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Post by mosser on Nov 18, 2023 21:50:55 GMT -5
Raina will hold multiple Illini records after next season. I sure hope they can land a good MB and OH from the portal. I do think TDB will be great if they get her disease under control. Will they even have an open spot if no one transfers out?
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Post by exit237a on Nov 18, 2023 22:20:42 GMT -5
This video message from Raina was played on the big screen in Huff after she went through the procession that all our other honorees did. When the record scratch cut hit, we kinda knew what was coming next : ) It was awesome!
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Post by Del Bocavista on Nov 18, 2023 23:12:48 GMT -5
I'm glad she's staying, I wish more players with options throughout volleyball would make the choice to stay at their schools.
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Post by huskervolleyball on Nov 18, 2023 23:14:05 GMT -5
I’m so happy Terry’s coming back to y’all. Illinois has made a great run in the past few months, I hope y’all get better next year  |
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Post by photos1 on Nov 18, 2023 23:16:42 GMT -5
Good for her… don’t agree with this extra Covid/NIL year nonsense but glad she is staying at Illinois…. Strong core group
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Post by inpaign on Nov 18, 2023 23:19:54 GMT -5
What a great win tonight. As hard and as critical as we can be on the team, it really has been fun to watch them progress throughout the season. I thought they played a well rounded game tonight. It was fun to watch. Not going to say I told you so but...I told you Raina was likely to come back!!!!  That video played was awesome. We are so lucky to have her, she will be an Illini legend when she's done here. Now we need to surround her with TALENT next year. yes, that means dipping into the portal. We need a middle, we need another pin, and a DS/L would be great too. Replacing Kennedy will be tough. Another pin would give us some depth if TdB returns. A DS or Lib to replace Pan...we will see if my info about the Big Ten connection plays out. I hope it does! Another thought - although extremely unlikely, a quality backup setter would be nice. Heaven forbid Brooke gets injured...we would be in serious trouble. I have no idea how many open scholarships we will have, that is a huge factor as well. Anyway, excited to see how this all plays out. We will miss our seniors so much, we are grateful to have them. All of them have been great, but special shoutout to Kennedy Collins. Loyal to us through thick and thin, phenomenal athlete and an even better person. We love you! On a more somber note...after beating Michigan our RPI did in fact drop a spot! Not surprised, just feel like its ridiculous at this point. There's no question watching this team that we are an NCAA tournament quality team. The metrics not reflecting the second half of our season more than the first half is a serious flaw and its looking like it will cost us a chance to prove our capabilities in the tournament. The coaching staff is still confident we have a solid chance if we win out...I'm just not seeing how that will work out with an RPI as high as ours. Wins over Minnesota and NW MIGHT bring us to MAYBE in the 60's? I'm not sure that would cut it. Time will tell. Let's finish strong Illini! |
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Post by exit237a on Nov 19, 2023 0:37:11 GMT -5
Wanted to give a special shoutout to our great Marching Illini Volleyball Pep Band for another great season! They're our most boisterous cheerleaders at every home match and when they're not cheering the Illini or heckling opposing servers they're pumping the rest of us up with our favorite instrumentals. They're always a fun aspect of our home games and like our volleyball players, they do all of this in addition to being students. It's impressive and much appreciated by the home fans like me!
I also wanted to give them props on their devotion to our volleyball team. Specifically, UIUC students get all of next week off for Thanksgiving so most everyone leaves to head home when they're done with class/CU obligations/etc on Friday; the whole pep band was there tonight for the final home game and Senior Night, which means they delayed their own holiday break plans to be there. Very cool group.
Thanks to the pep band for another fun home season and special thanks and well-wishes to their graduating members!
Gotta shoutout the Spike Squad student section for their rowdy cheerleading all year, too! In Raina's video posted before Senior Night she said, "I don't think a lot of people realize how great Huff is. The atmosphere is unlike any other gym in the Big Ten and our fans are awesome. And I don't think our fans even realize all that they do for us. They can change the momentum of a match for us." The Spike Squad is such a huge part of the home crowd and all the rest of us non-students feed off their energy and enthusiasm. Thanks for your support of our volleyball team!
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Post by notpriddy (COIF) on Nov 19, 2023 7:46:34 GMT -5
Raina's dramatic announcement via the Huff video screen to close senior night made Illini hearts very happy! If the football team would have defeated Iowa (making us bowl-eligible) it would have been a perfect Illini nite!
