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The Gophs had no trouble sweeping TCU, 25-7, 25-19 and 25-16. To my eye, less a case of the Gophs playing better than they had Friday night, and more the case of TCU being not nearly as good as Baylor.

Once again, the Gopher offense was “pin-heavy.” Samedy had 12 kills and Wenaas and Landfair had 11 each (nice balance there). The Middles were again Husemann and Myers; I think they had 4 kills between them. For comparison, Wisconsin’s Middles Roettke and Hart racked up 28 kills in their 4-set win over Baylor.

It wasn’t as though Shaffmaster wasn’t trying to set her Middles. On the rare occasions when she got a perfect pass (another discouraging comparison: at one point during the Wisconsin/Baylor match, I counted 12 straight perfect passes to Badger setter HiIley) Shaffmaster tried quick-sets to Husemann or Myers, but their timing was off more than it was on. To compensate, the Gophers continued to set Samedy and Wenaas from the back-row, again with some success.

NO DEFENSIVE SPECIALIST

Veteran D.S. Rachel Kilkelly was “unavailable,” presumably meaning injured or ill. The logical Plan B would have been to use Freshman Libero/D.S. Skylar Gray (out of Maple Grove H.S.). Or if Gray was also “unavailable,” perhaps filling in with Freshman Outside Hitters Natalie Glenn or Lauren Crowl; a perfect chance to get some game-action for one of these Freshmen.

But instead, the Gophers played without a D.S., leaving Left-Side Hitter Taylor Landfair to play all 6 rotations. On Friday night, Baylor servers relentlessly targeted Landfair when they could – she had more receives than McGraw, Kilkelly and Samedy combined. Through 2 matches, Landfair has been responsible for all 3 of the Gophers’ receiving errors. But that’s 3 shanked receives out of 51 attempts – certainly not great, but also not horrible for a young, 6-5 Hitter.

Playing a match without a D.S. is unusual. It could be that Gray, Glenn and Crowl were all “unavailable” (did KilKelly and the 3 Freshmen break a team rule?), but my guess is that Coach McCutcheon recognizes that future opponent’s servers are going to target Landfair relentlessly, and she needs the reps. Stay tuned.

SCHOLARSHIP LIMIT DRIVING TRANSFERS?

Friday night, broadcaster Paul Sunderland (Sunderland was the play-by play guy for the Olympics – not the jackass color-guy that I hated) mentioned that Adanna Rollins, who would have been a senior for the Gophers this season, loved the Gophers but had transferred to Penn State because Penn State had guaranteed her two more years of scholarships – implying that Coach McCutcheon had not matched Penn State’s offer.

Assuming that Sunderland’s info is correct, this situation raises several issues:

• Open transfer rules, which allow a player to transfer at any time, without penalty, create a “wild-west,” anything goes atmosphere. (The Gophers have benefitted from the open rules with Katy Myers, currently, and Kylie Miller in 2019.)
• Complicated by the “Covid-Bonus-Year” of eligibility. Rollins played 3 years for the Gophers and under normal circumstances, would have run out of eligibility at the end of this year, regardless, making Penn State’s offer impossible. But the 2020 season, played in the Spring of 2021, doesn’t count against anyone’s eligibility.
• Our current roster includes three players, Airi Miyabe, Katie Myers, and Steph Samedy, using their 5^th, and unplanned-for year of eligibility. I can’t imagine Coach McCutcheon would have needed to think too hard when Samedy asked for another year’s scholarship, but I don’t know for sure if Miyabe and Myers, both in Graduate School, are on scholarship. (It is not unheard-of for student-athletes to play D-1 sports without being on scholarship.)
• And what about Regan Pittman? Pittman, like Samedy, Miyabe and Myers, used her 4^th, but not final, year of eligibility last Spring. Besides these 3 Gophs, players all over the country (e.g., Wisconsin’s Dana Roettke and Baylor’s Pressley) are taking advantage of their “bonus year.” But not Pittman, who as far as I know, isn’t playing anywhere.
• Back to Rollins: Did McCutcheon not guarantee her a scholarship for next year because he declines on principle to make such offers to anyone? Was it because he thought we didn’t need Rollins? Or could it be because he didn’t have any scholarships left due to commitments made to current high school players the Gophers are recruiting for next year?
• CC McGraw (along with Bayley McMenimen), the only true senior on this team, has already expressed her intentions to play again next year.
• This must be driving coaches crazy.

