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DefenseBB

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Truth be told, I was always a huge Softball fan since being weened on the Raybestos Brakettes in the late 60's having worked as a vendor from age 13 at their home softball field behind where Home Depot is now by exit 33 in Stratford before they moved to the field by Sikorsky.

All that said, this board has elevated my basketball passion to even heat with Softball. I am in 7th heaven watching the various conferences championships over the past week and now, tonight, the NCAA host 16 round has started.

While I have often railed and lamented at the NCAA WCBB Committee going overboard at granting too many P5 Bids as the exclusion of other schools. That committee is downright charitable compared to what the Softball Committee has done.
33 of the 64 slots went to P5 schools with all 13 SEC teams getting bids. The Big10 got more bids than the PAC12 which is ludicrous. Louisiana-Lafayette, (Aka Ragin Cagins) at 50-4 and always a power did not even get a top 16 seed to host. Seriously???

I am completely dumbfounded by how this can continue to occur with the other schools tolerating it. On the bright side, the Lady Vol fans also seeing slippage in their proud softball esteem.

Oklahoma is still the team to beat with 3 PAC12 teams at their heels in UCLA, Washington and Arizona. Florida State is looking good to defend and Florida is coming on strong here at the end after suffering a dreadful SEC season. Alabama also must be contended with. I am rooting for some of the underdogs like ULL Ragin Cagins. BU and JMU are also sleepers. Mostly I am rooting for all the SEC teams to lose in this Host 16 round!

Now if only we could get UConn Softball to the top of the AAC (USF won it), that would be awesome!
Thanks for listening. :cool:
 

nwhoopfan

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SEC...is there a puke emoticon? Texas A&M was 6-18 in conference. I don't care what they did out of conference, there is NO WAY possible to justify them being included. Utterly ludicrous.

I was barely following softball until the last month or so. Washington really finished the season strong. Quite a bit of drama down the stretch in the Pac 12 w/ them, UCLA and Arizona. UCLA swept UW early in the season. Washington swept Arizona in Tucson a couple weeks ago and then UA bounced back to take 2 of 3 from UCLA in LA the last week of play. UW/UCLA finished tied and Arizona was 1 game back. Nobody else was remotely close to those 3 in the standings. Feel bad for Oregon St. getting left out. But at least Texas A&M w/ their .333 conference winning percentage is in. Gag.

Rooting for UW primarily, then everybody else from the Pac, and like @DefenseBB rooting against everybody from the SEC.
 

ThisJustIn

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Have considered trying to get tix for Oklahoma City. Anyone ever done that trip? Guessing tickets are tough....
 

Bama fan

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I share your love of the Ragin'Cajuns, and definitel agree that too many P5 teams are given the nod. I do not like Texas A & M being there, nor some other SEC bottom dwellers. Howeevr, I must protest the "All the SEC teams should lose in the opening rounds" crap. I admit to bias, as my daughter is a graduate of The University of Alabama. But to make a blanket condemnation of all SEC schools is childish, and unreasonable, and bordering on irrational. It is akin to saying all New England schools , or all anything are somehow undeserving due to what is openly predjudicial lack of knowledge of NCAA softball history. Several SEC teams are consistently among the best, and why would any decent team not want to compete against the best? And the PAC 12 has traditionally been very competitive throughout softball at the collegiate level. Be incensed at the selection committee, but please do not denigrate the skills and efforts of the best of the SEC. UConn WBB fans , more than most, should object to the uninformed bias of ill informed fans. So do not be hopeless, West coast homer. But do not be undeservedly aggrieved either. And to the appreciator of "snark', I have none to offer you. Just plain ,old fashioned ,good sportsmanlike comments. RTR! And Bonne Chance, Lafayette!
 

Centerstream

I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but
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I will normally b*tch when non WBB, and especially non UConn WBB, threads appear on this forum. So I am to show how much of a (please insert your own conclusion here) I am.
But the selection Committee screwed Michigan and Alabama.
 

nwhoopfan

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@Bama fan , I recognize there are some really good softball programs in the SEC. Bama and Florida have been powerhouse teams for a while now, Tennessee had some really good years, I'm sure there have been others. My dislike for the SEC in general stems from the constant lovefest ESPN has with all things SEC. It gets really tiresome for everybody that's not on board with it. It started with football but is has branched out to all sports. Rest assured, my rooting against them will have no effect, many of them will make it to Super Regionals and undoubtedly several of them will be headed to OKC.
 

SimpleDawg

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Alabama looks pretty dominant in the sports they're good at: like football, softball, and gymnastics. They'll be fine in the tournament.

