Coach Cook agrees with VTers

[lilred]

Apparently Coach Cook reads Volleytalk and agrees with many of the things some have said.

Many have claimed that Nebraska has played without emotion:

Too often this season, Nebraska has been guilty of relying on its talent and not playing with the determination of an Ashley Nu’u, Colorado’s senior setter, who Cook said willed her team to victory last weekend.

“That’s where the heart and emotion of sports come in,” Cook said. “It’s not always about the stats or who has the best players.

“We’re a talented team, but we’ve got to become a team that plays with that heart and emotion.”[/b][/i] from LJS

Many have said that this loss would be a good wake up call:

Larson - who amazingly has never stepped on the court in college without being on the top-rated squad in the country - said she was a little curious to see what it might be like ranked No. 2 or 3.

Still, Larson echoed Cook's sentiment that the Colorado loss needs to be a wake-up call for the Huskers, now 23-1 overall and 15-1 in the Big 12 from OWH

and my personal favorite

I don't think losing is ever good. But as you said any good coach and program will spin it in a positive way. In this case, we all know that Nebraska has been skating on thin ice all season. Add the loss of the POY and the pressure of being the hunted (again) it has to come as a relief to Cook (secretly of course ) that the team has a loss before the tourney. No amount of cajoling, barking, lectures or wind sprints will slap the girls back to reality faster than a loss...especially to a team that they handily beat before and have not lost to since 1997.
Link to Post - Back to Top Logged (my own personal comment after the CU game)

Coach Cook says:

Cook said he even secretly wished that Nebraska would've lost its No. 1 ranking so his team would get a further jolt. But the Huskers held on to the top spot in the new poll released Monday after a weekend in which three top-five schools lost matches.
from OWH

“I’ve been talking about all the things that caught up with us Saturday night, but they weren’t hearing it,” Cook said. “Now they’re listening.”[/b][/i]
from LJS

Thanks for listening Coach!

[OverAndUnder]

I'm sorry, has no one else figured out that the AVCA voters HATE Nebraska and continue to put them at #1 all season, year after year, not because they necessarily think Nebraska should be at #1, but because they know the combination of fan pressure and egotistical laziness will keep the Huskers weak going into the NCAA tournament?

[holidayhusker]

Fan pressure keeps the Huskers weak??? Do you really believe what you write sometimes?? Seriously???

[cinnamonopus]

Umm, holidayhusker... that pulling on your leg that you're feeling? I think it might be OverAndUnder.

[vbking]

I would tend to agree with Coach Cook. This team really started to believe that they could turn it on when they needed to and fortunately found out that this is not the case. Without sounding cliche "Being good is an all the time thing. Its not like a water faucet where you can turn it on and off when you want." I think that the Huskers learned this lesson at a very good time in their season. The loss is not that big a deal, the most important thing is how the Huskers will bounce back from this loss. If they come back more focused, better and stronger then it will be considered a "good loss."

[Wolfgang]

Cook is probably a VT'er so it's like saying he agrees with himself.

[Deleted]

Sometimes the best lesson taught for a team is a loss. Unfortunately the loss can come at the wrong time, this loss for the Huskers timing wise is just perfect!

[bigfan]

overandunder said:

..........egotistical laziness will keep the Huskers weak going into the NCAA tournament?

I agree. The Cornhuskers are eating off the Fat of the land......Pac-10 teams beat on each other during league play......and once again one of them will take the Nebraska team out.... so help me Sarah Pavan.

[2c]

Interesting how the Huskers struggled early on in the first game at the beginning of the season. But each time they picked it up and finished out each match strong.

Now that they seem to be starting matches out strongly, they happen to get in a situation against Colorado where once they lost that momentum they couldn't get it back AND maintain it to the end. A lot of this obviously had to do with Colorado. But the best lesson they may have gotten (jury out as to whether they can address it) from the loss is to play at a consistent level through the majority of the games during a match and have peaks to pull ahead at the end. That's what seemed to do it for the last 5 Pac10 champions.

Perhaps this is the biggest advantage the Pac10 has over everybody else is the required accelerated learning curve for addressing weaknesses that are exposed during matches (and specifically for the next night) and to maintain a high level of play throughout the matches.

[gobigred]

bigfan said:

overandunder said:

..........egotistical laziness will keep the Huskers weak going into the NCAA tournament?

I agree. The Cornhuskers are eating off the Fat of the land......Pac-10 teams beat on each other during league play......and once again one of them will take the Nebraska team out.... so help me Sarah Pavan.

While I hate to agree with you, I think I do. History certainly doesn't suggest otherwise (2001-Stanford, 2003-UCLA, 2004-USC, 2005-Washington, you might even throw in 2002-Hawaii, although they aren't Pac-10, they were another good "west coast" team).

I will give the Huskers a fighting chance if they make it to Omaha, considering all the intangibles which would be on our side, but getting to Omaha through a tough Pac-10 team is something I'm already losing sleep over.

[holidayhusker]

cinnamonopus said:

Umm, holidayhusker... that pulling on your leg that you're feeling? I think it might be OverAndUnder.

LOL...I know. Just enjoy giving OAU a little stress.

[cinnamonopus]

holidayhusker said:

cinnamonopus said:

Umm, holidayhusker... that pulling on your leg that you're feeling? I think it might be OverAndUnder.

LOL...I know. Just enjoy giving OAU a little stress.

Oh good. I'm all for that, then. Carry on.

[baldyballer]

Not to play devils advocate but I hope Baylor beats them on Saturday. They took a game off them earlier in the year and just beat Kansas easily. I'm sure the BU coaches and players wouldn't mind helping out Cook in showing what they need to be focusing on!

[OverAndUnder]

Nope, won't happen to Nebraska IN Nebraska, at least not by Baylor. I would love to see the match go to 5 games, though.

[vball0001]

Remember what happened to UW last year, losing a tough match (their only loss) to a very good UCLA team on the road, late in the season...they didn't drop another game the rest of the season, ending with the National Championship. Lessons learned and executed from that point on.