Coach Hutchins not pleased with travel schedule
After getting a bad seed, the UM Women’s Softball team falls just short of making the Super Regional. After the game, the team was unable to travel as a single group, and had to catch a 4:15 a.m. PST flight home. Coach was rightfully not pleased. https://twitter.com/UMCoachHutch/status/1396792376748769281
That's rough.
Congratulations to the team, for showing fight all season long.
Congratulations for showing fight AND for doing it joyously. Lovin' the camaraderie. And the snake.
tough day for the ladies losing two to Washington, then to get hosed traveling home.
Congrats on the B1G title and a great year.
To the extent that the NCAA punished the Big Ten for playing it safe re: the pandemic, that is thoroughly maddening. I'm glad that she spoke up.
The NCAA is a sham. It is incomprehensible to me that an organization whose mission statement is "to govern competition in a fair, safe, equitable and sportsmanlike manner, and to integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education so that the educational experience of the student-athlete is paramount." would have a team of student-athletes competing at 1:30 AM their time. I saw Michigan's defense and pitching fall apart in the 4th inning. Of course it did! Their bodies' time clocks were at 1:30AM. How many times have you ever played softball at 1:30AM? They did a similar thing to our basketball team, although not as egregiously. I'm fine with our Athletic Department leaving the NCAA if the Big10 and PAC12 decide to cut ties with the NCAA.
Yup, we should reschedule the football game against them for 9 am Eastern.
I also think an agreement with the PAC 12 would be excellent as we seem to share their priorities and commitment to academics.
Starting game 1 of a potential doubleheader at 8 ET is inexcusable.
I tried watching the second game and it was taking soooooooo long. Started at 10 CT and was about to start the 4th(!) inning at midnight CT. Just absolutely brutal.
I think UW was intentionally drawing the game out-possibly to save their only pitcher's arm, possibly to make the toll worse on us. No clue, but the time between pitches could be measured in minutes, not seconds
"...our Athletic Department leaving the NCAA if the Big10 and PAC12 decide to cut ties with the NCAA."
LMAO!!! The Michigan Athletic Department no longer 'leads', it follows the whims of whoever is in charge. Any bets on whether Manuel will make a public statement in support of Hutch, her team, and their travel related bullshit?
... waiting for takers ...
Yeah, didn't think so...
Washington’s the only northern team to advance in the NCAA Softball Tournament. Only three unseeded teams advanced - Georgia, Virginia Tech and James Madison. Arizona State, Duke and Tennessee were the only seeded teams to be eliminated. LINK TO NCAA SOFTBALL BRACKET
Since 1982, Michigan (2005) and Washington (2009) are the only northern teams to have won the NCAA Softball Tournament. LINK
Although Georgia was unseeded they were a host school. Duke was seeded but they were not prequalified to host. Georgia was picked over Michigan and another school because they were more proximately located to them. In other words, regional bias.
I couldn't tell from the Hutch tweet if the rest of team was travelling separate because the season was over and they wanted to go somewhere other than Ann Arbor.
A good season but they did get hosed with the seeding and then a tough couple games against a really good UW team. Hopefully next season there will be more consistency in seeding and they'll bounce back.
I don't blame Hutchinson for being angry - it was the usual shitty NCAA behavior.
The NCAA pays for U-M's travel and, if we're being fair, it is not logistically easy to plan things when U-M's participation in the regional would be ending at an unknown variable time (anywhere from 6 PM Saturday to 11 PM Sunday).
It's not really a trivial job for the NCAA's travel folk --- they're also doing this for all the other schools in the softball tournament, plus other schools in whatever other tournaments are also ongoing now.
How many other teams had to jump through hoops like UM?
What "hoops" did Michigan have to jump through? Having to travel a couple thousand miles? Yes, Michigan had to do that, but there are some schools that will inevitably doing that given it's a national tournament and given the continental United States is 3000 miles wide.
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For the record, here's a direct quote from the NCAA's own travel policies. These things should be expected to happen.
"Flight options, both commercial and charter, are limited due to the quick turnaround time of championship travel and the seasonality of NCAA championships. Institutions that fly should be prepared to have connecting flights, split their travel party and depart early in the morning or late in the evening. The NCAA national office travel staff is responsible for making the determination of what should be considered reasonable options for the official travel party."
https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/championships/resources/travel/2020-21D1Champs_TravelPolicies.pdf
Dude, please go troll RCMB or something. I'm sure they'll love you over there.
So because the NCAA purposely makes their lives and the players' lives harder but at least they warn you up front it's okay?
This is a billion-dollar organization that tries to nickel-and-dime flights for certain sports. Save me whatever rationalizations that exist for why they do it when the end result is a bunch of unpaid college students are forced to sit in an airport at 4 am waiting for a flight.
Notice that the travel schedule wouldn't have been an issue if UM hadn't been placed in the far west. She's right--they deserve better.
Sure, but putting Michigan in the western timezone while every other team is from the region absolutely invited such an outcome, as did requiring these players to get on a plane at 2 am instead of just waiting until the next morning. Logistically I understand that the person having to schedule flights home isn't the villain here, but the NCAA setting people up for failure like this is absolutely worthy of being called out.
"They deserved it." - Dean Pelton
Now Jeffrey Winger, that is no way to treat your best friend.
NCAA ..... Meh. What can you say anymore ?
The snack choices are rough on those redeye flights.
If UW had any say in when their games started, it's an issue. Not only did they traveling three time zones to play in what ended up being a winner-take-all single game that ended around 2 in the morning, but Sunday was a typical 50s drizzly spring day in Seattle, humidity going way up later in the evening.
Heavy spinners like Beaubien who have no experience with that couldn't possibly adjust (thankfully, it was much drier the first two days of the regional). The first game should have been at noon, local time.
As for humidity, for years I slow-pitched in Portland OR. Both the curveball and the screwball broke more in cool humid weather. Pitching shortly after a rain was best. What I hated was pitching in hot dry conditions at 3000’ east of the Cascade range.
As for humidity, for years I slow-pitched in Portland OR. Both the curveball and the screwball broke more in cool humid weather. Pitching shortly after a rain was best. What I hated was pitching in hot dry conditions at 3000’ east of the Cascade range.
Snakebit !!
This team didn’t catch a break all week. The seeding, having to go out west, every close call (except Blair’s stolen base?), none of them egregious, but every close call, an injury on a fly ball, and now this schedule.
I am sure there are some people on edge.
They do deserve better. UM needs to take better care of those ladies. They represent the university and always do it successfully and with class