Hi volleyball fans and welcome back to Volley Talk, the podcast created for volleyball lovers
who want to dig deep into what's going on in NCAA and international volleyball. I'm your host Sarah
Pavin, I'm an Olympian, beach volleyball world champion, former Nebraska Cornhusker, and longtime
pro both indoor and on the beach. And I'm Adam Schultz, former indoor player, international
volleyball coach, and stats guru. Last week was upset week all over the Power 4 conferences and
we also had a fan favorite match between Nebraska and Wisconsin in Madison. Let's get started.
The week started off with Washington beating number 10 Oregon in five. This was just the beginning of
the chaos that was going to ensue in NCAA volleyball this week. We had several players from
Washington play really well. We had Keuni Fletcher hit four for the first time in the game and then
we had the
several players from Washington play really well. We had Keuni Fletcher hit 455. We had
Kirsten Barton hit 333 and Julia Hunt hit 500. Those are some decent numbers. I found the most
interesting part of that match was that Washington took the lead early in both the fourth and the
fifth sets and never gave up the lead. It was a really strong performance for them at the end of
the match. We also had number 13 Arizona State beat number 22 Utah Handley 3-0 and number 16 Georgia
Tech beat number 25 UNC in a close five-set match. And now we get to the real shockers. On Friday,
number five Stanford lost in five to Miami. We will talk about this briefly but they did recover on
Sunday with a four-set win over number 23 Florida State. Both of these matches were on the road.
The Stanford Miami match was very weird. The only thing I can say is that the top teams
need to not go to five sets. They have to work to be efficient in three or four because you never
know what's going to happen in that fifth set. You had Grace Lopez for Miami hit 407 on 54 balls
in that match and I mean you were watching the blocking. What did you think? She was having one
of those matches that nothing could go wrong. Honestly the five setters this season are the
NCAA giant killers because like Grace Lopez was playing pretty well the whole match and then in
the fifth set I'm watching this happening. Stanford has got a solid block in her face every time.
They're getting great touches on these swings that just happened to go out. That just happened to
catch their hand wrong. For all intents and purposes Grace Lopez should have been shut down hard
on seven balls in the fifth set. And she scored on all of them. But she scored on all of them.
They just missed the sideline or like Stanford's block was good. It was solid. It was set up right
but it was just one of those games that you almost felt bad for Stanford because
they had no business losing it honestly. Miami was out of system for 70% of the fifth set.
I don't think I saw their setter set a ball inside of 13 feet the whole match.
And I mean you have to give Miami credit where credit is due. They pushed the match to five.
They did play well. They battled hard. They gave themselves a chance but that was Stanford's game
to lose I thought. Okay. I don't like granted Miami was setting every single ball from like
the baseline but their hitters know how to hit out of system. I will give them that. Fair. I will say
you know they have a lot of international players who play for their national teams. You do see in
the international game players tend to be a little more confident and adept at hitting those out of
system balls and finding ways to score when they're in trouble. Those players for Miami they did that
and I don't know if they're just in practice. To be honest I haven't seen them play. I don't know if
they're in practice for hitting out of system if that's like the norm for them but they were
fearless. They were taking big swings on uncomfortable plays so that was a positive.
