[Owen Tufornomor]

There are nine Pac-12 softball teams.  Six of them are in the top 25, ןɐɔ is #26. Only Stanford and Oregon State are unranked.  Here's the current pac-12 rankings and records.  I don't see Hanson doing well here.

Oregon, #3 (27-0)
Arizona, #5 (29-1)
Washington, #6 (24-3)
Utah, #11 (21-4)
UCLA, #15 (21-8)
Arizona State, #21 (19-8)
ןɐɔ, #26 (17-8)
Stanford, unranked,(16-10)
Oregon State, unranked, (15-11)

Call me (optimistically) crazy, but I think Hanson over the upcoming 24 just might elevate this team to the 5-win level reached by the crippled Rittman team of 2014.
Here is what my crystal ball is telling me:

                                                                    5-19

I break it down like this:                   

TEAMS	          COMBINED # OF GAMES TO BE PLAYED	          WINS
Oregon-Arizona	                                          6	            "1/4"      (0 or 1, more likely 0)
Washington-Utah	                                          6	            "3/4"      (0 or 1, more likely 1)
UCLA-Cal-AZ State	                                          9	          "2 1/2"    (2 or 3, equally likely)
Oregon State	                                          3	          "1 1/2"    (1 or 2, equally likely)
TOTAL	                                          24	              5

           

If it turns out, however, that the wins total falls a good bit short of my calculated guess (as low as, say, 2 or 3 wins) I won't be *absolutely shocked*. Much depends in particular on how steep the inevitable drop-off in team hitting proves to be in the nonconference to conference play transition (not sure, but I think the '16 team finished with a sub-.200 BA in Pac-12 play) and I see that as a big question mark. Should that (20+ losses) occur, expect to see some speculative second-guessing pertaining to the question of whether or not the scheduling of so soft a nonconference lineup of opponents left the team impactfully (ultimately, in the W/L column) less prepared for Pac-12 play than it could have been, should have been.

[Owen Tufornomor]

There are nine Pac-12 softball teams.  Six of them are in the top 25, ןɐɔ is #26. Only Stanford and Oregon State are unranked.  Here's the current pac-12 rankings and records.  I don't see Hanson doing well here.

Oregon, #3 (27-0)
Arizona, #5 (29-1)
Washington, #6 (24-3)
Utah, #11 (21-4)
UCLA, #15 (21-8)
Arizona State, #21 (19-8)
ןɐɔ, #26 (17-8)
Stanford, unranked,(16-10)
Oregon State, unranked, (15-11)

Call me (optimistically) crazy, but I think Hanson over the upcoming 24 just might elevate this team to the 5-win level reached by the crippled Rittman team of 2014.
Here is what my crystal ball is telling me:

                                                                    5-19

I break it down like this:                   

TEAMS	          COMBINED # OF GAMES TO BE PLAYED	          WINS
Oregon-Arizona	                                          6	            "1/4"      (0 or 1, more likely 0)
Washington-Utah	                                          6	            "3/4"      (0 or 1, more likely 1)
UCLA-Cal-AZ State	                                          9	          "2 1/2"    (2 or 3, equally likely)
Oregon State	                                          3	          "1 1/2"    (1 or 2, equally likely)
TOTAL	                                          24	              5

           

If it turns out, however, that the wins total falls a good bit short of my calculated guess (as low as, say, 2 or 3 wins) I won't be *absolutely shocked*. Much depends in particular on how steep the inevitable drop-off in team hitting proves to be in the nonconference to conference play transition (not sure, but I think the '16 team finished with a sub-.200 BA in Pac-12 play) and I see that as a big question mark. Should that (20+ losses) occur, expect to see some speculative second-guessing pertaining to the question of whether or not the scheduling of so soft a nonconference lineup of opponents left the team impactfully (ultimately, in the W/L column) less prepared for Pac-12 play than it could have been, should have been.