Highlights from the Dig City Podcast 9/21/2023

[DocRon]

For those of you who do not want to take the time to listen to the full 30 min podcast or need a quick review, here are key highlights from Coach Shondell with interviewer Cory Palm:

You have finished your non-conference season. Did you get what you wanted?

• We were challenged every night and that is what we wanted.
  • We lost 2 games that first weekend and then they pulled themselves up.
  • We were 5-1 in the last 3 weekends with the one loss against USC. Every set we lost to them was by 2 points.
  • I feel good about the team because we are making great progress.
• But looking ahead eat the B1G, there are a lot of great teams and athletes ahead of us.
  • My only regret is that I wish we could have gotten more people playing time. That is the biggest issue when you schedule tough teams to enhance your RPI - which we must.
  • That’s a conversation we have with our team all the time and I think they get it but it doesn’t mean they are happy about it.
• Let’s start with the UCF match.
  • They are a really good team. They beat Illinois in a reverse sweep the night after we beat them.
  • They played us tough even though we swept them. They were in every set we played.
  • We felt we had to shut down “a certain part of their game” and we were able to do that.
• We played really, really well against them
  • Stats bore out how well we played with 0.349 attack %, 9 attack errors over 3 sets and 7 service errors against 4 aces,
  • We had 109 total attempts. If you’re under 10% attack errors of your total attempts (we were 8.26%) it is a clean game and you are playing solid VB.
  • Also double digit blocks in 3 sets.
• Coming into the weekend UCF was 8-1 and receiving a lot of attention to be in the Top 25 (they were 27th)
  • It will be interesting to see what happens when these new teams go into the Big 12 (UCF, Cincinnati, BYU and Houston.) It will be interesting to see how they fare against the heavyweights like Baylor, Texas and Kansas.)
• The start of the match was delayed a long time not just by Illinois vs USC going 5 but a long time after it ended by TV. (Dave is not very happy about that.)

Then you come out against USC and you are playing well and then the challenge card comes out.

• In the first set a set point was taken away and USC ends up taking the match 30-28.
  • We started really slow. USC came out of the gate and stepped us around.
  • Then we came back and thought we had the win but they challenged for a net violation early in the rally and I think it was there. I have no problem with them challenging it.
• You have to give their coaches and players credit for being really good at the challenge/review game.
• In set 2 you dominated winning 25-15 hitting 0.556 with only 1 error and 16 kills. Probably the best set of the year for us.
• Then in set 3 they win 25-23 turning on two late challenges.
  • At Holloway we do not see on our video boards what the officials are looking at like at some arenas. That is frustrating.
  • Like at Nebraska two days later Coach Cook was not going to challenge a close point but because at Nebraska the replays are hooked into the video boards he sees that he should challenge. He does and reverses the point. We don’t have that at Holloway.
  • The second challenge was a ball that went sideways on the tape and USC challenged that the player touched the ball/net but everyone who communicated with me told me that there was no touch.
  • Cory says “I certainly thought it was the definition of inconclusive” and Coach says “Yeah.”
  • We move on and lose that set in extra points,
• To the 4th set which was a really good set.
  • We went back and forth and it was 22-22. Their freshman made a hitting error way out of bounds but they challenged that earlier in the rally Myers made a net touch as she landed, started to turn and “ticked” the net with her finger.
  • There is a rule that when you finish your blocking move and begin to make the next play you are allowed to make contact with the net. I don’t know how you define when one play ends and the next one begins so I didn’t have a big beef about that.
  • My dad always said those calls will even out. But not in one match as we were 0-6.
  • One that wasn’t called was a ball that was blocked and the officials ruled it out but we challenged that it got a piece of the line. But the call was confirmed even though every person I talked to who looked at he replay thought it should have been reversed.
• But USC played a terrific match - better than I had seen them play all year.
  • We knew Skylar Fields was going to be a workhorse and she did her 75 swings in a 5 set match. They had a middle who just went crazy against us and a girl starting her first match of the season just went nuts against us so that is on us.
  • Why didn’t we do better against them? Partly because their athletes played really well and partly because we need to make better plays not just at the net but in the backcourt.

