Softball

[womenssports]

Yes, it's all donations and people or corporations buying suites.

That makes sense. I could not see the state having any money to contribute.

I know the Newcastle School District and several others, maybe many others,
are going to a 4 day school day next year as a cost saving device THAT is going to really be difficult for working parents to find and pay for babysitters or daycare centers.........moneywise and actually finding individuals or centers at which you would want to leave your children.

 

[SoonerSpock]

http://newsok.com/article/4952778

 

[tycat947]

Final polls!

http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Softball/College-Corner/2016-College-Corner/Top-25-Polls

https://nfca.org/index.php?option=com_nfca&top25=1&list=1&year=2016&pdiv=div1&Itemid=230

 

[scrybe]

LOL. Would not have been surprised if some of the voters around SEC territory sneaked Auburn ahead of us for the top spot.

 

[tycat947]

LOL. Would not have been surprised if some of the voters around SEC territory sneaked Auburn ahead of us for the top spot.

Wouldn't be surprised if some of those Auburn players haven't done so in their heads!!! :ez-roll:

 

[sybarite]

SEC softball
Florida 20-4 .833 56-7 .889 L2
Kentucky 17-7 .708 46-14 .767 L1
Tennessee 16-7 .696 43-16 .729 L1
Auburn 16-7 .696 58-12 .829 L1
Alabama 16-8 .667 51-14 .785 L2
Missouri 14-10 .583 42-16 .724 L2
LSU 13-11 .542 52-18 .743 L1
Georgia 12-12 .500 46-20 .697 L2
Ole Miss 11-13 .458 41-22 .651 L1
Texas A&M 9-15 .375 39-20 .661 L1
South Carolina 7-17 .292 38-23 .623 L1
Mississippi State 3-21 .125 26-31 .456 L1
Arkansas 1-23 .042 17-39 .304 L14

Auburn passes Florida? That gives too much weight to one week.

 

[Soonercuda]

SEC softball
Florida 20-4 .833 56-7 .889 L2
Kentucky 17-7 .708 46-14 .767 L1
Tennessee 16-7 .696 43-16 .729 L1
Auburn 16-7 .696 58-12 .829 L1
Alabama 16-8 .667 51-14 .785 L2
Missouri 14-10 .583 42-16 .724 L2
LSU 13-11 .542 52-18 .743 L1
Georgia 12-12 .500 46-20 .697 L2
Ole Miss 11-13 .458 41-22 .651 L1
Texas A&M 9-15 .375 39-20 .661 L1
South Carolina 7-17 .292 38-23 .623 L1
Mississippi State 3-21 .125 26-31 .456 L1
Arkansas 1-23 .042 17-39 .304 L14

Auburn passes Florida? That gives too much weight to one week.

Florida was the best SEC team during the regular season but Auburn was the best during the post season as they won the SEC tournament as well as being the runners-up in the tourney. The poll reflects the emphasis we as a sporting culture place on the post season in all college sports.

 

[SoonerTraveler]

Florida was the best SEC team during the regular season but Auburn was the best during the post season as they won the SEC tournament as well as being the runners-up in the tourney. The poll reflects the emphasis we as a sporting culture place on the post season in all college sports.

Yes. The jump Georgia made over Florida also illustrates your point.

 

[Speedy17]

I personally want to give that one week of the WCWS a lot of power. Without it, OU would not be unanimously #1 in every poll including the RPI. Give the SEC and inch and they would declare Florida or Auburn national champs. Auburn won the SEC tourney and came in #2 at the WCWS so they should be ranked ahead of Florida.

 

[SoonerSpock]

Final RPI rankings

http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/softball/d1

 

[scrybe]

Final RPI rankings

http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/softball/d1

OU left no doubt that the Sooners were the No. 1 team, both in the polls and the RPI.

I hope Patty schedules a bunch more SEC teams next season. If she does, we'll continue to feast on that conference (10-1) in both the regular and the post season.

 

[SoonerSpock]

OU left no doubt that the Sooners were the No. 1 team, both in the polls and the RPI.

I hope Patty schedules a bunch more SEC teams next season. If she does, we'll continue to feast on that conference (10-1) in both the regular and the post season.

I think it is reasonable to expect the Sooner to win big over SEC opponents the next two seasons if we avoid key injuries. I would however not expect us to necessarily win at a 91% clip next year like we did this year. This would especially be true if we played several SEC teams early when Patty might be more inclined to start Lopez, Olmos or Chestnut a few games as she tries to develop her pitching staff for the conference and post season.

Although I expect OU to be a better team next year than this year I would not be surprised if we lost more than the 8 games we lost this year. Patty is going to push and challenge this team in 2017 and one of those challenges will probably be a tougher schedule. She knows she will most likely start the season ranked #1 and it will difficult for the Sooners to play themselves out of a top 8 season and host of a super regional.

 

[SoonerSpock]

Here are the Flosoftball class ranking for the softball recruiting for the years 2016-2019.


