(05-03-2013 03:14 PM)CajunFan3406 Wrote: I hope you guys can come in and compete well in (and out of) the conference. One of the only benefits of MTSU leaving the SBC is the fact that UL doesn't have to play them anymore in softball. They were an absolute RPI killer. As long as you guys/gals are competitive and hang at .500 or higher then we're good to go.
I suspect we will do well enough. Our coach will be in her second year. We lose a senior pitcher who is in the top 20 in ERA in the NCAA and top 40 in wins and shortstop who hit .268 with 6 rbi and a .938 fielding percentage. Everyone else will be back or replaced by someone younger. We lead the WAC in pitching, our second pitcher is fourth in the conference, but are last in defense and hitting. That will improve just by experience. This year we are 5-4 against current or future SBC teams (2-0 Troy, 1-2 UNT, 2-2 against Texas St). THe pitching might slip, though I suspect our number two will pick it up, the defense and hitting should improve quite a bit. I make no illusion we will beat the Cajuns right away, but we should be competitive.
(05-03-2013 03:30 PM)CrazyCajun Wrote: Sounds like most of these games were before you were born and have little to nothing to do with the current climate of either program. It would be great for me to mention how Cajun Basketball was a top 10 program in the early 70's or the UL Baseball team making it to Omaha in 2000, none of it is relevant today. Measuring what one program accomplished over another 20 years ago is not worth the time to discuss it.
I respect UTA's baseball and basketball programs a great deal. What you bring to the table in volleyball, bowling or any other sports that seldom see the light of a flat screen television most college sports fans care very little about. Football, Basketball M&W, Baseball and Softball bring the most national recognition from appearences on national, regional and local networks. No one gets to watch your track program, field hockey or any other non revenue sports outside the Dallas area.
I look forward to playing you guys while we are in the same conference in Basketball and Baseball, I could care less how many volleyball matches you guys win against UL.
The first paragraph seems wrong to me. A history is a history. We have a tradition of winning, particularly at the conference level, where we rank fourth in the SLC in winning percentage, behind the Cajuns and Bobcats.
We don't have the postseason history in softball that we should because our previous coach struggled in the conference tourney. We finished in the top three in conference 8 times during her tenure, but won the thing once. She was 12-23 in the tourney. Aside from last year, Notre Dame hasn't done squat recently in football. Do you wanna say their history and tradition mean nothing? I'm not saying UTA softball is at that level, but when you have a history of being competitive in the Southwest, failures are hard to take. UTA didn't have a history in men's basketball, so the failure wasn't as hard to take.
As for the rest of your post, spoken like somebody who doesn't excel in those sports. There are many schools whose volleyball programs average more than softball. If I am not mistaken, more schools have higher attended volleyball matches (
http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/publ...dance.html) than softball (
http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/publ...dex.html).
But I am not surprised someone from Lafayette, Louisiana thinks otherwise. A volleyball team with a poor history on one side and a stellar history on the other with softball. Though our current volleyball coach is below our average, we have a history of sweet sixteens and a final four in vball. I can assure you, most everyone in Texas volleyball circles looks down on Louisiana schools. This attitude shows why. Yeah, they may not appear on TV, but softball does? Reality is that the volleyball tournament does generate a decent amount of money from attendance, more the softball does.
I
couldn't care less which sports you root for or don't. I personally want to beat you guys in everything. Aside from softball (upset is a possibility), I know we can.