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Post by notpriddy (COIF) on Nov 19, 2023 10:14:38 GMT -5
Shout out to Director of Operations Andy Wenstrand! Is there anything that this jack-of-all-trades cannot do? Andy never ceases to surprise me. To steal a movie title, Andy is Mr. "Everything Everywhere All at Once!" I cannot begin to list what Andy means to Illinois Volleyball. I thought I had seen it all from him until last nite. In last night's match, Andy actually began announcing the match, until our regular p.a. announcer was able to take over. I suspect our regular p.a. announcer was doing the announcing on radio for the Illinois-Iowa football game. And, Andy was very good at it...very spirited! Andy you are UH-MAZING!
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Post by inpaign on Nov 19, 2023 11:13:54 GMT -5
Dave Shondell via Twitter:
"There is a odd misconception that our league is down this year. I disagree. Somehow, the league teams mismanaged the almighty RPI system that dictates who qualifies for NCAA tournament play. With much youth and several first and second-year staffs, teams list early season match-ups. The B1G has 8 or 9 teams that are as good as usual. More…
Our coaches need to discuss what transpired this season to assure that every B1G team that is tourney worthy has and RPI number under 45. What other league teams do in non-con play have significant impact on all others. This may just be an anomaly, but conversations must be had."
I think he's right on the money and non-conf scheduling among the Big Ten teams needs to be discussed! So many teams scheduling so weak has hurt everyone. Rutgers volleyball started 8-1 and are now 10-18. As we've seen with our own RPI, it might've been better to schedule tougher teams and LOSE than to beat very low ranked teams. When so many of the Big Ten teams do this, including us, everyone is negatively impacted. I'm hopeful they will get this cleaned up for next year!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2023 11:27:55 GMT -5
Dave Shondell via Twitter: "There is a odd misconception that our league is down this year. I disagree. Somehow, the league teams mismanaged the almighty RPI system that dictates who qualifies for NCAA tournament play. With much youth and several first and second-year staffs, teams list early season match-ups. The B1G has 8 or 9 teams that are as good as usual. More… Our coaches need to discuss what transpired this season to assure that every B1G team that is tourney worthy has and RPI number under 45. What other league teams do in non-con play have significant impact on all others. This may just be an anomaly, but conversations must be had." I think he's right on the money and non-conf scheduling among the Big Ten teams needs to be discussed! So many teams scheduling so weak has hurt everyone. Rutgers volleyball started 8-1 and are now 10-18. As we've seen with our own RPI, it might've been better to schedule tougher teams and LOSE than to beat very low ranked teams. When so many of the Big Ten teams do this, including us, everyone is negatively impacted. I'm hopeful they will get this cleaned up for next year! you’re acting like Illinois didn’t lose to bad teams in the preseason lmao |
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Post by inpaign on Nov 19, 2023 11:40:23 GMT -5
Dave Shondell via Twitter: "There is a odd misconception that our league is down this year. I disagree. Somehow, the league teams mismanaged the almighty RPI system that dictates who qualifies for NCAA tournament play. With much youth and several first and second-year staffs, teams list early season match-ups. The B1G has 8 or 9 teams that are as good as usual. More… Our coaches need to discuss what transpired this season to assure that every B1G team that is tourney worthy has and RPI number under 45. What other league teams do in non-con play have significant impact on all others. This may just be an anomaly, but conversations must be had." I think he's right on the money and non-conf scheduling among the Big Ten teams needs to be discussed! So many teams scheduling so weak has hurt everyone. Rutgers volleyball started 8-1 and are now 10-18. As we've seen with our own RPI, it might've been better to schedule tougher teams and LOSE than to beat very low ranked teams. When so many of the Big Ten teams do this, including us, everyone is negatively impacted. I'm hopeful they will get this cleaned up for next year! you’re acting like Illinois didn’t lose to bad teams in the preseason lmao Actually I'm not at all. The point is our 8 of 10 Big Ten wins these last couple weeks should have risen us more in the RPI than (literally) 5 spots. There should be opportunities to raise your RPI from mistakes that happened earlier in the season. With the majority of the Big Ten at lower RPIs than normal, that has become impossible. |
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Post by badgerbyproxy on Nov 19, 2023 12:12:30 GMT -5