I could not help but feel bad for Stanford though because like Sammy Francis their middle she was
she was virtually unstoppable on both sides of the ball. Correct. Offensively and from the blocking
side she was outstanding. I did think Ilya Rubin was a little streaky like she had moments where
she was just like flying high and was looking so good and then she would like make a couple weird
errors in a row. Also it looked like they were playing in a high school gym. Stanford was
ricocheting balls off of that ceiling like crazy. It's definitely a factor if you're not used to
playing with a ceiling that low however it's probably something that by the end of the match
you should have adjusted to. I don't it's not an excuse for them losing in my opinion. No I mean
there is something to be said for playing in that environment often and being used to that like
early in the match it definitely I think it did get better early in the match it was happening a
lot but yeah all that being said like when I saw the result I was shocked that Stanford lost to
Miami so I went and watched it and it was unfortunate because Stanford was doing the
right things to be able to win and they got some really unfortunate bounces off of the block I
thought. To me the takeaway after that match is hey we needed to take care of that match in four
so that you have control of whether a player gets hot like nobody gets hot for 25 points you know
so that would be my takeaway for Stanford. And that's the thing they had no business losing that
fourth set. Correct. They were up 24 22 in the fourth and then it just they let the foot off the
foot off the gas for just a second and then all of a sudden they're going back and forth to like
what was it 30 28 or something. 31 29 yeah. Yeah so they should have finished it in four again you
have to give Miami credit for making do and for like finding a way to gut it out but yeah that
one was unfortunate. Number nine Texas is going through it ladies and gentlemen they lost both
of their matches this week both of them at home both of them in five they lost to two unranked
opponents in Missouri and Oklahoma they are now 0 and 5 in five set matches this season yet another
example the ranked teams need to stop going five for their own safety. After the Missouri loss
that was the first time that Texas had lost three home matches in a season since 2006.
We're talking since your girl Sarah P that's me played that's a long time ago I couldn't even
find any data on the last time they lost four matches at home in a season this is wild. You
beat them at home in 2006 didn't you? Yes. I just I just thought I'd throw that in there.
I mean I wasn't going to say anything but since you brought it up yes. And and I don't we don't
need to get into the specifics of that match because we we looked at Texas in depth last week
but to me it was a microcosm of the same issues they are relying on two players they're setting
80 percent of their balls to those two players and don't get me wrong Madison is incredible
she's playing really well she's the only reason they're in those matches but it's really hard
to carry your team match in and match out especially when you go to five because that
just allows teams to get a read on the setter the situation to find the timing on the block
it makes your life really difficult. Literally nothing changed from last week to this week. I
will say against Oklahoma it looked like they switched to a five-way tie.
They switched to a five-one with Avery Carlson. Ella Swindle who was a starter on the national
championship team last year did not play. I don't know if she was injured if that was you know a
tactical decision to be like the 6-2 is not cutting it so we need to change something.
Devon Kahahaua also didn't play I mean she entered every single set but I mean Rutherford is
their go-to opposite. Madison Skinner's numbers against Oklahoma she hit 122 so I mean she had
a lot of points but the efficiency she was making a lot of errors and actually against Oklahoma
Texas was out blocked 17 to 10. So I think that kind of tells a story about the the errors
offensively on Texas's side but like in the Missouri game which we did watch it really
looked like Missouri's outsides the game plan was to just swing high seam every ball. They did not
try to do anything else and Texas's defense didn't adjust. All they needed to do was slide
their six back into the seam of the block they would have had double digit more digs over top
of that block and their coaching staff just didn't make an adjustment. The six stayed in the same
place I didn't see anything change in those matches and I was shocked. It was really disappointing to
be honest and just hearing Jared Elliott's feedback after the Texas A&M loss last week
his statement was oh we made too many hitting errors and it's like yeah no kidding Jared but
like you're saying what the end result is like why aren't we examining the cause of that and like
after we watched the Texas A&M match it was like your setting was not putting your hitters in a
position to be successful. Sure you they were making a lot of errors but like you're fixating
on the end result instead of like the process into what got you there and it just seems like
that was a lot of number crunching instead of really looking over the game film and making
the change that needed to be made because we saw it against Missouri nothing changed. So my question
to you is the setter selection for the second match do you think that was message sending or
do you think they chose the setter they thought would give them the best chance to win that match?
