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Post by Rogobob77 on Mar 26, 2023 16:29:58 GMT -5
Thought I would check in on the softball team now that hoops has come to an end for the season. The Titans got swept today at Buysee Field, losing 13-1 and 5-1 to Youngstown St. Record falls to 2-17.
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Post by upbasketballfan on Mar 27, 2023 0:08:36 GMT -5
Thought I would check in on the softball team now that hoops has come to an end for the season. The Titans got swept today at Buysee Field, losing 13-1 and 5-1 to Youngstown St. Record falls to 2-17. The problem here is the talent level is way on the weak side. The present coach did not recruit D1 ball players. When you watch this team for a few innings they kind of resemble a B or C rec. league team with no ringers. This program has fallen a long ways in the last 3 years. Some more decisions made by someone who can not assess coaching talent!
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Post by ptctitan on Mar 27, 2023 3:12:40 GMT -5
FYI -
In the past 30 years, UDM Titans softball has produced just 1 season with an overall winning record (2019), and only 5 seasons (1993, 2002, 2006, 2017, 2019) with a winning record in the conference.
From its inception in 1978 until 1993, the softball program was a winning program. The merger with Mercy College of Detroit occurred in 1990.
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Post by nctitan on Mar 27, 2023 8:46:36 GMT -5
FYI - In the past 30 years, UDM Titans softball has produced just 1 season with an overall winning record (2019), and only 5 seasons (1993, 2002, 2006, 2017, 2019) with a winning record in the conference. From its inception in 1978 until 1993, the softball program was a winning program. The merger with Mercy College of Detroit occurred in 1990. I don't think there is a link between the merger and the quality of UDM sports. In the last 40 or so years, as college sports has exploded and become commensurately more expensive, Detroit and Detroit Mercy's successes have generally been at below-the-radar sports (our 1972 national championship in fencing) or in new sports. We had success when we were an early adopter for women's basketball, but when the big programs with virtually unlimited budgets jumped into the recruiting and facilities competition, we faded away. Same for softball and when lacrosse went mainstream. Johns Hopkins used to be a lacrosse power; now they are an afterthought. And soccer is now the domain of the big kids: UNC, Stanford, Indiana, Notre Dame. And while occasionally a sleeper comes through, it's a one-year phenomenon. We have had blips with basketball, but really we are at a terrible disadvantage. This was in today's NYTimes on the Final Four: The sin is making college athletics a bidding game. I'd be shocked if Detroit Mercy had a significant fraction of $800,000 NIL for the entire Athletics program, much less for a single player. Can new coaches make a difference? Can a new Athletics Director make a difference? Not unless he comes with a very, very large and generous checkbook.
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Post by upbasketballfan on Mar 27, 2023 9:08:21 GMT -5
FYI - In the past 30 years, UDM Titans softball has produced just 1 season with an overall winning record (2019), and only 5 seasons (1993, 2002, 2006, 2017, 2019) with a winning record in the conference. From its inception in 1978 until 1993, the softball program was a winning program. The merger with Mercy College of Detroit occurred in 1990. I don't think there is a link between the merger and the quality of UDM sports. In the last 40 or so years, as college sports has exploded and become commensurately more expensive, Detroit and Detroit Mercy's successes have generally been at below-the-radar sports (our 1972 national championship in fencing) or in new sports. We had success when we were an early adopter for women's basketball, but when the big programs with virtually unlimited budgets jumped into the recruiting and facilities competition, we faded away. Same for softball and when lacrosse went mainstream. Johns Hopkins used to be a lacrosse power; now they are an afterthought. And soccer is now the domain of the big kids: UNC, Stanford, Indiana, Notre Dame. And while occasionally a sleeper comes through, it's a one-year phenomenon. We have had blips with basketball, but really we are at a terrible disadvantage. This was in today's NYTimes on the Final Four: The sin is making college athletics a bidding game. I'd be shocked if Detroit Mercy had a significant fraction of $800,000 NIL for the entire Athletics program, much less for a single player. Can new coaches make a difference? Can a new Athletics Director make a difference? Not unless he comes with a very, very large and generous checkbook. The AD at Ferris State must have a huge check book. He hires a lot of really good coaches. There always seems to be more reasons for failure than for success! Our softball teams was on the upswing, coach retires and the bottom falls out! We go from winning to being uncompetitive! I think Oour womens basketball team is going to disprove the above statement about whether a coach can make a difference. Even more so than the hiring and firing of Coach Ray. He came in and made a difference then was dismissed and we had a difference again!
