Monthly Archives: April 2021

Live Blog

National Championship Final – Live Blog

487 Comments
Saturday, April 17
 Scores Stream
3:30pm ET/12:30pm PT – Team Final

 LINK ABC
ESPN3
4-event
VT
UB
BB
FX
Spanish

Oklahoma, Michigan, Utah, Florida. Oklahoma starts on vault, Utah on bars, Florida on beam, and Michigan on floor.

The general consensus seems to be to crap on Florida’s chances after yesterday—and certainly if they bring anything like the gymnastics we saw in the semifinal, they won’t come close to winning—but it’s still Florida, the best team for the first 10ish weeks of the year.

Based on yesterday, this looks like an Oklahoma-Michigan deal. Very interested to see Michigan’s floor in the first rotation. Because it’s been the question event for Michigan this year, because Michigan does have bigger routines than Oklahoma there and—theoretically at least—could turn it into an advantage, and because the scoring was soooo high there yesterday. The lowest team floor score was 49.425, which would have ranked 2nd on bars, 3rd on vault, and 4th on beam. Florida was the only one among the four qualifying teams that went sub-49.6 on floor.

On the starting events, yesterday Oklahoma went 49.525 on vault, Utah went 49.5125 on bars, Florida went 49.3875 on beam, and Michigan went 49.650 on floor. So Michigan is going to be looking for a lead here, and Florida will need to be up in the 49.5s or 49.6s on beam this time to be in contention. Basically, any sub-49.5 score in the first rotation here is a miss.

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Live Blog

National Semifinals Live Blog

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Friday, April 16
 Scores Stream
1:00pm ET/10:00am PT – Semifinal I
[1] Florida
[4] Michigan
[5] Cal
[8] Minnesota		 LINK ESPN2
4-event
VT
UB
BB
FX
Spanish
6:00pm ET/3:00pm PT – Semifinal II
[1] Oklahoma
[3] LSU
[6] Utah
[7] Alabama		 LINK ESPN2
4-event
VT
UB
BB
FX
Spanish

Drama upon dramas to start the day. Word from the arena is that Cal left the warmup area a few minutes before the end of warmup, and then all the parents and supporters left the stands. But then they all just ran back in and ran to different events, and they have been given some extra touch time. College gymnastics. This was the exact same time other teams were posting about their COVID results.

Anyway, the national semifinals?!? It’s a thing. Remember that we now have six judges, with the middle four scores counting, so the decimal places are about to get ugggoo.

Rotation order

Stream and broadcast have started. Bart didn’t tell us anything about Cal. Darkness in the arena. Lights and such. Anthem.

Bart reports Cal team was pulled from floor for COVID-related reasons and missed 42 minutes of warmup, then all gymnasts were cleared to return to competition. ???????

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Stuff and Nonsense

What Even Was This Season?

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So…it went…better than it might have? All things considered, this COVID season has been effectively muddled through. Well, at least, it happened. And we’re now just two days away from it having finished happening.

No one will pretend it was ideal. We had Michigan State stopping its season, Stanford training under a bridge on a lily pad made of smoke, Auburn and Temple withdrawing from the postseason, and a number of teams not able to start at all. But it’s a win insofar as…no one died yet despite most team’s best efforts in mask usage, and it looks like a champion will be crowned?

Before that happens, some reflections on how things ended up playing out this season. (This was supposed to be a team final preview, and I still say Florida is the favorite if Thomas is able to do all four, with Oklahoma very close, and Michigan a legitimate, believable spoiler, but that’s about the extent of it. We don’t really know anything until after the semifinals, anyway. End of preview.)

My primary reflection on the COVID season: the quality of gymnastics wasn’t worse. This year was supposed to be worse, with abbreviated preseasons and various COVID delays and protocols and health measures and distancing, but you would not have known that based on the routines we saw, which were on par with a normal season. There’s probably a lesson to be learned there about over-training and over-scheduling and the importance of breaks, but when has gymnastics ever been interested in learning that lesson?

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Meet Preview

National Semifinal Preview

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Two days until the semifinals. In an effort to concoct a preview that isn’t just, “These are the top-ranked teams, but hey if someone falls…” I’m going to break down the semifinals by rotation and look at each team’s event NQSs from the season for that rotation—as well as the scores on each of those events from regional finals—to see what they tell us about who needs to be where at which point in the competition.

Starting with Semifinal I – Florida, Michigan, Cal, Minnesota

Rotation 1

Minnesota VT, Florida UB, Michigan BB, Cal FX
NQS Standings
Michigan – 49.488
Florida – 49.475
Cal – 49.475
Minnesota – 49.381

The first semifinal presents a slightly weird start in that NQS predicts Michigan to have a lead after its beam rotation. Obviously, Michigan would love to be leading and already done with beam, but I don’t think that’s a requirement to have a successful day. In fact, if we use Michigan’s 49.300 on beam from the regional final, Michigan would be trailing at this point. And that regional final ended up going pretty well.

Regional Final Standings
Cal – 49.500
Florida – 49.475
Minnesota – 49.450
Michigan – 49.300

I’d say it’s most important for Cal to start big on floor and at least be right with Florida and Michigan, if not slightly ahead. Floor is Cal’s 2nd-best score, and I’d say Cal is the only team starting on a top-2 event for them, so any kind of deficit after 1 would not be helpful in the upset quest. Because vault tends to score a little lower, Minnesota would be quite pleased if things were shaping up similarly to the regional final standings after the first rotation.

Rotation 2

Cal VT, Minnesota UB, Florida BB, Michigan FX
NQS Standings
Florida – 99.131
Michigan – 98.894
Cal – 98.781
Minnesota – 98.781

These first two rotations will be decisive for Michigan’s chances because when things have gone wrong this season, it’s happened on floor. Big Tens, Big Fives, that bonkers dual meet with Minnesota. It’s always floor. Even so, NQS says Michigan should be top 2 right now, and regional finals scores say Michigan should be close to that status.

Because vault and bars are typically tremendous for Michigan, if Michigan is actually done with beam and floor in a top-2 position, I’d expect that to be maintained through the end of the meet. It would be a very strong scenario for them.

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