The off-season update concluded

I slogged through the rest of early 2009 posts and this is what I have for you:

Destinee Hooker's getting married (maybe the happy nuptials have already taken place). OverandUnder lost patience with the ensuing puns. It happens. I myself have occasionally opened Pundora's Box, with results of which I am not the least proud.

Nikki Allen fainted on Amazing Race. Nice to see a volleyball player representing the sport with distinction on national TV. I’m afraid I only watched bits and pieces of the season, and all of it after this episode. Was she also the contestant who came close to a nervous breakdown in the pool, or was that her partner?

Salima Rockwell has jumped ship, leaving the luxury liner at Penn State for the ... well, the luxury liner at Texas. Salima, then Davidson, was setting at Penn State when I first started to closely follow the college game. This fact is neither here nor there, but it is a fact. I wonder if she’s invited to Destinee’s wedding?

Crocs' finances have apparently gone the way of plastic purple shoe manufacturers everywhere, and some wondered how this would affect the AVP, since Crocs was a major sponsor. I don’t have the answer to this question, basically because I really don’t care about the AVP. Did it fold?

Mike Whitmarsh, speaking of the AVP but something I do care about, took his own life this past spring. This is terribly sad, of course. I enjoyed watching him play with Mike Dodd, back when the AVP was much more interesting.

Two more Final Four locations were picked: 2010's will be in Kansas City and 2012's will be in Louisville. For some reason, 2011's was already known. I have, of course, forgotten where it is, however. San Antonio again? Beats me.

Various post-season banquets were detailed. That was just about as exciting as you’d think it would be.

Lindsey Berg was named USA Volleyball’s POY. Woo-hoo! I swear I heard an advertisement on local radio (KFAN) for some event featuring Lindsey and Larry Fitzgerald (Junior, I assume). If I heard correctly, how cool is that? If I heard incorrectly, never mind.

tenniscraze started a thread entitled "The Greatness of Erin Waller." Yes, he did. I confess I did not read any of it, as enticing as that title is.


That was about it. I hope you feel caught up. I know I don’t.

I, for one, think the 2009 season cannot arrive too quickly.

The off-season update

If you were like me and spent most of the past 6 months either drinking or sleeping or some combination of both, you may have missed out on some of the goings-on in the volleyball world. You may have lost your job and your significant other as well, but that's Life.

[To clarify: I have not lost my job or my significant other during the off-season. The job was lost during the season and the significant other stopped paying any attention to me back in 2002. She is still, however, significantly my other.]

So what happened? A better question is: How does one go about finding out what happened? My idea was to scroll through six months of posts on Volley Talk and then blog about it. In retrospect, this was beyond insane. I am able to reach this conclusion even though I only made it back to April.

[To clarify: I am not a psychiatrist. When I use the term "beyond insane", I am engaging in rhetorical hyperbole, not any sort of medical diagnosis. I also have no idea what that means (what I just wrote), but I'm beyond insane, so what do you expect?]

PrepVolleyball.com declared Minnesota's recruits the top class of 2009. This was interesting, exciting even, especially for Gopher fans. But what had Volley Talk all hot and bothered was the debate over whether to post the list or not.

[To clarify: The Volley Talk community is putty in John Tawa's hands.]

Volleyball magazine has revamped itself, again, with "vamp" being the operative word. For some inexplicable reason, this meant Logan Tom was on the cover wearing her underwear and the American flag. We wish them luck with their venture into soft porn.

[To clarify: I will take it all back should Volleyball magazine hire me. For anything, including soft (or hard) porn.]

Charlie Wade left Pacific after I forget how many years (three?) to take the head coaching job at Hawaii. No, he's not replacing Dave. It's the men's program. Apparently, those tropical breezes were more addictive than he thought. Does this mean we go back to speculating about his availability for every coaching opening that pops up?

Sand volleyball has been put on the fast track for something. It's way too confusing for me and I have seriously tried to figure it out. Now I'm hearing there may be some major roadblocks on this "fast" track. My interest in all of this is barely rates a blip on whatever instrument they'd need to hook up to me to measure my interest in stuff.

