NU volleyball notebook, 12/4
Print
digg it!
Facebook
del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit
FIRST SERVE
Behind the scenes news on the Huskers:
Bidding to be the first Husker to lead the Big 12 in assists per set, Sydney Anderson enters postseason play leading Iowa State’s Kaylee Mann 11.72-11.71.
BIG STORY
College volleyball is not the game we remember from even a few years back.
Consider that four of last year’s NCAA Sweet 16 — BYU, Cal Poly, Michigan State and St. John’s — didn’t even make the 64-team tournament field this year.
Such turnover would have been unheard of only a few years ago.
As mid-majors claim more at-large berths, the big schools from the big conferences are feeling it.
Arizona, which made the tournament every year from 1996 through 2005, missed again. Coach Dave Rubio may be in trouble in Tucson.
Notre Dame got no invitation for the second straight year.
And after going 17-15, Wisconsin is out for the first time since 1995, which was John Cook’s fourth year with the Badgers.
HEADLINE NEWS
* Nancy Todd stepped down as coach at Texas Tech, which has lost 39 straight Big 12 matches.
Illinois coach Don Hardin announced he will retire once the ninth-seeded Illini are eliminated from the NCAA Tournament.
* First-time NCAA qualifiers include North Dakota State, Portland State, Tulane and Furman, where former NU manager Bill Egbert is an assistant coach.
* The Seattle Regional, which includes Nebraska, has only two of the top 15 teams from this week’s Bison coaches’ poll. There are five each in the Austin and Fort Collins regions.
There are just three ranked teams total in the State College Regional.
CONFERENCE CALL
For the Big 12 Conference to get only four teams in the NCAA Tournament is a joke. But don’t blame the NCAA selection committee.
The reality is, Nebraska, Texas, Iowa State and Kansas State were the only deserving teams.
Baylor? The Bears went 1-7 against teams with RPIs projected in the top 50. Texas A&M? The Aggies may have finished strong, but they went 0-10 against top-50 teams.
Colorado can beat Nebraska but not anybody else. Missouri, too, is sliding.
NU ticketholders know that the league was not very good this year. There is some promise for the future in that, by the end of the season, there wasn’t a senior setter playing anywhere in the league.
And of the league’s top point producers, only Nebraska and Kansas State will take a significant hit from graduation.
It will be interesting to see if that translates to better teams in the league a year from now.
CHART TOPPERS
A quick look at the AVCA top 10:
1. Penn State. Drew Long Island for third time in last four years.
2. Stanford. Like Penn State, has made every NCAA Tournament.
3. Texas. Both Longhorns and NU dropped 14 sets in Big 12 play.
4. Nebraska. Larson was 14th different Husker named league MVP.
5. Washington. Skip out early. Huskies play Friday at 4 local time.
6. Hawaii. Haunted by last year’s Middle Tennessee nightmare?
7. Oregon. Trip to D.C. is still shorter than Hawaii’s trek to L.A.
8. California. Bears haven’t hosted NCAA matches since 2004.
9. UCLA. Broke even in Pac-10 by sweeping USC in final match.
10. Minnesota. Gophers could need injured Dieter vs. Iowa State.
Most Commented Volleyball