Sunday, September 15, 2013

NCAA | Who will be/should be the #1 volleyball team this week?

The mighty have fallen … although they’ve mostly fallen to other mighties.

So who will coaches (Monday’s AVCA poll) and media (Tuesday’s Volleyball Magazine poll) vote #1?

San Diego celebrates its victory over Southern California
-photo by University of San Diego Athletics


It won’t be easy … consider this: in the past three weeks, Washington beat Illinois, who squeaked past Arizona State, who clobbered Texas, who barely beat San Diego, who defeated Hawai’i in Honolulu, who beat UCLA. You get the picture.

Ten teams are in the conversation, listed by last week’s rankings:




PLUSES
MINUSES
1
Southern Cal
8-1
Beat #21 Kentucky
Beat #22 Purdue
Lost to #9 San Diego in San Diego.
Six wins against so-so opponents.
2
Texas
5-2
Beat #3 Penn State in Austin
Beat #8 Stanford in Austin
Beat #9 San Diego in Honolulu
Lost to #10 Hawai’i in Honolulu
Swept by Arizona State
3
Penn State
6-1
Beat #5 Florida
Six 3-0 sweeps.
Lost to #2 Texas 2-3 in Austin.
4
Minnesota
8-1
Eight 3-0 sweeps.
Lost to #19 Kentucky 2-3 in Lexington.
Eight wins were against middling teams.
5
Florida
8-1
Beat #8 Stanford in Austin
Lost to #3 Penn State
Seven wins against so-so opponents
6
Washington
6-0
Undefeated; including convincing win @ #14 Illinois.
Looked strong in two wins against Canadian Natl. Team.
Remaining five wins were against mid-level teams; needed 5 sets to beat struggling Gonzaga.
7
Michigan
7-1
Beat #20 Oregon at home
Lost to #16 Florida St
Barely beat Texas A&M 3-2 (15-13)
9
San Diego
7-1
Beat #1 USC at home
Beat #10 Hawai’i in Honolulu
Beat #14 Illinois in Ames.
Beat #17 Iowa State in Ames.
Lost to #2 Texas, but just barely.
10
Hawai’i
8-1
Beat #2 Texas at home
Beat #11 UCLA at home
Lost at home to #9 San Diego
Has not yet played a road match
NR
Arizona State
8-1
Beat #2 Texas in Champaign
Eight 3-0 victories
Lost to #14 Illinois in Champaign (on a controversial call)

Notably absent from this conversation: Stanford, Nebraska, Oregon.

Volleyblog Seattle is a voter in the Volleyball Magazine media poll. Here’s how we’ll cast our ballot this week:

  1. San Diego
  2. Penn State
  3. Washington
  4. USC
  5. Minnesota
  6. Arizona State
  7. Hawai’i
  8. Texas
  9. Florida
  10. Michigan



How would YOU rank them?

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