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.
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