Predictions to make the Final Four?

[southie]

Everyone seems anxious to get this season underway.

While we have no idea how injuries and chemistry will affect each team, how 'bout listing your predictions on which teams reach Sacramento?

I'll state mine in relation to the Regional sites:

Madison, WI - Nebraska
State College, PA - Penn State
Palo Alto, CA - Stanford
Gainesville, FL - Texas

I think it will be tough for anyone to take out PSU and Stanford on their home courts; the Florida regional will be toughest to predict for so many reasons.

[Mix Breed-TEXAS,HI,LBSU]

SORRY! but this is not the time for this thread to be dicussed YET!.....

[Deleted]

You never know who's going to be in what regional. If those 4 teams are #1 seeds, I like their chances. But there's no guarantee they will be. Not only that, Florida could be tough at home this time. As could the Badgers.

All we know for sure is that Minnesota and Hawaii will get screwed by the Committee.

[southie]

fakabedit said:

SORRY! but this is not the time for this thread to be dicussed YET!.....

Umm, that's why they're called pre-season "predictions"; guess you'd rather not having any pre-season Top 25 polls either since no one has played their first game yet . . .

[OverAndUnder]

UCLA emerge victorious from Wisconsin.
Texas will pull an upset as the #2 in Palo Alto.
Nebraska will squeak out 3-2 win at PSU.
HAwai'i will ride an airboat out of the Florida swamps.

Nebraska bruises the Bruins 3-0.
Hawaiian beauties bewitch the young Texas hitters.

Hawai'i puts on a surprise blocking storm and Nebraska only manages to hit for .207 while committing 19 service errors in a 3-1 loss.

Shoji retires happy, abdicating in favor of Mary Wise. Tongues wag as a certain mentally unhinged VolleyTalk poster suggests a connection between this move and Florida's surprise loss to Hawai'i in their Regional Final, but after I privately threaten to out Ruffda as Erin Martin's mom, she gets all quiet.

Pete Waite subsequently decides to take his golden years and golf clubs to Gainesville. Lee Maes finally gets his chance at a good head coaching spot in Wisconsin, only to be horrified in April when John Cook announces he is stepping down in order to get ready to coach the St. Louis Major League Soccer expansion team starting in 2009.

The shock of it all gives Mick Haley stress attacks which lead his doctors to force him out of coaching. Jerritt Elliott and Sarah Silvernail seize the opportunity to flee back to their beloved West Coast overnight before anyone can stop them.

The AD at Texas walks into the office the next morning and tells his assistant "Hey we need a new volleyball coach; take a couple million dollars out of one of those old boxes in the corner and throw it around Europe until some Italian league hotshot realizes he's wasting his time over there."

[network155]

There is a total of 8 schools that has a shot at the Final Four. Been hearing a lot of good things out of preseason practice from from Texas to Hawaii to Nebraska.

[ay2013]

topdog said:

There is a total of 8 schools that has a shot at the Final Four. Been hearing a lot of good things out of preseason practice from from Texas to Hawaii to Nebraska.

I agree that there are 8 teams that have the talent, experience, and coaching to make it to the final 4 and those teams are the first 8 ranked in the preseason poll (4 Pac-10 Schools, Nebraska, Texas, Penn State, and Florida). I really think that it will be these 8 teams in the regional finals and which teams wins depends on the matchups.

The way the regular season matchups go will really shape the way the seeds fall.

If Nebraska sweeps Texas my guess is that Texas will not stay in the top 4 rankings. Stanford will not go undefeated in the Pac-10, but will win the Pac-10 and my guess is that Penn State and Florida will go undefeated in their leagues this year which will put them as the number 1 seeds in their perspective regions. So the top 4 seeds in their respective regions will be

WI- Nebraska
PA- Penn State
CA- Stanford
FL- Florida

So that leaves USC, Washington, UCLA, and Texas to be divided up between the regions.

All 4 of these regions are like home matches for the teams and I think the only teams that could give anyone of them a run for their money are USC and Texas. As much as I love my Huskies I think that until I see how they progress through the season, their run ends at the regional finals, and as I've already stated in the previous posts, UCLA is overrated this year and could possibly not even make it to the regional finals.

If USC gets sent to Florida and Texas gets send to PA, I think that those matchups would be REALLY REALLY fun to watch and a virtual toss up. I think a Texas/Penn State match would be the most interesting combination this season. Both have perhaps the most explosive hitters in the college game.

My final prediction

Nebraska
Stanford
Texas
USC

[wiscvball]

Nebraska over Wisconsin in Madison 3-1 (I hate saying that...)
PSU over USC in State College 3-1
Florida over Texas in Florida 3-2
Stanford over UCLA in Palo Alto 3-1

Final four: PSU over Stanford 3-2, Nebraska over Florida 3-0
Final: Nebraska over PSU 3-2

Final rankings:
1) Nebraska
2) PSU
3) Stanford
4) Florida
5) Texas
6) Wisconsin
7) USC
8) UCLA

[ay2013]

ay2013 said:

topdog said:

There is a total of 8 schools that has a shot at the Final Four. Been hearing a lot of good things out of preseason practice from from Texas to Hawaii to Nebraska.

