Scott Googins
Biographical details
BornGranville, Ohio, U.S.
Alma materOhio Wesleyan University '92
Playing career
1989–1992Ohio Wesleyan
Position(s)Catcher
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1993–2000Indiana (asst.)
2001–2004Miami (OH) (asst.)
2005Xavier (asst.)
2006–2017Xavier
2018–2023Cincinnati
Head coaching record
Overall482–511
TournamentsNCAA: 7–10
Big East: 9–1
A-10: 12–11
AAC 5–6
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
Awards
ABCA Mideast Region Coach of the Year (2009)
A-10 Coach of the Year (2008)
Big East Coach of the Year (2016)

Scott Googins is an American college baseball coach who was most recently the head coach of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats Baseball Team. Googins was hired at Cincinnati on June 6, 2017 and resigned in May of 2023 following the conclusion of the Bearcats' 2023 season, shortly after multiple assistants were fired for failing to report a sports gambling scandal. He left Xavier after being the skipper of the Musketeers baseball team since the start of the 2006 season. Under Googins, Xavier appeared in three NCAA tournaments. In 2008, he was named the A-10 Coach of the Year, and in 2009, he was named the ABCA Mideast Region Coach of the Year. Googins is an alumnus of Ohio Wesleyan University, where he played baseball for the Battling Bishops.[1]

Coaching career

Assistant coaching

After graduating from Ohio Wesleyan in 1992, Googins became an assistant at Indiana under head coach Bob Morgan. He held the position from 1993 to 2000. During his tenure, Indiana appeared in the 1996 NCAA tournament. He then worked as an assistant at Miami (OH) from 2001 to 2004, serving under head coach Tracy Smith, who had been Googins's fellow assistant at Indiana for two seasons. When Miami assistant Dan Simonds was tapped for the Xavier job following the 2004 season, Googins went with him as an assistant coach.[1]

Xavier

After the 2005 season, Smith left Miami to succeed Morgan as Indiana's head coach, and Simonds went to Miami to take his place. Googins was promoted to replace Simonds at Xavier.[1][2][3]

In 2008, Googins's third season, Xavier went 27–31 (19–8 A-10) and shared the A-10 regular season title with Charlotte. Googins was named the A-10 Coach of the Year. In that year's A-10 tournament, the Musketeers made the championship game but lost to Charlotte, 4–3 in 11 innings.[4]

The following season, 2009, Xavier went 39–21 (18–9 A-10) and finished third in conference, qualifying for another A-10 tournament. There, the Musketeers won their opening game against Charlotte, 8–6, but lost their second to Rhode Island, 7–6. Having to go undefeated for the rest of the tournament, the Musketeers won four straight games to win the title and qualify for the 2009 NCAA tournament, the program's first. As the third seed at the Houston Regional, Xavier went 1–2, dropping games to second-seeded Kansas State and host Rice but beating fourth-seeded Sam Houston State in an elimination game. Googins was named the 2009 ABCA Mideast Region Coach of the Year.[1][4][5]

In 2011, left-handed pitcher Ben Thomas became the first major-award winner of Googins's tenure when he was named A-10 Pitcher of the Year. In 2013, Charles Leesman, who played for Xavier from 2006 to 2008, became Googins's first player to appear in Major League Baseball when he debuted for the Chicago White Sox.[4][6][7]

Xavier returned to the NCAA tournament in 2014, its first season in the new Big East Conference. Xavier had an average regular season, going 8–10 in Big East play and qualifying as the last team into the Big East tournament. While traveling to the tournament in Brooklyn, the team faced a flight delay, a flat tire on the bus to the hotel, and flooded hotel rooms. In the tournament itself, the fourth-seeded Musketeers dropped their opener to top-seeded Creighton, then won three straight games to win the championship and the conference's automatic bid. Googins said to reporters of reaching his second NCAA tournament: "I'm going to enjoy it this time. You don't realize that it doesn't happen all of the time. You can't take it for granted but I was really uptight the last time. Not that it's going to be loosey-goosey but we're going to go down there and it's another weekend. We're going to be ready to play but I'm going to enjoy it. It is a great experience." At the Nashville Regional, Xavier again went 1–2, losing games against Vanderbilt and Oregon but eliminating third-seeded Clemson.[5][8][9][10]

Cincinnati

On May 31, 2023, Googins resigned in the wake of multiple assistants being fired for failing to report an NCAA violation related to sports gambling.[11]