What is your overall take on the challenge system? It was instituted to try to get calls correct but it seems that maybe it has become bastardized in that if a coach is about to lose he can call a challenge as a Hail Mary. It can turn a match.

• From the coaching standpoint I think the new rules are good.
  • In the past you had so many challenges (2 or 3) and if you used them you were out - even if all your challenges were valid.
  • Now you get two and if you are right you keep them until the 5th set when you get one more (unless you still have two.
  • In my opinion the problem isn’t with that part of the system but in the length of time it takes to make a decision.
  • If you have to look at a whole rally that might take some time but not when you are looking at one specific play.
  • The other thing is that once you make a call that should be it. The officials don’t owe the coaches an explanation about the decision (even though I will often want one.) The official is not going to change their mind.
  • We need to speed the process up.
  • That is my opinion. (Laughs) I think most Purdue fans would disagree with me this week.
• So you don’t have to challenge something specific, correct?
  • No, you have to tell them specifically what you are looking for but they can review the whole play and find something else if they wish. But they do not always go back and look at the whole thing.

You start B1G play this weekend. You’re playing Maryland (10-2) and Rutgers (8-2) first. They both have fantastic records.

• Maryland has the best record they have had in a long time. They have won 6 in a row.
  • Their opponents have not been “chopped liver” but they do not compare to ours. But they have some good wins - their best wins are probably Costal Carolina, Florida Gulf Coast and Princeton.
• They are pretty much the same team we played last year and last year they swept us at Holloway.
  • They had a big middle, Anastasia Russ (RSr., 6’5”), who went crazy and she is still there. She is hitting 0.516 right now.
  • They have another middle, Eva Rohrbach (Jr., 6’2”) hitting 0.449.
  • So I guess you know where our D is going to start.
  • All their pin setters are back
  • Their setter, Sydney Dowler (Sr., 6’0”) is one of my favorite players in the Big Ten. She really runs the show.
• That place will be packed coming off that many wins and playing a ranked team.
  • Their gym holds maybe 1500 so it is small.
• We’ve always had tough matches with Maryland.
• And Maryland will beat a lot of good teams this year.

You’ve been at home the last couple of weeks so being on the road again there are fewer distractions.

• Yeah, but more importantly we have players that I trust are going to play well.
• We have an experienced staff so travel and all the logistics will go smoothly..

The Maryland game is at 7PM on Friday evening, you have a day to travel and then play Rutgers on Sunday at 1PM. Both games are on B1G+.

• I love not having to play back-to-back. It’s best for the athletes.
• At Rutgers we are playing in their basketball arena, Jersey Mike’s, where we have never played before.
  • Every time that we’ve played there until now it has been later in the year and basketball has taken over that arena.
  • So Rutgers comes in 8-3 including a 5 set loss to NC State. (On Wednesday they lost to Penn State 0-3)

The B1G in general?

• A lot of people are telling me that in the B1G the bottom half is not as good but Rutgers is clearly better than they have been.
• Indiana right now has put themselves in the top half in terms of what they have done in their non-conference schedule and the play of their veteran team.

When you look at the national polls it does look like the B1G is more top-heavy than normal.

• Wisconsin is nearly a unanimous #1 (62/64 votes) and Nebraska #2.
• Then you go all the way down to Minnesota at #12, Penn State at #15, Purdue at #19 and Ohio State at #21.
  • The Buckeyes are 3-6 but they have played a monster schedule.
• That is still 6 teams but that’s it for the B1G.
• People look at Kentucky and Ohio State and ask “Why are they in the Top 25 with losing records?” Well, because they are one of the Top 25 teams in the country. They have just played a monster schedule.
  • Like in Ohio State’s case, they played terrific teams (Texas twice, Oregon and Stanford to name a few.
  • They will prove their talent.
  • Kentucky played a great match against the #2 team in the country (Nebraska). In the 4th set they led by a large margin and suddenly Nebraska turned it on and won.
  • Kentucky has really good players and talent. They are picked to win the SEC and have won it for the last 4 years.

