Gopher Volleyball 2022 Season

Donate To GopherHole
4EverAGopher said:
Really nice to win, but today Illinois beat themselves with so many errors. Again, the same issues were there for the Gophers....passing/receiving/setting/blocking.

We have several Freshmen who play like Freshmen, but all have a tremendous upside to their game. Now it is just the opposite for our experienced starters who are not playing up to what WE THINK their skill level should be. Thus we are getting a Jekyll or Hyde performance from our Gophers.

We Gopher fans just cannot set expectations that high this season or we will become more disappointed. While moving forward, we have to hope more teams play like Illinois did today.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT.....I remember Hugh saying one time many seasons ago that some recruits just don't play at the level of their ranking.
Click to expand...
Yup. We were at the Pav yesterday and I commented more than once that we're lucky Illinois isn't very good. Our receiving is worrisome.
 



It's over, no future Natty for MN. Weird to announce this mid season with no reasons given until after it's over.
 

Hugh has recruited at a very high level but his teams have just never been able to push over the top

I would think this type of opening could get basically any coach in the country but I don't know NCAA Volleyball in depth enough to know who some of the candidates could be
 


jham13 said:
It's over, no future Natty for MN. Weird to announce this mid season with no reasons given until after it's over.
Click to expand...
There was no natties coming to MN anyway. No Natties come to Minnesota. As a sports fan, I suggest you orient your fandom toward enjoying watching the games and talking about how they are performing in the Big Ten and not orienting any of your thoughts toward national championships. You will be disappointed.

As for me, I am extremely disappointed in losing a great coach for Minnesota: Hugh McCutchen.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
There was no natties coming to MN anyway. No Natties come to Minnesota. As a sports fan, I suggest you orient your fandom toward enjoying watching the games and talking about how they are performing in the Big Ten and not orienting any of your thoughts toward national championships. You will be disappointed.

As for me, I am extremely disappointed in losing a great coach for Minnesota: Hugh McCutchen.
Click to expand...
If you don't reach for the stars you will always be stuck on the ground. Embracing mediocrity is not a goal that any program should have. Mediocrity says to alumni "We regret you went here. Don't support us."
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
There was no natties coming to MN anyway. No Natties come to Minnesota. As a sports fan, I suggest you orient your fandom toward enjoying watching the games and talking about how they are performing in the Big Ten and not orienting any of your thoughts toward national championships. You will be disappointed.

As for me, I am extremely disappointed in losing a great coach for Minnesota: Hugh McCutchen.
Click to expand...
All it takes is for the stars to align... no one ever thought WI would win one either.

I am sorry to lose Hugh as well. His name alone drove interest by prep stars in playing for the U. We can only hope that we find another winner.
 




I was out of town today and received the news via text about Hugh's decision to step away and leave the U of MN Volleyball program as our HC. This has been one of those head scratching seasons so far and this just adds to that. However, in all honesty, I am not necessarily surprised by it..

The timing is what concerns me. Obviously, the players have known about this. But as a fan, I really HOPE the University will sign a BIG NAME in the sport. I think it is quite obvious how we have landed some of the top recruits in the nation. All more than likely because they WANTED TO PLAY FOR HUGH. Now we have to worry if they will stay here and the 2023 recruits will sign.

I personally don't feel Hugh has been himself this season. It's when you get that gut feeling and cannot put your finger on it. I certainly hope and pray it has nothing to do with medical reasons.

A TOP NAME IN THE SPORT can do so many positive things for a program. Oh how I for one want that type of recruiting to continue. For the continued success of this program the U of MN cannot mess this up.
 

ecoperson said:
All it takes is for the stars to align... no one ever thought WI would win one either.

I am sorry to lose Hugh as well. His name alone drove interest by prep stars in playing for the U. We can only hope that we find another winner.
Click to expand...
Maybe WI wouldn't have won one either without a team of graduate students playing in a largely undergraduate league. As for Hugh, his resignation doesn't surprise me especially. His concern has been visible from the cheap seats even. His recruiting has remained excellent, but the team's results have gradually slipped since 2019. A person can wonder what pressure he's been under. Pressure from alumni, fan base, the U admin, even himself? To keep winning and winning big? Is the U making enough scholarship money available to him for that purpose? The look of chagrin he wore leaving the floor after the loss to NW was unmistakable. NW is (not yet) the kind of program that MN volleyball can afford to lose to, but they did. Is there a new type of VB across the country that MN has not kept up with? Anyway, the present Gophers w/ their inconsistency clearly aren't about to make a run for any BIG or NCAA titles. Let's hope it's just that and nothing personal or health related. My wife ,who's never been interested in any sport in her whole life before discovering Gopher VB, is in a deep funk over Hugh's resignation. Hopefully a big-name coach is already on the hook or a lot will be lost.
 

