Louisville The Nemesis & A Question To Ponder

[vantheman1976]

Does Louisville have better athletes than Pitt? Is Busboom Kelly a better game day coach than Fisher? Here are some facts. We have now lost 6 of the last 8 matches we have played against them. We have not beaten them on their home court since 2019. The 15 to 2 drubbing in set 5 at last year's NCAA semi final may have been the most lopsided loss in NCAA final 4 history. You might think....well we are starting 2 freshman and Olivia Babcock played her worst match of the year. Actually...if you go back in time and look at the stat sheet for these 8 games you'll find we have been throttled time and time again...even with All Americans like Gray, Buzzario, Fairbanks and Lund. Louisville is no longer just an arch rival. They have truly become Pitt's nemesis. That leaves me with 2 possibilities. The talent level is different. Louisville overall has had and continues to have better athletes than Pitt. The second possibility is coaching. Busboom Kelly is outcoaching Fisher. I'm not a volleyball maven that is able to dissect and understand all the fine points of the game in order to figure this out. I'm just trying to get my head around what the hell is going on with this domination of Louisville over Pitt. Your thoughts please. Thank you.

 

[PittMBA]

Does Louisville have better athletes than Pitt? Is Busboom Kelly a better game day coach than Fisher? Here are some facts. We have now lost 6 of the last 8 matches we have played against them. We have not beaten them on their home court since 2019. The 15 to 2 drubbing in set 5 at last year's NCAA semi final may have been the most lopsided loss in NCAA final 4 history. You might think....well we are starting 2 freshman and Olivia Babcock played her worst match of the year. Actually...if you go back in time and look at the stat sheet for these 8 games you'll find we have been throttled time and time again...even with All Americans like Gray, Buzzario, Fairbanks and Lund. Louisville is no longer just an arch rival. They have truly become Pitt's nemesis. That leaves me with 2 possibilities. The talent level is different. Louisville overall has had and continues to have better athletes than Pitt. The second possibility is coaching. Busboom Kelly is outcoaching Fisher. I'm not a volleyball maven that is able to dissect and understand all the fine points of the game in order to figure this out. I'm just trying to get my head around what the hell is going on with this domination of Louisville over Pitt. Your thoughts please. Thank you.

I think they’ve just been better the past 2 years - i mean it’s a thin margin - wouldn’t surprise me if Pitt beats them at the Pete.

Last night the obvious difference to me was DeBeer being absolutely superior to anyone on the floor for either team and Babcock struggling for the first time- maybe her worst match as a Panther. I don’t think we won any points off of her serve.

PItt, last night , just seemed unable to make simple plays at times - there were a few near free balls we didn’t keep off the floor where we just mis hit easy balls —

Honestly - my biggest concern in terms of being a final 4 contender Vs a top 8-12 type team is our libero play again . Klika was not good last night and hasn’t been great in ACC play.

I thought she was emerging as a big improvement at libero- but not sure now.

Mosley kind of saved them Vs Ga Tech. I was hoping to see her more last night after .

On the bright side - Stafford was really good last night.

Hard to see how we get a top 4 seed now - but getting a top 8 is well within reach.

 

[pittdan77]

I didn't get to see the game but looking at the stat line, Louisville played a pretty perfect game. 21 kills in the third set and hitting .543 is just wild against such a good blocking team. Looks like DeBeer had a really good game.

Our freshmen might have been a little tight. Big, noisy crowd. That's a good program and there are a lot of good VB clubs in that area. Fisher just needs to keep recruiting well. It will come.

 

[Austin26]

“….Fisher just needs to keep recruiting well..” ——- hopefully Victory Heights helps with that.

 

[chrisran24]

Does Louisville have better athletes than Pitt? Is Busboom Kelly a better game day coach than Fisher? Here are some facts. We have now lost 6 of the last 8 matches we have played against them. We have not beaten them on their home court since 2019. The 15 to 2 drubbing in set 5 at last year's NCAA semi final may have been the most lopsided loss in NCAA final 4 history. You might think....well we are starting 2 freshman and Olivia Babcock played her worst match of the year. Actually...if you go back in time and look at the stat sheet for these 8 games you'll find we have been throttled time and time again...even with All Americans like Gray, Buzzario, Fairbanks and Lund. Louisville is no longer just an arch rival. They have truly become Pitt's nemesis. That leaves me with 2 possibilities. The talent level is different. Louisville overall has had and continues to have better athletes than Pitt. The second possibility is coaching. Busboom Kelly is outcoaching Fisher. I'm not a volleyball maven that is able to dissect and understand all the fine points of the game in order to figure this out. I'm just trying to get my head around what the hell is going on with this domination of Louisville over Pitt. Your thoughts please. Thank you.

A couple of thoughts:
Libero play and general back row passing was the first thing that stood out for me as a difference. Elena Scott is top 3 if not the best Libero in the country. Klika was not at her best.
We really miss Bre Kelley. As well as Monks plays against bad teams she’s just too slow sliding over on her blocks against teams that run fast offenses. That’s why her numbers at MSU weren’t as good as they’ve been at Pitt - Big 10 teams generally play faster than ACC.
There’s also a huge drop off for Pitt at our second OH. VVG has had a nice career for Pitt but she isn’t a top tier team OH. She is good at tooling off the block but her long windup/average height and athleticism from the outside doesn’t give her much an advantage against a good blocking team. Which leads to Pitt not going to her very often and having fewer options on the rotations where she is front row.
Finally, as good as Stafford and Babcock are and especially will be, they’re still freshmen. We can’t ask them to carry the load like that against good teams. Its too much. They need more support.

In terms of other years, I think that that OH and Libero has been a recurring advantage for LVille. Pitt is always as strong or stronger in the middle and on the right but you look at LVille’s OH play the past few years - Chausse, DeBeer, Luper. Aside from Kayla Lund, who was banged up her last year, Pitt hasn’t had OH’s at that level. And Scott has been better than any Libero Pitt has had. So that’s been their two big advantages.

I definitely don’t think it’s a coaching issue. Both are great coaches

 

[Fk_Pitt]

A couple of thoughts:
Libero play and general back row passing was the first thing that stood out for me as a difference. Elena Scott is top 3 if not the best Libero in the country. Klika was not at her best.
We really miss Bre Kelley. As well as Monks plays against bad teams she’s just too slow sliding over on her blocks against teams that run fast offenses. That’s why her numbers at MSU weren’t as good as they’ve been at Pitt - Big 10 teams generally play faster than ACC.
There’s also a huge drop off for Pitt at our second OH. VVG has had a nice career for Pitt but she isn’t a top tier team OH. She is good at tooling off the block but her long windup/average height and athleticism from the outside doesn’t give her much an advantage against a good blocking team. Which leads to Pitt not going to her very often and having fewer options on the rotations where she is front row.
Finally, as good as Stafford and Babcock are and especially will be, they’re still freshmen. We can’t ask them to carry the load like that against good teams. Its too much. They need more support.

In terms of other years, I think that that OH and Libero has been a recurring advantage for LVille. Pitt is always as strong or stronger in the middle and on the right but you look at LVille’s OH play the past few years - Chausse, DeBeer, Luper. Aside from Kayla Lund, who was banged up her last year, Pitt hasn’t had OH’s at that level. And Scott has been better than any Libero Pitt has had. So that’s been their two big advantages.

I definitely don’t think it’s a coaching issue. Both are great coaches

^^this.

I didn’t see this game but last year the difference was they had Scott and we didn’t. And not only did we not have Scott, but we didn’t have anyone at the position who was 1/10th of her.