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Who are the elite coaches? Seems like the ones we like to think of as elite still have needed the best players to win national championships.

In this new era, we need to see who all goes portaling before we can start talking about next year. Hopefully, no more post Fall Ball losses. Those are the ones that hurt the most because you don’t have a fair shot at replacing those players.

Unfortunately we lose both Valencia and Krapf so we’d better strike gold in recruiting impact offensive freshman (or two).

By killing it, I was referring to bringing in impact players, who were instrumental in winning a B1G tournament championship and getting the program back to the NCAA Tournament. Ybarra and Felder were huge for them in achieving both. Ybarra was an All American, but they both were key cogs in...

I agree it will be more difficult for Coach P to quickly build a consistent winner here if they don’t have a successful season next year because she will need the positive vibes as she will be relying on new recruits and the portal much more than she has so far. But I have no doubt that she...

Agreed that Bahl in the circle makes them dangerous. But they’d been going to NCAA tournaments in the last few pre-Bahl years after some very lean years. When you are just a stud pitcher away from being really good and competitive against anyone, I can live with that. I was envious when Ohio...

And to think five years ago Minnesota was near the top of the softball world while Rhonda Revelle nearly lost her job due to allegations of “toxic culture” and player abuse. And Jordy Bahl had committed to Oklahoma at about that time. Revelle (like Piper a school legend as a pitcher) was...

In B1G play, yes. They have some non-conference games coming up though. But there’s more than a strong possibility that the Gophers will not qualify for the B1G tournament.

If she comes to the B1G she has Ohio State written all over her.

Unfortunately, Oregon is a bad team to come see if you want to avoid seeing blowout losses. I don’t know that Michigan is much better, but I’d trust us against them more than Oregon. If you came, I hope they get a really good pitching performance tonight.

The Dawn Staleys and Geno Auriemmas of the world can do that and get away with it most of the time, once they have established that they are elite coaches. The hard part is working your way into that position and kudos to them they were able to do it.

We just need a recruiter that hits home runs with the players they bring in. The previous hitting coach didn’t teach Oakland how to hit.

I’ll be very surprised if Piper isn’t given two years after this one no matter how bad the team performs in the field. Softball just isn’t enough of a priority here that coaches are fired just for losing unless it becomes more than 5-6 years straight.

Depends on what they had to pay to retain the players who have announced they are returning. It’s no accident that Battle and Braun were the last to announce they were back. They likely are the players that command the most money and they had to reach a deal with DTA. Hopeful there is enough...

Could quality of coaches have something to do with that? Hiring a popular former player with no head coaching experience as head coach may be more appealing than it should be.

Recruiting and $$$$. Softball won’t be getting any revenue sharing money, so donors will have to step it up AND coaches will have to identify talent that the big-time programs overlook and convince them to come here. This program will have to completely bottom out and then some before the...

Let’s be fair. Her best offensive player has been out for most of her two seasons coaching here. I seem to recall a South Dakota team coached by Plitzuweit beating a Top 10 Baylor team on their home floor in an NCAA tournament game a few years ago. If she can get players here that can run her...

I think we should be careful assuming that the primary pool of P5 head coaches is the P5 assistant ranks. If I am an AD at a P5 school, I’m looking for someone who has demonstrated the ability to succeed as a head coach at progressively more difficult levels. Assistants at P5 schools are most...

I was thinking the same thing this afternoon. How did Gopher softball get out of the gutter in the first place? Simple. We got lucky on a totally unproven coach hired at a bargain basement salary. And rest assured this administration wouldn’t be throwing money at a new coach. Odds are we would...

The last team in rarely deserves to be in, but someone has to be that team. Might as well be us.