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Post by SportyBucky on Dec 22, 2014 9:13:27 GMT -5
Wisconsin loses a ton this year. Carlini will keep them relevant, but conference championship might be a bit much next year. WI loses an experienced MH, RS, OH and DS. While it is a ton, we had an AA on the bench and bring in the top recruiting class. Replacing our OH will be easier than replacing Thomas or Thompson. I have hope in that we have Tionna Williams coming in and she will play right away. I also think Kriskova will be an impact player. OH/RS is up for grabs, but plenty of talent.
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Post by SportyBucky on Dec 22, 2014 9:14:39 GMT -5
I wouldn't disagree, however I think this past season another Big 10 team just proved that a team can sustain heavy losses with an exceptional leader/setter and a very talented freshman class. Could wisconsin get back of course. Nebraska just impressed me a lot in tourney. If they can find consistency in my opinion they're second best team in conference Replacing their setter should improve NE, but I'm not sure they're second best.
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bluepenquin
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Post by bluepenquin on Dec 22, 2014 9:57:50 GMT -5
The Conference will be much deeper and get 9 teams in the tournament. No surprises - the same 9 teams that have made it in the past couple years. Will exceed their seedings and get the most teams into the sweet 16 and Penn State will win the NC. Is any of this getting old. Just to be a bit different - I will predict all of the above, except Stanford finally wins the NC, again (a different sort of getting old). And we get 1 year closer to the day when some of the top HS recruits go to a school outside of the B1G/PAC/Texas. The conference being better may not help enough to get 4 more teams in. They had a winning record vs everybody but the Pac 12, winning about 80% of the matches vs most leagues. The sideways results (excluding Maryland, Rutgers, and Indiana who are still going to stink) would be Illinois vs Va Tech, Nebraska vs Florida State, Minnesota vs Louisville, Michigan State vs Long Island, Michigan vs Kansas St and Arkansas, and Purdue vs St. Louis and Western Kentucky. Could 8 matches be worth 3-4 bids? I'd be surprised. That said, the conference needs to schedule smarter, as we discussed before... This is concerning. It also exacerbates the inequality caused by the scheduling contortions necessary to avoid breaking the conference into divisions and maintain some semblance of a round-robin format. Some may say that Wisconsin gets it easy by only playing PSU and Nebraska once, and getting Rutgers twice and Maryland once. But with the latter two's bottom-of-the-barrell OOC scheduling, every match we play them is one we have to make up for in our own OOC scheduling. Whereas teams in other conferences get roughly an equal RPI impact from their conference schedule, the impact of the conference schedule is different for each B1G team depending on who they play. I strongly sense that last year, when the B1G got eight teams into the tournament, will be the last year we get so many. We'll definitely get five, maybe six. I find more to be highly unlikely. The Big 10 teams need to schedule smarter to accommodate for Rutgers and Maryland until Rutgers and Maryland get better. It was a theory over the summer but seeing how things shook out they need to pay closer attention. Purdue played 8 matches to teams with a Pablo below 200 - Rutgers being 2 of them. Northwestern played 5 such teams plus Rutgers which was harder to notice since Northwestern stunk in conference. Michigan State had 3 such teams plus Rutgers and had 6 tournament teams before starting the Big 10 schedule, and they were one of the last teams in. Ohio State played 2 teams below 150 and they got in. I point this out because presumably they could all get past a team ranked #120 without much more effort than they'll use to get past a team ranked #220. You will always have some teams that are better or worse than you expect, and they'll never be perfect beating everybody they are supposed to, but playing teams that go 17-12 instead of 12-17 helps the RPI for the entire conference and help them get more teams in. Be careful of cause and effect. We will not know until we know, but I believe that the B1G RPI 'troubles' this season were the result of the middle of the conference not being as strong as the past and not the result of adding Rutgers and Maryland. That said, good scheduling has a material impact on RPI and especially avoiding the terrible w/l teams. The Big 10 wants Rutgers to schedule the worst teams possible that gives them the most wins.
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Post by Boof1224 on Dec 22, 2014 12:09:18 GMT -5
Could wisconsin get back of course. Nebraska just impressed me a lot in tourney. If they can find consistency in my opinion they're second best team in conference Replacing their setter should improve NE, but I'm not sure they're second best. Only time will tell and unfortunately we have awhile to wait.
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Post by badgerbreath on Dec 22, 2014 12:32:42 GMT -5
With Poulter and a couple good young hitters, Illinois could be significantly improved this year, even though have lost some firepower in MacMahon and Criswell. That's the team NE has to overcome before even thinking about being second best.
I really have no idea what to expect of UW this year. This will be the second real test of Sheff's coaching skills. They will certainly have growing pains. However, I'm not worried much about defense, Bates and Nelson are proven and I'm told a healthy Kriskova is the real deal and may be an improvement over other hitting options this year. There will be plenty of competition for the other two spots at middle and L2/RS, so we'll see if somebody can step in and make an impact. With Lauren setting, that may not be as hard as some presume.
That said, I am also not sure what to expect of PSU. A setter like Hancock is hard to replace. The team will have to change to adapt, but how and will they be as effective in their new configuration. Who knows.
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Post by badgerbreath on Dec 22, 2014 12:33:30 GMT -5
It is a long wait to find out!
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Post by Phillytom on Dec 22, 2014 13:07:46 GMT -5
That said, I am also not sure what to expect of PSU. A setter like Hancock is hard to replace. Especially since it is not certain who will be the setter. Presumably Rivera will be able to compete for the job with Weiskircher. I think given new setter and new backcourt and still a relatively young front line, PSU might not look like a typical PSU team the first part of the season. They will develop toughness and confidence over time. I wonder if next year Nebraska is set up for a special year. The only player they lose to graduation is Pohlmiller and they're bringing in the nation's No. 1 recruit at MB.
