Tennessee Softball 2023

#16,051
#16,051
briancrice said:
Incorrect. I was there, for both the game itself and the decision making process that led to the lineup. Ashley‘s injuries meant that she typically needed 3 to 4 days of rest and recovery to be ready to go another 5 to 7 innings. We could’ve been talking about a different situation had Tennessee run ruled Alabama, rather than that game having to go to the full seven innings, but that’s not what happened.

The Karen quote that you keep leaning on as if it validates your point was when she was asked in the post game whether Ashley was healthy enough to pitch. She said she would have been available for an inning or two had the game turned out differently. And I can tell you from sitting in those meetings with the team that was the plan. Get it to late in the ball game and let her come in and finish it out. She was physically ready to do that, but not start and go 5-7 innings.

Oklahoma had struggled all season with high velocity pitching. The thought was to get a time or two through the lineup with Pickens, then turn it over to Peyton or Ashley to get the win. The other thing that did was ensure that your entire staff was available in the event you also had to play an elimination game the next day. For the record, I would still love to have seen how the first two innings had turned out if Pickens had been getting the corners of the strike zone, but she didn’t, so playing the if’s and buts game isn’t worth spending the time on.

I can appreciate your fandom, particularly your appreciation for sports that don’t get the same coverage as football or basketball. But you often speak in absolutes on what should happen or should have happened without the correct or complete information. That’s certainly your right, but you are making sweeping judgments about coaches and decisions when the information you are facing at all on is often not correct.
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Facts
Karen watched the Stanford Freshman pitcher dominate the Oklahoma hitters and made a terrible coaching decision off of that game. She tried to out smart the #1 team in the country. Coaching mistake number #1

The “RISK” she was referring too was thinking Pickens is the same pitcher as Candy.

If Ashley could pitch in relief why not start her and get what you can out of her? It’s called setting the tone. That was the dumbest coaching move ever and not any other coach in college softball would have your ace setting the bench waiting to come in for relief in that situation.

She had zero trust in Pickens and didn’t pitch her in regionals and supers but thought she could pitch her on the biggest stage against the best team. That showed Ralph was the true mastermind of Tennessee Softball all those years.

The team over achieved and Karen received a lot of credit but she better be able to take it when the team underachieves with the lack of pitching this year.
 
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#16,052
#16,052
ladyvolswiftie said:
Payton should have pitched in that game. We all should be able to agree on that. You can tell how pissed she was sitting in that dugout
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It was heartbreaking to see the way she looked sitting the bench. She was one of the biggest competitors on the team and you need to reward those type of players because the team feeds off that type of energy.

If it wasn’t for Payton putting the team on her back down the back stretch of the season they wouldn’t even made it to the WCWS. Not to give that ball to Payton or Ashley against Oklahoma was a shame.
 
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#16,053
#16,053
Doubt it would have made a difference but ya definitely have to go for the W and stay in the winners bracket. Canady with Stanford is a different beast though…just completely overpowering and accurate
 
#16,054
#16,054
Kind of a sloppy scrimmage today, a lot of errors and mental mistakes. Also a lot of runs as Riley, G, Jami, and Allanah all went deep off of Karlyn and Ryleigh. Good defensive plays by Bella and Gabby Leach. Three months to get fine-tuned.
 
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#16,055
#16,055
Lady Vols Fan said:
Facts
Karen watched the Stanford Freshman pitcher dominate the Oklahoma hitters and made a terrible coaching decision off of that game. She tried to out smart the #1 team in the country. Coaching mistake number #1

The “RISK” she was referring too was thinking Pickens is the same pitcher as Candy.

If Ashley could pitch in relief why not start her and get what you can out of her? It’s called setting the tone. That was the dumbest coaching move ever and not any other coach in college softball would have your ace setting the bench waiting to come in for relief in that situation.

She had zero trust in Pickens and didn’t pitch her in regionals and supers but thought she could pitch her on the biggest stage against the best team. That showed Ralph was the true mastermind of Tennessee Softball all those years.

The team over achieved and Karen received a lot of credit but she better be able to take it when the team underachieves with the lack of pitching this year.
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I didn’t come here to get into a big discussion, but you want to paint things as “facts“ that aren’t facts, so here we are.

It wasn’t about what Stanford‘s pitcher did, it was about what they saw on film over 50+ games for Oklahoma. The faster and better the velocity, the less success their hitters had. It wasn’t about one game or seeing something at the World Series, that was going to be the plan from the moment we left Knoxville if that was indeed this Saturday matchup at the World Series. Now, lack of success is a relative term, we are talking about perhaps the best softball team in collegiate softball history.

To your “setting the tone” comment, every baseball and softball team I have been around, from playing high-level travel ball myself to having had the opportunity to travel with this program for more than 10 years and the baseball program at various times over that period, if a pitcher tells you they can give you an inning or two, it is never the first inning or two. Literally never. Has not happened. If you’d like to cite a division one team that you’ve been able to travel with and sit in on meetings for, I would love to hear it. But I have never seen that happen at this level.

