Month: December 2022

Carter Booth, the Gophers best Middle this past season, our best Middle since at least Regan Pittman, and a freshman with potential to be the best Gopher Middle ever, is leaving. Booth’s father, a former NBA player, who attended many of Carter’s matches this past season, seems to to be a major influence in her life. In her statement, Carter said she left school (for the holidays) thinking she was staying, but after a long conversation with her parents, she decided that she “owed it to herself to explore her options.”

WORSE YET: Booth is transferring to Wisconsin! Coach Sheffield said that when he saw Booth’s name in “The Portal,” he reached out to her immediately. I’ll bet he did. Besides weakening the Gophers, Booth’s transfer makes the Badgers stronger. Booth could easily become the Badgers best player.

The Transfer Portal is a reality of modern, inter-collegiate sports, not likely to go away anytime soon. And one could argue that it’s a good thing; why should a talented young athlete be locked into playing her/his entire career at one school based on a decision made when she/he was 17? Especially if the promises (implied, if not literal) regarding coaching are broken.

But The Portal is brutal on teams with coaching changes. Under the stability of McCutcheon, the Gophers had experience minimal losses, mostly of players seeking more playing time elsewhere. (Notably Adanna Rollins, likely to lose her starting role anyway, and Lauren Barnes, stuck behind McGraw.) Minimal compared to when Russ Rose retired from Penn State, and the Nittany Lions’ whole team transferred. (The N. L.’s were surprisingly competitive this past season – but a long way from Final Four material.) When McCutcheon dropped his mid-season bombshell, I was worried this could happen to the Gophs. And it still could. We haven’t heard anything about Wooker, Shaffmaster or Hanson.  Landfair announced she was staying, but she can change her mind – as Booth apparently did. I sure hope not.

Perhaps The Portal will provide Coach Cook an opportunity to replenish the roster. This past season’s Huskie Roster included a promising sophomore Middle, Sophie Summers, and a promising sophomore Libero. Lauren Bays. (I’d have rather kept the players we had.) Very discouraging!

THE GOOD NEWS: This morning’s Strib reports that Big Ten Player of the Year Taylor Landfair will remain a Gopher. She apparently announced this on Instagram. Though she will have been enrolled at the U of M for 3 years as of next month, Landfair has 3 more years of eligibility! When I first saw her in the spring of ’21 (which didn’t count, eligibility-wise), I predicted she could become the G.O.A.T. of Gopher V-ball. And she has 3 more years to prove me right.

THE BAD NEWS: The underappreciated Jenna Wenaas announced that she has entered the transfer portal. (I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up in Texas.) Wenaas’s natural position is Left-side hitter, where she was good enough to make First Team All Big Ten in 2021. And was pre-season First Team All Big Ten headed into this recent season.

But when it developed that Wooker was more effective as the Gophers “other” (besides Landfair) Left-side hitter compared to Crowl or Hanson as a Right-side hitters, Wenaas moved to Right-side hitter – where she struggled initially. She improved as a Right-side hitter as the season went on, but her hitting numbers were not good enough to earn her any post-season recognition. I am not privy to the inside story (anyone?) of how the decision was made. It might have been a coaching staff decision, a Wenaas decision (the logic was obvious enough), or perhaps mutual. It was probably in the team’s best interest; but not necessarily in Wenaas’s.

If the Gophers manage to retain Wooker, Crowl and Hanson, we might not miss Wenaas’s hitting all that much. BUT, a 6-rotation player, Wenaas was our best serve receiver – better numbers than the now-out-of-eligibility McGraw, and way better than Kilkelly or Landfair. The Gophs are really going to miss Wenaas in serve-receive.

It was also announced that assistant coaches Matt & Jen Houk are leaving. This is no surprise; it is natural for a new Head Coach to pick his own assistants.

THE UNKNOWN NEWS: And the rest? Including Shaffmaster, Wooker, Booth? We don’t know yet. I would think that Landfair and Wenaas announcing their intentions might trigger others – but they don’t need to unless they choose. We also don’t know who Coach Cook might acquire through the Portal. But I’d rather keep those 3; unlikely their replacements would be as good.

