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Post by redbeard2008 on Nov 28, 2014 4:00:05 GMT -5
My somewhat shaky recall (I haven't gone back and checked the recording) is that most of the serves Gilbert had trouble with were fading away and diving to her right. That's a harder pass to the setter than one to the passer's left, it seems to me, especially if you want to set the middle. I was fully expecting UW to target Howard, which is what they did last year in Seattle, I believe, and maybe that was what Stanford was expecting. Instead, UW did the unexpected, going right after Gilbert from the very first serve.
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Post by sportsfun on Nov 28, 2014 4:18:28 GMT -5
I said other teams might have trouble duplicating what UW did. While Ajanaku and Lutz are the best middle duo in the nation, Sybeldon and Wade aren't very far behind. This may have been mentioned before, but IIRC Wade (a Palo Alto native whose high school is literally physically right across the street from Stanford athletics) always does very well against the school that spurned her. Individual motivation, like Ebola, can spread like wild fire. (OK, apologize in advance for mixed metaphor, etc.) And this is an intangible that Pablo cnnnot ever capture. Are you just assuming that because her high school was across the street that she wanted to attend Stanford and was either not admitted due to grades or that Dunning wasn't interested in her or do you know that is truly the case? Considering that she's the same year of Ajanaku and McGehee, it's reasonable that he passed but it's also more than reasonable to assume that Washington was Wade's first choice. I talked to a top recruit a few years ago that didn't end up choosing Washington but stated that had the choice been based on the head coach, the friendliness of the athletic department as a whole, and the campus she would have chosen Washington. She went with a more academically prestigious school with better weather (a definite factor) but wrestled for a long time before making the decision because she and her family were very impressed with Jim's recruitment efforts and she stated that he was by far the best recruiter of the various coaches she met with.
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Post by mikegarrison on Nov 28, 2014 5:03:53 GMT -5
school with better weather There wouldn't be any such school if only the recruiting happened in August. But this time of year? If I weren't a native I would laugh in the face of anyone who tried to convince me of that.
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Post by sportsfun on Nov 28, 2014 5:31:29 GMT -5
school with better weather There wouldn't be any such school if only the recruiting happened in August. But this time of year? If I weren't a native I would laugh in the face of anyone who tried to convince me of that. I'm not sure what your post means but what I was saying was that she selected a school that had better weather than Seattle. My post was a compliment to Jim who was very impressive in how he recruited and apparently went out of his way to ensure the potential recruit was treated exceptionally well. I talked to another player who chose Washington and has since graduated who also stated that the way Jim recruited was noticeably better than the other schools she visited. It must have been convincing because she was a California girl who was willing to deal with the less desirable weather because she wanted to play for Jim and her options were nearly unlimited.
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Post by gobruins on Nov 28, 2014 5:38:35 GMT -5
Are you guys sure that Scates and Barney were actually in the arena? Watching on TV, I got the impression they were calling the match from a studio. They didn't do the usual halftime interviews with the coaches. When they came back from the halftime studio show, they showed Scates and Barney against a blue background with the Pac-12 logo. Sure didn't look like that would be in the arena.
If they were calling the match form a studio, that would explain their not seeing the officials make the change on the libero violation call.
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Post by mikegarrison on Nov 28, 2014 6:57:51 GMT -5
Are you guys sure that Scates and Barney were actually in the arena? Watching on TV, I got the impression they were calling the match from a studio. They didn't do the usual halftime interviews with the coaches. When they came back from the halftime studio show, they showed Scates and Barney against a blue background with the Pac-12 logo. Sure didn't look like that would be in the arena. If they were calling the match form a studio, that would explain their not seeing the officials make the change on the libero violation call. Yes, I'm sure. I was very close to them. The blue background is a piece of fabric they put up behind them.
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Post by rsell01 on Nov 28, 2014 7:29:40 GMT -5
Has anyone posted the match anywhere??
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Post by tomclen on Nov 28, 2014 8:28:51 GMT -5
Meaningless or not, and it certainly means nothing in standings, it's impressive that both teams have made it to the final match of the season and have lost only 14 and 16 sets. I'm not even going to bring up how Stanford received the luck-of-the-scheduling-draw and was given the gift of only playing UW once this season!