Anything else about women’s volleyball across the nation?

• Well one of the teams that has really played well is Florida.
  • They lost their first match to Wisconsin. That was one of those reverse sweeps where Wisconsin lost the first two and then swept the last three.
  • Just like Stanford did against Louisville to give them their first loss.
  • Florida is usually good but I don’t think anyone expected them to be this good this year and they are surprising people.
  • They lost one of their best OH (Beason) to Nebraska, and now she is one of the Cornhuskers best players.
  • Now last week they lost their All-American level setter to a severe knee injury and she may be gone for the season.
  • Their back-up setter is a kid who played 4 years at Flagler which is a D-2 school.
  • It will be interesting to see how Mary Wise, their great coach and a Purdue grad (who per Dave ought to be in Purdue’s Hall of Fame - she is the winningest female coach in the history of our sport) will handle this.
• The SEC is good. Kentucky could end up finishing 4th or 5th in the conference even though we had a tough time beating them and they are ranked #22 in the country.
• Tennessee (#14), is a team we knocked out of the NCAA last year but I knew then how good they were. They are really, really good as as is Arkansas (#18) and Texas A&M, with a new coach, is making a lot of noise also.
• I loved playing on Thursday and Friday on our non-conference schedule because I could watch other teams on Saturday and Sunday (as well as our football team - which I cannot do this weekend.)

____________________

 

[DocRon]

From Dave Shondell;s press conference on Monday I learned that Maddie Schermerhorn is not on scholarship. She gets by on NIL money. Who knew?

She also had to be talked into coming back for her 5th year because she was concerned she would be taking a spot away from someone ellse.
__________________________

 

[Boilermb]

For those of you who do not want to take the time to listen to the full 30 min podcast or need a quick review, here are key highlights from Coach Shondell with interviewer Cory Palm:

You have finished your non-conference season. Did you get what you wanted?

• We were challenged every night and that is what we wanted.
  • We lost 2 games that first weekend and then they pulled themselves up.
  • We were 5-1 in the last 3 weekends with the one loss against USC. Every set we lost to them was by 2 points.
  • I feel good about the team because we are making great progress.
• But looking ahead eat the B1G, there are a lot of great teams and athletes ahead of us.
  • My only regret is that I wish we could have gotten more people playing time. That is the biggest issue when you schedule tough teams to enhance your RPI - which we must.
  • That’s a conversation we have with our team all the time and I think they get it but it doesn’t mean they are happy about it.
• Let’s start with the UCF match.
  • They are a really good team. They beat Illinois in a reverse sweep the night after we beat them.
  • They played us tough even though we swept them. They were in every set we played.
  • We felt we had to shut down “a certain part of their game” and we were able to do that.
• We played really, really well against them
  • Stats bore out how well we played with 0.349 attack %, 9 attack errors over 3 sets and 7 service errors against 4 aces,
  • We had 109 total attempts. If you’re under 10% attack errors of your total attempts (we were 8.26%) it is a clean game and you are playing solid VB.
  • Also double digit blocks in 3 sets.
• Coming into the weekend UCF was 8-1 and receiving a lot of attention to be in the Top 25 (they were 27th)
  • It will be interesting to see what happens when these new teams go into the Big 12 (UCF, Cincinnati, BYU and Houston.) It will be interesting to see how they fare against the heavyweights like Baylor, Texas and Kansas.)
• The start of the match was delayed a long time not just by Illinois vs USC going 5 but a long time after it ended by TV. (Dave is not very happy about that.)

Then you come out against USC and you are playing well and then the challenge card comes out.

