SL Xpress
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2019-2020 Football Season
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Well, they shouldn't have been. Nebraska has always looked like the best team in the country. Certainly since conference play started. The team has issues with middle blocking production, serving weak, and the setting is often sus. But we have excellent pin production from both OHes and the opposite. Both Stafford and Spears are back row options. Halter and Gary are an elite defensive duo when they're on, which is most of the time. Maybe it's youth. Mostly I think it's just a flawed team. I enjoy watching them anyway. It's been a fun year.
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This match is a perfect example of what I mean about a focus on serving errors focusing too much on the wrong thing. 5 service errors in a 3 set sweep. The bigger problem is they couldn't score when they needed to from the service line. In set two they had 3 separate set points that Kentucky killed with first ball side outs. In set 3 they did the same sort of thing alternating with Kentucky for late points. Constantly they attacked Deleye with the serve, and constantly she was dotting the setter with 3 option attacks. At one point in the 2nd set before the 10-1 run, Kentucky was converting sideouts at an 81.5% rate. Without any notable service errors. As it was, Kentucky ended with a 70% sideout. There are other issues with this team, but against Elite Eight and beyond type opponents, you simply must be able to consistently get the other team out of system. This Texas team has a lot of weak service rotations that put no pressure on the opponent. Really Halter and Stafford are the only consistent serving threats on the team. The announcer, Holly McPeak, kept calling for Texas to serve with more pace, but we haven't served with pace all year. We don't put servers at the line who can serve with pace. And then when we do put Harvey or Bunton back there for serving, they're terrible on defense. They look like fish out of water. Compare that with Kentucky. Their two pins, their setter, their libero and their DS all serve effectively. In the first set they were eating Halter up way worse than we were against Deleye, their OH. That's the game of volleyball right there. Whatever other issues we have, elite teams have to be able to consistently get their opponent out of system on the serve. Otherwise at the highest levels they're going to make you pay. And all you have to do to win the set is be the eensiest more effective from the service line than your opponent, then you win the set. Obviously there's way more to it than that, but that's the basic fundamental formula.
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Who was worrying about not being #1? Nebraska has been a juggernaut. On paper we don't come close to matching up. Nobody does. Good thing the matches aren't played on paper. This is the biggest match of the season. #2 versus #3. With Florida falling off, and A&M not quite there yet, these are the power daddies of the SEC. Texas won the head to head last year, but Kentucky won the conference. They have a freshman setter from Katy, TX, the "best left pin duo in the country" (we'll see about that), a 6'6 tree in the middle, and some great back court defense. They're one of the best serve receive teams in the country. Texas has their work cut out for them today. I'd love to come away with the victory in Gregory. Very much like what we'd see in a regional final/Elite Eight type match.
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I'm approaching this season much like I did Chris Beard year one. We had a competitive team most of the year, but the offense was like watching paint dry at times. But that wasn't the point. Beard wanted to win by winning the turnover battle, hitting a higher percentage of shots, and playing really tough half court defense. Year one was about creating that mentality, and then building on it in year two. Same thing here, except Miller's identity is more about playing with tempo, hitting open looks, especially 3s, and playing good enough on the defensive end. He wouldn't say it like that, but that's my view of him compared to guys like Barnes and Beard. I hope we make it to the tournament, but I don't need that as much as I need to see the team show improvement over the course of the year, and then Miller show he can upgrade the roster in different ways from year 1 to year 2. Not saying we'll have an Elite Eight type team next year, but I hope we'll be competing to get to the 2nd weekend. Which is still ambitious. I'm also hoping he can be effective at promoting the program, because we need that type of guy at Texas. Maybe we shouldn't, but we do. Funny when it was announced Texas was moving from the Big 12 to the SEC, I thought we'd be downgrading conferences in basketball. Nope. It's going to be as much of a grind as the Big 12 used to be. More high scoring offenses, though. One thing I get tired of, is hearing coaches say they're going to run it more, but they don't. That's not going to be a concern with Miller. He's going to want to play more uptempo than most coaches out there.
