Month: December 2021

Multiple readers have responded to T.R.’s proposal to replace instant replay with an Honor System, and all have been positive. [My advice is to quit while you’re ahead, but never the less] T.R. elaborates: Like you, J.T., I have always considered volleyball to be the ultimate game, a breath of fresh air in sports, the opposite of the commercialized or business-ized evolution of almost all other sports.  The adage “it’s not whether you win or lose but rather how you play the game” applies here, and the honor system could become a competitive advantage for the best teams and coaches, elevating v-ball even more by moving away from the undesirable trends in other sports, with the players themselves protecting the integrity of the game.  I enjoy the blog; Keep up the good work!

Reader T.R. hates the instant replay challenges that have become (only in the last 10 yrs or so) an increasingly dominant feature of collegiate volleyball, and wants to get rid of them. T.R., himself an experience and highly skilled V-Baller, though currently in his 70s, makes the following points:               

• Instant replay challenges destroy the “rhythm” of the game, for players and spectators alike.
• Worse yet, instant replay challenges deemphasize the role of the athletes by increasing the influence of coaches, officials and technology.
• V-Ball was no less fun to watch or play before instant replay challenges were introduced.
• Occasional mistakes by officials went uncorrected – but many still do, as the challenges are, thank God, limited in number and scope (e.g., key “forward-progress call in the recent Vikings v Rams game).
• T.R. believes that the adoption of instant replay challenges in V-Ball are a mistaken attempt to follow the lead of popular televised sports like the NFL, etc.

More than just a complainer, T.R. recommends a solution: Trust the Line Judges to call the lines, trust the up-ref to call over-the-net and the down-ref to call under-the-net, and trust the blocker to call their own net violations and “touches.” An “HONOR SYSTEM.”

T.R. thinks it is a mistake, for many reasons, to follow the lead of the NFL, which has become harder and harder to watch. Instead, T.R. would like to see volleyball follow the lead of golf, where the competitors are expected to, and do, report their own violations, even with Million$ up for grabs. T.R. believes that if leading coaches, like the Gophers’ McCutcheon, emphasized the value of integrity over the value of winning, that everyone playing or watching volleyball would follow said honor system. And everyone, players, coaches, officials and spectators, would enjoy volleyball more than they already do.

[John: First, let me say how much I appreciate T.R. sharing his thoughts about a bigger issue than who missed a serve. Second, I find it hard to disagree with any of his reasoning. (Okay, maybe that a 4 ½ hr round of golf isn’t that much fun to watch either.)

Maureen and I have friends who are natives and residents of London. A few years ago, when they were here for a visit, I took Robert with me to a Viking Game vs the Bears. (Robert expressed concern about “hooligans;” I explained only at Packer Games.) After a Viking victory, I asked Robert if he enjoyed the game. Robert’s answer was, “Yes, except for the constant “litigation.” This was several years ago; the constant “litigation” has only gotten worse.

My other beef is that when they show the instant replay on BTN or on the jumbotron at the PAV, most of the time I still can’t tell if the ball spiked out-of-bounds grazed the blocker’s fingernail or not. And I think the down-ref is studying the same video I’m looking at. I think that there was better technology available in the recent Olympics, more pixels or more frames-per-second or something, such that the instant replays were extremely clear; you could see the blocker’s pinkie move. If this technology was widely available, I might be more supportive of instant replay. Though clearly, T.R. is making a point about the culture of volleyball, not the technology.

What say you, readers of GopherVBallRocks?

Several readers expressed appreciation for the Gophers’ effort and for as getting as far as they did.

Reader M.C., suspecting that I have no life and therefore concerned about my mental health, inquires what I’ll be doing during the next 8 months?

[John: I’ve got Geezer volleyball 3 mornings a week until May, and granddaughter Leah’s 14U VB team will have tournaments every other weekend. I’ve got one grandson playing basketball and another wrestling, plus a friend with Wild tickets and another with Wolves tickets, and daughter Tessa and I will probably take in a couple of South High Girls basketball games. So I might make it.]