• In the first set a set point was taken away and USC ends up taking the match 30-28.
  • We started really slow. USC came out of the gate and stepped us around.
  • Then we came back and thought we had the win but they challenged for a net violation early in the rally and I think it was there. I have no problem with them challenging it.
• You have to give their coaches and players credit for being really good at the challenge/review game.
• In set 2 you dominated winning 25-15 hitting 0.556 with only 1 error and 16 kills. Probably the best set of the year for us.
• Then in set 3 they win 25-23 turning on two late challenges.
  • At Holloway we do not see on our video boards what the officials are looking at like at some arenas. That is frustrating.
  • Like at Nebraska two days later Coach Cook was not going to challenge a close point but because at Nebraska the replays are hooked into the video boards he sees that he should challenge. He does and reverses the point. We don’t have that at Holloway.
  • The second challenge was a ball that went sideways on the tape and USC challenged that the player touched the ball/net but everyone who communicated with me told me that there was no touch.
  • Cory says “I certainly thought it was the definition of inconclusive” and Coach says “Yeah.”
  • We move on and lose that set in extra points,
• To the 4th set which was a really good set.
  • We went back and forth and it was 22-22. Their freshman made a hitting error way out of bounds but they challenged that earlier in the rally Myers made a net touch as she landed, started to turn and “ticked” the net with her finger.
  • There is a rule that when you finish your blocking move and begin to make the next play you are allowed to make contact with the net. I don’t know how you define when one play ends and the next one begins so I didn’t have a big beef about that.
  • My dad always said those calls will even out. But not in one match as we were 0-6.
  • One that wasn’t called was a ball that was blocked and the officials ruled it out but we challenged that it got a piece of the line. But the call was confirmed even though every person I talked to who looked at he replay thought it should have been reversed.
• But USC played a terrific match - better than I had seen them play all year.
  • We knew Skylar Fields was going to be a workhorse and she did her 75 swings in a 5 set match. They had a middle who just went crazy against us and a girl starting her first match of the season just went nuts against us so that is on us.
  • Why didn’t we do better against them? Partly because their athletes played really well and partly because we need to make better plays not just at the net but in the backcourt.

What is your overall take on the challenge system? It was instituted to try to get calls correct but it seems that maybe it has become bastardized in that if a coach is about to lose he can call a challenge as a Hail Mary. It can turn a match.

• From the coaching standpoint I think the new rules are good.
  • In the past you had so many challenges (2 or 3) and if you used them you were out - even if all your challenges were valid.
  • Now you get two and if you are right you keep them until the 5th set when you get one more (unless you still have two.
  • In my opinion the problem isn’t with that part of the system but in the length of time it takes to make a decision.
  • If you have to look at a whole rally that might take some time but not when you are looking at one specific play.
  • The other thing is that once you make a call that should be it. The officials don’t owe the coaches an explanation about the decision (even though I will often want one.) The official is not going to change their mind.
  • We need to speed the process up.
  • That is my opinion. (Laughs) I think most Purdue fans would disagree with me this week.
• So you don’t have to challenge something specific, correct?
  • No, you have to tell them specifically what you are looking for but they can review the whole play and find something else if they wish. But they do not always go back and look at the whole thing.

You start B1G play this weekend. You’re playing Maryland (10-2) and Rutgers (8-2) first. They both have fantastic records.

• Maryland has the best record they have had in a long time. They have won 6 in a row.
  • Their opponents have not been “chopped liver” but they do not compare to ours. But they have some good wins - their best wins are probably Costal Carolina, Florida Gulf Coast and Princeton.
• They are pretty much the same team we played last year and last year they swept us at Holloway.
  • They had a big middle, Anastasia Russ (RSr., 6’5”), who went crazy and she is still there. She is hitting 0.516 right now.
  • They have another middle, Eva Rohrbach (Jr., 6’2”) hitting 0.449.
  • So I guess you know where our D is going to start.
  • All their pin setters are back
  • Their setter, Sydney Dowler (Sr., 6’0”) is one of my favorite players in the Big Ten. She really runs the show.
• That place will be packed coming off that many wins and playing a ranked team.
  • Their gym holds maybe 1500 so it is small.
• We’ve always had tough matches with Maryland.
• And Maryland will beat a lot of good teams this year.

