Undertow
New member
The Huskers had another set of matches ‘postponed’ due to COVID, but this time there was less drama involved and no last second decision making based test results the afternoon of the match. Instead early in the week Wisconsin Coach Sheffield found out about Michigan State players, their opponents the previous Saturday and Sunday, testing positive and was fearful that his players may have been ‘contaminated.’ His fears came to fruition later in the week as multiple Badger players tested positive and, ‘out of an abundance of caution’ (this catchphrase is mandatory for all COVID postponement announcements) the much anticipated showdown between No.1 and No. 4 didn’t happen. The chances of rescheduling the matches appear to be slim to none, especially since the B1G made no apparent attempt to pull the Nebraska-Illinois matches up (the Illini were scheduled to play COVID Sparty this weekend) to create scheduling space on the backend. The next time these two teams meet may be in the NCAA tournament. You would hope that the Selection committee would put the Huskers and Ferocious Weasels on opposite sides of the bracket, but given the incompetence displayed by said committee in the past don’t be surprised with a regional final match up.
Week 6 of the poll:[SIZE=12pt] [/SIZE]
1
Wisconsin (53)
2
Texas (6)
3
Kentucky (1)
4
Nebraska
5
Minnesota
6
Baylor
7
Washington
8
Florida
9
Utah
10
Penn State
11
Purdue
12
UCLA
13
Louisville
14
Notre Dame
15
BYU
16
Washington State
17
San Diego
18
Georgia Tech
19
A Ohio State
20
Oregon
21
Western Kentucky
22
Pittsburgh
23
Creighton
24
Marquette
25
Pepperdine
COVID cancellations (excuse me ‘postponements’) were AGAIN the main theme across the rest of the country. Which is slightly odd, since the third wave of the virus has peaked and is on a significant downward trend across the country. Another indicator that it is nearly impossible to predict the comportment of non‑linear, multi-variable, coupled, open systems (yes, that’s a mouthful) like the COVID pandemic. The B1G led the pack in cancellations of the Power 5 conferences:
B1G postponed 8 of 14 matches
PAC-12 postponed 4 of 12 matches
SEC postponed only 2 of 10 matches
ACC postponed 4 of 9 matches
Big 12 postponed 3 of 14 matches
The match of the weekend in the PAC-12 turned out to be a ho-hum affair. Washington had their way with previously unbeaten Utah 3-0 and 3-1. It wasn’t particularly close. A beatdown. The Utes and Huskies swapped 7 and 9 positions in the polls. The rest of the upper tier of the conference (aside from Utah) had banner weekends. UCLA beat Arizona 3-1 and 3-0 and finally, after a few weeks seemingly stuck at 15, jumped up to 12. The Cougars from the plains of Pullman shut out UC@WokeBerkley 3-0 and 3-0 to creep up one spot to 16. And Oregon dispatched the Buffaloes 3-0 and 3-1 to claim the 20 position up from 22. It is crowded at the top of the PAC-12 with Washington at 10-2, Utah – Washington State – Oregon all at 8-2, and UCLA at 9-3. The conference will likely send five formidable teams to the tournament. And one of those five won’t be Stanford. More on The Color Cardinal later.
In the SEC, Missouri split a pair with South Carolina winning the first 3-0 but losing the rematch 1-3. The Tigers dropped out of the poll and are sitting at the top of the RV line. Florida blasted the Volunteers 3-0 and 3-0 and remained at 8. Kentucky’s matches with aTm were postponed and the Wildcats didn’t budge from 3. And congratulations to former Husker libero and championship assistant coach Kayla Banwarth as her Ole Miss Rebels finally got on the board in the win column by beating LSU in five. They currently reside at 1-13. The rebuild may take awhile.
ACC action saw no action among the 4 ranked teams. Louisville vs. Notre Dame was postponed and both remained stationary at 13 and 14 respectively. Georgia Tech and Pittsburg were not scheduled to play. Both teams dropped in the top 25. The Yellow Jackets slid to 18 and the Panthers slipped one notch to 22. ACC conference action begins in earnest this weekend as they introduce the mini-pod into the year of the COVID scheduling. Since there are 15 teams, 5 sites are picked each weekend and 3 teams per site each play 2 matches round robin style over a 3 day period. Not a bad concept. But with just 4 weekends prior to the tournament (i.e. 8 matches each team) it is too little too late.