Reader E.L., noting my reference to having once been a competitive chess player, wonders if it is true, and if I was any good?

[John: Yes, and sort of. I was a member of two State H.S. Championship Teams at Washburn, and while never the best player on the team, I was the only unbeaten player (6-0) in the 1963 State H.S. Tournament. Later, in my early 20s, I had a strong Class B rating (1600-1800), and flirted with Class A (2 rungs below “master”) a couple times, but always got my butt kicked as soon as I broke 1880.

If there was a Big Ten Tournament (I’m glad there’s not, unnecessary), this match, in Columbus Ohio, could have been for the BIG TEN Championship. But instead it was for the national NCAA Championship, with the Badgers finally winning the title, in a back & forth match, on their 4^th trip to the Championship Match.

Heading into the NCAA Tournament, I posed the question, How good is the BIG TEN, really? My answer was, “Hard to say.” Watching BTN we are fed a steady diet of “The BIG TEN is the greatest.” But BTN is incentivized to boost their own ratings. We hear the same thing watching men’s basketball and hockey, where it isn’t true.

I thought Wisconsin was under-rated as the #4 seed, and not at all surprised that they won the title.  But Nebraska? Nebraska finished 2^nd in the BIG TEN, one game behind Wisconsin and one game ahead of Minnesota, Purdue, and Ohio State, but they looked terrible in their appearance at the PAV, and lost twice to Wisconsin during the regular season. I thought Purdue was the 2^nd best team in the BIG TEN, (if not the best). Purdue not only gave Wisconsin two of their 3 defeats, but in mid-November won at Madison on Friday Night and at the PAV on Sat night (annually, the toughest road trip in Women’s D-1 volleyball).

But you have to hand it to Nebraska Coach John Cook. Year after year, the Huskers either under-perform during the regular season, or over-perform in the playoffs. If this happens once in a while, that’s a fluke; but when it happens year-after-year, that’s a coach getting his team to peak at the right time. I’ll bet a lot of coaches in a lot of sports would like to know Cook’s secret.

SET 1: Huskers were up early and held on to win, serving extremely aggressively – a strategy driven, perhaps, by the two teams high-level familiarity with each other. I’m not certain I understand the logic, but I don’t know what else it would be. And Nebraska’s aggressive serving was a major factor in neutralizing Rettke; Hilley couldn’t feed Rettke those perfect sets iwhen she had to chase the ball.

And the Badgers had their own surprises up their sleves. Just when we think we’re finally done with the 6-8 Roettke, the Badgers come up with a 6-9 freshman, Anna Smrek. I don’t recall Smrek even playing against the Gophs in early October, she was on the bench watching Soph Jade Demps play the opposite. She played some at the PAV in November, and in the Region Final last week, but didn’t have much impact in either match. But suddenly, in the National Semi-Final against Louisville, Demps sits, Smrek plays, and dominates, even more than Rettke! Then, in the Finals against Nebraska, the Badgers start using Demps exclusively as a back-row hitter (for Loberg?) and setting her more than anyone! (The Gophers hit back-row more than almost anyone; is that where the Badgers got the idea?) ESPN announcer Karch Kiraly called this “a chess move.”

I guess this is as good a time as any to complain about Kiraly. A volleyball match can include tactics and counter-tactics, so an occasional chess analogy is tolerable. But Kiraly used the analogy at least 6 times during the match, and as a former competitive chess player, I have to say the chess analogy is not that strong. (I was the tallest player in a couple of State H.S. Tournaments, and I don’t remember that being much of an advantage.) Kiraly is no Magnus Carlson.

SET 2: Huskers up early again, but the Badgers stormed back to win 31-29, after both teams had multiple set-point opportunities in the long-overtime set.

SET 3: Nebraska did not lead early, or ever (that I recall), but they did tie it up at 23-23 before the Badgers’ Devyn Robinson put away back-to-back kills.

