Match Thread: Penn State vs. Iowa 10-5-19 7:00 pm ET

Iowa had 16 more hitting errors than us and yet the total point differential for the match was 14.  The part that was not pretty was our defensive effort.  Iowa is not a good team and their lack of blocking assisted our higher hitting percentage.  Had they made a few less hitting errors and had a few more blocks, I think many on this board would have had some more concerning moments.  This type of effort will not translate well against the better teams.

I don't think it has anything to do with wanting to work them harder in practices, and I don't mean to be snarky here. But how many National Championships does coach Sheffield have?  How many National Championships does John Cook have?  How many National Championships does Coach Rose have?  Coach Rose isn't simply forgetting to call time out.  He isn't oblivious to the alternatives.  He simply makes the judgment that it's better for the team to let them work things out, and he values time outs more for the end of sets (you only get two per set).  Obviously Sheffield and Cook took a different course in the match you watched.  I'll stop responding to this line of argument now, but I'll say this: if I have my druthers, I'll take Coach Rose over either of those two coaches every single day, on any number of grounds.

I don't think we should try to analyze these decisions in such a hi-res fashion.  He is always teaching, and I think that means that how the team has responded in practices is every bit as important to him as what is going on in a given match at a given time.  I mentioned the National Championship comparison because I think it is highly relevant in this context.  For example, in 2007, Nebraska returned a boatload of talent from its 2006 National Championship team.  They were the odds-on favorite to win in 2007.  They didn't.  Why was that?  I think that they didn't because they weren't as well-coached as Penn State, not built as well for the pressure-cooker that is the NCAA tournament.  I think Coach Rose is better than John Cook at teaching his players how to win in tough situations.  You might disagree with my conclusion.   But trying to dissect whether Coach Rose ever took an early timeout is, in my opinion, a fools errand (and I am not, I repeat not, calling you a fool).  We can't possibly know all the factors that went into each decision.  And now, those decisions are complicated even more by whether or not to challenge calls -- with challenges, in reality (though not in the letter and spirit of the rule) serving as extra timeouts.

Of course, every Nebraska fan would take coach Cook over Rose every single day.  If at some point in time Cook gets more NCs than Rose, would you use that as a reason to argue Cook is a better coach than Rose?