USA vs Russia - tv show time

[GatorVball]

(R)uffda! said:

10 minutes. That's all we get. 10 lousy minutes.

Now tell me again how Beach ball is good for the game?

+++

There were at least 5 passes where Ah Mow could have set the middle and she went outside. I can understand that if you have a terminator out there, but they don't. What the heck?

And Metcalf comes in, for the first time in the match, at 11-14 in the 5th? What the heck?

Haneef and Phipps both appear to be clueless on defense. What the heck?

It's a shame. Two weeks, every four years, this sport has a chance to do something about its popularity in this country. If it's not NBC, it's the teams themselves (the men are going belly-up again).

It wouldn't be so bad if they'd show OTHER countries. It doesn't have to be the USA for people to see what a great sport it is. But hell will freeze over before NBC shows that.

I am so pissed off. Notice?

Scary, but this is just what I was about to post, almost word for word. Ah Mow, Phipps and Haneef should all ride the pine.

And don't even get me started on NBC. They show 20 minutes of trampoline gymnastics, but barely 10 minutes of vball? I'd rather them show it at 12:35 and show most of the match, like they've been doing for the men. Or hell, why can't they show it live on Bravo or USA or MSNBC? They show other vball matches live. It's a disgrace.

[Vball818]

I came to a conclusion that NBC decides at the last second they will only show any American team winning no matter how close or one-sided the competition is. Maybe the execs felt that they couldn't show Team USA losing again in volleyball even if they know that there are many of us who would like to watch the match. NBC just want to show Team USA winning.

GatorVball said:

Scary, but this is just what I was about to post, almost word for word. Ah Mow, Phipps and Haneef should all ride the pine.

And don't even get me started on NBC. They show 20 minutes of trampoline gymnastics, but barely 10 minutes of vball? I'd rather them show it at 12:35 and show most of the match, like they've been doing for the men. Or hell, why can't they show it live on Bravo or USA or MSNBC? They show other vball matches live. It's a disgrace.

[Deleted]

kashi said:

If we really do end up not getting out of pool, I just feel so bad for all the girls who have sacrificed so much training for the last 2-4 years for this one two-week tournament. There is so much emphasis on the Olympics in th US and so little coverage of any other international tournaments that it can be devastating to the athletes to have the experience fail to meet even the most basic of expectations. I know some of the 96 Olympians were scarred by their Olympic experience. Rather than it being a defining moment that made all of their hard work worth it, it was something that made them want to turn away from the sport and move on with their lives.

Very true. And that 1996 team was very, very good. Just very unlucky, too.

It certainly isn't the fault of this 2004 team that USA volleyball needs them, so very badly, to succeed.

I don't want to be a bitter old man. It's just too bad.

I am trying to figure out our biggest weaknesses as a team and I think it comes down to passing and serving. Other teams seem to get us in more trouble with their serve than we do to them, and it makes our offense predictable. Then when we finally do get a good pass, our setter hasnt established any rhythm with the quick hitters and in a game five situation does not want to go with a high-risk set so we play it safe and set high balls again and again and we just dont have the type of hitters like a Gamova that can handle that kind of load.

I really think our biggest weakness is we don't have a go-to player. Maybe that could be Ogonna or Kim, in the future, but this team just doesn't have that. And if they aren't going to set the middle, good luck.

Then again, the men have Stanley and they are still struggling.

The thing is, I saw nothing (OK it was only game 5) from the Russians that made them look unbeatable. It sure didn't look like they could play floor defense.

The bright side? If they caught fire now they would really be a compelling story.

But I just don't see how that happens. And then it's back to rebuilding, again, for 2008.

Zartman? Willoughby? Barboza? Larson? But who sets and who plays middle? And can they find the players with talent who are willing to put in the hours, rather than making a quick buck elsewhere or prostituting themselves on the beach?

It's depressing.

[Deleted]

Vball818 said:

I came to a conclusion that NBC decides at the last second they will only show any American team winning no matter how close or one-sided the competition is. Maybe the execs felt that they couldn't show Team USA losing again in volleyball even if they know that there are many of us who would like to watch the match. NBC just want to show Team USA winning.

And if that's the way it is, then that's the way it is. The prime time coverage is a hodge-podge anyhow (unless it's gymnastics). But PLEASE show it during the day then. I don't understand why they have to make it the exclusive property of prime time, who will then show only what fits.

[GatorVball]

You would think they would at least air it live on one of the cable networks. I mean, no offense to badminton or table tennis, but I'll take live volleyball over that any day of the week. The fact that NBC has 7 networks televising the games, and this is the best they can do, is truly pathetic. Heck, even if the US wins gold, will it matter, if all you see is 10 minutes of it? That won't help the sport, just like losing won't. I'm sure if a Notre Dame vball player was on the team, we'd get full coverage ;D

[Gorf]

I only saw the last half of game 5 on NBC:

Two service errors, a couple of hitting errors, at least a couple of very poorly missed / shanked dig attempts, at least one ace for Russia on a pretty weak attempt at a serve receive, mediocre passing on serve receive in general, and as (R)uffda! mentioned earlier hardly any attempts to go the middle on sets even on good passes.

It was largely backrow to Tayyiba and outside to Logan.

Oh well, hopefully they can get something going against Cuba.