Texas, ranked #1 most of the season and the #1 seed in the tournament, beat Louisville for the National Championship with relative ease, 25-20, 25-14, 26-24 (total score: 76-58). They beat San Diego in the Semis in 4 sets, 26-28, 25-16, 28-18, 25-20 (total score: 101-82). Both matches on a neutral court. The Gophers lost to Texas in Austin, in August, 21-25, 18-25, 25-23, 22-25 (total score: 98-85). The Longhorns lost at Iowa State, in 5 sets, but other than that, the Gophers gave them as much trouble as anyone. (If we hadn’t had those inexcusable losses to Northwestern and Pepperdine, we would surely have gotten a better seed, and maybe it would have been the Gophers in the finals – losing to Texas.

Texas had a clear size-&-power advantage in tonight’s Texas-Louisville match, at times over-powering Louisville with their blocking. If that had been the only volleyball one had watched all year, it would be easy to assume that the bigger stronger team always wins. Texas’s advantage was even greater in the semis against San Diego, who was playing a 5-1 with a 5-9 setter; Gabby Blossom, a grad-transfer from Penn State (I think all 4 Final-Four Teams had transfers in their starting line-up) is a terrific setter, and a strong server, but Texas mercilessly took advantage of her deficiency as a blocker.

The Gophers would have matched up even with the Longhorns in size-&-power, so why weren’t we there? The obvious difference was the passing. The Longhorns were probably no better than the Gophs in-system – but they’re  in-system more often because their passing is better. They also served more aggressively than we do. Some GopherVBallRocks readers panic if the Gophs have 8 or 9 service-errors in a match, but the Longhorns had 11 service-errors tonight, and 10 last night, against only 4 aces & 3 aces – and it didn’t seem to bother them. I’m convinced that teams have to serve aggressively to win at this level — and accept a higher percentage of service-errors.

Another difference (vs the Gophs) that I noticed was the variety in their attacks. Texas and Louisville seemed to have a distribution of sets to Left-side, Right-side, Middle & Back-row similar to the Gophs (I don’t think San Diego had a back-row set all night). But, Texas’s and Louisville’s sets to their outside hitters weren’t always to the pins; they were often (and seemingly by design) 6 to 8 ft in from the pin. I’d like to see the Gophers use this tactic more often. Maybe next year.

Being a 21^st Century kind of guy, I am of course more interested in a young woman’s character, intellect, and V-Ball skills, than in her appearance. But many GopherVBallRocks readers (and not all men) have noted how many attractive young women play volleyball. So solely out of obligation to my readers, I take note of this. Certainly the Texas & Louisville lineups were loaded with attractive young women – more so, I thought, than the teams they vanquished in the semis.

Volleyball broadcasters trend attractive also, and ESPN’s lead interviewer Katie George did not disappoint. But their “analyst,” Hollie McPeak, formerly an international Beach Volleyball Star, was an exception. My guess: All those years in the sun are hard on a girl’s complexion.

THE TRANSFER PORTAL

The Transfer Portal will be absolutely critical to the success of the 2023 Gopher Volleyball Team. We need to minimize the loss of our stars, of which we have several. And we need to find a top-notch Libero; McGraw is out of eligibility, and the top-notch Libero recruit we had lined up, defected to Nebraska. We really need 2 top-notch Liberos, one to play D.S., and we could us a Middle, even if Booth & Davis are back (we do have a Middle recruit).

I wanted to give GopherVBallRocks readers a scoop, but turns out it’s a secret portal; the list of athletes who are in the portal is apparently available to the coaches of teams one would like to transfer to, but it is not public – until the athlete chooses to make it public. The end point of the portal is May 1, but there is no real start date – so there could be Gophers in the portal already. I sure hope none of our stars are in it.

(I would love to hear from others.)

Reader J.S. writes:

1. “Cook seems to me, with his pedigree and the reports about him, to be almost like Hugh’s “little brother.” Remains to be seen if it’s PR or the real deal. My gut tells me that it’s real. 
2. Either way, Hugh’s new job is to teach Gopher coaches to coach like he did: I’m sure Keegan will expect to have Hugh looking over his shoulder. 
3. I’ve been told by those who’ve worked for Hugh that he’s all about quiet respect. But, if you disappoint him, he has this “look” that motivates people to get it right next time –apparently without a word being exchanged. the recipient feels an immediate and pressing need to get it done and done right. That, coupled with Hugh’s CV constitutes an “irresistible force.” I wouldn’t bet against Hugh when Fleck an “immovable object” (in a dinghy) needs an attitude adjustment.
4. Your hilarious characterization of Kelly Sheffield, rodent looking – albeit a great coach, had me ejecting my morning drink out my nose. I will never again be able to look at him without thinking of rodents. Thank you, I guess.”

