NCAA Week 2: January 14-17

[Caledi]

Pac-12 Network streams all of their meets free outside of the US on youtube: . That’s an easy way to get started with live NCAA meets, if you’re a fan of any of the Pac-12 teams (Cal, UCLA, Utah, Oregon State, Washington, Stanford, Arizona State, Arizona).

 

[Sasha]

Oh, that’s great to know! I’ve really been impressed by Utah and am keen to check out UCLA as well so that’s super convenient.

 

[rlayt]

Wong doesn’t have the rah-rah thing going yet!

Florida vs Alabama was closer than I expected.

 

[JoseM]

Jade Carey is the BEST NCAA gymnast of Oregón U ! Oregón is one of the best NCAA teams!

José M.

 

[Stoutness]

Florida vs. Alabama! Sooooo exciting! So happy to NCAA gymnastics getting more publicity.

 

[falcon9]

Margzetta just hit her foot on the low rail… hopefully she is ok.

 

[cats]

That looked really painful. Poor Margzetta keeps getting hurt early on. I miss her floor.

I love that Chiles is bucking the ex-elite trend of Maloney/Pak/VL bars routines and doing two releases! And that Malabuyo’s beam choreo appears to include the Carlton!

 

[Dex]

I am so dissapointed in this meet from UCLA, all the talk about potential but they do not show it at all. Florida and Utah with comparable FR classes show it, they do not. Maybe they should find a new headcoach, this one isn’t doing the job. Yes I know it is the first meet bit they are already WAY behind.

 

[RedBirdie]

I just can’t with NCAA, no matter how much I want to like it. The screaming. The jumping around. The sideline choreography. The WTF scoring. The leotards. The college sticks. I never want to see a side aerial-layout full beam dismount again.

(Unrelated: UCLA looks like fucking dogshit today)

 

[Dex]

All the rest is kind of refreshing, like it, I like that it is a LOT of gymnastics per season.
UCLA did look like shit today. they should take off these “golden” leos and burn them. They look ugly on most of the team.

 

[Jack]

It’s like the UCLA coaching staff doesn’t even care.

 

[cats]

And yet… if you look past the mistakes there was good gymnastics.

I don’t understand why UCLA struggles this much with consistency. Most of these athletes had plenty of competition experience before college and even if the coaches suck at teaching consistency… they already had it? It is just weird.

 

[irichluck21]

I don’t understand why UCLA struggles this much with consistency. Most of these athletes had plenty of competition experience before college and even if the coaches suck at teaching consistency… they already had it? It is just weird.

100% agreed!

But all athletes react differently when entering NCAA, whether it is adjusting to eating habits, living on their own, studying, writing reports, attending practice doing their laundry etc.

This is nothing new and has literally been the history of NCAA gymnastics. We have seen multi talented gymnasts (and elite) struggle in NCAA and we have also seen many flourish. We have also seen some struggle at first and then later dominate.

UCLA had a good meet other than the issue with Frazier, which then led to her having to be replaced on FX and VT.
Padurariu fell off bars but then hit beam.
Poston’s falls on BB and VT were unusual but she has also been inconsistent. Ulias has also been iffy on UB.
Chiles running out of DTY is strange and she didn’t do AA.
Ideally Poston and Ulias aren’t used in any line up. Though Poston’s front pike half is a big score when she hits.

So perhaps it is just some nerves and first meet jitters.
I think once the freshman get their groove, the team will be quite a force an challenging the top teams as there is certainly ability for the majority of the line up t get 9.850s leading toward 9.950s at the end of the line up.

 

[aerial]

I feel like you’re in my brain

 

[RedBirdie]

And yet… if you look past the mistakes there was good gymnastics.

I don’t understand why UCLA struggles this much with consistency. Most of these athletes had plenty of competition experience before college and even if the coaches suck at teaching consistency… they already had it? It is just weird.

I think that’s the most frustrating thing with UCLA. We can all see the potential. This isn’t Georgia, where they just clearly aren’t a top tier team. But UCLA seems so far behind where the other Nationals hopefuls are.

 

[RAFIKI]

I just can’t with NCAA, no matter how much I want to like it. The screaming. The jumping around. The sideline choreography. The WTF scoring. The leotards. The college sticks.

:arrow_up:This!

Prompted by my weekly gymnastics zoom friends and being so starved of gymnastics, I tried really hard to get into NCAA last year. I watched LIU’s first meet, a few dual meets and nationals; but for all the above reasons I could not control my eye rolls and cynicism. I did appreciate the fact that it actually felt like a team competition with more gymnasts per event than elite. It was great to see all or almost all of the key routines, some of the gymnastics was excellent and I enjoyed seeing some great 1.5Y as that vault is rare in elite these days. However overall I did not enjoy the experience, it’s just not for me. I will continue to watch individual stand-out routines and keep an eye on former elites, but I can’t be doing with full meets. I’ll go back to lurking but I hope you all enjoy the season (nope I am not calling it “season”!).

 

[irichluck21]

I think that’s the most frustrating thing with UCLA. We can all see the potential. This isn’t Georgia, where they just clearly aren’t a top tier team. But UCLA seems so far behind where the other Nationals hopefuls are.

I think they should be allowed one meet to get their feet wet.

You seem to be forgetting that all of the National hopefuls have the majority, if not all of their routines back from last year’s post season. Oklahoma is missing Webb but Bowers has stepped into her AA position. LSU for example, is able to have Desiderio, Dean, and Campbell specialize on BB only this year, meanwhile Durante is only doing UB. Which speaks to their depth due to all the returning 2021 routines.

UCLA, on the other hand has a huge incoming class due to the postponement of Tokyo.
They also had the sudden transfer of Alexis Jeffrey, who was likely slated to do VT/UB for the team based on Meet the Bruins and needed to be replaced.

Of all the top tier teams, UCLA has the most line up changes. Comparing last night with the 2021 regionals line up, there were not only changes to who was competing but where athletes were competing in the line ups.
Here is how many routines returned from 2021:
VT: 2/6 (3/6 Frazier was intended for VT but Flatley covered)
UB: 4/6
BB: 3/6
FX: 2/6 (2/6 Frazier was intended for FX but Tratz covered, but she was in final lineup last year)
So only 11/24 routines last night were returning routines from 2021. That is less than half.

NO other top 20 team had that many new routines for their first meet.
I have never seen Chiles stumble out of a DTY like that before.

So it is completely unfair to compare them to the other teams.

Yes, there is lots of talent and experience with the newcomers.
But NCAA is an adjustment to elite.

If the team doesn’t start hitting by 3rd or 4th meet, then I would see it as an issue. At the moment I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt.

ETA: Forgot that they had a Covid outbreak on the team two weeks ago which forced them to withdraw from the Pac 12 Collegiate Challenge week 1. Covid def. could have impacted the preparedness of the team and fitness levels as well.

 

[irichluck21]

Georgia is currently ranked 31st in the National rankings.
This is their lowest ranking in the history of the program.

Granted they had one meet with a non-ideal result so they have room to move up, especially when they have home meets and they hav better away results so they can drop that 194.500

But UGA doesn’t have that much wiggle room either and with Covid happenings who knows what outcomes can pop up.
They certainly cannot afford any more poor meets or they will find themselves with a sub top 20 ranking due to the strength of many NCAA teams.

Can you imagine if Georgia was forced to compete in a play in meet at regionals??

 

[Hatsumomo]

Did you all notice how the Utah-OU meet was sponsored by an MLM?

 

[RedBirdie]

Yep. How very Utah. I think they’ve been a sponsor for a couple of years now. Disgusting.