Taylor POY, Shoji COY, RPI 23, poll 12

No question they got hosed. I like their matchup with USC but even if they were to get by USC, I really think Minnesota will be a tough obstacle to overcome especially at their place. I do think Hawaii won’t have to be as reliant on Taylor as they were last year or even earlier this year so that will definitely help when USC and Minnesota have to decide who they are going to key their defense on. UH is not getting much respect from ESPN either. On their article today they talked about Minnesota’s road to the final four and they only mention their obstacle being a potential matchup with North Carolina..

wow, hawaii finished the regular season at 23 in the RPI !!… that means they could’ve been in the conversation for a seed. if only they had some wins against the top 25 RPI. oh well. if they had those wins, their RPI would’ve been even higher, and a surer bet for a seed. que sera sra ….

i agree, the final regular season RPI just emphasizes the screw job the committee did, not just to hawaii, but to that entire minneapolis subregional. and i’m not usually one to lay into the committee this time of year …

when it got down to the end of the selection show, and hawaii hadn’t been announced yet, i thought for sure we were going to the missouri (#15 seed) subregional, or even to ucla (#10) or north carolina (#7). but to find out hawaii was going to #2 seed minnesota?!? wtf!?!

hawaii’s RPI last week was #28. sounds like the committee didn’t look at the updated RPI much and went by last week’s instead. pure laziness, imho…

that said, time for hawaii to focus. usc in the first round will be tough. they just took ucla to 5 sets in their last match of the regular season. can’t look past them.

and if hawaii moves on, then minnesota on their home court will be a big challenge. minnesota is playing extremely well right now. they just expended a ton of mental/emotional energy in two 5-setters this past weekend (against nebraska and wisconsin) … still though, they closed the regular season playing at a very high level.

tough road … on the road … go bows!

@Cindy I think you meant POY (player of year) not POW above. Anyway, this gets frustrating year after year how NCAA treats Hawaii. I feel like I just wanna somehow meet the committee in some room and just share with them some ‘words’. If they saying travel is important for costs, which it is, how the heck are we flying all the way east instead of closer? It’s like being picked last for a game of dodgeball and only being able to play cuz we own the ball. I just trip out. But we just gotta do us, do what we gotta do, and hopefully play the best tournament of our lives! Hope this stirs up something in the girls to just turn on beast mode! Go Bows!

While it looks to be a disadvantage based how the Wahines were seated in the Minnesota sub-regionals, let’s accentuate the positive and view this opportunity as a final-four matchup. Who ever survives would appear to be in the driver’s seat for the nation championship. Go Bows!

You can also look at this in the point of view of Minnesota’s coach. I’m sure they not exactly thrilled to possibly see UH or USC in the 2nd round especially being a 2nd overall seed. I bet they expected an easier sub regional.

No love lost between North Dakota and the NCAA either. They used to be the ‘Fighting Sioux’ out of huge respect for the historical fighting ability and warrior tenacity of the regional Sioux tribes, but the NCAA PC movement run amuck forced the school to change the name of its teams, hence the neutered “Fighting Hawks”. The school and its major contributing alumni fought the change for years, and a large majority of the local tribes had no issue with ‘Fighting Sioux’.

Also, no love lost between the Hawks and Gophers. The school carries a large chip on its shoulder when it comes to playing against U of M. In hockey, they love to beat on the Gophers. If volleyball were a contact sport, the Gopher girls would have much to fear from the Hawks. The Hawks might still lose, but they’d leave marks.

I like Andrew’s comment #14. The Minnesota coach cannot be happy with either USC or Hawaii in the second round. No patsy for his team. From my POV. I see the Wahine’s seeding as simply opportunity.

Ha! Just saw the video of the Wahine bracket reveal. About what I expected – disbelief followed by laughter and resignation. Go Bows!

I think it is awesome for Annie to have gotten first team honors. Given she was injured the latter half of last year and the beginning of this year, it is a testament to her hard work and athletic ability that she made the first team–she hit .340 and got .98 blks/set in conference, both in the top 6 of the conference.

Yeah, assuming we get pass USC, Lindsey Berg may be able to give us insight into the mind of her former USA olympic team coach – Hugh McCutcheon.

After all the discussions on Hawaii’s placement, how’s this fact. Penn St with an RPI of 26 got the 16th and last seed. Their first opponent has the highest RPI of 196 of all of the 16 seeds. What is the committee thinking? Don’t mention geographical location when they send UH and USC to minne.

As a Minnesota fan on VT said, I think it’s Minnesota that got screwed. You beat the number 1 and 3 teams, and you are rewarded with a match against USC or UH for your second round opponent.
Hopefully enough people besides Hawaii fans will complain to get the “committee” to change their ways, if not the US Women’s National team coach, then who else will change it. The way you get more action is by beating the number 2 seed on their home floor, then they will complain even more about having to face Hawaii in the second round.

water under the bridge

all together now! opportunity? the road to the final 4 !!!!

As had been said before, if we’re going to get to the final four, we have to beat the best. It’s better now than after they’ve played 3 matches and are worn out. Besides, I’m not sure how many teams in the last month or so have taken stock to the fact that Hawaii has late developing weapons; its jump serves, Annie on the outside, more combo plays, 2 pipe players, better passing, better blocking, and one myna bird in one papaya tree! GO BOWS!

Cindy, or anyone in the know, just asking cuz I don’t know the answer to this, wen u say the committee is filled with people padding their resume, what do u mean by that? I’m assuming its filled with people who can later say they were on the committee? And possibly they just kinda don’t really care about making it fair or whatever, they just put whoever where-ever in the tournament?

RE: Seeding and Tournament

1. If it feels like a set up it probably is, expect the worse to come. (It may be human nature to serve one’s own self interests, but the temptation to cheat–if given half a chance–is always there.)

2. Anything out of the ordinary should be scrutinized, reported, and changed as necessary. (Including room & board, food vouchers, practice time, even travel)

(Perhaps some slights die hard, coach was at one time a voting member but left after a disagreement.)

Watching all the discussion on selection, I am finally over it. The selection, like other things in life, is flawed. Many prominent coaches have challenged it over the years but it clearly remains inconsistent and often defying the obvious.

So for me, let’s return to focusing on the only thing that really counts if we want the wahines to continue playing – winning the next match. Watched USC take UCLA to 5 sets and it is pretty clear that Trojans will give us all that we can handle.

Height of best hitters from both SC and Minnesota are 2 to 3 inches shorter than Mitchem, Nikki, Maglio, Burns/Castillo. On an average performance night, the Wahines should beat both Trojans and Gophers. Go Bows!