I don't really have SEC bias or anything. Sometimes can't stand some SEC teams and fanbases. But Bamafan is right. SEC flat out dominates some sports. Football, baseball, softball, track and field. Other conferences enjoy epic crushings at the hands of the SEC at times.


..
 

DefenseBB

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I share your love of the Ragin'Cajuns, and definitel agree that too many P5 teams are given the nod. I do not like Texas A & M being there, nor some other SEC bottom dwellers. Howeevr, I must protest the "All the SEC teams should lose in the opening rounds" crap. I admit to bias, as my daughter is a graduate of The University of Alabama. But to make a blanket condemnation of all SEC schools is childish, and unreasonable, and bordering on irrational. It is akin to saying all New England schools , or all anything are somehow undeserving due to what is openly predjudicial lack of knowledge of NCAA softball history. Several SEC teams are consistently among the best, and why would any decent team not want to compete against the best? And the PAC 12 has traditionally been very competitive throughout softball at the collegiate level. Be incensed at the selection committee, but please do not denigrate the skills and efforts of the best of the SEC. UConn WBB fans , more than most, should object to the uninformed bias of ill informed fans. So do not be hopeless, West coast homer. But do not be undeservedly aggrieved either. And to the appreciator of "snark', I have none to offer you. Just plain ,old fashioned ,good sportsmanlike comments. RTR! And Bonne Chance, Lafayette!
Bama-I do like Alabama and their coach Patrick Murphy as he is really a good guy. Sorry they lost to Florida and their gruff coach Tim Walton. So let me modify my stance-rooting against anyone in the SEC except for Alabama! ;)
 
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I was so pleased that Florida State broke through and won the whole thing (finally) last season. Seemed like a great bunch of kids that never gave up. Oklahoma is definitely the team to beat going into the tournament.

Unfortunately, much like women's basketball, upsets are extremely rare and seeds usually hold through at least the super regional round. The dark horses rarely break through, but there might be a couple of surprises this year.
 

UConnNick

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@Bama fan , I recognize there are some really good softball programs in the SEC. Bama and Florida have been powerhouse teams for a while now, Tennessee had some really good years, I'm sure there have been others. My dislike for the SEC in general stems from the constant lovefest ESPN has with all things SEC. It gets really tiresome for everybody that's not on board with it. It started with football but is has branched out to all sports. Rest assured, my rooting against them will have no effect, many of them will make it to Super Regionals and undoubtedly several of them will be headed to OKC.

ESPN will always promote the conferences they're in business with, to the exclusion of all others.
 

UConnNick

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The exception of course is the University of Connecticut who they sh@t on any chance they get.

That's because they are getting us for the best bargain price of any school in America. If they were to over-hype us it might convince a P5 conference to invite us to join. They're careful to throw as much shade on us as possible to keep that from happening.
 
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That's because they are getting us for the best bargain price of any school in America. If they were to over-hype us it might convince a P5 conference to invite us to join. They're careful to throw as much shade on us as possible to keep that from happening.

I agree. I just wish there was something we could do to improve our situation.
 

nwhoopfan

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Well...back to softball.

Not much in the way of surprises today. Texas is the only seeded team to lose a game so far. A couple late games on the West Coast involving seeded teams still going on.

Only game I watched all of was Washington-Fordham. UW got a great performance from their pitcher, and they needed it. She had a no no going til the 6th, struck out 14, complete game shutout. UW only managed 2 runs, stranded quite a few base runners. They're gonna have to do better than that down the road.

I think UW might have the distinction of being the only ball park that has a bald eagle perched in a tree just beyond the outfield fence that sits and watches pretty much every game.
 

KnightBridgeAZ

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ESPN will always promote the conferences they're in business with, to the exclusion of all others.
I agree they promote the SEC. One of the issues with other conferences is that the B1G has BTN, the Big 12 is Fox oriented and the PAC has the Pac12 network (however bad it may be). They are starting the ACC network next year. I don't feel they exclude the other conferences particularly.

It is unfortunate that, in softball, for all the grousing above, almost all of the SEC probably did deserve to get in. I agree on Texas A&M, but they were - and it was stated - the last team in.

You can grouse about how many P5 teams got in - please let me know who, exactly, got left out? With a few exceptions, and I can pretty much name them as can those of you who are softball fans - there are simply not strong non-power 5 teams.
 

KnightBridgeAZ

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Have considered trying to get tix for Oklahoma City. Anyone ever done that trip? Guessing tickets are tough....
We have gone twice. A UCLA victory back before the format went to a championship series. Again, early in this decade, I think it was Alabama vs. OK in the championship series but we didn't stay for it (and never planned to, it has taken a 4 day event and made it possibly 7). Even then my wife's health was starting to fail.

Tremendous fun. Often hot. Sometimes tornado-ish. Love OKC, where we have also been for WBB and where we routinely stop if we are in the area for some excellent eats.