JOHN: I had not previously heard the term “quiet respect,” but I like it. Sheffield has won 4 consecutive Big 10 Titles, so we have to concede his brilliance. And I guess it isn’t nice to make fun of people’s appearance. But I wouldn’t let him my garden.

Reader C.B writes: “Many things begging for comment in the latest edition of GVR. 

1. In a previous edition, the link to the article about the Big X (my math training does not allow me to refer to them as the Big 10), I noticed that all of the BTN/BTN+ revenue goes to Football and Basketball, even though Volleyball and a few other sports draw significant viewers – FB and BB think it’s their money.
2. A couple of days ago, the Strib had an article about Fleck’s contract revision with the $1 M per year raise (plus the raises of the rest of the coaches in another article). The justification for the raise being the long-term contracts at even higher salaries for the new WIS and NEB Fball coaches.  The article said we have to “get used to it.”  Something is wrong with these University Presidents when things are waaay out of whack and they have no idea what to do about it. (Then, again, a MLB pitcher with 8 to 10 wins a year & at least as many losses gets $10 M a year!)
3. In my mind, a good coach is somebody that can develop someone or a group of someones with latent talent into stars. Not many of those around. With the volleyball over, my wife is also worried about me – with no team that really interests me anymore, I am headed down and out.”

JOHN: My greatest enjoyment in writing GopherVBallRocks is connecting with a surprising number of people who like C.B. (who I happened to know has never played competitive volleyball in his life, nor have his kids), have come around to thinking of Gopher Volleyball as their favorite team in their favorite sport.

Reader R.A. writes: “Re your thoughts re Lindsay’s struggles, I once had a conversation with Twins GM Bob Gebhardt as we watched Tony O take batting practice. Gebhardt’s observation was that natural hitters like Tony make poor coaches because they can’t explain what comes natural to them.  BTW:  Thanks for another year of sage observations on GopherVBallRocks.”

JOHN: Although I played (and hope to again if my knee ever recovers) and coached volleyball, I was clearly more successful as a water polo player and coach – despite almost always being the slowest guy in the pool. I was big (but not especially strong), and had good hands, but my secret skill was “natural vision.” There are 14 players in the pool at a time, and once I learned the game, I sort of always knew where the other 13 were. As a coach, I never yelled at my players during a game, but afterwards I might ask, “Why did you take that shot when X was wide open on the back-side?” And be amazed at the answer, “I didn’t see him.” It took me a while to realize that my “pool vision” did not come naturally to everyone.

• A link to a great song, unrelated to volleyball, about the “dawn of towns:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXTC9Pvbv9g

If you were hoping for an A-List, big name coach, which being volleyball, there aren’t many, Karch Kiraly and … John Cook maybe? But we didn’t get John Cook, we got Keegan Cook. If you were hoping for an up-and-comer with a unbelievable record, well … our Cook has a strong record of success at the U of Washington, similar in some sense to McCutcheon’s here, but not quite — given that the Pac 12 is not as strong through the middle as the Big Ten. If you were hoping for another coach with strong personal ties to the U of M program and the North Star State … strike 3. And if you were hoping for a woman coach … strike 4.

But if you were hoping, as I was, for a McCutcheon protégé, a coach who seems likely to respect and maintain the traditions and values established by McCutcheon – you got your wish. Coach Cook seems like that guy. I say “seems” because we know that publicly expressed values don’t always match up with the values revealed by one’s actions; but I’m willing to give Coach Cook the benefit of the doubt.

More important than GopherVBallRocks giving Cook the benefit of the doubt, of course, are the talented returning core of players (Landfair, Wenaas, Shaffmaster, Booth, Wooker, etc.) and this year’s and future year’s recruits being willing to give Coach Cook the benefit of the doubt. I assume that McCutcheon met with the squad yesterday, as the announcement became public (and was on the phone with recruits minutes later), saying something like, “We built this program around certain values. It was these values that attracted you here in the first place, and you have reinforced these values. Coach Cook believes in these very same values, and with your help will continue to reinforced these values.”

