[Class of 20Something]

I keep seeing news on how well sports I don't follow are doing and was hoping I could help make a consolidated post(this one through edits) of where Liberty Athletics is.

The Big Four
Football-FBS Inaugural Season - C+ and unsure
MBB - CIT run. Back to back 20 win seasons - B and rising
WBB - BSC Champs. NCAA One off - B and sustained
Baseball -


Softball - C+
Lacrosse -
Volleyball -
Field Hockey -
Golf -
Soccer -
Track & Field -C+
Tennis -
Swimming -
Cross Country - C+

[BJWilliams]

WBB won another Big South Championship (Number 17 I think) but lost in the NCAA first round again...Id say C+ or B-

[Class of 20Something]

WBB won another Big South Championship (Number 17 I think) but lost in the NCAA first round again...Id say C+ or B-

So juxtaposed with MBB. Should a NCAA one off have a better grade than MBBs CIT run?

[flameshaw]

WBB won another Big South Championship (Number 17 I think) but lost in the NCAA first round again...Id say C+ or B-

So juxtaposed with MBB. Should a NCAA one off have a better grade than MBBs CIT run?

Good/Interesting ? My thoughts are that we should always win the conference tournament, rather easily. That gets you a NCAA first game exit right now. Without any other decent wins, out of conference, I believe a C+ or B- to be a pretty good reflection of where we are currently. Like a couple of other sports, (football and volleyball at least), we have digressed in WBB over the years.

[olldflame]

WBB won another Big South Championship (Number 17 I think) but lost in the NCAA first round again...Id say C+ or B-

So juxtaposed with MBB. Should a NCAA one off have a better grade than MBBs CIT run?

Good/Interesting ? My thoughts are that we should always win the conference tournament, rather easily. That gets you a NCAA first game exit right now. Without any other decent wins, out of conference, I believe a C+ or B- to be a pretty good reflection of where we are currently. Like a couple of other sports, (football and volleyball at least), we have digressed in WBB over the years.

WBB has only "digressed" from a one year mountain top experience in 2005. This years team, despite being FR/SO dominated, won the conference regular season and tourney championships pretty handily. According to JK37, who is pretty knowledgeable in this area, the BSC is a better league these days. I give them a solid B.

I agree volleyball is down. A change has been made, hopefully for the better. Football failed to capitalize on the FCS playoff year and the last 3 years have been frustrating.

[JK37]

I would’ve given WBB a “B” in the years they weren’t winning the BSC. But they’re back to business-as-usual. And you can’t fault them. They get an “A” for having established high expectations, and for meeting them this year. It’s no longer a given they will win the BSC because the BSC is significantly better top-to-bottom than it used to be. But the expectations remain high, and this year they met them.

[Class of 20Something]

I'm going to give them a solid B. We are meeting high expectations for the program, but I want to make sure we have somewhere to go when they make another push in March.

[flameshaw]

Our best WBB teams were many years ago. Kisseleva, had a set of twins (can't remember their names) Rick Reeve's teams. The team that made it to the Sweet 16, and some others were much better teams. We haven't had an impressive win out of conference in some time, as I recall. (My memory is gone and I am not going to look it up).
Our program, as a whole, is not any better than it was 10-15 years ago.

[ballcoach15]

In all sports we seem to fail to build on what success we do have from time to time. 2 best examples are football and baseball. After we made playoffs in football, the program went backwards. In baseball, after we were Regional Runner Up in South Carolina, we failed to build on that. We did make regionals following year, but we were 2 and done in Charlottesville. (if my memory is correct)

In my opinion, softball is our best sport right now.

[Class of 20Something]

In all sports we seem to fail to build on what success we do have from time to time. 2 best examples are football and baseball. After we made playoffs in football, the program went backwards. In baseball, after we were Regional Runner Up in South Carolina, we failed to build on that. We did make regionals following year, but we were 2 and done in Charlottesville. (if my memory is correct)

In my opinion, softball is our best sport right now.

Well help us grade where the softball program is ballcoach! It looks like Softball is sitting at 40 in RPI while Baseball is at 103. I think it is fair to say the overall health of LU Softball is high. Would Top 40 = A- , Top 25 = A and Top 10 = A+ be fair to grade softball by?

[Jonathan Carone]

If we are going to do this, we probably need to set the standard for what each grade is. I’d suggest something like:

A - exceeds all expectations
B - exceeds some expectations
C - meets expectations
D - does not meet expectations
F - colossal failure of a season

With that in mind, I’d say:

Football: D
Men’s basketball: C+
Women’s Basketball: B

[ballcoach15]

I would say that in softball, anything less than making Regional Final, the season would be a disappointment in my book.

[JK37]

How many teams each year make the regional finals? Is that 16?

WBB: Rick’s teams were good, but he purposely played extremely weak schedules. Best WBB is still the Sweet 16 group. Katie + Lithuanians + Fasnacht is the best WBB lineup ever assembled in LU WBB history. Now they did capitalize on it with Megan Frazee, the best individual talent the program has ever had. But then it did drop off after that for a few years.

[ballcoach15]

If my math is correct 32 teams make it to Regional Finals. 16 regions x 2 teams = 32

16 advance to Super Regionals

8 advance to WCWS

As I plan my summer work schedule, vacations and trips, I am leaving room for NCAA Softball Regionals, Super Regionals, and WCWS.

