Season Ending Finale UL 0, ULM 3

[UL_Cajuns]

She better not miss in the portal this year or we are doomed again.

So year one when she was hired it was hard to get good players from the portal and our team was gutted. I believe the portal was actually closed when she was hired. Year 2 she got some players in, was unable to hang onto Mallory Wheeler due to the pitching coach fiasco, and she brought in players from the portal that simply were not that good.
Year 3 she cannot miss, because that should be it if we don't make the NCAA 3 years in a row.

[cajunref]

You guys want improvement?
1). Fire Maggard
2) Get a young, forward thinking, LEADER in the AD seat.
3). Put the new AD on the road for 45 days throughout Acadiana, mend fences and drive NIL revenue. Just put his ass in a car and for 3 days, be a humble salesperson for the University...grind the road, 45 days
4) Put the pitching staff on a salad/protein diet.
5). After the new AD gets off the road, then it's AH turn to simply walk into business and civic clubs and introduce yourself and get the Acadiana business people/companies EXCITED about UL Softball and athletics in general.

This right here.

[NewsCopy]

I do not like Maggard's hiring and retention philosophy (or lack thereof ) but make no mistake his actions in that regard have been highly influenced by influencial fans.

His actions, are not his own, or at least not his alone.

[Mark Hemphill]

In reading some of these posts, some of you are reacting on an emotional basis and not on a rational basis. I'm reading posts about how Fictner is getting it done at ULM and how Aly is failing at UL. The reality is that Fichtner has been at ULM for eight years. She didn't see success until year 6. Aly has been at UL for 2 years. Year 1, she took over a program with a roster that had been decimated by Glasco. The portal was closed when she was hired. She put together a roster in year 1 with bailing wire and glue. Year 2, she went to the portal and got a couple of players that really didn't work out for the most part. I'm willing to give her a full 4 years to see what she can do. I see pitching as our primary concern. We need at least 2 arms that can throw in the mid 60's and who won't give up a ton of walks. We also need at least 2 more power hitters. There are a couple of players that I believe that Aly should say thank you for your service and move on from them. Smith needs to find herself a hitting coach and spend at least a full month working with him to get her mechanics and confidence back to where she was her freshman year. There are a couple of players with a lot of potential who should find a hitting coach and work with him all summer so that they can be contributors next season. I think Mackles has potential but she needs to get better if she wants to be a contributor next year. Lastly, the coaching staff needs get better. There were lots of instances this season with lineups, pitching changes and situational hitting calls that left many of us scratching out heads. I have no doubt that this staff can recruit. They need to hit the road this summer and identify players who can play at the D1 level and be meaningful contributors.

[Fan of 71]

ULs NIL budget for SB may be the largest in the belt...if that's so, it's not enough for the "standard" to survive as we saw this year.

[PetroCajunRunner]

I don't expect our softball program to return to what it was, sadly. The landscape of college athletics has completely killed that. So I'm not expecting us to completely dominate the Belt every year, and be in contention to host Regionals or be a 2 seed at worst every single season like before.

But when you consider the reputation the program still should be able to carry, and the fact that the softball at UL does receive a good amount of support from the community and school compared to our conference mates and other G6 programs, results like this season have to be deemed unacceptable.

I want Coach Habetz to succeed. It would be awesome to have someone like her lead the program to conference titles and be competitive in Regionals. But the expectation for this program has to be that we are in contention every single season for a conference title. Not barely squeaking into the conference tournament, and not going 0-4 on the season to UL Freaking Monroe.

[JMV Just My View]

In reading some of these posts, some of you are reacting on an emotional basis and not on a rational basis. I'm reading posts about how Fictner is getting it done at ULM and how Aly is failing at UL. The reality is that Fichtner has been at ULM for eight years. She didn't see success until year 6. Aly has been at UL for 2 years. Year 1, she took over a program with a roster that had been decimated by Glasco. The portal was closed when she was hired. She put together a roster in year 1 with bailing wire and glue. Year 2, she went to the portal and got a couple of players that really didn't work out for the most part. I'm willing to give her a full 4 years to see what she can do. I see pitching as our primary concern. We need at least 2 arms that can throw in the mid 60's and who won't give up a ton of walks. We also need at least 2 more power hitters. There are a couple of players that I believe that Aly should say thank you for your service and move on from them. Smith needs to find herself a hitting coach and spend at least a full month working with him to get her mechanics and confidence back to where she was her freshman year. There are a couple of players with a lot of potential who should find a hitting coach and work with him all summer so that they can be contributors next season. I think Mackles has potential but she needs to get better if she wants to be a contributor next year. Lastly, the coaching staff needs get better. There were lots of instances this season with lineups, pitching changes and situational hitting calls that left many of us scratching out heads. I have no doubt that this staff can recruit. They need to hit the road this summer and identify players who can play at the D1 level and be meaningful contributors.

