[Husker] No. 1 and No. 26 teams competing any Husker fans notice?

[BRADALAN at aol.com]

WARNING:  If you don't care about Volleyball, stop here.
 
Washington is very sharp, as I saw when the swept the Wahine twice in  
Hawaii.  Against Hawaii their digs were amazing, but Dave Shoji was still  
struggling to find the right chemistry for the Wahine as Mason and a couple of  others 
were coming back from early-season injuries.
 
I don't know about breadth of offense at UW, but Nebraska has an amazing  
array of weapons:  Pavan, Elmer, Larson, Houghtalling, Stalls, Saleamua...I  
don't know that UW is quite that diverse.
 
If you look at schedules, Nebraska has faced 8 ranked opponents (at the  time 
of the game) and swept 6 of them.  5 of their first 10 opponents  were 
ranked.  They opened against the cream of the NCAA, except for UW, and  dominated 
everyone.  They swept Penn State and Stanford, who are still #3  and #4.  The 
only reason they went five games against Minnesota (at  Minnesota) was that they 
went to sleep in game 3 when they were about 5 points  from a sweep and let 
the Gophers get some momentum.  They have dropped  exactly 1 (ONE) game at home 
(including the Qwest center in Omaha).  They  also swept Ohio State and 
Michigan on the road.  Ohio State is now ranked  #19, which makes 9 ranked 
opponents.  The Huskers still have to play  Missouri, Texas, and Kansas state again, 
which will give them 12 ranked  opponents.  Colorado is #27 as of last week, so 
with a few wins they could  be ranked by the Nov 23rd match as well.
 
On the other hand, Washington swept 8 nobodies in a row before catching  
Hawaii when they were down and reeling from injuries and losses to Nebraska and  
Penn State.  They have played 8 games against 5 ranked opponents (Cal, USC,  
UCLA, Arizona, Stanford)  They have gone 5 games 3 times and dropped one  game 
to Stanford (NU swept).  They play all of these teams twice, which  will give 
them 10 ranked opponents on the season.  The rest of the Pac 10  is off the 
radar.
 
Nebraska's 8 opponents who are still in the top 25 have a combined 27  losses 
to teams other than Nebraska, for an average of 3.375. If you  add Colorado, 
it goes to 33 and an average of 3.67.  Washington's 6  opponents who are still 
in the top 25 have a combined 24 losses to teams other  than Washington, for 
an average of 4.0.  Statistically speaking this could  be taken as an 
indication that Nebraska's opponents as a group are better than  Washington's. And 
therefore the Huskers have a tougher schedule.   Nebraska also has a higher 
winning percentage (in games, not matches)  against common opponents.  Nebraska is 
1.000 with 6 wins and zero losses  against Hawaii and Stanford.  Washington is 
at .923 with 6 wins and zero  losses against Hawaii, and 6 wins but 1 loss 
against Stanford.
 
Does any of this really mean anything about which team is better?   Probably 
not, but I haven't had this much fun comparing undefeated teams since  NU and 
Penn State in football in 1994, and NU/Michigan in 1997.  Sure is  refreshing. 
 Thanks Buckley!
 
By the way, my daughter went to the Wahine camp this summer, her first year  
in the sport.  We have been to a number of their games and kind of adopted  
them to cheer for since we obviously can't go to any Husker games.  We  really 
enjoy watching them and I hope they do well in the tournament, as long as  they 
don't play the Huskers!
 
GO BIG RED!!!  (All of them!)
 
Brad Bredenkamp
 
 
In a message dated 11/4/2005 10:41:43 AM Hawaiian Standard Time,  
buckley at hawaii.edu writes:

Washington is the scarier team out there.  They swept Hawaii TWICE  at
Hawaii, few teams do that.  They've swept Stanford and beaten them  again.
The Pac 10 is probably a slightly stronger conference than the Big  12 so
their game has to stay sharp.

Hawaii isn't going to do it this  year.  They over performed last year and
this year fell back to  probably where they should have been last year.  The
WAC (weak  athletic conference) really hurts them competitively.   Nebraska's
third string line up would probably go undefeated in the  WAC.