Head coaching record

Below is a table of Googins's records as a collegiate head baseball coach.[4][12]

Statistics overview
Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Xavier Musketeers (Atlantic 10 Conference) (2006–2013)
2006 Xavier 19–37 9–18 t-12th (14)
2007 Xavier 29–31 17–10 4th (14) A-10 tournament
2008 Xavier 27–31 19–8 t-1st (14) A-10 tournament
2009 Xavier 39–21 18–9 3rd (14) NCAA Regional
2010 Xavier 26–32 18–9 2nd (14) A-10 tournament
2011 Xavier 30–26 14–10 4th (13) A-10 tournament
2012 Xavier 28–28 13–11 7th (13)
2013 Xavier 32–26 16–8 4th (15) A-10 tournament
Xavier Musketeers (Big East Conference) (2014–2017)
2014 Xavier 30–29 8–10 4th (7) NCAA Regional
2015 Xavier 15–38 3–15 7th (7)
2016 Xavier 30–28 14–4 1st (7) NCAA Regional Final
2017 Xavier 34–27 10–6 3rd (7) NCAA Regional Final
Xavier: 339–354 159–118
Cincinnati Bearcats (American Athletic Conference) (2018–2023)
2018 Cincinnati 28–28 12–12 6th The American tournament
2019 Cincinnati 31–31 13–11 2nd NCAA Regional
2020 Cincinnati 7–8 0–0 Season canceled due to COVID-19
2021 Cincinnati 29–26 18–14 4th The American tournament
2022 Cincinnati 24–31 12-12 4th The American tournament
2023 Cincinnati 24–33 10-14 T-5th The American tournament
Cincinnati: 143–157 65–63
Total: 482–511

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

Personal

Googins is married to a former Xavier volleyball player and has three children, Ellie, Tommy, and Charlie. In a 2012 interview, he said that he is a Cincinnati Reds fan and enjoys 80s music.[1][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "#7 Scott Googins". GoXavier.com. Xavier Athletic Communications. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2014.
  2. ^ "Transactions". Courant.com. The Hartford Courant. July 13, 2005. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2014.
  3. ^ Cohen, Jason (September 2005). "Marathon Woman: Dawn Rogers Makes Xavier's Athletic Programs Run". Cincinnati Magazine: 64. Retrieved July 5, 2014. Then, just when she'd planned to catch her breath for the summer, baseball coach Dan Simonds, whom she'd hired even before Miller, left her after one season for the head job at Miami (the school he'd come to Xavier from). Deja vu: she promoted Simonds's, Scott Googins, a week later.
  4. ^ a b c d "2014 Atlantic 10 Conference Baseball Record Book" (PDF). Atlantic10.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 19, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2014.
  5. ^ a b Goheen, Kevin (May 26, 2014). "Xavier Earns Cold Dip and NCAA Berth". FoxSports.com. Fox Sports Ohio. Archived from the original on July 30, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2014.
  6. ^ "MLB Amateur Draft Picks Who Came from "Xavier University (Cincinnati, OH)"". Baseball-Reference.com. Archived from the original on July 22, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2014.
  7. ^ Kane, Colleen (August 10, 2013). "Leesman Sent to Minors, But He Could Be Back Soon". ChicagoTribune.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2014.
  8. ^ Forrester, Nick (May 25, 2014). "Xavier Takes Big East baseball title with 5–0 win over Creighton". NYDailyNews.com. Archived from the original on July 10, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2014.
  9. ^ Weldon, Casey (May 29, 2014). "Xavier Baseball, Manager Scott Googins Look to Make Statement in NCAA tournament". WCPO.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2014.
  10. ^ Cole, Nick (June 1, 2014). "Xavier Uses Clemson Errors to Stay Alive". Cincinnati.com. The Tennessean. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2014.
  11. ^ Nick Selbe (May 31, 2023). "Cincinnati Baseball Coach Resigns Amid Gambling Investigation". www.si.com. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved June 4, 2023.
  12. ^ "2014 Big East Baseball Standings". D1Baseball.com. Archived from the original on May 14, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2014.
  13. ^ O'Malley, Danny (April 19, 2012). "Coach Profile: Scott Googins". TheXUNewsWire.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2014.

External links

Cincinnati Bearcats head baseball coaches
Xavier Musketeers head baseball coaches
Atlantic 10 Conference Baseball Coach of the Year
Big East Conference Baseball Coach of the Year
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