Armageddon Worried

As someone whose job is closed tied to the financial markets, these are difficult days. As someone who lives in Minnesota, these are also the last days of autumn, no matter what the calendar says. As someone who has been a lifelong liberal, the prospect of Norm Coleman defeating Al Franken just seems like a kick in the teeth I don’t deserve. As someone who considers himself a volleyball fan, Nebraska’s rise to #2 in the country is right up there with snakes in the bed.

Other than that, I’m feeling OK. It would be nice if Gorf was feeling better. It would be nice if journeylad was feeling better. It would be nice if I were 20 years younger, too.

But I’m tired of all this stress. It’s been going on for too damned long. So I’m going to go get drunk.

Later.

Good God! Yet Another Week...

It was not a good week. Not for a Gopher fan. I still like North Carolina blue -- very pretty -- but really. What the hay-ell??

Meanwhile Karma refuses to come a-knockin’ at the Cook household. What’s the guy gotta do? C’mon, Karma! Get your act together!

There was a fierce battle for Upset of the Week. Besides the aforementioned prairie rodents, Wisconsin lost another 5-gamer, this time to Oregon State. Although North Carolina and Oregon State are probably better teams than people realize, these were still bad losses for the Big Ten. Luckily, Utah managed to be swept by the 1-9 (now 2-9) Cowgirls of Wyoming, thus saving the Big Ten from receiving this dubious honor.

If I were to speculate, I’d venture that Karma has managed to misdeliver the packages intended for Nebraska and Utah. What the heck has Utah done to deserve such a fate?

Meanwhile, we breathlessly await the release of the AVCA poll so we have something more to kvetch about. We are breathless because we are hopelessly out of shape, by the way, not because of anything the AVCA poll means to us. And we kvetch because we have just finished reading Portnoy’s Complaint and our vocabulary has taken an unexpected turn. Pardon my chutzpah.

While we wait, what about The Match of the Week? I’m going with UCLA @ USC, with Wisconsin @ Minnesota and Oregon @ California close, but not quite at that level. Once again, we are left to hope that both teams find a way to lose.

Upset of this week? Watch for Ohio State to give the Wolverines more than they can handle. Or for Texas A&M to start playing to their potential and knock off Kansas State. My crystal ball is pretty blurry in regards to any other matches, but I bought the damned thing at K-Mart, so I have no one to blame but myself. And Cook. Just because.

OK, the poll is out. Amazingly, UCLA did not move into the top three, although they came close. Oregon has moved from #12 to #11, however, as the Pac Ten creeps ever closer to Six in the Top Ten again. And Cal Poly is now pushing the bottom of the envelope, falling all the way to #25, a mere 44 points ahead of Santa Clara.

My heart’s not really into this, however. They’ve sucked all the life right out of me. Oy vey!

The Week Just Past. Yeah, That One.

We have now played three weeks of volleyball and we know more than we knew three weeks ago, unless we’re not very bright, haven’t been paying attention, or have suffered a blow to the head we’ve forgotten about, as frequently happens with blows to the head. We forget about them, that is.

So what do we know that we didn’t know back in early August?

I don’t know. I haven’t been paying attention. I may have even suffered a blow to the head. But I’ll still venture a guess or two.

*Penn State is the Real Deal. They are not a Faux Deal. They are not a Vague Deal. They are the Real Deal. But we knew that, so who cares?

*Nebraska is some sort of Deal. We’re still not sure what kind. They play at Kansas State and entertain Texas this week, so this could be clarified soon.

*Stanford is still a What’s the Bleeping Deal??

*There are a couple of Stealth Deals out there. Minnesota, Hawaii, Pepperdine and Colorado State for four.

*The Pac Ten is looking like a Lehman Brothers Deal, but we all know not to jump to conclusions with that conference. We’d like to, but we know better.

In other news...