You don’t have any idea why Pickens didn’t throw in regionals, and I’m going to leave it at that. To say it was a trust issue is absolutely false.
 
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#16,056
#16,056
briancrice said:
I didn’t come here to get into a big discussion, but you want to paint things as “facts“ that aren’t facts, so here we are.

It wasn’t about what Stanford‘s pitcher did, it was about what they saw on film over 50+ games for Oklahoma. The faster and better the velocity, the less success their hitters had. It wasn’t about one game or seeing something at the World Series, that was going to be the plan from the moment we left Knoxville if that was indeed this Saturday matchup at the World Series. Now, lack of success is a relative term, we are talking about perhaps the best softball team in collegiate softball history.

To your “setting the tone” comment, every baseball and softball team I have been around, from playing high-level travel ball myself to having had the opportunity to travel with this program for more than 10 years and the baseball program at various times over that period, if a pitcher tells you they can give you an inning or two, it is never the first inning or two. Literally never. Has not happened. If you’d like to cite a division one team that you’ve been able to travel with and sit in on meetings for, I would love to hear it. But I have never seen that happen at this level.

You don’t have any idea why Pickens didn’t throw in regionals, and I’m going to leave it at that. To say it was a trust issue is absolutely false.
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I never read anything about Rogers only being able to pitch "an inning or two." Where was that published? She'd pitched four innings in the first game, and I saw no mention of her being hurt. She's a four-time All America!

As the other poster noted, Weekly hardly pitched Pickens at all in the regionals and Supers---and had reduced her innings significantly even before that. Not playing is a good way to sap a player of their confidence. But the coach is suddenly going to give the ball to Pickens and hope she can subdue Oklahoma in the championship series? Weekly said herself after that game it was a bad decision, which was the coaching understatement of the year.
 
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#16,057
#16,057
turbovol said:
I never read anything about Rogers only being able to pitch "an inning or two." Where was that published? She'd pitched four innings in the first game, and I saw no mention of her being hurt. She's a four-time All America!

As the other poster noted, Weekly hardly pitched Pickens at all in the regionals and Supers---and had reduced her innings significantly even before that. Not playing is a good way to sap a player of their confidence. But the coach is suddenly going to give the ball to Pickens and hope she can subdue Oklahoma in the championship series? Weekly said herself after that game it was a bad decision, which was the coaching understatement of the year.
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Seriously, it was how Ashley was managed all year. You cant be this obtuse.
 
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#16,060
#16,060
turbovol said:
I never read anything about Rogers only being able to pitch "an inning or two." Where was that published? She'd pitched four innings in the first game, and I saw no mention of her being hurt. She's a four-time All America!

As the other poster noted, Weekly hardly pitched Pickens at all in the regionals and Supers---and had reduced her innings significantly even before that. Not playing is a good way to sap a player of their confidence. But the coach is suddenly going to give the ball to Pickens and hope she can subdue Oklahoma in the championship series? Weekly said herself after that game it was a bad decision, which was the coaching understatement of the year.
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9:20 mark, Coach Weekly gives a close to the vest answer but answers directly her issues then and past. Out of respect to the kid a coach now takes the route of not disclosing much information.

 
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#16,063
#16,063
turbovol said:
I never read anything about Rogers only being able to pitch "an inning or two." Where was that published? She'd pitched four innings in the first game, and I saw no mention of her being hurt. She's a four-time All America!

As the other poster noted, Weekly hardly pitEched Pickens at all in the regionals and Supers---and had reduced her innings significantly even before that. Not playing is a good way to sap a player of their confidence. But the coach is suddenly going to give the ball to Pickens and hope she can subdue Oklahoma in the championship series? Weekly said herself after that game it was a bad decision, which was the coaching understatement of the year.
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Here are straight facts. You want to play then it's on the player to EARN the coaches trust, All successful coaches will tell you that. There is something not right there but what it is I have no clue.
 
#16,064
#16,064
turbovol said:
I never read anything about Rogers only being able to pitch "an inning or two." Where was that published? She'd pitched four innings in the first game, and I saw no mention of her being hurt. She's a four-time All America!

As the other poster noted, Weekly hardly pitched Pickens at all in the regionals and Supers---and had reduced her innings significantly even before that. Not playing is a good way to sap a player of their confidence. But the coach is suddenly going to give the ball to Pickens and hope she can subdue Oklahoma in the championship series? Weekly said herself after that game it was a bad decision, which was the coaching understatement of the year.
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You obviously didn't pay attention all year. Are you really that slow and obtuse.
 
#16,066
#16,066
I'm still trying to figure out how this class is ranked just 4th nationally when we signed 5 of the top 10 players (per Extra Inning Softball).