SET 4: Close most of the way until the Huskers took a late lead, 21-17, and the Badgers’ attempted comeback was sabotaged by consecutive missed serves.  

SET 5: And then the Huskers collapsed, spotting the Badgers to a 7-0 lead. It is hard enough to dig out of a 7-point deficit in a 25-point set, harder yet in a 15-point set. Nebraska fought their way to 12 points, but it was too little too late. Sidney Hilley, the best setter in the BIG TEN, started the early run with a play she made half-a-dozen times during the match: preventing an overpass with a spectacular one-handed set from directly above the net. And later, Hilley fed Roettke had Championship point,

COMING SOON: NEXT YEAR’S GOPHER PROSPECTS

For the third time this season, and fifth time this year, the Badgers, behind setter Sidney Hilley and middle Dana Roettke, were just too good for the Gophers.  18-25, 24-26, 23-25. The Badgers out-hit us, they out-blocked us, and they had especially out-passed us.

Karch Kirily went on and on about the coordination between Hilley and Roettke, based on them playing together for 5 years, and there is no doubt some truth to this. But it is also true that the Badger’s back-row, led by Libero Barnes and D.S. Ashburn feed Hilley perfect passes almost every time. If you watch the Gophers, by comparison, Shaffmaster is chasing the ball all over the court – resulting in a lot of mediocre sets – resulting in a lot of ineffective dinks.

Roettke does hit for a much higher percentage than Samedy. Part of that is because middle hitters are expected to hit for a higher percentage than outside hitters; but Roettke also gets much better sets. If one had stats for it, I would expect Samedy’s hitting percentage on good sets to be similar to Roettke’s.

One more petty complaint about the TV announcers: The ESPN announcers, and the BTN announcers all season, refer to the UW Fieldhouse as a “great volleyball venue.” I disagree; they have a stupid scoreboard hanging over the court. It’s high enough that you don’t usually see it on TV, but low enough that live balls hit it about once a set. Those of us accustomed to playing in high school gymnasiums are used to overhead obstructions – but it shouldn’t happen in a first-class volleyball venue.

SET 1: I didn’t get to see the first set because the Louisville/Georgia Tech Game ran long. On Thursday, you could watch the alternate game on ESPNews, but not tonight, so who knows what happened? The consolation was getting to watch the Gopher Men’s basketball team beat Michigan at Michigan. (Who saw that coming?) But I would rather have watched V-Ball (there will be plenty more basketball games).

SET 2: The Badgers jumped out to an 0-3 lead, but the Gophers tied it at 4-4 and would eventually take a 14-10 lead. The Badgers pulled even at 15-15, thanks in part to a string of poor passing by the Gophers resulting in 5 consecutive dinks, none of which worked. It stayed tied all the way to 24-24 before the Badgers won the last two points. Samedy was magnificent, putting away pretty much every decent  set that came her direction.

SET 3: Set 3 was tied at 4-4 and 9-9 before Wisconsin pulled ahead 10-13 and 13-16. The Gophers fought back behind kills by Miyabe, Samedy and Wenaas and a Shaffmaster block, to earn an 18-18 tie. But Wisconsin ended Samedy, Miyabe and Myer’s Gopher career, 22-25 – the saddest thing I’ve written all year!

Could the Gophers have gone farther with Pittman and a healthy Landfair in the lineup? Maybe, but who knows? I didn’t really think this was a Final Four team, but it was fun to watch them beat Stanford and Baylor. Better to focus on having been able to watch the Amazing Steph Samedy for the last 5 seasons. That was pretty great.

NATIONAL SEMIS: As I write this, Nebraska just beat Texas at Texas in 4 sets. This sets up a pair of Big Ten vs ACC semi-finals for next Thursday: Louisville vs Wisconsin and Pittsburgh vs Nebraska.

COMING SOON: My take on the 2022 Gophers.