*Upset of the Week? That would be the 0-8 (at that time) Utah State Aggies over the 7-0 (at that time) Purdue Boilermakers. What’s even odder is that this match sandwiched Purdue’s wins over the much stronger squads from St. Louis and Utah. Just the sort of thing to cause Dave to pull out his hair. Or, seeing as how that’s pretty much a waste of time, just the sort of thing to cause Dave to pull out John’s hair.

*The AVCA poll is out and still no sign of the Pac Ten cockroach problem being addressed. Our weekly Arizona watch shows them with 9 votes. It’s only a matter of time.

*Somebody voted Nebraska #1. Personally, I don’t think they should even be #2.

*Match of the upcoming week? Let’s go with Texas at Nebraska. That one should also help resolve the previous point and should allow the Pac Ten to slip a team into the top three. I know I can’t wait.

*Otherwise it’s not a real exciting week for top-notch matchups, although the Mountain West also kicks off their season with Colorado State hosting Utah and BYU.

*And we should see the debut of the first Pablo of the year. Soon to be followed by an intense discussion about the merits of Pablo and hurt feelings all around.

I know I can't wait for that either.

What a Week it Was

If I can repeat myself, what a week it was! So much going on there was some talk of adding an 8th day. I think they were going to call it Doomsday.

Oh, wait. That’s this week.

Let’s see. On Thursday, I stayed up until 3am listening to the Minnesota-Hawaii match, which went five games and ended not so good. The next day I dragged my tired you-know-what to work and that ended up not so good, as well.

Upset of the Week? Has to be St. Louis taking down the mighty Cardinal. Stanford was taken to Fonke Town, when Hey Hey, You You, Sammi McCloud wasn’t casting her shadow far and wide. Who woulda thunk it? Not I. I picked St. Louis to upset the Illini, not the Color Red.

Miami of Ohio deserves an Honorable Mention for beating Wisconsin. They won’t get one, however, because I don’t give honorable mentions. Besides, as a lad born and raised in Athens, I’m not a huge Miami fan anyhow. You want an honorable mention? File the proper forms.

Must Have Been Fun Match: Florida is down 0-2 to The Beach, but manages to claw their way back for the win. This one brings up more questions than it answers. Are the youthful Gators Top Ten material? Are the LBSU ladies ready to bring that program back to the Top Ten? Have they cut off any blood flow wearing the usual 49er unis? The jury is still deliberating (they just ordered pizza).

Undeserved Ranking Award to the Huskies of UW, off to their usual 5-0 start without really being tested. Kudos to Portland State as the first team to reach 20 against Jim’s lasses. UW does head to the Islands this week for sand, sun and competition, however.

Toughest Week for a Ranked Team would have been Louisville’s -- they dropped two 5-gamers, to Valpo and Indi -- except I just noticed they aren’t ranked. Bummer. Well, they won’t be now, either. So that means I have to find another worthy recipient or delete this entire paragraph. Hmmmm, I don’t want to gang up on Stanford, so let’s give it to the Badgers. Not only did they lose to the Redmen*, or whatever they call themselves nowadays, they went to a 5th game with UNLV.

Match of the Upcoming Week? California @ Minnesota should be good. Cal Poly is in the tournament, too, so that’s another two matches to which to pay close attention. Others? UNI @ KSU, Texas A&M @ San Diego, Missouri-Pepperdine, BYU @ Wisconsin, Purdue and St. Louis @ Utah and against each other, Miami OH @ Western Kentucky, Washington @ Hawaii, Santa Clara and NMSU @ Stanford and against each other, and Florida @ Colorado State.

Yes, I relied on Rich for those matches.

Anyhow, we all die on Wednesday, so it’s probably moot. Moot!!


____
*They claim it’s now RedHawks, with no space between red and hawks, and a capital H.

The end is so close you can smell it!

Wednesday, to be exact. So I said to myself, "Do I really need to bother with the weekend review?"

Large Hadron Collider


Are you prepared?

