Volleyball Sweet Sixteen game vs #2 seed Clemson Friday noon ESPN2

[bierce]

Ten blocks to two was the biggest difference. 

[bierce]

5 minutes ago, MarkInAustin said:

In car appreciating your commentary.  Thanx.

How mechanical does my voice sound?

[Rocky P]

Texas need some beasts back on the net.  Great run for the girls!  They have a great recruiting class coming in and we need to get them some NIL for transfers

 

[bierce]

8 minutes ago, Rocky P said:

Texas need some beasts back on the net.  Great run for the girls!  They have a great recruiting class coming in and we need to get them some NIL for transfers

 

Singletary and Ames are a very good blocking duo, but they need more help from the outside hitters in blocking.  Kahahawai was our only outside hitter who was a plus as a blocker.  Wenaas, Skinner, and Rutherford aren't very strong at it. 

That is another area in which Swindle was hugely valuable last year.  She had 92 blocks last year.  This year she and Carlson combined for only 27. 

I just never understood Elliott's decision to bring in another setter instead of another great back line player. 

Edited December 13 by bierce

[Vlhall]

10 minutes ago, bierce said:

Singletary and Ames are a very good blocking duo, but they need more help from the outside hitters in blocking.  Kahahawai was our only outside hitter who was a plus as a blocker.  Wenaas, Skinner, and Rutherford aren't very strong at it. 

That is another area in which Swindle was hugely valuable last year.  She had 92 blocks last year.  This year she and Carlson combined for only 27. 

I just never understood Elliott's decision to bring in another setter instead of another great back line player. 

Carlson seemed to be setting the ball too low all game. They were forced to hit straight into blocks. 

[bierce]

21 minutes ago, Vlhall said:

Carlson seemed to be setting the ball too low all game. They were forced to hit straight into blocks. 

It's not that Carlson is a bad setter.  She is a very good setter, and we got on rolls this year with her playing full time, it's just . . . why?

Swindle was AVCA Southwest region freshman of the year.  All region honorable mention.  All conference rookie team.  Final Four all-tournament team.  Third on the team in blocks.  Fourth on the team in aces.  Second on the team in digs.  Had 96 kills.

And for that she got benched.  That was truly bizarre roster management to me.  Service error totals were kind of high, but so what when she brought so much else to our team?  We just saw what can happen when the opposing setter is a good attacker.  Our blockers were usually unprepared, and if the prepared for the setter attack, then they couldn't shift in time to close with our outside hitter to wall off their outside hitter, leaving us susceptible to cross court shots.  We missed that in our offense this year.  We missed that badly.

I've said it before and I'll say it again -- Elliott is a hall of fame coach, and I'm just a guy who still has hair on his head and has an internet connection.   He knows 100x what I do about volleyball. 

But I will never understand the decision to bring someone in to take over from Swindle, no matter how good a player that someone was.

[goattalk100]

This year has really shown how good & instrumental Asjia O’Neal was.

I also agree about the Swindle situation. It’s probably something Elliot was seeing in practice. One thing to slightly contradict that take though is Swindle can really fall in love with trying to do it herself. There were several times in that match when she went in where she was trying to do too much by trying to get the point instead of setting in system. I know it was really effective for her last year but she may have fallen in love with that a little too much, which could be a small piece of why she wasn’t playing as much.

But who knows. They’ll reload & be really good next year again. Ames will be a year older & have another number 1 recruit coming in. Hook ‘em.

[bierce]

17 minutes ago, goattalk100 said:

This year has really shown how good & instrumental Asjia O’Neal was.

I also agree about the Swindle situation. It’s probably something Elliot was seeing in practice. One thing to slightly contradict that take though is Swindle can really fall in love with trying to do it herself. There were several times in that match when she went in where she was trying to do too much by trying to get the point instead of setting in system. I know it was really effective for her last year but she may have fallen in love with that a little too much, which could be a small piece of why she wasn’t playing as much.

But who knows. They’ll reload & be really good next year again. Ames will be a year older & have another number 1 recruit coming in. Hook ‘em.

Yes and no.  O'Neal was a superb talent as a middle blocker both as a blocker and as a hitter, and none of us will ever forget her 5 ace performance against Nebraska. 

But Singletary was terrific this year.  When she had a strong blocker next to her (like Kahahawai, who played very little all year), the lid was on.  Singletary unfortunately was not often paired with strong blockers on the front line.  As a result, she had 18 solo blocks this year to O'Neal's ten in her final season, but O'Neal had slightly more total blocks per set, because she often had strong blockers beside her in Phillips and Swindle.  Singletary didn't have much help in blocking when she was on the floor because Kahahawai played so little. 

I think we'll be fine next year despite losing a plethora of hitters.  Singletary and Ames should be a great duo of middle blockers.  Kahahawai hit much more strongly this year than in years past.  We'll find a plug in immediately gem in the incoming class of hitters (Spears, Vander Wal, Gaido).  Lauenstein may be ready to function again.  Byrd should have something to say about who plays.  We may not be natty chasing fine, but we'll undoubtedly have a good team again. 

