Here is yet another wonderful bit of sports writing from our own John Demko…enjoy!
Hello Pitt POVers. After this weekend there are a lot of you that have lost all hope for this season. You believe we are not going to live up to all the hype that Pitt had coming into this season. You do not believe there is any way we can win the conference let alone a national championship. Not only do some of you think our offense stinks but so does our daunted defense as well.
When it comes to our coach, you believe he is way over paid and is not one of the best in the nation. Some of you say he can’t recruit!
Sure, we got off to a rough start by losing our first game of the season but hey those things happen to the best of teams! The team to which we lost is one of the best in the nation and is highly ranked! Oh, yeah, we did lose to that other unranked team that we had no business losing to. Well stuff happens. But we haven’t lost since! Really!
Yes, we lost a lot from last year including a two-time ACC Player of the year who is now playing in the pros. But those players we got in from the transfer portal sure have lived up to the hype, haven’t they! They are taking the conference by storm!
And how about those freshmen recruits, some of them would be starting for other competitive teams, but Pitt’s depth is so great they only get to play if someone is hurt or the contest is a blowout. Yeah, I know that our athletic director’s offspring went to play at Clemson but there was a good reason for that!
Some of you say even if we get into the postseason play, we will flop as usual. Some feel our best players will not even play or perform poorly.
So, if you are one of those naysayers and filled with gloom and doom, I say cheer up! This has been a great season so far! It just depends on your…
POINT OF VIEW!
First, we do have one of the best coaches in the country! (That sentence should tell you; this article is not about Pitt football!) In the last five years our team has won more games than any other teams in the nation in Division 1!! I kid you not! Before our present coach came to us, we were not considered a national powerhouse by any means.
Today we are respected by everyone in the nation including those in the vaunted SEC and Big Ten. One of those Big Ten powerhouses even was rumored to have tried to hire our coach away last year. Fortunately, we signed him to a new long-term contract. Yes, I know a lot of you do not like those long-term deal, but in this case, I believe it was justified.
As for recruiting we had the ninth best recruiting class in the nation this past year. We stole a top recruit from Notre Dame when they made a coaching change.
I will talk more about this past year’s incoming class in a bit. We have our recruiting class filled for not only this coming year but also for the year after that as well. All four members of this year’s coming class were all invited to the U.S. National Team’s camp for their high school graduation year and took a photo together there!
As for our A.D.’s daughter going to Clemson, well truthfully, she would not see the floor for Pitt’s team. I do wish her a long and successful career for the Tigers!
Second, we do still have a chance of winning the conference. Presently we stand alone atop the standings, undefeated! Yes, truly undefeated with a conference record of 12-0. One of those wins was against then #2 Louisville.
Our overall record is 22-2. We are presently ranked 7th in the nation. We have an RPI that is 7th in the nation. (By now, you should now know we are talking about Pitt’s women’s volleyball!)
When the first NCAA women’s volleyball committee reveal came out earlier this year, Pitt was ranked at #5 in the nation. In the reveal this past Sunday, we were ranked #4 in the country. Louisville was ranked #2 meaning two ACC could be hosting regional finals.
While we have always been a very good offensive team, this year’s team has been very impressive on defense.
We have consistently out dug our opponents at 13.5 digs per set for Pitt versus 11.9 for our opponents. We are also out blocking our opponents 2.7 versus 2.4 per set.
In our last match we held Virginia Tech to a hitting percentage of (-) 0.037. Yes, they had a negative hitting percentage over the entire match. That is the lowest hitting percentage that Pitt has held an ACC team!
Playing Pitt is very frustrating. Just asks the opposing coaches. Miami’s coach looked as if he would rather be at the dentist than at the Pitt vs. Miami match recently.
Continue reading “Volleyball Status Update by John D”
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