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Post by ptctitan on Mar 27, 2023 10:31:36 GMT -5
The AD at Ferris State must have a huge check book. He hires a lot of really good coaches. There always seems to be more reasons for failure than for success! Our softball teams was on the upswing, coach retires and the bottom falls out! We go from winning to being uncompetitive! I think Oour womens basketball team is going to disprove the above statement about whether a coach can make a difference. Even more so than the hiring and firing of Coach Ray. He came in and made a difference then was dismissed and we had a difference again! Yes. Coaching changes do not always produce immediate results. Even when you hire the magic coach. It took Conway until his 3rd year to produce a winning HL record and his 5th and final year to produce an overall winner and HL champion. When Conway retired, Vowels promoted the assistant, Marc Gillis, to head coach. In fairness to Coach Gillis, in 2020, softball played a very tough pre-season schedule against several Top-25 rated power teams only to have the season ended by Covid in early March before they could play in the HL. In 2021, the team only played and split 4 HL games. It played no non-conference games. Then, in mid-March 2021, multiple Covid infections caused cancellation of that season. We don't really know how well or poorly those teams would have performed in the HL in either year. When the team still had roster continuity from the 2019 champions, softball ended up with two consecutive seasons shortened and cancelled due to Covid. Beginning last year, Gillis now must rebuild the team. Therefore, I see a long history of losing records in softball. Vowels made a coaching hire that resulted in ending that long losing streak. Unfortunately, just when the team finally broke the streak, it lost its next two HL seasons to Covid. For these reasons, I'm not ready to throw their coach and softball under the anti-Vowels bus.
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Post by upbasketballfan on Mar 27, 2023 11:41:22 GMT -5
The AD at Ferris State must have a huge check book. He hires a lot of really good coaches. There always seems to be more reasons for failure than for success! Our softball teams was on the upswing, coach retires and the bottom falls out! We go from winning to being uncompetitive! I think Oour womens basketball team is going to disprove the above statement about whether a coach can make a difference. Even more so than the hiring and firing of Coach Ray. He came in and made a difference then was dismissed and we had a difference again! Yes. Coaching changes do not always produce immediate results. Even when you hire the magic coach. It took Conway until his 3rd year to produce a winning HL record and his 5th and final year to produce an overall winner and HL champion. When Conway retired, Vowels promoted the assistant, Marc Gillis, to head coach. In fairness to Coach Gillis, in 2020, softball played a very tough pre-season schedule against several Top-25 rated power teams only to have the season ended by Covid in early March before they could play in the HL. In 2021, the team only played and split 4 HL games. It played no non-conference games. Then, in mid-March 2021, multiple Covid infections caused cancellation of that season. We don't really know how well or poorly those teams would have performed in the HL in either year. When the team still had roster continuity from the 2019 champions, softball ended up with two consecutive seasons shortened and cancelled due to Covid. Beginning last year, Gillis now must rebuild the team. Therefore, I see a long history of losing records in softball. Vowels made a coaching hire that resulted in ending that long losing streak. Unfortunately, just when the team finally broke the streak, it lost its next two HL seasons to Covid. For these reasons, I'm not ready to throw their coach and softball under the anti-Vowels bus. Let’s look at it from the other direction! Let’s look for an up grade in coaching from Vowels and Garibaldi. Mens and Women’s basketball 0, Mens and Women’s soccer 0, Golf, Lacrosse, Track and Field, Tennis, Fencing, what sport have they touched that is better now than before their expertise was applied. I think 0 is the answer. With some luck and hope we will be happy to return to the level of relevance we had. Who or what other than the Administration is responsible for the decline? Maybe we should look at game time experience or communication. It all looks to be the same result 0!
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Post by ptctitan on Mar 27, 2023 12:35:40 GMT -5
Let’s look at it from the other direction! Let’s look for an up grade in coaching from Vowels and Garibaldi. Mens and Women’s basketball 0, Mens and Women’s soccer 0, Golf, Lacrosse, Track and Field, Tennis, Fencing, what sport have they touched that is better now than before their expertise was applied. I think 0 is the answer. With some luck and hope we will be happy to return to the level of relevance we had. Who or what other than the Administration is responsible for the decline? Maybe we should look at game time experience or communication. It all looks to be the same result 0! This thread is about softball. The recent discussion specifically concerns your assertions about softball under Vowels. The on-field performance of softball did improve under Vowels. It's hard to say whether the team would have shown some consistency in the HL in 2020 and 2021 because Covid prevented them from playing all but 4 HL games during those years. Their HL record for those two years was 2-2. How about we discuss the overall problems in Athletics in a thread dedicated to that issue? And keep issues specific to each team in threads or sub-forums dedicated to those teams?
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Post by Larrytitan27 on Mar 27, 2023 16:10:04 GMT -5
Titans defeat Youngstown 4-2. Next action on Wed…doubleheader at Michigan State.
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Post by Larrytitan13 on May 8, 2023 19:13:58 GMT -5
Softball coach is gone. Looks like a busy off season for AD Vowels.
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Post by Rogobob77 on May 8, 2023 20:09:00 GMT -5
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Post by upbasketballfan on May 9, 2023 9:27:51 GMT -5
Looks like he is trying to create job security maybe thinking the U will not make a move while there are multiple searches going on. Looks like the perfect time to make a move and the new guy can start bringing in his/ her people. Jump now President. Taylor!!!!!
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Post by upbasketballfan on Jun 1, 2023 17:23:50 GMT -5
Softball coach is gone. Looks like a busy off season for AD Vowels. I hope we’re not holding off waiting for an answer from A J Hinch!
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