I hope they buy it. And let’s hope they ignore the fact that Cook is abandoning a program where he preached these same values — for an upward step in his career.

Cynic that I am, I’ve already looked at the Huskie’s roster, with an eye toward whom Cook might bring with him. Cook’s best 3 players this past season were Middle Marin Grote, Outside Hitter Claire Hoffman, and Setter Ella Powell – all seniors, and I think all 5^th year seniors, with no remaining eligibility.  A couple of others that caught my eye were Libero Lauren Bays, a sophomore, and Middle Sophie Summers, another sophomore, both positions where the Gophs definitely need help next year. I was unable to find any reports re incoming Huskie recruits.  THINK POSITIVE!

BIG TEN COLLAPSE

Watching the Gophers on BTN and BTN+, and glancing at the polls and RPI ratings, it becomes easy to believe that the Big Ten is, by far, the dominant conference in Women’s D1 Volleyball. And last year’s National Final between Wisconsin and Nebraska certainly reinforced this theory. But the 2022 Final Four features 2 ACC teams, 1 WCC Team, 1 Big 12 team (Texas, soon to be SEC), and, do the math — zero Big Ten teams! So what happened?

Several things:

1. Media hype. BTN has a vested interest in hyping the product they sell advertising for. The Big Ten is never as strong, relative to the rest of the country, as BTN tells us it is; I figured this out long ago when entering NCAA Basketball pools, but I keep forgetting that this also applies to V-Ball.
2. Parity. The early years of NCAA Women’s Volleyball were dominated by West Coast teams. Then Penn State and Nebraska (neither in the Big Ten at the time) became competitive with the West Coast teams. Then Texas, Florida, Wisconsin, Minnesota and others became competitive. Now the ACC. The wave hasn’t seemed to reach the BosWas megalopolis yet, but Brett Favre diverted Fed $ to promote V-ball at Southern Mississippi, so the Volleyball Craze has officially gone national.
3. Wisconsin. The Badgers weren’t that good! Before the season started, I predicted that without Dana Roettke and Sidney Hilley, our Gophers would kick Sconiie butt at the Pav in September; and we did, in 3 sets. The Badgers winning every other Big Ten match (finishing 19 & 1) is a tribute to Kelly Sheffield’s coaching I guess – even if he does look like a rodent. (Hats off to reader R.S., a UW Alum, who forwarded a nice write-up about Sheffield in his Alumni Newsletter.) 

MCCUTCHEON’S NEXT CHALLENGE

I remain disappointed that Coach McCutcheon is moving on from direct involvement with my favorite sports team. But I am relieved, for now, that he is not leaving the Gopher Athletic Dept. His continuity with the Maroon & Gold obviously gave him influence over the selection of the new coach, and might help retain our outstanding team – despite the Transfer Portal, and hopefully maintain the program momentum.

As I understand it, his new role will be to teach Gopher Coaches how to coach. I didn’t know that was a job, but okay, I get it. I count 9 men’s and 12 women’s varsity sports (there are at least that many “club” sports, like men’s volleyball, and the men’s & women’s water polo that I once coached, but “club” sports are not part of the Athletic Department) so 21 total.

Most of these teams have assistant coaches, so I assume there are at least 100 coaches who stand to benefit from McCutcheon’s wisdom. I know almost nothing about the rowing or soccer teams, and not much about the coaches of the men’s and women’s hockey teams, but besides incoming volleyball Coach Cook, the coaching of the high-profile football and basketball teams could obviously use some help.

• Ben Johnson is in his 2^nd year as a head coach. He seems to have a good attitude, as indicated by both his public remarks and his hiring of his high school coach as an assistant. Johnson seems the type to listen to McCutcheon’s advice, and he’ll need it.
• Lindsey Whelan is, presumably, the most successful former athlete of all Gopher coaches, not only winning 4 WNBA Titles and multiple Olympic Gold Medals, but before that she was the highest-impact athlete in Gopher history. (When Whelan began her Gopher playing career, the average attendance at women’s basketball was roughly 900; her senior year, it was closer to 9,000.)

