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Post by vbshrink on Aug 19, 2014 18:01:52 GMT -5
I see Florida as the clear #1 and Kentucky as the clear #2. After them, I think it is really wide open. In my opinion, the preseason poll over-rates TAMU, LSU, and Mizzou. I don't think they are credibly better than Bama, who I like as a dark horse #3 (or maybe #2). I think Arkansas is likely to battle it out with the TAMU/LSU/Mizzou triad for spaces 4-7, but don't sleep on Arkansas. They have a lot of physicality and athleticism returning. Like Mizzou and TAMU, they will be breaking in a new setter, but I think there is more depth of talent on the Arkansas roster.
At the bottom of the league, I think the poll looks about right. Anything besides an 0-fer for MS State will be very surprising, and the youth at Tennessee and Auburn will be hard to turn into consistent wins. South Carolina will be interesting to watch - they have some athletes that are good, but it will be interesting to see how they adapt to the loss of Thevenin, who got about 50% of their sets last year. They usually had good gameplans, though, and seemed to be very ready to compete each match. Another year in Swanson's system might produce a bit of a turnaround for them. Georgia is an interesting mix and will undoubtedly win a match or two they "shouldn't." Ole Miss has a lot of holes, but some standout individuals.
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Post by cw on Aug 20, 2014 19:41:36 GMT -5
Anyone at the Mizzou scrimmage tonight that can give us an idea of how the team looks?
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Post by James on Aug 20, 2014 21:43:43 GMT -5
I see Florida as the clear #1 and Kentucky as the clear #2. After them, I think it is really wide open. In my opinion, the preseason poll over-rates TAMU, LSU, and Mizzou. I don't think they are credibly better than Bama, who I like as a dark horse #3 (or maybe #2). I think Arkansas is likely to battle it out with the TAMU/LSU/Mizzou triad for spaces 4-7, but don't sleep on Arkansas. They have a lot of physicality and athleticism returning. Like Mizzou and TAMU, they will be breaking in a new setter, but I think there is more depth of talent on the Arkansas roster. At the bottom of the league, I think the poll looks about right. Anything besides and 0-fer for MS State will be very surprising, and the youth at Tennessee and Auburn will be hard to turn into consistent wins. South Carolina will be interesting to watch - they have some athletes that are good, but it will be interesting to see how they adapt to the loss of Thevenin, who got about 50% of their sets last year. They usually had good gameplans, though, and seemed to be very ready to compete each match. Another year in Swanson's system might produce a bit of a turnaround for them. Georgia is an interesting mix and will undoubtedly win a match or two they "shouldn't." Ole Miss has a lot of holes, but some standout individuals. You forgot Alabama. I think they could easily be in the #3-5 range -- and if they have a really special year maybe even #2.
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Post by volleyballfanatic on Aug 20, 2014 21:45:34 GMT -5
Anyone at the Mizzou scrimmage tonight that can give us an idea of how the team looks? Swanson has a volleyball system? I thought his only system involved turning over players.
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Post by vbshrink on Aug 21, 2014 7:24:50 GMT -5
I see Florida as the clear #1 and Kentucky as the clear #2. After them, I think it is really wide open. In my opinion, the preseason poll over-rates TAMU, LSU, and Mizzou. I don't think they are credibly better than Bama, who I like as a dark horse #3 (or maybe #2). I think Arkansas is likely to battle it out with the TAMU/LSU/Mizzou triad for spaces 4-7, but don't sleep on Arkansas. They have a lot of physicality and athleticism returning. Like Mizzou and TAMU, they will be breaking in a new setter, but I think there is more depth of talent on the Arkansas roster. At the bottom of the league, I think the poll looks about right. Anything besides and 0-fer for MS State will be very surprising, and the youth at Tennessee and Auburn will be hard to turn into consistent wins. South Carolina will be interesting to watch - they have some athletes that are good, but it will be interesting to see how they adapt to the loss of Thevenin, who got about 50% of their sets last year. They usually had good gameplans, though, and seemed to be very ready to compete each match. Another year in Swanson's system might produce a bit of a turnaround for them. Georgia is an interesting mix and will undoubtedly win a match or two they "shouldn't." Ole Miss has a lot of holes, but some standout individuals. You forgot Alabama. I think they could easily be in the #3-5 range -- and if they have a really special year maybe even #2. Um...
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Post by vbshrink on Aug 21, 2014 11:50:47 GMT -5
Anyone at the Mizzou scrimmage tonight that can give us an idea of how the team looks? Swanson has a volleyball system? I thought his only system involved turning over players. I assume this comment was actually directed at me rather than the question about Mizzou's scrimmage. There was enormous turnover between the 2012 and 2013 SC rosters -- 10 players with remaining eligibility either transferred or otherwise left the team (and that's a LOT), but between last year and this year there is only one player who left with remaining eligibility, a freshman DS. So it seems that maybe he has righted the ship in that regard? Not really defending him -- don't know much about him or his style of coaching. I have been impressed, though, by the fight in his teams and the way they have approached competition.
