B1G Match 15: Gophers Host Purdue (11-10-23)

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Ignatius L Hoops

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Crunch time arrives at 6:00 PM Friday when 8-6 Minnesota faces down 9-5 Purdue
 

Disappointing. Couldn't defend the home court. Purdue did an excellent job of receiving serve. They never let our best servers string points together. Purdue did a better job of digging and keeping points alive. The Gophers now need to fight for 5th place.
 

walleye said:
Disappointing. Couldn't defend the home court. Purdue did an excellent job of receiving serve. They never let our best servers string points together. Purdue did a better job of digging and keeping points alive. The Gophers now need to fight for 5th place.
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Once again, Landfair was a non-factor when needed. Poor setting by Shaff at times. Out of system way too much. Hard to watch them this year. Doesn’t resemble the squad I’ve been following for many years.
 

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walleye said:
Disappointing. Couldn't defend the home court. Purdue did an excellent job of receiving serve. They never let our best servers string points together. Purdue did a better job of digging and keeping points alive. The Gophers now need to fight for 5th place.
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Seven straight losses to ranked opponents. If they make the tournament don’t expect them to get past the second round at best.
 

Ready to move on from the "core" group. Hard ceiling, which just inexplicably got lower this year.

Schaff and Landfair, hope they transfer out. Sorry, that will burn a lot of folks ..... but not sorry.

Ready to move on
 


As expected another tough match to watch.

There was a lot of talk elsewhere that Z cannot pass. Certainly, MN didn't lose that match because of Z's passing. In fact I was glad she was finally on the court for 3 rotations and getting experience.

IMO Z was at least keeping the ball in play and her passes to Shaff were on target. Sometimes a little slower than needed be. However, when there was no time to think and she was reacting (and the same for Shaff) we had some of our most successful kills of the night.

This Gopher Team just cannot terminate and that is our biggest downfall this season. Now, the bottom line question that needs to be answered is.....WHY IS THAT?
 
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That’s not that hard, actually:
- Schaff has zero consistency on ball placement and timing. Sometimes it’s elite and exactly where and when it needs to be, other times you shake your head
- Landfair and Wicherer offensive game has gone down the toilet for big chunks of this season, and I think it’s perfectly reason to speculate that their frustration in being awful at serve receive and defense has affected them mentally
- lack of blocking at times in the middle

But that begs the question: why would any talented middle come here, when we don’t/can’t set middles??? That’s why Pittman quit a year early, my wild guess.
 

They’ll either miss the tournament completely, starting with IU match, or they’ll limp in, be sent somewhere, and fall to the host in the 2nd round.

Either way, don’t have to endure too much more.
 

MplsGopher said:
That’s not that hard, actually:
- Schaff has zero consistency on ball placement and timing. Sometimes it’s elite and exactly where and when it needs to be, other times you shake your head
- Landfair and Wicherer offensive game has gone down the toilet for big chunks of this season, and I think it’s perfectly reason to speculate that their frustration in being awful at serve receive and defense has affected them mentally
- lack of blocking at times in the middle

But that begs the question: why would any talented middle come here, when we don’t/can’t set middles??? That’s why Pittman quit a year early, my wild guess.
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I have no idea why Pittman did not play her COVID year. Some things to consider:
  1. She had already been in school for 5 years and earned at least 1 degree. She may have been ready to get on with her life.
  2. Her final year of playing was that messy COVID spring season. Maybe she didn't want to endure another year of training with such a short recovery time. Or, maybe she didn't want to deal with the continued COVID exposure.
  3. She may have been burned out from competing.
If she was disappointed with the diminished utilization of middle blocker involvement, she could have entered the transfer portal. I think there would have been a lot of schools that would have liked to recruit her.
 



MplsGopher said:
Ready to move on from the "core" group. Hard ceiling, which just inexplicably got lower this year.

Schaff and Landfair, hope they transfer out. Sorry, that will burn a lot of folks ..... but not sorry.

Ready to move on
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Reminder: change can make things better or worse. Change can lead to a full tailspin.
 

Gopher68 said:
I have no idea why Pittman did not play her COVID year. Some things to consider:
  1. She had already been in school for 5 years and earned at least 1 degree. She may have been ready to get on with her life.
  2. Her final year of playing was that messy COVID spring season. Maybe she didn't want to endure another year of training with such a short recovery time. Or, maybe she didn't want to deal with the continued COVID exposure.
  3. She may have been burned out from competing.
If she was disappointed with the diminished utilization of middle blocker involvement, she could have entered the transfer portal. I think there would have been a lot of schools that would have liked to recruit her.
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This assessment is logical and therefore the most likely explanation.
 

Reminder: if you don’t change, you can’t possibly expect anything different.
 

@Gopher68 all good and valid points.

Also a big factor: Schaff can’t set a middle to save her life. Pittman knew this from going through the covid spring season, and was like “hell no, not going through that again for no sets”.
 



MplsGopher said:
@Gopher68 all good and valid points.

Also a big factor: Schaff can’t set a middle to save her life. Pittman knew this from going through the covid spring season, and was like “hell no, not going through that again for no sets”.
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So, why not transfer? A 3 time All American that didn't look for a better setter? Seriously?
 

Both can be true.

Burnt out on a very tough, emotionally difficult Covid spring season, and seeing the writing on the wall that Schaff is an average setter who has a hard impediment on setting the middle.
 

MplsGopher said:
Both can be true.

Burnt out on a very tough, emotionally difficult Covid spring season, and seeing the writing on the wall that Schaff is an average setter who has a hard impediment on setting the middle.
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Not really. If she was burned out it wouldn't matter the setter. If not burned out, find a better setter. Also, she did not pursue a pro career anywhere. So, my opinion is that it was not a setter issue.
 
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Nope, your attempt to force a black and white scenario when such a thing isn’t true, is rejected.

Believe whatever you want about Pittman, you clearly will.


Schaff puts a hard ceiling on the Gophers and I will be happy to move on from her.
 

MplsGopher said:
Nope, your attempt to force a black and white scenario when such a thing isn’t true, is rejected.

Believe whatever you want about Pittman, you clearly will.


Schaff puts a hard ceiling on the Gophers and I will be happy to move on from her.
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We get it, you don’t much like Shaff. No need to shoehorn Pittman’s calling it quits after 5 years as a Gopher into your broader vendetta. There is other information that you have to carry out your arguments, namely and most prominently, the Gophers slipping winning percentage.
 

MplsGopher said:
Nope, your attempt to force a black and white scenario when such a thing isn’t true, is rejected.

Believe whatever you want about Pittman, you clearly will.


Schaff puts a hard ceiling on the Gophers and I will be happy to move on from her.
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Likewise, you can believe what you want.
 

MplsGopher said:
Nope, your attempt to force a black and white scenario when such a thing isn’t true, is rejected.

Believe whatever you want about Pittman, you clearly will.


Schaff puts a hard ceiling on the Gophers and I will be happy to move on from her.
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Sometimes a athlete is ready to move on and start their career. Not every athlete is going to play professionally.
 

I will.

If we magically had SSS for covid year and the following fall (2021 ... mind you the covid season was spring 2021), then Pittman would've stayed.

That simple, that correct.


If we had a setter who could do basic middle sets, in DI college, then we'd be able to attract top middles to come here.
 

Good point about Pittman. She was done with volleyball. Never wanted to play the sport ever again, that's why she never played pro.

 


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