[NCAA/MPSF/Playoffs] Match notes UH/USC 4/22/00
quik...@my-deja.com
matches by Ken Prosser, Ravi, RLL (get a press pass next time!), and
yours truly.
The irony: Ravi and I get the vanilla, higher-seed rolls matches and
miss out on all the excitement (but don't get our match notes
confiscated...)
The double irony: The one upset no one predicted...happened.
Okay enough irony,,,to the notes.
A raucous, loud, and sardine-packed crowd in North Gym for this playoff
matchup between #1-ranked USC (#3 tournament seed - ironic?) and #7
ranked UH (#6 seed). Crowd mostly for the home team, small contingent
of UH fans sitting directly behind UH bench. Rumored army of green-clad
UH supporters never materializes. Local Hawaii TV station KFVE
providing LIVE coverage back to the islands, with 2 fixed camera
platforms and a mobile camera in North Gym.
Starting lineups:
USC - Suxho (S), Julian (OH), Duscharme (MB), Billings (OP), Fairfield
(OH), Rawi (MB), Burden (Lib)
UH - Krejci (S), Theocharidis (OH), Davis (MB), Zimet (OH), Stanley
(OH), Tukuafu (MB), Lockwood (Lib)
G1: UH R3 serve to start against USC R6 receive. Good strategy by
Powers as this starting lineup puts his two best jumpservers (Suxho and
Julian) at the service line early. It would be significant later. UH
jumps out to 3-0 lead. USC catches them at 3-3 and then surges ahead to
5-3. Sloppy passing overall by UH, leading to marginal sets, and ending
in hitting errors. Teams trade points until UH catches USC at 8-8. At
this point, everything falls apart for the Bows. USC R2 serve matched
up against UH's death row (R5 receive). Not pretty. As Julian went
back and began bombing his jumpserve, the UH receive suddenly went
south. Lockwood struggled with his passing from the get-go tonight, and
it was critical in UH R5 as he passes the middle of the court. USC
scored 5 unanswered points in this single rotation with Julian at the
service line and forced UH into 2 timeouts. What had been a close game
was blown wide-open with USC now holding a 13-8 lead. A few sideouts
later, USC pushed it to game point 14-8. UH scored once, before the
Trojans closed it out 15-9.
Random G1 thoughts:
-Billings sets a very nice ball to the leftside on off-transition plays
when Suxho takes the first ball
-Whether by design or cosmic convergence, Krejci set everything low and
fast tonight. I thought BYU last year set their outside sets low/fast
with Lebron at the controls. Krejci makes those sets look like a
Powers' leftside high-ball set with the stuff he was jacking to the
outside tonight. As a result, all three of UH's hitters were struggling
to get a decent approach and swing, often rushing to get to the ball and
making poor swings.
-USC band is really loud.
-What's with the two fingers? (sorry...not much on USC tradition here)
-Clay Stanley is a BIG TALL GUY! Hits the bejeezus out of the ball too.
There's hard, really hard, and then there's what Billings and Stanley
hit. Billings gets better warmup bounces though.....
G2: UH dials forward one. USC starts same. USC R1 serve/UH R3
receive. Points come in bunches for both sides in this game. USC up
early 2-0. UH battles back to take lead briefly at 3-2. USC downshifts
into next gear to 7-3. UH hits a nitrous-oxide boost to pass at 8-7.
USC gets second-stage ignition to 9-8 (do you like where this analogy is
going?), UH achieves max-q to 10-9, however, USC utilizes propellant in
the post-boost phase to leave UH in the dust, scoring the last 6 points
of G2 15-10.
Random G2 thoughts:
-UH runs a utility-type receive/offensive pattern. Zimet opposite the
setter Krejci but doesn't function as a normal opposite hitter (i.e
Billings, McKienzie, Toppel, Bruer, UCLA-opposite-by-committee).
Stanley 2 rotations in front of setter hits alot of leftside.
Theocharidis can hit out of anywhere. Utility system means different
passers in every rotation. Pepperdine ran something similar last year
with Wong/Roumain opposite each other and Barnett opposite the setter,
and different passers in each rotation. Looks funky. I think it
prevents a team from getting into a good passing/sideout rhythm.
-Ravi and I having an ongoing debate on Taliaferro/Suxho and each's
merits and play this season. After watching tonight's performance, I'll
have to change my position and go with Ravi on this one. Both talented.
Both good athletes. But Suxho is doing some incredible things this
season, and doing it with alot of flash and style. Fundementally, I'd
still put Taliaferro (and even LBSU's Seiffert) in front. But for sheer
athleticism and playmaking, gotta say Suxho is way above the rest. He's
made tremendous improvements to his game in the last 4 seasons.
-USC's band still loud.
G3: UH dials again. USC doesn't. (Volleyball axiom #64-8932-4a...If
it ain't broke and you are winning, don't change it.) UH R5 serve/USC
R6 receive. Not much to say about this one. USC goes on a 10-point run
from 2-3 to 12-3. UH scores one to 12-4 before USC scores the final 3
points and closes out the game. UH went very meekly.
Random G3 thoughts:
-USC band still really loud.
-Concrete seating in the Crow's Nest - VERY HARD!
-Theocharidis serves like Katz used to - toss to about 30 feet/big
windup/BOOM! Comparisons to Katz hitting-wise are a stretch, IMHO.
Katz hit alot of balls clean through the block and defense by contorting
his body and hitting crazy angles. Theocharidis is more of a classic
tool/slime hitter. He has all the shots, though. And very good vision.