NEXT UP: #1 RANKED TEXAS

At the Pav on Wednesday (BTN)

Our Gophers lost their season opener in a VERY close match, to a VERY good team. I say very close because 10^th ranked (but probably under-ranked) Baylor won the 1st set 26-24, the Gophs dominated the 2^nd set 25-16, Baylor dominated the 3^rd set 25-17, and Baylor took the 4^th set 28-26. Two of the 3 sets that Baylor won were in overtime, and the total score for the match was Baylor 95, Gophers 92.

HIGHLIGHTS:                                                                                                                                                                        * Jenna Wennas, in her debut as a left-side hitter, had 12 kills, 9 digs, two blocks, and two aces. It does not appear that the Gophers are going to miss Adanna Rollins. (I’ll have more to say about Rollins and her decision to transfer in a future post.) * C.C. McGraw appeared back at her performance level of two years ago; and     * Steph Samedy, the reigning Big Ten Player of the Year does not appear to have lost a thing, racking up 21 kills, 18 digs, and 2 blocks.

LOWLIGHTS:                                                                                           * Last season (last Spring) the Gophers seemed, at least early in the season, to have an extra gear that kicked in when sets or matches were tight. But in the decisive 4^th set against Baylor, the Gophs led 18-15, 21-18, and 24-20, before blowing 5 set points.  A good team plays a lot of close sets; a great team wins the close ones.                                                           * The Gophers generated almost zero offense from their Middle Hitters (dare I call them Hitters?). Outside hitters Samedy, Wenaas and Landfair recorded 43 kills on 126 swings; while our Middles, Myers, Husemann and Rubright recorded 8 kills on 19 swings. And the 8 kills on 19 swings stat is misleading; I don’t have hard data, but my perception, watching on TV, was that more than half of the kills and more than half of the swings came on overpasses. In other words, Baylor set our Middles more often than Shaffmaster did. The Gophers compensate for their lack of a middle-attack by repeatedly setting Samedy and Wenaas out of the back-row – with some success. But the Gophers are not going to beat good teams without some offense from our Middles.                                       * Our serve-receive, like last year, was mediocre. I assume Shaffmaster is willing to set our Middles when she gets a perfect pass, but middle-sets are tough when she is running all over the court to get the ball.                                                                                                                        * Landfair played okay, but seemed a little tentative to me, like she was early last season. I don’t expect Landfair to dominate every set like Samedy does, or like Samedy’s Baylor-counterpart Pressley. But Landfair was the tallest and strongest Outside hitter in that match – and will be in almost every match. She has the tools to dominate a set, and we saw her do that last Spring, especially toward the end of the season. We need her to do that consistently.

WHAT DID WE LEARN?                                                             * We learned that this is a good team, certainly a team with at least Sweet-16 talent.                                                             * We learned that this team has a long way to go to become the Big Ten and NCAA Champions we want them to be.                                                                            * We also learned, as predicted, that Jen Wenaas is our 3^rd Outside Hitter, and a pretty good one – maybe even better as she gains confidence.                              * We did not learn where our middle offense is going to come from, or even who our Middle Hitters are. Coach McCutcheon started Myers and Husemann, and later subbed-in Rubright (who had been injured). Freshman Middle Anna Wolf did not see action.                    * Freshman Outside Hitter Natalie Glenn did see action, but only as a server, not as a hitter.

