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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2020 18:37:53 GMT -5
That one horse pushed Hawaii pretty close last year. I'm on record saying I think Hawaii repeats as Champs but without pre conference, I don't see how Hawaii gets close to their RPI from 2019. Rasmussen did not play against Poly at all last season. I agree with the RPI comments, even with a full season, they probably won't have the RPI they did last season. Everything fell into place for them last year RPI-wise. Yeah, if JR stays healthy the Wahine are prohibitive favorites for the title and will be very dangerous in the tournament. She provides such an intimidating block and will make it harder to scheme against Helvig. Obviously Lang is the a big factor but 2020 Hawaii could be really special. I'd really just like to see two more teams get back to the tournament. If pre conference schedule is permitted but travel is restricted, Hawaii would hopefully come over to California and get to play a strong schedule to see them to a good seed.
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trojansc
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Post by trojansc on Apr 14, 2020 18:41:17 GMT -5
I also believe that the Big West will receive multiple bids to the NCAA next season. Hawaii and Cal Poly are the likely choices and LBSU might be in a position to do the same if everything falls into place. If the NCAA decides to play an abbreviated season, say just conference games, it will be interesting to see the selection criteria with no basis for a true RPI without out of conference results. Hopefully things will improve enough that a normal season can be played. Yeah, that would be bad news for Hawaii. I was actually discussing this idea recently. If there is a pre conference schedule but it's limited to local travel, it favors the CA schools because of the strong competition in the area. Not sure what Hawaii would do in that scenario. Move to L.A. temporarily? If there is no pre conference at all, that hurts the BW because, especially considering the addition of the two newcomers, the aggregate RPI is likely to be lower than other multiple bid conferences. RPI just doesn’t work if only conference games are played.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2020 18:42:20 GMT -5
Yeah, that would be bad news for Hawaii. I was actually discussing this idea recently. If there is a pre conference schedule but it's limited to local travel, it favors the CA schools because of the strong competition in the area. Not sure what Hawaii would do in that scenario. Move to L.A. temporarily? If there is no pre conference at all, that hurts the BW because, especially considering the addition of the two newcomers, the aggregate RPI is likely to be lower than other multiple bid conferences. RPI just doesn’t work if only conference games are played. Please let's not vote on seeding.
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Post by beachgrad on Apr 14, 2020 20:56:28 GMT -5
If no out of conference games are played to calculate a RPI then they should take the top two from each of the 32 D1 conferences. Conferences can add conference tournaments to add more matches and help determine the better teams going into the NCAA tourney. Or they can use the conference tournaments as a substitute for the first round of the NCAA tournament and take the 32 tournament champions for the actual NCAA tourney.
I do not like having a very narrow area for pre conference matches because it is unfair to some schools and a big benefit to others.
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trojansc
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Post by trojansc on Apr 14, 2020 22:56:30 GMT -5
Top 10 RPI conferences from 2019 get 4 bids each Conferences #11 and #12 get two bids each The 20 other conferences get 1 bid 64 total teams
Big East and Ivy are 11 and 12. Big West and C-USA just above the cut
I would like that alot better than 2 from each conference. I know this alternative is still kind of arbitrary, random, and not ideally balanced. But it could work.
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Post by beachgrad on Apr 15, 2020 10:25:01 GMT -5
I have always believed that if the NCAA tourney is to crown the national champion why do they have so many teams in that could not even win their conference. Having 5, 6, 7 plus teams in from a single conference is ridiculous. If you are that low in conference why are you even eligible for the NCAA tournament. I get the argument that tougher conferences have pretty good teams deeper down their conference rankings but the conference season is already proof that you are not up to par. However, by allowing conferences to chase the big TV network dollars and expanding their conference numbers well into the teens helped to promote these huge single conferences numbers.
If the women’s volleyball season goes on with only a conference season I am sure the NCAA selection committee will select more than 4 schools from each of the power 5. Trojansc’s method provides balance farther down the ranks but history has shown that the power 5 gets more than their fair share.
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Post by beachgrad on Apr 16, 2020 21:40:10 GMT -5
The best returning BW setter is probably DeNecochea from Cal Poly. She is a steady setter that makes good decisions and has the size to be a good blocker. However, I believe that LBSU’s Tuaniga will be the best conference setter as a freshman. Tuaniga has all the physical tools plus she is a very crafty and creative setter with nice hands. Also has a wicked jump serve and plays good defense. These are my top two conference setters and I think there will be a big drop off after those two since a few quality setters graduated last season.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2020 23:21:37 GMT -5
The best returning BW setter is probably DeNecochea from Cal Poly. She is a steady setter that makes good decisions and has the size to be a good blocker. However, I believe that LBSU’s Tuaniga will be the best conference setter as a freshman. Tuaniga has all the physical tools plus she is a very crafty and creative setter with nice hands. Also has a wicked jump serve and plays good defense. These are my top two conference setters and I think there will be a big drop off after those two since a few quality setters graduated last season. Definitely agree that Tuaniga will push DeNecochea (and said as much in the 2020 preview) as the best setter. Avalon certainly has the size but actually didn't have a great year blocking with only a +8.9% positive block differential. Blocking is one area Poly really needs to improve. MB Philips is a good blocker (+29.4%) and but Mercer is towards the bottom of the BW starting middles (+19.6%). DeNecochea, as mentioned, isn't great and Dvoracek actually recorded a negative block differential on the season, meaning she made more blocking errors than blocks or good touches (-2.1%). Considering she's very physical and possesses good size, that's one of the more surprising things I discovered during the reviews. As a team, Poly recorded a positive blocking differential of just +15.7% which is poor when you consider Hawaii racked up a score of +24.5% and UCSB were at +21.2%. Given her size and experience as a middle, you'd have thought Kristina Jordan would be able to help in terms of blocking, but she only recorded a +5.7% blocking differential score this past season, so I'm not sure she'll fix things. Either way, it's an area of weakness for Poly and something they'll need to fix if they want to challenge a Wahine group that returns the most dominant blocking pin in the conference (or any conference?) in Rasmussen. I know I've said it a few times in this thread, but since I'm talking about blocking (and it really is a mind-blowing number), her blocking differential of +42.9% truly is ridiculous. She's going to cause headaches for every offense she faces in 2020. In case you're interested in how Beach fared, their team mark was +24.1% but the obvious caveat there is they lose their two best blockers in Xue and Norveel, both of whom were better than +27% on the season. Kennedy is the only good returning blocker on the pins and with a healthy Martinez, Williams and incoming Fr Jaylen Jordan I'm not sure how much she'll see the floor. Honestly, her blocking might be a reason for Beach to experiment with a 6-2, given the uncertainty of a possible 4 freshman in the front row in 2020 (Bacon, Booth, Tuaniga and Jordan). The blocking situation is another reason why I suspect Beach is still one year away from truly being elite in the conference, but given the talent level of these players, there's always the chance they come in and hit the ground running from the jump.
