, how to have a proper nightly sleep routine and much more.

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NCAA Division 1

NCAA Division 2

NCAA Division 3

NAIA

NJCAA Division 1

NJCAA Division 2

NJCAA Division 3

California Community College

Northwest Junior Colleges

Collegiate Baseball’s 2023 College Baseball Preview Edition (Jan. 6, 2023) has just been published and features all the top teams and players on all levels of college baseball plus a look at the top 963 college baseball players for the 2023 MLB Draft, All-American teams and much more.

To see all the great stories in this issue, CLICK HERE.

To order this edition or subscribe, CLICK HERE.

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — University of Arkansas Head Coach Dave Van Horn is a remarkable story.

His teams at Arkansas and Nebraska qualified for nine College World Series, the most among all active head coaches, and won six outright conference championships.

In his 34-year college head coaching career, he has posted a 1,381-663 record.

His teams have made 22 trips to the NCAA tournament in the last 25 years.

He is one of only 11 coaches in NCAA history to lead two programs to the NCAA Div. I College World Series.

He also celebrated a national championship at Central Missouri State as the skipper.

Van Horn grew up in Kansas City with very little as he learned about hard work from his dad Joe.

“I had to work for everything that I’ve received in life,” said Van Horn.

“My dad was a plumber. During the summers when I got a little older, I worked with him and did the hard stuff. I did the digging of water lines by hand from the street to homes. It was hard, physical work.

“At one point, I asked my dad why I always had to do the hard job of digging trenches by hand? He told me he could either pay me $7 an hour or rent a Ditch Witch.”

When Van Horn was 14 and 15 years old, he worked at five different baseball stadiums located close to each other picking up trash for $7 an hour and made about $800 a summer.

Then he played baseball at night.

“I worked seven days a week from the time the season started until it ended cleaning those stadiums. I helped with everything. I will never forget those two summers.

“I turned 16 in September of my sophomore year of high school, and I went out and purchased a 1968 green Pontiac Firebird for about $700 which was close to 12 years old. I pretty much lived at the ball park during two summers. I also learned how to fix a baseball field. All of this carried over into what I have done for living for many years now.

His passion for baseball grew the more he played the game.

A remarkable athlete, he played two seasons at McLennan Community College in Texas and earned All-American recognition as a third baseman.

He went on to play at Arkansas for one year and was named the team’s Most Valuable Player and was All-Southwest Conference.

Following his junior year at Arkansas, he was drafted in the 10^th round of the 1982 MLB Draft by Atlanta and spent three seasons in the Braves’ organization before returning to Arkansas to begin his coaching career as a graduate student from 1985-88.

He then coached at Texarkana Community College for five years, Central Missouri St. for one year, Northwestern St. for three years and the University of Nebraska for five years.

Then he was hired at the University of Arkansas and has coached there for the past 20 years and led the Razorbacks to seven College World Series appearances and 18 NCAA tournament berths and racked up 796 wins.

This remarkable coach earned a base salary of $1.3 million for 2022, according to records obtained by the USA Today Sports Network in its rundown of what all 14 Southeastern Conference head coaches made in 2022 last June.

Not bad for a guy who used to pick up trash and dig ditches as a young man.

To read more of this in-depth article on Dave Van Horn, purchase the Jan. 6, 2023 edition of Collegiate Baseball. It explains how he learned to coach at Texarkana Community College and initially didn’t have an assistant as he did everything. He explains why hiring great assistants is vital and why allowing them to do their job without micromanaging everything is essential.

He also explains why he searches for players who have a superior work ethic and love the game. Van Horn also talks about what he learned from his coaching mentors, his $27 million Player Development Center, how he develops his players, why he leaves the weekend to his players in the fall to get away from baseball, how listening to your players can pay big dividends and much more.

To purchase the Jan. 6, 2023 issue or subscribe, CLICK HERE.

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

BERKELEY, Calif. — It may be the most remarkable story in college sports history.

In September of 2010, administrators at the University of California announced their intention to eliminate baseball to fall in line with Title IX.

It was a shocking announcement since the baseball program was the oldest athletics team at the school with a proud 119-year history through the 2010 season.

The baseball program had won two national titles, including the first College World Series in 1947, another in 1957, and had appeared in the CWS five times heading into the 2011 season.

California baseball boosters, led by Stu Gordon, came to the rescue of the baseball program, securing $10 million in commitments in only five weeks which allowed the program to be rescued from the chopping block.

For 10 years (2011-2020), money from the California Baseball Foundation made up of more than 1,000 boosters financed the baseball program at California to make it a fully funded NCAA Division I varsity sport. This scenario had never happened in the annals of college sports before.

After the 2020 COVID-19 shortened season, another startling development took place.

The University of California entered into a 15-year contract with the California Baseball Foundation that the baseball program would be once again funded by the University. Under conditions of the contract, the baseball program could not be eliminated during the next 15-year period (2035).

As part of the contract, the baseball program is responsible for coming up with $600,000 a year, plus 3 percent, every year during this 15-year period of time, according to Stu Gordon of the California Baseball Foundation.

It was the first time in sports history a full varsity sport in NCAA Div. I had been eliminated, brought back to life by its boosters by raising $10 million in five weeks and then brought back into the fold by the university 10 years later.

“The entire story is pretty amazing,” said California Head Baseball Coach Mike Neu.

“After the 2020 season, the California Baseball Foundation signed a Memorandum Of Understanding with the University of California,” said Neu.

“Essentially, it is a contract where the baseball program is now funded by the University. We still have to fundraise about $600,000 a year. We operated our program from 2010 until the end of the 2020 season by the California Baseball Foundation made up of boosters.

“As you can imagine, it was very difficult to sustain. To be a completely self-sustained program by boosters and compete at the level we want is not something we could probably do forever.

“We are funded by the university now and still have a lot of members from the California Baseball Foundation who are instrumental in fundraising and doing things to help our program. But I feel we are in a better spot than we have ever been. It’s nice because there was obviously some very tough times.

“I wasn’t here for the resurrection of the program in 2011. But I got here the year after as an assistant coach. So I got a chance to see how the program was saved, rebuilt and still here 12 years later being funded by the University.

“Frankly, the future looks great.”

Neu said from 2010-2020, the California Baseball Foundation led by Stu Gordon (pitcher on the Cal. 1960-61 teams) worked with administrators at California to make this highly unusual situation work as boosters refused to let the baseball program die.

This bold plan had never been done in college athletics’ history for a varsity sport on the NCAA Division I level, according to several long time administrators Collegiate Baseball contacted.

To read more of this in-depth story, purchase the Jan. 6, 2023 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE.