Gopher Volleyball 2019

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Ignatius L Hoops said:
Volleyball and Women's basketball are obviously not money grabs. I like the top 16 hosting in WVB and WBB-neutral sites were blah or oddly not neutral. But that's a discussion separate from RPI. And technically, the NCAA only chooses half the field the others are auto bids.

The funny thing about RPI (a house of cards build on no foundation) is that it's how we talk about rankings. A good move by the NCAA five or six years ago was when they started releasing RPI numbers regularly. They used to drop them seemingly randomly late in the season and they inevitably contained surprises.

Now, the NCAA begins regularly releasing RPI sheets about six weeks into the season which I assume influence the few human polls. Releasing the RPI Team Sheets and RPI Nitty Gritty reports weekly (in WBB they sometimes come out every day) for better or worse normalized RPI. All the conversations around Strength of Schedule, record versus top 25, top 50 and top 100 etc are based on RPI. Those dreaded losses to above 200 and 300 teams are all creations of RPI. Strength of conferences is probably the most vilified of the RPI rankings; but we still toss it about.

Anyway, it seems coaches are comfortable with RPI. They never seem comfortable with ranking systems which include the most essential stat: margin of victory.

Side note: Hockey uses the Hockey RPI version to choose the 16 tournament teams. Top 16 in and everyone else is out.
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Are there even 16 hockey teams?? Kidding (kinda ...)
 

Holy Man said:
Side note: Hockey uses the Hockey RPI version to choose the 16 tournament teams. Top 16 in and everyone else is out.
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I don't think I have ever heard a hockey coach or fan disparage the pairwise rankings like fans of the other sports do the RPI. I have no idea what the math is, but everyone seems to agree on it as an acceptable way to separate teams. Also, hockey has its own version of automatic qualifiers and opens the possibility of a non top 16 team getting in.[/QUOTE]

Actually, because the bottom 2 conferences usually have teams outside the top 16 (plus 1 bid-stealer), it's the top 13 in Pairwise that gets in.
 

Holy Man said:
Side note: Hockey uses the Hockey RPI version to choose the 16 tournament teams. Top 16 in and everyone else is out.
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I don't think I have ever heard a hockey coach or fan disparage the pairwise rankings like fans of the other sports do the RPI. I have no idea what the math is, but everyone seems to agree on it as an acceptable way to separate teams. Also, hockey has its own version of automatic qualifiers and opens the possibility of a non top 16 team getting in.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I should've said auto-qualifiers and THEN the top pairwise teams. And yes, over the years, the acceptance has become general.
 




Rutgers got a win. Do you believe in miracles?

Since joining the B1G, Rutgers is 2-108 in conference play.

In 2018, every team won at least 3 conference matches (besides Rutgers, of course)
 
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UpAndUnder43 said:
Rutgers got a win. Do you believe in miracles?

Since joining the B1G, Rutgers is 2-108 in conference play.

In 2018, every team won at least 3 conference matches (besides Rutgers, of course)
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Northwestern should shut it down...

Of course I said the same thing when Rutgers took a game from us earlier this year. Maybe they have a pulse out there in NJ.
 

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Per the Big Ten statistics site https://bigten.org/confstats.aspx/2019-20/vb/confldrs?path=wvball Regan Pittman is the individual B1G leader in blocks per set at 1.40 with Taylor Morgan not too far behind at 1.18 in 9th place. Both also rank in hitting % with Regan in 5th place at .387 and Taylor in 8th place at .354.

Stephanie Samedy holds down 6th place in kills per set at 3.60. CC McGraw is in 3rd place in digs per set at 4.35 with Adana Rollins placing 14th at 3.21.

Bayley McMenimen is in 11th place with 7.93 assists per set. This compares to leader Sydney Hilley of Wisconsin at 11.41 per set. Kylie Miller does not show on the assists leaderboard, presumably because she has insufficient sets to be rated. Minnesota has nobody on the service aces leaderboard.

As a team, the Gophers rank 4th in hitting percentage at .260. But they hold opponents to the 3rd lowest hitting percentage of .180. Minnesota ranks first as a team in both kills per set and assists per set at 14.26 and 13.35, respectively. And they’re the 2nd ranked team in blocks per set at 2.79 (and Purdue is 1st at 3.01).

