|
Post by Logan Tom Fan on Jan 12, 2022 9:47:15 GMT -5
Callie from Nebraska, Zayna from BYU- who was a top recruit coming out of high school, and Nembhard from K-State. Bench players. Cal poly and Hawaii have gotten better in the past and no it did not elevate the big west conference much. The overrated-ness of Hildrebrand is insane. Also, what makes you think Hildebrand is so overrated?
|
|
|
Post by beachgrad on Jan 12, 2022 10:46:27 GMT -5
Bench players. Cal poly and Hawaii have gotten better in the past and no it did not elevate the big west conference much. The overrated-ness of Hildrebrand is insane. Bench players on teams that were already stacked to begin with, so it's not necessarily taking away from their own talent. This is giving them an opportunity to showcase that instead of sitting on the sidelines and in the process, this does boost the level of play for the conference, even if it's a slight boost. This will also serve as a reminder for teams who do have positions that are stacked, that opportunities do arise elsewhere if play time is something those players on the side are looking for. NC State is another program on the rise just by the big name transfers they got, and they haven't even played yet. You are so right. Take Callie from Nebraska for instance. As a freshman she was the starting middle the entire season on a team that reached the NCAA final. As a sophomore she was the starting middle the entire season on a team that reached the regional final. She lost her starting job as a junior and senior to a transfer but she still started half the season her senior year on a team that again reached the NCAA final. She is a very good middle that has played at a very high level and will continue to do so.
|
|
|
Post by Logan Tom Fan on Jan 12, 2022 11:31:57 GMT -5
Bench players on teams that were already stacked to begin with, so it's not necessarily taking away from their own talent. This is giving them an opportunity to showcase that instead of sitting on the sidelines and in the process, this does boost the level of play for the conference, even if it's a slight boost. This will also serve as a reminder for teams who do have positions that are stacked, that opportunities do arise elsewhere if play time is something those players on the side are looking for. NC State is another program on the rise just by the big name transfers they got, and they haven't even played yet. You are so right. Take Callie from Nebraska for instance. As a freshman she was the starting middle the entire season on a team that reached the NCAA final. As a sophomore she was the starting middle the entire season on a team that reached the regional final. She lost her starting job as a junior and senior to a transfer but she still started half the season her senior year on a team that again reached the NCAA final. She is a very good middle that has played at a very high level and will continue to do so. Right, it's not like she's an unknown! Most people know who she is, whether she played or didn't play.
|
|
|
Post by justaUHfan on Jan 15, 2022 2:12:57 GMT -5
Manifesting 4 big west teams in the tournament for next season lol! The conference as a whole will need to do a much better job of scheduling matches they can win. Also - 20 game conference season isn't going to help. Here is the non-conference records for the BW teams last year. This wasn't just the bottom of the conference bringing down the rest of the conference - look at those records from the top teams in the conference. Hawaii (3-5) UCSB (4-8) Cal Poly (2-9) Long Beach State (6-5) CSU Bakersfield (7-1) UC Irvine (7-3) Cal State Fullerton (3-4) UC Davis (4-7) UC San Diego (3-8) Cal State Northridge (1-9) UC Riverside (4-6) This past season was a tough one to judge since the 2020 year got cancelled. The top 3 contenders; UH, UCSB and Cal poly all had stellar post conference performances at the end of 2019 and I think the conference was at a rise back then. But how it’s looking now, it could still be very competitive against other ranked teams given how most were underclassmen and made a significant impact in the big west
|
|
bluepenquin
Hall of Fame
4-Time VolleyTalk Poster of the Year (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016), All-VolleyTalk 1st Team (2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016) All-VolleyTalk 2nd Team 2023
Posts: 13,302
|
Post by bluepenquin on Jan 15, 2022 7:55:55 GMT -5
The conference as a whole will need to do a much better job of scheduling matches they can win. Also - 20 game conference season isn't going to help. Here is the non-conference records for the BW teams last year. This wasn't just the bottom of the conference bringing down the rest of the conference - look at those records from the top teams in the conference. Hawaii (3-5) UCSB (4-8) Cal Poly (2-9) Long Beach State (6-5) CSU Bakersfield (7-1) UC Irvine (7-3) Cal State Fullerton (3-4) UC Davis (4-7) UC San Diego (3-8) Cal State Northridge (1-9) UC Riverside (4-6) This past season was a tough one to judge since the 2020 year got cancelled. The top 3 contenders; UH, UCSB and Cal poly all had stellar post conference performances at the end of 2019 and I think the conference was at a rise back then. But how it’s looking now, it could still be very competitive against other ranked teams given how most were underclassmen and made a significant impact in the big west I think the odds are against the conference. This wasn't just a 2020-21 phenomena. The conference has struggled in scheduling enough winnable matches in the non-conference for years. The geography works against the conference. But added in 2021 is the move to a 20 game conference season instead of 18. Make no mistake - this hurts the chances of getting 2 teams into the tournament let alone 3 or 4.
