Like any good father, USC athletics director Ray Tanner would never admit which of his children, or in this case, programs, is his favorite. However, you can understand if his smiles are a tad brighter when the baseball team excels. After all, he set the standard by which all other Gamecock baseball coaches are measured. So, when he hired Paul Mainieri to be Carolina’s next baseball coach, it was almost as if he had found a clone of himself.
Mainieri’s resume is more accomplished than any Tanner reviewed during the search process. With a national championship at LSU in 2009, over 1500 career victories, and being in a club of just thirteen coaches to lead two different programs to the College World Series, the new boss of the Gamecocks has the pedigree to return USC baseball to prominence.
On Thursday, Mainieri was formerly introduced as the 31st head baseball coach at South Carolina, and following the press conference, Tanner sat down for a 1-on-1 with SportsTalk to brag about his newest hire.