Saturday Live Blog – February 29, 2020

Saturday, February 29
Scores Stream
12:30pm ET/9:30am PT – [6] Denver @ [1] Oklahoma LINK ESPNU
2:00pm ET/11:00am PT – Brown, Bridgeport, West Chester, Rhode Island @ Southern Connecticut LINK FREE
3:00pm ET/12:00pm PT – UW-Oshkosh @ Gustavus Adolphus    
4:00pm ET/1:00pm PT – [3] UCLA @ [18] Oregon State LINK P12N
4:00pm ET/1:00pm PT – NC State, Towson, Cornell @ [23] Penn State LINK BTN+
FLO
5:00pm ET/2:00pm PT – UW-La Crosse @ UW-Whitewater LINK FREE
8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT – Eastern Michigan @ Air Force LINK FREE
11:00pm ET/8:00pm PT – Seattle Pacific @ Alaska LINK FREE

Denver and Oklahoma is getting started shortly. Denver is going with the same lineups as last weekend—not that there was a lot of choice at this point.

Also, Maggie Nichols is doing three events today, which is totally at odds with the “WE DON’T KNOW WHEN SHE’LL BE BACK” messaging from last week. KJ, you should know by now you can’t say undefined things like that to insane people like us.

Continue reading Saturday Live Blog – February 29, 2020

Friday Live Blog – February 28, 2020

Friday, February 28
Scores Stream
6:30pm ET/3:30pm PT – New Hampshire @ [7] Michigan LINK BTN+
FLO
7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT – [2] Florida @ [10] Georgia LINK SECN
7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT – George Washington @ North Carolina LINK ACCNX
7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT – Western Michigan @ Central Michigan LINK ESPN3
7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT – Bowling Green, Ursinus, Brockport @ Kent State LINK FREE
7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT –UW-Eau Claire, Hamline, Winona State @ UW-Stout LINK FREE
7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT – [25] Michigan State @ [17] Iowa State LINK ISU($)
8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT – [11] Minnesota, Ohio State, Lindenwood @ [20] Missouri LINK SEC+
8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT – TWU @ [15] Auburn LINK SEC+
8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT – [19] BYU @ Illinois State LINK FREE
8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT – Northern Illinois v. SEMO @ Lebanon, TN    
8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT – [14] Arkansas @ [5] LSU LINK SEC+
8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT – [12] Kentucky @ [9] Alabama LINK SECN
9:00pm ET/6:00pm PT – Boise State @ [21] Southern Utah LINK FREE
9:00pm ET/6:00pm PT – UC Davis @ Utah State LINK FREE
10:00pm ET/7:00pm PT – San Jose State @ Sacramento State LINK  
11:00pm ET/8:00pm PT – Seattle Pacific @ Alaska LINK FREE

The first one to get underway today is New Hampshire/Michigan, which is a pretty important meet for UNH, currently hanging around the drop zone and looking for a high 195 today to start to get rid of a bunch of 195.1s that still have to count and aren’t helping the regionals quest. Michigan is of course in a pretty safe position at this point but would like to make sure some residual 196s go away with something like another home 197.3.

Rotation 1 starts with another near-stick from Heiskell on a full, small bounce back, good position. 9.900 with a no-stick. Was last week a trend?

Continue reading Friday Live Blog – February 28, 2020

Things Are Happening – February 28, 2020

A. RUSSIA…could you just not?

In today’s ridiculata, Russia announced that it will not send Nikita Nagornyy and Lilia Akhaimova to the American Cup because of the coronavirus. And we all went, “Wait huh?” Does…does that make sense? Oh, it doesn’t? Cool.

All the other countries are like, “K fun, I’m gonna head to Milwaukee and lick a bus stop and get my Olympic points. Peace.”

Continue reading Things Are Happening – February 28, 2020

NCAA Week 9 Preview

Full schedule and links

Marquee Meet

[6] Denver @ [1] Oklahoma

Saturday, February 29th, 11:30am CT – ESPNU

Injury talk. That’s pretty much the deal with this Denver/Oklahoma meet given the events of the last couple weeks.

For Oklahoma, the current Maggie Nichols status is “ankle injury” and “‾\_(ツ)_/‾.” If this is a couple-weeks kind of injury and she’s back for the elimination meets, then it’s truly not much of an issue. In the short term, especially at these home meets, that may mean the difference between a 198.200 and a 197.800 or something—and this would be an opportune time to get Olivia Trautman back on floor and Karrie Thomas back on beam to help remove some of those 9.800s—but it’s far from the end of the world. Oklahoma is already set for qualifying score and could put Lou out there on three events and be fine. (His beam is really coming along. His sissone is a peach.)

As for Denver, it would have been exceedingly difficult to defeat Oklahoma at the best of times, but given Denver’s roster depletion and struggles last week, this meet isn’t about a win. An actual victory in this meet for Denver would be a getting-back-on-your-feet score, even if it comes up well short of Oklahoma’s number.

Last weekend’s 195.1 really should be an aberration rather than the new normal. On bars, Lockhart and Morton both got 8s, but Lockhart did hit the week before for 9.8 and Morton has received 9.6s in exhibition routines (also Karr got 9.775 for what was pretty much her normal routine until she college-saluted herself out of a stick and it was weird). A hit from the currently competing group, while certainly not a given, should improve Denver’s score by more than a point.

The floor result last week was pretty solid (despite a fall, since it was dropped) and beam saw uncharacteristic struggles from Ruiz and Lockhart, people who have been hitting this season and were in the lineup even before the injury apocalypse. Vault remains the worry for me, with Fitts debuting in the lineup last weekend and falling on a full, meaning Lockhart had to do a layout that counted.

The ideal will be to get Lockhart in there with a full, but at this point Denver has to allow for the possibility of going sub-49 on vault and having to make it up on the other events. Which is doable. A high 196 should still be treated as very possible, and a 197 here for Denver would be a massive result.

Continue reading NCAA Week 9 Preview