Texas is in a position that they can't mess around right now so I think if it wasn't an injury
decision I think it was a decision to try to be as successful as possible because honestly when
we have been watching Texas Ellis Wendell is not connecting with the hitters at all with nobody
it's been very strange to see so I think Carlson was their choice to try to get them a win because
at this point they can't afford to make any more mistakes. And then in fairness to the setters
they're only setting two rotations each they're leaving the right side in to set they're going
through two rotations coming out that's that's a tough ask for a setter you have no chance to
find a rhythm. Well Reagan Rutherford is serving and then she's setting. And I'm sorry her serve is
not good enough she's not scoring that many points on her serve to not have a setter in there to run
your offense I just that doesn't make any sense to me. My theory is that Ellis Wendell has the
yips that's my theory because what there is no reason why you shouldn't be bringing your setter
in to serve when Rutherford has like a pretty standard by the book jump float serve it's not
like she's going up and hammering spin serves and getting aces so my theory is Wendell has the yips
she's having trouble with her serve they're not sure what to do and here we are. So let's move into
our feature matches for the week we're going to look at number 13 Arizona State beating number
20 BYU in five and then because everybody wants it Nebraska crushed Wisconsin 3-0 so we'll talk
about that even though I'm not sure how much there is to say. Yeah I don't think anybody expected that
3-0 beat down but everybody loves that matchup so we're gonna dive in. We're gonna start off with
Arizona State against BYU we haven't seen Arizona State play yet this year and since they're like
among the top of the big 12 we wanted to check things out. BYU is a pretty hostile environment
normally so we figured this would be a good test to see Arizona State play. Now I heard there weren't
as many people there as they normally are. Too busy trick-or-treating. Well that's fair but I
I really liked Arizona State as a team I thought they did a really good job. Argentina Ng the
setter I thought she played really well I liked the offense that she ran. I thought Savannah
Coleheed played incredibly well as a middle she hit 667 she was incredibly effective. I thought
she blocked pretty well. I was impressed with Jelly Sear she didn't hit super efficiently in
that match she was only 188 however she passes really well she hits out of the back row she
plays defense really well and so kind of as an all-around six rotation player I thought she
brought a lot of stability to that team. Yeah my ASU standouts were actually the Libero Mary Shroll
the outside Jelly Sear and Savannah Coleheed as well. I agree with you I think Jelly Sear is like
the perfect outside hitter number two the perfect ball control outside. The thing about ASU though
is I don't think they have a true point scoring left side. And I think that's where Argentina Ng
really impressed me was when you don't have a stud that you can set all the time how you run your
offense in the position you put your hitters in is becomes more important and I thought she did a
good job of that. I think when everything is in system ASU runs an incredibly fast offense.
I agree probably the fastest that we've seen so far yeah and when things are smooth and in system
Argentina Ng sets very well. I think as soon as the passes or the digs start to come off the net
a little bit she tries so hard to maintain that tempo but she doesn't give the ball any shape
which you need when you're moving off the net and you saw the balls kind of like die really early
and the hitters were having trouble kind of like hitting those balls. I think when everything is
smooth and all is good yeah she is setting outstanding but she's making life really difficult
with that tempo she wants to run when things aren't perfect. Correct me if I'm wrong but that
only happens to the left side. I feel she runs the the middle slide pipe pretty well regardless of
the situation and I agree that the left side set is really fast when she's off the net. I'm also
kind of confused about what they're doing with Argentina Ng their setter. They bring in their
backup setter to be a serving specialist and a ds and in those situations I'm pretty sure it's an
audible in the moment if Argentina Ng feels like setting or hitting and you could see some
miscommunication at times as to who is actually setting and quite frankly the or Ng was not an
efficient hitter. It's like a fun twist I guess keep people on their toes but like it's causing
more problems than it's worth. That I agree with she was negative 111 on the attacks that she made
and not having a system or understanding what you're trying to do I think just causes more
confusion than it's worth. The other part is Roberto Rubella who comes in in the front row
occasionally I thought played really well and swung you know 438 on the 16 balls that she hit.
She was a good factor for that team when she came in. The Brazilian right side? Correct. Yes.