Maybe they need to hire a bunting coach who can show them how to execute bunts. For as much as they worked on it the execution was terrible. epsteinhitting.com would be a good start.

[Vobserver]

All of you are right....and all of you are wrong.

Where you are right: While the rest of the conference has either improved or remained substantially static, we have clearly regressed from our prior standard. Much of this is a result of the adverse effect of the portal/NIL monster; but much is also a result of the failure of our coaching staff to recognize the changes in the game brought about by that monster and to adapt their strategies accordingly.

Where you are wrong: Every one of you have judged this team as if the rest of the SBC has remained static; it most definitely has not. At no time in the history of SBC softball has the conference been as strong as it is now. For years we have lamented the weakness of the bottom 2/3 of the conference, and until this year we were correct. This year EVERY conference game we played was against a program in the top 90 of RPI [as of yesterday], and 15 conference games were against top 75 RPI. The SBC RPI is 5th among all conferences, and is only .00150 closer to # 6 AAC than it is to # 3 ACC. Last year the conference was 7th, .02725 worse than this season.

What went wrong: Fielding. Our fielding % in conference was .958 [down from .973 last season]. Overall it was .967, down from .969. This year we gave up 53 unearned runs [32 in conference]. Last year we gave up 30 unearned runs [7 in conference]. Pitching gave up 190 earned runs [82 in conference]; last year they gave up 193 earned runs [84 in conference].

[JMV Just My View]

All of you are right....and all of you are wrong.

Where you are right: While the rest of the conference has either improved or remained substantially static, we have clearly regressed from our prior standard. Much of this is a result of the adverse effect of the portal/NIL monster; but much is also a result of the failure of our coaching staff to recognize the changes in the game brought about by that monster and to adapt their strategies accordingly.

Where you are wrong: Every one of you have judged this team as if the rest of the SBC has remained static; it most definitely has not. At no time in the history of SBC softball has the conference been as strong as it is now. For years we have lamented the weakness of the bottom 2/3 of the conference, and until this year we were correct. This year EVERY conference game we played was against a program in the top 90 of RPI [as of yesterday], and 15 conference games were against top 75 RPI. The SBC RPI is 5th among all conferences, and is only .00150 closer to # 6 AAC than it is to # 3 ACC. Last year the conference was 7th, .02725 worse than this season.

What went wrong: Fielding. Our fielding % in conference was .958 [down from .973 last season]. Overall it was .967, down from .969. This year we gave up 53 unearned runs [32 in conference]. Last year we gave up 30 unearned runs [7 in conference]. Pitching gave up 190 earned runs [82 in conference]; last year they gave up 193 earned runs [84 in conference].

The SBC have done a better job of scheduling, now they need to start winning some of those tougher games.

[Turbine]

Telling for sure

[Vobserver]

All of you are right....and all of you are wrong.

Where you are right: While the rest of the conference has either improved or remained substantially static, we have clearly regressed from our prior standard. Much of this is a result of the adverse effect of the portal/NIL monster; but much is also a result of the failure of our coaching staff to recognize the changes in the game brought about by that monster and to adapt their strategies accordingly.

Where you are wrong: Every one of you have judged this team as if the rest of the SBC has remained static; it most definitely has not. At no time in the history of SBC softball has the conference been as strong as it is now. For years we have lamented the weakness of the bottom 2/3 of the conference, and until this year we were correct. This year EVERY conference game we played was against a program in the top 90 of RPI [as of yesterday], and 15 conference games were against top 75 RPI. The SBC RPI is 5th among all conferences, and is only .00150 closer to # 6 AAC than it is to # 3 ACC. Last year the conference was 7th, .02725 worse than this season.

What went wrong: Fielding. Our fielding % in conference was .958 [down from .973 last season]. Overall it was .967, down from .969. This year we gave up 53 unearned runs [32 in conference]. Last year we gave up 30 unearned runs [7 in conference].

Pitching gave up 190 earned runs [82 in conference]; last year they gave up 193 earned runs [84 in conference].

Hitting improved, but not by enough to overcome the 53 unearned runs given up by our defense.

What can we do going forward?: Find one or two quality [not necessarily elite, but good] pitchers in the portal. Use the last two years to learn that, while pitching is vital, the real keys lie in adequate pitching, outstanding defense and the ability to hit in clutch situations. We must improve in at least two of these three areas, and I am more comfortable with pitching than I am with defense and timely hitting.

[Turbine]

I just hope ULM isn't inspired by this and starts funneling all their resources into softball.

[Localyokel]

I just hope ULM isn't inspired by this and starts funneling all their resources into softball.

LOL, I hope they DO! Who gives a ___ about softball?

[Vobserver]

You must. You post some kind of derogatory bs in nearly every softball thread.

[2022cajun]

LOL, I hope they DO! Who gives a ___ about softball?

Any true Cajun fan does actually. Go be stupid somewhere else