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Post by dawgs4life on Nov 6, 2019 12:51:05 GMT -5
It's hard to tell but if you guys follow them on instagram, I think Hoffman is back practicing with the team playing next to Summers. I could be wrong That would be great news if correct. 1st clip I actually think it might be Sanders.
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Post by pbmu on Nov 6, 2019 13:18:58 GMT -5
That would be great news if correct. 1st clip I actually think it might be Sanders. Hm, I think Sanders is on the left sideline of the 1st clip
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Post by redbeard2008 on Nov 11, 2019 2:42:10 GMT -5
Excellent week for Kara Bajema:
7s, 37k, 5.29k/s, 6e, 80ta, .388, 2sa/1se, 6bl, 19dg, 43.0pts, 6.14pts/s
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Post by ay2013 on Nov 14, 2019 3:52:41 GMT -5
Ugh, Iowa and Illinois were supposed to be better this year. I suppose this is how Penn State feels having scheduled Oregon.
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Post by mikegarrison on Nov 14, 2019 3:55:23 GMT -5
Ugh, Iowa and Illinois were supposed to be better this year. I suppose this is how Penn State feels having scheduled Oregon. On the other hand, two wins over Wisconsin are seriously boosting the Huskies.
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Post by ay2013 on Nov 14, 2019 4:16:54 GMT -5
Ugh, Iowa and Illinois were supposed to be better this year. I suppose this is how Penn State feels having scheduled Oregon. On the other hand, two wins over Wisconsin are seriously boosting the Huskies. well yeah, but it would be better had our overall SOS matched the expectations. Illinois should have been a top 25 RPI team, Iowa a top 50. Those two Big 10 teams last year had a 70% winning percentage. Right now they are sitting at 42% winning percentage. That's a pretty big shift, especially considering how many starters these teams return. That weekend is turning out to be probably the worst overall on Washington's non-conference SOS.
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Post by ay2013 on Nov 18, 2019 2:10:47 GMT -5
Ugh.....Iowa and Illinois are really killing our SOS..... F*CK!!!!!
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Post by alwayslearning on Nov 18, 2019 19:25:26 GMT -5
I've been thinking about UW's current and future team defense and wondering if others have thoughts. I don't think there is much doubt that UW is a better defensive team this year than what we've seen the last several years. But there is still some maddening inconsistency, even within a given match. Exhibit A could be yesterday's Utah match, where the Huskies played some lights out defense in the fifth set but looked mediocre in the second and third sets. Whether and how the Huskies improve in overall team D could well determine how deep they go in December.
Of course the Huskies' strength is their block, and we have three outstanding blockers in Niece, Sanders, and Bajema. Two of those three will be gone next year, so who will step up? The obvious candidates are Drechsel, who is pretty good right now, and Hoffman, who needs to work on this area. Powell is relatively good for a setter but not at Gray or Lazaro levels. It will be an interesting competition to fill Niece's shoes between Grote and Summers. With either one, I suspect that the offense may not really suffer but blocking will. Crenshaw could be good and might see a lot more time in the front row. Dani Cole surely needs time to develop into both a good front row hitter and blocker. Maybe Madi Endsley will contribute in the front row, but expecting a freshman to block at a high level is probably wishful thinking. Leslie Gabriel and the rest of the staff will have their work cut out to get the team back to where it is now.
What worries me more, both right now and for the future, is the floor D and serve reception. McPherson and Bajema will give you consistently good back row play and generally good serve reception (though the team seems to be prone to infectious periods of bad serve reception). Powell is an excellent defender as well. Despite these good pieces, UW's tip coverage and coverage off of soft blocks or tools is less than stellar. Crenshaw has the potential to be very good but is a work in progress. Neither Drechsel nor Hoffman really have the anticipation, quickness or skills to be great defenders. Tip coverage, however, is all about positioning and reading the hitter, i.e, it's about the mental side of the game and making sure players execute in a given situation. So it's doubly disappointing to see so many tips fall, for example, during the second and third sets yesterday, or against USC a couple weeks ago. Cook and Co. have some serious work to do on this front.
As an aside, maybe one reason UW's tip coverage is not great is that their offensive tipping is also not great. Bajema really sees the court well but her tips can still be high and loopy, leaving plenty of time for defenders to react. Niece likes to tip and usually has a good sense of where to tip, but often her tips are so slow-motion that the opposing team has a chance to react. I don't think UW has a really good tipper on the entire team. Watching Khalia Lanier a couple weeks ago was instructive because her execution of tips was fantastic -- well-timed, usually just over the blockers' hands before dying a quick death.
Looking ahead to next year, I hope Cook and Co. are thinking and strategizing about floor D. We are going to miss McPherson big time, both in terms of her athletic ability but also her leadership and skill with second contacts. Bajema, McPherson, and Onosko will be gone from serve receive and the back row. While we can and should expect improvement from Crenshaw and Hoffman, who is going to fill the vacuum? Calle and Houghton are unproven quantities, as is Mikkelsen. Maria B's role would seem to be limited to serving and spot front row duty. Perhaps Dani Cole will emerge but probably more as a front row sub. I wouldn't expect Endsley to be a big asset in the back row or on serve receive, but I don't know her skill set that well.