TCU TONIGHT, AGAIN AT MADISON (BTN)

The pre-conference schedule for our 7^th-ranked Gophers is intimidating, beginning with #10 ranked Baylor (I’m guessing Baylor is actually under-rated) THIS FRIDAY, Aug 27 (ESPNU), and TCU on Aug 28 (BTN), both at Madison; #1 ranked Texas on Sept 1 here at the Pav, #6 ranked Florida at Gainesville on Sept 5, #21 ranked Stanford on Sept 10, and #14 ranked Oregon on Sept 14, both at Eugene.

Whew! We start with six matches in 15 days, 5 of them vs teams ranked in the top 21. Only one here at the Pav, 3 at neutral sites, and 2 at the home of a nationally ranked opponent.  Followed by home matches vs St. Thomas, in their D-1 debut season on Sept 16 and Iowa State on Sept 18.

And then the 20-match Big Ten season opening at the Pav vs Michigan on Sept 24. (Seven Big Ten Teams, including our Gophers, are ranked among the top 12 teams in the country.)

BTW: all of this is available on the official Gopher V-Ball website at https://gophersports.com/sports/womens-volleyball.

THE GREATEST DRAMA IN SPORTS

Used-car salesman Red McCombs once described pre-season NFL games as “The Greatest Drama in Sports.” His reference, apparently, was to the fact that NFL teams start with 90-man rosters, which have to be cut down to 45-man rosters by the beginning of the real season, creating a variety of individual competitions, and the pre-season games, along with 6 times as many practices represent a portion of that competition.

Can you imagine paying $400 per ticket per game to watch these two most recent disasters? Tens of thousands of Minnesotans did; or at least the company they work for or buy from did – and wrote each $400 off against their taxes.

That said, I do look forward to how the Gopher V-Ball lineups shapes up each year, and have occasionally attended their open-to-the-public (for less than $400) inter-squad scrimmages. I did not make it this year, but readers G.C. and D.S. did, and forwarded their observations. But first, let’s examine what we know about the Gopher roster.

• SETTER: Returning from last spring’s starting lineup are starting setter Melani Shaffmaster and back-up Bayley McMenimen. I see no new setters on the roster, so I assume Shaffmaster and McMenimen will continue in these roles. As previously blogged, I felt that the Gophers setting was the weakest part of the team last year; Shaffmaster needs to play a lot better this fall if the Gophers hope to improve on last spring.

• LIBERO/DS: Also returning from last spring’s lineup are starting Libero CC McGraw (reportedly healthy this year) and starting D.S. Rachel Kilkelly. This year’s roster also includes freshman Skylar Gray out of Maple Grove. (At 5-10, Gray was an outstanding left-side hitter at Maple Grove, but will apparently focus on the back row for the Gophers.) I assume Gray will spend this season on the bench watching McGraw and Kilkelly play, but we’ll see.

• MIDDLES: Outstanding Middle Regan Pittman postponed her senior season from the fall of 2020 to the spring of 2021 even though she had graduated a year earlier, but she has apparently decided not to take advantage of her covid-bonus year of eligibility. (I can’t find any news about her. Does anyone know where she is or what she is doing?) So that leaves the middle positions up in the air.

6-5 Junior Shea Rubright was not a starter at the beginning of last season, but came on strong as the season progressed, and seems like a favorite for one of the two middles – but reader D.S. reports that Rubright did not play in Saturday’s scrimmage; in attendance but not dressed, apparently injured.

The other options appear to be fifth-yr senior Katy Myers, a determined blocker who opened last season as a starter, but who was not effective on offense; Ellie Huseman, a 6-5 junior out of Eagan, who has seen spot duty her first two seasons, but has yet to establish herself; and Anna Wolf, a 6-4 freshman out of River Falls. Reader D.S. reports that Wolf is raw, but has a lot of potential.

• OUTSIDE HITTERS: Last spring’s Big Ten Player of the Year Steff Samedy is returning to take advantage of her covid-bonus year, so Samedy, surely one of the top players in the country, is a lock for one outside position. And powerful 6-5 sophomore Taylor Landfair is a lock as another. But senior Adanna Rollins transferred to Penn State, leaving the Gophers third outside hitter position up for grabs.