Reader J.D. writes:

What a great win, against the big bad Baylor Bears! 

Reader R.N. writes:

Eight of my Gopher Volleyball posse and 12 of our new best friends were perched on the edges of our seats at Scoreboard Bar and Grill in Minnetonka watching the Baylor match enfold and cheering our team on as if we were at the Pav. We all promised to return Saturday evening to enjoy the Region Final against the Badgers.
   We were treated to some very insightful commentary from Karch Kiraly.  I found myself listening carefully to the explanations of volleyball tactics and skillful execution by players that Karch provided during the match. But by the time he interviewed Samedy we were partying hard; I don’t think any of us noticed Karch’s question.
   P.S. I like your set-by-set summaries and highlighting of some critical points in the set that are more apparent in retrospect than they were in real time as the set was contested.

Reader P.W. writes:

The entire Minnesota vs. Baylor fifth set is available at: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNcuYRYAuZM

In a match full of surprises, our Gophers took revenge for an early season loss to the #5-seeded Baylor Bears, 26-28, 25-22, 20-25, 25-23, 15-10 (total match score: Gophers 111, Bears 108). It didn’t look good when Baylor took 2 of the first 3 sets and was leading 14-10 & 22-21 in the 4^th set. And if you had told me that the Bears could neutralize Samedy (Steph, looking like the Steph we know and love had 6 kills in Set 1 — but then only 10 more scattered across the next 4 sets), I wouldn’t have expected a Gopher Victory. But the Gophers were Golden when they needed to be! (McGraw was back in action.)

SET 1: As close as it gets; a see-saw set in which the two teams were rarely separated by more than a point, and the Gophers and Bears would each serve at set-point twice before the Bears prevailed 28-26.    The Gophs looked like the Gophers we know, relying heavily on their “pins,” 6 kills for Samedy and 5 each for Wenaas and Miyabe, and the Bears relied heavily on their star, Pressley.

SET 2: Two entirely different teams; our outside hitters disappeared ( 3 kills from Miyabe and 1 each from Wenaas and Samedy), and yet the the Gophers led wire-to-wire, posting leads of 5-1, 13-7, and 19-12 before coasting to the win. Instead of outside hitters, the Gophers relied on fierce blocking (block-kills from Husemann, Shaffmaster and Samedy and at least another dozen blocks that kept points alive; and aggressive serving (aces from Myers, Shaffmaster and Wenaas). And the Bears contributed to their own demise with seven service errors.

SET 3: This time the Bears jumped out to a 1-6 lead. The Gophers pulled to within a point at 7-8 and 13-14, but never caught up. And like Set 2, minimal offense from our pins (2 kills from Samedy and 1 each from Wenaas and Miyabe). In other words, the Gophs played consecutive close sets while getting a total of 9 kills from the three outside hitters that we depend on — and got a split! How were we even competitive? Answer, continued determined blocking plus the emergence of the offensive diversity we’ve been seeking all season, 4 ! kills from Shaffmaster, 3 from Husemann, plus 1 from Myers. It was discouraging to see Samedy shut down the way she was, but encouraging to see the Gophers find other ways to score.

SET 4: The Bears were so close they could taste it, leading 9-4 early, but again sabotaged themselves with missed serve after missed serve, letting the Gophs back in the game. The Gopher aces continued (Samedy & Myers), Husemann had 2 block-kills, and Shaffmaster another kill. And the Gopher pins re-emerged, 5 kills from Miyabe (she led the Gophers for the match with 18, a career-high for Airi), 4 from Samedy (including the set-winner) (she finished with 16), and 2 from Wenaas (who finished with 13). From a 16-16 tie, the lead changed hands a couple times, including a Baylor lead at 21-22, but the Gophers took 4 of the last 5 points.

SET 5: Determined not to make it easy on my angst-ridden bride, the Gophers fell behind early, 2-5, but scratched and clawed back to a 9-7 lead. The scratching and clawing included a challenge won by Coach McCutcheon (he lost his first two). And from a 10-10 tie, the Gophers ran the string on Kilkelly’s serving. The winning run even included a scoring dink from Wenaas (her only scoring dink on about a dozen tries).