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Post by beachgrad on Apr 17, 2020 9:46:08 GMT -5
I have thrown around the idea that the coaches should give Kennedy a try in the middle since there are multiple options at the pins and the team is young in the middle breaking in two freshman. The coaches wanted to have Xiu full time on the right but with the issues they were having in the middle with injuries, etc she was mainly a middle taking some swings on the right. IMO Kennedy is physical enough to play the middle and has just enough height to be effective. I do not see Canez or McFarland as viable middles if the team is going to push for a potential post season bid.
I guess the real issue regarding conference setters is wether Hawaii’s incoming setter can pick up Hawaii’s system fast and build an early season connection with her hitters. Lang did well in club but she was also surrounded by the nations best club hitters and that can make a decent setter look very good. Will be interesting to see how this pans out because Lang also walks into a pretty potent offense. Hawaii has the conference’s best set of pin hitters and middle blockers.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2020 10:08:16 GMT -5
I have thrown around the idea that the coaches should give Kennedy a try in the middle since there are multiple options at the pins and the team is young in the middle breaking in two freshman. The coaches wanted to have Xiu full time on the right but with the issues they were having in the middle with injuries, etc she was mainly a middle taking some swings on the right. IMO Kennedy is physical enough to play the middle and has just enough height to be effective. I do not see Canez or McFarland as viable middles if the team is going to push for a potential post season bid. I guess the real issue regarding conference setters is wether Hawaii’s incoming setter can pick up Hawaii’s system fast and build an early season connection with her hitters. Lang did well in club but she was also surrounded by the nations best club hitters and that can make a decent setter look very good. Will be interesting to see how this pans out because Lang also walks into a pretty potent offense. Hawaii has the conference’s best set of pin hitters and middle blockers. I agree that the speed of Lang's assimilation will effect Hawaii in the early going but that coaching staff knows setters and even if she has a rough start, barring major injuries, I still don't think there's another roster in the conference that'll really push Hawaii. If we get a pre-conference schedule (and from what I'm hearing there's a good chance we won't) I'd be confident that Lang would have the necessary level of comfort for Hawaii to win the BW without much stress. Beach using Kennedy at MB wouldn't help the fact that none of the prospective starting pins or setter are strong blockers.
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Post by StuffU on Apr 17, 2020 10:23:06 GMT -5
An ominous sign from Mayor Caldwell in Honolulu in this morning's Star-Advertiser:
"The mayor said people would also have to continue refraining from hugging, or shaking hands for a long time, as well as congregating, which includes sitting together to watch football or volleyball games, or attending a symphony or rock concert at Blaisdell Center.
Those types of large-crowd events will not happen until the very end of the pandemic, he said."
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2020 10:31:29 GMT -5
An ominous sign from Mayor Caldwell in Honolulu in this morning's Star-Advertiser: "The mayor said people would also have to continue refraining from hugging, or shaking hands for a long time, as well as congregating, which includes sitting together to watch football or volleyball games, or attending a symphony or rock concert at Blaisdell Center. Those types of large-crowd events will not happen until the very end of the pandemic, he said." Yeah, I think fan-less events are a virtual certainty for the BW at this stage. Fortunately most of the BW WVB programs have been experimenting with fanless events for a while. Sucks for UH, but to be honest, I think they have bigger issues (like travel) than filling the Stan.
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Post by beachgrad on Apr 17, 2020 11:00:45 GMT -5
I wonder if the NCAA will make the decision for their members regarding fan-less events and no preseason or will that be left to the governors and individual conferences. If some states allow for games with fans and some conferences in those states also allow pre-season how will that factor into NCAA tourney selection, seeding, etc. I hope there is a blanket rule at least for having or not having a preconference season.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2020 11:07:41 GMT -5
I wonder if the NCAA will make the decision for their members regarding fan-less events and no preseason or will that be left to the governors and individual conferences. If some states allow for games with fans and some conferences in those states also allow pre-season how will that factor into NCAA tourney selection, seeding, etc. I hope there is a blanket rule at least for having or not having a preconference season. I posted this in another thread (about the virus) yesterday but according to a friend of mine coaches and the BW are currently discussing cost cutting measures in response to the outbreak and given the uncertainty surrounding fall enrollment. Nothing has been officially confirmed yet but my contact mentioned a BW school which had a pre conference trip to B10 country that has already been cancelled.
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Post by jake on Apr 18, 2020 14:31:45 GMT -5
CAL POLY's Maia Dvoracek is a senior-to-be in 2020-2021.
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