2025 Week 5: January 27, 2025-February 2, 2025

[MaryClare]

Michigan State was absolutely the better team yesterday.
Oh yeah that UCLA floor line up was DEFINITELY 49.800.
Likely will cost Michigan State the regular season conference championship.
Shameful.

I had high hopes the judging wouldn't be as bad as previous years, but clearly the system is still very much broken.

I don’t think the system is broken, I think the culture is broken

 

[Nobody]

I've been seeing discourse that Alabama's coaches need to be replaced. Thoughts?

I think that losing the routines from Luisa, Ella, Makarri, and now Cam was actually along the lines of Michigan losing Sierra, Gabby, and Naomi. It just wasn't framed the same way as for Michigan this season. Clearly, they need to rebuild and maybe the expectation should be that their ceiling is in the low 197's this season. I'm not sure the new 9.9+ routines are there just waiting to be coached into existence.

It’s interesting anyone would think Alabama’s coaches need to be replaced in their 3rd season but what season is Arkansas’ head coach in? They aren’t doing any better. Alabama should move ahead of them this week.

Alabama didn’t give very many gymnasts the opportunity to gain experience the past 2 years and relied heavily on 5th years. It’s an interesting dynamic for those athletes entering NCAA the last few years with so many 5th years. Prior to Covid they would likely have had more opportunities to compete.

 

[irichluck21]

Yes. Alabama will move ahead of Arkansas on average. 196.500 to 196.395. Arkansas has 5 meets and Alabama 4 meets.

That said, comparing Arkansas to Alabama isn't really a comparison. Not with the history that Alabama has. Arkansas making it to Nationals last year was a major accomplishment for the entire team, gymnasts and coaches.

 

[Regionals]

Today’s scoring in the two marquis meets has been unhinged. 3 Impossible floor scores for Florida. And now, just bonkers home scoring for NC State on uneven bars. It seemed like the bars judges just switched to a completely different deduction list between rotations.

 

[BB12]

Bama is an interesting one. They could easily be the team to miss SEC's if they don't quickly get it together but they are hosting a regionals and I'm fully expect them to make nationals because of that.

With Arkansas, I have only watched 2 of their meets but I was not impressed by what I saw this weekend. So many of the small details were missing and quickly added up to explain their score. I've seen some places have an 'underscored' narrative about Arkansas but I dont buy into that.

 

[Beamer]

So how are Cecile and Ryan doing at Georgia?

On Week 5 of last year, UGA was ranked 19th. On Week 5 of this year, UGA is ranked 11th.

I’d say that’s quite impressive given it’s only their first year.

 

[Beamer]

I’m impressed with Jade Carey learning a floaty double layout UB dismount. She’s a Senior this year and unveils a new dismount.

Also, a new Yurchenko 1.5 on vault. Maybe not as impressive since it’s a downgrade from the DTY and she’s familiar with blind landings from the Amanar. Yet still a new skill in her 4th year.

Yes, she’s still getting the Olympic gold medalist overscores, but still.

 

[cuuf]

So how are Cecile and Ryan doing at Georgia?

On Week 5 of last year, UGA was ranked 19th. On Week 5 of this year, UGA is ranked 11th.

I’d say that’s quite impressive given it’s only their first year.

Honestly I would give them a solid B/B- right now. Sure, their ranking has improved from this time last year, but I'm not sure CKC would have done worse. Remember, last year they were trending up with a strong finish at the end of the season. They retained all their routines with some good additions this year. The normal trend line would see improvement even without a coaching change, I would not call that impressive. They are still lingering in the bottom 1/3 of the SEC. I think Cecile and Ryan are solid. Not ready to proclaim them disrupters that will break Georgia out of their funk.

 

[MaryClare]

I think the problem for struggling legacy programs like Georgia and Alabama is that it’s so, so much more competitive than 15+ years ago. The number of schools with a legitimate shot at top 4 has literally doubled. Yet the NCAA code of points hasn’t sufficiently evolved to reflect that. So there’s often no pathway to develop for any school hoping to just edge up to the next level. It’s pretty limited to landings, landings, landings and trying to get a full line up of 10SV vaults that will actually score higher than a good FTY.

It’s kind of like when Russia or Romania say wasn’t it so great when we won everything. Well sure, there was some fantastic gymnastics and exciting competitions which very much shaped where the sport is today. But there’s almost nothing you can do that will return the sport to that.