Texas beat the Sooners 3-nil twice in a pair of ‘non-conference’ matches between Big 12 conference teams. Out of the four matches between the two schools this fall-spring season, Oklahoma has taken a grand total of 1 set. Baylor beat North Texas 3-0 but was pushed to the full 5 by Pepperdine from the West Coast Conference. Texas and Baylor remain at no. 2 and 6.
Speaking of the Waves, they are the newest member of the poll debuting at 25 despite the loss to Baylor. That’s due to the fact earlier in the week Pepperdine beat the previously unbeaten Cougars of BYU 3-0. BYU returned the favor the next night, but it took 5 sets. BYU swapped spots with UCLA and reside at 15. San Diego takes over the lead in the West Coast after defeating San Francisco 3-0 and 3-1. The Toreros are 10-0 and moved up 1 to 17.
In the Big East, Marquette won twice in non-conference action (St. Louis 3-1 and Iowa State 3-0) and remain at 24. The Creighton Blue Jays are still in COVID lockdown.
[SIZE=11pt]In the B1G, of the three sets of matches that were played, two involved ranked teams. The Boilermakers took care of their rivalry foe Indiana rather easily 3-0 and 3-0. They remain ranked at 11. A Ohio State swept Rutgers 3-0 in their initial match of the weekend, but the Scarlet Horde put up a fight in the subsequent match before succumbing in 5. Even with the pair of victories, the Buckenidiots stayed at 19. And finally, the most competitive match up of the weekend saw Iowa and Northwestern split a pair of 5 set marathons. 4 of the 10 sets played went deuce or over. In the first match, the 2nd set almost broke the 40 point barrier with the Hawkeyes winning 39 to 37. Of the ranked teams that didn’t play, none of them budged in the rankings; Wisconsin 1, Nebraska 4, Minnesota 5, and Penn State 10. Wisconsin did gather 2 more first place votes from the Shorthorns.
COVID cancellations could have an impact on tournament eligibility. 13 games is the minimum number to qualify for the mens’ and womens’ basketball tournament, and I believe that is the minimum number of matches for volleyball, although I couldn’t confirm it. Blueblood programs like Penn State and Stanford will need good COVID fortune the remainder of the year to meet that standard. The Color Cardinal have dug themselves a particularly deep hole starting out 1-3 against two bottom feeders of the conference and having to cancel 8 of the first 12 matches of the season with only 10 to play. And 8 of the 10 remaining are against Utah, Washington, Oregon, and UCLA. Not an enviable task. Teams can apply for an exemption of the 13 match minimum, but unless Stanford gets on a serious winning streak, they are likely to miss out on the tournament for the first time in program history. Penn State (the only other program never to miss an NCAA tournament) is in slightly better position as they are ranked, but they still have wood to chop. Their record is 4-3, have one match (this week) with Ohio State and twin matches with Purdue, Wisconsin, and Nebraska out of the remaining 11 matches. They’ll need some splits against top 10 opponents to break .500. It will be interesting to see if the committee will take a sub .500 team of a premier program from the B1G just based on the ‘eye test’ in a year with only 18 at-large.
The Illini are next up for the Big Red Machine. They have suffered attrition of star power in the past two seasons that have brought the program from the heights of a Final Four appearance to a mid-level B1G program. Gone are All-American middle Ali Bastianelli and generational setter Jordyn Poulter. They left in 2018. The 6’2” Poulter now roams the court with the U.S. National Team and is a likely member of the final 12 member Olympic squad. Gone is middle Ashley Fleming, an All‑Conference performer who had some huge games against the Huskers. She graduated in 2019. And also gone from 2019 is the indefatigable robotic arm of one Jacquelin Quade who attacked with power and grace and a Foecke-like fearlessness.
But while the talent pool is diminished, it is not empty. Megan Cooney is back at opposite and leads the team in kills with an impressive 3.70 kills/set which is among the league leaders, but is hitting just slightly above the Mendoza line at .205. Freshman Terry Raina is second on the team in kills on the outside but it is significant drop off from Cooney (122 kills to 70). Additionally young Raina is hitting slightly BELOW the Mendoza line at .193. Illinois hits .184 as a team which ranks 10th in the conference. The Illini are running a 6-2 with Diana Brown and Kylie Bruder which is a bit odd, as last season they ran a 5-1 with Brown as the main setter where she eventually wound up on the B1G All-Freshman team.
