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Post by allymcbeal on Mar 4, 2007 12:59:26 GMT -5
Brain vs. Muscle. Oddly enough, muscle prevailed. allymcbeal, it's odd that you would suggest Irvine is what you refer to as "muscle." Size-wise on paper, with exception of Eaton, Beach is a bigger, more physical team than Irvine. It has been placed on record by Speraw and opposing coaches that Irvine is a smaller team and relies on executing a faster offense, strategic team defense and precision blocking to defeat their opponents. Irvine does not over-power because they can't. They run a balanced attack. It would seem Beach players have the muscle-- look at Liles (6'8") vs. Smith (6'7") in the Middle last night, Lotman (6'7") vs. Jablonsky (6'5"), Harrell (6'5") vs. Alexander (6'7") also in the middle, Pestolesi/Fabry (6'6"/6'6") vs. Reinholm (6'4") at the OH. Irvine's only advantage was Eaton (6'1") vs. Thornton (6'3") from a physical or "muscle" standpoint. The matchup b/w Bittner and Webber was balanced being that they are both 6'7", however if anyone can argue Webber being "muscle" especially with Patak in the MPSF they probably need to reconsider their position. Irvine was the "brain" that won out last night-- not the "muscle." I said muscle not height. You may be shorter but that doesn't necessarily mean you're physically weaker. Bittner, Pestolesi, Alexander, Eaton, Fabri are not as well-built as the Irvine boys nor do they do "speed and power" game a la Webber, Jayson, Patak, Klosterman, Lotman, etc. But you're right, UCI is a combination of power and brain. Great players. Awesome team. Vamos Beach!
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Post by vbparasite on Mar 4, 2007 13:57:14 GMT -5
Give those LB freshman/sophomores time - they will be physically and mentally stronger each year with age and conditioning. You are comparing 19 year olds to 22 year olds.
I enjoyed the Irvine webcast - the announcer would rival any professional auctioneer on those long rallies.
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Post by ucivball on Mar 4, 2007 14:46:15 GMT -5
the anouncer for the webcast last night participates regularly on this forum, and particularly has already commented on this topic. he is "robonthemic". he is also the anouncer at uci home games.
lotman was awesome. however he got blocked and committed some hitting errors at crucial times during the 5th game. although his serving was the most potent out of all the players last night.
for uci, smith was a beast. the two solo blocks he had in the middle were rediculous. in total, he had 13 blocks! it's always funny to see him close the block to thorton, which he is easily a foot higher than him. but when he closes to webber. those two put up a gigantic wall.
thorton was the smooth operator last night. he had a nice one handed d ball set to webber which he hit it straight down through a seam.
great match overall. can't wait for the rematch at the bren. and with the uci anouncer, his enthusiasm in calling the action for both teams just makes it more exciting. keep it up rob!
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Post by tedmoseby on Mar 4, 2007 21:27:13 GMT -5
Can't agree more about the announcer...even though I'm a Beach fan, that guy made my night. I could actually visualize the match, although some of those rallies were like listening to a very competitive horse race. The Beach webcast announcer tells us the serve and then the point termination and nothing in between, even if there was a long rally. However he gives a lot of detail about the cheers the bench players are using. The worst was how badly he butchered Garrett Muagututia's name every single time he said it during the UCLA match. It was painful!
The Beach's hitting was atrocious. Game 1 - .250, Game 2 - .133, Game 3 - .185, Game 4 - .065, Game 5 - -.069 = .118 for the match...yikes! Sounded like Beach's setter was having a tough night. The announcer said he had 41 assists after Game 4 but only ended up with 44 so he only had 3 assists in Game 5. That's only 8.8 per game...how did they stay in it? Surprised there wasn't a change considering how quickly they changed setters in the ill-fated UCSD match.
What was up with Bitner? After UCLA he fell off dramatically against UCI. Fabry finally got some time and played well. Pestolesi played great in game 1 but fell off in game 2 and I don't think saw the court the rest of the match. I wholeheartedly agree on Tyler Caldwell..can't understand why he's had such limited time all year. Unfortunately it seems players can quickly get in Knipe's doghouse and it's tough to get out. This has been one rugged year for the Beach. I hope they survive it with their psyches intact.
