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Travis
- Thread starter AZGrizFan
- Start date
I don't know what heck happened in the last few years, but his teams are on a downward spiral. When (according to a Lucas Semb tweet) you spend more on recruiting than the entire football team, you'd think you'd be getting a great group of players. Griz don't have a point guard, no reliable shooters, ZERO inside game, and struggle defensively. It's almost like TD has just given up the last few years. It's high time Haslam takes a long hard look at that program and make some tough decisions.
Griz2k said:
It is a sad commentary on what has become of our mens basketball program. The ladies on the other hand seem to be on the right trajectory. Great come from behind for them last night. Wish I could say the same for the mens basketball program. With the new basketball locker room and lounge it was supposed to be a clincher for new recruits. So far it has failing marks.
Last nights game against Sac State may just be the last straw. I don’t even want to look at the final stats because it will only confirm what I saw, a total beat down.
alabamagrizzly
Well-known member
Who’s ready for some Grizzly Softball?
alabamagrizzly said:Who’s ready for some Grizzly Softball?
We attended the annual "Meet the Team" dinner and fundraiser on Friday. Always a fun event. And amazing how much money gets raised by the silent and live auctions. The huckleberry pie, always the first item in the live auction, brought in $6275.00 after it was bid on, won, donated back for auction 10 times.
First games in less than 2 weeks!
alabamagrizzly
Well-known member
maroonandsilver said:alabamagrizzly said:Who’s ready for some Grizzly Softball?
We attended the annual "Meet the Team" dinner and fundraiser on Friday. Always a fun event. And amazing how much money gets raised by the silent and live auctions. The huckleberry pie, always the first item in the live auction, brought in $6275.00 after it was bid on, won, donated back for auction 10 times.
First games in less than 2 weeks!
That’s very cool. What a greedy bastard who finally kept the pie for themselves
.Are they gonna be better than middle of the pack this year AZ?alabamagrizzly said:maroonandsilver said:
That’s very cool. What a greedy bastard who finally kept the pie for themselves
Griz til I die said:Are they gonna be better than middle of the pack this year AZ?alabamagrizzly said:That’s very cool. What a greedy bastard who finally kept the pie for themselves
Nope not with Coach Meuchel at the helm. They need a new coach, one who understands that the latest trend in softball is small ball, aggressiveness, and putting pressure on the defense. Our coach doesn’t have that philosophy and we struggle.
It was night and day how Pinkerton coached this team vs Meuchel and it shows. Nice gal, good culture, players coach but not winning.
I agree. Jamie Pinkerton was an absolute home run hire and it was too bad we only had him for 3 years before he got snatched away by Iowa State. If I remember correctly, he got hired by ISU in late July or early August and with the fall Softball season approaching, there really wasn’t any time to conduct a national search. I really like her, and I think the players really like her and that may be why she never gets canned, but I agree Hooked that she probably needs to go.HookedonGriz said:
This will be a big season for her in terms of where the programs at. She’s got a much older pitching staff and more veteran roster this year. I’ll be interested to see the preseason poll and where they’re picked. I think a reasonable goal this season is reaching the conference championship, not winning it, but playing for it. With this roster, that realistically should be achievable.
Meuchel is a Missoula girl and likely will never be let go unless she leaves on her terms, but there’s no doubt that the Softball team has been stuck in neutral the last 5 years, and that’s a shame cause they got best stadium and indoor facility in the conference. Now maybe she has a breakout year this season like Allison Lawrence and Volleyball did (I was ready for her to go but she did great this year), but if she doesn’t I hope Haslam starts to put a little bit of pressure on her.
Griz til I die said:
I’m with you 100%. I hope she does great and I hope the team kicks ass and has a season just like Lawrence did. But I will be surprised if that happens. Nontheless Go Griz!
alabamagrizzly
Well-known member
Griz til I die said:
I agree with most of this except the facilities where I believe WSU and Sac definitely have comparable, if not better stadiums then us. Not sure if Weber has the indoor capability’s we do that might be necessary there like here but I’m pretty sure Sac’s overall stadium is nicer then ours. I could be wrong though which I often am. Your assessment of Coach Meuchel is pretty spot on though and I think givin her situation and history, I don’t think she gets fired until after about 3 or 4 more seasons like last. The pitching staff last year though was young and thin and will be much improved this year. The infield will be less expiernced but not short on talent. I also think coach is addressing the small ball tactics this year more then any other and hopefully we’ll see improvements there too. I think this year will be better and playing for a con championship should definitely be an attainable goal but I’m a homer and always wear my maroon colored glasses.
Griz til I die said:
Just from watching the Fall season games, the pitching looks stronger than last year, and much deeper. But the staff doesn't compare to the Pinkerton staffs. The team lost all the power hitters to graduation and now looks to be more a collection of singles hitters.
alabamagrizzly
Well-known member
maroonandsilver said:
Don’t be surprised if 1B Hannah Jablonski, 3B Grace Hardy, RF Presley Jantzi, and DP Kelly Sewyer all bring their fair share of power this year. They might not be a Delene Colburn or Maygen McGrath but they got some pop. They’ll definitely hit a lot of RBI doubles with the singles hitters around em. SS Jaxie Klucewich, CF Julie Phelps, and LF Elise Ontiveros will bring some speed where we’ll see some of that small ball that Hooked has been begging and pleading for for years now
.alabamagrizzly said:maroonandsilver said:
Don’t be surprised if 1B Hannah Jablonski, 3B Grace Hardy, RF Presley Jantzi, and DP Kelly Sewyer all bring their fair share of power this year. They might not be a Delene Colburn or Maygen McGrath but they got some pop. They’ll definitely hit a lot of RBI doubles with the singles hitters around em. SS Jaxie Klucewich, CF Julie Phelps, and LF Elise Ontiveros will bring some speed where we’ll see some of that small ball that Hooked has been begging and pleading for for years now
I know I have been a bit of a broken record on it, but it’s so important and 100% the trend of the game. If you watch the big dogs play (Oklahoma, Okla St, UCLA, Texas, etc) they all have big time power hitters but they still employ an incredible level of small ball. Bunting runners over, hit and run, double steals, squeeze bunts, safety bunts….they all use it to put pressure on the D, get runners on base, and then let one of their studs hit a 3 run homer.