The stat lines may be misleading for Illinois as they lost to Wisconsin, Penn State, and Ohio State. They missed winnable matches against Michigan State and Northwestern due to COVID. And it doesn’t get easier for the Illini. After the Nebraska matches they travel up north to play the Gophers in Minneapolis.
There is not enough offense on the orange and blue side to compete with this group of Huskers. The Fightin’ Schwartezbachs ‘play like they practice’ and take two in Champaign in preparation for the (as of now) unbeaten Buckeyes coming to Devaney. [/SIZE]
Week 6 of the poll:[SIZE=12pt] [/SIZE]
1
Wisconsin (53)
2
Texas (6)
3
Kentucky (1)
4
Nebraska
5
Minnesota
6
Baylor
7
Washington
8
Florida
9
Utah
10
Penn State
11
Purdue
12
UCLA
13
Louisville
14
Notre Dame
15
BYU
16
Washington State
17
San Diego
18
Georgia Tech
19
A Ohio State
20
Oregon
21
Western Kentucky
22
Pittsburgh
23
Creighton
24
Marquette
25
Pepperdine
COVID cancellations (excuse me ‘postponements’) were AGAIN the main theme across the rest of the country. Which is slightly odd, since the third wave of the virus has peaked and is on a significant downward trend across the country. Another indicator that it is nearly impossible to predict the comportment of non‑linear, multi-variable, coupled, open systems (yes, that’s a mouthful) like the COVID pandemic. The B1G led the pack in cancellations of the Power 5 conferences:
B1G postponed 8 of 14 matches
PAC-12 postponed 4 of 12 matches
SEC postponed only 2 of 10 matches
ACC postponed 4 of 9 matches
Big 12 postponed 3 of 14 matches
The match of the weekend in the PAC-12 turned out to be a ho-hum affair. Washington had their way with previously unbeaten Utah 3-0 and 3-1. It wasn’t particularly close. A beatdown. The Utes and Huskies swapped 7 and 9 positions in the polls. The rest of the upper tier of the conference (aside from Utah) had banner weekends. UCLA beat Arizona 3-1 and 3-0 and finally, after a few weeks seemingly stuck at 15, jumped up to 12. The Cougars from the plains of Pullman shut out UC@WokeBerkley 3-0 and 3-0 to creep up one spot to 16. And Oregon dispatched the Buffaloes 3-0 and 3-1 to claim the 20 position up from 22. It is crowded at the top of the PAC-12 with Washington at 10-2, Utah – Washington State – Oregon all at 8-2, and UCLA at 9-3. The conference will likely send five formidable teams to the tournament. And one of those five won’t be Stanford. More on The Color Cardinal later.
In the SEC, Missouri split a pair with South Carolina winning the first 3-0 but losing the rematch 1-3. The Tigers dropped out of the poll and are sitting at the top of the RV line. Florida blasted the Volunteers 3-0 and 3-0 and remained at 8. Kentucky’s matches with aTm were postponed and the Wildcats didn’t budge from 3. And congratulations to former Husker libero and championship assistant coach Kayla Banwarth as her Ole Miss Rebels finally got on the board in the win column by beating LSU in five. They currently reside at 1-13. The rebuild may take awhile.
ACC action saw no action among the 4 ranked teams. Louisville vs. Notre Dame was postponed and both remained stationary at 13 and 14 respectively. Georgia Tech and Pittsburg were not scheduled to play. Both teams dropped in the top 25. The Yellow Jackets slid to 18 and the Panthers slipped one notch to 22. ACC conference action begins in earnest this weekend as they introduce the mini-pod into the year of the COVID scheduling. Since there are 15 teams, 5 sites are picked each weekend and 3 teams per site each play 2 matches round robin style over a 3 day period. Not a bad concept. But with just 4 weekends prior to the tournament (i.e. 8 matches each team) it is too little too late.
Texas beat the Sooners 3-nil twice in a pair of ‘non-conference’ matches between Big 12 conference teams. Out of the four matches between the two schools this fall-spring season, Oklahoma has taken a grand total of 1 set. Baylor beat North Texas 3-0 but was pushed to the full 5 by Pepperdine from the West Coast Conference. Texas and Baylor remain at no. 2 and 6.
