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Posted

Your viewing guide for Week 7

Wednesday
Kentucky @ aggy, 6pm, SECN
Tennessee @ Texas, 6:30pm, SECN+
Baylor @ ASU, 8pm, ESPN+

Friday
Pitt @ Miami, 5pm, ACCNX
Wisconsin @ PSU, 6pm, BTN

Sunday
Nebraska @ Purdue, 12pm, B1G+
Kentucky @ LSU, 12pm, ESPN
SMU @ Miami, 12pm, ACCN
Texas @ Alabama, 2pm, SECN+
aggy @ MSST, 2pm, SECN+

Tennessee is 12-1 (3-0) - only played 2 ranked teams all season (1-3 loss to Purdue, 3-1 win against Georgia Tech).  So far in the SEC - 3-0 over Georgia, 3-0 over South Carolina, 3-2 over LSU
Alabama is 8-6 (0-4) and did not play a single ranked team in non-conf play.  So far in the SEC - 0-3 to Auburn, 1-3 to Florida, 1-3 to MSST, 0-3 to aggy.  They host LSU Friday before hosting us on Sunday. 

  • Hook 'Em 4
Posted
27 minutes ago, Js1 said:

We lost a first place vote despite going 6-0 in sets. Bet Nebraska butt fucking Penn State made someone flip their vote

Nebraska has been on a ridiculous tear. I don't think their last 4 opponents have even hit .100, and they haven't hit less than .300. The Big 10 still looks like a strong conference, but they don't have the powerhouses they used to have. Minnesota is in a free fall. This looks like a good but not great Wisconsin team. Penn State has imploded. Purdue is surprisingly good given all the talent they lost, but not great. None of the west coast teams are super impressive. The SEC has Texas and Kentucky. The ACC has Pitt, Louisville, and Stanford. 

Volleyball is always top heavy as a sport, but it feels even more so this year. 

Posted
8 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

Nebraska has been on a ridiculous tear. I don't think their last 4 opponents have even hit .100, and they haven't hit less than .300.

Nebraska in B1G play - 4-0 (12-0 in sets)
Michigan (home) - .380 / .108
Maryland (home) - .360 / .090
ranked PSU (road) - .437 / -.114 (wow)
Rutgers (road) - .390 / .061

Texas in SEC play - 4-0 (12-0 in sets)
Vanderbilt (home) - .446 / .153
ranked Missouri (home) - .313 / .250
Georgia (road) - .358 / .218
MSST (road) - .327 / .065

Both teams have absolutely killed their competition so far in conference play. But Texas hasn't done to an opponent what Nebraska did to PSU.  That's like what a top 4 seed does to their first round opponent, let alone a ranked conference opponent (on the road!) 

Both will play a ranked team this week - Nebraska plays at #12 Purdue Sunday and Texas hosts #17 Tennessee midweek.

The SEC will be a tougher test for Texas than the B1G will be for Nebraska, but I wouldn't say it is by much. 

Posted

I don't really get too worked up about this stuff.

I enjoy watching this team. I want to see them continue to improve. I notice we're still trying to develop a slide attack with Ames and Harvey. It doesn't look very smooth, but you gotta start somewhere. I'd like to see AVW and Swindle get a better connection, and for AVW to be more consistently terminal, but I never feel the same way with her that I did with Wenaas. I watched AVW be a star in international play even when playing with older players. I feel like she has a tremendous upside. And it's not all on her. There are times when Swindle really does her a disservice with some of the sets. But it's mostly on her. 

Just keep improving. Keep improving the serve. Maybe develop more of the bic with Stafford. Keep working with Spears. I don't see how Spears can get better than what she's shown so far, but I'm sure it's possible. 

Stafford came back strong in serve receive against Mississippi State. More of that. Keep being the backcourt wonder duo with Halter/Gary. 

Nebraska can do their thing. We just need this team to be the best version of itself if and when that matchup transpires. At least it's not like OU in softball. We have plenty of Nebraska heads on pikes. No reason why we can't add this version of the team up there. 