I have watched the Griz for the last few years literally get runners to 1st and 2nd, no outs, and NOT bunt runners over. It’s absolutely incredible to me. That is a text book move the runners situation and she refuses to do it. Until she starts doing that, and generating more offense and runs, we are not going to be at the top.
alabamagrizzly
Well-known member
HookedonGriz said:alabamagrizzly said:Don’t be surprised if 1B Hannah Jablonski, 3B Grace Hardy, RF Presley Jantzi, and DP Kelly Sewyer all bring their fair share of power this year. They might not be a Delene Colburn or Maygen McGrath but they got some pop. They’ll definitely hit a lot of RBI doubles with the singles hitters around em. SS Jaxie Klucewich, CF Julie Phelps, and LF Elise Ontiveros will bring some speed where we’ll see some of that small ball that Hooked has been begging and pleading for for years now
I know I have been a bit of a broken record on it, but it’s so important and 100% the trend of the game. If you watch the big dogs play (Oklahoma, Okla St, UCLA, Texas, etc) they all have big time power hitters but they still employ an incredible level of small ball. Bunting runners over, hit and run, double steals, squeeze bunts, safety bunts….they all use it to put pressure on the D, get runners on base, and then let one of their studs hit a 3 run homer.
I have watched the Griz for the last few years literally get runners to 1st and 2nd, no outs, and NOT bunt runners over. It’s absolutely incredible to me. That is a text book move the runners situation and she refuses to do it. Until she starts doing that, and generating more offense and runs, we are not going to be at the top.
You may sound like a broken record but you speak the truth. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen exactly what you mentioned and then not score any runs cus we get three quick outs w/out advancing anyone. It’s not incredible, it’s maddening. It makes it very hard to watch, especially when we lose so many games with scores like 2-3 and 3-5. Last year in conference play, of our 11 losses, six were by one run and a 7th by 2 runs. One sac bunt in those one run games that eventually allows that runner to score is very well the difference in them.
alabamagrizzly said:
Bingo! Man I love your love of Griz softball. It’s one of my faves too.
HookedonGriz said:
Losing Southern Utah really hurts the conference Softball. There are now only 6 teams (The good news is every team will make it to the conference championships, rather than the top 6 of 7). This makes the home schedule for the Grizzlies rather sparse this year. Only 4 home stands: Carroll, Providence, Sac State, and Weber).
maroonandsilver said:
I saw that home slate and forgot about southern Utah moving out. That makes sense, unfortunately
I can tell you that Coach Meuchel and her staffs approach on how to manage games is analytically driven and data informed. Maybe there are situations that ask for bunts but the data suggests and there is a whole mountain of it (seen a couple of other college programs data on it), that based upon how teams play defense these days in the game of collegiate softball it is increasingly hard to move the runner over via sacrifice. Her program isn't the only one to use it, rather it has been wholly embraced by many SEC/Pac 12 programs.
Not perfect by any means, and data driven work isn't infallible, but the odds are with players making contact on swing leading to better outcomes than a standard sacrifice. The data trends are a bit more starkly anti-bunt in softball than baseball because of the ability of the defense to get the lead runner in a true sacrifice situation. Teams have used other strategies more frequently, including a return of the slap and tactical swings to induce certain outcomes. Coach Meuchel has recruited players whose swings translate to the college level. They struck out less than anyone last year, but struggled in converting the high OBP/BA into runs. That in some ways was the difference between the team being successful, and they think that lineup will be able to provide the extra base punch that it lacked last year that really limited their ability to get big innings.
My understanding is the staff feels that the biggest improvement this year is going to be on the hill where the depth is going to be vastly better than a year ago. They allowed a ton of traffic last year, struck out a league low, and if they find away to be better than a year ago on the bump, this team as well as it does play defense should be in good position to see success.
Not perfect by any means, and data driven work isn't infallible, but the odds are with players making contact on swing leading to better outcomes than a standard sacrifice. The data trends are a bit more starkly anti-bunt in softball than baseball because of the ability of the defense to get the lead runner in a true sacrifice situation. Teams have used other strategies more frequently, including a return of the slap and tactical swings to induce certain outcomes. Coach Meuchel has recruited players whose swings translate to the college level. They struck out less than anyone last year, but struggled in converting the high OBP/BA into runs. That in some ways was the difference between the team being successful, and they think that lineup will be able to provide the extra base punch that it lacked last year that really limited their ability to get big innings.
My understanding is the staff feels that the biggest improvement this year is going to be on the hill where the depth is going to be vastly better than a year ago. They allowed a ton of traffic last year, struck out a league low, and if they find away to be better than a year ago on the bump, this team as well as it does play defense should be in good position to see success.
https://twitter.com/BigSkyConf/status/1620466981764988930?s=20&t=7bqj51SLJmjl0IGnmZeH7A
What are the odds of that? The preseason poll came out today and the Griz are picked to finish 4th. Weber and Sac tied for 1st.
What are the odds of that? The preseason poll came out today and the Griz are picked to finish 4th. Weber and Sac tied for 1st.