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Post by shankapotamus on Mar 5, 2007 3:16:07 GMT -5
Smith Celebratin' After Regulatin' For original story: www.mvball.uci.eduMarch 3, 2007 NO. 2 UC IRVINE TAKES DOWN NO. 14 LONG BEACH STATE, 3-2 (Boxscore) Long Beach, Calif. -- Second-ranked UC Irvine recorded 5.5 blocks in game five to take down No.14 Long Beach State, 3-2 (23-30, 30-19, 30-25, 28-30, 15-12) in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match Saturday at The Gold Mine. Long Beach State (7-9, 4-8) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the fifth game on back-to-back service aces, but UC Irvine (19-3, 13-3) took a 4-2 advantage after a Forty-Niner attempt went long and the Anteaters recorded three consecutive blocks in which Aaron Harrell had a hand in each of them. The score was tied 8-8 when David Smith recorded a kill, a block with Brian Thornton and then another kill to put UCI up 11-8. Long Beach State would close to 12-11 before a LBSU attack error was followed by a Harrell kill to give the Anteaters match point, 14-11. A Long Beach kill was followed by another Harrell kill for the game 15-12 and the match 3-2. LBSU hit .069 in the final set. Matt Webber led all players with 20 kills and nine digs. He also added six total blocks and three service aces. Middle blocker David Smith recorded 11 kills and a match-high 13 total blocks, which included a season-high 11 block assists. Setter Brian Thornton had 53 assists, seven digs and a career-best eight block assists. Junior middle blocker Aaron Harrell added eight kills, two aces and six blocks. Libero Nick Spittle had nine digs in the victory. Jayson Jablonsky recorded 10 kills, Cole Reinholm nine and Taylor Wilson four for UCI. Long Beach State was paced by Paul Lotman with 16 kills, four aces, six digs and five blocks. Dean Bittner added 11 kills, while Dan Alexander had a team-high seven total blocks. UCI out-blocked Long Beach State with a season-high 21.5 to 14.5, but the Forty-Niners out-served the Anteaters 17-8. UC Irvine will host No. 5 UCLA Friday (Mar. 9) at 7:00 p.m. in the Bren Events Center.
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Post by robonthemic on Mar 5, 2007 13:57:15 GMT -5
I was extremely impressed with the Beach on Saturday night. They have a talented group of players and without a doubt they have INCREDIBLE potential to be a contendor. I'm still trying to figure out how they lost to UCSD!
Caldwell should have been on the floor-- no disrespect to Watten, but it just seems that Caldwell's ability to get to balls off the block, save balls and create a spark for the team was noticable. The level of play seemed to have increased when he was in.
Webber really stepped up on Saturday night with his offense, blocking and defense. I believe Irvine still hasn't found their stride yet because although they have been winning, it hasn't been without numerous unforced errors or "fundamentals" errors (like on communication on serve receive = ACES for the opponent). They'll fully click-- there's no doubt about that. Hopefully it will be against UCLA!
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Post by allymcbeal on Mar 5, 2007 14:42:00 GMT -5
I was extremely impressed with the Beach on Saturday night. They have a talented group of players and without a doubt they have INCREDIBLE potential to be a contendor. I'm still trying to figure out how they lost to UCSD! Caldwell should have been on the floor-- no disrespect to Watten, but it just seems that Caldwell's ability to get to balls off the block, save balls and create a spark for the team was noticable. The level of play seemed to have increased when he was in. Webber really stepped up on Saturday night with his offense, blocking and defense. I believe Irvine still hasn't found their stride yet because although they have been winning, it hasn't been without numerous unforced errors or "fundamentals" errors (like on communication on serve receive = ACES for the opponent). They'll fully click-- there's no doubt about that. Hopefully it will be against UCLA! I couldn't agree more. Having wrecked UCSD (to whom Lotman and the boys had just lost) 3-0, UCI should theoretically have had a "Don't worry, we'll send you a postcard from Ohio State" night at the Gold Mine. But no, the beach boys were able to come out with a respectable los of 3-2 against the best team (?) in the country. Caldwell - Watten - Caldwell - Watten - Caldwell - Watten... tough choice... they're both great liberos but I believe Caldwell has the edge when it comes to intangibility. Why oh why has Norm Hutton been MIA? It's like not having Andy Roddick play for Davis Cup. Steve Klosterman was in the house. Scouting? I am looking forward to the UCI - UCkLostermAn match at the Bren (and Pauley). Vamos Beach! Ayo Beach! Viva Beach! GO BEACH!!!