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Posted
8 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

Nebraska can do their thing. We just need this team to be the best version of itself if and when that matchup transpires. At least it's not like OU in softball. We have plenty of Nebraska heads on pikes. No reason why we can't add this version of the team up there. 

This is true

And DBK is a good coach, no doubt.  But she is 0-2 in the finals as a HC.  John Cook won 2 of his first 3 appearances (2000, 2006, with a 2005 runner up) 

She was handed a championship-caliber team in her first year, just like Cook was.  He did take his first Nebraska team to a title.  Can she do the same? 

Posted
4 minutes ago, Js1 said:

This is true

And DBK is a good coach, no doubt.  But she is 0-2 in the finals as a HC.  John Cook won 2 of his first 3 appearances (2000, 2006, with a 2005 runner up) 

She was handed a championship-caliber team in her first year, just like Cook was.  He did take his first Nebraska team to a title.  Can she do the same? 

There were a few years there where Nebraska was winning every head to head battle against Texas in high school recruiting and in the portal. It felt like they were fielding the U19 and U21 national team. But Elliott did a better job with roster management in 2022 and 2023 to bring home the titles. And then Penn State squeaked it out against last year's Cornhuskers. 

Both of Stanford's last two coaches won national titles with talent recruited by the previous coach - Dunning in 2001/2004 and then Hambly in 2018 and 2019. Elliott took a lot of flak from a lot of circles for being able to recruit but not being able to win championships prior to 2022/23, but as we all know the program was a dumpster fire when he took over. He's managed everything extremely well. Not just the roster, but staff hirings, the atmosphere at Gregory. Scheduling. I only wish he'd do more media availability, but with the press corps that covers the sport, it's hard to blame him for not wanting to see them more often. 

In any case, we'll see what happens with this Texas team. I'm excited about the journey. Someone posted on Volleytalk we're now more than halfway through the regular season, which doesn't even seem possible. 

Posted

Yet another SEC (co) FOW award

Texas’ Cari Spears, an outside hitter from Frisco, Texas, averaged 4.75 points and 4.17 kills per set and owned a .340 hitting percentage over a pair of road wins for the Longhorns. In Texas’ first sweep against Georgia, Spears hit .410 on a team-high 15 kills and also registered three digs, one block and one ace. In the sweep at Mississippi State, she recorded 10 kills, seven digs and a career-high two aces.

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Posted (edited)

Texas is also #1 in KPI, another metric the committee uses 

We have wins over 1/3 of the top 12 already 

Edited by Js1
Posted

This Tennessee match is going to be very interesting -  their overall stats look really good (top 5 in hitting % and OPP hitting %) due to a weak schedule, while Texas his top 5 in hitting % and top 20 in OPP hitting % against the #1 SOS.

In the SEC so far, Texas is hitting .354 and holding opponents to .170.  Tennessee is hitting .312 and holding opponents to .222.  I would say Texas had had a little tougher of an SEC schedule (OPP winning % 35-21 and Tennessee 24-19)

Tennessee's serving game may not help them tomorrow - in SEC play, 5 aces and 31 errors. Texas is 12 and 23. 

Tennessee 14.36 digs per set in SEC play, Texas 14.42.  Tennessee kills us in blocking: Texas 1.58 bps in SEC play, Tennessee 2.45

But again, Texas has been outblocked in almost every match this year and is still undefeated. 

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  • Like 1
Posted

Someone was saying that in a Point Texas presentation prior to a match the speaker said the team is being told to block straight up more than aggressively leaning over every time. Rely on block touches and affecting the hitters' angles more than going for the roof and the point. With Sullivan gone different voices in the room affecting strategy, even if Elliott is the main stay. 