Like WBB, ticket availability has become much more scarce over the years. As an outsider, one of the issues is that you can "renew" your series tickets annually. And parking is difficult. By the second time we went (2012?, 2013?) we were able to get infield seats, but they were "obstructed" by a tv camera and we had an issue with the parking attendant, although I will admit that the organization that runs the event (OKC sports authority?) did rectify the issue by giving us a parking pass.

Now, a lot of the tickets are available through the ticket exchanges, I forget what the official one is. Of course, most of the tix are snapped up by, you probably guessed it, the Oklahoma fans.

We may go if Arizona makes it. I think we would qualify school tickets, but they are only good for the games you are actually in. Undecided as health is still an issue.
 

Bama fan

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We have gone twice. A UCLA victory back before the format went to a championship series. Again, early in this decade, I think it was Alabama vs. OK in the championship series but we didn't stay for it (and never planned to, it has taken a 4 day event and made it possibly 7). Even then my wife's health was starting to fail.

Tremendous fun. Often hot. Sometimes tornado-ish. Love OKC, where we have also been for WBB and where we routinely stop if we are in the area for some excellent eats.

Like WBB, ticket availability has become much more scarce over the years. As an outsider, one of the issues is that you can "renew" your series tickets annually. And parking is difficult. By the second time we went (2012?, 2013?) we were able to get infield seats, but they were "obstructed" by a tv camera and we had an issue with the parking attendant, although I will admit that the organization that runs the event (OKC sports authority?) did rectify the issue by giving us a parking pass.

Now, a lot of the tickets are available through the ticket exchanges, I forget what the official one is. Of course, most of the tix are snapped up by, you probably guessed it, the Oklahoma fans.

We may go if Arizona makes it. I think we would qualify school tickets, but they are only good for the games you are actually in. Undecided as health is still an issue.
Good luck to your team , and I hope the health issue is not too restrictive.
 
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DePaul lost their first game yesterday. We have really overachieved this year only projecting to be fourth in our conference. This team means a lot to me. The new head coach Tracie Adix was in the same class as me at DePaul and the Softball and Tennis teams were really close.
 

nwhoopfan

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Michigan and James Madison had to go to the 12th inning before the Wolverines finally pushed a run across the plate. 1-0 on a 2 out hit to the gap between left and center with a runner on 3rd. Heartbreaker for JMU.
 

nwhoopfan

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A bit better for Washington today in a 6-1 win over Mississippi St. Still would like to see more production up and down the order. Lead off hitter has scored 4 of their 8 runs in the Regional and #2 hitter has 6 of the 8 RBIs (pair of 2 run homers today). Not much else from 3-9.
 

KnightBridgeAZ

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Florida St. has gone deep 4 straight batters. 4 in a row! I have never seen anything like that. Wow!
Saw this. Impressive.

My wife wasn't well enough to go watch Arizona, but we won. Didn't look like it could have been a very fun game, but the rules are the same as for WBB - just win baby.
 

DefenseBB

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Wow, what a game with ND leading 4-0 into the bottom of the 7 and Wisconsin comes all the way back to win on a walk off 3 run home run with 2 outs! Unbelievable. And their reward? they get to play #1 Oklahoma tomorrow in Norman.
The softball wrap around coverage on the ESPN app is pretty good as is using all your devices to watch 3 games at once...How did ULL Ragin Cajuns not get a top 16 seed I think they were ranked #7 in the poll and were 50-4.
 

KnightBridgeAZ

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Wow, what a game with ND leading 4-0 into the bottom of the 7 and Wisconsin comes all the way back to win on a walk off 3 run home run with 2 outs! Unbelievable. And their reward? they get to play #1 Oklahoma tomorrow in Norman.
The softball wrap around coverage on the ESPN app is pretty good as is using all your devices to watch 3 games at once...How did ULL Ragin Cajuns not get a top 16 seed I think they were ranked #7 in the poll and were 50-4.
I looked. They played a pretty dreadful schedule (unfortunately for them, a second Oregon State and second OK games got rained out, as well). Split with Baylor, lost (as expected) to OK. Beat Oregon State. Lost to North Texas and McNeese State. Undefeated in their weak conference.

Only tournament teams they played were Fordham and OK.

Like WBB, strength of schedule does figure into it.

In the past, the Ragin Cajuns have (at times) been seeded - U of A played in a Super Regional there a few years ago and they have made the World Series. But this years schedule, truthfully, does not make a case for seeding. It doesn't mean (unfortunately) that they might not advance to Supers. I say unfortunately because they will be coming here to Tucson if they do and I said to my wife even before I knew where they were that they were the one non-seeded team I didn't want to see.
 

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