I think she was pretty effective for them. Going back to what you're saying about the setter
I think when ASU can run the middle they are very good when the middle is an option. Both Claire
Jeter and Savannah Coleheed are outstanding. I think they were very difficult to stop but as
soon as the middle becomes a non-option which is dictated by the pass or the dig that's when the
wheels kind of fell off and the connection there between the speed set location etc it kind of fell
apart. And I don't disagree with you on that I wouldn't say she's the best out of system setter
but they were in system enough and I really liked her total distribution in terms of how she used
her hitters and I mean no setter is going to be perfect at everything that's her weakness but I
thought for the most part her distribution and the decision she made were quite good.
I think overall though the story of the game came down to serve and pass. When we're looking at the
serving numbers Arizona State had eight aces and 11 errors. BYU had only two aces and 13
errors and I will say like as the sets were progressing it was very clear early which team
was going to win the set because the passing would break down immediately and like the teams
didn't really do a good job of recovering their side out or their serve receive ability like as
the set progressed it was just like blocks of time where the passing just disappeared.
Well and you saw it because once the fourth and the fifth set hit Arizona never gave up the lead.
They were in control the whole time winning 25-14 and 25 or 15-7 in the fifth and BYU just couldn't
they couldn't match them. In the fourth set they hit 0-67 and in the fifth set they hit 2-11 and
Arizona was 300 and 300 plus in both of those sets they just couldn't keep up.
I think another thing is that BYU is very very dependent on one hitter in Claire Little.
I think early in the match she was almost unstoppable. She was hitting everything and
I have a lot of respect for that because she wasn't being given great sets all the time but she
she knows her role she knows her job is to score points and she was just going for it.
She hits a heavy ball that Arizona State was having a really hard time controlling particularly
early but I think Arizona State made a great defensive adjustment on her as the match progressed
in that when Claire Little was getting set out of system the libero was dropping almost into
the corner in position five and they had the off blocker the left side come all the way completely
behind the 10-foot line. They were giving her a sharp angle because out of system Little was
really hammering hard angle and they just couldn't cover it with just the libero but then when she
was in system they had the libero come up and straddle the 10-foot line and the off blocker
left side was coming in directly for tips and I think that that adjustment because they were
playing her straight up traditional the same look no matter what the situation was early but that
adjustment being able to identify when Little was in system versus out of system they got so many
more chances on her and that was the difference I thought. And that's where I thought that jelly
and the libero did a really good job being on the same page covering the court and getting chances.
The other thing that Arizona State did was they served her a ton. She struggled to pass. They
weren't aces but high around the attack line working for that out of system ball so that they
could be in those positions and they came at her relentlessly. I will say middle blocker Brielle
Camovore also played really well. I thought that she was a great offensive weapon for BYU too. I
just think at this point in time BYU is a little one-dimensional and a little too reliant on Claire
Little. Like that is a lot of weight to put on one player offensively. She does a great job. I think
she's handling it well. She's scoring very well but she's getting over two times the amount of
sets. I think during the broadcast we heard that she has had almost 400 more sets than the second
highest attacker on her team. Well in this match she had 52 attempts and the next closest person
had 28 who was Ellie Mortenson who I thought struggled in that match. For them to beat good
teams she needs to be a weapon and she... Well her or the right side. Yeah she hit 107. It just
wasn't good enough. Everybody knew when they needed a point who was getting set and that's
that's a hard load to carry. I do want to give a shout out though to Hannah Billeter on BYU. She is
one of the serving subs slash DS. When she's serving that is a great rotation for BYU. She
doesn't always get aces but she's putting teams in trouble and I would say that that is their most
efficient sort of defensive transition rotation and they're scoring the most points when Billeter
is serving and I've noticed that across like multiple matches now. The other thing to remember
is that I think BYU was very young so Claire Little is doing a good job of handling the pressure
but I think as a team they will grow. BYU plays a lot of five set matches.
