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Post by huskyfan148 on Apr 30, 2021 9:32:47 GMT -5
I’m genuinely curious... what is making people so high on Bush? Based off warmups, practice, coach’s word, or what?
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Post by Vball Fandom on Apr 30, 2021 11:26:28 GMT -5
Several teams took Washington to 5 sets last season: Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, USC, and Stanford. Arizona State and UCLA beat them. WSU never played them. If someone thought that any of those teams will probably improve more than Washington does next season, it's not really a stretch to choose them over Washington.
Granted, Washington won the other match against UCLA and Arizona State. In their other matches against the teams that took them to five sets, they swept all of them except for Stanford, who they beat 3-1. They went further in the NCAA tournament than Washington State. But WSU had at least one key player who couldn't play in all the sets in the tournament so IMO it's still not clear whether Washington or WSU was better last season (in terms of predicting who would have won a 5-match series at a neutral site with all players healthy). In the end, you are what your record is. UW was 17-3 in conference and got to the Final Four. WSU was 11-4 in conference and lost their only tournament match. And to be blunt, protecting yourself from COVID was part of the spring 2021 season, so I also credit UW for not being the cause of any COVID cancellations. The reason the two teams didn't play last year was because of WSU, not because of the UW. So go start a Cougar thread if you want to start claiming that WSU was better than the Huskies this past season. BOOM!
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Post by Vball Fandom on Apr 30, 2021 11:34:09 GMT -5
I’m genuinely curious... what is making people so high on Bush? Based off warmups, practice, coach’s word, or what? Her Length and Athleticism is exceptional. She will need to transition to the College Game and PAC however. Coming in early will be very beneficial to her. I think that she will be groomed to take over the Sam role when she leaves. My opinion is based on all three of the above areas. In a couple of years, it will be Endsley, Bush, and Wilmes (Although I do not know where her game is currently) leading UW. I am happy to say, I believe the pins are in great shape going forward the next several years.
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Post by udubhuskiefan on Apr 30, 2021 11:47:06 GMT -5
What are everyone’s opinions of Molly Wilson? Do we have any MB recruits to replace sanders and grote when they leave?
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Post by redbeard2008 on Apr 30, 2021 12:36:18 GMT -5
Several teams took Washington to 5 sets last season: Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, USC, and Stanford. Arizona State and UCLA beat them. WSU never played them. If someone thought that any of those teams will probably improve more than Washington does next season, it's not really a stretch to choose them over Washington.
Granted, Washington won the other match against UCLA and Arizona State. In their other matches against the teams that took them to five sets, they swept all of them except for Stanford, who they beat 3-1. They went further in the NCAA tournament than Washington State. But WSU had at least one key player who couldn't play in all the sets in the tournament so IMO it's still not clear whether Washington or WSU was better last season (in terms of predicting who would have won a 5-match series at a neutral site with all players healthy). My thesis is pretty simple. UW's primary weaknesses were passing and floor defense. In many cases, but not always, they were able to overcome this with strong out-of-system play, and strong serving and blocking, all of which, along with their passing and floor defense, improved as the season went along. If UW can flip their passing/floor defense from a weakness to a strength through the insertion of a true Libero in Bays, while moving Crenshaw back to DS, where she'll be available for backrow attacks or to rotate forward (if Endsley is struggling, or more passing is desirable), they could be very, very hard to stop. Plus, all of their attackers will hopefully be improved by a year, with Endsley likely being improved the most. The question is not whether other teams can improve generally next season (most teams should), but to what degree they can eliminate weaknesses and/or amplify strengths.
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Post by pbmu on Apr 30, 2021 14:19:07 GMT -5
What are everyone’s opinions of Molly Wilson? Do we have any MB recruits to replace sanders and grote when they leave? 6'4 Elise Hani from Kirkland WA. She's part of Prepvolleyball Top 150 for 2022
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Post by huskyfan148 on Apr 30, 2021 14:24:06 GMT -5
What are everyone’s opinions of Molly Wilson? Do we have any MB recruits to replace sanders and grote when they leave? 6'4 Elise Hani from Kirkland WA. She's part of Prepvolleyball Top 150 for 2022 I imagine Summers will take Sanders spot after this next season, and Elise Hani will take Grote’s spot once she graduates. This is assuming we don’t add a more highly ranked middle in the meantime.
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Post by mikegarrison on Apr 30, 2021 16:28:23 GMT -5
Mike, you usually have better reading comprehension. I really hate that line where someone disagrees with a poster or calls them out, and they cry "reading comprehension". I think that in a Washington thread, your post was borderline trolling. I would have felt differently about it in a PAC-12 thread. I'm not going to go into a Stanford thread and start talking about how they just got lucky and barely squeaked by some key opponents or whatever immediately after they have gotten to the Final Four. It's trolling the fanbase. Besides, I've gotten pretty damn tired of people downplaying the accomplishments of the 2021 Huskies. They came closer to beating Kentucky than anybody else, IMO. They weren't the kind of team that is just so clean and smooth that they looked like a volleyball machine, but they were incredibly disruptive to what other teams were trying to do. And they used that to battle all the way to the Final Four. I recognize they had to do it by, for instance, making an amazing 5th set comeback against Louisville and coming from 0-2 against Pitt, but their play style was what gave them the chance to do that. There is no particular reason to think they can't do it again next year as well, IMO.
