Questions on UCLA team

[roofed!]

UCLA came into this season with many open starting spots due to massive graduation. Most would have thought that the remaining veterans on the team would have grabbed many of the starting positions, especially since they have advantages over the incoming freshmen in areas of experience as well as knowledge of the team's offense (having gotten majority of the training over the spring. I know that the team have a couple of injuries (Lyman's and Larson's) but still I was somewhat perplexed that Banachowski was putting a mostly freshmen team.

a) Jade Machado (freshman setter) as libero over Laura Kronenberger (junior libero/ds), with the latter rotating into the backrow plays (serving and defense) for most of last season.

b) Rachell Johnson (redshirt sophomore MB/OH) only came in games 2-4 to relieve Nancy Barba, and Katie Carter only played sparingly in latter games coming in for Elise Cartensen for a few rotations.

What happened to all the team veterans who lost starting positions to the freshmen?

[rubyredslippers]

Good question... looking at the stats of some of the players it just doesn't make sense. But that's just my biased opinion.

[Rus Socoli]

Could it be that he's already conceding this year to Washington, and he's getting his younger players some experience to hopefully compete for the years to come?

Seems like that's what Jeff Stork is doing at Northridge.

[rubyredslippers]

That might be so but it is tough for those players playing their hearts out just to stand on the sidelines. Promises.... promises. to improve their stats, play at a higher level..... There is always something that they want... and then to just wait for the next season....

[Wolfgang]

I'm still waiting for Rachell Johnson to break through.

[roofed!]

It does seem that Banachowski likes a team dominated by a single class -- last season's team had about 5 seniors who have started and played together for all their 4 years. Maybe a strong recruiting class comes in every 4 years due to many open scholies, but I would think that if the other upperclassmen are better, then the coach would start them instead right? After all, the upperclassmen have come in with high credentials too and several of them have much needed game experience during the previous seasons (like Kronenberger who was bypassed in favor of a freshmen setter in the libero position). I don't know whether I was reading too much into this but when I was looking at the UCLA bench, a couple of the veterans don't look particularly happy that they are on the sideline while the freshmen were struggling on the court.

[rubyredslippers]

I saw it too. I saw Rachell Johnson just pacing nervously at the end of the game.

[lairishfan]

I also have wondered what Andy and the coaches are thinking. They have a new asst. coach this year. Maybe he's making some decisions. He seems to be the one talking to them when there is a time out.

[bucky415]

Johnson really didn't play well in the matches in Madison, making quite a few unforced errors and not really putting the ball away effectively. That might have influenced the decision to take her out of the lineup. On the other hand, none of the freshmen, except Sather, showed much either. I guess you might think the freshmen have the most upside, but that doesn't say a lot for your training of the returning players.

[rubyredslippers]

if you look at her stats for the tournaments from reno and hawaii she was ranked consistently 2 or third in the line-up, even now. But, yes, Wisconsin was a bad match for her. It's hard to figure out what the coaches are thinking. And, she got yanked out..... It's been a long drought. But, they have been losing every since then.