Reader G.C. was very impressed with freshman Natalie Glenn. Glenn is only 5-10, but very athletic with a major vertical. But Glenn is a left-handed “opposite,” presumably recruited as Samedy’s replacement. (It seems likely that Glenn was expecting, and the Gophers were expecting, Samedy to be gone by the time Glenn got here.) Samedy would be a fantastic left-side hitter if Coach MuCutcheon wanted to move her there to make room for Glenn, but that seems unlikely. More likely, Glenn will spend most of her freshman year on the bench. (Not the worst thing in the world.)

That would narrow the competition for the third outside hitter position down to super-sub and bonus-year senior Airi Myabe, and sophomore Jenna Wenaas, who spent her freshman year on the bench. I love Miyabe, but Wenaas came in very highly rated (#3 in the country), so even though we haven’t really seen Wenaas play front row, I guessing Wenaas will be our third starting outside hitter.

TWO PERSONAL NOTES:

• The reason that Maureen and I were unable to attend Sat’s scrimmage was because we were celebrating our 50^th wedding anniversary.
• Oldest grandchild Leah, an incoming 8^th grader, just made Washburn’s freshman V-Ball team. GO LEAH!

CONGRATULATIONS TO SUNI LEE!

I am not into the “Nationalism” aspect of the Olympic Games (see below), but Lee’s Gold Medal performance was a Proud to be an American, Proud to be a Minnesotan, Proud of our Hmong Community, moment for me.

Over the years, we’ve seen athletes win medals because of poor refereeing, questionable judging, performance-enhancing drugs and other chicanery; but Lee took on everyone who showed up and beat them fair and square, earning the undisputed title of the world’s greatest (female) gymnast.

The attention is on Lee and her parents, as it should be; but don’t forget the community that raised her or the coaches that trained her (and advised her on last-minute tactics); we should be proud of all of them.

RE NATIONALISM AT THE OLYMPICS

I root for athletes I am familiar with, Suni Lee for sure, but also including Gopher Wrestler Gabe Stevenson, who I‘ve been watching on BTN, Sylvia Folwes (long-time fan), Regan Smith, former Edina volleyballer Jordan Thompson (who I am becoming a fan of), and the American Men’s and Women’s Volleyball & Water Polo Teams (see below), generally.

But I prefer watching Hungary V Serbia in Men’s Water Polo, or Brazil V Russia in Women’s Volleyball, to watching a lopsided American victory in an unfamiliar sport. I don’t find it especially tragic when the U.S. Women’s Soccer or Softball, or Men’s Basketball Teams lose a game now and then – a little balance is a good thing. And I am not especially thrilled upon learning that some athlete I have never heard of just won a Bronze in a sport I don’t follow (there are a lot of them), nudging the U.S. ahead of some other superpower in the overall medal count. If it was up to me, I’d de-emphasize the overall medal count.

QUESTIONS ABOUT WATER POLO

And speaking of unfamiliar sports, every 4 years (well, 5, this time) I get a lot of questions from my friends about Water Polo:

Q. How deep is the pool?

A. More than 8 feet, beyond which it doesn’t matter.

Q. Is it really physical?

A. It is not like football, where violent collisions are common. Nor like basketball, where there might be a little pushing and shoving in pursuit of a rebound. In terms of physicality, the sport that compares most closely to Water Polo would be Wrestling (in deep water, of course). Maybe less so for the little, fast guys that swim up and down the sides of the pool, but definitely for the big boys who play in front of the net. When you’re covering a guy, if you’re chest isn’t plastered to his back (or vice versa), and if you’re not holding his wrist and him your suit (or vice versa), and he’s not kicking you in the balls (Men’s), you’re not really covering him at all.

Q. How big are these guys?

A. The contrast between the American Men’s Team and their East European opponents (Hungary, Serbia, etc) is remarkable and consistent over time. Watch for this: The Americans are mostly about 6-5, 195 lbs, with broad shoulders and narrow waists (ladies-in-the-know scarf up the team posters). The East Europeans are also mostly about 6-5 and broad shouldered – but barrel-chested and closer to 240 lbs. The Americans are better suited for swimming back and forth, but the East Europeans always dominate inside.