My question is this: If I have my long-anticipated stroke on Wednesday, how the hell am I going to know if I died or if the world just came to an end? The latter, of course, would be the silver lining...


**Professor Cox, typically sedate, adds irritatingly, "Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a t---. "**


A turd? A tick? A tarp? Those British.


**While the reactor could produce black holes, according to physicists, they would be tiny and would not be capable of growing. The study states, "Each collision of a pair of protons in the LHC will release an amount of energy comparable to that of two colliding mosquitoes, so any black hole produced would be much smaller than those known to astrophysicists."**


Now I don't know about you, but I don't want to run into any black holes, nano-sized or not. Nothing good could possibly come of that. At the very least, it's going to ruin my pants.

Blogging the night away

Cincinnati dropped a GAME to Wyoming, so the late night match between the Gophers and the Wahine is an even later late night match.

I am fading fast. Maybe I should go downtown and throw a brick at something? [FBI? That was a joke.] Maybe I should just go to bed?

Let's check out the Live Stats. Woo-hoo! It's being updated for the next match.

I shall return. It's 12:07.

12:16

They are singing/have sung the anthem. This is promising.

Live Stats is not functioning. I am not listening to the audio, just following Cindy Luiz's blog.

12:24

Such is the life of a volleyball fan. There's no sign of life from their Live Stats program. Somebody forgot to plug something in?

12:28

I'm told it's 10-9 Gophers. That's all I know. Except that I'm a fool for following this sport...

Now 15-12 Hawaii.

12:32

OK, I'm going to try radio. I have no doubt I am just setting myself up for more disappointment. Let alone the score.

12:34

Sure enough. The link does not work.

12:36

My laptop will crash next. I will try to connect through the Hawaii website.

12:40

22-20 UH and the radio is on. Timeout Gophers?

12:45

Gophers lose 25-22. Sounds like they had chances. Got it to 23-22 and had two hitting errors.

12:54

9-8 UH with Gophers serving. Doesn't sound good. Yet. Dieter ties it up at 9. Still no Live Stats and now the colors are wrong. 10-9 Gophers. 11-9, Dieter again.

01:00

15-13 Gophers at the break. Sounds like a pretty even match with some fairly long rallies. Nothing much from either set of middles? Kvodt in for Luiz? Rotation error?

01:05

18-17 Gophers with UH serving. Too nerve racking. Wracking? Dieter blocked for 18 all.

Still no middle attack for the Gophers. Now 19-18 UH. Luiz back in for Vodt. Gib blocked. 20-18. Crud.

01:12

Granquist comes in and jumpserves Gophers to a 21-20 lead. First jumpserves of the year? The secret weapon? Another block and 22-20. Another error 23-20. That's why we like Granny. Me and my other personalities.

01:15

To 24-20 before another Gib error. What's up with Lauren? Gophers are control blocking Houston a lot. Loooooong rally before another Houston error. Lots of Hawaii errors there from their 20-18 lead.

1-1 in Paradise.

01:28

Game 3 underway and Gophers down 0-2. Now 0-3. I was kind of hoping the Gophers would be feeling more comfortable. Looks more like they and Hawaii are at about the same level. #10-20 range. Nothing to complain about.

01:39

15-12 UH at the break.

Live Stats does not look like it wants to play this evening. Dead Stats, I guess. 15-13 on a Roehrig kill. Gibby to serve. 16-13. Dieter hits out 17-13. Crud.

01:46

Live Stats up just in time for me to watch the Gophers fall behind 22-18 and call a timeout. Hawaii hitting .483 and Minnesota .357 this game.

23-18 on another Gib error. They _really_ need her offense.

Hawaii likes to go 5. We shall see.

25-19 as UH hits .500 with 19 (!) kills. Yikes.

02:00

Another bad start. 5-8. Doesn't look good. My bed awaits. Oh me of little faith. Still no middle attack. Just outside hitting rally after rally. 6-8 on a long point. Luiz makes it 7-8. Woo-hah.