Speaking of the Waves, they are the newest member of the poll debuting at 25 despite the loss to Baylor. That’s due to the fact earlier in the week Pepperdine beat the previously unbeaten Cougars of BYU 3-0. BYU returned the favor the next night, but it took 5 sets. BYU swapped spots with UCLA and reside at 15. San Diego takes over the lead in the West Coast after defeating San Francisco 3-0 and 3-1. The Toreros are 10-0 and moved up 1 to 17.
In the Big East, Marquette won twice in non-conference action (St. Louis 3-1 and Iowa State 3-0) and remain at 24. The Creighton Blue Jays are still in COVID lockdown.
[SIZE=11pt]In the B1G, of the three sets of matches that were played, two involved ranked teams. The Boilermakers took care of their rivalry foe Indiana rather easily 3-0 and 3-0. They remain ranked at 11. A Ohio State swept Rutgers 3-0 in their initial match of the weekend, but the Scarlet Horde put up a fight in the subsequent match before succumbing in 5. Even with the pair of victories, the Buckenidiots stayed at 19. And finally, the most competitive match up of the weekend saw Iowa and Northwestern split a pair of 5 set marathons. 4 of the 10 sets played went deuce or over. In the first match, the 2nd set almost broke the 40 point barrier with the Hawkeyes winning 39 to 37. Of the ranked teams that didn’t play, none of them budged in the rankings; Wisconsin 1, Nebraska 4, Minnesota 5, and Penn State 10. Wisconsin did gather 2 more first place votes from the Shorthorns.
COVID cancellations could have an impact on tournament eligibility. 13 games is the minimum number to qualify for the mens’ and womens’ basketball tournament, and I believe that is the minimum number of matches for volleyball, although I couldn’t confirm it. Blueblood programs like Penn State and Stanford will need good COVID fortune the remainder of the year to meet that standard. The Color Cardinal have dug themselves a particularly deep hole starting out 1-3 against two bottom feeders of the conference and having to cancel 8 of the first 12 matches of the season with only 10 to play. And 8 of the 10 remaining are against Utah, Washington, Oregon, and UCLA. Not an enviable task. Teams can apply for an exemption of the 13 match minimum, but unless Stanford gets on a serious winning streak, they are likely to miss out on the tournament for the first time in program history. Penn State (the only other program never to miss an NCAA tournament) is in slightly better position as they are ranked, but they still have wood to chop. Their record is 4-3, have one match (this week) with Ohio State and twin matches with Purdue, Wisconsin, and Nebraska out of the remaining 11 matches. They’ll need some splits against top 10 opponents to break .500. It will be interesting to see if the committee will take a sub .500 team of a premier program from the B1G just based on the ‘eye test’ in a year with only 18 at-large.
The Illini are next up for the Big Red Machine. They have suffered attrition of star power in the past two seasons that have brought the program from the heights of a Final Four appearance to a mid-level B1G program. Gone are All-American middle Ali Bastianelli and generational setter Jordyn Poulter. They left in 2018. The 6’2” Poulter now roams the court with the U.S. National Team and is a likely member of the final 12 member Olympic squad. Gone is middle Ashley Fleming, an All‑Conference performer who had some huge games against the Huskers. She graduated in 2019. And also gone from 2019 is the indefatigable robotic arm of one Jacquelin Quade who attacked with power and grace and a Foecke-like fearlessness.
But while the talent pool is diminished, it is not empty. Megan Cooney is back at opposite and leads the team in kills with an impressive 3.70 kills/set which is among the league leaders, but is hitting just slightly above the Mendoza line at .205. Freshman Terry Raina is second on the team in kills on the outside but it is significant drop off from Cooney (122 kills to 70). Additionally young Raina is hitting slightly BELOW the Mendoza line at .193. Illinois hits .184 as a team which ranks 10th in the conference. The Illini are running a 6-2 with Diana Brown and Kylie Bruder which is a bit odd, as last season they ran a 5-1 with Brown as the main setter where she eventually wound up on the B1G All-Freshman team.
The stat lines may be misleading for Illinois as they lost to Wisconsin, Penn State, and Ohio State. They missed winnable matches against Michigan State and Northwestern due to COVID. And it doesn’t get easier for the Illini. After the Nebraska matches they travel up north to play the Gophers in Minneapolis.
There is not enough offense on the orange and blue side to compete with this group of Huskers. The Fightin’ Schwartezbachs ‘play like they practice’ and take two in Champaign in preparation for the (as of now) unbeaten Buckeyes coming to Devaney. [/SIZE]
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