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Sunday, November 27, 2022

A Day of Rest - Sunday Cardinal Couple

A Clear Calendar




The GoCards site composite calendar is empty today and tomorrow, and only has a men's basketball game for Tuesday.  The next UofL women's competition event isn't until Wednesday.  Now is a good time to take a deep breath, maybe even an afternoon nap if you like.  It's been a busy fall and soon we'll fall into the winter basketball pattern, but for now, we've got a bit of a breather.




We do have one event to think about today, however, and that's the Volleyball Selection show for the NCAA tournament.  The selection show will be on ESPNU at 7:30 tonight, a bit of a step up from past years when it's been late in the evening.  ESPN has also given a nice nod to the volleyball community by scheduling a half hour filler show after the Miami vs UCF football game in an extra effort to be sure that the selection show gets to start on time.

So what are UofL's prospect for selection?  First, UofL is guaranteed a position in the tournament by virtue of winning the automatic qualifier for the ACC.  While the ACC considers UofL and Pitt to be co-champions for the conference title for the year, they do have tie breaker rules in order to decide the AQ, and UofL topped Pitt in those tie breakers based on the number of sets won in our head to head matches (5 vs 3 as we swept them while they had to go five sets to beat us).  So, UofL will be guaranteed to be in the tournament, not that there is any doubt of UofL, or Pitt for that matter, getting a bid in any case.




The NCAA will be seeding 32 teams in the tournament this year, up from 16 in past years.  The top 16 seeds will have the opportunity to host the first and second rounds.  By seeding 32 teams, there will be less geographically oriented placement of the rest of the teams.  The idea of UofL not getting a top 16 seed is pretty much laughable, so count on volleyball competition happening at L&N FCU Arena December 2nd and 3rd.

Beyond the first two rounds, the top four teams that advance to the Sweet 16 get the opportunity to host the third an fourth rounds.  So this would be, in a fully chalk situation, the top four seeds in the tournament.  For Louisville not to get a top four seed would be, in my estimation, a pretty major snub.  The third and fourth rounds, presuming Louisville advances, would be at the KFC Yum! Center on December 8th and 10th.




So, prognostication time.  The NCAA typically hews fairly close to RPI rankings for volleyball, giving it more credence than the AVCA coaches poll.  Most years the difference between the two is minimal.  This year, however, there are some pretty radical divergence between them at the top.  These haven't been updated yet for the past week of games, so this is only accurate through game up to November 20th.  Matches in the past week may see some changes in these rankings.

RPI Top 10
  1. Texas
  2. Louisville
  3. Stanford
  4. Pittsburgh
  5. Wisconsin
  6. Ohio State
  7. Nebraska
  8. Kentucky
  9. San Diego
  10. Oregon
AVCA Coaches Poll Top 10
  1. Texas
  2. San Diego
  3. Wisconsin
  4. Louisville
  5. Nebraska
  6. Stanford
  7. Pittsburgh
  8. Ohio State
  9. Minnesota
  10. Oregon


We'd like to hear your predictions in the comments.  I think UofL gets the 2 seed which would, based on the latest RPI, set us up to play Iowa State in the second round, Baylor in the third, and Nebraska in the fourth, to get to the Final Four where a rematch with Stanford would be waiting...assuming all higher seeds advance in every match.

We hope to have interviews with Coach DBK and a couple of players from right after the selection show, so look for those in tomorrow's Cardinal Couple article and on the Cardinal Couple Youtube channel.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast




Case, Daryl, Paulie, and myself were all on the call for the CCRHP yesterday and we had a ball discussing basketball and volleyball.  We covered the fun romp of basketball over Longwood, and the volleyball season finale at Notre Dame.  We did cover some of the information about volleyball tournament.

Listen to the end to find out what sports balls are bigger than a basketball!

Find it at anchor.fm, or any respectable podcast directory:

- JMcA
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous11/27/2022 11:03 AM

    Seen it time and time gain, the NCAA ikes to screw over Louisville any chance they get. They'll put Louisville fifth or sixth. The NCAA is in love with BIg 10 volleyball. You can expect Texas, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Ohio State higher than us. These schools play in legitimate Volleyball arenas, not leftover basketball practice facilities. UofL will spend millions on a has-been football coach and clueless men's basketball coach but ignore the most successful program on campus. The best revenge is win it all.

    Nick O

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JMcA11/27/2022 12:22 PM

      You're not wrong with the NCAA loving the B1G in volleyball, but do keep in mind that the top 10 lists above are just through Nov. 20th. OSU lost to Minnesota and Wisconsin since then and in the process ended their season on a 4-0 losing streak, including losses to Maryland and Indiana. Pushing them up from RPI 6 to a top 4 with that late resume will be pretty tough.

      Nebraska, too, has losses to Minnesota and Wisconsin in the past week, so it will be similarly challenging to push them up.

      Delete

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