-Julian is really coming on. The read on USC has been - Billings as
offensive option 1, Fairfield option 1A. But w/Julian bombing the
jumpserve and hitting leftside, gonna be tough for opposing teams to
figure out a blocking scheme.
-Rawi - cutback everytime.
-Duscharme - only a freshman? What an amazing crop of freshman middles
in the MPSF this year.
Overall thoughts:
USC - definetely on a roll. Along with UCLA, the hot playoff teams that
bear watching. Maybe the spectre of playoff time has hit home. They
were much more focused and intense tonight than when I last saw them in
the regular season. Less theatrics (net-pulling, ref-stand punching,
whining about calls) and more getting-to-the-business. Strong sideout
game. Scores most of their points through service game (aces, winners,
overpass transitions), and dig-transition. Overall, not a big-blocking
team, although Suxho excels individually in this department. Team
revolves around the setter, when Suxho is on, whole team plays at
another level.
UH = despite tonight's performance, an incredible year and much promise
for the future. After losing both starting middles and working often
times with a roster of only 9-10 players and battling through various
ailments and injuries, Wilton still fielded a competitive squad.
Interesting to see where Miladinovic will fit in next season. Krejci
needs to get stronger physically and assert more intensity/leadership on
the court. I'm not so sure their fast-to-the-outside offense works.
Especially when you have a moose like Stanley out there. Set him high
and give him time to get there and take a good rip. Conversely, Stanley
needs to get quicker. He has decent tools - passes reasonably well when
in the receive pattern and can block/dig. He needs to step it up
though, team needs him to be a huge presence out on the floor,
especially since the rest of the lineup is not physically overpowering.
They are good players and well-skilled, but the team needs an
intimidating force that is consistent and dominating. Stanley can be
dominating, the consistency part still not quite there. Zimet is a
terrific all around player. So quiet you hardly notice all the things
he does well. Kinda like a Naveh Milo from UH-yesteryear. I'm not
convinced you can succeed anymore in the MPSF with 6'5" middles. Davis
and Tukuafu are good athletes. But to win in this league you not only
have to be good in the middle blocker spots, but also good and BIG.
As an aside, I remember Wilton back in '95 or '96 complaining about all
the trash-talking in the league (he particularly pointed out UCSB and
UCLA at the time), how ironic that his two middle-blockers are some of
the worst trash-talkers in the league this season?
That's about it. Had I known this match would be over this quickly and
there would be two 5-game barn-burners going on, I might have tried to
trek it down to the Pyramid. Or up to Malibu on the way home.
Nah...come to think of it...I wouldn't want my stuff confiscated.
-Aaron Batula
No press pass....is a press-heave o.k.?
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
quikset
wrote:
[Match notes and commentary....ZAP!]
One last thing to add:
Pet Peeve revisited: Number of coaches/assistants/players from
BOTH TEAMS who displayed proper customs/courtesies during playing
of the national anthem: ZERO.
-Aaron
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Sheri Snow Powers
Please explain. Standing at attention without you cap on. Not good enough?
Lance Burkhart
can be e-mailed to me directly. Remember as an USC alumni I get the same
defense team as O.J.
April 22, 2000
LOS ANGELES--Brook Billings had a match-high 23 kills while hitting .472 to
lead the No. 1-ranked USC men's volleyball team to a 15-9, 15-10, 15-4 win
over No. 7 Hawaii in a first round match of the Mountain Pacific Sports
Federation Championship on Saturday (April 22) before 1,015 fans in the USC
North Gym.
The Trojans improved to 22-4 overall, while the Rainbows finished their
season at 19-10.
USC advances to the MPSF tournament's semifinals on Thursday (April 27) and
will play at No. 2 Pepperdine, a 15- 10, 15-8, 14-16, 13-15, 15-13 winner
over No. 11 Stanford on Saturday. In this Thursday's other semifinal match
at Pepperdine, No. 4 UCLA (a 15-11, 15-6, 15-13 winner over No. 6 BYU on
Saturday) will meet No. 9 Loyola Marymount (a 15-12, 16-14, 11-15, 7-15,
23-21 upset winner over No. 3 Long Beach State on Saturday). The finals will
be next Saturday (April 29) at Pepperdine. The MPSF tourney winner receives
an automatic berth into the NCAA Final Four May 4 and 6 at Fort Wayne, Ind.
Eli Fairfield added 15 kills and hit .414 for the Trojans, while teammate
Beau Rawi had 11 kills (hitting .600) and a match-best 6 blocks.
For Hawaii, Costas Theocharidis had 16 kills and Clay Stanley had 11 kills.
USC outhit (.481 to .165) and outblocked (11.0 to 6.0) the Rainbows.
The first game was tied at 8-8 before the Trojans ran off 6 unanswered
points. Hawaii led the second game 10-9 when USC went on a 6-0 run. In game
three, the score was knotted 3-3 before the Trojans scored 12 of the next 13
points.
The win gave the Trojans a 14-0 record at home this season, their first
unblemished home mark since going 9-0 in 1991 (and only their fourth
undefeated home season, as they were 11-0 in 1986 and 8-0 in 1981). The 14
victories also were Troy's most ever at home.
quik...@my-deja.com
This from Ravi's reply to Fletch's post, which is linked from RLL's
reply to Boice's post regarding my post regarding proper customs and
courtesies to the U.S. Flag, which was mentioned as my pet peeve/useless
factoid from my USA/Korea Bakersfield match post from 4/13/00.
http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=612080341.1
Lest anyone think I was picking on Trojans, Bows, or any other team
volleyball related, let me further elaborate by saying this occurs in
almost every sport at almost every level from AYSO soccer through the
NBA.
-Aaron