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Post by SECDude44 on Aug 21, 2014 12:00:10 GMT -5
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Post by emeyezee on Aug 21, 2014 12:00:36 GMT -5
Anyone at the Mizzou scrimmage tonight that can give us an idea of how the team looks? I was at the scrimmage and it looked pretty much as I expected. Serve receive and floor defense looked very solid as did blocking. One thing that did surprise me was the freshman Kasey Reuter. She has a cannon for an arm and I really hope to see her on the court a LOT. Setting was a little shaky at times, especially setting to the middles when 5-10 feet off the net. There will be a few growing pains after losing Kreklow as a setter but Loxley Keala looks like she will be more than capable to fill the role. Something that has me worried is that Emily Thater and Lydia Ely were not playing. I believe they both had back issues, Ely's being much more serious. All in all I think that the team looked good. Whitney Little is a stud as are Meister and Kan with Wilson right there too. That's a very solid core to work with and I think the Tigers will win a lot of games this year. Especially with that schedule... SEC undefeated champs? No, but should be right in the mix at the top after Florida.
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Post by James on Aug 21, 2014 13:07:34 GMT -5
You forgot Alabama. I think they could easily be in the #3-5 range -- and if they have a really special year maybe even #2. Um... Hey, the coaches picked them #5 which isn't that far from #3!
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Post by vbshrink on Aug 21, 2014 13:31:08 GMT -5
I just meant that I didn't overlook them - I mentioned them in my comment, and I think we have pretty much the exact same opinion about how good they might be! ;-)
BTW - Thanks for the tennesseevolleyball.net site -- I really like what you do there, and I enjoy looking at it whenever I have questions about the Lady Vols! Good work!
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Post by cw on Aug 21, 2014 14:58:48 GMT -5
Anyone at the Mizzou scrimmage tonight that can give us an idea of how the team looks? I was at the scrimmage and it looked pretty much as I expected. Serve receive and floor defense looked very solid as did blocking. One thing that did surprise me was the freshman Kasey Reuter. She has a cannon for an arm and I really hope to see her on the court a LOT. Setting was a little shaky at times, especially setting to the middles when 5-10 feet off the net. There will be a few growing pains after losing Kreklow as a setter but Loxley Keala looks like she will be more than capable to fill the role. Something that has me worried is that Emily Thater and Lydia Ely were not playing. I believe they both had back issues, Ely's being much more serious. All in all I think that the team looked good. Whitney Little is a stud as are Meister and Kan with Wilson right there too. That's a very solid core to work with and I think the Tigers will win a lot of games this year. Especially with that schedule... SEC undefeated champs? No, but should be right in the mix at the top after Florida. Any reason why they only played two sets? And I'm guessing the box score is wrong as it shows them only playing to 20 points in both sets.
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Post by emeyezee on Aug 21, 2014 16:10:05 GMT -5
Any reason why they only played two sets? And I'm guessing the box score is wrong as it shows them only playing to 20 points in both sets. It wasn't a full match scrimmage, just the two sets starting at 5-5. Players were even changing sides for different rotations.
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Post by HeyHey on Aug 21, 2014 20:46:38 GMT -5
Here's a video recapping UK VB's trip to China this past May.
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Post by goodtobeagator on Aug 22, 2014 6:12:47 GMT -5
Anyone at the Mizzou scrimmage tonight that can give us an idea of how the team looks? I was at the scrimmage and it looked pretty much as I expected. Serve receive and floor defense looked very solid as did blocking. One thing that did surprise me was the freshman Kasey Reuter. She has a cannon for an arm and I really hope to see her on the court a LOT. Setting was a little shaky at times, especially setting to the middles when 5-10 feet off the net. There will be a few growing pains after losing Kreklow as a setter but Loxley Keala looks like she will be more than capable to fill the role. Something that has me worried is that Emily Thater and Lydia Ely were not playing. I believe they both had back issues, Ely's being much more serious. All in all I think that the team looked good. Whitney Little is a stud as are Meister and Kan with Wilson right there too. That's a very solid core to work with and I think the Tigers will win a lot of games this year. Especially with that schedule... SEC undefeated champs? No, but should be right in the mix at the top after Florida. I think Mizzou will be Ok, but I am interested to see what Kan does without an AA setter distributing.
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Post by James on Aug 22, 2014 8:48:01 GMT -5
I just meant that I didn't overlook them - I mentioned them in my comment, and I think we have pretty much the exact same opinion about how good they might be! ;-) BTW - Thanks for the tennesseevolleyball.net site -- I really like what you do there, and I enjoy looking at it whenever I have questions about the Lady Vols! Good work! Um... How did I miss that?! Twice! Thanks for the kind words. I've got an SEC section with lots of links that readers that aren't interested specifically in UT might find useful: www.tennesseevolleyball.net/sec/
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