(just in case)

[Class of 20Something]

If we are going to do this, we probably need to set the standard for what each grade is. I’d suggest something like:

A - exceeds all expectations
B - exceeds some expectations
C - meets expectations
D - does not meet expectations
F - colossal failure of a season

With that in mind, I’d say:

Football: D
Men’s basketball: C+
Women’s Basketball: B

I like the idea and premise here. How do we standardize expectations across our sports though? I think most of us expect to be BSC Champs in just about every sport. Is that really a C? It may be, I'm just asking.

[ballcoach15]

BSC championships are nice, but NCAA tournament wins are better. One and done doesn't elevate to next level.

[Jonathan Carone]

I like the idea and premise here. How do we standardize expectations across our sports though? I think most of us expect to be BSC Champs in just about every sport. Is that really a C? It may be, I'm just asking.

I don't think you can standardize them. I think you have to judge a team against where its at. Softball's got a higher set of expectations this year than baseball does and should be judged accordingly.

Also - I'm of the mindset that you can't expect the conference championship every single year. There are too many other good teams out there, even in bad leagues. You can, however, expect to compete for the championship.

For example, let's use softball.

Expectation: Compete for the title, finish in the top two in the league. Their grades would shake out:

A - Be in a regional final or better
B - Win the league and/or win the Big South tournament
C - Finish 2-3 in the league, don't win Big South tournament
D - Finish 4-6 in the league
F - Finish below 6 in the league

[Class of 20Something]

I like the idea and premise here. How do we standardize expectations across our sports though? I think most of us expect to be BSC Champs in just about every sport. Is that really a C? It may be, I'm just asking.

I don't think you can standardize them. I think you have to judge a team against where its at. Softball's got a higher set of expectations this year than baseball does and should be judged accordingly.

Also - I'm of the mindset that you can't expect the conference championship every single year. There are too many other good teams out there, even in bad leagues. You can, however, expect to compete for the championship. If softball finishes below second place in the league, that'd be a disappointment. If they finished second, it'd be about where I expected.

I understand your approach. I was just trying to look at using a grade for each program to find general health of LU athletics in general.

Trying to take a look at Track and Field

Men's Outdoor is rated at about 41
Women's Outdoor is at about 64
Men's Indoor finished at 86
Women's Indoor finished 124

[ballcoach15]

With the team we have in softball this season, anything less than a NCAA tournament berth would result in a grade of D-. I know my expectations are high but we have a good team and need to peak come tournament time.
I think if we can win 40 games and keep RPI 40 or better we have a shot to get at-large berth, even if that school from Farmville lucks out and wins tournament.

[Purple Haize]

How many teams each year make the regional finals? Is that 16?

WBB: Rick’s teams were good, but he purposely played extremely weak schedules. Best WBB is still the Sweet 16 group. Katie + Lithuanians + Fasnacht is the best WBB lineup ever assembled in LU WBB history. Now they did capitalize on it with Megan Frazee, the best individual talent the program has ever had. But then it did drop off after that for a few years.

I can think of one player better than Megan

[flameshaw]

How many teams each year make the regional finals? Is that 16?

WBB: Rick’s teams were good, but he purposely played extremely weak schedules. Best WBB is still the Sweet 16 group. Katie + Lithuanians + Fasnacht is the best WBB lineup ever assembled in LU WBB history. Now they did capitalize on it with Megan Frazee, the best individual talent the program has ever had. But then it did drop off after that for a few years.

I can think of one player better than Megan

I can think of 3-4.

[JK37]

I know what PH is saying. But 3-4 better than Megan?! This I gotta hear...

Remember, Megan had an offer from Ohio State, and they were coming off a Final 4 run.

[Purple Haize]

I know what PH is saying. But 3-4 better than Megan?! This I gotta hear...

Remember, Megan had an offer from Ohio State, and they were coming off a Final 4 run.

The one I’m thinking of had UNC UVA and UT offers.... Basically anywhere in the Mid Atlantic she wanted

[flameshaw]

I know what PH is saying. But 3-4 better than Megan?! This I gotta hear...

Remember, Megan had an offer from Ohio State, and they were coming off a Final 4 run.

Katie, Kisseleva, and the twins that played guards back in the day, (can't remember their names). IMVVVVHO, Katie and Kisseleva are not even arguable. We can argue/disagree some about the twins who played for Reeves, but they were faster than Megan, better ball handlers, not as good at scoring. I would say they are close to even. Don't know who PH is talking about, but he is probably more knowledgeable about WBB than I am. (Very weak on football though).

[olldflame]

I know what PH is saying. But 3-4 better than Megan?! This I gotta hear...

Remember, Megan had an offer from Ohio State, and they were coming off a Final 4 run.

Katie, Kisseleva, and the twins that played guards back in the day, (can't remember their names). IMVVVVHO, Katie and Kisseleva are not even arguable. We can argue/disagree some about the twins who played for Reeves, but they were faster than Megan, better ball handlers, not as good at scoring. I would say they are close to even. Don't know who PH is talking about, but he is probably more knowledgeable about WBB than I am. (Very weak on football though).

PH is not objective in this evaluation.

I personally would rate Katie Feenstra as the best to ever play WBB for Liberty. Not the most athletic or skilled, but none of the others could have accomplished what she did in the same situation. You can make an argument for Kisseleva as next best, but I would go with Megan. "The twins that played guard" are Sarah and Sharon Wilkerson. Nice little players who IMHO do not belong in this conversation.