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Post by exit237a on May 26, 2020 13:09:08 GMT -5
Yeah, I don't see the logic in moving Cooney to the left if the opposite would be Allison, who didn't put up any impressive hitting numbers last season. For what it's worth, I think Mica performed admirably at opposite last season, especially considering she went into the season preparing to set. She was injured only days before the intrasquad scrimmage and only started exclusively playing opposite when she subbed into the Nebraska home game. From that point on, she hit .254. I'll be interested to see how Tamas uses her this season. Are she and Diana still in competition for the setter job or is Mica already slated to play opposite? Are they considering a 6-2?
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Post by vball778 on May 26, 2020 13:13:01 GMT -5
Cooney is so painfully not a natural OH. I think what she did last season in the time of need was great, but she belongs on the Opposite. I think trying a 6-2 with Allison swinging and hitting would be very interesting. Because our outside pins will likely be inexperienced, I think having 3 options at all times would be beneficial, especially since I could never really envision Cooney hitting out of the back row.
My pick is the following: OH: Bruna OH: Holzman MB: Collins MB: Whittington/Swanson (still undecided, need to see more of their play. I don't think Hinton is physical enough and I have legit never seen her hit something from behind off one foot). Opp: Cooney Opp/S: Allison S: Brown L: Eske DS: Kuper
This largely depends on Mica's setting consistency to mirror Brown's. The athleticism is there, and if they can get the reps, this could be a great lineup.
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2020 13:18:30 GMT -5
Cooney is so painfully not a naturally OH. I think what she did last season in the time of need was great, but she belongs on the Opposite. I think trying a 6-2 with Allison swinging and hitting would be very interesting. Because our outside pins will likely be inexperienced, I think having 3 options at all times would be beneficial, especially since I could never really envision Cooney hitting out of the back row. My pick is the following: OH: Bruna OH: Holzman MB: Collins MB: Whittington/Swanson (still undecided, need to see more of their play. I don't think Hinton is physical enough and I have legit never seen her hit something from behind off one foot). Opp: Cooney Opp/S: Allison S: Brown L: Eske DS: Kuper This largely depends on Mica's setting consistency to mirror Brown's. The athleticism is there, and if they can get the reps, this could be a great lineup. I agree that Cooney is not comfortable on the left and should be moved back.
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Post by exit237a on May 26, 2020 14:00:10 GMT -5
Cooney is so painfully not a natural OH. I think what she did last season in the time of need was great, but she belongs on the Opposite. I think trying a 6-2 with Allison swinging and hitting would be very interesting. Because our outside pins will likely be inexperienced, I think having 3 options at all times would be beneficial, especially since I could never really envision Cooney hitting out of the back row. My pick is the following: OH: Bruna OH: Holzman MB: Collins MB: Whittington/Swanson (still undecided, need to see more of their play. I don't think Hinton is physical enough and I have legit never seen her hit something from behind off one foot). Opp: Cooney Opp/S: Allison S: Brown L: Eske DS: Kuper This largely depends on Mica's setting consistency to mirror Brown's. The athleticism is there, and if they can get the reps, this could be a great lineup. Would they have to be concerned about running out of substitutions in the 6-2 if they don't have enough folks playing six rotations? The only 6-2 I have much familiarity with was last season's Marquette team and my recollection was that they always had two six rotation players out there (Werch and either Lines or Vanden Berg).
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Post by chisovnik on May 26, 2020 14:22:18 GMT -5
Cooney is so painfully not a natural OH. I think what she did last season in the time of need was great, but she belongs on the Opposite. I think trying a 6-2 with Allison swinging and hitting would be very interesting. Because our outside pins will likely be inexperienced, I think having 3 options at all times would be beneficial, especially since I could never really envision Cooney hitting out of the back row. My pick is the following: OH: Bruna OH: Holzman MB: Collins MB: Whittington/Swanson (still undecided, need to see more of their play. I don't think Hinton is physical enough and I have legit never seen her hit something from behind off one foot). Opp: Cooney Opp/S: Allison S: Brown L: Eske DS: Kuper This largely depends on Mica's setting consistency to mirror Brown's. The athleticism is there, and if they can get the reps, this could be a great lineup. There is literally no benefit to running a 6-2 for this team. Allison is not a good enough hitter to justify it. Her and Brown will continue to compete for the starting job, and I honestly think Tamas should start Allison and see what she can do. Brown didn’t cut it last season.
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Post by Friday on May 26, 2020 14:24:24 GMT -5
Yeah, I don't see the logic in moving Cooney to the left if the opposite would be Allison, who didn't put up any impressive hitting numbers last season. For what it's worth, I think Mica performed admirably at opposite last season, especially considering she went into the season preparing to set. She was injured only days before the intrasquad scrimmage and only started exclusively playing opposite when she subbed into the Nebraska home game. From that point on, she hit .254. I'll be interested to see how Tamas uses her this season. Are she and Diana still in competition for the setter job or is Mica already slated to play opposite? Are they considering a 6-2? Agree. And several games she was the sparkplug we needed at key points in games. I'd love to see Allison on the court because of the fire and energy she brings not to mention she can set and hit.
