Big 12 Softball

Let's say that we're at the midpoint of the college softball season. Well, let's say "I" say we're at the midpoint.

I've been pondering the phrase "Paper Tiger" lately. I know that in other women's sports such as volleyball, I'll look at a current or former Big 12 member with an outstanding record (Missouri or Texas Tech) and think, "Paper Tiger" as they've played pushovers leading up to tournament play.

Sometimes, I wonder if the current Texas team is a Paper Tiger. One of the benefits of a conference which only has 7 softball teams out of 10 conference schools named for 12 theoretical schools that no longer exist.

Wins/Losses noted for those to ranked (at the time) teams.

Here we go!

Baylor
Record: 11-8
Wins: South Carolina
Losses: Washington, Louisiana (Rajin Cajuns), Notre Dame
Notes: Star pitcher Gia Rodoni redshirting this year to recover from knee surgery. Kayla Walker redshirting to recover from hip surgery
Paper Tiger: No

Iowa State
Record: 13-9
Wins: N/A
Losses: Florida State,
Notes: Don't know much about them
Paper Tiger: No

Kansas
Record: 5-17
Wins: N/A
Losses: Oregon, Arizona State, Tennessee
Notes: Former Texas assistant Jennifer McFalls now head coach at KU.
Paper Tiger: 2018 season started as a Paper Tiger team and imploded after the series with Texas, which says a lot.

OU
Record: 20-2
Wins: Kentucky, Notre Dame, Arizona, Oregon State, Louisiana, Northwestern
Losses: Florida State, UCLA
Notes: They lost their core pitching staff, but reloaded with a star pitcher transfer from ASU - Giselle Juarez. The surprise is that a junior pitcher, Mariah Lopez, as done almost as well as Juarez. And those two seem to be the 1-2 punch they use.
Paper Tiger: No.

Oklahoma State
Record: 18-5
Wins: Kentucky, Arizona State, Oregon
Losses: LSU, Notre Dame, Arizona
Notes: Transfer pitcher from A&M, Samantha Show - who defeated Texas in NCAA regional 2 years ago. She seems to be the lead pitcher out of a 4 rotation staff.
Paper Tiger: Maybe

Texas
Record: 21-5
Wins: Kentucky, Arizona State, Minnesota
Losses: LSU, Arizona State, Minnesota
Notes: Obviously 4 transfers in from Oregon. Elish has become the #1 pitcher, but also with 3 straight losses to her record. The surprise is freshman O'Leary going 7-0.
Paper Tiger: Maybe

Texas Tech
Record: 24-1
Wins: Arizona State, Oregon
Losses: Japanese National Team (exhibition), Washington
Notes: Transfers from Louisiana Lafeyette, LSU, Missouri. Article about them: Texas Tech Finding Its Identity
Paper Tiger: I'm guess YES

The question I have is if Texas is a Paper Tiger or not. We have outstanding hitting against teams we're supposed to beat, so much so that we're now at 11 run-ruled games. But against "real" teams, our hitting gets stagnant. Also, our fielding is horrendous. Currently, we're ranked 131st. Last year we were ranked 9th.

 

After you throw out the "give me's" about all you can say is this is a work in progress. The talent level to say "no" just isn't there.

 

Only as a matter of discussion and not debate, what areas of talent do you think need to be addressed? I think the infield fielding, which has led to players reaching bases, thus eventually scoring.

 

The infield for sure, but at times the corner outfielders drift off into never, never land. Offensively the entire lineup struggles to beat top-level pitching. Yes that is what makes top-level pitching what it is. However, the top teams find ways to defeat the Texas offense.

 

I'll just say that year one is much better so far than the last ten. Maybe we do some great things by the end of the year or maybe we don't, but I'm convinced we are headed in the right direction considering the immediate impact changes that were made resulting in overall improved results so far. I don't really expect a world series team this year, but it sure would be nice to get past the first round and seriously compete to get past the second instead of the appearance of team thinking they are successful because they qualified for the playoffs resulting in the annual embarrassing first round whiff.