It seems painfully obvious to me, at least, that Cook should be looking -- intensively -- for an experienced transfer libero to fill a gaping hole. I said the same thing before this season and, for me at least, UW's defense has exceeded my expectations. So maybe Cook and Co. will get good results with the existing roster. I'd sure feel a lot more comfortable, though, if they could convince a proven libero to come to Montlake.
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Post by dawgnerd on Nov 18, 2019 20:31:23 GMT -5
Looking ahead to next year, I hope Cook and Co. are thinking and strategizing about floor D. We are going to miss McPherson big time, both in terms of her athletic ability but also her leadership and skill with second contacts. Bajema, McPherson, and Onosko will be gone from serve receive and the back row. While we can and should expect improvement from Crenshaw and Hoffman, who is going to fill the vacuum? Calle and Houghton are unproven quantities, as is Mikkelsen. Maria B's role would seem to be limited to serving and spot front row duty. Perhaps Dani Cole will emerge but probably more as a front row sub. I wouldn't expect Endsley to be a big asset in the back row or on serve receive, but I don't know her skill set that well. It seems painfully obvious to me, at least, that Cook should be looking -- intensively -- for an experienced transfer libero to fill a gaping hole. I said the same thing before this season and, for me at least, UW's defense has exceeded my expectations. So maybe Cook and Co. will get good results with the existing roster. I'd sure feel a lot more comfortable, though, if they could convince a proven libero to come to Montlake. One other possibility to throw into the hat would be converting Crenshaw to Libero. Cook did it before with Scambray. Similar to then, I would hate to lose the front-row potential that she demonstrated increasingly while Hoffman was out. She does have a really good back-row game (except for reasonable freshman inconsistency).
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Post by ay2013 on Nov 18, 2019 20:44:51 GMT -5
I've been thinking about UW's current and future team defense and wondering if others have thoughts. I don't think there is much doubt that UW is a better defensive team this year than what we've seen the last several years. But there is still some maddening inconsistency, even within a given match. Exhibit A could be yesterday's Utah match, where the Huskies played some lights out defense in the fifth set but looked mediocre in the second and third sets. Whether and how the Huskies improve in overall team D could well determine how deep they go in December. Of course the Huskies' strength is their block, and we have three outstanding blockers in Niece, Sanders, and Bajema. Two of those three will be gone next year, so who will step up? The obvious candidates are Drechsel, who is pretty good right now, and Hoffman, who needs to work on this area. Powell is relatively good for a setter but not at Gray or Lazaro levels. It will be an interesting competition to fill Niece's shoes between Grote and Summers. With either one, I suspect that the offense may not really suffer but blocking will. Crenshaw could be good and might see a lot more time in the front row. Dani Cole surely needs time to develop into both a good front row hitter and blocker. Maybe Madi Endsley will contribute in the front row, but expecting a freshman to block at a high level is probably wishful thinking. Leslie Gabriel and the rest of the staff will have their work cut out to get the team back to where it is now. What worries me more, both right now and for the future, is the floor D and serve reception. McPherson and Bajema will give you consistently good back row play and generally good serve reception (though the team seems to be prone to infectious periods of bad serve reception). Powell is an excellent defender as well. Despite these good pieces, UW's tip coverage and coverage off of soft blocks or tools is less than stellar. Crenshaw has the potential to be very good but is a work in progress. Neither Drechsel nor Hoffman really have the anticipation, quickness or skills to be great defenders. Tip coverage, however, is all about positioning and reading the hitter, i.e, it's about the mental side of the game and making sure players execute in a given situation. So it's doubly disappointing to see so many tips fall, for example, during the second and third sets yesterday, or against USC a couple weeks ago. Cook and Co. have some serious work to do on this front. As an aside, maybe one reason UW's tip coverage is not great is that their offensive tipping is also not great. Bajema really sees the court well but her tips can still be high and loopy, leaving plenty of time for defenders to react. Niece likes to tip and usually has a good sense of where to tip, but often her tips are so slow-motion that the opposing team has a chance to react. I don't think UW has a really good tipper on the entire team. Watching Khalia Lanier a couple weeks ago was instructive because her execution of tips was fantastic -- well-timed, usually just over the blockers' hands before dying a quick death. Looking ahead to next year, I hope Cook and Co. are thinking and strategizing about floor D. We are going to miss McPherson big time, both in terms of her athletic ability but also her leadership and skill with second contacts. Bajema, McPherson, and Onosko will be gone from serve receive and the back row. While we can and should expect improvement from Crenshaw and Hoffman, who is going to fill the vacuum? Calle and Houghton are unproven quantities, as is Mikkelsen. Maria B's role would seem to be limited to serving and spot front row duty. Perhaps Dani Cole will emerge but probably more as a front row sub. I wouldn't expect Endsley to be a big asset in the back row or on serve receive, but I don't know her skill set that well. It seems painfully obvious to me, at least, that Cook should be looking -- intensively -- for an experienced transfer libero to fill a gaping hole. I said the same thing before this season and, for me at least, UW's defense has exceeded my expectations. So maybe Cook and Co. will get good results with the existing roster. I'd sure feel a lot more comfortable, though, if they could convince a proven libero to come to Montlake. A transfer L, 100%. It’s a necessity.