They will get better as the season goes on and they'll be even better next year. I mean this was
another example of a team that kind of recruited young high school kids versus a team that recruited
from the portal and Arizona State has a lot of graduate students, a lot of upperclassmen,
a lot of them from other schools. It was interesting. I think BYU definitely does have a bright future.
It was good to see Arizona State play. I'm very very curious to see how they handle Kansas next
week. That's going to be a fun match to watch. And it is fun to see how fast of an offense they run
because it's faster than anything we've seen as we've said but like if they can just dial in that
connection when the pass isn't there I think they they'll be a lot better. So now the match that
everybody was looking forward to this week and while it wasn't a five set barn burner I still
think it was a pretty good match overall. What were your initial thoughts? I would agree that the sets
were good until about 20. It was very back and forth, super tight until we hit 20 points and then
without fail around that mark Nebraska would score two or three in a row and and that was that.
What did you see those runs after 20? Where did they come from? In at least two of the three sets
they happened in the exact same rotation with Olivia Mouch serving. They got stuck with Lola
Schumacher the freshman libero for Wisconsin in position one and Mouch was serving her line to
line and there were bad passes, miscommunication, any number of things but it was that same rotation
every time. One of the things that I noticed in the match was I thought that setter freshman setter
Furbringer was struggling to connect with her middle hitters. They only had 13 sets in the middle
and I understand that they ran Schmereck a few balls out of the middle but even still she wasn't
effective and I thought that really cost them. It was really tough to run the middle because
Wisconsin's passing was so bad. Fair. Like it was almost impossible to run the middle. The only
thing they could do was set out of system and Sarah Franklin is the only player on Wisconsin
who can effectively hit out of system and that became painfully obvious this match. Well,
you had Schmereck hit minus 0.74 and watching her she needs to add a few more angles to her game.
She hits the same. Straight. She hits straight often and while her height and the pace she can
put on the ball gets her out of a lot of situations against Nebraska who's probably one of the best,
if not the best defensive team in the country. It just wasn't good enough. No, it's very clear
where Anna Schmereck is hitting the ball. If she gets her approach outside a little bit she's
hitting deep angle and if her approach is inside the court she's hitting straight down the line.
If she's coming into the middle she hits back to one. Like she does what she does and she's been
able to get away with it because she's so tall but like you said when you've got a competent
blocking and defensive team it's not going to cut it. You need to be more versatile. One of my
favorite players on Nebraska and we talked about her before, Andy Jackson has hit 4.56 this season
and whether it was the size of the Wisconsin block or the game plan she hit 1.18 this match.
They still set her a whole bunch which I think they needed to but she was not effective. Well,
nobody from Nebraska was effective except for Merritt Beeson. Not necessarily effective,
efficient. But Nebraska is nothing if not balanced. I feel like they run one of the most balanced
offenses in the country. I really think that this match was a blocking match. I agree with that. Both
sides knew what the assignment was. I think both teams came in with a very clear plan. It was
obvious that Nebraska wanted to stop Franklin for obvious reasons. She carries the load for
Wisconsin offensively and Wisconsin wanted to make it as difficult as possible for Andy Jackson to
get the ball. Because when Andy Jackson's an option there's just too much going on to be able
to block and play defense effectively. So we saw Wisconsin serving to zone one a lot regardless of
who was passing there to try to get Bergen Reilly kind of spinning and losing sight of her middle.
And we saw Nebraska come at Wisconsin so hard on the serve particularly at Franklin or in the
seam between Franklin and Orzull. I thought that the libero for Wisconsin also didn't pass
particularly well and if Wisconsin was going to win this match she needed to be able to take court
and keep them in system and that did not happen. I think it's just the passing issues that Wisconsin
had just really highlighted how much they rely on Franklin because they don't have anybody else that
can really score out of system as we mentioned. Smrec does what she does. She's not a great out
of system hitter. You can't run your middle with the passes that were being delivered that match.