Yet Whelan’s best players, including her own direct recruits, have consistently transferred-out, suggesting room for improvement. Tony Oliva has had only modest success as a hitting coach because “see-ball, hit-ball” only works with hitters who possessed Oliva’s extraordinary hand-eye coordination. Whelan, a relatively short, slow, guard with a mediocre shot, achieved success comparable to Oliva’s based, I think, on her incredible competitive intensity.

I think Whelan has been guilty of assuming that the young women she’s coaching shared her competitive intensity – only to learn that several, often with more physical talent than she ever had, did not. Perhaps this latest group of talented freshmen all share Whelan’s competitive intensity, and it will all work out. But I suspect she needs McCutcheon’s advice; let’s hope her ears are open.

• P.J. Fleck seems like a real challenge, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is his recent salary increase to $6 Mil/yr (I don’t know what McCutcheon’s new position pays, but probably not more than $300 K); it might be tough for McCutcheon to get Fleck’s attention.

And speaking of attention, I’ve paid little to Fleck, but he’s hard to avoid, what with the “Row Your Boat” silliness, the racing his team at quarter-breaks silliness, and the constant screaming on the sideline. And apparently, the reason our Golden Gopher football team rarely wears gold any more, is because Fleck doesn’t like the way he looks in gold. I guess his team of 19 to 22 yr-olds tend to buy what Fleck is selling, but good luck to McCutcheon on this one.

READERS WRITE REGARDING THE 2022 SEASON

Reader M.C.: “Texas is amazing!”

Reader P.M.: “The season, and especially the final loss, was emotionally draining for players and fans. I thought the momentum was on our side, but  OSU adjusted and MN couldn’t match their intensity.  Hard to see it end this way.

McCutcheon was a great coach and built up the program; he will be missed.  So many unknowns moving forward: New coach; Will players stay or transfer out; Is MN moving into a “re-building” phase? We need to buckle up and cross our fingers for good things to come.”

Reader D.K.: “ I have really enjoyed GopherVBallRocks all season.  John is forthright in both his praise and criticism — about the only source who tells it like it is (including the ugly). Keep up the good work, John.”

JOHN: Thanks for the kind words, D.K. Other readers have expressed concern for my mental health, and how will I fill the hours until next August. But there’s the transfer portal to worry about, and maybe I can get my granddaughter to help me jazz-up the graphics. I’ll get by.

It would help if the Vikings’ defense would improve.

Shaffmaster, a First-team All Big Ten selection, played well, especially in Set 1 when she was 3 for 3 on attacks; but OSU’s Big Ten Setter of the Year, Mac Podraza, out-played Shaffmaster. And Big Ten Player of the Year, Landfair, also had a good match, 15 kills; but was out-played by OSU’s Emily Londot (also First-team All Big Ten). The Buckeyes move on the Elite Eight 25-22, 21-25, 21-25, 19-25, ending McCutcheon’s career as Coach.

Given a perfect Left-side set, I’ll take Landfair over Londot. But Londot was hitting everything from everywhere. Londot got kills from Left-side, Right-side, Middle and Back Row; she even had a kill from well out-of-bounds, and she attacks every chance she gets. Landfair had 10 kills on big swings from the Left-side, 2 dink-kills, and 3 Back-row kills. She would have had more Back-row kills if she hadn’t fouled the ten-ft line at least twice (not sure if that’s Landfair’s fault or Shaffmaster’s). And as usual, Landfair would not aggressively attack a poor set. Londot did.

Other than that, the causes for losing were the usual suspects:

• Poor receiving. The Buckeyes targeted Landfair all day; she handled most of her receives – but most wasn’t good enough.
• No go-to hitter when Landfair and Booth aren’t Front-Row. Booth had 5 kills and 5 blocks; pretty good for a freshman, but Wenaas (who, remember, is playing out of position) and Wooker played okay, but neither reached double digits for kills. And Davis’s contributions were minimal. (One strong Middle is an improvement over last season, but we need two.)
• And OSU dinked us to death. Last season and early this season, opponents were burning the Gophs with dinks to our short Right-side; Shaffmaster in particular has compensated for that – at the expense of the “doughnut hole” in the middle of the court, which OSU exploited frequently. 

Early in the season, I suggested that OSU was actually the best team in the Big Ten; I don’t understand how they lost their last 4 conference matches.

