Minnesota Golden Gophers 2024

[pavsec5row10]

Copying this over from the match thread:

Since 2019, Washington is the 5th team to win a match involving a T25 team while hitting .123 or less.

9/14/2019 Indiana (.079) defeated #15 Kentucky (.174) 3-2 (16-25,25-22,12-25,25-20,15-11)

9/22/2019 #4 Penn State (.112) defeated #6 Pittsburgh (.153) 3-2 (28-26,21-25,25-21,20-25,16-14)

9/16/2022 #16 Florida (.115) defeated #4 Wisconsin (.115) 3-2 (25-21,25-18,26-28,13-25,15-13)

3/5/2021 Butler (.117) defeated #24 Marquette (.089) 3-2 (25-18,15-25,17-25,25-18,15-7)

11/7/2024 RV Washington (.123) defeated #14 Minnesota (.248) 3-1 (25-21,25-23,14-25,25-22)

The -.125 difference in hitting percentage is the largest deficit for any team defeating a T25 team since 2019.

[pointu]

gophers seem to be at their worst when they have the most to lose, but I can conceive no good reason why cook refuses to at least try someone else for wucherer in the back row. help it make sense!!!

[comet]

My takeaways from the match:
- I wish I could say that Washington was the better all-around team last night but they really weren't and this loss is extremely disappointing at this point in the season.
- Hunt has a lethal serve and she served almost exactly where Colvin served us off the court earlier in the season. She was impressive.
- We had too many uncharacteristic serving errors. We were not mentally focused.
- Washington's defense stepped up in the final set and that was the deciding factor.
- Being aced off our home court like that should never happen (x2!)
- As a fan, I don't enjoy watching huge breakdowns in the middle of a game with no adjustments made to help the players. Just TRY someone else. I know they're probably not as good, but we just needed to pass a 1 to break the streak. I frankly don't get it.

Can a coach or someone explain what might be behind these decisions? I want to understand. 

[mplsgopher]

Nov 8, 2024 12:37:16 GMT -5 pointu said:

gophers seem to be at their worst when they have the most to lose, but I can conceive no good reason why cook refuses to at least try someone else for wucherer in the back row. help it make sense!!!

All I can think of is that she and/or her family have implied she would transfer out if she is not allowed to play six-rotations. I made that up. Wild speculation, I don't know anything.

..... what a pity her transferring out would be .......

[mplsgopher]

I hear Marquette is a wonderful school with a solid vball program, right in here hometown of Milwaukee.

But anyway

[trianglevolleyball]

I know it’s bad to wish for players to transfer out, but the blame is really on Cook for refusing to try anything else. It must be so mentally damaging to make mistake after mistake then have a setter not trust you as a result. There’s no way Wucherer should be starting next year and her transferring like Landfair seems to be the only way Cook will try a different strategy.

[GoGophs]

Nov 8, 2024 12:41:42 GMT -5 comet said:

My takeaways from the match:
- I wish I could say that Washington was the better all-around team last night but they really weren't and this loss is extremely disappointing at this point in the season.
- Hunt has a lethal serve and she served almost exactly where Colvin served us off the court earlier in the season. She was impressive.
- We had too many uncharacteristic serving errors. We were not mentally focused.
- Washington's defense stepped up in the final set and that was the deciding factor.
- Being aced off our home court like that should never happen (x2!)
- As a fan, I don't enjoy watching huge breakdowns in the middle of a game with no adjustments made to help the players. Just TRY someone else. I know they're probably not as good, but we just needed to pass a 1 to break the streak. I frankly don't get it.

Can a coach or someone explain what might be behind these decisions? I want to understand. 

Spot on and I got nothing for why a switch wasn't made... really really frustrating to watch. Especially getting served off our home court to the same spot AGAIN. If someone is struggling, take them out and let them regroup 🤷‍♀️

[volleysota]

Nov 8, 2024 12:54:29 GMT -5 mplsgopher said:

Nov 8, 2024 12:37:16 GMT -5 pointu said:

gophers seem to be at their worst when they have the most to lose, but I can conceive no good reason why cook refuses to at least try someone else for wucherer in the back row. help it make sense!!!

All I can think of is that she and/or her family have implied she would transfer out if she is not allowed to play six-rotations. I made that up. Wild speculation, I don't know anything.

..... what a pity her transferring out would be .......

I'm pretty sure that was the speculation regarding Landfair last year. I sure hope we're not dealing with a similar situation here.

[braceminn]

Nov 8, 2024 13:17:00 GMT -5 GoGophs said:

Nov 8, 2024 12:41:42 GMT -5 comet said:

My takeaways from the match:
- I wish I could say that Washington was the better all-around team last night but they really weren't and this loss is extremely disappointing at this point in the season.
- Hunt has a lethal serve and she served almost exactly where Colvin served us off the court earlier in the season. She was impressive.
- We had too many uncharacteristic serving errors. We were not mentally focused.
- Washington's defense stepped up in the final set and that was the deciding factor.
- Being aced off our home court like that should never happen (x2!)
- As a fan, I don't enjoy watching huge breakdowns in the middle of a game with no adjustments made to help the players. Just TRY someone else. I know they're probably not as good, but we just needed to pass a 1 to break the streak. I frankly don't get it.

Can a coach or someone explain what might be behind these decisions? I want to understand. 

Spot on and I got nothing for why a switch wasn't made... really really frustrating to watch. Especially getting served off our home court to the same spot AGAIN. If someone is struggling, take them out and let them regroup 🤷‍♀️

Yikes, looks like she has Keegan around her little finger. Coaches these days are so scared to upset their players so they don’t transfer.