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Post by tomclen on Nov 28, 2014 8:35:57 GMT -5
Are you guys sure that Scates and Barney were actually in the arena? Watching on TV, I got the impression they were calling the match from a studio. They didn't do the usual halftime interviews with the coaches. When they came back from the halftime studio show, they showed Scates and Barney against a blue background with the Pac-12 logo. Sure didn't look like that would be in the arena. If they were calling the match form a studio, that would explain their not seeing the officials make the change on the libero violation call. Yes, I'm sure. I was very close to them. The blue background is a piece of fabric they put up behind them. At the start of the broadcast, they both did a standup in the corner of the court during warm-ups. Physically, they were there. Mentally, observationally, factually, insightfully (is that even a word?) they may as well have been on Dancing with the Stars. (I did find it odd that they didn't interview either coach at intermission...and there was no post-match interview. The post-match quick exit was likely due to a basketball broadcast.)
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Post by beaaaaast on Nov 28, 2014 11:40:22 GMT -5
My somewhat shaky recall (I haven't gone back and checked the recording) is that most of the serves Gilbert had trouble with were fading away and diving to her right. That's a harder pass to the setter than one to the passer's left, it seems to me, especially if you want to set the middle. I was fully expecting UW to target Howard, which is what they did last year in Seattle, I believe, and maybe that was what Stanford was expecting. Instead, UW did the unexpected, going right after Gilbert from the very first serve. I've seen Gilbert have serve receive issues all season. I mean, she wasn't shanking serves left to right in those matches but I've seen her actually get hit in the face with a serve because she didn't react and back up faster. UW targeted the libero and it worked to get them out of system most times. Strickland definitely outplayed Gilbert that night by a huge margin. Funny, because so much people were unsure of Strickland's Libero abilities in the start of the season. Right now, I'd honestly say Strickland and Oregon's libero are the best liberos in the conference.
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Post by alwayslearning on Nov 28, 2014 12:44:58 GMT -5
My somewhat shaky recall (I haven't gone back and checked the recording) is that most of the serves Gilbert had trouble with were fading away and diving to her right. That's a harder pass to the setter than one to the passer's left, it seems to me, especially if you want to set the middle. I was fully expecting UW to target Howard, which is what they did last year in Seattle, I believe, and maybe that was what Stanford was expecting. Instead, UW did the unexpected, going right after Gilbert from the very first serve. And my subjective recall from both attending the match and watching the replay was that Gilbert was not alone in having a bad night on serve receive. Howard was aced a few times and did not pass consistently at all. I think Burgess was better (not perfect), but she was not targeted nearly as much.
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Post by johnbar on Nov 28, 2014 12:50:24 GMT -5
I did find it odd that they didn't interview either coach at intermission... I was surprised by that, too. It has been pretty standard on Pac-12 broadcasts to interview one coach before half-time, and the other after. I wonder why they didn't do that this time?
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Post by volleyfan24 on Nov 28, 2014 12:54:14 GMT -5
Meaningless or not, and it certainly means nothing in standings, it's impressive that both teams have made it to the final match of the season and have lost only 14 and 16 sets. I'm not even going to bring up how Stanford received the luck-of-the-scheduling-draw and was given the gift of only playing UW once this season! I hope no one bites the bait.
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Post by alwayslearning on Nov 28, 2014 12:56:20 GMT -5
Meaningless or not, and it certainly means nothing in standings, it's impressive that both teams have made it to the final match of the season and have lost only 14 and 16 sets. I'm not even going to bring up how Stanford received the luck-of-the-scheduling-draw and was given the gift of only playing UW once this season! I hope no one bites the bait. Surely by now you understand that this is tomclen and his cheeky sense of humor.
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Post by dawgnerd on Nov 28, 2014 13:14:55 GMT -5
My somewhat shaky recall (I haven't gone back and checked the recording) is that most of the serves Gilbert had trouble with were fading away and diving to her right. That's a harder pass to the setter than one to the passer's left, it seems to me, especially if you want to set the middle. I was fully expecting UW to target Howard, which is what they did last year in Seattle, I believe, and maybe that was what Stanford was expecting. Instead, UW did the unexpected, going right after Gilbert from the very first serve. And my subjective recall from both attending the match and watching the replay was that Gilbert was not alone in having a bad night on serve receive. Howard was aced a few times and did not pass consistently at all. I think Burgess was better (not perfect), but she was not targeted nearly as much. One thing that I noticed in the SU serve receive, particularly later in the match, was that their initial set nearly hid Gilbert, but that they then often slid at the last moment to a more balanced position. Against Wade, it was particularly obvious a few times as she was targeting the side away from Gilbert anyways, so the two left receivers were bunching into the target area as the serve was going up. Did not seem to help much at all as Wade was pretty successful getting poor passes out of that area. Moving as the ball is tossed cannot help focus and it leaves them vulnerable to mixing in one or two serves behind the shift as the coaches spot it.
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