But 1.58 blocks per set in conference play is terrible. I'm just not used to seeing such low numbers for Texas. I remember in 2022 we spent half the season with abnormally low block numbers per set for us, but even then it was in the low 2's, and they really came on the latter half of the season and then turned it up a greater notch in tournament play. I don't see that happening with this team. They're just not a great blocking team. Nebraska made it to the championship game that year they beat us in Gregory without a good blocking team. It's not necessary if you have amazing backcourt play and are terminal, which this team does. I'm just not used to it, and find it a bit disconcerting, although I'll be fine with it. There's something so intimidating about a block score. I miss that.

The biggest thing for me is I'd like to see serving improve some. Texas has always seemed to turn up the serving as the season progresses, so I'm hopeful that will be the case this year. When facing elite competition, the ability to get the opponent out of system with the serve becomes probably the most critical piece to winning. 

 

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  • Like 1
Posted
14 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

Rely on block touches and affecting the hitters' angles more than going for the roof and the point.

That does seem to be the case with Texas.  I know there's volleymetric numbers about good block touch percentages (a touch that is dug and then converted to a kill), but I don't have access to those. 

I also think Stafford is one of our worst blocking OHs, maybe ever, but she does everything else so well. I went back almost 10 years in stats and I didn't see an OH who played as much as Stafford with a blocks per set below 0.30 and Stafford is at 0.29 right now.  

Personally, I'd take Stafford's backrow digs and her serving over an OH who blocks slightly better.   

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Posted

I think you both (Js1 and SL) have a good points.  Personally, I would like to see a better block from the team. I think it's a momentum changer and energizes a team.  As far as going for straight up blocks, for more block touches and to take away hitting angles, I'm not really seeing that working, especially against the better teams they have played so far.  Maybe the stats say differently.  The middles still look a little slow to close the block to me, but Harvey looks quicker and will improve with experience, as will Ames.  The strong backrow play this season certainly mitigates some of the blocking deficiencies, but why not both!

It's interesting that Stafford's blocking numbers are so poor, but agree it's a good trade off since her backrow play is so strong.

Bottom line, imo, aggressively press the block. Louisville was pressing the block so hard against us that they were literally almost jousting our hitters on tight sets.

 

Posted
14 minutes ago, sunset87 said:

As far as going for straight up blocks, for more block touches and to take away hitting angles, I'm not really seeing that working, especially against the better teams they have played so far. 

I assume straight up means less tooling or tucking the ball in between the block and the net.  

Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Js1 said:

I assume straight up means less tooling or tucking the ball in between the block and the net.  

To me straight up gives the hitters a better chance of tooling off a vertical arm, and the ball falling between the blocker and their side of the net. Pressing takes that away. 
 

In theory straight up might give you more block touches?  

Edited by sunset87
Posted (edited)

A potential matchup with former Horn Auburn Tomkinson (Illinois) in round 2 and former Horn Averi Carlson (SMU) in round 3

And another Stanford matchup in the Regional Final - that is becoming a bit predictable over the years 

Edited by Js1
Posted

I'm all in favor of more blocks. I feel like blocks intimidate the opponent and either charge up the home crowd or silence the road fans. I don't think there's a more intimidating play in volleyball.

But I watch this team, and I just don't see a great blocking team. As sunset87 notes, they're not always quick to get to the outside. They're also young, but Bunton is kind of a lumberer to me, and Ames isn't a whole lot more impressive in that regard. I like them both fine. They can both terminate the quick sets in front of the setter with aplomb. Harvey seems to have the most upside athletically. She twitchier. She explodes off the floor in a way neither Ames nor Bunton do. She's quick laterally. It feels like she stays in the air forever. But she's young. She didn't even early enroll. 

So I either lament our poor blocking numbers the rest of the season like a broken record, which I may very well do. I'll for sure continue on some level to miss Singletary, who would have been the eraser in the middle we're currently lacking. Or I accept this is a 2 block per set type of team, and hope they at least hit that mark. In the meantime all is not lost. Maybe the coaches saw we're not going to be a good blocking team, and so chose to deemphasize it. I don't know. 

