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Posted
4 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

23 matches in, which aspects are they elite at?  

Well, they have one of the best outside hitters in the country. It's easy to take that for granted after Eggleston and Skinner, but Stafford is right at their level. I don't think she's quite as terminal as those two at their peak, but she's pretty darn close. It's like wondering if Bijan Robinson is as good as Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams. Not completely analogous, but the point is the same. At some level it doesn't matter any more. She's also better defensively in the back row, and I think she could be a really good back row attacker if we'd just use her more. 

Spears has fallen off in production on the right side, but a big part of that is she's not serving any more. She barely plays in the back row. I felt like one of our X factors was having Spears coming out of the back row on that D ball attack. She'd take that flying leap with her big swing, and it was really tough to defend. But we've gone away from hit. We haven't been good at featuring attacks from the right side consistently forever, and I don't think we're particularly good now.

We're pretty freaking elite in the back row defense with Halter and Gary when we're on, but we're not as consistent as some of the best back row defenses. But we're still really good. 

We have a tall setter and an established double sub, so we're not going to have a short setter taken advantage of in the front row like other teams. I don't know that I'd call that elite, but it's a strength. 

I think our biggest strength is that they just don't quit. It's easy to take for granted those two come backs from down 5 late in the 5th set against both Stanford and Louisville, but that was elite. We did something similar to Tennessee in the 2nd set. We came back against Kentucky when it looked like we were going to get blown out on our home floor 2 sets in a row with a 10-1 run. We even made a run with Gary at the service line in the set we lost to South Carolina. 

I feel confident that's not going to be enough to win a national championship. Certainly not against Nebraska. But we could still host a regional. Almost definitely will if we can beat A&M in the SEC tournament. For what it's worth I feel like we have a better team than A&M, and they're really good this year. I feel like we have basically a 50/50 shot against whoever we match up with in the regional finals, if we can make it that far. There's a remote chance it's SMU. Or A&M. 

Then we'll have a puncher's chance in the Final Four if we can get there. 

I just wish our serve was better.

The middle blockers were more productive today, but I guess they were selling out to the pins and that's what allowed them to close the block better than they have all season long, because the South Carolina middles feasted in that 3rd set. That was disheartening. 

It was senior day, and even though we have a good shot at 4 more home games, I'm going to miss Halter terribly, and I'm very grateful for both Kenna Miller and Kahahawai for spending their careers here, when they could have been starters elsewhere. I'm hopeful Miller goes on to get a graduate degree somewhere where she can play. 

Miller sang the national anthem before this game, btw. Apparently was amazing. I know she's done that at least once before.

  • Hook 'Em 4
Posted

Putting the entire conference in the tournament is so stupid.  Take the top 8, or top 10 if you want to give a couple of byes to the top seeds.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted (edited)
10 minutes ago, Mittens said:

Putting the entire conference in the tournament is so stupid.  Take the top 8, or top 10 if you want to give a couple of byes to the top seeds.

The SEC soccer tournament, is, I believe, the only one that doesn't include every participating team.  Only the top 12 make it for soccer, but for baseball/softball/MBB/WBB/VB, all teams compete in the postseason conference tournament 

Like, why? There's only 7 teams in the conf with winning conference records. Why do we have to include 1-14 Arkansas or 3-12 Vanderbilt?  

Take the 7 teams with a winning conference record and do it in 3 days (Fri/Sat/Sun).  Teams get a little over 2 weeks of rest (Selection Show Nov 30, tournament starts December 4)

1 Kentucky - BYE
4 Tennessee vs 5 Florida
2 aggy vs 7 Georgia
3 Texas vs 6 Missouri

Kentucky vs. 4/5 winner
2/7 winner vs. 3/6 winner

Championship

Edited by Js1
Posted

I have a hard time believing the travel and hotel expense is less than what they'll get for those 1st 2 rounds, but I'm sure someone with a sharper pencil than I made the decision. 

Posted (edited)

For conferences without the tournament, still some good matches this week:

Thursday
Purdue @ Wisconsin

Friday
Kansas @ BYU

Saturday
Nebraska @ Indiana

Sunday
North Carolina @ Miami

Edited by Js1
Posted
1 hour ago, Mittens said:

I have a hard time believing the travel and hotel expense is less than what they'll get for those 1st 2 rounds, but I'm sure someone with a sharper pencil than I made the decision. 

Also maybe it’s a way for bubble tourney teams to add a win or two, since it’s set up where the good teams of the conference don’t play until later in the bracket. 

Posted
4 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Also maybe it’s a way for bubble tourney teams to add a win or two, since it’s set up where the good teams of the conference don’t play until later in the bracket. 

It also doesn't hurt the best teams' RPI, since they're not facing any of the dregs of the conference.

I don't really think it's a money thing. I do not feel like the SEC volleyball tournament is going to be bringing in the big bucks. I think it's more of an exposure thing, a way of creating a little more fairness in an unbalanced regular season schedule, and a way of boosting RPI. The lower teams get to add more wins. The higher teams are excluded from playing the worst RPI teams, so they too can get a boost to their RPI.

The SEC didn't win enough games in non conference to be the RPI juggernaut the Big 12 is, but the thinking in how the tournament was set up was somewhat strategic IMO. 

I don't think there's a volleyball coach out there who does a better job of managing RPI, or who thinks about RPI more than Elliott. He was a big influence in the Big 12 for getting everyone on board in managing their RPIs, which helps the conference as a whole. I would bet dollars to doughnuts he's doing some of the same stuff in the SEC right now. 

I wish they'd have a preseason media availability, the way the B1G does. It would force Elliott into an environment he doesn't like, but that he's really good at. Maybe he could get some real volleyball people to shoot him some questions. 

Just for the record, I'm not a fan of the SEC tournament. I feel like we're already in as a regional host right now if the season ended today. Instead there's a chance we lose in the first round (I don't think the chance is all that good) and put that in jeopardy. They'd probably get the overall #2 seed if they beat both A&M and Kentucky, but I don't think potentially moving up a couple of seeds is worth risking the regional, no matter how slim the odds are of losing it. I also don't like the idea of playing 3 matches in 3 days the week before the tournament. But this team probably needs the court time. So even though I'm against the tournament, I'm probably wrong about that stance in terms of how it benefits Texas this year. 

Posted
1 minute ago, SL Xpress said:

I think it's more of an exposure thing, a way of creating a little more fairness in an unbalanced regular season schedule

Didn’t everyone play each other once? Seems very fair. I believe the B1G has a totally unbalanced conference schedule 

Posted
10 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Didn’t everyone play each other once? Seems very fair. I believe the B1G has a totally unbalanced conference schedule 

I guess. I feel like a home and home like what we had with the limited teams in the Big 12 provides the most fairness. 

I don't know. It's not like I'm advocating for the dang thing. I just don't think the reason to have one is money. That's the main point. 

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