for me, to sum it up at this point-

all i can do is wait and hope CJ hits two homeruns with the final scholarships for a regular chance to succeed.  however, in the face of NIL, i have no clue how significant the 13 scholarships are (except MU right now it seems).

not sure how i feel about Toussaint returning, if true, only because it looks like we might need another big forward (for basic D and as a foul trouble sub) if we can't get any better from the portal- although scorers/guards are a priority.

i've come to grudgingly accept the reality that the schedule may not ever be near as good as we'd like, with few exceptions and rarely, a really good one at home.  the norm OOC opponents who are close by, 2 or 3 paydays, 2 or 3 usually good mid majors and a few nobodies who just might embarrass us.

i always expect (with few exceptions) returning players to come off summer better than before.  DD (and HIS players) had a less than avg to avg record here which is not acceptable to me.  to the point, i want especially to see the seniors and Fricks show us something worthwhile.  i expect the newcomers (all players) to, at the least, have fire in their bellies (like Nutter) at all times.

For recruiting, we should have an advantage. You can get kids from Ohio, pick up the best of the best in WV then go hunting for stars in the south.

I love the locations we recruited this last round. Gulf Shores is a powerhouse. Newnan Ga plays really good softball from even a national side. I think you can recruit Ohio and be successful, but adding kids from the southern powers will take us far.

If we can find some portal pitchers, the sky is the limit next season with what we should return, but we are definitely not in CUSA anymore when it comes to this ball.

The two pitchers already signed should be better than any on our roster now...on paper anyway. We had a pitcher from KY who had a steller career in HS but that didn't translate well onto mound for her this year. Rice was up and down and dealt with an injury early. Feringa was better this year but not an ace for the top of rotation. Her hitting showed great improvement. Washington did pretty well as a FR pitcher. Team hit pretty well and should be even better next year. I think top four SB at least next year.

Baseball needs much more. One of lowest batting averages in country, not great defense, and severly lacking in pitching depth.

On the game broadcast yesterday, the announcers mentioned that we (the SBC) are the 5th highest rated baseball conference in the NCAA. That is a HIGH rating, think about that. It makes it a bit easier to understand, for me anyway, why it is so hard for the Herd to win on the diamond.  Pitching has to be supreme, fielding has to improve as we make too many errors (simple, attentive type errors). 

I think we may get four in the big game this year; a 5th rated conference deserves that.

I think we got at least two and maybe three last year. Louisiana won their regional last year and advanced to sweet 16 before losing in super regional which would have put them into the college world series (8 teams).

I would expect three or four on baseball side too.

One thing I've heard people mention is difficulty for "northern" teams to recruit etc.  There is some truth to that but we are not like the Big Ten or Big East.  We play a good portion of non-conf schedule in south and we have all of our road conf games in south.  Those other leagues still play most if not all conf games in north.  This should help us recruit players for both baseball and softball and we are still farther south than all the teams in those other leagues. Remember also that WVU doesn't have a softball team.

IF Toussant were to be brought back, that would mean that either Braun/Pruett would be moving to a walk on spot.   We have 2 scholarships to give, and both are going to guards.