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Post by Boof1224 on Dec 22, 2014 13:23:43 GMT -5
That said, I am also not sure what to expect of PSU. A setter like Hancock is hard to replace. Especially since it is not certain who will be the setter. Presumably Rivera will be able to compete for the job with Weiskircher. I think given new setter and new backcourt and still a relatively young front line, PSU might not look like a typical PSU team the first part of the season. They will develop toughness and confidence over time. I wonder if next year Nebraska is set up for a special year. The only player they lose to graduation is Pohlmiller and they're bringing in the nation's No. 1 recruit at MB. I expect a slow start but psu always seems to be ready to go tourney time and that's when it matters most. Might not be one of top ranked teams in poll but what does that matter if your winning championships.
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Dec 22, 2014 13:25:23 GMT -5
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Post by Longhorn20 on Dec 22, 2014 13:25:23 GMT -5
Could wisconsin get back of course. Nebraska just impressed me a lot in tourney. If they can find consistency in my opinion they're second best team in conference Replacing their setter should improve NE, but I'm not sure they're second best. They're replacing two of their worst positions last year. The setting will be improved, but I think Foecke will be huge for them this year.
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Post by badgerbreath on Dec 22, 2014 13:38:22 GMT -5
There is no doubt Neb has a lot of talent, but having watched them 3-4 times this year, Neb just didn't pass well enough to use the amazing talent they have, and there was often a lack of connection (for lack of a better word) on court that led to inconsistency. Their block was good, but I always felt it should be better. Sometimes it really felt like they weren't enjoying themselves. Not like Illinois, PSU and UW, anyway.
PSU did really well with their freshmen hitters because they were working off a very solid base with Hancock and Gonzales et al. I've yet to see that foundation at Neb, and that's what concerns me about them. And it's not necessarily a concern about the individual players. Foecke may be able to cover over some of those cracks, and Hunter may be an improvement over Pohlmiller, so we'll see. It should be apparent early on in the season I think. Maybe if they get a little better foothold on the season, they will take off.
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Post by Boof1224 on Dec 22, 2014 13:51:19 GMT -5
Who knows. We gotta see how schedule sets up. I think psu will be vulnerable early with a new setter and libero which depending on schedules could allow someone else to jump in a claim Big. If you don't get them early might be a problem. Psu has consistently shown they are always ready to go towards end of season. Like I said earlier, in my opinion I think Nebraska is best shot but it very we'll could be badgers. I wouldn't sleep on ohio state either. Most are prob gonna go " what no Illinois or Minnesota?" Until they can show me they can play more consistently on year to year basis I'm not putting them up there. Every year it seems to be the same with both schools. A lot of talent but consistently inconsistent.
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Post by dorothymantooth on Dec 22, 2014 13:52:57 GMT -5
There is no doubt Neb has a lot of talent, but having watched them 3-4 times this year, Neb just didn't pass well enough to use the amazing talent they have, and there was often a lack of connection (for lack of a better word) on court that led to inconsistency. Their block was good, but I always felt it should be better. Sometimes it really felt like they weren't enjoying themselves. Not like Illinois, PSU and UW, anyway. PSU did really well with their freshmen hitters because they were working off a very solid base with Hancock and Gonzales et al. I've yet to see that foundation at Neb, and that's what concerns me about them. And it's not necessarily a concern about the individual players. Foecke may be able to cover over some of those cracks, and Hunter may be an improvement over Pohlmiller, so we'll see. It should be apparent early on in the season I think. Maybe if they get a little better foothold on the season, they will take off. while they have their moments passing like all teams, passing was in no way close to their biggest challenge as a team. I also wouldnt go so far and say their talent is "amazing" and if it is, it insnt in the offensive department. I believe Hunter makes them better offensively, and if they are going to be really good, Foecke will need to be as good as advertised and perform at the level PSU had their key freshman perform. Nebraska should challenge for the Big and a FF berth.
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Post by jma22 on Dec 22, 2014 14:26:04 GMT -5
The Big Ten title race should be really close next season. PSU and Wisconsin will likely take a step back with all their losses, but should still be really good. Hard to say if Illinois will be better or worse, they lose McMahon and Criswell but bring in an amazing recruiting class including the #1 setter. Nebraska brings back almost everyone along with the top recruit so they're my guess for conference champ. But I wouldn't be surprised to see any of those four teams win the conference. Ohio State might be a contender too.
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Post by badgerbreath on Dec 22, 2014 14:36:30 GMT -5
Right now, that is my feeling about it. I think it's exciting...and I think good for the conference. I wouldn't be surprised if MSU or Michigan play a big role as well. They both lose key players but went through a lot of growing pains last year.
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Post by mnsports255 on Dec 22, 2014 15:32:49 GMT -5
Who knows. We gotta see how schedule sets up. I think psu will be vulnerable early with a new setter and libero which depending on schedules could allow someone else to jump in a claim Big. If you don't get them early might be a problem. Psu has consistently shown they are always ready to go towards end of season. Like I said earlier, in my opinion I think Nebraska is best shot but it very we'll could be badgers. I wouldn't sleep on ohio state either. Most are prob gonna go " what no Illinois or Minnesota?" Until they can show me they can play more consistently on year to year basis I'm not putting them up there. Every year it seems to be the same with both schools. A lot of talent but consistently inconsistent. Shows how little you actually follow volleyball outside of Penn State. Minnesota had made the Sweet 16 for 5 years in a row prior to this year. Plus 16 straight NCAA tournaments. If that's not consistent I don't know what is. Obviously Minnesota wont be at the top of the conference, but don't say they haven't been consistent in recent history, because they were as consistent as it comes. EDUCATE yourself before you speak, because you sound really stupid.
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