[StuffU]

Does anyone think that maybe the middles don't get set is because TOSHI's system might dictate that? Robyn can certainly set the middle ... she connected with Ljungquist AND Goods (a marginal average hitter) a variety of sets along the net in front of and behind her. Robyn also set the middles (namely Scott) in Sydney and the Grand Prix prior to Sydney. It has been since Toshi became head coach that the offense in the middle has disappeared.

I'm not saying the results are his fault, because the athletes still need to perform. But, things like Robyn "can't set the middle" or "only sets slides and outside" is ridiculous.

For the record, I do believe that Berg should've gotten a chance to show her stuff - most notably in the Dominican Republic match.

[Go Iowa]

jus4me28 said:

Does anyone think that maybe the middles don't get set is because TOSHI's system might dictate that? Robyn can certainly set the middle ... she connected with Ljungquist AND Goods (a marginal average hitter) a variety of sets along the net in front of and behind her. Robyn also set the middles (namely Scott) in Sydney and the Grand Prix prior to Sydney. It has been since Toshi became head coach that the offense in the middle has disappeared.


I'm not saying the results are his fault, because the athletes still need to perform. But, things like Robyn "can't set the middle" or "only sets slides and outside" is ridiculous.

For the record, I do believe that Berg should've gotten a chance to show her stuff - most notably in the Dominican Republic match.

I agree that Toshi's offense is all about the outsides and opposites. However, it's the setter's job to score points, and regardless of the "system" she's in, she needs to find ways to score points. If you've got the best middle blocker in the world on your team, you ignore coach T and feed the beast the ball. And if you're too timid to run the offense out of that system that the coach wants, you probably shouldn't be a setter. Time for Berg, Ogonna and Metcalf.

[sistahsledge]

USA Volleyball probably begged NBC to put the women on prime time to get some good exposure for the sport and promised them a good result since USA was ranked #1. It was a scenario made for TV--American girls vs. the big, bad Russians-- that would have been great for the sport if the USA had shown up to play. Primetime coverage is all about the big ratings and NBC knows that a losing effort dosn't hold the average viewers' attention. During the '88 Olympics, there was tons of coverage of the USA men despite the fact that NBC was broadcasting on only one channel and volleyball had to compete with all the other sports for airtime. Right now, the indoor teams' results can't compete for decent exposure during primetime because they don't have the results to warrant it. Hopefully the rest of their matches will be relegated to the cable channels in off hours so they can show more of the matches.

[Gorf]

Toshi's offense may well predicate using backrow and outside attacks over middle attacks.

My observations / comments are purely based on seeing that the middles aren't set often and have for numerous matches not been set much.

I've not seen Robyn set all that much to know how well she is capable of setting the middle on good sets, let alone mediocre / bad passes.

I have, however, seen Lindsey Berg for 4+ years (counting her year with the Chill in the USPV) be very successful in getting good sets to the middle even on mediocre / bad passes.

It may well be that even if she were given the starting job against Cuba that she would be instructed to set back row and the outsides as much as possible.

I was somewhat suprised to see that Heather Bown only got 2 kills on 9 attempts, 0 blocks on 9 atempts, 0 digs on 8 attempts, but she was 2 of 2 on serve receive.

What's the deal with the internation stats where the two US middles combined have only 22 block attempts while Kogan and Keba each had 19 attempts?

It would have been interesting to see if the majority of Tayyiba's attack attempts for the entire match were from the back row as they appeared to be in 5th game. Her attack from the outside that I saw in the 5th game looked awkward. Her backrow attacks, other than the one she hit out looked pretty decent / good.

[StuffU]

Since NBC ELIMINATED most of the match, I didn't get to see how the match went down. But if Russia's outsides were hitting line, the US Middles would have no blocking attempts or successful blocks. Maybe the middles had very little kills and blocks because they weren't getting set and the other team was hitting line.

[silversurfer]

The policy of only showing winning would make sense, sorta, except that the American trampolinist (trampoliner?) stunk and almost fell off the thing.

[USAFAN]

The USA simply just doesn't have a player who can put the trouble ball down. Logan Tom and Haneef are supposed to be these players, but when the set is not perfect they are not terminating the ball. China has Hao Yang and Wang Lina, Cuba has Ruiz, Brazil has Dias and Coimbra, Russia has Chachkova and Gamova. Keba Phipps has been completely absent from this tournament and with her age and experience I expected much more. Ogonna is the only OH on the team who has the physical ability to terminate the trouble ball, but right now she is just too unexperienced and not as well rounded. Toshi needs to take a big look at the outside hitting pool of talent for the next quadrennial, because with athletes like Porter and Willoughby on the loose, I think he needs to put his ego away and do everything in his power to get these athletes in the gym. All the teams in the world have top notch terminating outsides and Logan Tom hasn't been consistent enough.

[Nutter]

USAFAN said:

Toshi needs to take a big look at the outside hitting pool of talent for the next quadrennial, because with athletes like Porter and Willoughby on the loose, I think he needs to put his ego away and do everything in his power to get these athletes in the gym.

Can't say I know exactly what went on, but weren't they ask to report to CS and they blew off the invitation? Don't you think the "ego" deal goes both ways? Not just for Toshi but for Porter and Willoughby as well?

Sure these two women are proven studs, but do they want to work within the system? It sure didn't seem that way to me.

[roofed!]

Toshi's system may have been all outside and opposite hitting, but you still need to establish the middle blockers, and set them (and not just slides but 1s and 3s too), in order to create gaps that would make it easier for Logan, Keba and Tayyiba to put the balls down especially since they have troubles leaping above the blocks and are more reliant on seams.