|
|
|
Post by BeachbytheBay on Jan 15, 2022 13:44:11 GMT -5
This past season was a tough one to judge since the 2020 year got cancelled. The top 3 contenders; UH, UCSB and Cal poly all had stellar post conference performances at the end of 2019 and I think the conference was at a rise back then. But how it’s looking now, it could still be very competitive against other ranked teams given how most were underclassmen and made a significant impact in the big west I think the odds are against the conference. This wasn't just a 2020-21 phenomena. The conference has struggled in scheduling enough winnable matches in the non-conference for years. The geography works against the conference. But added in 2021 is the move to a 20 game conference season instead of 18. Make no mistake - this hurts the chances of getting 2 teams into the tournament let alone 3 or 4. there is no question adding teams was not helpful short or long term but bottom line on scheduling and anything else. The Big West will have bad teams at the bottom, it's just not forseeable for that to change. How the top 3-4 teams perform will ultimately define the Big West. Right now UCSB, Poly, Hawaii, Long Beach have shown the desire and at times performances that the Big West can have a nationally relevent conference. Can those programs consistantly stay in the top 50?, instead of teetering in and out of the top 50. Can one or other porgrams consistently break the top 100, We'll see. The WCC has done that by consistently having BYU, LMU, Pepperdine, and San Diego carry the conference, with the middle of tht conference fielding competitive programs. At this point, it's not even about scheduling, it's about winning. The Big West needs to win (beat top 25 teams with some consistency) to even get to the point where the scheduling nuances become important.
|
|
|
Post by beachgrad on Jan 15, 2022 14:00:38 GMT -5
I would not be against the conference exploring the option of playing half the conference members twice and the other half once on alternate years. Some conference already do that with some sports. That way you could play more out of conference matches and try to minimize playing all the bad conference teams twice in the same year.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2022 15:05:50 GMT -5
I would not be against the conference exploring the option of playing half the conference members twice and the other half once on alternate years. Some conference already do that with some sports. That way you could play more out of conference matches and try to minimize playing all the bad conference teams twice in the same year. Bad idea when you don’t have a conference tournament.
|
|
bluepenquin
Hall of Fame
4-Time VolleyTalk Poster of the Year (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016), All-VolleyTalk 1st Team (2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016) All-VolleyTalk 2nd Team 2023
Posts: 13,302
|
Post by bluepenquin on Jan 15, 2022 15:27:28 GMT -5
I think the odds are against the conference. This wasn't just a 2020-21 phenomena. The conference has struggled in scheduling enough winnable matches in the non-conference for years. The geography works against the conference. But added in 2021 is the move to a 20 game conference season instead of 18. Make no mistake - this hurts the chances of getting 2 teams into the tournament let alone 3 or 4. there is no question adding teams was not helpful short or long term but bottom line on scheduling and anything else. The Big West will have bad teams at the bottom, it's just not forseeable for that to change. How the top 3-4 teams perform will ultimately define the Big West. Right now UCSB, Poly, Hawaii, Long Beach have shown the desire and at times performances that the Big West can have a nationally relevent conference. Can those programs consistantly stay in the top 50?, instead of teetering in and out of the top 50. Can one or other porgrams consistently break the top 100, We'll see. The WCC has done that by consistently having BYU, LMU, Pepperdine, and San Diego carry the conference, with the middle of tht conference fielding competitive programs. At this point, it's not even about scheduling, it's about winning. The Big West needs to win (beat top 25 teams with some consistency) to even get to the point where the scheduling nuances become important. Oh - I agree with this. Step one is for those programs to become 'relevant' (similar to Hawaii and Cal Poly the past 5 years). Scheduling by the entire conference doesn't matter if this doesn't happen. I am actually pretty optimistic right now on the future of Long Beach. Hawaii is always good. Cal Poly can/should be good in most years. But once this happens - they are still going to face some major RPI headwinds just like the WCC.
