Alabama softball coach Patrick Murphy talks about St. Thomas, Virginia and Southern Indiana coming to Tuscaloosa.
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00:00 UVA, Virginia, obviously Power 5 ACC.
00:04 Coach used to be at McNeese State.
00:05 She did a great job at McNeese and went to a couple
00:09 of NCAA tournaments.
00:10 And I believe that her family is from Virginia area,
00:13 so that's why she went back home.
00:16 They played a really good tournament this weekend.
00:18 I just-- you know, they'll be a good ACC opponent.
00:21 St. Thomas, Minnesota is an interesting story as well.
00:26 I'm familiar with their softball program
00:28 from a couple of years ago, but their old head coach
00:31 was one of my best friends in softball, and they were D3.
00:34 And I don't know if you guys know this story,
00:36 but they dominated their conference in D3 in Minnesota.
00:39 And all the other teams in that league
00:41 said, get them the hell out of our league,
00:43 because they beat everybody in every sport.
00:46 So the school said, OK, we're going to go Division I.
00:49 And they went Division I maybe three or four years ago.
00:52 And it's, you know, it's taken a little while,
00:54 because Division III is a non-scholarship.
00:56 So all these kids were either on academic or aid.
01:01 And so eventually, I think it's going
01:03 to be a really good program, because it's
01:05 the only second Division I program softball-wise
01:08 in Minnesota other than University of Minnesota.
01:11 And they hired a new coaching staff,
01:14 so it'll be fun to play somebody different.
01:16 They've never been here.
01:17 And then Southern Indiana also--
01:20 and St. Thomas won four or five Division III
01:23 national championships.
01:25 And then Southern Indiana won the Division II
01:27 national championship.
01:28 And I'm not sure why they went Division I,
01:31 but they decided to go Division I as well.
01:33 And the lady that was the coach for the national championship
01:35 still is with them, and she's been a friend forever.
01:39 And so they're coming down, and they've never been here.
01:41 So it's-- actually, I don't think we've ever played.
01:44 Virginia, definitely not here.
01:47 So it's three teams that have never been to the Rhodes house.
01:49 So hopefully, we get all the games in,
01:51 and the weather's good.
01:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]