[jimboslice]

Correct me if I'm wrong but Wucherer and Acevedo's passing numbers on the season are pretty much the same. So its not like we have some stud serve receive rock on the bench that Cook can just slot in to stabilize passing. And if they did then I'm positive they would be in the match. Serve receive is the hardest skill in volleyball to do at a consistently high level. I just don't see it as an issue that can be fixed within a season. (But not subbing a player out who gets aced like 3x in one run is crazy)

My hope would be that Keegan is evaluating how he is teaching the skill and the serve receive system he is implementing overall. And maybe next year some coaching staff additions to help with SR and passing specifically would be welcome. But I think for now we simply do not have players that are great at that skill and there is no miracle fix.

[babyhusker]

Nov 8, 2024 15:09:26 GMT -5 jimboslice said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but Wucherer and Acevedo's passing numbers on the season are pretty much the same. So it’s not like we have some stud serve receive rock on the bench that Cook can just slot in to stabilize passing. And if they did then I'm positive they would be in the match. Serve receive is the hardest skill in volleyball to do at a consistently high level. I just don't see it as an issue that can be fixed within a season. (But not subbing a player out who gets aced like 3x in one run is crazy)

My hope would be that Keegan is evaluating how he is teaching the skill and the serve receive system he is implementing overall. And maybe next year some coaching staff additions to help with SR and passing specifically would be welcome. But I think for now we simply do not have players that are great at that skill and there is no miracle fix.

I don’t disagree, but also, the same numbers does not mean the same consistent outcome. A serve that might ace Wookie might not ace Acevedo, and vice versa. Acevedo started a few matches and didn’t have a great showing and I don’t see anyone calling for Wookie to be completely benched. But it was absolutely coaching malpractice not to try something else. I realize Acevedo had already subbed in to serve by that point so she wasn’t a viable option in that rally. But in general…

[skolgophers]

Nov 8, 2024 15:09:26 GMT -5 jimboslice said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but Wucherer and Acevedo's passing numbers on the season are pretty much the same. So it’s not like we have some stud serve receive rock on the bench that Cook can just slot in to stabilize passing. And if they did then I'm positive they would be in the match. Serve receive is the hardest skill in volleyball to do at a consistently high level. I just don't see it as an issue that can be fixed within a season. (But not subbing a player out who gets aced like 3x in one run is crazy)

My hope would be that Keegan is evaluating how he is teaching the skill and the serve receive system he is implementing overall. And maybe next year some coaching staff additions to help with SR and passing specifically would be welcome. But I think for now we simply do not have players that are great at that skill and there is no miracle fix.

They needed ONE pass. They didn’t need a season worth of numbers to get there. When a player is getting served off the court consistently in a match, along with the Libero to her right, you need to make a change in that moment. Cook refused to and they deserved that loss last night.

Hopefully this is the kick in the butt they need to re-evaluate their lineup moving forward, but I fear there will be no changes made on Saturday besides hoping they turn things around.

[skolgophers]

Nov 8, 2024 15:33:34 GMT -5 babyhusker said:

Nov 8, 2024 15:09:26 GMT -5 jimboslice said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but Wucherer and Acevedo's passing numbers on the season are pretty much the same. So it’s not like we have some stud serve receive rock on the bench that Cook can just slot in to stabilize passing. And if they did then I'm positive they would be in the match. Serve receive is the hardest skill in volleyball to do at a consistently high level. I just don't see it as an issue that can be fixed within a season. (But not subbing a player out who gets aced like 3x in one run is crazy)

My hope would be that Keegan is evaluating how he is teaching the skill and the serve receive system he is implementing overall. And maybe next year some coaching staff additions to help with SR and passing specifically would be welcome. But I think for now we simply do not have players that are great at that skill and there is no miracle fix.

I don’t disagree, but also, the same numbers does not mean the same consistent outcome. A serve that might ace Wookie might not ace Acevedo, and vice versa. Acevedo started a few matches and didn’t have a great showing and I don’t see anyone calling for Wookie to be completely benched. But it was absolutely coaching malpractice not to try something else. I realize Acevedo had already subbed in to serve by that point so she wasn’t a viable option in that rally. But in general…

She subbed in for Wucherer to serve. She was absolutely a viable option.

[braceminn]

Nov 8, 2024 15:09:26 GMT -5 jimboslice said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but Wucherer and Acevedo's passing numbers on the season are pretty much the same. So its not like we have some stud serve receive rock on the bench that Cook can just slot in to stabilize passing. And if they did then I'm positive they would be in the match. Serve receive is the hardest skill in volleyball to do at a consistently high level. I just don't see it as an issue that can be fixed within a season. (But not subbing a player out who gets aced like 3x in one run is crazy)

My hope would be that Keegan is evaluating how he is teaching the skill and the serve receive system he is implementing overall. And maybe next year some coaching staff additions to help with SR and passing specifically would be welcome. But I think for now we simply do not have players that are great at that skill and there is no miracle fix.

It’s about giving the player who is struggling a break to get it together She never had a chance to step back, try to pull it together and possibly put her back in if Acevedo wasn’t doing any better It is just that no changes were made to try to save the match.
Acevedo passed 2.45 I think during Penn State so there is hope she’s moving in the right direction

[eskerjaz]

Acevedo's numbers up until last night were a small tick below Wucherer's, I believe. Getting aced a bunch in a single run would put you in your head, so a sub could at least give a breather even if on paper you're getting similar stats. Just a fresh mind can help. The loss sucks but I've seen worse gut punches. What feels bad here it was literally just serve receive because everything else statistically was better.

If we're annoyed at the passing I can only imagine it's at least tenfold worse for the players and coaches. This reminds me of when Jenna Gray came onto VT and said how if people cringed at her setting, we can only imagine how she felt in the moment.