Whats next at OH ?
- Thread starter PittMBA
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What’s BS?
Pitt couldn’t come up with the NIL funds… we are truly doomed, how will we compete in the future? TCU is clearly all in while we’re pretenders.
well, since this loss was due to her not passing the higher standard medical eval Pitt administers then it should have nothing to do with 50K
which is it, the monetarily hindered or another self inflicted wounds Pitt chooses to flagellate itself? both are possible, one is BS in this case, so I'm thinking you're casting out your guess BS
You probably should apologize because #jakehyper09 is an asset to the Pitt message boards. He is a young and super passionate Pitt sports fan and without a doubt the best and most knowledgeable poster about all things related to Pitt baseball. Yes, he might have jumped the gun (which he did acknowledge), but he was way ahead of all of you VB gurus with this player transfer (even listing Wisconsin as a possible landing spot). I would take his advice any day over the advice of you gurus who spend your days reading volleytalk or whatever the name of that ridiculos website is. H2P!
He also said Stafford was staying, and, well that was wrong. I do appreciate his info, but I guess he shouldn't get our hopes up if he really doesn't know. I'm happy to know that Pitt pursued Colyer. Why did she pick Wusconsin over Pitt? How much $$$ is Wisconsin paying her? Is Pitt trying to get large local corporate donors like upmc or Highmark because trying to only rely on small fry donors like myself isn't going to cut it in this free for all time in college sports. I do want him to keep posting info, but maybe instead of saying that Pitt us likely to get a player, he should just say that Pitt offered/is pursuing said player, and who are we competing against? H2P
I am not a guru and never said I was. Jake is way too unequivocal with his posts when he comes across with statements as incontrovertibly true. He needs to be more measured in what he says. Having said that....I hope he continues to post on the VB board. We need all the dedicated and passionate fans we can muster.
@Jakehyper has shot himself in the foot with insider(?) information lately but maybe he dials back and he and others that "know" things shoot for better accuracy
I mean i wont say i have a 100% accuracy rate lol, as clearly seen with Stafford and Mimi. Pitt did have contact with Mimi in Highschool first, as well as when she went to the portal ( and before that too lol ). She picked Wisconsin because of $, very simple, a good bit of it too. I dont have a number for you, but she is getting paid more than any current Pitt VB player excluding Olivia ( shes near the highest in the NCAA ). As for Corporate Donors, I genuinely dont know wether they are or not. I assume Greene has at least spoken about it, but thats nothing more than speculation. He is working hard in the fundraising realm though, and hopefully will begin to show.
Im definitely not doing myself favors lately 🤣 damit im shooting like Pitt against duke this year in the last like week
It's been a rough time recently for Pitt fans with football losing 6 straight to finish the season, vball losing in the semifinals, hoops seemingly in a downward spiral, losing Stafford, etc. So we're hanging on good news, and are extra disappointed in things not going our way (again), after getting our hopes up. Keep posting H2P
Pitt VB fans need to settle down. The amount of hand wringing is uncalled for. Getting jacked up because a woman leaves Pitt at the last minute to go to the fifth best program in the Big12 ain't worth it. It's not going to be easy to just go find someone when you have the top player in the country, either. Part of why Torrey left was because Olivia was getting way more attention and opportunities and is going to overshadow anyone else who comes and plays for the program. That's just how it is.
Worst case, Fisher brings in some depth and moves some people around. He has plenty of defensive players on the roster. I know everyone thinks none of them are any good but "elite" libero's don't grow on trees. It's not really that much of a thing anyway and as I've said a few times, Pitt's aggressive style of play doesn't leave a lot of room to make a libero look great. Their ability to pass and set is more important.
Worst case, Fisher brings in some depth and moves some people around. He has plenty of defensive players on the roster. I know everyone thinks none of them are any good but "elite" libero's don't grow on trees. It's not really that much of a thing anyway and as I've said a few times, Pitt's aggressive style of play doesn't leave a lot of room to make a libero look great. Their ability to pass and set is more important.
I don’t understand the need to trash a dude who has clearly shown to have inside info. So what if he’s not hit .1000. It’s your job to be a discerning poster, not act like children.
Dude could have just been Basing, but I thought his posts on F&F about key football portal recruits suggested he’s plugged in.