02:13

Gophers grab the lead and were up 15-13 at the break. But it's now 17 all after an overpass. Game to 8. 3,519 is the attendance.

19-17 on some slime kill off the tape from Luiz and then a UH error. UH timeout. 2-0 in the game to 8. Hey, it's 2:17! You expecting Tolstoy?

And I promised Mr. Kern I'd record this score. Man.

Herring now has 17 kills. 19-18.

20-18 on another Luiz kill.

21-18 on a Luiz-Gibster block.

Tan is serving. Net violation on UH. 22-18.

Herring from the backrow, 22-19.

Gibby whiffs in the middle? 22-20.

Overpass, but Houston has a problem. Net violation. 23-20.

23-21 off the block.

24-21 on Gib tip.

How do you like that, me of little faith?

24-22 on a Cube kill. Then Herring blocks Gib to 24-23. Timeout Gophers.

Dieter was the last server, so it should be Roehrig-Schmidt-Luiz? Not if Gib was blocked. Hmmmm.

Lauren with a kill for 25-23.

02:25

So Roehrig must be the L1. That's new, I think. Hartman-Roehrig-Schmidt-Luiz-Dieter-Gibbemeyer.

Game 5. Can we take this to 3am?

02:31

Another bad start. 6-2 UH. Timeout.

Me of little faith is whispering in my ear. The bastard.

8-2. This one is over. A missed opportunity of the Gold and Maroon kind.

Live Stats goes blank. 10-3. Not a good showing from a team with questions about their mental toughness. It's now 11-3.

I am going to be a loyal fan and hang in there until that last point is scored. You never know. Well, actually you do sometimes. Most of the time. This one is over. Like a turkey on Thanksgiving Day. Yeh. Like that.

Hartmann-Roehrig-Schmidt not the best rotation for the Gophs. 5-11 nonetheless. 5-12.

Luiz blocked for 13-5.

Gobble gobble ack!

15-7 after a long long rally and ended by a Dieter scud into the twilight.

Close. No cigar or any other tobacco products.

Good night.

The Week in Review

Which beats The Weak in Review, no?

Let’s see. How can we sum up week one from the volleyball lasses?

Biggest surprises? Probably Nebraska and Wichita State. Not fall-out-of-your-chair-and- bonk-your-head-on-the-hard-kitchen-floor surprises, but definitely choke-a-little-on-your-cheerios-and-possibly-spill-your-OJ surprises.

Biggest flop? Stanford gets that honor for not showing up against the Huskers in match 1. They do, however, get an autographed BASTA! t-shirt for taking down Texas in 5. They will have to share the shirt, however; our budget is miniscule.

Cheapshot of the week is sent out to Mick Haley. The cover of Coaching Volleyball has Mick exclaiming “It’s a New Game!” Our response is, Yes, and you are Oh for Two!

Biggest non-surprise? The Nittany Lions roll over the opposition in Hawaii, including a 25-9 spanking of our beloved Bobcats. These girls are not nice.

Best weekend for a conference? The Big Ten takes this one, thanks to the Lions, the Illini, the Gophers and the Boilermakers.

Worst weekend? I’m going to hand this one to the Pac Ten, out of principle. When you have 6 teams ranked in the top eleven, you set yourself up for serious scrutiny. Stanford, UCLA, USC and Oregon all underperformed.

Weekly AVCA Poll rant? There are still 6 Pac Ten teams ranked in the top thirteen. And Arizona has a bullet next to their name. Uh-oh.

Upset of this week: I’m picking Cal Poly to trip up the Huskers. You heard it here second.

Best matches of this week: Minnesota @ Hawaii and Nebraska @ Cal Poly. But there's a bunch. Just check out the Pick 'Em contest at VolleyTalk.

VolleyTalk Contest


Meanwhile, I am footloose but saddled with fancies. I’m not complaining, just sayin’.