2008 ... and finis

It's all over, and not a moment too soon. As we descend into the frozen hell that is winter in the USA, we have a new champion, a new Player-of-the-Year, and a world coming apart at the seams.

It was good volleyball. Not great. But certainly above average. The Nittanies dropped a couple of sets, and the camo-jacket has been returned to wherever Cook keeps it so handy. Barbozie and Akinradie will move on in their careers without a championship, but with three straight appearances in the final. Not too shabby. Texas is kicking themselves for not finishing off the match they led 2-0, but is still undoubtedly thrilled to have returned to the Big Booya.

We had Rose unsuccessfully stifling a sneeze during his live interview with 2K, and a disappearing point in the final. We had Hodge, who played a great championship match, possibly telling VolleyTalkites to get off her back and chill out. We had balloons and confetti falling on the vanquished Cardinal, and Fawcett screaming at Glass to "Give me the ball!" Somehow, we had the Huskers up 10-8 in the 5th game against the Nittanies. How did they do that anyhow?

Personally, it's time for me to stop pretending to be somebody I am not and move on to just trying to be somebody. Good luck with that. It's probably too early to start looking forward to the 2009 season, but it sure isn't too early start looking forward to the new year. A better year would be nice, all things considered.

I thank you all for the conversations and wish you happy holidays, a great 2009, and success in your pursuit of happiness.

Ciao.


(Woof.)

Huskers do (Huskies don't)

So, over 10 hours after they started, the last match has ended with Nebraska coming back after losing the first two games, and from 3-9 in the 5th, to win 15-13 (after a 26-24 4th game). I won't slip into hyperbole about this match or this team. In a lot of ways, it was an extremely sloppily played match, and the Nebraska squad is not exactly David dealing with a series of steroid-enhanced Goliaths; there is talent there. But if ever a team consistently overachieved for an entire season, it would be this one. And if you've ever gone looking for drama worthy of Broadway, this would have been it.

I'm tired, but there are a couple of observations I'd like to make:

*I have empathy for UW. This was an extremely difficult match for them to lose. And I especially have empathy for the poor passers facing Jordan Larson's jumpserve at 13-14 in the 5th. I was not at all surprised the serve was untouched.

*Four years ago, I had the privilege of watching the first matches played by Jordan Larson, Christa Harmotto, Nicole Fawcett, Cynthia Barboza and Foluke Akinradewo. This was at the NACWAA in Omaha. Those five players return to the same city and the same venue to conclude their careers this week. It is more than fitting, especially since the crowds will be huge, something they all deserve.

*I'm going to take a pass on commenting on the Penn State-Nebraska animosity for now, other than to point out that it just adds to the flavor of this year's championships.

*I will not underestimate this Husker team. I know they have no chance against Penn State, and yet I know I don't really know that anymore.

It's been a fun day. Even if I didn't get any of Foucault's Pendulum read and it's due on Tuesday (I've renewed it two times already). Who recommended that thing to me anyhow?

It was nice to see the joy Nebraska's players were experiencing during and after their comeback. It was not so nice to see the tension gripping UW, but that's sports, I guess. I would hope they can take some solace in the fact they were a part of something really special, and not in a negative way. It was, even in all its sloppiness, a great match.

Hawaii tangles with Stanford

There's not a lot to say about this one. As a recovering Minnesota Vikings fan, I know what it's like to have a team crater on the big field. Hell, I've had more than my share of the experience as a Gopher fan. I have no doubt this was Hawaii on an exceptionally bad night. I feel bad for the team and their fans.

As for Stanford, it bodes well for them that Waller, Okogbaa and Lichtman are all playing well. They will need everyone to play with the Lions. Doesn't change the fact Cassidy should have been a Gopher, but it's still good news for their fan base.

My concern for Stanford is that they will break down when pushed out of system. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm guessing the same is true for Texas. This could be the determining factor in their semi-final: Who puts the other out of system.

That's going to be a great match, if we're lucky.

Cyclones v. Longhorns

I hate empty cliches. There's a bunch of them in sports, but the one about it being so hard to beat a team three times in a season is right up there at the top. Where's the data? That's what I want to know.

