Kansas 2024

[bluepenquin]

Sept 28, 2024 11:12:54 GMT -5 buttery said:

KU came out on top of a dog fight 3-1 against Houston last night - probably could’ve gone 5 but there were some clutch plays by Bien in particular in Set 4. I wouldn’t say it was KU’s sharpest performance and there were just some uncharacteristic unforced hitting errors throughout the match and Houston was playing some great court defense. I’ll attribute some of this to 5 games in 9 days?

Outside of Pitt, I think there is much more parity in women’s college volleyball this year, so at this point, I’ll take going 2-0 for what it is and watch this team live on for another week in the Top 10.

Elnady has been trying to swing very hard off hands this whole season and with more physical blockers and hasn’t been all that successful in the last 3 games. Like I said before, she also just looks a little fatigued, but hopefully her hitting % can increase these next few games. Houston and UCF were going to be very familiar with her from last year, so I’m hoping Colorado, WVU, and Cincy will provide her an opportunity for her to get back in rhythm.

Bien - 14 digs and it seems like every game she has 1 or 2 insane defensive plays. She passed a 3.0 ball to Turner from her stomach this match that doesn’t even seem humanly possible.

I would add a big shout out to Swanson who gave the team a spark in their 4th set comeback.  Nice to have such a deep bench.

I also thought Burns played very well.  Burns and Bien on 1st contact and then on defense is very much a treat.  

[bluepenquin]

A pretty lackluster performance @ West Virginia last night. Bien had a rough night with 1st contact and the hitting stats for her were awful. I just don't think Kansas took this match all that serious, except...

The big news is Kansas came in with the same lineup that finished the Colorado match last week. Swanson was the OH with Elnady as her DS on the back row. Ptacek started and played the whole game at MB (instead of Burgess who didn't play). And it was those two that seemed more hyped for the game and opportunity, and it showed.

Swanson was efficient on the front row - and her high contact gives shades of Reagan Cooper last year. She just doesn't have the snap on the ball that Cooper had (a big deal) - but her length and high contact does give her the ability to just hit over the block.

Ptacek hit .538 and looked really good. I really like her lateral movement in terms of blocking - plus she is efficient on the slide. There is great comfort in the idea that there will be life after Onabanjo for the next 3 years with Ptacek and Burgess playing the middle - they are both really good and solid foundations for the next era of Kansas volleyball.

[buttery]

Watched the WVU game last night and if you missed it, it’s generally not rewatching. Despite the easy win (WVU…not good), generally sloppy performance. Couple of interesting things though:

1. Swanson and Ptacek got the starts over Elnady (for front row only of course) and Burgess. Swanson looked more aggressive than I’ve ever seen her and I truly think her termination ceiling is as high as Cooper or Landfair as I’ve said before. She just has gotten very limited reps due to KU’s style of play and need for ball control in Bien and to a lesser extent Elnady over her career. She has usually been going after hands, but this game you can see she was confident enough in herself (as she should be) to be hitting over blocks and was swinging hard. It’s nice to know that we have good OH depth from a termination standpoint, and at the very least, it gives Elnady a break (she’s looked exhausted the last 3 or 4 matches now). She’ll be fun to watch next year as a presumable front row starting pin.

2. However, Swanson’s entrance into the front row creates even more work for Bien and Burns, and I’d say that Bien in particular had an unusually bad serve receive match. Some of this was just due to her being below her usually exceptional standards, but part of Bien/Burns’ reception woes this match were due to the 2-person reception that KU continued to do when Swanson was front row and a live passer. Part of me thinks this is too extreme of an adjustment from Kansas’ coaching staff in this rotation - Swanson serve received a couple of balls last game that I believe were probably 3.00 passes and Elnady didn’t pass all that bad last year. Bien got aced a couple times this game because she came all the way from right back to center back to receive a ball in front of Burns - it’s weird when KU does this because they seem to look like they have 3 live passers, but in reality Burns is covering everything seam left and Bien is covering everything on the right side of the court - they don’t start that way though. IF this is going to continue happening in this rotation, I’d like to get it solved, because we’ll get burned by better teams.

2. Ptacek has looked good and for now, I’m fine with her in instead of Burgess. Her slide looks better and her blocking looked good enough today. I expect both her and Burgess will easily start next year and probably indefinitely for the next 3 years after.

3. We keep having slow starts that we can’t afford to have when we get into the ASU, Zona, TCU, Baylor stretch. We were a mess in set 1 until Bechard called a late timeout - this is becoming a trend.

4. All this to say, super easy win for KU and a win is a win. The priority for this team has to be to peak towards the later part of Big 12 play starting with the Arizona State match (though I don’t think we can overlook UCF on the road). That 6 game stretch (could say 7 but ISU is dropping like flies) is critical for this team, as I feel like if we run the table, we could end up as a 5/6/7 seed and if we incur enough bumps (going 2-4 isn’t out of the question) then we are probably a toss up to even host a sub-regional. I’d like to see us playing cleaner more focused volleyball as we build to that point in the season.

