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Post by hddoc on Dec 16, 2011 2:16:45 GMT -5
Illinois had two great outsides and USC had one, that's the difference. USC had a second unbelievable OH, Falyn Fonoimoana who lost her eligibility at the start of the season. She and Alex together were an unstoppable tandem, but it's doubtful whether Alex would have developed to the extent she has had Falyn remained. With Falyn USC might well have either gone undefeated... or... Assuming Falyn remains in Honolulu, she will be paired with Jane Croson. I like that duo for at least one NCAA championship over the next three years...unless...
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Post by stobeee9 on Dec 16, 2011 2:18:24 GMT -5
McMahon reminds me of Blair Brown I thought that too. yes!! me 2 exactly she is gonna be scary good as she develops and becomes older
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Post by smiley on Dec 16, 2011 2:20:48 GMT -5
I think it's interesting that USC actually has more kills, a better hitting percentage, a stronger middle attack, and the same number of digs in this match than they did @ Hawaii, yet some on here are saying that USC didnt bring their A game in this match, whereas the Hawaii match was their best effort... ummmm ok Frankly, the USC that showed up to the post season just wasn't the same team that plowed through the Pac-12. In too much of their past few matches they shown big bouts of inconsistency, and that just didn't happen for much of the conference season. The blocking will disappear, the passing goes south, nobody but jupiter scores....these just weren't things that were happening a couple weeks ago when USC took it to UCLA, @ UCLA. Maybe the opposition post season is better.
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Post by Psychopotamus on Dec 16, 2011 2:30:13 GMT -5
I think it's interesting that USC actually has more kills, a better hitting percentage, a stronger middle attack, and the same number of digs in this match than they did @ Hawaii, yet some on here are saying that USC didnt bring their A game in this match, whereas the Hawaii match was their best effort... ummmm ok Frankly, the USC that showed up to the post season just wasn't the same team that plowed through the Pac-12. In too much of their past few matches they shown big bouts of inconsistency, and that just didn't happen for much of the conference season. The blocking will disappear, the passing goes south, nobody but jupiter scores....these just weren't things that were happening a couple weeks ago when USC took it to UCLA, @ UCLA. I thought they played horrible in the first two sets at Hawaii. The difference was that they played great for the last three, so the stats kind of evened out. In this match, USC played mediocre for pretty much the whole match, with the passing being just enough to keep points from ending and their OHs bailing them out to keep it close. The difference was that USC actually played some great volleyball for the last three games in Hawaii. This match, not so much. Their passing remained pretty horrible and the block remained nonexistant. Seriously, your observations are funny, because every Hawaii poster has recognized that that Hawaii wasn't dominant in the first two games so much as USC was just playing bad. This is just another excuse to poke at things that are created in your own mind. Sometimes I wonder if you actually watch any of these matches or if you just read the posts on this board.
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Post by Courtside5 on Dec 16, 2011 2:36:05 GMT -5
Time for me to eat crow. Congrats to Illini. We`ll see if UCLA can win their first NC with Sealy.
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Post by thebigblock on Dec 16, 2011 2:40:36 GMT -5
Smiley, you are right. Hawaii, illinois, and even pepperdine would have finished in the top quarter of this year`s pac 12 no doubt. Ay is just trying to discredit these teams that really challenged usc. Stop being so biased ay. Just look at all those first and second round eliminations of pac teams. Could it be that hawaii, illinois, etc. forced usc into trouble? Of course not, that could not happen to a pac champ. As a lot of people here say, ay has no credibility. I think that of him as well.
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Post by Psychopotamus on Dec 16, 2011 2:42:49 GMT -5
Time for me to eat crow. Congrats to Illini. We`ll see if UCLA can win their first NC with Sealy. It's okay, if you don't have enough crow I've got lots of leftover. So much for a USC sweep. On the bright side, tomorrow's match should be exciting being that it's not two teams meeting for the third time.
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Post by Psychopotamus on Dec 16, 2011 2:44:43 GMT -5
Illinois had two great outsides and USC had one, that's the difference. USC had a second unbelievable OH, Falyn Fonoimoana who lost her eligibility at the start of the season. She and Alex together were an unstoppable tandem, but it's doubtful whether Alex would have developed to the extent she has had Falyn remained. With Falyn USC might well have either gone undefeated... or... Assuming Falyn remains in Honolulu, she will be paired with Jane Croson. I like that duo for at least one NCAA championship over the next three years...unless... I really feel for USC's players. I still believe they were the best team this year, just not the best team during the tournament. With all the adversity they went through it wasn't easy to put together the run they did. Time to reload.
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Post by smiley on Dec 16, 2011 2:49:18 GMT -5
I just don't like when somebody downgrades a team, any team. And by downgrading one team you downgrade both. And my comment wasn't meant to downgrade the Pac 12 as much as the insinuation that IL didn't win so much as USC lost it. Illini articale with good quotes from both teams. www.fightingillini.com/sports/w-volley/recaps/121611aab.html
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Post by IdahoBoy on Dec 16, 2011 3:26:16 GMT -5
Not trying to take away the win from Illinois tonight, but I think tonight's match highlights the importance of a fairly seeded bracket for determining a national champion.
Let's just compare the roads that Illinois and USC had to take to fight tonight. I think it's pretty fair to say that Pablo is the best system at relative rating of teams as evidence by its bracket predictions holding a 4-match lead over RPI, so I'll use Pablo as relative team strength indicator here along with RPI and AVCA poll.
USC's Road to the Final Four USC's Rankings: Pablo: 1 RKPI: 8 AVCA: 1
Match 1: Defeated Yale (Pablo 105, RKPI 90) 3-0 Match 2: Defeated Tulsa (Pablo 31, RKPI 24) 3-0 Match 3: Defeated Hawaii (Pablo 8, RKPI 7, AVCA 3) 3-2 Match 4: Defeated Pepperdine (Pablo 11, RKPI 16, AVCA 18) 3-2 #
USC OPPONENTS MEDIAN PABLO RANK: 21 [/u]
#The NCAA expecting to see Nebraska with Pablo 5, RPI 4, AVCA 2 in this place doesn't even really change the difference of competition.
Illinois' Road to the Final Four Illinois' Rankings: Pablo: 10 RKPI: 1 AVCA: 7
Match 1: Defeated Central Michigan (Pablo 57, RKPI 70) 3-0 Match 2: Defeated Marquette (Pablo 68, RKPI 39) 3-0 Match 3: Defeated Ohio State (Pablo 32, RKPI 47, AVCA 28*) 3-1 Match 4: Defeated Florida (Pablo 7, RKPI 20, AVCA 17) 3-1
ILLINOIS OPPONENTS MEDIAN PABLO RANK: 44.5 [/b] *AVCA doesn't recognize teams as "ranked" when just receiving votes
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Post by uscyaaa on Dec 16, 2011 3:31:01 GMT -5
IdahoBoy...I agree...I don't want to take anything away from Illinois...pure and simple, they beat USC tonight....
but if you go back and watch the Hawaii match...that would have been worthy of a national semifinal....and after watching the UCLA/Florida State match, I think a lot of volleyball fans would agree...
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Post by smiley on Dec 16, 2011 4:24:24 GMT -5
What happened to the theory that whoever came through the Hawaii region would be so battle tested they'd breeze through the finals. Anyone remember all the posts saying that?
And who can say with certainty that USC would have won every match if they'd been in a different region? The tourneys been full of upsets.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2011 6:35:08 GMT -5
What happened to the theory that whoever came through the Hawaii region would be so battle tested they'd breeze through the finals. Anyone remember all the posts saying that? And who can say with certainty that USC would have won every match if they'd been in a different region? The tourneys been full of upsets. The tournament filled with upsets? Inconceivable! Congrats to the Illini and to Smiley and all the Illini fans!
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Post by future on Dec 16, 2011 6:40:38 GMT -5
Special thanks to Hagglund and Beltran for putting on a showcase of how that position can be played and how important it is!
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Post by kolohekeiki on Dec 16, 2011 6:52:53 GMT -5
I think it's interesting that USC actually has more kills, a better hitting percentage, a stronger middle attack, and the same number of digs in this match than they did @ Hawaii, yet some on here are saying that USC didnt bring their A game in this match, whereas the Hawaii match was their best effort... ummmm ok I don't recall anyone saying that USC played their best match against Hawai`i... Would you even consider thinking that maybe the competition that USC faced in the post-season was better than most of the competition they faced in the Pac-12, that's the reason for their play going down...and maybe these teams had USC highly scouted and new how to take SC out of their system... This season has been more evident that the Pac-12 was not head and shoulders above the rest of the nation and there were a lot of good teams spread across other conferences and the country... It is just kind of getting ridiculous already that you keep putting down the play of USC and discrediting all the teams that have played great matches against them...your Pac-12 bias is just ridiculous...Hawai`i, Pepperdine and Illinois all played great matches, but yet you need to keep coming up with excuses on why these teams played USC so tough instead of just giving credit to those teams...why is that so hard for you?
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