Gopher Volleyball 2019

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kylie miller is warming up in uniform. whoo hoo! but not starting. maybe easing her back against a weaker team.
 
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In set one, Hugh trying a variant of experiment (f). Probably more to keep wear and tear off Miller than to just be experimental.
 

The big news was Kylie Miller's return. In a switch up, Hugh subbed Miller and Miyabe in for MacMenimen and Samedy thus keeping the setters in the back row of the rotation. Miyabe used the occasion to have a break out night with 6 kills hitting .417. Ari had some hard swings after she settled in plus some nice defensive efforts at the net.

Northwestern hit under .100 all night and spent some time hitting negative. The Gophers seemed to be working on low, driving, barely clear the net serving. It resulted in 11 service errors.

I'm assuming Hugh will stick with the double switch to start the Illini match tomorrow night.
 




Even though the Gophers eventually beat the Illini 3 sets to 1, it seemed like much more of a monumental battle than that. Match stats:

Stat Gophers Illini
Hitting % .185 .141
Kills 55 58
Digs 92 85
Blocks 9 11

Fairly obvious there were a few extended rallies. After the Gophers won sets 1-2, Illinois developed a nasty trend of coming back from behind on good hitting.

C.C. was incredible again with 32 digs, some of which were seemingly impossible. Samedy had 16 kills and 12 digs. Rollins had 11 kills, Pittman 9, Morgan and Miyabe 6, Hart with 4 and Sheehan with 3.

McMenimen with 34 assists and Miller with 11, again playing tag team at setter. Miller was a bit tired and given a rest in set 4.

Hugh tried experiment (d) to good effect at a crucial point in set 4, tag-teaming McMenimen (on serve receive) and Shea Rubright (on Gopher serve) at setter. This put the Illini outside hitters up against (for instance) the double 6’5” block of Pittman and Rubright. It turned out to be an excellent tactical gamble. Kudos to Hugh for trusting his Frosh.
 
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I think Hugh used all his subs in the second set comeback. Sheehan again subbed in when Hart was struggling.

I hope CutDowntheNet is right and Miller was just tired; but, Kylie was sitting on the back bench where we usually see injured players and Kylie was not particularly animated. She had trouble getting up good sets in the third set. Anyway, Miller's exit meant no Miyabe and we reverted to Hugh's blocking sub. Oh, and of course, Samedy had to carry the load.
 

I worry about Miller. Seeing her sit away from the team with ear plugs in her ears makes me think she is experiencing sensory overload. Sensory overload is a concussion symptom.

If Miller is recovering from a concussion, I wouldn't want her to rush back before being fully recovered.

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Maybe she passed the test, gave it a go, but started getting headaches during the match?

I think it’s all but certain she suffered a concussion at some point and is struggling with symptoms of that.
 



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And CC in her own words.
 

FWIW: I just looked through the box score and Hugh did use all fifteen subs allowed. The last subs were at 22-23 Minnesota.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
FWIW: I just looked through the box score and Hugh did use all fifteen subs allowed. The last subs were at 22-23 Minnesota.
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Once again, Coach Hugh cannot possibly remain seated, as he gets up to applaud and show his appreciation for the awesome effort of his libero.

Ignatius, could you explain a bit that 15-max substitution rule? You start with six players and you can only sub 15 times in a set, right? Does that include the sub before the set starts in which Pittman comes out and the libero comes in? Does that include the (mandatory, I think) two substitutions per full set of rotations in which the libero comes out then comes right back in?
 
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https://www.ncaa.com/news/volleyball-women/article/2018-08-29/college-volleyball-libero-explained

Here's a straight forward explanation of libero and subbing:
A coach is limited to 15 substitutions per set, per NCAA rules. Most substitutions occur when a coach substitutes a hitter for a defensive player who just rotated to the front row, and vise versa — if that hitter does not play all six rotations. The libero substitutions do not count toward these 15 maximum substitutions.