4EverAGopher said:
I was out of town today and received the news via text about Hugh's decision to step away and leave the U of MN Volleyball program as our HC. This has been one of those head scratching seasons so far and this just adds to that. However, in all honesty, I am not necessarily surprised by it..

The timing is what concerns me. Obviously, the players have known about this. But as a fan, I really HOPE the University will sign a BIG NAME in the sport. I think it is quite obvious how we have landed some of the top recruits in the nation. All more than likely because they WANTED TO PLAY FOR HUGH. Now we have to worry if they will stay here and the 2023 recruits will sign.

I personally don't feel Hugh has been himself this season. It's when you get that gut feeling and cannot put your finger on it. I certainly hope and pray it has nothing to do with medical reasons.

A TOP NAME IN THE SPORT can do so many positive things for a program. Oh how I for one want that type of recruiting to continue. For the continued success of this program the U of MN cannot mess this up.
Click to expand...
Given AD Coyle propensity in the last few HC spots he's filled, it could be a former gopher player. I hope he goes the away from that and picks a proven winner.
 

Pretty shocking news. Especially given that Hugh just recently signed an extension and has more top-tier recruits committed to come play for him in the future years.

Here's my take - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The good: I honestly think that Hugh's coaching style/philosophy would have never yielded a national championship here. His low error approach might work better with professional players than it does with college kids. How many more years would we have continued to watch his Gopher teams struggle with serve and serve receive? Weak service pressure that doesn't force the opponent out-of-system will never lead you to a title. And getting swept by Purdue and Ohio State is a major red flag when you consider how much 5 star talent is on this roster. Why are his recent teams always so inconsistent too?

The bad: Hugh is a top of the line recruiter. I can't imagine the next coach being able to rival the talent he has brought to Minnesota over his tenure. And with Hugh you could pretty much always guarantee the Gophers would finish high in the Big Ten standings and make the tournament. We are inevitably going to see recruiting drop off some if there isn't an equally shocking home run hire. Some posters complain now about 4th place Big Ten finishes. These posters better prepare themselves because the next coach could have them finishing a lot worse than that.

The ugly: It's going to be sickening seeing many Gopher players potentially hit the transfer portal at season's end. We can only hope the players wait to see who the next coach is before deciding to leave or not. Losing such promising young players like Landfair and Booth......that's just plain depressing to think about. I think it's safe to assume that Choboy is as good as gone. Hopefully the players from Minnesota (current and future commits) chose the home town University just as much as they did Hugh and decide to stick around. (Hanson, Crowl, Swenson twins, Schnichels, etc.) Seeing the mass exodus at Penn State this last off-season doesn't leave me encouraged though.


Despite the current team's struggles, I had real optimism that next year would have been the make or break year for this core group of players. So much returning talent with experience, a senior setter, a freshman libero with huge hype.....too bad we'll never know now.
 



WayOfTheGopher said:
Given AD Coyle propensity in the last few HC spots he's filled, it could be a former gopher player. I hope he goes the away from that and picks a proven winner.
Click to expand...
This is what I am really concerned about. You are absolutely correct on these hires....Women's Bball, Wrestling, and Softball that all stand out to me.

Example...Wrestling was in the Top 4 programs in the nation for years under previous HC and since Eggum was hired we are now sitting around an 8 to 10 NCAA finish for how many years? Sorry, but the hiring of a new HC IS LONG OVER DUE in this sport. Minnesota is one of or use to be one of the top states in HS Wrestling. Fact is Eggum has not been able to land BIG NAMED RECRUITS specifically out of state.

I have to admit in the past few years Gopher Volleyball just wasn't growing like you would think it should with Hugh's ability to recruit top players. IMO Hugh Ball maybe just maybe HAS NOT FIT THE TALENT OF EVERY PLAYER. I will admit I was one of those fans always frustrated by his persistent style. And at least one of his scholarship decisions recently cost us dearly in a very talented player.