General rule of thumb is that there isn't anyone on a message board that has inside info because people that do aren't going to risk getting exposed that way. Have watched many posters get run off of message boards for something similar. The stuff about Mimi started five minutes after the Ulmer bolted. Same for every decent player when a coach leaves. It's fine. I just don't buy a lot of this stuff because I sit and watch it every year.
Didn’t get any insight on who Petrone was tweeting about last night, either.
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I mean it’s nice there’s this much interest in the program that there’s a 3 page thread on who will be at OH next season .
As recently as 2 years ago that would have been unthinkable.
Whether one has ‘inside’ information or just follows the sport closely enough to have some reasonably informed opinions on potential transfers , recruits, and the current roster- I hope they keep posting. Kind of the point of a message board.
I mean, I’ve been posting on these boards for 15 years. I know that’s not as much as some, but I’m by no means a spring chicken. I know how these things work.
I wonder how much of Torrey leaving was not wanting to play second fiddle to Olivia. In HS, she was the higher ranked player, at least by people ranking California players. And, a lot of people projected Olivia as a MB.
In HS, Torrey was second fiddle behind Elia Rubin until her senior year. Stanford went all-in on recruiting Rubin and then never offered Stafford.
I assume she went to Pitt thinking she would be number one. She actually had a higher hitting percentage than Olivia did, but on far less chances.
This is all speculation. Since I don’t live in Santa Monica anymore, I don’t have access to Rubin’s family members for any inside scoop. But, they weren’t really close off the court anyway.
but isn't the ability to pass one of the most important keys to defense as that involves receiving the return over setting up a possible good set
every part matters but that part of defense is what Pitt probably did least well with different girls on the court
Pitt's defensive stats weren't terrible. Not sure why this narrative persists. Teams hit 0.135 against Pitt. Top three or four in the nation? That's really good. Everyone says that Nebraska was a good defensive team and opposing teams hit 0.143 against them.
You aren't going to get a ton of digs or big defensive stats when you put so much pressure on the other teams that they're not attacking effectively and that's the goal with Fisher's style. So you have Lexi Rodriguez or you attack well. Results are pretty similar. Serve receive struggled against better teams and especially later in the season but most of that was VVG and Stafford. OH's are always the weak link but teams really went after Pitt's pin hitters. They averaged 1.83 receive errors per set the last three games. That's terrible. That and only recording 4 blocks against Louisville.
OH's are always the weak link but teams really went after Pitt's pin hitters. They averaged 1.83 receive errors per set the last three games. That's terrible. That and only recording 4 blocks against Louisville.
That was good coaching strategy by the opposition and it threw Pitt off because all season long Pitt bludgeoned the opposition with their offense. Fisher had no answer. What's your opinion....was he outcoached......or do you think there were other factors? I'm curious to know if you think he should have done anything different once we saw Pitt's vulnerabilities during the tournament.
That was good coaching strategy by the opposition and it threw Pitt off because all season long Pitt bludgeoned the opposition with their offense. Fisher had no answer. What's your opinion....was he outcoached......or do you think there were other factors? I'm curious to know if you think he should have done anything different once we saw Pitt's vulnerabilities during the tournament.
He could’ve had another useful little on the roster but really that’s it. I think Dillyn Griffin hasn’t developed into the defender that they were probably hoping since they won’t use her as a back row sub. Not much else to do if your passers can’t pass
list the Pitt stats for the tournament
not the narrative by me but the weak link in the otherwise amazingly strong chain Pitt VB was in 2024
if there is that narrative, show me where it exists and was posted or mentioned and when, all will most likely be after Dec 6th
That makes sense to me....now we wait to see if Fisher addresses this. Wasn't it you who said....3 littles who can sub in and play back row defense is a must? Pitt has never been close to that measure of a team skill set IMO. Correct me if I'm wrong.
That’s my perspective. Have to have at least two, one for libero and one to sub in defensively, and since they used Meyer as a serving sub, they didn’t even have a second little for that defensive purpose last year. You can’t use her/dupes as a libero and a serving sub this year if they don’t add another capable little
In 2023, Fisher sometimes had Klika and Logan Mosley on the floor together. It was rare, but a card he could play when the defense really needed it. Would be nice to have that option again, because I don’t recall ever seeing a similar grouping at any point last year.
Gregoire posted on her instagram story a picture of her on campus, and has Pitt VB in her bio. Welcome to Pitt Sophia!!!
I must have checked Gregoire's profile as she was in the process of changing it. Nice.