But yeah, in international play it's way more common to go straight up. It comes from the men's game, like a lot of the strategies we see implemented. As Js1 notes, it keeps the ball from going between the defenders and the net to fall on the good guys' side. It provides higher elevation for the block, so harder to effectively hit over. It provides more block touches at the expense of blocks that score. 

I'm not going to sit here and advocate for it, because I love how dominating on the block we've been traditionally. But that's not the hand we're dealt with this season. 

I've said it a bunch on volleytalk, but if a genie were to suddenly appear to me to grant me one wish for this volleyball team, it wouldn't be to improve the blocking numbers anyway. I'm always interested in serves that get the opposition out of system. I think it's the single most critical component in winning matches, especially at the highest levels where everyone can terminate with aplomb. I don't think we're a bad serving team, but our collection of servers do not create the same fear factor our murderer's row during the two championship runs did. I miss that. It's interesting that we have Kujundzic as the server sub, with Lauenstein on the bench, who was the best server on her Nebraska teams, and Miller and Kahahawai, who are both top spin servers. 

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Posted (edited)
7 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

It comes from the men's game, like a lot of the strategies we see implemented.

Which is coming from David Hunt now handling the defense with Erik gone. Hunt and Josephson are both bringing aspects of the men’s game into this year - we run a lot of different offensive concepts than year’s past utilizing concepts from the men’s game, such as the D ball or the OH sliding inside and hitting in the MB’s spot

Edited by Js1
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Posted
1 hour ago, SL Xpress said:

it keeps the ball from going between the defenders and the net to fall on the good guys' side

Does this get tracked as a stat such that one could subtract its rate from the block rate to get a simple adjusted block rate, and then compare that across teams and years?

and to expand that, a rate of points won vs lost after block touches?  
 

the confounded issues would be personnel and technique. 

Posted
22 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Does this get tracked as a stat such that one could subtract its rate from the block rate to get a simple adjusted block rate, and then compare that across teams and years?

and to expand that, a rate of points won vs lost after block touches?  

Probably.  I usually assume that's what that young blonde kid is doing on the bench, along with tracking the subs

Posted
18 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Does this get tracked as a stat such that one could subtract its rate from the block rate to get a simple adjusted block rate, and then compare that across teams and years?

and to expand that, a rate of points won vs lost after block touches?  
 

the confounded issues would be personnel and technique. 

There's a lot of stats I don't have access to. Volleymetrics has a lot of stats, but it's limited access. It's not so much a paywall, as you have to be involved with a college team in some regard. Permission is granted through the schools. But I don't know if even then those stats are tracked. And there's some debate over how blocking stats are kept.

For example, in international play, a block is not considered an attacking error. I'm sure coaches keep track of unforced attacking errors versus errors caused by stellar defensive play, but in college it's not separated in the box score. Any attack into a block is considered an attacking error. 

At the end of the day I mostly have to go by the final score and the opponents we're doing it to. That's not very satisfying, but what we're doing seems to be working even if relatively woeful blocking stats. 

Posted
4 minutes ago, Cairn Horn88 said:

#17 Tennessee @ Texas Gregory  Gym  6:30  SECN

SECN+ 

aggy and Kentucky get SECN. That’s going to be a really good match 

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Js1 said:

SECN+ 

aggy and Kentucky get SECN. That’s going to be a really good match 

Alex Loeb and Shelby Coolidge on the call for the A&M/Kentucky match. 

Posted

Can't stand Alex Loeb so glad he isn't doing our match

We get Logan Eggleston doing the analysis tonight!  David Saltzman is her partner going pxp

Posted (edited)
55 minutes ago, Js1 said:

SECN+ 

aggy and Kentucky get SECN. That’s going to be a really good match 

Tenn is probably the third toughest team on our remaining regular season schedule. Only Kentucky and aggy look to be tougher opponents 

Edited by perfectchaos007

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