I just hope and pray they go beyond the present Assistant Coaches and hire A BIG NAME COACH.....you just need to do that. Look what Hugh has done in recruiting for MN volleyball.
 
Last edited:

NCAA Statistics

stats.ncaa.org stats.ncaa.org

A brief return to on the court news:
The NCAA RPI rankings through Sunday's matches (10/16/22)

1 Texas
2 Louisville
3 Ohio State
4 Nebraska
5 Pittsburgh
6 Stanford
7 Wisconsin
8 San Diego
9 Minnesota
10 Houston
11 Florida
12 Kentucky
13 Creighton
14 Marquette
15 Southern Cal
16 Rice

18 Penn State
25 Purdue
27 Michigan
44 Northwestern
69 Illinois
 

Just looked at the current poll and was surprised to see the Gophers jump up one spot to #9. We got swept by Ohio State and then we swept Illinois and moved up one, while Ohio State swept us and Rutgers but stayed at the number #6 spot. The top of the poll is so tight that even when you get a resounding victory over a ranked opponent you still can't move one spot.
 

WayOfTheGopher said:
Just looked at the current poll and was surprised to see the Gophers jump up one spot to #9. We got swept by Ohio State and then we swept Illinois and moved up one, while Ohio State swept us and Rutgers but stayed at the number #6 spot. The top of the poll is so tight that even when you get a resounding victory over a ranked opponent you still can't move one spot.
Click to expand...
Yeah, we moved up one spot because Purdue lost 3-0 at home to Maryland yesterday.

In the RPI, the Gophs dropped two spots from #7 last week.
 

The best player on the Iowa side has got to be Mari Hinkle. I hope she considers coming back home to Minnesota after her time at Iowa.
 

That was quick. After a sluggish first set, the Gophers blocked Iowa off the court 22,15,11.

Husemann played in place of Booth who was not at the match.

Summing up:

 
Last edited:

Ignatius L Hoops said:
That was quick. After a sluggish first set, the Gophers blocked Iowa off the court 22,15,11.

Husemann played in place of Booth who was not at the match.

Summing up:

Click to expand...
Same thing happened a few weeks ago, Gophers dominated Michigan State and then got swept by Ohio State. Let's just hope Purdue is still reeling from their match against Nebraska.
 

They played IMO a much needed all around team match tonight.

Why is there very little conversation with Hugh and Pedro? Isn't Pedro helping out our middle game? Sorry, but that is the way I see it almost every match.
 




That come from behind win in that first set really set the tone for the match. It let Purdue know that they weren't gonna fold like last time. They kinda got away from it late in that third set, but got it back in the fourth to seal the victory.
 

Lauren Crowl was a difference maker tonight with 7 kills (.538) and an ace. Wenaas hit negative. Landfair continued her big hitter role with 21 kills. We attended the first period of the hockey game and then headed over to first serve. Volleyball was able to complete the comeback win.

 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
Lauren Crowl was a difference maker tonight with 7 kills (.538) and an ace. Wenaas hit negative. Landfair continued her big hitter role with 21 kills. We attended the first period of the hockey game and then headed over to first serve. Volleyball was able to complete the comeback win.

Click to expand...
Today was a tough day to be a gophers fan. Women's hockey struggled against a scrappy Huskies team before pulling out the win. A period of one minute and 12 seconds doomed the Men's side. As for football, a one score game at halftime became a blowout loss. The one surprise of the night was the volleyball team.
 

Great match. Excellent play. They played very good defense. Everyone contributed.

This team is an enigma. To paraphrase H. W. Longfellow:

'When they are good, they are very, very good. But when they are bad, they are horrid.'

Let's hope they build on this and it carries over to a great match against Wisconsin.
 

What was neat about this match was that two players, Lauren Crowl and Arica Davis, who are among the most vocal on the bench in cheering on their teammates, came off the bench to bring that same energy on to the court and make major contributions toward winning the match.
 

NCAA Statistics

stats.ncaa.org stats.ncaa.org

NCAA RPI through Sunday's matches 10/23/22

1 Texas
2 Louisville
3 Nebraska
4 Pittsburgh
5 Stanford
6 Ohio State
7 Wisconsin
8 San Diego
9 Minnesota
10 Marquette
11 Houston
12 Florida
13 Kentucky
14 Oregon
15 Creighton
16 Southern Cal

18 Penn State
25 Purdue
33 Michigan
42 Northwestern

72 Illinois
90 Iowa
Click to expand...
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom