|
Post by Cubicle No More ... on May 22, 2014 13:36:43 GMT -5
Shoji welcomes the challenges that face WahineBy Cindy Luis, The Star-AdvertiserPOSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, May 22, 2014 LAST UPDATED: 02:14 a.m. HST, May 22, 2014 TONY AVELAR / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER UH coach Dave Shoji.It's a balancing act when it comes to scheduling, one that it is along the lines of Goldilocks. Good for the RPI, but not so good that it negatively impacts the win-loss record. Challenging but not a cakewalk. Tests that will make — not break — a young team. In other words: just right. That's the feeling that Dave Shoji has when he looks at the schedule for his 40th season as coach of the Hawaii volleyball team. It resembles the Rainbow Wahine themselves, with both old and new. Hawaii returns seven players from a 25-5 squad, plus a redshirt. It will add a transfer and at least six freshmen when practice opens in August. The schedule also includes some nonconference returnees, such as UCLA, San Diego State and Utah State, as well as rookie Northern Arizona. There's also something new regarding two tournament schedules. For the first time, Hawaii will have volleyball and football on the same Saturday. On Aug. 29, the Rainbow Warriors play Washington at 2 p.m. at Aloha Stadium. The Wahine face Arizona State at 8 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center. On Sept. 6, volleyball has a noon start against St. John's with football at 4:30 p.m. against Oregon State. "It's not ideal but it's the best we could do," Shoji said. "Some of the teams in our tournaments couldn't stay to play Sunday. I'm hoping the people who have tickets to both will come to both and not choose just one game. "With football at 2 p.m. (against Washington), we thought we could play that night." There's also a couple of 8 p.m. Big West matches (Nov. 28-29) due to earlier Wahine basketball games. There is one Sunday match, a 5 p.m. contest with UC Santa Barbara. That Northern Arizona was able to come out for two matches before conference play filled a need and a desire: a need to fill two playing dates, a desire not to travel. "If we couldn't have gotten (NAU), we would have looked at someone else, but it's tough," Shoji said. "It's really hard to find teams, and it's not just us. "There are still teams with openings in their tournaments or needing to find a tournament to play in. Coaches have gotten so paranoid about the RPI. Unfortunately that's the nature of the game now." The continued goal for Hawaii's three nonconference tournaments is to have at least one marquee team. Arizona State and San Diego State (with former Wahine great Deitre Collins-Parker as coach) are in the opening Chevron Invitational; Oregon, the 2012 national runner-up, is in the second tournament; and 2011 NCAA champion UCLA (with former associate coach Mike Sealy) returns for the 39th consecutive year. "It's always kind of a roll of the dice," Shoji said. "You hope the teams you bring in will have successful seasons, but you just never know. I think it's a good schedule for us, competitive and challenging. We have some mid-majors that people might not recognize as good volleyball programs but teams like Ohio, San Diego State and New Mexico are going to be tough." Schedule: hawaiiathletics.com/documents/2014/5/22/2014_Hawaii_Womens_Volleyball_Schedule.pdf?id=3097Also: hawaiiathletics.com/schedule.aspx?path=wvball
|
|
|
Post by Psychopotamus on May 22, 2014 22:58:15 GMT -5
Is it just me or does this seem like a pretty weak schedule?
|
|
|
Post by volleyballfan99 on May 23, 2014 0:24:02 GMT -5
Is it just me or does this seem like a pretty weak schedule? I would not say, it is a weak schedule, but it is also not a tough schedule. I say it is a good schedule to have, when Dave has so many new starters. It is a schedule Dave can you to have the team grow together with, gain confidence as a team.
|
|
|
Post by ACE on May 23, 2014 2:06:28 GMT -5
Is it just me or does this seem like a pretty weak schedule? I would say it's weak as I don't see any teams coming in ranked in the top 15 (AVCA ranking), maybe not top 20 even. If that were to happen, would it be the first time. However, as someone else mentioned, Hawaii will be breaking in a new starting setter and a revamped line-up and starters, so I like this schedule in terms allowing the team to build chemistry. I still wish a WCC or PAC-12 team would be squeezed into one of those mainland roadtrips.
|
|
|
Post by network155 on May 23, 2014 15:02:14 GMT -5
Other than Arizona State, which I think will be very good, the rest are all breaking in new players.
|
|
|
Post by Cubicle No More ... on May 23, 2014 18:54:11 GMT -5
this schedule will be a challenge for the youth and inexperience on the team that hawaii is returning (not a formidable challenge, but a challenge nonetheless).
it's not a strong RPI schedule. at least, on first glance. maybe teams will surprise, and have an 'up' year. most of the non-conference opponents look to be top 100 RPI teams. but there's no team on the schedule that jumps out at me as a definitive top 25 RPI team. none look like they will be top 10 RPI. which is troublesome and will have implications on seeding.
the other potentially troublesome issue is that with 3 Pac-12 teams on the schedule, then hawaii's RPI is then tied closely to that conference's performance, and also on the performance of those 3 Pac-12 teams (ucla, ariz st and oregon). the Pac-12 as a whole will usually be rated quite high. but if those 3 teams go on to finish middle of the pack or worse in the conference, it can drag hawaii's RPI down, even if there is some indirect benefit from them being in the Pac-12. (in the RPI, opponents' winning % is weighted more than opponents' opponents' winning %).
bottom line -- it's always better to diversify your schedule. while playing Pac-12 teams can be valuable on-court prep, it can also be a double edged sword ... playing 3 (middle-of-the-pack Pac-12 teams) in your non-conference schedule can potentially have a negative effect on the RPI.
|
|
|
Post by volleyballfan99 on May 23, 2014 19:50:40 GMT -5
this schedule will be a challenge for the youth and inexperience on the team that hawaii is returning (not a formidable challenge, but a challenge nonetheless). it's not a strong RPI schedule. at least, on first glance. maybe teams will surprise, and have an 'up' year. most of the non-conference opponents look to be top 100 RPI teams. but there's no team on the schedule that jumps out at me as a definitive top 25 RPI team. none look like they will be top 10 RPI. which is troublesome and will have implications on seeding. the other potentially troublesome issue is that with 3 Pac-12 teams on the schedule, then hawaii's RPI is then tied closely to that conference's performance, and also on the performance of those 3 Pac-12 teams (ucla, ariz st and oregon). the Pac-12 as a whole will usually be rated quite high. but if those 3 teams go on to finish middle of the pack or worse in the conference, it can drag hawaii's RPI down, even if there is some indirect benefit from them being in the Pac-12. (in the RPI, opponents' winning % is weighted more than opponents' opponents' winning %). bottom line -- it's always better to diversify your schedule. while playing Pac-12 teams can be valuable on-court prep, it can also be a double edged sword ... playing 3 ( middle-of-the-pack Pac-12 teams) in your non-conference schedule can potentially have a negative effect on the RPI. I do not believe Dave Shoji is thinking so much about the RPI of the other teams, more like he wants his young team to face teams that will challenge them, and at the same time be winnable matches. If he had a veteran team, you may see different types of teams RPI wise.
|
|
|
Post by Cubicle No More ... on May 23, 2014 20:09:30 GMT -5
this schedule will be a challenge for the youth and inexperience on the team that hawaii is returning (not a formidable challenge, but a challenge nonetheless). it's not a strong RPI schedule. at least, on first glance. maybe teams will surprise, and have an 'up' year. most of the non-conference opponents look to be top 100 RPI teams. but there's no team on the schedule that jumps out at me as a definitive top 25 RPI team. none look like they will be top 10 RPI. which is troublesome and will have implications on seeding. the other potentially troublesome issue is that with 3 Pac-12 teams on the schedule, then hawaii's RPI is then tied closely to that conference's performance, and also on the performance of those 3 Pac-12 teams (ucla, ariz st and oregon). the Pac-12 as a whole will usually be rated quite high. but if those 3 teams go on to finish middle of the pack or worse in the conference, it can drag hawaii's RPI down, even if there is some indirect benefit from them being in the Pac-12. (in the RPI, opponents' winning % is weighted more than opponents' opponents' winning %). bottom line -- it's always better to diversify your schedule. while playing Pac-12 teams can be valuable on-court prep, it can also be a double edged sword ... playing 3 ( middle-of-the-pack Pac-12 teams) in your non-conference schedule can potentially have a negative effect on the RPI. ;I do not believe Dave Shoji is thinking so much about the RPI of the other teams, more like he wants his young team to face teams that will challenge them, and at the same time be winnable matches. If he had a veteran team, you may see different types of teams RPI wise. disagree. of course ... of course! ... shoji is thinking of and/or concerned about the rpi. any responsible college vball coach in this day and age would be. sometimes though, you schedule who you can get. there are years when hawaii's non-conference schedule is ridiculously challenging. other years (like this year), only moderately so. i'm sure shoji was not aiming to be overly-ambitious with this year's schedule, given the youth of his team. but you can bet he was also concerned about the rpi. of course, you can't control whether an opponent will have an unexpected down year. but it's easy to see which teams out there consistently have good win/loss records. those are the teams that you want to land on your schedule, as well as the ones who will be a good challenge (ideally, a team will have both those characteristics, and more often than not, they will). it's also a tricky balance.
|
|
|
Post by mikegarrison on May 23, 2014 23:37:11 GMT -5
Other than Arizona State, which I think will be very good, the rest are all breaking in new players. Problem is, you have to figure ASU will probably lose at least 8 matches in conference. Makes them iffy as RPI material.
|
|
|
Post by baywatcher on May 24, 2014 1:01:34 GMT -5
ASU, Oregon and UCLA should do fine OOC; even UCLA was 9-1 last year OOC and may do better this year in conference. New Mexico annually threatens for their title, so their record should be good. Utah State, San Diego St. and Ohio have all had success in their conference and should get by with, say, 5 conference losses, leaving overall records close to the Pac 12 teams. St. Johns is probably not good, but USFrancisco usually has a couple upset wins and my be more consistent in a down WCC year. Northern Arizona has been good, but frankly, I don't even know what conference they are in now.
So the potential for a solid RPI is there;could be masterful if things break right and there will be few 5-23 teams to really mess things up. I root for Hawaii in the sense I hope they get seeded and host; just seems the right thing to happen.
|
|
|
Post by c4ndlelight on May 24, 2014 12:56:09 GMT -5
Other than Arizona State, which I think will be very good, the rest are all breaking in new players. Problem is, you have to figure ASU will probably lose at least 8 matches in conference. Makes them iffy as RPI material. Even if they do, a 20-10 overall ASU will be good for RPI. It's the PAC teams that are tough to beat but lose 14+ games in conference that are bad for RPI. Frankly, Hawaii won't be hosting next year regardless of how they schedule.
|
|
|
Post by volleyguy on May 24, 2014 13:30:48 GMT -5
This is the reality of being in a mid-major conference with one Automatic Qualifier. If you win the conference, then everything is okay. But if not, then you have to rely on team rpi being in the top 40-50 to make the tournament. There are too many factors not in your control with rpi--the strength of schedule and rpi of other teams in the conference, how your opponents actually perform throughout the season, etc.
This appears to be a slightly down or re-building year for Hawaii, so the slightly softer schedule makes some sense. Gotta figure that he senses his team may not be ready at the beginning of the season, but is focusing on winning conference down the stretch. The main risk is that this is a year that Hawaii may not win the conference, so it's important to not fall outside the top 50 rpi range.
|
|
|
Post by network155 on May 24, 2014 17:59:00 GMT -5
This is the reality of being in a mid-major conference with one Automatic Qualifier. If you win the conference, then everything is okay. But if not, then you have to rely on team rpi being in the top 40-50 to make the tournament. There are too many factors not in your control with rpi--the strength of schedule and rpi of other teams in the conference, how your opponents actually perform throughout the season, etc. This appears to be a slightly down or re-building year for Hawaii, so the slightly softer schedule makes some sense. Gotta figure that he senses his team may not be ready at the beginning of the season, but is focusing on winning conference down the stretch. The main risk is that this is a year that Hawaii may not win the conference, so it's important to not fall outside the top 50 rpi range. You point is well taken. Especially this year in the Big West, everyone has a shot at winning the league. Many key players in the conference are gone. So it's a matter of who will step up this year. There will be a lot of new faces, and we will see a lot of mistakes, but I think down the stretch it will be good for teams like Hawaii, UCSB, Northridge, LBSU..and so forth to get these young players some court time. I can't wait for the season to start already! Btw, I loved Macy Gardner last year, I though she was fantastic player for Arizona State!
|
|
|
Post by jake on May 25, 2014 14:07:09 GMT -5
Good article.
|
|
|
Post by Cubicle No More ... on Jun 15, 2014 14:13:12 GMT -5
UH will celebrate Shoji's 40 seasonsBy Ferd Lewis, The Star-AdvertiserPOSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jun 15, 2014 STAR-ADVERTISER / 2013 Dave Shoji has 1,128 victories in his 39 seasons as the Rainbow Wahine’s head coach.Dave Shoji has long been the face of the University of Hawaii women's volleyball program, and now the school is making it official. Shoji's smiling likeness will be featured on T-shirts and volleyballs -- large and small -- commemorating his milestone 40th season that starts Aug. 29 with the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational. "Dave is pretty special," athletic director Ben Jay said of the coach who has led UH to four national championships. "You don't see 40 years like that in one place." But you will see volleyball's winningest coach all over the place beginning Monday, featured in the 40th anniversary commemorative logo as the centerpiece of the opening of the new season-ticket sales campaign in print, online and on radio and TV. The Shoji commemorative shirts will go on sale July 1, marking the grand opening of the athletic department's new "H-Zone" store in Ward Centre. When the season starts, mini and regulation-size volleyballs featuring Shoji will be sold at the "H-Zone store" at the Stan Sheriff Center. "It is the first time we've been able to take something like this and roll it into our merchandising campaign," said John McNamara, who as UH associate athletic director oversees marketing. "I think we will benefit from it on a revenue standpoint on two fronts." While the T-shirts -- small to XXXL in white and gray --will carry his likeness on the front, the back will be devoted to a partial listing of his accomplishments, listing "four decades of excellence." McNamara said, "It would have had to have been a full-length shirt to list all his credits." McNamara said Shoji was consulted in advance on the logowear and approved the designs. "He liked it," McNamara said. The $20 T-shirts will be available beginning 10 a.m. July 1 at the Ward Centre outlet and online at H-Zoneonline.com, UH's debuting merchandise website. The "H-Zone" is a rebranding of the old RainbowTique that the athletic department officially takes over from Campus Services on July 1. UH has said it expects to realize a $500,000 profit from its first-year operation of the "H-Zone" outlets at Ward Centre and the Stan Sheriff Center. UH said current UH Alumni Association and booster club members will get a 15 percent discount and season-ticket holders will be eligible for a 10 percent discount on Under Armour products at the "H-Zone" stores.
|
|