School-------2016-------2017-------2018-------2019

OU------------#4---------#9----------#1---------#4
UCLA---------#8---------#1----------#4---------#7
LSU-----------#2---------#3----------#10--------#6
Oregon-------#1---------#7----------#9---------#10
Florida-------#17--------#2----------#8---------#1
Auburn-------#9---------#14---------#3---------#3
Alabama-----#5---------#6----------#6---------#32
Michigan-----NR---------#8----------#15--------#8


http://www.flosoftball.com/article/36479-this-just-in-top-25-recruiting-classes-2016s

http://www.flosoftball.com/article/34051-top-25-recruiting-classes-2017-s-12-21

http://www.flosoftball.com/article/33754-top-25-recruiting-classes-2018-s-4-6

http://www.flosoftball.com/article/40267-top-college-classes-from-2019-hot-100

https://sites.google.com/site/jenkinsavenuebombers/home/page-2

 

[scrybe]

I think it is reasonable to expect the Sooner to win big over SEC opponents the next two seasons if we avoid key injuries. I would however not expect us to necessarily win at a 91% clip next year like we did this year. This would especially be true if we played several SEC teams early when Patty might be more inclined to start Lopez, Olmos or Chestnut a few games as she tries to develop her pitching staff for the conference and post season.

Although I expect OU to be a better team next year than this year I would not be surprised if we lost more than the 8 games we lost this year. Patty is going to push and challenge this team in 2017 and one of those challenges will probably be a tougher schedule. She knows she will most likely start the season ranked #1 and it will difficult for the Sooners to play themselves out of a top 8 season and host of a super regional.

It would be unrealistic to expect any team to win at a 91 percent clip year in and year out against teams from any of the Power 5 conferences. But I would expect Patty's teams to maintain the upper hand over the SEC for at least the next 2-3 years.

On the other topic: Do you think it's possible (or likely) that the Sooners would have topped the recruiting rankings this year (2016) had Lopez not been dropped to No. 9?

 

[SoonerSpock]

It would be unrealistic to expect any team to win at a 91 percent clip year in and year out against teams from any of the Power 5 conferences. But I would expect Patty's teams to maintain the upper hand over the SEC for at least the next 2-3 years.

On the other topic: Do you think it's possible (or likely) that the Sooners would have topped the recruiting rankings this year (2016) had Lopez not been dropped to No. 9?

Difficult to answer your question as in September 28, 2015 which is the earliest ranking I can find by Flosoftball OU had four kids ranked in the top 100. They were ranked #1, #11, #20 and #34 and OU was ranked #1 and Oregon was ranked #2 with players ranked #2, #6 and #14. I would assume they were Lopez, Olmos, Taukeiaho and Dalton ranked in that order. In the later rankings the Oregon players were ranked #1, #4, #6 and #18. So you can see that Oregon commitments/signees increasd by 1 top 100 person and that person I would assume was the new top player in the country replacing Lopez.

Assuming Lopez had not been injured and remained #1 and assume the new Oregon signee was then ranked #2 the Oregon class would have a better looking class by the numbers (2, 4, 6, 18) than OU (1, 11, 47, 56). So OU would have dropped out of the #1 spot to #2 remaining ahead of LSU and Arizona but who know for certain. Also note that Taukeiaho and Dalton also dropped 27 and 21 spots respectively.

http://www.flosoftball.com/article/34304-top-25-recruiting-classes-2016-s-9-28

http://www.flosoftball.com/article/36479-this-just-in-top-25-recruiting-classes-2016s

 

[sybarite]

How many points do you think that Caleigh Clifton gave OU in last year's rankings?

Let's see what she gave OU once she arrived:

Walks
39 Clifton
26 Miller
24 Self

Half again as many walks as anyone else on the team?

Hit-by-Pitch
16 Clifton
6 Aviu
5 Miller

Almost three times the number of times hit-by-pitch as the number two on OU?

On Base Percentage
540 Clifton
454 Miller
449 Knighten
421 Self

In these three categories, Caleigh didn't just lead OU. She ran away and hid. No wonder we finally decided she was better at #2 than at clean-up. She got on base, and she was OU's #1 in runs scored in conference play.
Caleigh was one of the best in the US at getting on base.

Was any of that reflected in last year's recruiting ratings?

 

[scrybe]

Good points all, syb. Recruiting rankings in softball are very much like recruiting rankings in football or any other sport. They always make for good conversation, but I'm not sure that a No. 1 ranking is a huge advantage over being ranked anywhere within the top 10-20.

What is important, at least in OU's case, is that Patty continues to get the players and types of players she wants. She has proven over and over that no coach is a better judge of talent. And I think she's equally good at judging the character of prospective recruits.

 

[SoonerSpock]

If Switzer was correct in his assessment of you win with Jimmy's and Joe's and not X's and O's and the numbers indicate he is. Then their is a significant correlation with the ranking of recruiting classes and season end's national ranking in football and final fours in MBB, WBB, baseball and softball.