Most of the time, the libero is used in the rotation of middle blockers on a team. When one middle rotates to the back row, the other middle will enter the match for the libero and be in the front row. Here are two examples of these substitutions in action.
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CC was unreal last night. Amazed that Hart has been such a liability on serve return as a fourth year senior. If she is not spot on with her hitting she may see her court time really diminish her last year. Team Passing much better last night.
Atmosphere against the heavyweights of the B1G in the PAV is awesome. If only TCF could be like that.
 

beavergopher said:
CC was unreal last night. Amazed that Hart has been such a liability on serve return as a fourth year senior. If she is not spot on with her hitting she may see her court time really diminish her last year. Team Passing much better last night.
Atmosphere against the heavyweights of the B1G in the PAV is awesome. If only TCF could be like that.
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Yes, I think Hugh pulled Hart after she missed badly on a couple of swings. I think he can live with some weak passing. Later in the match, Hugh subbed Hart back in, I assume, because she is still dangerous hitter that Illinois had to respect. Sheehan is a better passer; but not a free swinger and we needed kills. At least Hugh has some options.
 

Hugh is earning his salary this year. He is finding combinations that are getting it done. Well except the Wisconsin. Fiasco.
 

I was looking at cumulative NCAA stats through games of October 20th, and while these can be misleading for all sorts of reasons, I thought there were some interesting things there.

In hitting percentage, the Gophers are 30th, with eight of the other nine teams in the top ten of the coaches' poll ranking ahead of them.

In kills per set, the Gophers are 6th, with Baylor, Stanford, and Pittsburgh of the top ten teams ahead of them.

In assists per set, the Gophers are 5th, with Stanford and Baylor of the top ten-ranked teams ahead of them. This category seems to be the most top-heavy with highly ranked teams. Five of the top seven in assists per set are top ten-ranked teams (Stanford, Baylor, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, and Texas).

In digs per set, the Gophers are 9th, with no other top ten teams ahead of them. In fact, unless I missed one of them, the next top ten-ranked team is Stanford at 109th!

In blocks per set, the Gophers are 18th, with Stanford and Baylor again of the top ten-ranked teams ahead of them.

(Oh yeah, in aces per set, which doesn't seem to be a highly probative stat, the Gophers are 318th.)
 
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Gophs moved up one spot in the RPI to #11. Penn State made a big move, going from #17 to #9, on the strength of two road wins -- at Michigan (#37 in this week's RPI) and at Michigan State (#51 RPI). Road wins seem to count for a lot in those RPI rankings. (Gophs are 3-2 on the road.)
 

let'sbeclear said:
Gophs moved up one spot in the RPI to #11. Penn State made a big move, going from #17 to #9, on the strength of two road wins -- at Michigan (#37 in this week's RPI) and at Michigan State (#51 RPI). Road wins seem to count for a lot in those RPI rankings. (Gophs are 3-2 on the road.)
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1. Baylor
2. Stanford
3. Wisconsin
4. Texas
5. Nebraska
6. Washington
7. Pitt
8. Kentucky
9. Penn State
10. Hawaii
11. Minnesota
12. Florida
13. Marquette
14. California
15. Rice
16. Creighton

22. Purdue
32. Illinois
 

Just that dumb Florida St game. Thought they’d show up and sleepwalk to the win. Martin had other plans.

I can live with losing to Texas and Wisc 0-3 on the road. The former was competitive, the latter we were not our strongest lineup.


Nebraska, Penn St, and Wisc rematch looming. The rest of the games they should win.
 


Was able to catch some of the Saturday match and saw the Friday box score.

Miller is back. Any thoughts on how she played?
 

let'sbeclear said:
CC McGraw: Big Ten defensive player of the week -- https://bigten.org/news/2019/10/21/...penn-state-earn-weekly-volleyball-awards.aspx; https://gophersports.com/news/2019/...ed-big-tens-defensive-player-of-the-week.aspx
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Among those of us who saw last weekend's matches at the Pav, I don't think there was ever a whole lot of doubt that CC would win the B1G Defensive Player of the Week honors for last week. I hate to sound like a broken record, but repeating several prior posts, she was just operating on a completely different level than the rest of the NCAA last week.