Q. Is it always so boring?

A. Water Polo is the most fun, most exciting, game I’ve ever played, including volleyball. And if you know the game and are watching in-person, a competitive game can be thrilling to watch. I was at Pepperdine, in 1984, when the Yugoslaves came from behind to win their first (and last, since the country soon broke apart) Olympic Gold Medal in any team sport. And afterwards, the team gathered right in front of me to sing their National Anthem (to their fans seated right behind me). The team cried, and so did I.

But the style of top-level international play that you might catch a glimpse of during the Olympics is driven by the international rules and the international style of refereeing, itself driven by the international rules, and filmed by a film-crew unfamiliar with Water Polo – which makes it look boring.

The other day, I was watching the U.S. Women versus Hungary (Water Polo is the Hungarian National Sport). At the bottom of the screen, on the outside of the pool, an American gal was guarding a Hungarian gal, as a different Hungarian player made an ill-advised attempt to pass the ball inside to this huge Hungarian who was quickly triple-teamed. Immediately, the American at the bottom of the screen took off for the other end of the pool. And the Hungarian she was guarding did not immediately chase her.

The camera followed the ball inside, where after a couple of seconds of frantic thrashing, the Americans came up with the ball. Then the director cut to a different camera focused on the American bench, while the analyst talked about the need to get an American star back in the game despite her foul-trouble. And after a few more seconds, the director cut to a camera showing the American from the bottom of the screen, all alone in front of the Hungarian Goalie, pump-faking the ball and eventually scoring. I understood what happened – but I can’t imagine more than 1% of NBC’s audience did.

The “color guy’s” name is Kevin Barnett, and unfortunately, he’s working the men’s V-ball for NBC also. He didn’t have a scorer’s table failure to rant about in the Poland/Italy game I saw today, but he is still obnoxious.

I was not the only one annoyed by the “color guy” on the volleyball broadcasts. Reader J.D. wrote to say that he turned the sound off.

And reader C.B. wrote in to comment on “late bloomers.” Apparently, Bowe Becker, a former Gopher swimmer who just won a Gold Medal in the Men’s 400 meter freestyle relay was a “teammate” of C.B.’s granddaughter when he swam for the Gophs. (It’s not a co-ed team, but they have joint workouts.) And granddaughter shares that Becker came in as a walk-on, got suspended once for a “bad attitude,” and didn’t get a scholarship until he was a senior.

The U.S. women vs Argentina was my first look at NBC’s coverage of the 2021 Games. As is standard, they had a “play-by-play” announcer and an “analyst”/”color guy.” I didn’t catch the guy’s name, but he drove me nuts.

Early on, there was a mix-up at the scoring table. The color guy made the point that they ought to have skilled people running the desk at the Olympics and this shouldn’t happen at this level. I agree. But sh** happens.

This idiot wouldn’t let it go. I swear he brought it up 30 times during the remainder of the match. During the admittedly uncomfortable delay, while the head ref and the “table” was trying to get the score straight, this guy suggested that they needed to get on with the match because, “The Olympics are supposed to be all about the athletes. Nobody wants to stand around and get cold watching this fiasco at the table.” To paraphrase, the athletes are not especially concerned about getting the score right???

I hope NBC doesn’t use this same guy for the men’s games; but they probably do.

P.S. Not a fan of Rowdy Gaines, who does the “color” for swimming either, but Gaines is not as bad as the V-ball guy.

In my previous post, I had expressed ignorance whether former Edina High & Northern Lights star Jordan Thompson was the team’s starting opposite, or the back-up opposite. Turns out, at least in the U.S.’ first match, against Argentina (a 3-0 win), Thompson is not just the starter, she is the STAR! Thompson led the U.S. team with 18 kills on 23 swings.