[goattalk100]

1 hour ago, bierce said:

Yes and no.  O'Neal was a superb talent as a middle blocker both as a blocker and as a hitter, and none of us will ever forget her 5 ace performance against Nebraska. 

But Singletary was terrific this year.  When she had a strong blocker next to her (like Kahahawai, who played very little all year), the lid was on.  Singletary unfortunately was not often paired with strong blockers on the front line.  As a result, she had 18 solo blocks this year to O'Neal's ten in her final season, but O'Neal had slightly more total blocks per set, because she often had strong blockers beside her in Phillips and Swindle.  Singletary didn't have much help in blocking when she was on the floor because Kahahawai played so little. 

I think we'll be fine next year despite losing a plethora of hitters.  Singletary and Ames should be a great duo of middle blockers.  Kahahawai hit much more strongly this year than in years past.  We'll find a plug in immediately gem in the incoming class of hitters (Spears, Vander Wal, Gaido).  Lauenstein may be ready to function again.  Byrd should have something to say about who plays.  We may not be natty chasing fine, but we'll undoubtedly have a good team again. 

Yea & you gotta think we’ll be very active in the portal again too which should help. But with O’Neal it was also her consistency too. You see the ups & downs with Singletary too much. & I get what you’re saying having more protection but I also just think everything just fit better. & to your point, Asjia was a big game player. Haven’t seen the same from Singletary in those big situations. I don’t think Asjia would allow us to only have 1 block point today. But that’s just my opinion & I’m hoping it’s a big year next year.

[bierce]

3 hours ago, goattalk100 said:

Yea & you gotta think we’ll be very active in the portal again too which should help. But with O’Neal it was also her consistency too. You see the ups & downs with Singletary too much. & I get what you’re saying having more protection but I also just think everything just fit better. & to your point, Asjia was a big game player. Haven’t seen the same from Singletary in those big situations. I don’t think Asjia would allow us to only have 1 block point today. But that’s just my opinion & I’m hoping it’s a big year next year.

I again think you are being unfair to Singletary by blaming her for the lack of team blocking today, but you are also being unfair to her by comparing her to 6th year senior Asjia O'Neal, who actually didn't do much blocking in the finals against Nebraska (3 assists I think it was).  When Asjia O'Neal was a redshirt sophomore like Singletary was today, she hit. 211 and had no solo blocks in our loss to Kentucky.  She hit .143 in our last match against Nebraska in her redshirt junior year.  Had 5 block assists, but no solos, once again proving blocking is generally a group sport, not a solo endeavor. 

Singletary hasn't done it in big matches?  How about 9 blocks against Kentucky or 10 blocks and 2 solo blocks against Florida?  How about her 8 blocks against Wisconsin?  Or her 11 kills, second on the team, and best hitting % for anyone who took at least 15 swings today?  She didn't get a bunch of blocks today, but most of that was because the Creighton setter was a witch sending the ball to wherever she wasn't. 

[TexasMDcoach]

Congrats to the girls on getting this far.  

[goattalk100]

2 hours ago, bierce said:

I again think you are being unfair to Singletary by blaming her for the lack of team blocking today, but you are also being unfair to her by comparing her to 6th year senior Asjia O'Neal, who actually didn't do much blocking in the finals against Nebraska (3 assists I think it was).  When Asjia O'Neal was a redshirt sophomore like Singletary was today, she hit. 211 and had no solo blocks in our loss to Kentucky.  She hit .143 in our last match against Nebraska in her redshirt junior year.  Had 5 block assists, but no solos, once again proving blocking is generally a group sport, not a solo endeavor. 

Singletary hasn't done it in big matches?  How about 9 blocks against Kentucky or 10 blocks and 2 solo blocks against Florida?  How about her 8 blocks against Wisconsin?  Or her 11 kills, second on the team, and best hitting % for anyone who took at least 15 swings today?  She didn't get a bunch of blocks today, but most of that was because the Creighton setter was a witch sending the ball to wherever she wasn't. 

I do think Singletary was probably our best player today & I’m not trying to put her or the team down. But yes 6th year Asjia was dynamite for our title run last year. I’m talking about in big moments in the biggest games in the ncaa tourney. Stats are fine but players are oftentimes defined (rightly or wrongly & that could be another debate) about what they do in the clutch, in big moments. To parallel, Quinn could throw for 400 yards but throw a costly INT late or fail to craft a game winning drive & those are the memories or narrative.

I don’t follow volleyball as closely as it sounds like you do so I won’t argue your facts or even your eye for what you know & see because it’s definitely more than me. But from what I saw today I thought Asjia might have made the difference.

[CutaneousHorn]

Louisville and Pitt in the Final Four after Saturday’s action.