Anyhow, the Cyclones couldn't play the error-free volleyball they'd played against Minnesota and in the last three games against Oregon, and one thing you just can't give a team as good as Texas is a boatload of freebies. They gave UT a scare, taking g3 and leading in g4, but then the roof caved in. (Speaking of cliches.) They ran into a brick wall. They ran out of gas. They took a running leap off a very tall building. There was not much hovering, just a bunch of plummeting.

Congratulations to Iowa State on their great run.

Lions and Bears

Welcome to our world, Pac10.

As predicted, PSU comes out a little sluggish and Cal takes advantage. The Bears are up 19-13 in g1 and look like they will indeed steal a game in Rec Hall. What happens? Russ's gals close out the game 12-2 and never look back, sweeping their 36th opponent in a row.

Carli, still one of my favorites, and her teammates gave it a good go, but this was not in the cards for Berkeley. Penn State is just too damned good.

Now ESPNU has an hour to kill. I'm sure they will fill it with all sorts of volleyball features. After all, they need to make up for missing the first two points of this match. Right?

Watching the regional finals

I am on the look out for the following items:

*How many times will ESPN explain the rules of volleyball to us? Specifically, "point per play", what the libero is, and how we now play to 25.

*Does Cal take a game from the Nittanies? PSU has not really been pushed in the tournament. Could they not be ready for the higher level of play?

*Can Nebraska possibly find a way to beat UW? My head says "no way", but my gut is queasy. Could be all that Mountain Dew and cat.

*Can the Cyclones beat Texas? I say nope, because UT has too many offensive weapons. ISU needs to rally to stay in this match and I just don't see how they can dig all those Longhorn hitters. I am, however, rooting for them.

*Speaking of Iowa State, CJ is the last remaining female head coach in the tournament. Wouldn't it be cool for her to reach the finals? Texas fans probably think not, but ...

*Hawaii v. Stanford intrigues me. I'm just not 100% sold on The Cardinal. I'm not even 50% sold on UH, but they keep winning. I do not think this one is a lock.

Later...

Regional semis

As they say in the Blog Biz, time to put this Blog to bed. If they don't say it, they should. I'm putting this Blog to bed anyhow, where it will sleep like a blog, no doubt. I'm going to do this even though UW is only up 2-0 on Utah (Karma having decided to give Seattle a skip), because I'm a little tired and the kitchen's a mess (there's a huge vat of spaghetti sauce with which to deal, just for starters).

So what happened? Illinois-Cal was probably the only match in doubt, and the Bears were triumphant. Close scores, but still three and out for the Illini. Then there was one of the matches that most people thought was not in doubt, but just proved how most people don't know jack. That would be ISU and Oregon. The Cyclones pulled off their second upset in a row, taking down the not-so-mighty Ducks 3-2 (15-8 in the 5th).

As for the rest? The Nittanies trounced the speedy Broncos, the Huskers humbled the toothless Wolverines, the Longhorns impaled the Bruins, the Wahine downed a Boilermaker or six, and The Color went all crimson on the Gators. As I said, no real surprises in any of those, other than how poorly Michigan played. It was not, truth be told, a good night for the Other10.

I do not understand how Nebraska is doing it. I just don't. But they are.

Dot Your Eye

People often ask me, "(R)uffda!, why can't your blog be more like Dot Your Eye? You know, funny?" And by "people" I don't mean real people, I mean those six inch clowns that show up in the middle of the night and start braiding my hair.

Well, first of all, do they have any idea how much this hurts my feelings? The comparison to Dot Your Eye, that is, not the hair braiding. I kinda like the hair braiding. Second of all, "funny" is in the dotyoureye of the beholder. One man's funny is another man's mildly amusing.

However, in an attempt to satisfy my audience (which appears to consist of six inch imaginary hair stylists), I present a few random quotes from tonight's regional sites...

From Penn State:

Senior middle blocker Ashley Vogl of Western Michigan.

"I think something that is unique to our team that some of the other teams don't have is that we are really fast. We're not particularly big. We're kind of a smaller team in terms of height and overall presence on the floor, but we're very, very quick and I think that's something that is a threat to other teams."

For instance, just watch how fast they get from game one to the team bus.

Or as Coach Rose put it, "Well, that would be something that you can't really counteract. We have some players who are pretty quick. And we have some players who are big and quick, so there are some advantages to that."

Yes, BIG and quick has its advantages.


