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Post by badgerbreath on Apr 11, 2021 13:07:14 GMT -5
It’s really hard to have a conversation about these matches.. Because of the lack of inter conference play, I haven’t watched any of these other teams play. I don’t have access to the PAC12 network. BYU I figure will be good because Olmstead always makes sure that they are. I know some of the players, but the teams I’m not that familiar with.
I used to be afraid of how the badgers handle singularly good hitters like Drews or Mac May, but that problem hasn’t really been a thing since halfway through the 2019 season - Plummer excepted. I mean, the badgers take their lumps and win on enough other fronts that it doesn’t matter so much. I personally think the badgers are still most prone to OOS attacks, especially off the net. Badgers force that situation often with their serve. Robinson is still young and inexperienced as a blocker on the right pin. She has plenty of size, but can get tooled.
On the other side, I’m also not that sure what we have with the Badgers offensively. I mean, on one hand they may look very much like they did last year, plus Robinson, or they could look really different depending on whether they can integrate the back row attack better. The balance between attacking options and passing never really solidified, It feels like Sheff was experimenting all season and there just weren’t enough games to completely shake out the final rotations and passing schemes. The periods of lose play that you get early in the season kind of persisted also because there were no matches and lots of changes. Communication in passing and defense was a bit confused against Michigan. Will that be a problem? I dunno.
The badgers are really good. Last year I had a clear sense of the relative strengths and weaknesses of this team. They are similar in some ways this year, but they could be better in some areas and worse in others. At this point I just want to see some matches.
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Post by badgerbreath on Apr 11, 2021 13:29:35 GMT -5
Also, I want to reiterate Jon Arias's point in the video above. Barnes was really playing very well through the last few matches of the season. If she can keep that level up, if they can improve their communication in D and OOS, the badgers will be very hard to beat.
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Post by jwvolley on Apr 11, 2021 14:53:49 GMT -5
I used to be afraid of how the badgers handle singularly good hitters like Drews or Mac May, but that problem hasn’t really been a thing since halfway through the 2019 season - Plummer excepted. I mean, the badgers take their lumps and win on enough other fronts that it doesn’t matter so much. I personally think the badgers are still most prone to OOS attacks, especially off the net. Badgers force that situation often with their serve. Robinson is still young and inexperienced as a blocker on the right pin. She has plenty of size, but can get tooled. May has help this time around. It's not a one woman offensive show.
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Post by badgerbreath on Apr 11, 2021 16:46:41 GMT -5
I used to be afraid of how the badgers handle singularly good hitters like Drews or Mac May, but that problem hasn’t really been a thing since halfway through the 2019 season - Plummer excepted. I mean, the badgers take their lumps and win on enough other fronts that it doesn’t matter so much. I personally think the badgers are still most prone to OOS attacks, especially off the net. Badgers force that situation often with their serve. Robinson is still young and inexperienced as a blocker on the right pin. She has plenty of size, but can get tooled. May has help this time around. It's not a one woman offensive show. She gets 4.25 k/S compared to 4.8 last, but no one else gets more than 3. She takes ~31% of her teams swings compared to ~32% last year. That's still pretty dominant, just not as efficient. Simo was pretty good last year at 3k/s. Certainly better statistically than their options this year, since she hit 0.270. Simo was pretty scary, if undersized. All this is besides the point. UCLA may have a different mix, I'll grant, but overall they are performing pretty similarly to last year. They are 14-6 this year with a full strength Stanford off their schedule, and 13-7 last with them on it. They had a tendency to beat a lot of good teams often enough last year as well, which makes them dangerous, same as last. They even have virtually the same HP. They are a little better on defense. And I know it's dangerous to go on stats alone, but I can't watch them, so...
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2021 17:02:44 GMT -5
May has help this time around. It's not a one woman offensive show. She gets 4.25 k/S compared to 4.8 last, but no one else gets more than 3. She takes ~31% of her teams swings compared to ~32% last year. That's still pretty dominant, just not as efficient. Simo was pretty good last year at 3k/s. Certainly better statistically than their options this year, since she hit 0.270. Simo was pretty scary, if undersized. All this is besides the point. UCLA may have a different mix, I'll grant, but overall they are performing pretty similarly to last year. They are 14-6 this year with a full strength Stanford off their schedule, and 13-7 last with them on it. They had a tendency to beat a lot of good teams often enough last year as well, which makes them dangerous, same as last. They even have virtually the same HP. They are a little better on defense. And I know it's dangerous to go on stats alone, but I can't watch them, so... just a side note, but a lot of the Pac12 schools streamed their matches this year (there werent a lot of TV ones) so us B1G folk actually had access to quite a few matches. 2021 UCLA is much better than 2019 UCLA (but its very dependent on how their setters are doing)
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Post by badgerbreath on Apr 11, 2021 17:10:27 GMT -5
She gets 4.25 k/S compared to 4.8 last, but no one else gets more than 3. She takes ~31% of her teams swings compared to ~32% last year. That's still pretty dominant, just not as efficient. Simo was pretty good last year at 3k/s. Certainly better statistically than their options this year, since she hit 0.270. Simo was pretty scary, if undersized. All this is besides the point. UCLA may have a different mix, I'll grant, but overall they are performing pretty similarly to last year. They are 14-6 this year with a full strength Stanford off their schedule, and 13-7 last with them on it. They had a tendency to beat a lot of good teams often enough last year as well, which makes them dangerous, same as last. They even have virtually the same HP. They are a little better on defense. And I know it's dangerous to go on stats alone, but I can't watch them, so... just a side note, but a lot of the Pac12 schools streamed their matches this year (there werent a lot of TV ones) so us B1G folk actually had access to quite a few matches. 2021 UCLA is much better than 2019 UCLA (but its very dependent on how their setters are doing) Everytime I checked, I couldn't get access, or it was on weekday afternoon or Sunday morning when I can't watch. I just got frustrated. I'll have to take your word for the fact that they are better, but none of that comes out in the topline stats or in the records. That's the only point I'm making. What I gather you are saying is that they have a higher ceiling and more variability. I wouldn't call that better, per se. I would call that more unpredictable.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2021 17:14:59 GMT -5
just a side note, but a lot of the Pac12 schools streamed their matches this year (there werent a lot of TV ones) so us B1G folk actually had access to quite a few matches. 2021 UCLA is much better than 2019 UCLA (but its very dependent on how their setters are doing) I'll have to take your word for the fact that they are better, but none of that comes out in the topline stats or in the records. That's the only point I'm making. What I gather you are saying is that they have a higher ceiling and more variability. I wouldn't call that better, per se. I would call that more unpredictable. I think that's fair. (if you do want to watch a match, here is one on Youtube) I wouldn't sleep on BYU either.
