Lady Vols Softball

#526
#526
volman128 said:
Sprang was also a very early commit. I believe she committed as like a freshman in HS. In pretty much all sports, many early commits don't work out. I think of Lauren Avant for the basketball team. Players don't develop the same. At the time Sprang committed to UT, she was the best pitcher in the class. Her senior year, she didn't have great stats and I was surprised she was still ranked so high, but I remembered those rankings are highly political but also usually only encompass travel ball performance. When players commit early, it can make staffs overlook other players that have developed into better players. In the case of Avant, we took her over Odyssey Sims, who wanted to come to UT, and by the time they graduated was a much better player. Avant, when she committed here, was the #1 player in the class, so we didn't want anyone else for her position. I know softball has a larger roster and more positions, but I feel the same thing happens. Early commits have traditionally been very common in softball and many of them don't turn out to be good college players and/or they wind up transferring.

Honestly, Ashley Morgan also played for GA Impact and was the Gatorade POY for the state of Georgia ... and she hasn't done much of anything in her career here. Hopefully she can finish out strong in her LV career.
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But Ashley has been the best defensive first baseman in LV history from what i have observed and heard others who know say!
 
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#527
#527
sccshortstop said:
Yep but in the case of the Shipman girls both committed early and i want to say each was in the8th grade. Now they cannot do that any more.
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Madison committed I think as a sophomore. Ally committed very early but she knew a lot about the program given her sister played here. She was familiar with the coaching staff, facilities and with Knoxville in general. I actually don't think Ally was even expected to be as good in her class when she committed as what she turned out to be by the time she graduated.
 
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#528
#528
sccshortstop said:
Yes if i remember correctly Kentucky got a dominate pitcher from ET a few years back but i cant remember her name that from what i understood did not even get an offer at UT. I do know she beat us a time or two during her days at Ky. I know you cant take them all but i wonder it our coaches are losing some clout? I was all for Marty leaving but to be fair how much actually he had to do with the pitchers and game decision making. With Karen and Ralph meddling it seemed he only was the so called pitching coach. I know he retired and ended up at Georgia Tech so he was actually forced out! Maybe they will let Megan do what they hired her to do!
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Nunley was a late bloomer, didn't really emerge as a legitimate D1 prospect until the summer after her sophomore year of high school. Didn't get a ton of offers until later that year. She was in the same class as Erin Gabriel, who was the #1 or #2 pitcher in the country that year, depending on whose list you looked at. Gabriel had been committed as a HS freshman. Nunley wanted to come to Tennessee, but there was no scholarship money left in that class by the time she became a real prospect, particularly not for a pitcher with Gabriel already in the class. Kentucky only had enough money because they had a couple of players in the class two years ahead of her leave after their freshman years.

Of course, Gabriel had the hip injury during her freshman year and couldn't throw a softball for almost 9 months, so it took until her senior year before she was "back" and was on a pitch count her entire career. Nunley had a great career at Kentucky. Worked out for everyone.
 
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#529
#529
DeerPark12 said:
Nunley was a late bloomer, didn't really emerge as a legitimate D1 prospect until the summer after her sophomore year of high school. Didn't get a ton of offers until later that year. She was in the same class as Erin Gabriel, who was the #1 or #2 pitcher in the country that year, depending on whose list you looked at. Gabriel had been committed as a HS freshman. Nunley wanted to come to Tennessee, but there was no scholarship money left in that class by the time she became a real prospect, particularly not for a pitcher with Gabriel already in the class. Kentucky only had enough money because they had a couple of players in the class two years ahead of her leave after their freshman years.

Of course, Gabriel had the hip injury during her freshman year and couldn't throw a softball for almost 9 months, so it took until her senior year before she was "back" and was on a pitch count her entire career. Nunley had a great career at Kentucky. Worked out for everyone.
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Do we take so many Tn. girls so they can save the scholarship money for out of state recruits?
 
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#530
#530
sccshortstop said:
Do we take so many Tn. girls so they can save the scholarship money for out of state recruits?
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The Hope scholarship and other instate scholarship money is huge (learn this at camp over the years). It is not like some other sports though there are some rare exceptions if you want to play softball you better have good grades. The more academic money the more money to spread around. An instate player with good grades is like gold especially if she can play. Plus with good grades there are scholarships out there they can get for them. My daughter due to her program in Haslam and applying for scholarships has us getting money back now (won't make up everything in the first two years). I'm sure they can hook the athletes up if the grades are there.
 
