Hawaii back to No. 15 in poll

Do you see a scenario where the Wahine drop say two, three or even four in Big West matches and someone like Long Beach State wins the conference, and the committee leaves the Wahine out of post season? They don’t have any bad losses except for maybe say Kansas State, but at the same time they don’t necessarily have any strong wins either outside of Arizona. I only ask that because the conference is obviously stronger this year and of course you know how the NCAA committees treat UH teams especially if they’re on the bubble.

I can’t find the regional sites on the NCAA website. Are they not predetermined any more?

Nikki Taylor, an All American, a senior and looking fir her best season to make a mark as one of the greatest Wahine to play the game. But really, really bad luck after re-injuring her left elbow. I was also really surprised the coaching staff just ignored her when she obviously was in a great deal of pain and left her in to continue playing. I just hope she decides to allow the injured elbow to completely heal before coming back.

A big help will be having Greeley healthy as well as Mitchem. Two of them can be that 2nd and 3rd terminator that the team needs to take the pressure off of Nikki and diversify the offense.

1,4. IMO, it is not clear that the Big West as a whole is obviously a better conference. Last year, the Big West went 51-60 in non-conference matches. This year, the record is 41-43, with a week to go. While the BW has a better record, we need to look at the quality of their foes.

Prime example is Fullerton. 0-12 last year, 5-6 this year. They must be better, right? Well, Fullerton played a stronger schedule last year and really down scheduled this year (which I would do if I had a winless team), with no quality wins. Unclear if they are truly better. Another example is UCSB. 4-7 last year, 8-2 this year. Must be better, even though their only good win is against Colorado State, now unranked, right? Well they had a tougher schedule last year, playing UCLA, LMU, San Diego–all losses. They do play San Diego this week, but otherwise, the schedule is not awe-inspiring. Cal Poly is probably better, even though they are 4-4 this year after going 8-3 last year. They have played a much tougher schedule in 2016: losses to BYU, Stanford, Purdue. LBSU may be worse (Portland State loss?) given its schedule IMO is no better than last year’s. CSUN was 1-11 last year, 3-6 this year with a schedule that is less difficult than last year’s, which included Washingtonx2 and Arizona.

What I can conclude is that the Big West doesn’t have the really bad, winless or near-winless team of the past couple of years, and that there are a lot of teams in the second-tier, after UH, Poly and LBSU. But I haven’t seen anything yet to suggest the conference is significantly better.

A couple of other points: UH has no bad losses…each team it has lost to is ranked as of this week. UH’s best win is not against Arizona, but against 27th ranked Missouri State. But UH’s win over ‘Zona was its most exciting.

To answer your question regarding a non-automatic bid for UH, it is interesting to review the 3-bid 2013 season. UH, CSN and UCSB all made the tourney while finished tied atop the BW. UCSB had the auto-bid. Their RPIs were 17, 41, and 60. The BW had the 8th best conference RPI. Last year, the conference had the 13th ranked conference RPI. I anticipate a conference RPI rank that is closer to 2013’s than last year’s. This year, a lot will depend on the quality of the losses, if they occur, sas well as where UH’s RPI falls by year’s end. UH played a tough schedule, 10th best so far, and its RPI rests at 25. Unfortunately, there are no quality wins outside of Missouri State, which is a problem. IMO, it would take at least 4 losses, including a couple of bad losses, to keep UH out of the tournament. But I don’t think this will happen. UH will get Annie back and this should help stabilize the starting rotation, allowing Castillo to move left. Hopefully, this will improve the left-side production.

No UH players won BW awards this week: http://www.bigwest.org/aotw.asp

If Nikki is out for a period of time (elbow and knee) the team is vulnerable in conference and against Pepperdine. (Based on hitting high hands every play…hitting consistency is difficult at best.)

The 4 losses tell us that the hitting errors continue, the passing is inconsistent, and there are systemic issues covering the tip (going on 4 weeks now). These issues may persist into conference play.

IMHO, the one small change was the catalyst that turned a top 10 team into an average one: switching to slower higher outside sets.

13. Why not relay your views to the coaching staff directly? An email doesn’t hurt. Clearly you are passionate about the fast offense.

@Mav

I did, but am being over-ruled (apparently by someone not named Shoji).

blunite, You make sense to me. This would make their middle blocker think about having to move rt. sooner and would help free up the middle. Plus Iosia is as good as anyone we have seen this year with the quick set. I think the problem is that they feel that Granato is stronger with the high set. I think Sibley is tall enough and athletic enough to be very successful with the quick set.

Nikki had the final say to stay in. She told me after the match, there was no way that she was coming out.

I sort of remember when Hawaii first encountered a really fast offense in the NCAA regionals against Tennessee State 2007. This virtually unknown team took it to the Wahine with an ultra-fast offense. The Wahine blockers were left flat-footed most of the match. I remember my reaction, losing to Tennessee State! Never heard of them. I’m sure that there were other teams with fast offenses that year and years before. However, most of the top teams used a high-ball offense so the impact of Tennessee’s offense was great to this Hawaii follower.

14. haka, thank you for mentioning that. I was wondering about that in the previous thread. Nikki obviously upset (and understandably not fully focused). During the challenge late in the fifth set, she was visibly crying and Tiff Wells mentioned something about her knee and I could also see her touching her elbow. The rally that followed was a broken play and I think it was Kahakai who set Taylor and she hit it out even if the blockers were late. I thought she must be really hurting to hit that out instead of just keeping it in. Thanks for mentioning that trainer checked on her and gave her the OK.

Does the setter have free reign on who she wants to set or is she told who to set and what type of set (fast or high) she is to do the majority of the time?

Another question who goes out on the road to recruit? Would think that with the program’s history, they would have found another dominant type of hitter.

It appears that every year Hawaii is missing that one additional terminator.

The passing wasn’t nearly good enough to set Maglio more, Granato’s passing has been really bad hope Shoji is considering putting in Smith for her in the backrow.

so any update on nikkis elbow and knee? sorry i forgot to mention yeah i noticed nikki stumbling at the match when she was serving.

that said, they overused her if unnecessarily, but it was them playing down to u-dubs level (wahine actually matches better but decided to go toe to toe with them instead of playing at said ‘higher level’) and shoji using weak passers instead of a ds, and a wounded wahine greeley in the heat (which she really needs to heal, not be targeted especially at end, you can actually see her pain besides nikki.)

shoji should just have his passers shovel it up vertically in the air, nevermind actually passing it where the setter is/would be.

Too many injuries to key players. Too many balls in the air to predict any type of post season play. Moreover, the Big West went up another notch in competition this season and the conference title is wide open. It take a super effort for Hawaii to repeat as Conference Champs. I believe many die hard wahine fans have quickly learned this preseason that players who return from injury do not come back with all pistons firing. It takes time, even if 100% recovered, to regain their mojo, blend in the system and for the team on the court to adapt. As we have seen this transformation is no easy task. So many varibles to consider including of course the manner in which Coach Shoji orchestrates the whole deal. Indeed he has been up for the challenge at times with daring audacity in subbing that has led to unforseen productivity by unheralded players in the back row as well as on our flanks.
To be sure, this season has revealed a Dave Shoji that is equal to the task like a Navy engineer fully engaged in a beach landing. Coach is working hard this year and if he pulls it off in conference play he will merit the team MVP…. and another year…