Arizona's Mike Candrea rooting for Patty Gasso, OU to break winning streak

Mike Candrea will be at his Pinetop, Arizona, summer home when he watches OU and Clemson this weekend. 

The long-time Arizona softball coach always tunes into softball this time of year. An eight-time national champion, Candrea is one of the greatest softball coaches of all time, retiring in 2021 as the NCAA’s second all-time leader in wins. 

But he’ll be paying extra close attention to the Sooners on Friday and Saturday. OU has a chance to break Arizona’s 47-game win streak record, set in 1996-1997 under Candrea. Oklahoma is currently at 46 wins in a row, needing to sweep Clemson at super regionals to break the record. 

 And for Candrea, he’s hoping the Sooners can pull it off. 

“I didn’t even know about the record until you called,” Candrea told SoonerScoop.com. “I’m a fan of (Oklahoma). And I enjoy watching college softball. I will be watching and I definitely wish them the best. Records are meant to be broken. And if you’re special and can do that, then that’s outstanding.” 

Candrea’s Arizona team did it over two seasons, finishing the 1996 season 17-0 and winning the national title. They started the 1997 season 30-0 on their way to another national title.

Candrea, 67, admits he doesn’t remember the streak. But he does know this Oklahoma team – and past Sooner teams – is comparable to his great Arizona teams. 

“I think it’s very similar to what Oklahoma reminds me of right now in that they’re just very solid in the circle. They play great defense and then their offense is strong one through nine,” Candrea said. “No. 1, no matter where you are in the lineup, you keep turning the lineup over many times. But No. 2, no matter who’s up, is very capable of doing some damage.

“I look at Oklahoma right now and they don’t have a weakness. They’re very solid in every phase of the game.”

Oklahoma is the only program to come close to breaking the record, with streaks of 41 in 2019 and 40 in 2020-21 and 2021-22. This year’s streak began after Oklahoma surprisingly lost to Baylor on the road in the ninth game of the season – its lone loss of the season. During the win streak, they’ve outscored opponents 388-38 and won 22 of the 46 games by run rule. 

When asked about the streak Wednesday, Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso gave the media a finger wag and said, “I don’t count the wins. I don’t look back in the record books.”

“I’m not somebody that even knows unless you all are saying it,” Gasso said. “What does this do for us? What does this give us? It gives us maybe a bragging right? I don’t talk about it. We don’t think about it.”

And it’s that mentality, said Candrea, why Oklahoma is on this streak in the first place.

“The minute you start thinking about it is when you’re vulnerable,” Candrea said. “When it’s going on, you’re taking it one game at a time. You don’t really think about it. And pretty soon the body of work is done and you look back and go, ‘Wow.’ I think the biggest thing for teams like this right now is they stay in the present moment. That’s one thing I see in Oklahoma right now. When they walk on the field, there’s a presence they have. They don’t get too ahead of themselves.”

He said that mindset is cultivated by Gasso, who is now in her 29th season at OU. From afar, Candrea has admired Gasso’s rise in the softball world. And the two have become friends and confidants, having competed against each other for over 20 years. If Oklahoma and Gasso break the record, Candrea said he “will be the first to congratulate her.”

Candrea and Gasso coached against each other 39 times, with Candrea holding a 23-16 edge. 

“I think the one thing I’ve seen with Patty right now is she’s very comfortable with who she is and what she represents,” Candrea said. “I think she’s coaching the player, the individual instead of worrying so much about the game. So she’s making these young kids better as people and I think that has definitely paid dividends in performing a very difficult game at very difficult times. I think Patty has just done a really good job of leading in the right way, keeping their focus on the right things.”

Along the way, Gasso and the Sooners have had some close calls. 

They held off No. 3 Florida State 5-4, holding the Seminoles scoreless in the final three innings to win their 14th in a row. OU survived a pitching dual against No. 12 Northwestern, winning 2-1 to secure their 16th-straight victory. They scored three in the seventh against No. 13 Texas to stun the Longhorns 4-3 and keep the streak alive at 24. They avenged their loss against Baylor with a sweep, including a close 2-0 victory in the Sunday finale – their 34th consecutive win. And they rallied from two down in Bedlam, scoring four runs in the seventh to win 4-2 to reach 40 wins in a row. 

In each of those games, Oklahoma was unfazed. Whether it’s in the circle with Jordy Bahl, Nicole May, and Alex Storako or at the plate with Jayda Coleman, Tiare Jennings, Alyssa Brito – or literally anyone else in their lineup – there’s an unwavering belief they’re going to find a way to win. 

And they aren’t afraid of losing. 

“When you have teams like that, you walk onto the field and it’s not a matter of whether you’re going to win, it’s just how much are you going to win by,” Candrea said. “I think it just breeds confidence. When you’re on a team like that, you don’t feel like you have to do it yourself because someone else is going to pick you up. And to me, I think that’s the gift, knowing that if ‘I don’t get it done this at-bat, then the next person is going to get it done.’ Then it becomes a feeding frenzy where no matter what happens, you feel good about your chances.

“They’ve made a very difficult game look easy. And we all know – any of us that have coached it or played it – it’s not an easy game.”

If OU can break the record, it would be one of the greatest feats in NCAA history. The Sooners would be in the same breath as UConn women’s basketball’s 111-game win streak (2014-2017), North Carolina women’s soccer’s 92-game win streak, and of course OU football’s 47-game win streak (1953-1957). 

But this winning streak – whether OU breaks the record or not – is just a small part of the dynasty Oklahoma has created. OU has become the premier softball program in the country, winning six national titles, including four of the last seven. And along the way, among the many wins and impressive dominance, the Sooners have elevated the sport. 

“They’re fun to watch. They feed off one another. Lots of positive energy. Lots of celebrations of the little things,” Candrea said. “With the evolution of what Oklahoma is doing right now, I think that’s how (Gasso) and her team are growing the game. They are showing that we should not put a ceiling on it. These players play the game at a very high level. It’s a great form of entertainment. It’s a ticket that’s affordable. There are more and more people turning on the TV and watching softball. And a large reason why is because of a team like Oklahoma.”

So while everyone, including Candrea in Arizona, will be watching this weekend to see if Oklahoma can do the impossible, it’ll be just another game for the Sooners. That’s how they’ve approached it all season and all of Gasso’s career. For them, it really is “just another game.” 

They have one goal in mind — winning a seventh national title, however many wins that takes.

“Records are meant to be broken,” Gasso said. “These records are all going to be broken and nobody’s going to care anymore. I don’t get caught up in that, nor does the team. So it’s just focusing on what our goal has been from the beginning and that’s getting to be in that final eight.

“We just want to get to the World Series — that’s it. However that works. It doesn’t give us anything. It doesn’t give us a trophy. Trophies stay here forever, titles stay here forever.”