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Post by blue-footedbooby on Oct 7, 2019 6:09:41 GMT -5
Next year is next year. I'm more interested in next week, when finally the Huskies will be back home again. I hope to be able to go to both matches. Amen.
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Post by alwayslearning on Oct 7, 2019 11:54:56 GMT -5
Maria's performance against UCLA puts her in the picture for Opposite next season, with Drechsel and Hoffman on the left. Agreed, but Maria has a lot of work to do in terms of blocking and back row defense (and you have to assume that Cook would want her in for serving so she would be playing at least some back row). You also wonder whether Cook might have used Dani Cole at OPP yesterday if she had not been injured. We haven't seen much of Crenshaw in the front row lately. I wonder if the staff doesn't have that much confidence in her front row play.
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Post by alwayslearning on Oct 7, 2019 11:58:09 GMT -5
Last night, Cook substituted Dani Cole at OH (for Claire Hoffman), getting an emphatic slam for a kill. Has she been practicing at OH or was this a spur of the moment thing (a hitter is a hitter, so it shouldn't matter what side she's hitting on)? Cook might be looking forward to next year, with Bajema graduated. Cole has the athletic ability, hops, and high contact point to maybe be a "hammer" on the left. Crenshaw could play as a six rotation OPP or even maybe end up at libero (cue debate on short vs. tall liberos)? Can we please stop this Crenshaw as libero thing 😐. Cook needs to find a schollie for a real libero/DS next year, that is clear to pretty much anyone that follows Washington volleyball. We don’t need a converted OH to run our backcourt. I tend to agree. I haven't seen enough consistency from Crenshaw in the back row to think that she could be a real successor to McPherson. I still think that the Huskies made a mistake by not nabbing a good transfer libero/DS this year.
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Post by tomclen on Oct 7, 2019 12:00:44 GMT -5
McPherson is now diving over the scorers table ala Cassie Strickland. She has become a top-quality libero, IMO.
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Post by alwayslearning on Oct 7, 2019 12:35:17 GMT -5
McPherson is now diving over the scorers table ala Cassie Strickland. She has become a top-quality libero, IMO. She went pretty deep over the table yesterday and managed to at least give the Huskies a chance on that ball. Then there was her dig from a kneeling position in the fourth set to keep the ball alive. Fun to watch and a truly dogged libero.
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Post by mikegarrison on Oct 7, 2019 16:33:33 GMT -5
So what really is going on with the Huskies? In the past three weeks they have won three matches against the #2 and #4 pablo teams, but lost 2 of 3 against teams ranked in the mid-20s. That's either some wild inconsistency or illness or something.
How much of it is Hoffman? She played big roles in the Stanford and two Wisconsin wins, but she hit 0.000 against USC and didn't play against WSU or UCLA.
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Post by dunninla3 on Oct 7, 2019 16:38:01 GMT -5
Last night, Cook substituted Dani Cole at OH (for Claire Hoffman), getting an emphatic slam for a kill. Has she been practicing at OH or was this a spur of the moment thing (a hitter is a hitter, so it shouldn't matter what side she's hitting on)? Cook might be looking forward to next year, with Bajema graduated. Cole has the athletic ability, hops, and high contact point to maybe be a "hammer" on the left. Crenshaw could play as a six rotation OPP or even maybe end up at libero (cue debate on short vs. tall liberos)? Can we please stop this Crenshaw as libero thing 😐. Cook needs to find a schollie for a real libero/DS next year, that is clear to pretty much anyone that follows Washington volleyball. We don’t need a converted OH to run our backcourt. don't most schools recruit Libero as a walkon, to be upgraded to a scholarship if they turn out to be very good? In other words two years as walkon with a promise of a scholarship for years 3 and 4, but not honored if they don't win the starting spot. Not saying that is the correct priority, but I just got the impression that is how it is handled. I read a comment that OH can be converted to Libero if they don't make it as OH in college. "You can teach SR and passing". I beg to differ. I think SR is mostly about quick recognition and quick reflexes. Sure you can teach good footwork and good platform, but slow reflexes ruin both. I give as examples Lanier, Plummer, May in the PAC. They are really bad at SR and no amount of experience or effort will make any of the three International OH ready, or college level DS or Libero. With all three I see how frustrated they get to be targeted on serve, and how upset they are when they shank a ball, which seems to be about a third of the time. Slight improvement from year to year, but YOU CAN'T TEACH REFLEXES:
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Post by alwayslearning on Oct 7, 2019 18:27:10 GMT -5
Can we please stop this Crenshaw as libero thing 😐. Cook needs to find a schollie for a real libero/DS next year, that is clear to pretty much anyone that follows Washington volleyball. We don’t need a converted OH to run our backcourt. don't most schools recruit Libero as a walkon, to be upgraded to a scholarship if they turn out to be very good? In other words two years as walkon with a promise of a scholarship for years 3 and 4, but not honored if they don't win the starting spot. Not saying that is the correct priority, but I just got the impression that is how it is handled. I read a comment that OH can be converted to Libero if they don't make it as OH in college. "You can teach SR and passing". I beg to differ. I think SR is mostly about quick recognition and quick reflexes. Sure you can teach good footwork and good platform, but slow reflexes ruin both. I give as examples Lanier, Plummer, May in the PAC. They are really bad at SR and no amount of experience or effort will make any of the three International OH ready, or college level DS or Libero. With all three I see how frustrated they get to be targeted on serve, and how upset they are when they shank a ball, which seems to be about a third of the time. Slight improvement from year to year, but YOU CAN'T TEACH REFLEXES: You may well be right about the inability to teach reflexes, but that doesn't mean a specific OH can't be converted to a good libero. See Tia Scambray. I'm not sure Crenshaw could attain this level, though I suppose it's possible. I'd rather see Cook recruit someone who comes in as a libero/DS to start with, whether she's on schollie or not.
