Softball: 2018 Women's College World Series (Ducks done)

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nogerO
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So now

Post by nogerO »

we get to watch 4 teams that we beat battle it out for the national title. This sucks! So disappointed.
"To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift." - Steve Prefontaine
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Tray Dub
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Re: Softball: 2018 Women's College World Series (Ducks done)

Post by Tray Dub »

Biggus Duckus wrote:The "national title or bust" mentality for football ruined me after 2013 and I don't really pay much attention to Oregon sports nearly as much. If you live and breathe Oregon, don't let it happen to you guys as well.

Although I find myself better for the change, it seems really silly to get worked up about freaking sports when it's about the least productive thing imaginable.

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This is good advice, but I think for this year's softball team it's okay to be a bit disappointed. Unless a bunch of seniors leave or something, it's just natural to hope for a bit better than the previous year. For this year's softball team that meant winning or at least making it to the championship. It's not always championship-or-bust, but for a team this good, it's kind of unavoidable that that was the mentality.

The key is just to recalibrate expectations after disappointing years so that you can get excited about improvement when a championship run isn't in the cards. That's how I can still be excited about the Ducks' football team this season even though there's little hope they reach the championship game like we've done in the past. As long as you're realistic about what the team can hope for, you can still have fun cheering for a team.
duck58
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Re: Softball: 2018 Women's College World Series (Ducks done)

Post by duck58 »

What is sad is that the team we beat 3 times in regular season and finished 5 1/2 games behind us in PAC-12 will likely be national champions.
shoparound
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Re: Softball: 2018 Women's College World Series (Ducks done)

Post by shoparound »

The correlation to football is just so similar with the championship or bust mentality.
I also think that the way the systems have worked, both teams create unbelievable plays and jaw dropping plays to become the great team they are. But if things aren't clicking, it's a very rough uphill battle.
The struggles in OKC remind me of football offense struggling in post season back in the days. It took a Marcus Mariota to help quench them (until the NCG in '14). I really thought Jenna Lilley would be the one that would lead the team in softball to breakthrough.
Greenblood
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Re: Softball: 2018 Women's College World Series (Ducks done)

Post by Greenblood »

As I assume many of you know, UW fell to FSU pretty decisively in two games in the WCWS final. For me, that at least makes the Ducks' failure this year slightly less painful.

FSU sure got hot at the right time, as I think someone mentioned already even before this. And a note to Duck fans: The Seminoles had the most WCWS appearances without a national title at 10, and here they finally did it as only the third team in WCWS history to lose their first game in doing so.

Maybe there is no secret sauce. You just keep grinding until you break through. I certainly don't want any change at the top, where White brought the program up from irrelevance to a consistent national power and consistently brings in stellar recruiting classes.
duckfan22
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Re: Softball: 2018 Women's College World Series (Ducks done)

Post by duckfan22 »

Greenblood wrote:As I assume many of you know, UW fell to FSU pretty decisively in two games in the WCWS final. For me, that at least makes the Ducks' failure this year slightly less painful.

FSU sure got hot at the right time, as I think someone mentioned already even before this. And a note to Duck fans: The Seminoles had the most WCWS appearances without a national title at 10, and here they finally did it as only the third team in WCWS history to lose their first game in doing so.

Maybe there is no secret sauce. You just keep grinding until you break through. I certainly don't want any change at the top, where White brought the program up from irrelevance to a consistent national power and consistently brings in stellar recruiting classes.

this!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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OregonFan4Life
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Re: Softball: 2018 Women's College World Series (Ducks done)

Post by OregonFan4Life »

Greenblood wrote:As I assume many of you know, UW fell to FSU pretty decisively in two games in the WCWS final. For me, that at least makes the Ducks' failure this year slightly less painful.

FSU sure got hot at the right time, as I think someone mentioned already even before this. And a note to Duck fans: The Seminoles had the most WCWS appearances without a national title at 10, and here they finally did it as only the third team in WCWS history to lose their first game in doing so.

Maybe there is no secret sauce. You just keep grinding until you break through. I certainly don't want any change at the top, where White brought the program up from irrelevance to a consistent national power and consistently brings in stellar recruiting classes.
Well good for Florida State! That’s huge for them! Certainly looks like they did get hot at the right time. And I do agree, this is a grind, I fully expect Oregon to make it back next year hungrier than ever. I never doubted this team’s ability to make it to OKC, they did it 5 times in the last 6 years which is darn impressive.

And to your point about Mike White, I didn’t see anyone calling for a change and if they did, that’s just asinine. Look how many professional and college teams overreacted to not winning a championship and fired a coach and never have gotten close to recovering, such as Tennessee Vols or Denver Nuggets. I know I don’t want Mike White fired and anyone who does is like that crazy Duck fan I encountered after the 2011 USC game yelling for Chip Kelly to be fired. However, Mike White is not immune to criticism, nor is any coach at a high level. I think it’s good for fans to point out observations like this, cause maybe they are true, maybe Mike White does become nervous in OKC and it spreads to the players and they no longer play like themselves, we definitely saw a different Oregon team in OKC. And if this is the case, it is very fixable.

Now obviously a lot of fans including myself (obviously) can be too critical and hostile towards coaches, for me it probably stems from the fact that both my wife and I had abusive coaches in high school, my wife had a far far worse one, a man who should be in jail for many reasons. But that doesn’t mean I should think so lowly towards other coaches, and I’ll admit fans get carried away with coaches and always want them fired. But I think simple observations like the ones Duck07 made about Mike White can actually be good for the team. Maybe if word gets to him that fans think he needs to relax more in OKC he’ll adjust accordingly and Oregon will perform better in OKC in the future.

To the duck fans that do want White fired and were insulting the players on Twitter after the FSU loss, just move to Boston and be a Boston sports fan, you belong there.


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cordy02c
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Re: Softball: 2018 Women's College World Series (Ducks done)

Post by cordy02c »

no but the hitting coach should be on the hot seat. Oregon's struggles in the Ws have more to do with them struggling to hit
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Re: Softball: 2018 Women's College World Series (Ducks done)

Post by OregonFan4Life »

cordy02c wrote:no but the hitting coach should be on the hot seat. Oregon's struggles in the Ws have more to do with them struggling to hit
More like they struggle to get timely hits or hits when they need it most because of how much pressure they feel and how nervous they are. It’s sorta like if you have the greatest free throw coach ever and the players can shoot free throws really well, but no matter how great they are, if they line up for a game winning free throw and are freaked out nervous and unable to focus, their likelihood of making the free throw will go way down. Oregon’s hitting has been very good all season and the numbers show that, but almost every team has a decrease in hitting percentage in OKC for two reasons, they face way better teams with way better infield defense and pitching, and because nerves increase. I think the bad hitting can solely be blamed on nerves.


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