Al, rally scoring, and championships

[sonofbarcelonabob]

Correction. Farting Al has never won a championship in the rally scoring era. UCLA's last championship in 2000 was won in sideout scoring.

The shorter games/matches in the rally era probably negates some of the match strategy that Farting Al is famous for, it also reduces the total number of rotations per game/match, and the number of opportunities to exploit matchups.

Biggest reason I think that UCLA no longer dominates in men's volleyball is that they can no longer guarantee that they will continue to land the top recruits year-in-and-year out. And the blue-chippers they have recruited for the past 3-5 years have all either not lived up to the hype (because they were overhyped in the first place) or had to leave the program due to injury or other external factors.

As far as impact of the rally scoring era on Farting Al, I think the Bruin squad we saw in the semifinals and finals were a perfect rally-era team, big jumpserving and big blocking, two phases of the game that are highly important for point-scoring in the rally era.

[roy]

SonofBarcelonaBob said:

Correction. Farting Al has never won a championship in the rally scoring era. UCLA's last championship in 2000 was won in sideout scoring.

The shorter games/matches in the rally era probably negates some of the match strategy that Farting Al is famous for, it also reduces the total number of rotations per game/match, and the number of opportunities to exploit matchups.

Biggest reason I think that UCLA no longer dominates in men's volleyball is that they can no longer guarantee that they will continue to land the top recruits year-in-and-year out. And the blue-chippers they have recruited for the past 3-5 years have all either not lived up to the hype (because they were overhyped in the first place) or had to leave the program due to injury or other external factors.

As far as impact of the rally scoring era on Farting Al, I think the Bruin squad we saw in the semifinals and finals were a perfect rally-era team, big jumpserving and big blocking, two phases of the game that are highly important for point-scoring in the rally era.

I think this is a great observation. To add to it just a bit, I think that rally scoring has hurt the Bruins because momentum shifts happen more quickly in rally scoring. In traditionally scoring, when the Bruins started to fall behind, they could pull from the bench and find a rotation that could cause problems for the opposing team. As long as they could side out, they could try to move players around to get momentum. With rally scoring, once you start to fall behind by two or three points, you could be in some trouble. UCLA doesn't have the luxury of siding out until they can get on a good run. They have to find a rotation that works immediately, because trading side outs mean that they will start to run out of time to make a move.

[sonofbarcelonabob]

Farting Al was definetely in unfamiliar territory in this match, I honestly think he was at wit's end trying to figure out what to do when the wheels fell off at the start of Game 5. He even messed up the double-sub at 5-11 Pepp by bringing in Acevedo for Garrett, but forgetting to bring in Klostermann for Dodd. So he ended up having both setters in the lineup at the same time. Luckily, the ball went to Acosta on the right and he terminated, even though Pepp recognized that UCLA didn't have a viable hitting option in their LF (Dodd) and had loaded their block up on the middle and the right.

[VolleyTX]

I did have to question Al's use of substitions (or lack there of) during the match.

He had two opposites that were NOT producing (between the two of them.... 9 kills 10 errors!) Did he not have another option to go to?

My biggest question had to do with the middle Allan Vince: 5 kills, 7 errors, 0 aces, 5 service errors, 1 block assist. Ok... the guy had a horrible night, but why the heck did Al keep him in the whole match when he has such a deep bench?

[sonofbarcelonabob]

VolleyTX said:

I did have to question Al's use of substitions (or lack there of) during the match.

He had two opposites that were NOT producing (between the two of them.... 9 kills 10 errors!) Did he not have another option to go to?

My biggest question had to do with the middle Allan Vince: 5 kills, 7 errors, 0 aces, 5 service errors, 1 block assist. Ok... the guy had a horrible night, but why the heck did Al keep him in the whole match when he has such a deep bench?

Actually, Al has 4-5 players he would use at the OPP position. He started with Prahler, who has a good jumper but was highly ineffective on the attack. He went to Klostermann, who was marginally better but as someone mentioned earlier, has absolutely no hitting vision and gets blocked all the time or hits it out. He then went to Gray Garrett, who actually saw more time as an OH I think than as an OPP. He also subbed in another OPP, McKinney, for Krasshaur in the OH position for spot duty, which amounted to a non-effect.

Bottom line is that none of those players had enough skill/talent/whatever to impact the match in a positive manner. Kind of funny, since Klostermann and McKinney were both touted as the #1 prize recruits of their recruiting classes. Kinda shows you how inaccurate the Fab 50 list is at actually being a predictor of success at the collegiate level.

I don't think the Bruins were as deep at the MB position. Vince does have arguably the best jumpserve on the team, so Al was probably willing to sacrifice offensive production in that position as a trade off for the potential point-scoring that Vince's serve has. It worked really well against PSU in the semis, but not well at all against a better passing Pepp squad. In fact, it was the other MB position (Johnson) that produced a lot of points from aces and shanked passes.

[BeachBoy]

fab fifty is all politics....