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Michigan coach helped build Vandy program he’s out to beat

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin gets right to the point when he discusses his protege, Erik Bakich.

He’s proud of him. He’s impressed with what he has accomplished at Michigan. He’s his biggest fan.

Now he wants to beat him.

Corbin’s Commodores and Bakich’s Wolverines have never played each other. That changes Monday night when they open the best-of-three College World Series finals at TD Ameritrade Park.

“I’m not uncomfortable with it,” Corbin said. “If you’re going to play someone you really care about and like, this is the best place you could possibly do it. It’s two groups of teams playing each other, more than anything else. I’m happy for what he and his wife and his staff and that university have done to put themselves in a position to play for a national championship.”

The 41-year-old Bakich has become the hottest coach in the college game for taking the Wolverines to the CWS for the first time since 1984. They’re playing for their first national title since 1962.

Bakich said the seven years he spent at Vanderbilt (2003-09) as an assistant to Corbin shaped him as a coach, leader and man.

“I learned everything from him,” Bakich said.

Vanderbilt (57-11) and Michigan (49-20) each went 3-0 in bracket play at the CWS but otherwise have had very different seasons.

The Commodores lost two games in a row on just two occasions, most recently in early April, and swept the Southeastern Conference regular-season and tournament titles. That consistency earned them the No. 2 national seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The Wolverines slumped at the end of the regular season. They were one of the last four teams to receive NCAA at-large bids, and they survived meltdowns in regionals and super regionals to stave off elimination.

“It may have taken them 20, 30, 40 games, but they are finding their personality and are playing extremely well,” Corbin said. “To go through the month of games and travel and what they’ve accomplished over the course of time has been nothing short of tremendous.”

Bakich’s first head coaching job was at Maryland, and he left for Michigan in 2013 to take on the challenge of elevating a northern program that, except for one four-year stretch, hadn’t had sustained success on the national level since the 1980s.

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