You’ve been at home the last couple of weeks so being on the road again there are fewer distractions.

• Yeah, but more importantly we have players that I trust are going to play well.
• We have an experienced staff so travel and all the logistics will go smoothly..

The Maryland game is at 7PM on Friday evening, you have a day to travel and then play Rutgers on Sunday at 1PM. Both games are on B1G+.

• I love not having to play back-to-back. It’s best for the athletes.
• At Rutgers we are playing in their basketball arena, Jersey Mike’s, where we have never played before.
  • Every time that we’ve played there until now it has been later in the year and basketball has taken over that arena.
  • So Rutgers comes in 8-3 including a 5 set loss to NC State. (On Wednesday they lost to Penn State 0-3)

The B1G in general?

• A lot of people are telling me that in the B1G the bottom half is not as good but Rutgers is clearly better than they have been.
• Indiana right now has put themselves in the top half in terms of what they have done in their non-conference schedule and the play of their veteran team.

When you look at the national polls it does look like the B1G is more top-heavy than normal.

• Wisconsin is nearly a unanimous #1 (62/64 votes) and Nebraska #2.
• Then you go all the way down to Minnesota at #12, Penn State at #15, Purdue at #19 and Ohio State at #21.
  • The Buckeyes are 3-6 but they have played a monster schedule.
• That is still 6 teams but that’s it for the B1G.
• People look at Kentucky and Ohio State and ask “Why are they in the Top 25 with losing records?” Well, because they are one of the Top 25 teams in the country. They have just played a monster schedule.
  • Like in Ohio State’s case, they played terrific teams (Texas twice, Oregon and Stanford to name a few.
  • They will prove their talent.
  • Kentucky played a great match against the #2 team in the country (Nebraska). In the 4th set they led by a large margin and suddenly Nebraska turned it on and won.
  • Kentucky has really good players and talent. They are picked to win the SEC and have won it for the last 4 years.

Anything else about women’s volleyball across the nation?

• Well one of the teams that has really played well is Florida.
  • They lost their first match to Wisconsin. That was one of those reverse sweeps where Wisconsin lost the first two and then swept the last three.
  • Just like Stanford did against Louisville to give them their first loss.
  • Florida is usually good but I don’t think anyone expected them to be this good this year and they are surprising people.
  • They lost one of their best OH (Beason) to Nebraska, and now she is one of the Cornhuskers best players.
  • Now last week they lost their All-American level setter to a severe knee injury and she may be gone for the season.
  • Their back-up setter is a kid who played 4 years at Flagler which is a D-2 school.
  • It will be interesting to see how Mary Wise, their great coach and a Purdue grad (who per Dave ought to be in Purdue’s Hall of Fame - she is the winningest female coach in the history of our sport) will handle this.
• The SEC is good. Kentucky could end up finishing 4th or 5th in the conference even though we had a tough time beating them and they are ranked #22 in the country.
• Tennessee (#14), is a team we knocked out of the NCAA last year but I knew then how good they were. They are really, really good as as is Arkansas (#18) and Texas A&M, with a new coach, is making a lot of noise also.
• I loved playing on Thursday and Friday on our non-conference schedule because I could watch other teams on Saturday and Sunday (as well as our football team - which I cannot do this weekend.)

____________________

Thanks as always for posting this.
CDS mentioned that replays don’t appear on the video boards in Holloway. That’s also frustrating to the fans because we only see a play live and then can’t see it again unless we are able to catch it on our phones. Really wish they would do what is necessary to show replays in the video boards.

 

[purduedavie]

From Dave Shondell;s press conference on Monday I learned that Maddie Schermerhorn is not on scholarship. She gets by on NIL money. Who knew?

She also had to be talked into coming back for her 5th year because she was concerned she would be taking a spot away from someone ellse.
__________________________

Interesting, I’m sure Schermerhorn could have gotten a scholership somewhere, credit to her for wanting to be here!