NEXT UP

When I recover emotionally, I’ll have some things to say about McCutcheon’s future, the new coach or search for one, and the transfer portal. Reader comments on today’s loss or the season in general are welcome as always. John

My sources tell me the Ohio State Match will be on Thursday, at 11:00 a.m., Perfect for us retirees; if you’re still working, “I’ve got covid” should work. It will be broadcast on The Deuce (ESPN 2) — which is probably on most people’s cable package. If you live in a cave without cable or running water, find a sports bar.

WHY LOSING $?

Reader S.H. calls our attention to a recent MinnPost article re Gopher V-Ball, “With a powerhouse team and strong attendance, how can Gopher Minnesota volleyball lose money?”

https://www.minnpost.com/sports/2022/12/with-a-powerhouse-team-and-strong-attendance-why-doesnt-and-how-does-minnesota-womens-volleyball-turn-a-profit/

John: I’m happy with my very good, very affordable seats in the Pav, but I don’t quite understand McCutcheon’s concern re the raised floor in Williams Arena. The actual basketball playing court in Williams Arena is 94 feet by 50 feet, plus an out-of-bounds area. A standard volleyball court is 60 feet by 30 feet. The out-of-bounds area at the Pav can’t be more than 10 feet on each side-line, and 15 feet on each end-line, meaning that the entire available playing surface at the Pav would fill, but not exceed, the in-bounds area of Williams Arena. Plus an out-of-bounds area on all sides. A volleyball player chasing a ball that would take her off the raised surface in Williams Arena — would be in the 4^th row of seating in the Pav

After watching Northern Iowa beat Florida State in straight sets last night, I thought the Panthers would give the Gophers more trouble than they did. The Panthers are probably just as athletic and just as skilled as the Gophs – but they’re 3 to 4 inches shorter across the front line. I’ve played and coached enough volleyball to know that the taller team doesn’t always win. But if everything else is equal (which it wasn’t because the Gophs were playing at home), 3 to 4 inches makes a big difference: 25-18, 25-16, 25-15.

To be fair, the Panthers came out fired-up for Set 1. They dug fearlessly, took a 4-6 lead and traded side-outs all the way to a 14-16 lead. But with Kilkelly serving behind a front line of Landfair, Booth and Wenaas, Gopher Power became just too much for the undersized Panthers. For the match, the Gophers out-hit the Panthers .288 to .056, and out-blocked them 16-3.

I predicted that the Gopher Middles would have fun, and they did. Booth dominated, 6 kills and officially 11 blocks (I had her with 7 blocks, the official stats are often generous). And Davis played well; I had her with 3 kills and 3 blocks.

UNI served very aggressively against Florida State, and I expected they would again tonight. They really had nothing to lose; they had little chance of stopping the Gophers when the Gophers are in-system. And they probably did; they made enough service errors to suggest aggressive serving. But the Gophers had minimal difficulty handling the Panther serves.

NEXT UP: A Sweet-sixteen rematch with Ohio State, Thursday, in Austin Texas. The Buckeyes clobbered the Gophers, at the Pav, back in October; and the Gophers returned the favor 8 days ago in Columbus. I think the Gophers are playing a lot better than they were in October.

READERS RE ESPN, WENAAS, SHAFFMASTER & BOOTH

M.C. writes: “I signed up for a monthly subscription to ESPN+, and then couldn’t get on, despite their warm welcome!  ESPN is EVIL!”

JOHN: A big corporation being evil? Hard to believe.                 P.S., I understand that this past weekend’s games were radio-broadcast.

R.S. writes: “Thanks, John, appreciate your analysis; this was one of your best. I have felt all along that this team has the right stuff to be a championship team — if the planets align, i.e., no injuries and everyone peaking at the right time! 

So proud of the Gophers; they deserve their awards. And I agree with you, Jenna Wenaas doesn’t get the credit she deserves. She has been the glue holding the team together and brings everything she has almost every night. She is my favorite all around player.”

JOHN: Wenaas rocks!

R. N. writes: “I second John’s recognition of Melani Shaffmaster’s improvement during the second half of this season.  Thank you to the Gopher coaches and Melani for putting in the hard work to make this happen! The Gophers are coming together exactly at the right time. The upcoming matches will be exciting to watch!

Can Shaffmaster sustain her improvement and can she be ready to play beginning with the first point of the every set throughout the tournament?  The Gopher hitters and Gopher fans are counting on you, Melani.”