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Post by vbsam16 on Apr 11, 2021 17:37:52 GMT -5
just a side note, but a lot of the Pac12 schools streamed their matches this year (there werent a lot of TV ones) so us B1G folk actually had access to quite a few matches. 2021 UCLA is much better than 2019 UCLA (but its very dependent on how their setters are doing) Everytime I checked, I couldn't get access, or it was on weekday afternoon or Sunday morning when I can't watch. I just got frustrated. I'll have to take your word for the fact that they are better, but none of that comes out in the topline stats or in the records. That's the only point I'm making. What I gather you are saying is that they have a higher ceiling and more variability. I wouldn't call that better, per se. I would call that more unpredictable. One area that was a huge upgrade was the libero position. Barry is a solid passer, but her defense isn't amazing. Fleck on the other hand is arguably the best libero in the country. Her passing and floor defense are stellar.
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Post by SportyBucky on Apr 11, 2021 20:34:05 GMT -5
just a side note, but a lot of the Pac12 schools streamed their matches this year (there werent a lot of TV ones) so us B1G folk actually had access to quite a few matches. 2021 UCLA is much better than 2019 UCLA (but its very dependent on how their setters are doing) Everytime I checked, I couldn't get access, or it was on weekday afternoon or Sunday morning when I can't watch. I just got frustrated. I'll have to take your word for the fact that they are better, but none of that comes out in the topline stats or in the records. That's the only point I'm making. What I gather you are saying is that they have a higher ceiling and more variability. I wouldn't call that better, per se. I would call that more unpredictable. And no one is sleeping on UCLA or BYU. I simply asked the Purdue announcer to explain why he thought those teams would be WI's chief hurdle. He didn't explain his statement. I believe UCLA is better...they will need to be because they didn't challenge WI at all in 2019.
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jiml
Sophomore
Go Badgers
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Post by jiml on Apr 11, 2021 20:40:07 GMT -5
... I used to be afraid of how the badgers handle singularly good hitters like Drews or Mac May, but that problem hasn’t really been a thing since halfway through the 2019 season - Plummer excepted... The evidence from the 2019 Stanford-Utah matches plus the score trend from the Badger loss suggested to me that teams needed about 7 sets against Stanford to figure out how to slow down that Hentz dig, Grey set, Plummer hit combination. Stopping Plummer entirely was not going to be an option :-) 3 sets just wasn't enough time. Given that 2019 Stanford blew through to the top 3 B1G teams in straight sets, the Badgers had plenty of rueful company that year.
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Post by badgerbreath on Apr 11, 2021 21:29:14 GMT -5
Another thing that is strange this year is that were discussing UCLA/BYU when they are three rounds distant, and that's after a long layoff. The badgers don't have a first match, and we don't know if we we will play Bowling Green or Weber St in the second round, so jumping ahead to discussions of UCLA and BYU seem presumptuous. I know nothing about the two possible second round teams other than that they have won a lot. Those kinds of teams tend to play with a ton of spunk.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2021 21:34:48 GMT -5
Another thing that is strange this year is that were discussing UCLA/BYU when they are three rounds distant, and that's after a long layoff. The badgers don't have a first match, and we don't know if we we will play Bowling Green or Weber St in the second round, so jumping ahead to discussions of UCLA and BYU seem presumptuous. I know nothing about the two possible second round teams other than that they have won a lot. Those kinds of teams tend to play with a ton of spunk. Both are fun teams and they both have two pins they really rely on. Weber St.'s OHs avg over 8kps together (I think, dont quote). Bowling Green's duo are an OH and a 6 rotation opposite from the Czech Republic. I don't see Wisconsin being troubled by either tbh.
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Post by teambrown on Apr 12, 2021 11:23:42 GMT -5
Does anyone know what brand masks the team is wearing now?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2021 12:14:16 GMT -5
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Post by Wiswell on Apr 12, 2021 12:25:14 GMT -5
These look see through and useless as well. Mask theater.
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