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Post by isaacspaceman on Apr 30, 2021 17:52:49 GMT -5
Besides, I've gotten pretty damn tired of people downplaying the accomplishments of the 2021 Huskies. They came closer to beating Kentucky than anybody else, IMO. In one of the mid-season threads, somebody (it might have been you) complained that every week before the matches it was "Washington is playing X; we finally get to see how Washington performs against a good team" and every week after the matches it was "Washington beat X; I guess X wasn't any good after all." I think that was a strain of the sentiment before and after UCLA ("Washington only won because Chang went down") and the prevailing sentiment for both Colorado and Utah. It is really just the weirdest thing that Washington won the Pac-12 outright, beat two teams in the NCAA Tournament that hadn't lost in the spring and another whose only spring loss was in the first match of the season, made it to the Final Four, and arguably played better against the eventual champion than the runner-up did, yet fans of a third of the teams in the Pac-12 are still like "we were better than Washington this year."
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Post by Vball Fandom on Apr 30, 2021 17:53:29 GMT -5
Mike, you usually have better reading comprehension. I really hate that line where someone disagrees with a poster or calls them out, and they cry "reading comprehension". I think that in a Washington thread, your post was borderline trolling. I would have felt differently about it in a PAC-12 thread. I'm not going to go into a Stanford thread and start talking about how they just got lucky and barely squeaked by some key opponents or whatever immediately after they have gotten to the Final Four. It's trolling the fanbase. Besides, I've gotten pretty damn tired of people downplaying the accomplishments of the 2021 Huskies. They came closer to beating Kentucky than anybody else, IMO. They weren't the kind of team that is just so clean and smooth that they looked like a volleyball machine, but they were incredibly disruptive to what other teams were trying to do. And they used that to battle all the way to the Final Four. I recognize they had to do it by, for instance, making an amazing 5th set comeback against Louisville and coming from 0-2 against Pitt, but their play style was what gave them the chance to do that. There is no particular reason to think they can't do it again next year as well, IMO. Mike, you are correct 100%!
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Post by huskyvolley on Apr 30, 2021 18:08:31 GMT -5
Besides, I've gotten pretty damn tired of people downplaying the accomplishments of the 2021 Huskies. They came closer to beating Kentucky than anybody else, IMO. In one of the mid-season threads, somebody (it might have been you) complained that every week before the matches it was "Washington is playing X; we finally get to see how Washington performs against a good team" and every week after the matches it was "Washington beat X; I guess X wasn't any good after all." I think that was a strain of the sentiment before and after UCLA ("Washington only won because Chang went down") and the prevailing sentiment for both Colorado and Utah. It is really just the weirdest thing that Washington won the Pac-12 outright, beat two teams in the NCAA Tournament that hadn't lost in the spring and another whose only spring loss was in the first match of the season, made it to the Final Four, and arguably played better against the eventual champion than the runner-up did, yet fans of a third of the teams in the Pac-12 are still like "we were better than Washington this year." I think it might be due to Washington's style. We don't really have any hitters that make WOW plays, especially our pins -- they tool the block more than any other pin trio in the country, imo. Those plays are not "impressive", but they are effective. Also, we way too often give up big leads. It makes us look vulnerable. Finally, we did go 5 with almost all the opponents. It give an impression that Washington is not "dominant". With that, I don't honestly care about what others say. A win is a win. Final 4 appearance is real and earned. I also absolutely love the feeling of coming in a match of an underdog and kicking ass. Washington did this the whole season. Great season and hope for an even better season this fall!
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Post by chatchu-off moksri on Apr 30, 2021 18:16:21 GMT -5
Y'all keep saying "UW is returning everyone" as if they aren't losing one of their most iconic players in program history to graduation. Put some respect on Bogomolova's name.
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Post by After Dawn on Apr 30, 2021 18:19:28 GMT -5
I'm going to say it, Washington Spring 2021 was the most unathletic team that made the final four that I've ever seen. Though they return everyone they don't have the higher ceiling than those like a Nebraska, Oregon, Stanford, Penn State, etc.
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Post by blue-footedbooby on Apr 30, 2021 18:22:56 GMT -5
I'm going to say it, Washington Spring 2021 was the most unathletic team that made the final four that I've ever seen. Though they return everyone they don't have the higher ceiling than those like a Nebraska, Oregon, Stanford, Penn State, etc. But it was the tallest in UW history and, IMO, had the highest vb IQ of any others. I also disagree about ceiling, this team will see vast improvements in receiving and passing come 2021 tourney time.
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Post by Vball Fandom on Apr 30, 2021 18:31:30 GMT -5
I'm going to say it, Washington Spring 2021 was the most unathletic team that made the final four that I've ever seen. Though they return everyone they don't have the higher ceiling than those like a Nebraska, Oregon, Stanford, Penn State, etc. If the best athletes won all the matches...then we would be singing the Texas Longhorn name loud and proud. Reality is...there is and will only be one way to judge a team's success and that is scoreboard! UW has that for this years PAC 12 and the for making The Final Four. Nebraska, Stanford, Penn St, and etc...don't have that no matter their athletic superiority. I would also argue that the ceiling for UW is quite high....may not be as high as the teams you mentioned, but you could have said the same thing about this year's team before the season started and look what happened. Vball coaching, Vball skill set, chemistry, and luck matter.....and they always will.
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