From Texas:

"Due to its travel schedule, Oregon was unable to attend the press conference."

Sorry, I got nothing.


From Colorado State:

"Due to the %@&#ing NCAA Selection Committee, CSU was unable to attend the regional."

OK, I made that one up, but CSU has made it too difficult to find any quotes. Or find anything, for that matter.


From Washington:

Nope, more of the same here. Website is too busy, too much flash and not enough substance. Kinda like JMac's poetry.


I have to say this has been a miserable experiment. I'm just going to have to take my cue from Frank Sinatra and do it "my way". As opposed to Nancy Sinatra and walking all over you in my boots.

Gopher broke

One could see this coming. Yessir. One could. They had been dodging bricks for three weeks, but they finally took one to the ol' noggin, courtesy of the Iowa State Cyclones. I speak of the Golden Gophers of Minnesota, of course. The Gs played well enough to win, if only Iowa State had been willing to give them a few more points here and there; but the Cyclones were stingier than a CEO passing by a Salvation Army bucket. "No points for you!" seemed to be their mantra for the night.

Oh, well. It's been that kind of a year. But it doesn't take away from the Maroon and Gold's 16-4 showing in the Big10 and their #6 seed. Nor does it dampen the fun this season produced. There were a hell of a lot of entertaining matches this year. We can all hope for an off-season in which the young ladies get healthy, and look forward to the arrival of the Misses Harms, Love, Tabberson and Haugen.

Unfortunately for Gopher fans, this was probably the only real upset in the second round. Michigan over St. Louis might have been to some, but not to anyone who's seen Michigan on one of their good days. Western Michigan over Tulane, I guess, is another, although Tulane's true strength was a question mark headed into the tournament. So we are left with 5 Pac10 teams, 4 Big10 teams, 3 Big12 teams and 1 each from the WAC, MAC, SEC and MWC. Shall we take a look at the regionals? Why, yes, we shall.

Penn State regional

The Lions are set to annihilate Western Michigan (sorry, Broncos) while Illinois and Cal-Berkeley battle for the right to take them on in the final. You would think the Illini would have had enough of the Nittanies by this time, but the Golden Bears are probably thinking they have a shot. I'm picking Cal over Illinois, because I like Cal, but this should be a great match. It would be cool for Don Hardin to make the round of 8 before hanging them up. Regardless, Penn State wins this region.

Washington regional

Michigan advances on the strength of back-to-back 5-gamers, 15-13 over Kentucky and 15-12 over the #13 seeded Billikens. I think they have a genuine opportunity to upset the Cooperless Huskers, but maybe they used up all their good fortune in the first two rounds. Washington plays Utah in the other semi-final, part of the Karma Collision in this regional involving former Utes Airial Salvo of UW and Sydney Anderson of NU. I have no dog (husky or whatever) in this race, but the opportunity for Irony to make a fool of herself is intriguing. Nevertheless, I pick Michigan to upset Nebraska and UW to beat both the Utes and the Wolverines and advance to Omaha. Take that, Irony. Feeling lucky? Well are you, Punk?

Texas regional

This is the region without Gophers. Bum. Er. Texas two-stepped into the semi, crushing Lamar (25-8 in g3) and Wichita State, and will face the Spicery Bruins, winners over LSU in a struggle of sorts, and Duke in a breeze, just a plain breeze. Meanwhile, Oregon will face the Gopher-slayers from Ames, since the Ducks dispatched Delaware and North Carolina. The Ducks are also the only birds left in the tournament, for what that is worth. I pick Texas to beat Oregon in the final, although if the Cyclones play anywhere near the level they played Saturday night this tournament could be birdless one day earlier. Contrary to popular belief elsewhere, UCLA, even with Whoa! Nellie!, has no chance.

Fort Collins regional

This has been the most predictable of all the regions and will probably remain so this weekend. The Cardinal, the school too lazy to come up with a real nickname, will probably knock off the youthful Gators, although Florida did sweep a decent Colorado State squad to advance while Stanford was going 4 with (an albeit better) Long Beach team. I've been touting Florida all year and maybe they will break through in Fort Collins, but my gut says that's wishful thinking (and loosen the belt, for cripesakes!). On the other side, Hawaii, an impressive 3-0 winner over USC at the Galen Center, take on Purdue, another Big10 team that went 5 in each of its first two rounds, including 16-14 over Louisville. I don't think the Boilermakers can take down a top 10 team. They haven't yet anyhow. So I'm going with Hawaii against Stanford in the final and Stanford to advance. Boring, I know.