Maureen and our guests for the evening, G.H. and S.H. (they don’t get ESPNU) insist that I mention behavior, by announcer Karch Kiraly, that they found offensive. (I’m not a big Karch fan myself, but he did coach the U.S. Women to a Gold in Tokyo.) Karch’s post-match interview should have Miyabe, or Husemann or even Shaffmaster, but instead he picked Samedy and asked her why she had such a poor match. Samedy handled the question with grace, but it was not a move that endeared Karch to the crowd at my house.

NEXT UP: The Gophers 3^rd chance to beat the Badgers, Saturday, 7:00, in Madison. The Gophers will be underdogs, but upsets happen.

Reader R.A. writes: This was the best, most complete match the Gophs played all season, and at a perfect time. They were solid on serve receives and passes (mostly).  Kilkelly, subbing for CC, played her best match, diving for short shots and coming up with good passes. The attack was balanced, with Samedy, Wenaas and Miyabi all scoring in double figures. Plus more productive middles, Husemann had 4.  Stanford serves were good, but Kilkelly, Miyabi and Wenaas handled them well.

[John: The Gophers looked great, and R.A. says, this is exactly when we want them to look great. Maybe they found the key to peaking at the right time, or maybe they were inspired by Samedy and Miyabe’s last match at the PAV, or maybe Stanford was overrated. Hard to say. I agree that the Kilkelly, Miyabi and Wenaas receiving combo was excellent last night, but where we miss McGraw even more is as the alternative setter, where McGraw is under-appreciated but excels. Someone in the stands last night said McGraw is out for the season, but there was nothing about her in this morning’s Strib. I hope she is back for Baylor.]

Reader B.J. writes: The Cardinal name, which was adopted after dropping “Indians” in the 70s, remains controversial. “Cardinal” was one of their colors, but it also means “the tallest tree in the forest,” hence the lone pine tree in the school insignia. Stanford has no real mascot. The pine tree was thought up by some guy in the band and has kind of stuck. The student body once voted to use the nickname “Robber Barons,” referring to founder Leland Stanford. But for some reason the school refused to use it.  

[John: I don’t know what color the cardinals in California are, but the male of the pair that nest in my yard every summer, is bright red. Not the dull, almost maroon that the school’s teams wear.]

No broadcast either. I appreciate readers like R.A., C.B., K.T. & M.G. who came up with suggestions for watching or at least listening to tonight’s match versus the Stanford ???. I thought it was “The Cardinal,” singular, but they don’t wear real red and their logo features a pine tree, so ???

Anyway, the Gophers had surprisingly little trouble, winning 25-20, 25-18, 25-17; set-point in all 3 sets coming on Stanford errors. We lost the first point in one of the sets, but otherwise never trailed at any point in the match. This was not the Stanford Team that won 3 National Championships in 4 years (2016, 2018, 2019) behind Kathryn Plummer.

Watching BTN, one hears constant reports that the Big Ten is the strongest Volleyball, Basketball, Football, Hockey, Wrestling, etc, conference in the country, but when the playoffs come around it often turns out not quite true. But the Gophers needed 5 sets to beat 9^th place Michigan at the Pav, and not only will all 5 seeded Big Ten Teams be joining the Gophers in the Sweet Sixteen, but so will unseeded Illinois, who knocked off the #7 overall seed Kentucky. So maybe the Big Ten is pretty strong. 

One example of Stanford’s inferiority to most Big Ten Teams is that the Gophers, normally terrible at dinking, averaging about 1 point per match, scored 6 points in 3 sets against Stanford. Maybe we suddenly got better at dinking?