Anyway, glad she got the hardware.

Also, commenting on the post that notes that the Gophers ranked high on digs in the NCAA, I'm sure that CC had more than a little to do with that. Nice digging (and better passing) by the rest of the team, too though, against Illinois.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Was able to catch some of the Saturday match and saw the Friday box score.

Miller is back. Any thoughts on how she played?
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The key thing to note is that in regard to her health issue, she's not back up to 100% yet. So we shouldn't expect Kylie to be 100% as effective as the healthy Kylie Miller.

If you look back a few posts, you'll note speculation that various posters highly suspect the "health issue" to be that she is recovering from concussion symptoms. This is a potentially serious issue, such that (especially if that is the case) we all should be cheering for her to recover - first and foremost - and to whatever extent she plays during the recovery process, we should cheer for her play, yes, but also desire that she not overdo it.

Note that in college play, they can't actually tell you what the injury (or other health issue) was, due to personal info protection issues. Nobody seems to recall seeing her specific injury event during a match, so all the above talk re concussion is mere speculation at this point. Nevertheless, we should treat speculation about a serious injury to be, at least tentatively, worth our respect and appreciation of the fact that Hugh is using her selectively and gradually easing her back into the game.

All that having been said, I thought she has played quite well in the limited play she's had since she "got back." She just can't do 5 sets worth of it, that's all. Probably, even 3 sets worth of half-time setting is currently a challenge for her (and as noted earlier, she sat out the 4th Illinois set and was looking pretty tired out or stressed-out on the sidelines). Hugh will continue to be creative in working around the fact that she may be limited in number (and intensity) of minutes played, for a while.

Take it easy, Kylie - we want you back, but don't overdo it. We'd prefer to have you closer to full strength at NCAA tourney time.
 
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In the opening games Miller made 2 o r 3 excellent sets that were remindful of her pre-injury self. I thought then "she's back." But in end of the 3rd game I noticed she was on the floor for two points when she remained pretty stationary. Hugh took her out soon after that.
 

Thanks for the recaps/thoughts on Miller. Assuming she can practice regularly she will improve her stamina and hopefully be symptom free. Concussions (assuming that is what it is) are scary.

I find it odd that they haven't announced her specific injury/issue. College football and basketball teams do it all the time. Not sure why volleyball would be different or if maybe it is Hugh's personal approach?
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Thanks for the recaps/thoughts on Miller. Assuming she can practice regularly she will improve her stamina and hopefully be symptom free. Concussions (assuming that is what it is) are scary.

I find it odd that they haven't announced her specific injury/issue. College football and basketball teams do it all the time. Not sure why volleyball would be different or if maybe it is Hugh's personal approach?
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My own homespun observation is: In men's college sports, they tend to announce every injury. In women's college sports, they tend to be nearly completely silent about any injury. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
 

Hrothgar said:
My own homespun observation is: In men's college sports, they tend to announce every injury. In women's college sports, they tend to be nearly completely silent about any injury. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
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Obviously, you have not looked at PJ Fleck’s depth charts lately.


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UpAndUnder43 said:
Thanks for the recaps/thoughts on Miller. Assuming she can practice regularly she will improve her stamina and hopefully be symptom free. Concussions (assuming that is what it is) are scary.

I find it odd that they haven't announced her specific injury/issue. College football and basketball teams do it all the time. Not sure why volleyball would be different or if maybe it is Hugh's personal approach?
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I believe this is purely Hugh choosing to be on the far end of the spectrum, in terms of information he gives out about the team. He cites doctor-patient privilege as the reason he can't say anything, but that's bunk to some extent. I'm sure he can't reveal any precise diagnosis or details on treatments, fine. No one is asking for a medial diagnosis or the prescription she's been given.

He could absolutely make a general statement. "She suffered an injury during practice", at the minimum. He won't even say that.


That's wrong, in my opinion. But it isn't against the rules. He gets to run the program as he sees fit.
 

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