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Post by mikegarrison on Nov 18, 2019 20:53:08 GMT -5
One other possibility to throw into the hat would be converting Crenshaw to Libero. Cook did it before with Scambray. With, IMO, disastrous results. I bet he won't be so eager to do that again. It all depends on how things stack up next year, but they need one or two six-rotation hitters. Taking a 6r hitter and converting her to libero is a net loss unless the replacement hitter is better and the replacement libero is not better. I thought before it happened, while it happened, and after it happened that this was a severe over-reaction to McPherson being a freshman and struggling like a freshman. I think the past few seasons has shown this interpretation to be correct. Even in that season, when injuries forced him to use Scambray as a hitter and McPerson as the libero I thought the actual team play improved. I don't know why he was so committed to the idea. He took a team that got to the elite 8 and graduated absolutely no one* and turned them into a team that didn't get out of the second round. Yes, there were other factors at play than just this lineup meddling, but still.... *Sorry, they did graduate one player. A lightly-used middle who only played with the team that one year because she was a graduate transfer.
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Post by Huskyfan on Nov 18, 2019 21:33:05 GMT -5
[/quote]A transfer L, 100%. It’s a necessity. [/quote]
Is there a scholarship available for a libero transfer for 2020?
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Post by alwayslearning on Nov 18, 2019 22:22:35 GMT -5
A transfer L, 100%. It’s a necessity. [/quote] Is there a scholarship available for a libero transfer for 2020?[/quote] It's an obvious question but I don't know the answer. There are other folks around here who keep closer tabs on that stuff.
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Post by alwayslearning on Nov 18, 2019 22:35:44 GMT -5
One other possibility to throw into the hat would be converting Crenshaw to Libero. Cook did it before with Scambray. With, IMO, disastrous results. I bet he won't be so eager to do that again. It all depends on how things stack up next year, but they need one or two six-rotation hitters. Taking a 6r hitter and converting her to libero is a net loss unless the replacement hitter is better and the replacement libero is not better. I thought before it happened, while it happened, and after it happened that this was a severe over-reaction to McPherson being a freshman and struggling like a freshman. I think the past few seasons has shown this interpretation to be correct. Even in that season, when injuries forced him to use Scambray as a hitter and McPerson as the libero I thought the actual team play improved. I don't know why he was so committed to the idea. He took a team that got to the elite 8 and graduated absolutely no one* and turned them into a team that didn't get out of the second round. Yes, there were other factors at play than just this lineup meddling, but still.... *Sorry, they did graduate one player. A lightly-used middle who only played with the team that one year because she was a graduate transfer. At this point, Crenshaw would appear to be the most qualified replacement for McPherson. I'd rather have her available for the front row and as a backrow serving/defensive player, who could also hit out of the back row. But if the choice is an athletic Crenshaw at libero who continues to improve in serve receive, or a lesser skilled player at libero, Cook would be sorely tempted to make the switch. This is a big part of the reason why we need a good transfer L. Now Mike knows that reasonable minds differ regarding the Scambray experiment. I continue to believe it was a good and worthwhile experiment. Scambray was a good, not great, libero, who would have been better had she not been re-converted to OH in the middle of the 2017 season when Tanner went down with an injury. With the variety of front row players the Huskies had that year, they should have been able to make it work better than it did. I'm going to quote part of my post-mortem on the 2017 season and just leave it at that, as I am not eager to get in an extended discussion of what went wrong in 2017: "In retrospect, perhaps the biggest mistake Cook and Co. made was to keep Bajema on the bench for so long. When Tanner went down, Cook should have reinserted Bajema into the starting lineup rather than switch Scambray back to OH. Actually, Bajema should have been in the starting lineup well before that. Cook's explanation was that she had been given the chance early in the season but did not seize the day. I'm not really buying that since Kara always had among the highest kills per set of any UW player, if not the highest, even based on her limited early season action. Cook's decision to move Scambray back to OH effectively retarded Scambray's development as a libero, hurt UW's overall D, and meant that Bajema (and Julye) did not get important reps in the middle of the season that presumably would have paid off both at the time and later in terms of team chemistry." Bajema came on strong at the end of the 2017 season, showing the potential she is fulfilling in spades right now.
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Post by redbeard2008 on Nov 18, 2019 23:07:20 GMT -5
2020:
SR: Sanders, Drechsel, Bogomolova, Calle (W)
JR: Powell, Hoffman, Crenshaw, Grote
SO: Cole (RS), Mikkelson (W?), Houghton (W)
FR: Summers (RS), Endsley
I don't think Mikkelson is on scholarship. She was announced a week after Summers. If she is on scholarship, that would be 13. It is possible she's been promised one next year, which would still leave one available. If she won't be on scholarship, that would leave two available.
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