[buttery]

Oct 11, 2024 8:50:31 GMT -5 bluepenquin said:

A pretty lackluster performance @ West Virginia last night. Bien had a rough night with 1st contact and the hitting stats for her were awful. I just don't think Kansas took this match all that serious, except...

The big news is Kansas came in with the same lineup that finished the Colorado match last week. Swanson was the OH with Elnady as her DS on the back row. Ptacek started and played the whole game at MB (instead of Burgess who didn't play). And it was those two that seemed more hyped for the game and opportunity, and it showed.

Swanson was efficient on the front row - and her high contact gives shades of Reagan Cooper last year. She just doesn't have the snap on the ball that Cooper had (a big deal) - but her length and high contact does give her the ability to just hit over the block.

Ptacek hit .538 and looked really good. I really like her lateral movement in terms of blocking - plus she is efficient on the slide. There is great comfort in the idea that there will be life after Onabanjo for the next 3 years with Ptacek and Burgess playing the middle - they are both really good and solid foundations for the next era of Kansas volleyball.

Promise I finished my post before reading yours lol, but looks like we saw very similar things.

[buttery]

Blue, what would you anticipate would happen to RPI and seeding if we lost to ASU but won the Big 12 by winning all the other games?

[bluepenquin]

Oct 11, 2024 9:02:25 GMT -5 buttery said:

Blue, what would you anticipate would happen to RPI and seeding if we lost to ASU but won the Big 12 by winning all the other games?

Interesting how we had similar reactions to last night's game. 


I get the sense that Ptacek and Burgess will both be starting over the rest of the season with a quick hook for the hot hand. 


I am not sure of what they do with Swanson/Elnady.  Bien has had such a great season (other than last night) - and I don't know how you could survive with her as a DS for Swanson in terms of first contact.  But that was very successful last year with Cooper.  Elnady makes little sense as a DS - other than her back row attacks.  And it feels rather weird for Bien and Elandy to switch roles (actually - it is positions more than role).  And I don't know if Swanson is consistent enough to be the OH every night.

My sense - I think they want to give Swanson reps (like against West Virginia) - so that she can be a quick hook solution in any match that Bien or Elandy isn't hitting well.  Although - she does give them something they do not have and particularly against more physical teams that they will need down the road.  This is going to be an interesting question for this team going forward - good to have options.

As to your direct question - I suppose a 2 loss team that lost to Creighton and ASU could be a 7th seed, but that H2H loss to ASU would certainly be a problem.  

The biggest issue with Kansas and RPI is the virtual complete collapse of their schedule since week 2.  Part of this was the underperforming of the B12 conference - but particularly that a large part of this underperformance was from Iowa State and Kansas State.  The 4 teams in conference they play twice are among the worst records in the conference.  Duke is getting crushed in the ACC and becomes their worst non-con opponent.  Colgate is doing much worse than last year or expectations for this year.  Western Michigan has turned into a near disaster vs. what we were thinking at the beginning of the season.  South Carolina and Wichita State aren't likely to have great records.  Scheduling bonus is now hinging on 2 of these 3 teams staying inside the top 75 (Tulsa, Wichita State, South Carolina).

The goal now - other than trying to win the B12 and getting this team ready for the tournament - is to win enough games that they can get a seed in the 10-12 range.  Based on my belief that Pittsburgh is the most dominate team since I have been following D1 VB (I wasn't following during Penn State's greatness) - I really don't want anything to do with #8, 9, and 16 seeds.  I would rather be an 11th or 12th seed than #8 or #9 - in fact - the #11 or #12 seed is the sweet spot for this team and really no different than being the #5 or #6 seed.




 

[bluepenquin]

YTD Leaders for the attackers.

Elnady 2.88 k/s (.254)
Onabanjo 2.80 (.457)
Bien 2.68 (.296)
Davis 2.68 (.353)
Ptacek 2.67 (.580)

Swanson 2.05 (.295)
Burgess 1.68 (.325)

Right now - the top 4 hitters have between 134 and 144 kills for the season - some incredible balance. Elnady's k/s are going to go down if she continues to just play the back row (and Swanson's will go up). Hitting %'s are really strong across the board.

[buttery]

Bracket related Kansas stuff:

Checked FigStats today and it’s really shocking how much of a nosedive KU’s SOS has taken. TCU is ahead of us despite 4 losses.

Will be interesting to see how the Utah/Zona/ASU/Baylor/TCU/BYU games go - I feel like running the table wouldn’t do us much good, but losing 2+ would probably be quite damaging to our RPI and more so allow some of these teams to further pass us on RPI. We are looking better on KPI at #9 although as discussed an 8/9 would be terrible news.