I agree that there are 8 teams that have the talent, experience, and coaching to make it to the final 4 and those teams are the first 8 ranked in the preseason poll (4 Pac-10 Schools, Nebraska, Texas, Penn State, and Florida). I really think that it will be these 8 teams in the regional finals and which teams wins depends on the matchups.

The way the regular season matchups go will really shape the way the seeds fall.

If Nebraska sweeps Texas my guess is that Texas will not stay in the top 4 rankings. Stanford will not go undefeated in the Pac-10, but will win the Pac-10 and my guess is that Penn State and Florida will go undefeated in their leagues this year which will put them as the number 1 seeds in their perspective regions. So the top 4 seeds in their respective regions will be

WI- Nebraska
PA- Penn State
CA- Stanford
FL- Florida

So that leaves USC, Washington, UCLA, and Texas to be divided up between the regions.

All 4 of these regions are like home matches for the teams and I think the only teams that could give anyone of them a run for their money are USC and Texas. As much as I love my Huskies I think that until I see how they progress through the season, their run ends at the regional finals, and as I've already stated in the previous posts, UCLA is overrated this year and could possibly not even make it to the regional finals.

If USC gets sent to Florida and Texas gets send to PA, I think that those matchups would be REALLY REALLY fun to watch and a virtual toss up. I think a Texas/Penn State match would be the most interesting combination this season. Both have perhaps the most explosive hitters in the college game.

My final prediction

Nebraska
Stanford
Texas
USC

BUT...lets throw a monkey wrench into the system and let say that Texas sweeps Nebraska. That league doesn't have enough tough teams for both Texas and Nebraska to stay in the top 4 rankings or both be top 4 seeds. Nebraska will most likely play UCLA in the showcase, but I predict that UCLA wil end up 4th in the Pac-10 so if Nebraska wins it won't mean THAT much. ANYWAYS so if Texas sweeps Nebraska in league play, I don't think Nebraska will get a #1 seed. Texas will take their spot in WI. Also I think that if USC or Washington can finish with only 1 or 2 losses in the Pac-10 there will be a legit case for them to be a #1 overall seed and bump Florida down (but Florida will still be in the florida regional) So lets say that USC does that...that makes the regions and seeds look like this

WI-USC
CA-Stanford
PA-Penn State
FL-Texas

Florida would stay in Florida, but I think Texas would still take them out. Another Pac-10 team would go to WI to face USC and I think Washington could have a good chance against USC on a neutral court. UCLA gets stuck with Stanford and Stanford blows them out. and Nebraska gets shipped to Penn State which I think could be a toss up

So then the final 4 COULD look like this

Texas
Washington
Stanford
Penn State

...LOL...there are just WAY To many possibilities

Best of luck to all teams..GO HUSKIES!..not to be confused with husker..what is a husker? I mean really....

[naitsric]

hawaii
usc
florida
stanford

hawaii defeat usc
florida defeat stanford

hawaii defeat florida in 3

30-22 30-22 30-10

[kalena12]

naitsric, whered nebraska go?

PALO ALTO: stanford def ucla 3-0
MADISON: nebraska def usc 3-2
STATE COLLEGE: penn st def hawaii 3-2
GAINESVILLE: texas def florida 3-0

idk how these regions line up so im gonna put my favorite final four.

stanford def texas 3-0 all close games
nebraska def penn st 3-2 back and forth battle
stanford def nebraska 3-1 eerily similar to last years final but flipped

[vbuzz]

Anyone in the top 10 this season has an equal chance to win it all. I'm just going to wait and let everything play out.

[Keystonekid]

"anyone in the top 10 this season has an "equal" chance to win it all" The final four will be comprised of 4 teams from this group.

Nebraska
Stanford
PSU
Texas
Florida (by virtue of hosting)
Wisconsin (by virtue of hosting)

My next picks would be Washington, UCLA, USC,
after that Minn, Hawaii (by virtue of their coaches)

[volleysean27]

Wis: Nebraska over Wash 3-1
Flo: UCLA over CAL 3-2
Pa: USC over Penn St 3-1
St: Stanford over texas 3-2

[OverAndUnder]

ay2013 said:

If Nebraska sweeps Texas my guess is that Texas will not stay in the top 4 rankings. Stanford will not go undefeated in the Pac-10, but will win the Pac-10 and my guess is that Penn State and Florida will go undefeated in their leagues this year which will put them as the number 1 seeds in their perspective regions.

Hm, let's say Nebraska barely beats Texas both matches BUT Texas sweeps their two matches against PSU. Could Texas stay in the top four while knocking PSU down to the second half?

I'll only say it about twenty more times in the next two weeks, but I think all predictions should wait for, and thereafter depend on, the PSU-Texas matches. Those two matches will give us a really good look at both teams, as well as completing a strong link in the chain of common opponents between the three major conferences.