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Why Texas Stomps A Mudhole In Vanderbilt's Ass
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
We always win when he posts these threads. Chalk up another one. -
I don't understand how that call gets upheld.
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At the end of this third quarter, I have to say I'm a bit thunderstruck.
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Did we look like this against Florida, Kentucky, or Mississippi State? I don't disagree with you, but they've had more success this year than those 3 teams, and we're boat racing them.
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All my opinions are derived from game threads.
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I feel like Texas is about to turn things around after that disastrous first half.
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The game thread is going to game thread. When things are going poorly, it can be cathartic. But I watched Texas shit the bed against Florida, and have frustrating performances against Kentucky and Mississippi State. Those are 3 of the least successful teams in the SEC this year. Vanderbilt, which has had success this year, comes in and Texas dominates the first half 24-10. The Vandy defense can't stop the Texas offense from scoring. Vanderbilt is a cat's whisker from going into the half down 24-3. But you'd think it's all about Texas sucking reading this thread, and we're just about to lose this game in the third quarter.
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So Wingo, McCutcheon, and Mosely have all limped off the field in the first half.
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Nebraska is a machine this year. Wisconsin lost their starting setter to a dislocated shoulder, and haven't been the same since. But the same could be said for the Big 10 as a whole not named Nebraska. They're still crushing it. I haven't gone back and counted how many Big 10 teams have made it to -20 against Nebraska, but it hasn't been many. Most of the sweeps - and they're ALL sweeps in conference play - have been absolute guttings, topped by their 25-6 win over the defending national champs PSU in Happy Valley. Making it to -22 is practically a win against the Cornhuskers at this point in the season.
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A&M doesn't have any big time wins. They have some good wins, and they've taken care of business. Other than it's A&M, I like this Aggie team, and I like Morrison as a head coach. He's bootstrapped a relationship with Houston Skyline (he hired their founder as an assistant) into building a good talent pipeline. And he has a reputation as a good coach. Served as the volunteer assistant at Texas for two years on the same staff as Sullivan and Tonya Johnson. The Aggies are 17-3, with losses to SMU, TCU (when the Horned Frogs were playing better), and Kentucky. The Kentucky match, also at Reed Arena, was competitive. The Wildcats won 3-1, but the 4th set was extended points, 27-25. Their best wins were Minnesota in the first match of the season, before the Gophers suffered a bunch of season ending injuries. Utah, when the Utes were ranked (they may not get into the tournament now). Missouri, when the Tigers were ranked (they probably won't get into the tournament). They face Tennessee on Sunday while we're playing Kentucky. Then they head to Gainesville a week from Wednesday to take on the Gators. A&M is in contention to host the first two rounds, but they need to win some of these matches. If they win out the rest of the way, including the SEC tournament, with only 3 losses they'd have a chance to be the regional host. Tonight's match is going to say a lot about both squads. It will be a good test.
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I'm no fan of Plonsky, but that's not completely a fair comparison. They changed the rules or else it's doubtful Stanford's reign would have come to an end. It went from all sports counting, to only the top 20 results counting. That's a big difference, especially when Stanford fields 36 teams, many of which don't have all that many competitors. Often very west coast centric. There's a part of me that feels like we should be incentivizing schools to field more sports, but it's certainly galvanized how competitive it is doing it this way, and it's without a doubt been in our favor. Which is not to say Plonsky did a great job, or that we're not better off with Del Conte. She did not, and we are. But the Director's Cup comparison is not a good one. Also, can we go ahead and hire a new soccer coach. Please.
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The SEC Cari Spears of the Week award, given to the most outstanding freshman, was given to Cari Spears this week. Her fifth time this season.
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Why Texas Stomps A Mudhole In Vanderbilt's Ass
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
Is that what Chance Mock is? -
Could this be the craziest coaching carousel of all time?