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#534
#534
volman128 said:
Sprang was also a very early commit. I believe she committed as like a freshman in HS. In pretty much all sports, many early commits don't work out. I think of Lauren Avant for the basketball team. Players don't develop the same. At the time Sprang committed to UT, she was the best pitcher in the class. Her senior year, she didn't have great stats and I was surprised she was still ranked so high, but I remembered those rankings are highly political but also usually only encompass travel ball performance. When players commit early, it can make staffs overlook other players that have developed into better players. In the case of Avant, we took her over Odyssey Sims, who wanted to come to UT, and by the time they graduated was a much better player. Avant, when she committed here, was the #1 player in the class, so we didn't want anyone else for her position. I know softball has a larger roster and more positions, but I feel the same thing happens. Early commits have traditionally been very common in softball and many of them don't turn out to be good college players and/or they wind up transferring.

Honestly, Ashley Morgan also played for GA Impact and was the Gatorade POY for the state of Georgia ... and she hasn't done much of anything in her career here. Hopefully she can finish out strong in her LV career.
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The assessment on the rankings is accurate especially this past year due to covid and the lack of national exposure. Coaches manipulate the numbers to increase their kids ranking and college interest. A pitcher who averages 1.9K's an inning looks better than the kid who averages 2.3K's a inning playing the same competition if 1.9K kid plays for National brand. If you read about a HS kid touching 70 MPH but averaging less than 2K an inning with a plus 1.5 ERA then you need to put down the article.

With the early commitments I see it both ways.
 
#538
#538
Rickster said:
We’ve lost one game right? Feels like we lost a lot more from reading here.
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I think part of the problem is the hang over from last year where we were going nowhere even if Ashley came back. The pitching though was not all that bad (not great) it was that our defense was horrible and that is being kind. I have watched some other SEC teams and we are right with them other than the cream at the top. Our offense needs to be more consistent and our pitching needs to be solid to have a shot at a home regional which is a real possibility. At this point we are not a threat to win it all or make it to the WS but they are fun to watch and if our defense holds up it may be a very good year. It is early the beauty of sports is who knows what will happen. I would like to see some more enthusiasm and intensity (it may be lack of full crowds). Ohio was much more into the game than we were and I know we killed them I was there. It took the few fans that were there to start cheering to hear anything from our dugout. IMHO.
 
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#539
#539
I like what we've seen out of the team this far. Yes we lost to a mid-major so has a lot of SEC teams and Florida's had a couple close calls winning 1 to 0 and 2 to 1 games. Way more upbeat about this team than last season. A much better defensive team and a lot more pitching depth. Alabama looks like the best team in the SEC and Florida of course is always close to the top. Kentucky is playing really should be some really great softball when the SEC battles start. I feel like were a top part of the league team we'll see how it all goes down this season.
 
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#540
#540
Volfan2012 said:
I like what we've seen out of the team this far. Yes we lost to a mid-major so has a lot of SEC teams and Florida's had a couple close calls winning 1 to 0 and 2 to 1 games. Way more upbeat about this team than last season. A much better defensive team and a lot more pitching depth. Alabama looks like the best team in the SEC and Florida of course is always close to the top. Kentucky is playing really should be some really great softball when the SEC battles start. I feel like were a top part of the league team we'll see how it all goes down this season.
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I see about 6th at this time. All really depends on our two lefties pitching. Got to hit and field. JMHO as always! I guess we get to hear BR today since no video!
 
#541
#541
sccshortstop said:
I see about 6th at this time. All really depends on our two lefties pitching. Got to hit and field. JMHO as always! I guess we get to hear BR today since no video!
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I'm guessing the reason the LadyVols aren't on SECNetwork+ tonight is because the baseball vols are on the network+ at the same time instead. Apparently UT doesn't have the television production capabilities to do both at the same time. Has something to do with UT studio production guidelines. The softball team needs to avoid playing at home at the same time on the same day as the baseball team.
 
#542
#542
jeebie said:
I'm guessing the reason the LadyVols aren't on SECNetwork+ tonight is because the baseball vols are on the network+ at the same time instead. Apparently UT doesn't have the television production capabilities to do both at the same time. Has something to do with UT studio production guidelines. The softball team needs to avoid playing at home at the same time on the same day as the baseball team.
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This game was thrown in the last minute so nothing was set up since time did not permit from what i heard!
 
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