Cincinnati Lures Scott Googins From Xavier
Scott Googins (Photo by Mat Gdowski/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Cincinnati on Tuesday announced it has hired Scott Googins away from Xavier to be its new head coach.
Googins has deep roots in Southwestern Ohio and will now move across the Queen City to take over the Bearcats program. He spent the last 12 seasons as the head coach of Xavier, where he is the winningest coach in program history.
Googins has 341 career wins with four NCAA Tournament appearances, including back-to-back regional finals berths in 2016 and 2017 and six regular season or conference tournament championships. Xavier went 2-2 in the just-concluded Louisville Regional, falling to Louisville 8-7 in Game Six.
“Coach Googins is a proven winner and developer of talent and a perfect fit for the University of Cincinnati,” director of athletics Mike Bohn said in a news release. “He is a coach with great passion for student-athletes, is highly regarded in the state of Ohio and possesses strong connections to pro scouts and leaders across baseball on the national scene.”
Xavier was 34-27 this season and won the Big East tournament championship to earn a regional spot.
“My family and I are thrilled to be a part of the University of Cincinnati,” Googins said in a release. “It was not an easy decision to leave Xavier, a great institution where I have many connections. I am excited to be the head coach at UC, to get to know our team and grow with them, give our student-athletes a great experience and have fun playing baseball.”
Googins was an assistant at Xavier before taking the head job, and was an assistant at Miami (Ohio) from 2000-04 and Indiana from 1992-99.
| 2017 COACHING CHANGES | ||
| School | Departures | Arrivals |
| Alabama | Greg Goff | Brad Bohannon |
| Cincinnati | Ty Neal | Scott Googins |
| Citadel | Fred Jordan | |
| Dayton | Tony Vittorio | |
| Incarnate Word | Danny Heep | |
| La Salle | Mike Lake | |
| Massachusetts | Mike Stone | Matt Reynolds |
| North Florida | Smoke Laval | Tim Parenton |
| Santa Clara | Dan O’Brien | |
| South Carolina | Chad Holbrook | |
| Southern | Roger Cador | |
| Stanford | Mark Marquess (retiring after season) | |
| Tennessee | Dave Serrano | |
| Texas-Rio Grande Valley | Manny Mantrana | |
| Towson | Mike Gottlieb | |
| Virginia Tech | Patrick Mason | |
| Xavier | Scott Googins | |
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