Rick Jones gets extension, sounds off on schedule

A good year for Tulane baseball head coach Rick Jones just got a little bit better today. Tulane Athletics Director Rick Dickson announced Thursday that Jones' contract has been extended through 2015. The extension was in the works in 2005, according to Dickson, but Hurricane Katrina delayed the negotiations.

"It was our intent following the 2005 College World Series to synchronize an announcement of a contract extension for Rick Jones with the opening of the new stadium, but that was obviously delayed," Dickson said. "This extension will secure Tulane's baseball future through the Rick Jones era and the completion of his coaching career."

No complaints here. Heck-- let's lock him up until 2030. Does

Schedule too crowded?

Speaking of Jones, here's a tease from staff writer Jon Posner's upcoming print article previewing the UC Irvine game. Jones is quoted as being upset with the new scheduling rules and the powers that be:

Coach Jones is also worried about how rested his team will be for this weekend. Thanks to new rules by the NCAA, teams are forced to have more condensed schedules. Going into Friday the Green Wave will have played ten games in 15 days. Besides the fact that his players may be fatigued, Coach Jones is just not happy with the new rule.

“We are playing a major league schedule as far as the number of games, but a major-leaguer does not have to pass 18 hours at Tulane University,” said Jones. “So there is no question that the NCAA did not look after college baseball players with this schedule.”

As Coach Jones knows though, complaining is not going to change the schedule and the games still have to be played. This is going to be a tough weekend, and it will take a team effort to come away with a series victory. While the schedule so far has been hard, Coach Jones knows that it is only for the best and it is a great opportunity for the Green Wave to see what the national competition is like.

He's definitely got a legitimate beef, and Arizona head coach Andy Lopez agrees (although it seems like the players like the new scheduling). We'll ask Tulane players how they feel about it this weekend, but I would imagine they wouldn't like it too much either. For instance, weekday starter Jonathan Garret, a junior, is also a Biomedical Engineering major. Students in the engineering school can barely balance school with minor extracurriculars while still maintaining some semblance of a social life. I wonder how Garrett does it? Sounds like an article in the making.