2024 NCAA Week 2: 01/08/2024- 01/14/2024

[Sasha]

I wish Davis would just drill the fuck out of that dismount. She's otherwise the best bar worker in the league IMO, and it's so frustrating to never see her get a 10.

Also frustrating is hearing the Sara Ulias is out again with a knee injury, in her first meet back after nearly two years.

 

[irichluck21]

eMjae got a 10 on beam tonight.

Cal was on fire tonight. They did a phenomenal job. .025 behind Oklahoma, who was in the session before.
They will be 2nd in the weekly rankings after two meets.

This bodes well for them, I honestly think they are the best team in the Pac 12, over both Utah and UCLA. I have them as pre-season pick to make the Final Four. Hopefully they can maintain the top 4 all season, so they get one of those top seeds.
They should have made the Final Four last year, but they decided to have their worst outing on bars in forever at the semi-final.

 

[irichluck21]

I wish Davis would just drill the fuck out of that dismount. She's otherwise the best bar worker in the league IMO, and it's so frustrating to never see her get a 10.

I have been advocating for a 10.0 for Davis on bars since last year. Even with the dismount, I would give it a 10.0, if only she could fully stick it (which she has).
My wonder though, is if they would consider removing the half out. If she can stick a double front, she would get a 10.0 every meet.

She's really underappreciated on bars, lesser routines have gone 10.0 and she never has.

 

[Sasha]

Yeah, we've definitely seen less tenny 10s. I think the judges have her dismount on their radar and will not give her the 10 unless she lands it straight.

I'm guessing that she would have switched dismounts by now if she had a better option. Kindler isn't one to hold on to skills that don't maximise scores.

 

[Laura722]

I have been advocating for a 10.0 for Davis on bars since last year. Even with the dismount, I would give it a 10.0, if only she could fully stick it (which she has).
My wonder though, is if they would consider removing the half out. If she can stick a double front, she would get a 10.0 every meet.

She's really underappreciated on bars, lesser routines have gone 10.0 and she never has.

Audrey was doing the double front dismount. I think they added in the half-out so she could stick her dismount more.

 

[BB12]

My wonder though, is if they would consider removing the half out. If she can stick a double front, she would get a 10.0 every meet.

She prefers the half out as she can stick it better.

 

[blake]

Lucy Stanhope was injured on vault last night. Freakishly similar to Riley McCusker in 2021. Everything looked fine, but then she immediately grabbed for her ankle and was in obvious distress.

It was so sad to watch. I wish the cameras had cut away sooner. 30+ seconds of her on the mat in pain seemed unnecessarily cruel.

 

[blake]

There's a world of a difference between Cal's FX/VT in 2024 and 2022. I think this team has room to improve on bars/beam. I am happy Andi Li brought her Jaeger back.

I noticed this weekend a lot of people in other forums are upset about scoring so far this season for OU. There's a lot of good points being made in other forums about scoring in general, I don't disagree that they get the same soft judging and gifts that nearly everyone gets nowadays. It's no worse than SEC dual meet scoring which I think inflates how much better the SEC is than other leagues in the national rankings.

I just don't have the energy to care as much with everything going on in the world today. Last season I got way too emotionally invested in the gymnastics I liked and it was not healthy lol.

 

[cuuf]

I think the scoring is all relative, still think the right teams are "winning" when it counts. I am a bit tired of the "SEC is always crazy scoring" narrative. Last year, the controversy was with OU. Florida should have won the title according to some, so were their scores inflated? Either way complaining about scores is a hopeless cause and I agree with you on that.

LSU still does not give me a team vibe even though they are the only squad with all the talent to top OU this year. Maybe it will develop by the end of the season, still early, but something to keep an eye on.
Ucla is fine and will be in the mix of one of the final four
Cal is really showing something, if they are consistent with that vault rotation
Florida, is going to live and die with how consistent Sloane Blakely performs.

 

[GLeigh]

Georgia is also in bad shape because they have only put up 5 vaulters the last two meets.
Understandably the first meet vs NC State due to the last minute injury to De Jong.
But also last night against Arkansas, only 5 vaults, so it means they literally have no one else that can actually vault. Not even a Yurchenko layout or a pike front, or Tsuk or anything.