SL Xpress replied to GreenspointTexas's topic in Football
He's 87. I think he's a lot more interested in Oregon winning a national championship at this stage of his life versus being a cool brand ambassador than he was when he was younger. -
Why Texas Stomps A Mudhole In Vanderbilt's Ass
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
"They'll be reminded of the near loss last season." I find this narrative so irritating. It was going to take a miracle by Vanderbilt to even up that game. They didn't get that miracle. And then the rest of the season all I heard was that Texas almost lost that game. No, that is not true. Great post. I needed that. Not sure I quite believe in this team the way I wanted to right now, but I'm more excited about Saturday's game than I was before I read this post, so well done. I always enjoy these. It's funny to see this become a meme around the internet. -
ESPN just upgraded the match on Friday night to SECN, which is awesome! It was a minor irritation to me it was going to be streamed.
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I don't think it's bad for the team. It gives them a chance to figure out what their routine would look like for Thurs/Sat Fri/Sun regionals. I think it's good. I think it's terrible for me as a fan. The two most anticipated matches of conference play are back to back. I would have preferred to spread them out a bit.
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I want to find out how good this team is. We saw they were better prepared than the tough early season schedule they faced...but not by a lot. Came back from 5 points down in the 5th set against both Stanford and Louisville, both quality Elite Eight type of teams. I think Louisville has the potential to make it to the Final Four, depending on their bracket and how they do in the regional finals. They won't be a regional host at this point, but they'll likely be seeded somewhere #7 through #10. Coming back from 5 points down late in a set is extremely difficult in volleyball. At the same time, Texas has weaknesses. Our serving isn't overly impressive (it's not bad, per se, but there are several servers in the rotation who do not put consistent pressure on the defense). Our middle production is practically nonexistent, especially when you compare it to past teams. But we're trying to get better. We're running the slide more right now than we did last year (that's where the middle blocker moves from her middle of the net position to run to the right and attack the ball at the right pin). We don't look particularly smooth with any of the middle blockers, but Ames is getting a fair amount of swings on the play. Harvey and Swindle have a terrible connection, to the point where Swindle doesn't even set her all that much when she's on the floor. Which is a shame, because that's Harvey's strength right now. We have good to excellent pin hitters at all 3 positions. Stafford is a national player of the year candidate. Probably needs Pitt to not make the Final Four, or it's going to former teammate Babcock, but she might be second in line. Spears is a legitimate national freshman of the year, a force of nature at times out of the backrow. Very few players in the country regardless of classification are as intimidating with their back row attack as she is. Of course, we do take her off the court for the double sub, but that's been effective, too. I feel like Vander Wal is coming into her own, lately. We have a never say die back row defense, with Gary a living breathing Sportscenter highlight reel. We're better with our tip coverage than I can remember. It's not 100%, but it's pretty good. Especially on resets where our hitter hits it softly off the opponent block to reset the possession. Everyone seems bought in, including players like Harvey and Bunton, who are having to alternate starting, and Kahahawai, who is playing part time her senior season. Swindle has had some rough sets in setting the ball, including those first two sets at LSU, but she came on in the 3rd set, and Binney produced the vast majority of her assists in the 2nd set, so it all worked out for the win. I don't know if we'll win either match this weekend, but both of them will be great tests. Let's find out what we have at this point in the season. I have a lot of belief in this team. I never feel like we're going to lose a set, no matter how far behind we are, and the team seems to feel the same way. At the same time, I always feel confident we're going to lose at least ONE set, or go extended points at some point, because that's how we do things this year.
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4th and 20?
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Somebody on the Mississippi State team is a pot smoker.
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I'm not sure why a family member or a school official would leak it, but someone did. Maybe they have an ax to grind. Maybe they're doing a quid pro quo type of deal regarding information that's not valuable to them but might be to Russini. Maybe they perceive it creates an atmosphere advantageous to their agenda. Who knows? I just felt like you were limiting potential sources unnecessarily.
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