And Orzull she was solid. She was steady for Wisconsin but it's a tough matchup her hitting
out of system for an entire match. Yeah Orzull's the type of player who's going to be steady for
you but she's probably not going to win you the match. Fair yeah. I do have to say I thought C.C.
Crawford for Wisconsin blocked very well. There were runs of points there where she ran the show.
You can tell that she's very smart, very intuitive. Her deductive reasoning is on point.
You could just see her really taking care of business for Wisconsin from a blocking perspective.
I thought she did amazing but it was just like a battle of the game plans and while nobody hit
particularly well for Nebraska other than Beeson I thought that they backed up their solid blocking
with good defense and their serving pressure didn't relent. Wisconsin they neutralized their
hitters well. They got a ton of blocks. They kept everybody's hitting percentages down but they
really loop hold themselves by not being able to get anybody going offensively. Well it's interesting
you talk about the defense because Nebraska had 43 digs on the match and Wisconsin had 42 digs
on the match but I think the difference and this is where sometimes stats can be deceiving is
Nebraska controlled their defensive touches better than Wisconsin. They generally had two options for
hitters instead of one option in transition and they did a better job of being able to put their
hitters in positions to be successful I thought than Wisconsin and so while the numbers are close
to equal I thought they had the advantage in that regard. And one criticism that I have had of
Charlie Furbringer this season is her out of system setting. She's obviously young she's coming
into her own she is a good setter but I think when she is forced to run around it's a little
inconsistent and Sarah Franklin up until this point has done a really good job of just finding
ways to score anyway. I think in this match Franklin looked out of rhythm her approach was a little bit
slower her arm was a little slow it was almost like she was trying to see what was going to happen
and she was thinking about her swing instead of just going for it. It wasn't the same Franklin
that we saw and I don't know if that is just like respect for Nebraska or or what was going on there
but I have said throughout the season that Furbringer struggles to set out of system consistently.
And again I think that will come maybe with a little more strength I thought her all-around game
was very good I thought she served well I thought she played defense really well but yeah I agree
with your assessment that she struggled in those situations and Wisconsin both their passing and
their defense were not always in control. Again I don't think the 3-0 score is really indicative
of the match as a whole it was very back and forth like I said both teams had a very distinct
and clear game plan and I think the players executed it well Beeson stepped up for Nebraska
if she hadn't had those hitting numbers it might have been a different story it might have gone
like four sets or even further and honestly Wisconsin needs somebody else who can be in our
meta system. And I think that this is where Nebraska has the edge this season is that all of
their outside hitters have the potential to have good matches it doesn't always happen but you've
seen matches where they've individually gone off and the percentage chance that you know one one
and a half two of them will have a good match is just higher than always relying on Franklin because
Orzull like you said Orzull is not a great out of system hitter or not consistently going to score
you those points and Schmreck when the defense is solid and has a good game plan she's not that
player for you either. It'll be interesting to see how Wisconsin kind of regroups they are going to
have a rematch against Nebraska later this month. Give me a prediction for that match.
I think Nebraska is still going to win but I think maybe in four. That's what I was going to pick.
I was going to say Nebraska in four. Yeah I do like seeing Beeson coming into the back row now
and I do have to give a shout out to Lini Choboy I think she does a really good job for Nebraska
whenever she comes in she gets at least a dig she brings energy she brings fire to the court for
them I'm hoping the next time they play is a little better for a from a fan perspective the
volleyball was good the game plans were solid I'm just a little more excitement you know.
A little closer at the end. Yeah. Give me a couple two point sets. Oh yeah.
All right it's time for my favorite part of the show. Adam makes up a game. I make up a game and
Sarah has no idea what's going to happen and we see what she says so I'm going to go with
what she says so this one is called Pavin's percentages. Oh I love an alliteration. I know
you do. I am going to make a statement and you are going to give me a percentage that you think
it will happen or come true. Okay. Okay. I will also give a percentage but after you. Okay. I like
to play too. Okay. First statement a final four team will be playing a true 6 2. Oh.