|
|
bluepenquin
Hall of Fame
4-Time VolleyTalk Poster of the Year (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016), All-VolleyTalk 1st Team (2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016) All-VolleyTalk 2nd Team 2023
Posts: 13,302
|
Post by bluepenquin on Jan 15, 2022 15:30:13 GMT -5
I would not be against the conference exploring the option of playing half the conference members twice and the other half once on alternate years. Some conference already do that with some sports. That way you could play more out of conference matches and try to minimize playing all the bad conference teams twice in the same year. Bad idea when you don’t have a conference tournament. This is especially true for conferences that aren't multi-bid conferences (3+). But then going to a 16 game conference with a conference tournament would be an RPI win over the current state.
|
|
|
Post by BeachbytheBay on Jan 15, 2022 17:06:56 GMT -5
Bad idea when you don’t have a conference tournament. This is especially true for conferences that aren't multi-bid conferences (3+). But then going to a 16 game conference with a conference tournament would be an RPI win over the current state. the problem is a split schedule with 11 teams, there's not a practicle way to do that with 11.
|
|
|
Post by bbg95 on Jan 15, 2022 17:40:00 GMT -5
This is especially true for conferences that aren't multi-bid conferences (3+). But then going to a 16 game conference with a conference tournament would be an RPI win over the current state. the problem is a split schedule with 11 teams, there's not a practicle way to do that with 11. Sure there is. The WCC only plays 16 conference games in men's basketball (unlike 18 in women's basketball and volleyball) explicitly to protect the top teams in the conference from having to play the worst teams more than once. Really, this is primarily to keep Gonzaga happy, but still. It's doable.
|
|
|
Post by BeachbytheBay on Jan 15, 2022 17:44:04 GMT -5
the problem is a split schedule with 11 teams, there's not a practicle way to do that with 11. Sure there is. The WCC only plays 16 conference games in men's basketball (unlike 18 in women's basketball and volleyball) explicitly to protect the top teams in the conference from having to play the worst teams more than once. Really, this is primarily to keep Gonzaga happy, but still. It's doable. the WCC has 10 teams, not 11, so that works out, they play 7 teams twice, and 2 once. can't do that type of team when you have a prime # (11), math sucks sometimes
|
|
|
Post by bbg95 on Jan 15, 2022 17:46:49 GMT -5
Sure there is. The WCC only plays 16 conference games in men's basketball (unlike 18 in women's basketball and volleyball) explicitly to protect the top teams in the conference from having to play the worst teams more than once. Really, this is primarily to keep Gonzaga happy, but still. It's doable. the WCC has 10 teams, not 11, so that works out, they play 7 teams twice, and 2 once. can't do that type of team when you have a prime # (11), math sucks sometimes The WCC is just one example. There's nothing preventing the Big West from playing fewer than 20 conference matches. They just have to decide to do it.
|
|
|
Post by BeachbytheBay on Jan 15, 2022 17:54:21 GMT -5
the WCC has 10 teams, not 11, so that works out, they play 7 teams twice, and 2 once. can't do that type of team when you have a prime # (11), math sucks sometimes The WCC is just one example. There's nothing preventing the Big West from playing fewer than 20 conference matches. They just have to decide to do it. show me the math that ends up with all teams playing the same number of games. I can do that for 9, 10, 12 team conferences. You have to have some divisible 'pods' and 11 won't work unless you have one school field and A and B team! Show me a conference of 11 teams that does that. YOu can do it with 9, because you can have 'pods' of 3. 11 sucks. Now, they could go to a 10 match schedule and a conference tournament, but that makes for too short of a season. Like I said, show me.
|
|