The NCAA Baseball Tournament got underway this past weekend with regional play, including the Florida Gators playing in the Conway Regional at Coastal Carolina University.
Tempers were flaring at Coastal Carolina on Sunday after Florida’s game against East Carolina was delayed in order to get the field ready. Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan was caught on camera yelling profanities at tournament officials and members of Coastal Carolina’s staff.
Needless to say, Coastal Carolina coach Kevin Schnall did not appreciate the outburst by O’Sullivan.
“I believe in standing up for what’s right, and what transpired this morning, on our field, another coach disrespected our Associate AD, who works as hard as anybody in our entire program. He disrespected our field crew, who are the salt of the Earth. These guys would do anything for our program,” Schnall said.
“It’s not OK. And this needs to be brought up. Absolutely disrespectful. As a coach it’s our job to mentor young kids. And the way he treated the two site reps, the way he treated our Associate AD, the way he treated our field crew, was absolutely unacceptable.”
As you can see, Kevin Schnall was not happy with what transpired, and he didn’t stop there.
“This is a national champion coach who thinks he can come in here and try to bully people around. Disappointed,” Schnall said. “Disappointed in somebody that a lot of coaches look up to.
“For him to act that way, really disappointed. He disrespected a Hall of Fame coach who’s the site rep here.”
The comments from Schnall came after his Coastal Carolina team beat ECU in the regional final to advance to the super regionals this coming weekend.
The Chanticleers will face Auburn in a best-of-three series this weekend, with the winner advancing to the College World Series.
As for Kevin O’Sullivan, he did issue an apology for his actions on Monday.
“Prior to yesterday’s NCAA Tournament game against East Carolina, I let my emotions get the best of me and channeled that energy in a way I should not have. I want to sincerely apologize for my actions and behavior to the entire NCAA Regional field of Coastal Carolina, East Carolina and Fairfield — the NCAA, including site representatives Rick French and Mark Scalf — as well as all of Gator Nation,” O’Sullivan said.
“I did not represent the University of Florida to the appropriate standard yesterday and take full responsibility for that, and promise to learn from this experience and be better moving forward.
“I appreciate all of the tireless efforts on behalf of Coastal Carolina, their tournament director Bryan Stiles, and the NCAA over the course of NCAA Regionals, and am sorry for allowing this instance to get in the way of an otherwise great weekend of postseason baseball.”
Florida Athletics Director Scott Stricklin also issued a statement about the incident.
“This afternoon I met with Kevin O’Sullivan and told him that his actions prior to yesterday’s NCAA Tournament game fell well short of expectations of how Gators treat people,” Stricklin said. “One of our department’s core values is respect, and coach O’Sullivan’s unacceptable actions failed to demonstrate that.
“On behalf of Florida Athletics, I want to personally apologize to everyone impacted — including NCAA representatives, Coastal Carolina and their staff, East Carolina and their team — as well as to Gator Nation.”