Minnesota also ranks first in digs per set at 17.08. (Is that perhaps because we so often let the opponent nearly catch up when we’re approaching set point? More volleys played means more digs.)

The Gophers are in a three-way tie for last in service aces per set at 1.13. For reference, we’d need to bump that to 1.79 service aces per set to catch Wisconsin, the current leader. (Perhaps someone can step up with an extra .66 service aces per set?)
 
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CutDownTheNet said:
The Gophers are in a three-way tie for last in service aces per set at 1.13. For reference, we’d need to bump that to 1.79 service aces per set to catch Wisconsin, the current leader. (Perhaps someone can step up with an extra .66 service aces per set?)
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If you throw in service errors -- Wisconsin at 1.97 per set; Gophers at 1.48 per set -- the net difference doesn't come out nearly as bad. That is, service errors minus service aces is .35 per set for the Gophers, and .17 per set for Wisconsin.
 

I guess this is the worst match to come into late watching. Dolonga, Husemann and Miyabe on the floor together?? :confused:
 

I'm not sure what Hugh is doing tonight, but this match has been awful.
 

McMenimen's service errors tonight nearly cost us the match. If we are a top 10 team, there is no way we should've gone to 5 with Ohio State - especially at home.
 



That was more excitement than I need on a Wednesday night. Once Taylor Morgan took off her right knee brace in the second set and retired from the match, Ohio State took over for two sets. Hugh eventually reverted to his 6-2 setter blocker switch this time with Dolonga and McMenimen. It made the fourth set normal; but the fifth was a dog fight for the Gopher win.

Miyabe had a good night.

Kylie Miller was on the back bench and Morgan stood with the standees. I'm not certain what is wrong with Morgan.
 

Waffle said:
I guess this is the worst match to come into late watching. Dolonga, Husemann and Miyabe on the floor together?? :confused:
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It's a rebuilding year?

Oops, sorry wrong forum?

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

Morgan was limping early on when she was on the court. Ellie filled in a lot tonight, but she has a lot to learn.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
That was more excitement than I need on a Wednesday night. Once Taylor Morgan took off her right knee brace in the second set and retired from the match, Ohio State took over for two sets. Hugh eventually reverted to his 6-2 setter blocker switch this time with Dolonga and McMenimen. It made the fourth set normal; but the fifth was a dog fight for the Gopher win.

Miyabe had a good night.

Kylie Miller was on the back bench and Morgan stood with the standees. I'm not certain what is wrong with Morgan.
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I'm not sure if this was it, but in the warm-ups, Morgan dove forward to make a dig, and it seemed like she might have tweaked something. She rolled over on her right side to get up, and although she didn't have anyone look at her knee or anything, she seemed to be in a little discomfort. She wasn't limping that I could notice, but I think that might have been the cause.
 
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let'sbeclear said:
I'm not sure if this was it, but in the warm-ups, Morgan dove forward to make a dig, and it seemed like she might have tweaked something. She rolled over on her right side to get up, and although she didn't have anyone look at her knee or anything, she seemed to be in a little discomfort. She wasn't limping that I could notice, but I think that might have been the cause. But didn't she come back during the 4th set? I might be mistaken about that.
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The box score only lists her with two sets played. I'm pretty sure Taylor was out after the second set. Something was off with Taylor-even in the first set she went to sit on the back bench when she came out. But, like you, other than having an off night on the court, I didn't see any visible signs of injury. Thanks for the info on the warm-up tweak.
 

With Minnesota outhitting OSU .253 to .160, and outblocking them 17 to 9, and similar numbers of digs and kills and assists and aces, it seems at first glance a bit mysterious why this match came down to a two-point race to 17 in the 5th set. Making it even more mysterious is the fact that the Gophers scored +10 points over OSU - but that is understandable just from the 4th set in which OSU scored only 10 points.