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Post by alwayslearning on Oct 7, 2019 18:31:53 GMT -5
So what really is going on with the Huskies? In the past three weeks they have won three matches against the #2 and #4 pablo teams, but lost 2 of 3 against teams ranked in the mid-20s. That's either some wild inconsistency or illness or something. How much of it is Hoffman? She played big roles in the Stanford and two Wisconsin wins, but she hit 0.000 against USC and didn't play against WSU or UCLA. All good questions, Mike. Logic would suggest that a good deal of the Huskies' success, going back to last season, is the steady net presence, and usually decent passing, of Hoffman. In addition to big performances against Stanford and Wisconsin, she was probably our best player against Creighton. That's the bulk of the Huskies' best wins this season. She didn't look herself against USC and misses yesterday's match. So what is the injury and when does she return at full strength? Meanwhile, Maria B's nice performance yesterday notwithstanding, I'm not sure the Huskies are deep enough to sustain their early momentum without a healthy and high-performing Hoffman at OH2.
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Post by dunninla3 on Oct 7, 2019 18:49:49 GMT -5
The problem here is that Volleyball, unlike Softball which is my other sport of interest, is a headcount sport, that is, you can't divide scholarships so that the Libero is 50% and a DS is 50%, starting freshman year. Scholarships are 100% in a given year, or nothing.
When coaches offer a verbal commitment (hehe) for a Libero or DS for Junior and Senior years, it's really a 50% scholarship for four years, with all the risk held by the player, and none by the program. Problem of course is failure to win a starting spot, or the coach who verballed leaves the program. So now you have a rising Jr. with a new coach coming in, and you have a "Pharoah who knew not Joseph" situation. That coach will probably bank on that rising Jr. Libero being willing to stay with the school and team as a walk on.
The solution is the Transfer Portal. Coaches can pull a Libero or DS off the portal, but at that point there is no longer a verbal commitment to a future scholly... it's either scholly or walkon for the remainder.
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Post by DaDawgFather on Oct 7, 2019 19:22:10 GMT -5
So what really is going on with the Huskies? In the past three weeks they have won three matches against the #2 and #4 pablo teams, but lost 2 of 3 against teams ranked in the mid-20s. That's either some wild inconsistency or illness or something. How much of it is Hoffman? She played big roles in the Stanford and two Wisconsin wins, but she hit 0.000 against USC and didn't play against WSU or UCLA. I actually think we've been up and down all season. It's been more pronounced since Pac-12 started but I think the performance swings from game to game has been occurring since the beginning. One example, their win against Illinois in 5. Came out smoking hot and hit .389 in the 1st, then .121 and 0.000 in the 2nd and 3rd. Somehow won set 4 hitting .167 and then found a 2nd wind and hit .391 in the 5th. Pretty high deviation from game to game but ultimately for the match ended up .220.
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Post by redbeard2008 on Oct 8, 2019 14:52:14 GMT -5
Can we please stop this Crenshaw as libero thing 😐. Cook needs to find a schollie for a real libero/DS next year, that is clear to pretty much anyone that follows Washington volleyball. We don’t need a converted OH to run our backcourt. I tend to agree. I haven't seen enough consistency from Crenshaw in the back row to think that she could be a real successor to McPherson. I still think that the Huskies made a mistake by not nabbing a good transfer libero/DS this year. Who would Cook have pushed out? Oops, wrong Cook...
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Post by tomclen on Oct 10, 2019 7:57:53 GMT -5
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Post by tomclen on Oct 14, 2019 16:42:39 GMT -5
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Post by blue-footedbooby on Oct 14, 2019 17:24:08 GMT -5
Got anything more current.
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