The post below, referencing former Edina H.S. star and now Olympic Team Jordan Thompson, went up Wednesday evening, and by noon on Thursday, several readers** had noticed the story by Jim Paulsen* in Thursday morning’s StarTribune. Paulsen writes that Thompson is one of the most-feared hitters in this year’s Olympics, which suggests that she is the starting opposite. We’ll see soon enough.

Paulsen also writes that Thompson chose Cincinnati because she “wanted to play right away” (but doesn’t say how many top Big Ten Teams recruited her). And Paulsen notes that Thompson is the niece of former Vikings Star Chris Doleman. (Though Paulsen did not note, Tori Dixon, on the 6-player “reserve squad,” is the daughter of former Vikings Star Dave Dixon.)

• I am not familiar with Paulsen’s work. I also don’t know if this story means that Paulsen will be covering Olympic V-ball for the Strib. Let’s hope so. The Strib has sent sportswriter Rachel Blount and columnist Jim Souhan to Tokyo, but neither knows anything about V-ball.

You are no doubt aware that the Olympics are about to begin in Tokyo, including men’s and women’s, 6-player indoor, and 2-player outdoor. (Also para-olympics.) I don’t follow the sand game, but I love the indoor game. In 2012, in London, Maureen and I attended (in-person) every match, men’s and women’s, from the quarterfinals through the Gold Medal Games. I’ll be seeing a lot less of it this year, due to a family rafting trip.

Both men’s and women’s competition involves round-robin play in each of two 6-team pools, with the top 4 teams in each pool advancing to the quarterfinals. The U.S. women are in a pool with Italy, Russia, Turkey, China & Argentina. I haven’t kept up with recent international play (if any reader has, and wants to share their knowledge with the rest of us, please do), but the U.S. women are ranked #1 in the world. And our women typically have an easier path through pool-play than the men do, in that large numbers of girls are playing volleyball at a young age only in the U.S. and Brazil. Countries like Russia, China, Serbia, etc recruit tall 16 yr-olds and teach them volleyball; their girls weren’t going to 14 & under national tournaments like our girls do.

The U.S. men, who are also generally medal contenders, will face France, Russia, Tunisia, Brazil & Argentina in pool-play. Russia is always tough, as is, Brazil, Poland, Italy,* Croatia & Serbia. * In the 2016 Olympics, which I watched on T.V., the most exciting player in the world was a middle-hitter on the Italian men’s team. This guy was only 6-4, which is short for a men’s middle, but this guys was built like a linebacker – and he could hit with power with either hand! Tough to block a guy who hits with either hand.

Former Gophers Tori Dixon, Hannah Tapp and Sarah Wilhite are all on 6-woman “reserve roster,” along with former Badger setter Lauren Carlini, and former Stanford left-side hitter Kathryn Plummer*.                                                                                             * If Plummer didn’t make the team, this has got to be a strong team.

No former Gophers were named to the 12-woman Olympic Roster, but former Edina H.S. and Northern Lights star Jordan Thompson is on the squad. Her bio from her Cincinnati Bobcat page (where she clearly was a star) lists her as having been a star for Edina and Northern Lights, but I never heard of her. Most top MN volleyballers end up at Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Stanford, etc; not Cincinnati. My guess is, she was a late-bloomer, which is more common than you think. These days, athletes are often recruited at age 14; and excellent athletes that bloom late can slip under the radar.

Anyway, congratulations to Thompson, who will be representing Minnesota (our state, not our Gophers) in this year’s Olympics. She is an “opposite,” i.e., a right-side hitter (the position that Steph Samedy plays for the Gophers). I assume that the U.S. team will be playing a 5 – 1, with a libero and a D.S. (including one opposite), i.e., 8 players. The other 4 women on the 12-woman squad will be back-ups, used sparingly – except in the case of injury.

Given Thompson’s relative international experience, I am inclined to guess that she is the back-up opposite. But former Purdue star Annie Drews, the only other opposite on the roster is also a first-time Olympian (Drews does have more international experience), I don’t know which is the starting opposite.

Good luck to our men’s and women’s teams!