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Post by sharp716 on Mar 6, 2007 15:00:31 GMT -5
allymcbeal, it's odd that you would suggest Irvine is what you refer to as "muscle." Size-wise on paper, with exception of Eaton, Beach is a bigger, more physical team than Irvine. It has been placed on record by Speraw and opposing coaches that Irvine is a smaller team and relies on executing a faster offense, strategic team defense and precision blocking to defeat their opponents. Irvine does not over-power because they can't. They run a balanced attack. It would seem Beach players have the muscle-- look at Liles (6'8") vs. Smith (6'7") in the Middle last night, Lotman (6'7") vs. Jablonsky (6'5"), Harrell (6'5") vs. Alexander (6'7") also in the middle, Pestolesi/Fabry (6'6"/6'6") vs. Reinholm (6'4") at the OH. Irvine's only advantage was Eaton (6'1") vs. Thornton (6'3") from a physical or "muscle" standpoint. The matchup b/w Bittner and Webber was balanced being that they are both 6'7", however if anyone can argue Webber being "muscle" especially with Patak in the MPSF they probably need to reconsider their position. Irvine was the "brain" that won out last night-- not the "muscle." I said muscle not height. You may be shorter but that doesn't necessarily mean you're physically weaker. Bittner, Pestolesi, Alexander, Eaton, Fabri are not as well-built as the Irvine boys nor do they do "speed and power" game a la Webber, Jayson, Patak, Klosterman, Lotman, etc. But you're right, UCI is a combination of power and brain. Great players. Awesome team. Vamos Beach! So how is LBSU the "Brain" team then? I wasn't there from the match, but from the looks of it, Long Beach stayed in the game by getting tons of aces against UCI. Especially since LBSU is a younger team, and UCI is made up of a "bunch of nobodies" from high school, I would say that Beach has a long way to go on the "Brain" side of things and that UCI could not have had their current success without it. P.S. The "bunch of nobodies" quote is from Webber, not me. Jablonsky, Thornton, Spittle, and Simpson were studly when I played against them or saw them play in high school.
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Post by VBaller23 on Mar 6, 2007 15:55:50 GMT -5
I don't think this game was a black and white game between muscle/power vs. brains. Long Beach has always been a big, physical team that utilized its strengths and has always tried to be more aggressive than their opponents. UCI is taught speed, thats been Speraw's focus since day one utilizing a shorter setter and average sized middles in Harrel at 6'5 and Smith at 6'6/6'7.
Unfortunately Long Beach has been unable to out-muscle their opponents this year because they are a very young team that is inexperienced and not mentally tough enough to contend with the big boys night in and night out. They have shown glimpses with 5 gamers against CSUN, UCLA, PEPP, and now UCI but losses to teams like UCSD and a 5 game win against Stanford show they have some weaknesses.
I think the game on Saturday night was a combination of speed,power, and hustle by both sides. Irvine is probably slightly more talented than LBSU at the moment but like several people have said, give the Long Beach boys some time and they will get there.
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Post by allymcbeal on Mar 7, 2007 16:30:13 GMT -5
OK, can we please end this brain vs. muscle altercation? Let’s just say both teams possess muscle and brain I still don’t understand Hutton’s absence. Can someone conjecture why he is gone? I mean, a bunch of freshmen in lieu of Norm Hutton? <<They have shown glimpses with 5 gamers against CSUN, UCLA, PEPP, and now UCI but losses to teams like UCSD and a 5 game win against Stanford show they have some weaknesses>> When did this 5-game win against Stanford take place? As far as I know, the Beach kicked Stanford’s duff severely in their last 2-3 meetings. Go Beach!
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Post by Beachy on Mar 7, 2007 18:54:01 GMT -5
5 game win against Stanford very early in the season at Elephant Bar tourney at Santa Barbara. Good match, Shoji kept his team in the game. Beach showed then how vulnerable they are to the short serve that UCLA then utilized to gain some advantage.(thankfully not enough) Starters that match were Eaton, Hutton, Lotman, Christensen, Liles, Bittner in the middle and Watten libero. Watten had a great match as did Lotman.
Hutton had been the starter all year but the coaches shook up the lineup for the UCLA match. (starters were Eaton, Bittner, Lotman, Christensen, Shea and Liles in the middle, Caldwell libero) ( Iandolo set the previous 3 matches, Bittner never tried at oppo, Shea had only been oppo or blocking sub, Christensen rarely used and quickly subbed, Caldwell only serving sub/BR) Bittner did very well at oppo. Hutton is a very good hitter. I never know what the coaches are thinking but can only guess on a few things. Bittner seems to hit the bad set better than Hutton, Bittner seems to be a more formidable blocker (gets more touches as well as blocks) and digs more balls in the back row. Bittner is also more versatile as they ran some quick middle attacks with him and some left side as well. Hutton does seem to be the more intimidating hitter. I don't know if these are the things that go on in the practice gym or not. The LBSU coaching staff seems to be looking for the magical combination to get some wins. I applaud them for looking but they are as unpredictable as the players. I have no idea who they will start this weekend.
Who plays? Who doesn't? These athletes are all excellent players. It is a mistake to think otherwise. Just because Hutton has not played the last matches does not take away from his talent. Each team in the MPSF has players that are all fighting for court time.
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Post by romeo on Mar 7, 2007 22:09:43 GMT -5
My conjecture is that the coach is giving this season up to play for the future. He is not playing more experienced (better) players because they aren't going to win regardless, and giving these young players the time will make them better next year. SUCKS for the older players, but is probably good for the program. grr OK, can we please end this brain vs. muscle altercation? Let’s just say both teams possess muscle and brain I still don’t understand Hutton’s absence. Can someone conjecture why he is gone? I mean, a bunch of freshmen in lieu of Norm Hutton?
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