As usual, our “pins” accounted for most of our offense. The official stats aren’t up yet, but I had Samedy with 16 kills (including 3 dinks), Wenaas with 13 kills (including 3 dinks), and Miyabe with 10 kills (no dinks that I can recall). But the rest contributed also, I had Husemann with 3 kills and 2 blocks, Myers with a kill, a block, and an ace, and Shaffmaster with 2 kills and 2 aces.

And the Gophers, missing McGraw, who was rated the 2^nd best libero in the Big Ten, and playing MIyabe in all 6 rotations, alongside Kilkelly and Wenaas in the receive, had surprisingly little trouble handling Stanford’s serves. Can we really be that good?

Hard to find much wrong with the Gophers performance tonight. But I’ll try. I’ve mentioned this before, but we are terrible at putting away our opponents overpasses. It seems to me that a strong front line ought to hit at least .750 on overpasses (I’d swear the Tapp Sisters used to hit about .900), but this year’s Gophers are lucky to hit .100 on overpasses.

But as predicted here, the Gophers are once again a Sweet Sixteen Team. And on our way to play the #5 seed Baylor, who beat us in 4-sets (also at Madison) back in August. If the Gophers play as well as they did tonight, we’ve got a chance.

Driving to the PAV I was thinking that the Coyote players must be mostly girls the Gophers and Huskers didn’t want. I mean who would turn down an offer from the Gophers or Huskers to play in South Dakota?

But when the Gophers warmed up without C.C.McGraw (she did not appear later either, does anyone know?), I started to worry a bit. And then they introduced the Coyote starters – almost all seniors, and I started to worry more. But when the often slow-starting Gophers jumped out to an 8-2 lead in Set 1, I stopped worrying.

I give the Coyotes credit for grit, they fought back to within 1 point at 9-8 and 14-13 in Set 1, and Set 2 was tied at 17-17. But then Samedy crushed one from the back row and I thought, “Hmmm, they don’t see that in the Summit League.” Gophers in 3 sets, 25-19, 25-22, 25-17.

Mainly, the Coyotes couldn’t handle the Gophers’ serves, allowing the Gophers 10 aces in a 3-set match, surely a season high. And Ellie Husemann had 8 blocks, one short of her season high. As usual, Samedy led with 13 kills, 6 in Set 3.

The primary source of drama was McGraw’s absence, which sets off a downward spiral:

• Kilkelly filled in at Libero (she’s not quite as good at serve receive); requiring
• Miyabe to play all 6 rotations, and of course the Coyotes targeted Miyabe, and her serve receives are not quite as good as Kilkelly’s; resulting in more balls that Shaffmaster couldn’t reach; and
• When Shaffmaster couldn’t reach the first pass it is normally McGraw who makes the set; but
• McGraw wasn’t there.

At 4-4 in Set 3, Miyabe limped off the court and was replaced in the back row by freshman Natalie Glenn, who has played hardly at all this season. I didn’t see what happened to Miyabe, so I figured she was out for the match and probably tomorrow night also. But a few points later (the Gophers took an 11-8 lead with Glenn in the game), Miyabe was back on the court. Apparently, something on her knee-brace broke.

The best point of the night was set-point in Set 2. The Coyotes had pulled to within 24-22, and served a tough serve at Miyabe. Miyabe coughed up an over-pass ( a too frequent occurrence), and the Coyote Middle went up to crush it. But Shaffmaster stuffed her for set-point. To the uninitiated, a joust over a ball at the net might look like a 50-50 proposition, and given that Shaffmaster was almost as tall as the Coyote Middle, why shouldn’t she win the joust. But an over-pass is not a 50-50 proposition; the hitter on the other side of the net has the ball coming to her, a major advantage. Players block stuff-the-overpass attempts now and then, but it’s always a great play!

TOMORROW NIGHT: A VERY TOUGH MATCH

Stanford, winners in 4 sets this afternoon over Iowa State. The Gophers beat Stanford on a neutral court in early September, so we ought to beat them tomorrow night at the PAV – even without Landfair.

But if we are also playing without McGraw, this could be tough!