If I’m betting, I think ASU and TCU represent the biggest challenges in front of us, and I’ve circled at K-State as a scheduled loss at this point.

If we did happen to run the table, I’d hope that the #6 spot is possible as I’d rather go to the 3 seed regional rather than presumably Pitt/Nebraska. Ultimately, I’d cross my fingers for an inferior ball control team as the 11 like Oregon, Dayton, SMU, or hell even Wisconsin at this point despite the fact that Sarah Franklin will just be hitting over our block.

[bluepenquin]

Oct 24, 2024 10:33:57 GMT -5 buttery said:

Bracket related Kansas stuff:

Checked FigStats today and it’s really shocking how much of a nosedive KU’s SOS has taken. TCU is ahead of us despite 4 losses.

Will be interesting to see how the Utah/Zona/ASU/Baylor/TCU/BYU games go - I feel like running the table wouldn’t do us much good, but losing 2+ would probably be quite damaging to our RPI and more so allow some of these teams to further pass us on RPI. We are looking better on KPI at #9 although as discussed an 8/9 would be terrible news.

If I’m betting, I think ASU and TCU represent the biggest challenges in front of us, and I’ve circled at K-State as a scheduled loss at this point.

If we did happen to run the table, I’d hope that the #6 spot is possible as I’d rather go to the 3 seed regional rather than presumably Pitt/Nebraska. Ultimately, I’d cross my fingers for an inferior ball control team as the 11 like Oregon, Dayton, SMU, or hell even Wisconsin at this point despite the fact that Sarah Franklin will just be hitting over our block.

RPI Future is at #11 with 2.4 more losses.  If they win out - their average RPI would be #7 (although this would move up to #6 if Wichita State could move inside the T75).  Also South Carolina and/or Arizona moving into the T50 would help (they are both close).

Generally - their schedule has cratered with Duke, Western Michigan, UCF, Iowa State, Kansas State all sucking wind and Tulsa losing some matches.  

[buttery]

KU needs to not be dropping sets to Texas Tech.

Edit: KU needs to not be losing matches to Texas Tech. 😵‍💫

[buttery]

Tech has passed nails since set 1 and are hitting lights out - definitely winning the serve and pass game right now and Williams seemingly gets a kill with every swing she takes.

Aiono in for Ptacek who has struggled blocking and McCarthy in for McGehe who had passing woes in set 2.

[vbtrashtalk]

Oct 30, 2024 19:29:22 GMT -5 buttery said:

Tech has passed nails since set 1 and are hitting lights out - definitely winning the serve and pass game right now and Williams seemingly gets a kill with every swing she takes.

Aiono in for Ptacek who has struggled blocking and McCarthy in for McGehe who had passing woes in set 2.

is it me or did Tech actually look pretty decent?

[boxcariii]

Just in case people are confused looking at the comments, Kansas won 3-1 last night. 

Yes, Tech looked pretty good in Set 2 and Set 3. I thought Kansas dug deep in Set 3 and found a way to win that one despite being down late. 

[buttery]

Oct 31, 2024 8:31:48 GMT -5 vbtrashtalk said:

Oct 30, 2024 19:29:22 GMT -5 buttery said:

Tech has passed nails since set 1 and are hitting lights out - definitely winning the serve and pass game right now and Williams seemingly gets a kill with every swing she takes.

Aiono in for Ptacek who has struggled blocking and McCarthy in for McGehe who had passing woes in set 2.

is it me or did Tech actually look pretty decent?

Tech looked way better than their record after set 1 that’s for sure. Again pass and serve game was probably better than KU’s after that point and their block was giving KU fits. We saw Swanson instead of Bien at the end of set 4, which I thought was a good decision.

McCarthy started at DS instead of McGehe - I can’t imagine this is going to be permanent. Maybe McGehe wasn’t feeling 100% or something. I’d like to see McCarthy as SS because Devers has had quite a few service errors.

[bluepenquin]

Kenzie Dean came into the match - I think the 4th set? She had 1 attack. Who did she come in for and possible reason - seemed curious in such a close set and match.

On the plus side - Kansas did outscore Texas Tech by 14 points last night - even though this match could have very easily gone 5 sets.

And - last year they got outscored and lost to Texas Tech. Just looked back at that 5 set loss to Texas Tech last year. Reagan Cooper did Reagen Cooper things in that match (hit .444). Elnady had 14 kills - but didn't play one of the sets. Kansas beat TTU 25-14 in the 2nd set to take a 2-0 lead and then lost it after that (somewhat similar to last night with a large 1st set win). Brynn Williams was fantastic last night - not so much 1 year ago.