That takes us to the Omaha extravaganza, which is still pencilled in on my calendar. I've waffled so much about attending, I've been thinking about joining Ditherers Anonymous. But I'm of two minds about that.

Ciao for now.

[Correction: Stanford, of course, swept the Beach. I was thinking of LBSU-Pepperdine. My point was that Florida's sweep over CSU, a team they lost to earlier this year, may mean the team is peaking at the right time; however, Long Beach just beat CSU so it may not matter -- i.e., Stanford may just be too good. For what it's worth.]

Can you feel the excitement?

Here we are on the eve of Tournament 2008 and I for one am a-tingle with anticipation. Or maybe it's the Mountain Dew I've been drinking steadily for the last month, hard to tell. Something has me hopped up.

...

OK. I'm back. The oldest needed the computer for some Egypt research (so she says) and one thing led to another and now it's Friday AM and the damned tournament has already started and Kentucky has already dropped a 15-13 5th game gutwrencher to the lasses from Michigan and, well, my whole train of thought has been derailed somewhere around "a-tingle".

Am I still a-tingle? Well, yes. But I'm still drinking Mountain Dew, which I need to stop soon. Or give birth to the creature in my belly. As for volleyball, things shift into a higher gear, maybe 3rd, today. Meanwhile, the DII tournament is hitting 4th gear over at Gangelhoff and I'm going to miss the semis.

The furor over the Wise kerfuffle at South Carolina seems to have subsided a bit. Or has it? Maybe I've just got my ear pressed to the wrong door? All I know is, in this country, you are innocent until proven guilty, unless of course Homeland Security is involved. If Mary ends up at Gitmo, we know there was more to this story than we first thought.

Wisconsin has missed the tournament for the first time since the early Cook era. This has been the source of much consternation from the Badger faithful. The consensus seems to be that the program needs to step up their recruiting efforts and perhaps settle on a 5-1. I am sure Pete and company will appreciate this advice and immediately put it to good use. As for the source of much constipation, all indications are that it can be tracked to a certain dairy product.

The Committee's picks and bracket seem to have floated past the VolleyTalk community without more than 10 or so posters having the obligatory bird. Did the Committee do a bang-up job? I think that's a hasty, and incorrect, assumption. More likely the fans are just beaten down by years and years of the same crappy same crap. They have thrown their collective hands into the air and said "Whatever! What's to eat? WHAT? Bologna again?? What the bleep?!"

Better that they use their collective hands for a round of applause for the Penn State Knitting Lions, who have just gone through the regular season without dropping a single game. 96 and oh my. As Jack said at the top of the beanstalk, "That is some feet!" Jack, of course, was an idiot, but you get my point. Can the PSU juggernaut be stopped? Can a juggernaut be stopped, period? If it can be, is it really a juggernaut? Is it a juggernaut not? These questions are begging to be answered. Shall we toss them a dime?

What else? The Lions, Stanford, Washington and Texas appear to be the favorites to reach the finals in Omaha. Most folks have written off Nebraska, due to Kori Cooper's injury. This may be a mistake, but the Huskers definitely have a chore ahead of them. Illinois and California have each other in their futures, and the winner will face Penn State, barring an upset for the ages. Texas has Oregon, UCLA and Minnesota in their region, all of whom will have big problems matching up with the Horns. Stanford has Hawaii and Purdue on the other side of the bracket, and Florida on theirs, all of whom are worthy opponents but probably not up at The Cardinal's level. All in all, it appears to be a very predictable tournament, but one that should feature a lot of talent and an abundance of good matches. Or not.

Xcel Energy just came to the door and offered to cut down all the rogue trees growing on the other side of our backyard fence, under the power lines. I said let 'er rip and signed the form. Told the guy he could cut down all the neighbors' trees, too. He thought that was funny, but HE was the one wearing a bright yellow coat. Go figure. Anyhow, now I have to see if Cal has any spare protesters who want to come out here and tree sit for a couple of weeks. It's 10 degrees or so today, but it could hit 15 next week. Any takers?

That's it. Ciao.