 

[dweiss324]

Agreed. I think the parity is a nice step forward. And while legacy program and reputation scoring will never be fully eradicated (see Florida and UCLA floor recently), I think it's moving in the right direction.

I think programs need to honestly lower their expectations of what success looks like, in a sense. Regular championships are something only KJ has managed to figure out in this era, and even then, they're one step away from not qualifying to nationals, it happens, and it did happen. Stability, culture, and athlete health, are increasingly more appealing to athletes (it seems), and lead to more opportunities for regularly generic success and the off chance of high success. You can't build that with the constant threat of firing your coaches every time they rank 11th or whatever.

You're stuck with parity until the code changes or the judging gets overhauled. Better make the most of it. And is that so bad?

 

[RedBirdie]

I'm looking for video, but can't find any of Lola Montevago (GWU) and her 9.975 on bars from yesterday. I watched it on TV, but they had a quad screen so it was small. Looked pretty, but no idea if it actually was a 9.975 routine.

Oh, and I'm laughing that bars was the one event GW cracked a 49 on yesterday!

 

[irichluck21]

Also, it is MUCH harder to make it to Nationals.
Not only have they eliminated 4 teams, but also 2 regionals.

It was a challenge back when it was 12 teams.

But yeah the parity in the sport has definitely redefined NCAA gymnastics.

 

[blake]

I'm looking for video, but can't find any of Lola Montevago (GWU) and her 9.975 on bars from yesterday. I watched it on TV, but they had a quad screen so it was small. Looked pretty, but no idea if it actually was a 9.975 routine.

Oh, and I'm laughing that bars was the one event GW cracked a 49 on yesterday!

 

[MaryClare]

That wouldn’t break 9.9 in the SEC

 

[Mthegymqueen]

Such a pretty routine!

 

[cuuf]

So nearing the mid-point of the season. Vibes after this weekend:

Cruising, not yet peaking: OU, LSU, Florida, Utah
Can just taste something special if only we had more consistency: MSU, UCLA
Are the wheels falling off? Or is there still time?: Denver, Michigan
I'm sure we have the greatest hire in the history of the sport!: Georgia
Did we make the worst hire?: Alabama
We are just the type of team people don't want to see in regionals because we will hold you accountable: Missouri, Kentucky, Cal, Stanford, Oregon State
Probably not our year, but who knows....?: Auburn

Overall, it seems like group 1 (OU, LSU) and 1A slightly behind: Florida and Utah (the crazy scoring has actually overshadowed that Florida has put together solid meets). I feel like MSU is there and certainly capable of scoring with the best, but seems to always have one bad rotation. I don't know who is more shocking, Michigan or Denver. Denver has progressively seemed to have gotten worse, while Michigan with that talent seems stuck in the mud. While not as extreme, Arkansas is also perplexing to me, I really thought they were going to take a step up and be more together from start to finish. They certainly can still end the season great, but its looking like last year was more of an anomaly from hosting regionals. Still time for everyone, but starting to get real trend lines of teams

 

[Orange]

Arkansas is just kind of messy. They have Kyla Ross, who definitely knows good form, on staff and she needs to be going around nitpicking the leg separations on bars and fixing leaps.

I was curious to see how Roberson would transition to college, and so far it seems to be going okay. They’ve smartly given her almost exclusively straddle jumps and she maybe looks a little cleaner. I can’t believe she’s in the bars lineup though. Bars has never been Arkansas’s strongest event, but do they really not have anyone else?

 

[MaryClare]

Arkansas is just kind of messy. They have Kyla Ross, who definitely knows good form, on staff and she needs to be going around nitpicking the leg separations on bars and fixing leaps.

I was curious to see how Roberson would transition to college, and so far it seems to be going okay. They’ve smartly given her almost exclusively straddle jumps and she maybe looks a little cleaner. I can’t believe she’s in the bars lineup though. Bars has never been Arkansas’s strongest event, but do they really not have anyone else?

She wasn’t on bars this weekend and her bars scores have never counted. I’m guessing she’s in the bars line up as a AA contender

 

[RedBirdie]

The judges were not forgiving on her no height flat Lopez this weekend. 9.75 and last on the 12 vaulters.