Dave Shondell via Twitter: "There is a odd misconception that our league is down this year. I disagree. Somehow, the league teams mismanaged the almighty RPI system that dictates who qualifies for NCAA tournament play. With much youth and several first and second-year staffs, teams list early season match-ups. The B1G has 8 or 9 teams that are as good as usual. More… Our coaches need to discuss what transpired this season to assure that every B1G team that is tourney worthy has and RPI number under 45. What other league teams do in non-con play have significant impact on all others. This may just be an anomaly, but conversations must be had." I think he's right on the money and non-conf scheduling among the Big Ten teams needs to be discussed! So many teams scheduling so weak has hurt everyone. Rutgers volleyball started 8-1 and are now 10-18. As we've seen with our own RPI, it might've been better to schedule tougher teams and LOSE than to beat very low ranked teams. When so many of the Big Ten teams do this, including us, everyone is negatively impacted. I'm hopeful they will get this cleaned up for next year! Why are you dragging Rutgers into this 😭 they’re not even the worst RPI team in the Big 10 anymore. They also did their job by going 8-2 in preconference and picking up more wins than they traditionally do (since 50% of RPI is the opponent’s W-L record). A lot of the mid-level teams in the Big 10 underperformed this year: Northwestern lost to Milwaukee, Illinois lost to Oklahoma and Notre Dame, Michigan and Ohio State lost to literally everyone, Maryland lost to Navy, and Iowa lost to Nevada. Collectively, the Big 10 performed worse this year than in previous years. I understand your frustration with Illinois picking up their own momentum and not being “rewarded” for it in the RPI metric, but unfortunately, that’s just how the metric works and we’re stuck with it. Let’s just hope that the Big 10 coaches get together after this season and strategize on how to collectively raise the conference RPI, because it’s clear that the system’s not changing. |
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Post by ilalum92 on Nov 19, 2023 14:32:54 GMT -5
Dave Shondell via Twitter: "There is a odd misconception that our league is down this year. I disagree. Somehow, the league teams mismanaged the almighty RPI system that dictates who qualifies for NCAA tournament play. With much youth and several first and second-year staffs, teams list early season match-ups. The B1G has 8 or 9 teams that are as good as usual. More… Our coaches need to discuss what transpired this season to assure that every B1G team that is tourney worthy has and RPI number under 45. What other league teams do in non-con play have significant impact on all others. This may just be an anomaly, but conversations must be had." I think he's right on the money and non-conf scheduling among the Big Ten teams needs to be discussed! So many teams scheduling so weak has hurt everyone. Rutgers volleyball started 8-1 and are now 10-18. As we've seen with our own RPI, it might've been better to schedule tougher teams and LOSE than to beat very low ranked teams. When so many of the Big Ten teams do this, including us, everyone is negatively impacted. I'm hopeful they will get this cleaned up for next year! Why are you dragging Rutgers into this 😭 they’re not even the worst RPI team in the Big 10 anymore. They also did their job by going 8-2 in preconference and picking up more wins than they traditionally do (since 50% of RPI is the opponent’s W-L record). A lot of the mid-level teams in the Big 10 underperformed this year: Northwestern lost to Milwaukee, Illinois lost to Oklahoma and Notre Dame, Michigan and Ohio State lost to literally everyone, Maryland lost to Navy, and Iowa lost to Nevada. Collectively, the Big 10 performed worse this year than in previous years. I understand your frustration with Illinois picking up their own momentum and not being “rewarded” for it in the RPI metric, but unfortunately, that’s just how the metric works and we’re stuck with it. Let’s just hope that the Big 10 coaches get together after this season and strategize on how to collectively raise the conference RPI, because it’s clear that the system’s not changing. With 50% of the RPI W-L record. 3 or 4 more wins and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. We controlled a lot of our own fate. I will say, the team that beat PUR, OSU etc the last few weeks is definitely not the same team that lost to ND, OKL etc. |
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Post by thereisnoplace on Nov 19, 2023 16:03:16 GMT -5
Folks in this thread seem to presume that Illinois is out no matter what. Beating Minnesota, finishing 5th outright in the B1G, and finishing 18-12 overall isn't enough? What are the "worst" teams in RPI to ever get an at-large bid? Surely Illinois wouldn't be a huge outlier if they make it.
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That video played was awesome. We are so lucky to have her, she will be an Illini legend when she's done here. Now we need to surround her with TALENT next year. yes, that means dipping into the portal. We need a middle, we need another pin, and a DS/L would be great too. Replacing Kennedy will be tough. Another pin would give us some depth if TdB returns. A DS or Lib to replace Pan...we will see if my info about the Big Ten connection plays out. I hope it does! Another thought - although extremely unlikely, a quality backup setter would be nice. Heaven forbid Brooke gets injured...we would be in serious trouble. I have no idea how many open scholarships we will have, that is a huge factor as well. Anyway, excited to see how this all plays out. We will miss our seniors so much, we are grateful to have them. All of them have been great, but special shoutout to Kennedy Collins. Loyal to us through thick and thin, phenomenal athlete and an even better person. We love you!