I did mention what happened in the last three games because it is relevant. Also explained it. There is this persistent notion that "if Pitt just had more defensive players, everything would be fine." That wasn't the problem.
So you're pulling a hitter to put a little in? That's fine except when you're running a 5-1 and you only have two front row hitters and one of them has to be in serve receive and the other is your best offensive player. You could have had your setter run serve receive, I guess, but then you're running your offense out of system because teams will serve it to her. That's automatic. Pitt had one rotation that was a problem the last two weeks and Fisher did what he could. If you want to blame anything, blame the fact that they didn't have more depth at OH.
Run the rotations differently? Pull Babcock out for three rotations (she wasn't the problem)? Pull your other all-American attacker for three rotations although she's still receiving from the 5 zone in the front row. He yanked VVG against Louisville and put Bayless in and she had two errors. Everyone was bad against Oregon but they're also a really good serving team. Was VVG's worst game at Pitt, too. Frankly, that wasn't a good game for anyone except for Bre. Won that game with defense though. 16 blocks and 71 digs.
There aren't always easy answers when things go sideways. VVG lost a lot of confidence and wasn't playing well. Only 16 kills over the last three games because she was getting yanked so much. Fisher didn't have an answer because there wasn't one.
ok, so no stats on tournament, I assume at least significantly worse
persistent notion that blah, blah, blah, ......, - it seems defense was part of the problem in the tournament, "more" defensive players being the problem? I don't know, but better serve receive by who we have would've been a big help and maybe led to a different result v Louisville
If they had a Logan Mosley equivalent on the team, they could’ve run her in for either Torrey or VVG in the back row to improve their serve receive. It wasn’t one rotation that was a problem, they had receive errors from both of their OHs late in the season. Taking either of them out for back row play would have helped receiving mightily because it’s a heck of a lot easier for the opponents to serve aggressively at two people than one
I'm struggling to craft a response that makes sense without getting deep into rotations. The problem is that your OH's are coming back in serve receive even when they're front row. If VVG is having a bad game, like Oregon, you can't just hider her unless you have a middle or think you can trust Olivia to do it (because you can't have your setter taking first ball). If you have three littles, you can pull both OH's when they're in the back row, if you want, but it's going to really limit you. And you still can't really hide the front row OH.
The problem is that normally reliable OH's struggled with serve receive the last three games. Oregon is the only real outlier. Very good serving team though. Ill-timed hitting errors and almost no blocking was just as responsible for losing to Louisville as anything else.
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I gave stats. What do you want to do, sub a little into the front row when your team is already struggling to block and giving up long runs because of hitting errors? VVG and Stafford were as good as the vast majority of OH's all season long. VVG had an absolutely awful game against Oregon. Nobody is going to argue that. I'll be totally honest, VVG hurt Pitt with her inability to hit effectively down the stretch as much as anything.
I agree with your point about rotations and that you can't hide the front row OH, but in the cases when your OHs are struggling that badly, anything you can do to improve your serve receive you need to do that. And it won't come at the expense of your hitting because you always have Babcock no matter what rotation you're in, so there will always be 3 hitters on the court. Pitt has the unique both advantage and disadvantage of using a RS for 6 rotations - advantage because it guarantees you minimum 3 hitters at all times, disadvantage because you aren't getting any receiving ability out of that position no matter where they are on the court. That puts a ton of pressure on your outsides to receive. Having littles sub in for them in the back row will help relieve some of that pressure when they are struggling, even when you still have one OH in serve receive from the front row. And its not uncommon to use 3 littles. PSU and Nebraska both did this year, using only one pin (Mruzik/Murray) as a 6 rotation player. In college, when you have as many subs as they do and you can get top talent like PSU/Neb/Pitt, you should use that to your advantage
Most of the struggles happened when VVG was receiving in zone 5 so she was front row. Again, this wasn't a season long problem. VVG's receive percentage was similar to Mruzik's. Penn State, as a team, had the same receive percentage as Pitt. I get exactly what you're saying but it wasn't like Fisher didn't try to sub people. He did. It's nice when you have a couple littles to run out there like Nebraska but Fisher likes to pressure teams and run an aggressive offense that includes back row attacking. You can argue that it might not be the best strategy but it worked great until it didn't.
If nothing else, this discussion makes a good argument for why Harper Murray should be appreciated more. She's like a sore thumb in the back row at Nebraska and her passing/serve receive is elite. All of the crap she takes from Nebraska fans isn't justified.