Oh dang. And let me clarify by true 6 2 I mean they're doing it pretty much that rotation
every time. We're not just doing like a blocking sub double sub situation it's like every time.
Yeah. Okay. I have not been loving teams 6 2 situation this year. A final four team will
be running a 6 2. Louisville is not running a true 6 2 right. They're doing that double sub like
once a set. Yeah I would say Louisville is not running a 6 2. Okay. I'm going to say less than
10 percent. That's not good enough. I need a number. I think there is a 7 percent chance that
a team running a 6 2 will be in the final four. I like that. I'm going to go with 16 percent.
Oh dang. How can we measure this? We'll just see what happens. It's like every team in the final
four is running a 6 2. You were absolutely incorrect. Okay. Do you have any anything to add
or that's your that's your 7 percent. Just all the 6 2's that I've seen being run this season have
been very disjointed. The hitters seem to have a really tough time getting in rhythm. The setters
seem to have a tough time being in rhythm. It just has not looked good to me. I think there is
something to be said about like hitters knowing what to expect. I don't like it. Okay. Simple as
that. I don't like it. Sarah Franklin repeats as player of the year and here is a noteworthy
stat that all of her numbers this year are better than last year. I know for a fact that that doesn't
matter. I honestly don't think that Wisconsin will make the final four this year. It is very
challenging. Like it's challenging to be named player of the year if you're not at the final four.
Given the fact of who I'm thinking will be in the final four. Do you want me to hear what I'm
thinking? Yeah. Okay. So I'm thinking if Pitt makes the final four, Babcock will be player of the year.
If Penn State makes the final four, Mirzik has a good shot at being player of the year. I don't
think anybody from Nebraska, well Andy Jackson would be the only pick for me for Nebraska.
She's the real, they run, they're too balanced for one player to really stand out. And then Louisville,
I don't think so. I think if Wisconsin makes it, she'll have a chance, but I don't think they're
going to make it. So I'm going to say there is a 20% chance. That's really low, isn't it?
It's actually playing the field. I think that's a high percentage. Oh, okay. I was going to say
8%. I also don't think they're going to be in the final four. I think it's really hard
to repeat as player of the year. And I, they're just not as smooth as they were last year.
There's just like two, like for player of the year, there's so many variables that are out of
your control. And, and you know, percentage wise with there being four digits worth of people who
are on that watch list, I mean, her chance of winning is actually a 0.01% given all the people
that are on the watch list. Nebraska goes undefeated for the rest of the season until the
tournament. Now matches of note for them are Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Penn State. Honestly,
I think they're going to win all of those matches. So I'm going to make it pretty high. I'm going to
say there's a 70% chance that they will go undefeated until the tournament. Those are high odds. I was
going to go with 51%. Oh man. Just over half. I guess I'm just confident in them. Oh, that's fair.
So we saw Texas move to a 5-1 in their last match. What are the odds that they play a 5-1 for the
rest of the year? I'm going to say 35%. Okay, I was going to say 49% only because I don't think
they have any idea what to do in Texas right now. Because they have no idea what to do, I feel like
they're going to go with something that the players are at least familiar with for the last little
chunk of time. The players have played a 5-1 with Ella Swindle. They've only played one match with
a 5-1 with Avery Carlson. I'm not sure if Swindle or Carlson started the season in the 5-1. That I
didn't check. But man, I bet they are just reeling right now. They're in panic mode for sure.
They're in panic mode for sure. Okay, now the last one. We kind of touched on this.