Transfers are always a fun part of the off-season. As of today, it would appear the Gophers also have the most noteworthy of these. Taylor Carico is departing USC to spend her senior year in Minneapolis. Others? Piggot from UCLA to UCI and Haverly from Nebraska to Indiana are the two who generated some buzz. Buzz. That's not a word I use often. Perhaps it'll never happen again?

USAV nationals were in Minneapolis and were noteworthy for the success of the Washington Huskies' squad. The Huskies went undefeated. Did they lose a game? I think they did, but I may have misremembered that tidbit. If they did, it was only one game. Misremembered is another word destined for the trash can.

Kerri Walsh had a baby boy, disappointing women's volleyball coaches throughout the land. The watch begins for pregnancy #2.

Haley Eckermann, 2011's top recruit we are told, has, we are also told, narrowed her choices to Texas and Nebraska. Haley is from Iowa, by the way.

UCLA signed a Norwegian for the 2009 season, which has to be a first. Definitely a first for the 2009 season. Has the Scandanavian pipeline been opened? Rumor had this athlete headed to Stanford. Minnesota was also rumored a while back. Just goes to show you something. I have decided to leave the name alone, in case you were expecting I wouldn't be able to resist.

Karch Kiraly has agreed to join Hugh McCutcheon as an assistant for the USA Women's program. Personally, I think this is very cool, but that's just me.

Quinnipiac apparently tried to drop their volleyball program and were taken to court where they were told "Not so fast, Quinnipiac." Something like that.

Bond Shymansky somehow ended up at Marquette, after being let go by Georgia Tech. Another one of those volleyball mysteries, I guess.



This is where I pretty much ran out of gas. I have no doubt there were other items of interest from January through March, but it's just too damned much work.

Ask (R)uffda! (recycled)

As my initial blog for the 2009 season, I am going to trot out an old VolleyTalk post. Why? Let me get back to you on that one.

Dear (R)uffda!

I'm hoping you can settle a bet between my wife and me. She says one should pronounce libero "la-BEAR-oh." I say it's pronounced "LEE-ba-roh." Who's right? I've got twenty bucks riding on your answer!

Highroller

Dear Highroller,

You are both incorrect. The correct pronunciation is "cha-BRKZNYT-oo-da-fant." What say you each mail me a couple of sawbucks and we leave it at that?

(R)

Dear (R)uffda!

It was the oddest thing! I went to the Symphony the other night and everyone in the orchestra was wearing a black tux or a black dress except one of the bassoon players. He was all in white. What gives?

Baffled Concertgoer

Dear Baffled,

You were lucky enough to witness the debut of the "bolero." In an attempt to capitalize on the unqualified success of volleyball's libero, many symphony orchestras have taken to using a bolero, pronounced "boh-LAIR-oh" or "cha-BRKZNYT-oo-da-fant." I guess the basic idea is that the guy can play any instrument he wants as long as he does not use his lips.

(R)

Dear (R)uffda!

I was hoping you could explain something to me. The rule clearly states that the libero's jersey cannot have as a principal color "any color that appears on more than 25 percent of the body of the non-libero team members' uniform." How the heck do they check this?

Troubled by Math

Dear Troubled,

This is the down ref's responsibility. You may have noticed the little doo-dad these refs have been wearing, a little device that clips to their belt and connects to an earpiece. This is the iLib(TM). It's amazing what it can do to keep unruly liberos in line. It detects uniform violations, illegal attacks, front row sets, and small firearms. An alert is transmitted to the down ref's ear and -- voila! -- the whistle is blown.

Interestingly enough, Microsoft thought they had a competitive version ready for the 2004 season, but in test runs some high-pitched whistles would cause a disabling electric charge to be inflicted on the user. Microsoft says they hope to have a "patch" available for the 2007 season.

(R)

Dear (R)uffda!

Is there anything you don't know, Mr. Smarty-Pants?!

Annoyed

Dear Annoyed,

Beats me. I guess that answers your question, right? Thanks for the feedback.

(R)

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.