May 28, 2007
Head Coach Tim Corbin
“The most obvious thing is the recruiting aspect of it,” said Vanderbilt Head Coach Tim Corbin on the impact on his program of receiving the nation’s No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. “We draw off of that and that is a good thing. Then after that it probably doesn’t mean a whole lot. It gives your program some visibility nationally but outside of that, you have got the bulls eye. But we have worn that bulls eye for so long now that I don’t even know if it is a bulls eye anymore. It has kind of worn off. And I think that is a remarkable thing. We just go about business the same way.”
“I just had goose bumps,” Corbin said of watching his team announced as the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. “I was thinking about how far the program has come in five years. Emotionally, you try to rewind how everything started, whether it goes back to Worth Scott’s home run and the people who were there in the beginning who saw this out. To think about where we are now, there is just a real sense of accomplishment. But after I start dreaming a little bit I just cut it short because I know that it is not over and I don’t want it to turn into a nightmare. I want it to keep going and going and going. I don’t want to wake up. I just want the kids to keep enjoying what they are doing at this point.”
Catcher Shea Robin
“It is huge,” Vanderbilt junior catcher Shea Robin said of what earning the nation’s No. 1 overall seed and the opportunity to host a region does for the school’s baseball program, “It allows us to show the city of Nashville that Vanderbilt is in fact a school that can have success in sports. For us to be able to host, it is something that we have never done before. We’ve brought in the new seats, we are going to do it first class, and we are going to have a good site and a place for people to enjoy. It is a real tribute to the kind of people that we have here at Vanderbilt.”
“Our fans really get into the games that are played here at home and we just feel a lot more comfortable here at home,” Robin said of being able to open the postseason at home at Hawkins Field. “Going to Georgia Tech last year really showed us that if you want to win a regional you want to be at home. It is a huge advantage and I think we are going to do our best to take advantage of it. I know the fans will be there behind us and that is just as much a part of our winning as our play on the field. They get into it and they get the momentum going our way and we feel it on the field.”
“There is no team that you can take lightly,” Robin said in reflecting on Vanderbilt’s four-team regional. “Every team in here is one of the top 64 teams in the country and there is no reason to take them lightly.”
“This feels unbelievable,” Robin said of the fan turnout at Vanderbilt’s Monday viewing party at the Holiday Inn Select as the NCAA Tournament brackets were announced. “To be featured on ESPN, well it is not every day that happens. So it definitely feels good coming back from the SEC championship and already getting a bunch of national notice. It is a good feeling.”