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Post by brucks on May 26, 2020 15:19:02 GMT -5
Why would the university have the men's basketball team come back BEFORE the volleyball and soccer teams? If they have a season, it's going to start much later. That's ridiculous. The initial decision by the NCAA stated that only men’s basketball and football would be allowed to begin voluntary workouts on June 1. Other sports were only added a couple days ago. I’m guessing Illinois had already done the work on the “schedule choreography” prior to Friday’s decision. Which shifts the question to the NCAA. Why bring (men's only) basketball back before bringing the fall sports back?
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Post by alt on May 26, 2020 16:34:44 GMT -5
Cooney is so painfully not a natural OH. I think what she did last season in the time of need was great, but she belongs on the Opposite. I think trying a 6-2 with Allison swinging and hitting would be very interesting. Because our outside pins will likely be inexperienced, I think having 3 options at all times would be beneficial, especially since I could never really envision Cooney hitting out of the back row. My pick is the following: OH: Bruna OH: Holzman MB: Collins MB: Whittington/Swanson (still undecided, need to see more of their play. I don't think Hinton is physical enough and I have legit never seen her hit something from behind off one foot). Opp: Cooney Opp/S: Allison S: Brown L: Eske DS: Kuper This largely depends on Mica's setting consistency to mirror Brown's. The athleticism is there, and if they can get the reps, this could be a great lineup. I could see this somewhat being used in the beginning of the season. Especially when we dont have pin hitters that do not have much experience. I think Holzaman can be a 6 rotation player for us. But I dont think this 6-2 could work long term. I do not think Mica is a natural setter she is an attacker. Mica had difficulty setting her pins at Auburn and could not run the offense smoothly. I think Brown is the better setter out of the two. I think moving Cooney to the RS is the best decision and will end up doing great things for Illinois. She was very uncomfortable in that OH2 position. Yes Allison could hit at the RS but she is a liability at blocking. She doesnt get as many touches as Cooney does for us on the RS. I think Whittington could be a dark horse. I've seen her play she needs to work on a few things but if she doesnt get the MB2 position I could see them pushing Cooney to the OH and using Whittington on the RS. She is tall and is a blocking force. I do not see Eseke being our libero she has not played much D1 yet and she would have started over Kuper if they thought so highly of her. I also don't see Kuper being able to be the libero for next season. She still has a lot of ball controlling to work on. I'm keeping my fingers crossed we get a legit DS from the portal. We are in dire need. These three DS arent enough for a B1G season. I wish we got the Northwestern libero transfer from Nebraska. She would have started for us right away.
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Post by vball778 on May 26, 2020 16:42:40 GMT -5
While I don't understand the leash give that Kuper had last year that led to her starting over Eske, I have heard Eske is an absolute beast. Kuper was downright ROUGH last season. I have horrible flashbacks of her getting aced off the court @ Wisconsin. I almost wonder what the passing capabilities are like of the incoming outsides. If we can put up decent blocking numbers, back court defense will be less of a need and we could utilize an OH that is good at serve receive as the libero. I don't see any of our current OHs being a stud serve receiver though.
I think the analysis on Allison is fair, however, I think we also have to give her some slack with the Auburn anecdotes. Her pins at Auburn were no where near the caliber of B1G Pins and she clearly did enough to get All-SEC Freshman team accolades on a severely underperforming Auburn team. I 100% agree that Brown is the better setter, but if we can capitalize on Allison's athletic ability and enable us to have more weapons, that could be key to our success next year.
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2020 17:45:30 GMT -5
I'm keeping my fingers crossed we get a legit DS from the portal. We are in dire need. These three DS arent enough for a B1G season. I wish we got the Northwestern libero transfer from Nebraska. She would have started for us right away. Fun fact, Kuper (51.3%) actually had a significantly better good pass percentage than Miller did (45.9%) against B10 competition last year. Admittedly neither was close to O'Brien or Welsh, but I don't think it's a given that Miller would've started over Kuper.
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Post by jwvolley on May 26, 2020 17:56:24 GMT -5
Brown had her fair share of inconsistent matches last year.
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Post by alt on May 26, 2020 18:18:33 GMT -5
Looks like O'Brien is attending University of Texas this fall. Maybe she'll be a tranfer grad student?
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Post by jwvolley on May 26, 2020 18:40:30 GMT -5
"With the ability to graduate early, Tamas said, O’Brien said she wanted to shift her focus solely to her academics as she pursues a career in the medical field."
^This is from the article months ago when she announced she wasn't coming back. Didn't sound like she had any intention of playing anywhere else.
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Post by exit237a on May 26, 2020 20:24:08 GMT -5
Looks like O'Brien is attending University of Texas this fall. Maybe she'll be a tranfer grad student? O’Brien vs Petersen for the L jersey would be interesting... I'm always bummed when athletic careers are cut short, even voluntarily. That would be a pretty cool scenario- getting another shot at a national championship as a grad transfer. I think she should pull a "Madeleine Gates" and walk on.
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Post by exit237a on May 28, 2020 12:58:25 GMT -5
I'm keeping my fingers crossed we get a legit DS from the portal. We are in dire need. These three DS arent enough for a B1G season. I wish we got the Northwestern libero transfer from Nebraska. She would have started for us right away. Fun fact, Kuper (51.3%) actually had a significantly better good pass percentage than Miller did (45.9%) against B10 competition last year. Admittedly neither was close to O'Brien or Welsh, but I don't think it's a given that Miller would've started over Kuper. Thanks again for sharing stats with us! Always nice to get that additional info.
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