The answer to the mystery comes from the details surrounding OSU out-erroring the Gophers 32 to 20. Specifically, Minnesota won exactly those sets (#1, #4, #5) in which it had fewer errors than Ohio State (5<10, 0<6, 3<5); and MN lost exactly the sets (#2, #3) in which Gopher errors were >= Buckeye errors (7=7, 5>4). [And to add to the mathematical weirdness, the Gopher victory margin in the 5th set was exactly equal to the 5-3=2 delta in errors.]

Conclusion: Unless the Gophers start working hard on reigning in the errors (particularly service errors), we’re going to lose some embarrassing matches against middle-of-the-pack Big-Ten teams (and get creamed by some ranked teams).

At least that’s what it looks like from the statistical angle. From a broader perspective, things may be a bit more complex. Looks like maybe we have another injury. But on the plus side, the bench players are starting to step up to the plate and swing big.
 
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Ignatius L Hoops said:
The box score only lists her with two sets played. I'm pretty sure Taylor was out after the second set. Something was off with Taylor-even in the first set she went to sit on the back bench when she came out. But, like you, other than having an off night on the court, I didn't see any visible signs of injury. Thanks for the info on the warm-up tweak.
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You're right. Taylor did not play beyond set 2.
 
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If Miller is done for the season, then we need to ratchet back expectations. I think it simply comes down to that, unfortunately. Would always like to think of Gophers hosting and winning the first round, but after that probably not.

If Morgan is out, it could ultimately lead to better blocking but certainly less offense from the M2.
 

Miller did not remain on the bench for the entire match.

Morgan with a very noticeable limp post-game.

Miyabe was outstanding. Her energy and blocking really turned that match around.

McMenamin is so slow defensively and the offense is so so so so slow with her running it. Hard volleyball to watch last night. If she is the setter this team will meet its end early in the tournament.

One unimportant side note: My season tickets are behind CC McGraw's dad. Talk about a guy who 1) loves volleyball 2) is very passionate about his daughters career 3) loves giving high fives to surrounding fans to get them fired up 4) most importantly is 100% positive about every player on every play. Just constant positivity. Really enjoyable parent to sit near.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Miller did not remain on the bench for the entire match.

Morgan with a very noticeable limp post-game.

Miyabe was outstanding. Her energy and blocking really turned that match around.

McMenamin is so slow defensively and the offense is so so so so slow with her running it. Hard volleyball to watch last night. If she is the setter this team will meet its end early in the tournament.

One unimportant side note: My season tickets are behind CC McGraw's dad. Talk about a guy who 1) loves volleyball 2) is very passionate about his daughters career 3) loves giving high fives to surrounding fans to get them fired up 4) most importantly is 100% positive about every player on every play. Just constant positivity. Really enjoyable parent to sit near.
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Ha! Five M-names in your post. Is this what brought them to M-innesota?
 


let'sbeclear said:
You're right. Taylor did not play beyond set 2.
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From the tape, it looks like something happened at 19-10 Illinois in the 2nd set. On that next point, she must have come down badly on one of her blocking attempts.
 


Playing without Taylor Morgan and Kylie Miller, the Gophers grabbed a wonderful four set road win at Purdue -23, 16, -17, -19. There was too much fire power for the Boilers to handle. Hart was spectacular hitting .467 with 19 kills. Rollins had a nice afternoon with 14 kills. Samedy and Miyabe each posted 8 kills and Pittman 7.

In the NCAA Reveal announced after the second set:

1. Texas
2. Baylor
3. Wisconsin
4. Stanford
5. Pittsburgh
6. Nebraska
7. Washington
8. Minnesota
9. Florida
10. Creighton

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Wow, thought they would lose to Purdue. Will have to watch the replay now! Somehow they keep finding wins. :eek:
 

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Hart's crunch time blast.
 

Hart has been a veritable beast ever since that match in which she had 4 kills and two hits directly into the tape. That’s the way we need her with two teammates down with injury. Way to step it up while your teammates are down, Lexi.

I also like how different players are stepping it up in different matches. To the opponents, it’s like, “Who do you want your 19 kills to come from: Pittman one match, or Hart the next, or Samedy the next, or Rollins the next. Gophers (including the bench) getting it done in the tough B1G.
 

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