JOHN Shaffmaster rocks!

R.A. writes: “Booth is the best player on the team. Wenaas’s overall play, McGraw’s digs and Shaffmaster’s sets also impressive.  I was surprised again that Booth was replaced five times, for lengthy stretches, by Davis. Playing only half-time makes her stats — kills and blocks — even more impressive.  I counted from the front row and only five  of Landfair’s 25 attacks were hit with authority. Most were tentative.”

JOHN: Apparently GopherVBallRocks has done an inadequate job of explaining the rotation rules of volleyball, specifically that everyone (except the Libero) has to rotate on every side-out – through all 6 positions. Players can shift laterally after the serve is struck, which is why Landfair always plays left-side (when she’s front-row), but back-row players are not allowed play at the net, i.e., they cannot hit or block in front of the 10-ft line. After Booth plays 3 rotations in the front row (always shifting to Middle Front), she is required to play 3 rotations in the front row – for which she is replaced, not by Davis, but by our Libero, McGraw. Booth could stay in the game, but we’d rather have McGraw in the back-row. Davis is “the other” Middle. (Personally, I’d prefer Gros, but apparently McCutcheon prefers Davis). McGraw also plays back-row for Davis. Davis never subs in for Booth. It can appear that way because Davis is subbing in for McGraw at the exact same time that McGraw is subbing in for Booth – the net result of which is that Booth goes out and Davis comes in, and McGraw stays on the floor.

SELA was scrappy; but Gophers 25-21,25-18, 25-14. Accustomed to watching the Big Ten, I am not used to seeing a team as short as the Lady Lions; in some rotations, they did not appear to have a 6-footer on the court. But they were scrappy, and got most of their kills by hitting off the Gopher blockers.

For the Gophs, it was mostly a Booth and Wenaas night, with a reduced workload for our  Left-side hitters. I thought Shaffmaster had an especially strong night.

… TO PLAY UNI

Halfway through “the preliminary,” I started rooting for Florida State, figuring they would be less of a threat tomorrow night; the Seminoles are big and strong, but nobody out-big-and-strongs the Gophers. But UNI, (apparently not Iowa State) from Cedar Falls (which I’m told is not Cedar Rapids), prevailed in 3 sets, 26-24, 25-19, 25-19. The Panthers looked and played like SELA – but better, while beating the Seminoles, who looked and played like the Gophers – but not as good.

The Panthers served aggressively, enough to win Set 1 despite 5 service errors. They have strong outside hitting (watch for #4, #9 & #10). And they’ll have boisterous fan support (a 3 hr drive, I’m told). But vertically challenged, they don’t block much. IF, a critical if, we can handle the UNI serves, our hitters should have fun.

OUTRAGE RE NO BROADCAST

I received multiple complaints about this weekend’s matches being available only on ESPN+. Reader C.B. was one example: “When my wife opened the paper, she started screaming; once again the Gophers are streamed but not broadcast; this time on ESPN +.  And if we sign up for ESPN+, then next year the games will be on BTN Max or some other newly invented channel.  

The Big 10 recently signed a 1 billion $/yr dollar deal last April to broadcast football and basketball – while the Gophers eliminated Men’s tennis, gymnastics and indoor track to save a couple million, so they can double Fleck’s salary. And the Strib gives us 3 to 5 pages about a bad Gopher football team, and nothing meaningful about our excellent volleyball team! Glad I can depend on your volleyball write ups.”  

JOHN: I am hopeful that next weekend’s Sweet Sixteen matches will be on ESPN 2 or U, but I’m not sure. I think (again I’m not sure) that one can purchase a one-month subscription to ESPN+.

Attending tomorrow night’s match in person might be another option; tonight’s match was not sold out, and there might be that the handful of Florida State & SELA that were there will head to the Mall of America instead, and post their tickets on StubHub.

Either way, I’ll try to write it up as soon as I get home.

GOPHERS DOMINATE BIG TEN POST-SEASON AWARDS

Recently announced:

• Taylor Landfair — Big Ten Player of the Year;
• Melani Shaffmaster — First Team All-Big Ten;
• Carter Booth — First Team All-Big Ten, All-Freshman Team;
• CC McGraw — First Team All-Big Ten; and
• McKenna Wucherer (Wooker)  — All-Freshman Team.
  