Granted you don't want to use a Yurchenko Layout or a pike front, but with 5 vaults all scores count, if there is a fall or a major error, that hurts the score substantially. Even if you use a 9.7 vault as anchor, you can drop it, but at least a 9.5 yurchenko layout would be better than a 9.100 from a fall on a FTY.

Not good and CKC is lucky her contract is out until 2027.

Lily Smith apparently warmed up a Yfull but didn't compete. They might've slotted her in if needed. Naya Howard, Heather Parker, and Haley De Jong all are injured with 10.0s. Kelsey Lee is also injured with a Yfull. Holly Snyder has a small injury and should be back really soon, but has a Yfull. That's not even including Vanessa Deniz who doesn't vault but is also injured with a season-ending injury that she got when she went home for Winter Break apparently. Pretty awful injury situation for Georgia on the whole.

 

[irichluck21]

So business as usual for Georgia and CKC.

Yeesh. She got a contract extension until 2027.
So did Tim Garrison.
Except Garrison and Kentucky finished 6th at Nationals and Georgia...well...

 

[irichluck21]

There's a world of a difference between Cal's FX/VT in 2024 and 2022. I think this team has room to improve on bars/beam. I am happy Andi Li brought her Jaeger back.

I honestly believe they will make it to the Final Four this year, and could honestly compete head to head with Oklahoma. Vault is greatly improved, they just need to drill the landings. UB and BB are right with OU. I prefer their bars and beam to OU to ne honest. Floor is still in the works, but they have the components there for a big score.

The only difference between Cal and OU are the landings. Cal can find sticky feet like Michigan in 2021 they could be national champions.

 

[irichluck21]

Disappointingly the 1st MLK Invitational was canceled due to the snow/weather.

It looked to be a fun meet, the 6 teams are the only teams with black women as head coaches.
Rutgers, William & Mary, Brown, Fisk, Talladega, and Iowa State.

 

[RedBirdie]

Bummer. I was wondering why I couldn't find any scores or live blogs of that meet.

 

[cuuf]

I honestly believe they will make it to the Final Four this year, and could honestly compete head to head with Oklahoma. Vault is greatly improved, they just need to drill the landings. UB and BB are right with OU. I prefer their bars and beam to OU to ne honest. Floor is still in the works, but they have the components there for a big score.

The only difference between Cal and OU are the landings. Cal can find sticky feet like Michigan in 2021 they could be national champions.

100% agree with this.

 

[blake]

I was at the Pittsburgh regional last year. Cal looked so confident on the 2nd day. Those years they would have to count a 9.5 on floor multiple times throughout the season were havoc on my nerves.

I'm really surprised Stanford couldn't field a 6th routine on VT/UB, but I shouldn't be. There's a lot of potential in this team. I could see them making it to the regional final again. Michigan looked better than last week, but I saw the score before the meet and was underwhelmed.

 

[blake]

Florida has been smart the last 3 seasons to open with a quad meet against lower ranked non-conference teams . They can ease into the new quad meet format and it's a less stressful start than going against top 10/SEC rivals. They didn't in 2021 which coincidentally was the year with the rough final four performance.

 

[irichluck21]

Stanford has been without Anna Roberts also, who is a strong AAer.

 

[blake]

Yeah, they really need her back. Getting any of Landry, Robinson, Carter, and Robinson into a couple lineups is hopefully something Yim is pacing the team towards. The Covid freshman class contributing solid scores in the opener is a nice development.

 

[BB12]

Florida has been smart the last 3 seasons to open with a quad meet against lower ranked non-conference teams . They can ease into the new quad meet format and it's a less stressful start than going against top 10/SEC rivals. They didn't in 2021 which coincidentally was the year with the rough final four performance.

But on the other hand, every other top team from last year now has gained experience competing on podium against other high quality teams which is invaluable come post season - UCLA and OU twice since they did both Super 16 and the ABC meet . While there was nothing meaningful at stake, competing on ABC and handling the pressure of wanting to do well on that platform will be invaluable come post season.