Tennessee softball head coach Karen Weekly has announced seven signees for the program's 2024 recruiting class. The newest Lady Vols include Emma Clarke, Ella Dodge, Amayah Doyle, Saviya Morgan, Erin Nuwer, Zoie Shuler and Peyton Tanner. Rated as the No. 4 class in the nation by Extra Inning Softball, five players are featured in the top 10 of the Extra Elite 100 player rankings for the class of 2024. Tanner and Doyle come in at fourth and fifth, respectively, while Nuwer, Clarke and Morgan were tabbed seventh, eighth and 10th to round out Tennessee's top-10 ranked players.
Lady Vols Announce 2024 Signees, Class Named No. 4 in the Nation - University of Tennessee Athletics
 
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#16,067
#16,067
kamoshika said:
I'm still trying to figure out how this class is ranked just 4th nationally when we signed 5 of the top 10 players (per Extra Inning Softball).

Tennessee softball head coach Karen Weekly has announced seven signees for the program's 2024 recruiting class. The newest Lady Vols include Emma Clarke, Ella Dodge, Amayah Doyle, Saviya Morgan, Erin Nuwer, Zoie Shuler and Peyton Tanner. Rated as the No. 4 class in the nation by Extra Inning Softball, five players are featured in the top 10 of the Extra Elite 100 player rankings for the class of 2024. Tanner and Doyle come in at fourth and fifth, respectively, while Nuwer, Clarke and Morgan were tabbed seventh, eighth and 10th to round out Tennessee's top-10 ranked players.
Lady Vols Announce 2024 Signees, Class Named No. 4 in the Nation - University of Tennessee Athletics
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Because EIS has a tendency to rank 2-4 players tied for one spot. So 3 kids could claim they are ranked #5 nationally. So theoretically a Top 100 is a Top 250-300.
 
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#16,068
#16,068
kamoshika said:
I'm still trying to figure out how this class is ranked just 4th nationally when we signed 5 of the top 10 players (per Extra Inning Softball).

Tennessee softball head coach Karen Weekly has announced seven signees for the program's 2024 recruiting class. The newest Lady Vols include Emma Clarke, Ella Dodge, Amayah Doyle, Saviya Morgan, Erin Nuwer, Zoie Shuler and Peyton Tanner. Rated as the No. 4 class in the nation by Extra Inning Softball, five players are featured in the top 10 of the Extra Elite 100 player rankings for the class of 2024. Tanner and Doyle come in at fourth and fifth, respectively, while Nuwer, Clarke and Morgan were tabbed seventh, eighth and 10th to round out Tennessee's top-10 ranked players.
Lady Vols Announce 2024 Signees, Class Named No. 4 in the Nation - University of Tennessee Athletics
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Curious as to who they rank 1-3..
 
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#16,072
#16,072
Majors said:
Because EIS has a tendency to rank 2-4 players tied for one spot. So 3 kids could claim they are ranked #5 nationally. So theoretically a Top 100 is a Top 250-300.
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The rankings are so so so tough. Usually the top 10-15 are fairly clear as who they are. Then then next 20+ are a bit fungable, then the next 50+ a bit more, and so on and so on. I've see girls ranked 250+ that were every bit as good as some ranked 150+ spots higher. And there is still some travel ball club bias. The org and the coach has a big impact on getting them to not only the major tournaments, but the right ones

Ultimately, the recruiting is about finding players that have the core skills, attitude and potential to coach them up. I remember many moons ago when UT got one of the top ranked pitchers in the country and she may have pitched a handful of innings at UT...but her travel ball team colors were red and black.
 
#16,073
#16,073
tnburban said:
The rankings are so so so tough. Usually the top 10-15 are fairly clear as who they are. Then then next 20+ are a bit fungable, then the next 50+ a bit more, and so on and so on. I've see girls ranked 250+ that were every bit as good as some ranked 150+ spots higher. And there is still some travel ball club bias. The org and the coach has a big impact on getting them to not only the major tournaments, but the right ones

Ultimately, the recruiting is about finding players that have the core skills, attitude and potential to coach them up. I remember many moons ago when UT got one of the top ranked pitchers in the country and she may have pitched a handful of innings at UT...but her travel ball team colors were red and black.
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You know a 1% kid when you see them. And for the most part they get it right in ranking the best of the best. The rankings have gotten out of hand as it’s grown. I’m old school, break it down 1-20 and no duplicates. But they know they have a business and ranking kids sells subscriptions and travel coaches promote it. College coaches buy into the initial ranking but overall they know when they see the player if it’s legit or at least worthy of an offer.

I’ll give two examples- Elsa Morrison was ranked around 90 last year (freshman year), she’s probably in the Top 5 in the last one. Addisyn Linton has been ranked in the Top 5 each year, she’s probably more in line with 70-90 true ranking IMO. Tennessee saw both and offered the better one.
 
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