And I wasn't sure where this conversation was going to go. But Wisconsin makes the final four
was the last question. I think there's probably a 25% chance that they make the final four. I am not
confident. This is not the Wisconsin team that we've seen in recent years. I was going to say
33%. I think Franklin is capable of having two good matches to get them to the final four if her team
can put her in a position to be successful. And it depends on their matchup. Correct. Because Texas
is going to fall hard from that NCAA top 16 they came up with. But if we're using that as the
reference point they would be playing Nebraska to get into the final four. Yeah, 33%. That NCAA top
16 thing is not going to stand now. I think so many wacky things have happened that the NCAA is
like, well that was fun. And you're going to get a new one next week. Yeah. Well that's the game
Pavin's percentages. So I think we've played a few here now. So we'll have to see what we liked. If
you guys have an idea or you want us to revisit one of these please let us know. Sarah will put a
poll up. Oh, okay. Let's do it. It is time for our weekly hot takes. We're going to be a little more
specific this week so get ready. My hot take is that Gulje Guchtiken, the DS for Wisconsin,
should be the starting libero for the team over Lola Schumacher. She has only been playing DS
this year. Honestly, I think with Guchtiken you get more leadership qualities. You need that position,
needs to be confident, needs to be assertive, needs to basically run the back row. And you are
not seeing that from Schumacher at all. You're seeing miscommunication. You're seeing her unsure
of herself. Honestly, her passing is not good enough in my opinion for a team of Wisconsin's
caliber. And we see Guchtiken digging in five when she's coming in, moving Schumacher to six or
sometimes to zone one. If that doesn't say it, that just proves that Sheffield has confidence in her
to be able to make those digs against certain players. Like I'm confused why Schumacher's the
libero. And so that's my hot take for the week. Do you have an opinion? No, I mean I haven't watched
them enough I would say to have a sample size but definitely in the Nebraska game I was kind of
scratching my head and wondering why is this girl not playing more. I thought she did a great job.
The only thing that popped into my head was I think she's a senior and she's a junior. She's a
junior. Well and the thing is she's coming in as DS so she's playing half the amount of time as
Schumacher. She had more digs in her and you're playing half the time. That's my hot take of the
week. I'd be curious to know what the rationale behind that was. My hot take of the week is more
of a surprise and... A surprise for yourself or a surprise for the listeners? Just overall surprised
at how poor Texas has been and I know we've talked about them but my hot take is going to be...
I don't think they get it back on the rails. Texas had eight days in between the A&M match
and the Missouri match and we saw the same thing. No changes. And then they randomly go to a 5-1
the next day with no practice. It's a band-aid solution. I don't think they know what the problem
is and I'm not sure they're going to be able to fix it mid-season. They play too many good teams.
It's a short window and now you don't know whether you're playing a 5-1 or a 6-2. I think they're in
trouble. Well let us know what you think about these hot takes. We made them a little more
specific this week instead of general. Like it, leave it. Either way we feel strongly about these
ones. Give us your hot take. Looking forward we got a few matches coming up that we think will be
great and you should keep an eye out for this week. On Wednesday Arizona State is hosting Kansas to
see who will sit on top of the Big 12. On Thursday Nebraska travels to Oregon. We'll watch the scores
on that one. I'm thinking Nebraska is going to roll there. So do I but like you love a ranked
matchup. Fair. On Friday BYU and Utah have their in-state rematch after BYU took down Utah in five
in Provo a couple weeks ago. I am feeling Utah for that match but we'll see where it goes. I have no
idea. I think BYU gains extra superpowers at home so it'll be it'll be curious to see how they play
at Utah but I think the BYU faithful will be traveling there for sure. So they usually travel
pretty well. Yeah. On Saturday we've got Penn State and Wisconsin, Oregon and Minnesota and
Stanford taking on Georgia Tech. It's going to be a great week. Hopefully not as messy as this week.
The upsets were out of control. Well I feel like at the end of last week we said the upcoming week
we said the upcoming week will not have that much going on. So the fact that we're expecting big
matches we'll we'll see what happens. Yeah I thought this week was going to be so straightforward
and it was anything but. So it's just like opposite day here. We'll see what happens.
That concludes this week's episode of Volley Talk. There's always something shaking in the volleyball
world and we hope you enjoyed this little fix. Be sure to follow the show so you don't miss any
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