  

Landfair led the conference in kills per set (4.43). She posted 26 10+ kill matches, including 19 15+ kill matches and five 20+ kill matches, and a hitting % of .257. She had three 10+ dig matches and 10 matches with three-or-more blocks.

This is the ninth time in program history that the Gophers have had the Big Ten Player of the Year, including six BTPOTYs in Coach McCutcheon’s 11 years with the Gophers. (Samedy in ‘21 & ‘20, Seliger-Swenson in ’18, Wilhite* in ’16 and Santana in ’15.)

* Sara Wilhite remains the “poster girl” of this blog; I’ve been trying to get granddaughter and Washburn freshman Peaches to help me modernize it – but no luck yet.

Booth, with 1.41 blocks per set, led the Gophers in blocking and ranked sixth in the conference. She also had 2.00 kills per set while hitting a scorching .379. (Her .379 hitting percentage ranks in the top-15 all-time for a single-season for a Minnesota player.) And she was just the fourth Gophers true freshmen in the past 16 years to post 100 blocks in her rookie season, a list that includes multiple-time All-Americans and Olympians Lauren Gibbemeyer (2007), Tori Dixon (2010) and Hannah Tapp.

Shaffmaster posted 10.48 assists per set (second in the Big Ten), had 14 double-doubles (matches with 10+ assists and 10+ digs, first in the Big Ten), 17 matches with 3+ blocks and 3+ kills, and led (tied) the Gophers with 27 aces. JOHN: I have doubted Shaffmaster during her first two seasons as a Gopher, but her improvement cannot be denied. 

McGraw capped off her illustrious career with 3.31 digs per set and 18 matches with 10+ digs in 2022. With 1,886 career digs, she is in striking range of moving into second place for most career digs for the Gophers. She tied Shaffmaster for first on the team with 27 aces.  

Wooker overcame two significant injuries to post ten 10+ kill matches, including 16 kills in a four-set win over then #15 Purdue at the Pav, and 15 kills in four-sets at Madison. Overall, she averaged 2.79 kills per set and 0.69 digs and 0.59 blocks per set. and hit .235 for the season.

WHO’S MISSING FROM THIS LIST?

Only my choice for Gopher MVP; Jenna Wenaas.

Among Gophers this season, Wenaas was:

• 2^nd (a distant 2^nd to Landfair) in kills;

Don’t forget that Wenaas played most of the season out of position; she is a natural Left-side Hitter, and is clearly more effective from the Left-side, but she spent most of the season at Right-side because Wooker at Left-side and Wenaas (even out of position) was clearly our most powerful line-up.

• 3^rd (behind McGraw & Shaffmaster) in digs;
• 1^st in serve receives; and
• 1^st (by a long shot) in % of successful receiving).

McGraw, Kilkelly, Landfair and Wenaas were the principle serve-receivers, handling 96% of the receives. McGraw, Kilkelly, Landfair were successful .931, .930 & .929 respectfully, but Wenaas was successful* at a rate of .967.

* Official receiving stats are crude, but this aggregated-season stat accurately reflects Wenaas’s relative excellence in this critical function.

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED THIS WEEK?

I told you the Gophers needed to win 6 of their last 8 matches – and they won 7; including back-to-back road wins against the then #8 & #4 ranked teams in the country. And then they dominated the Big-Ten post-season awards:

• 3 Gophers named First Team All-Big Ten (as many as Wisconsin) including The Big Ten Player of the Year,
• 2 Gophers named All-Big Ten Freshman Team (no other team had more than one),
• And my MVP didn’t even make the list.

It tells us the following:

• GOPHER VBALL REALLY ROCKS
• This is truly one of the tops teams in the country, and either:
• We’ve been underperforming all season, or
• We are positioned to peak at the right time, or
• BOTH.

Looking forward to December.

One drawback to the Gophers string of success: Lutefisk Connoisseurs insist that the Annual Mt. Olivet Lutefisk Dinner is the G.O.A.T. of Lutefisk Dinners – but they always hold the Mt. Olivet Lutefisk Dinner on the first Friday of December – when the Gophers are always hosting an NCAA Tournament Match. (It is also, unofficially, a fantastic UGLY SWEATER contest.