The evaluation of both football and MBB talent is far more accurate than the other sports because of the amount of third party resources committed to evaluating the talent. But there is validity to evaluations in all the sports. For certain the evaluation of talent is not linear hence you have multiple 5*s that fail and many 3*'s that are hits but the projections are far more right than they are wrong. Despite these obvious exceptions recruiting rankings are useful for creating a recruiting baseline for expectations. But the narrower you focus the less useful they become.

If you look at any college sport's final top 10 and then look at the top ten schools in recruiting in their sport the two list are amazingly similar over time. Therefore, I think it is valid to state that you cannot consistently play in Final Four's or the CWS's without consistently having top 10 or better talent. However you cannot acquire talent from recruiting list as you need talent that is compatible with your scheme and approach.

If you look at the schools that have won the WCWS since 2000 (OU-3; Florida, Arizona, UCLA and ASU-2 and Alabama, Cal, Michigan and Washington-1 you would find all of them are consistently listed among the top ten recruiting class list. LSU, Stanford, Georgia, aTm and Tennessee consistenty make these recruiting list and a frequent participants in the WCWS as well.

Below is a detailed analysis of football recruiting that fully documents the validity of recruiting ranking using the star system as an example. The logic of this analysis is applicable to the other sports but the error factor would be greater because the evaluation system is not as through for those sports because demand for their assessments is less. Very through analysis.


http://www.footballstudyhall.com/20...-matters-why-the-sites-get-the-rankings-right

 

[tycat947]

If Switzer was correct in his assessment of you win with Jimmy's and Joe's and not X's and O's and the numbers indicate he is. Then their is a significant correlation with the ranking of recruiting classes and season end's national ranking in football and final fours in MBB, WBB, baseball and softball.

The evaluation of both football and MBB talent is far more accurate than the other sports because of the amount of third party resources committed to evaluating the talent. But there is validity to evaluations in all the sports. For certain the evaluation of talent is not linear hence you have multiple 5*s that fail and many 3*'s that are hits but the projections are far more right than they are wrong. Despite these obvious exceptions recruiting rankings are useful for creating a recruiting baseline for expectations. But the narrower you focus the less useful they become.

If you look at any college sport's final top 10 and then look at the top ten schools in recruiting in their sport the two list are amazingly similar over time. Therefore, I think it is valid to state that you cannot consistently play in Final Four's or the CWS's without consistently having top 10 or better talent. However you cannot acquire talent from recruiting list as you need talent that is compatible with your scheme and approach.

If you look at the schools that have won the WCWS since 2000 (OU-3; Florida, Arizona, UCLA and ASU-2 and Alabama, Cal, Michigan and Washington-1 you would find all of them are consistently listed among the top ten recruiting class list. LSU, Stanford, Georgia, aTm and Tennessee consistenty make these recruiting list and a frequent participants in the WCWS as well.

Below is a detailed analysis of football recruiting that fully documents the validity of recruiting ranking using the star system as an example. The logic of this analysis is applicable to the other sports but the error factor would be greater because the evaluation system is not as through for those sports because demand for their assessments is less. Very through analysis.


http://www.footballstudyhall.com/20...-matters-why-the-sites-get-the-rankings-right

Switzer was partially right. It's not ALL Jimmy's and Joe's nor is it ALL X's and O's.

Patty's game plan in Game 2 of championship series was "masterful"! There was a gameplan that was executed to perfection in those first 2 innings. We were not able to hold on to 7-0 lead but I don't know that I've ever seen anything like it! Patty and staff drew up the plan AND we had the talent to execute that plan (for the first 2 innings)! It really was a combination of the 2. They popped Auburn in the unexpected mouth those first 2 innings. Patty and staff surprised a few teams this year. And the talent usually executed flawlessly. There were no egos with this talent! I hope that continues in the future. I have no doubt that Patty will not allow it to happen.

 

[Speedy17]

How many points do you think that Caleigh Clifton gave OU in last year's rankings?

Let's see what she gave OU once she arrived:

Walks
39 Clifton
26 Miller
24 Self

Half again as many walks as anyone else on the team?

Hit-by-Pitch
16 Clifton
6 Aviu
5 Miller

Almost three times the number of times hit-by-pitch as the number two on OU?

On Base Percentage
540 Clifton
454 Miller
449 Knighten
421 Self

In these three categories, Caleigh didn't just lead OU. She ran away and hid. No wonder we finally decided she was better at #2 than at clean-up. She got on base, and she was OU's #1 in runs scored in conference play.
Caleigh was one of the best in the US at getting on base.

Was any of that reflected in last year's recruiting ratings?

Caleigh was a known quantity who played in the top travel tournaments around the country. Yes, she was reflected in the recruiting rankings. You can say what you want about the rankings but Romero was #4 and Knighten was #5, Aviu was #63 while Finney was #13 and Lundberg was #53. The first three lived up to their rankings. Finney has been slower but she was never going to be the ace this past season. Lundberg has hit when she has gotten a chance but fielding is an issue. You can't play for OU if you can't field. That is why it took so long for Shay to hit the field.