Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Absurdity of Ignoring Jessica Pancratz

My readers know that I am going to tell it like it is.  So, let's not waste any time:  Leaving Jessica Pancratz of Oral Roberts off the entire list of All-Conference teams is one of the most colossal voting errors in recent history by the league's coaches and SID's.

I submit to you data that you can verify yourself on the conference website.  My claim is that we just witnessed the highest rate of blocks per set in the last decade in this conference ignored by those casting ballots.  People, you ought to do more research.

Please recall that before 2008 we played to 30 points rather than 25.  Thus, traditional sets now are 5/6 as long as they were before 2008.  So, all "per set" numbers prior to 2008 must be scaled appropriately in order to make comparisons.  C'mon, it's simple division, it's not that hard.

Check out this list:

Southland Conference Leaders Since 2004 in Blocks and Blocks Per Set:

2012: Parcratz 148, Pancratz 1.35
2011: Hilbun 146, Adams 1.33
2010: Black 139, Bazile 1.23
2009: Bailey 160, Bazile 1.25
2008: Thomas 120, Bailey 1.00

2007: Jones 139, Jones 1.16                     (5/6 of 167 and 1.39)
2006: Rohde & Murray 141, Rohde 1.14   (5/6 of 169 and 1.37)
2005: Fowler 113, Fowler 1.03                 (5/6 of 136 and 1.23)
2004: Fowler 108, Burton 0.98                 (5/6 of 130 and 1.17)

Notice anything?  Pancratz just put up the highest block per set rate this conference has seen in the last decade and under comparable lengths of sets has the second highest total blocks in the last decade in the SLC.  I wonder how many people knew this when they voted?

For this she gets 1st team All-Conference honors, right?  2nd team?  3rd team?  Honorable mention?

Nope.  Nothing.

That's nothing short of ridiculous.  You can't defend that.  The girl is a middle BLOCKER and she just had the highest BLOCK rate in the last nine years - maybe more - I don't know 'cause the conference archive stats list only goes back to 2004.  No matter how you value offense in middle blockers it is just absurd to ignore the highest per set block rate anyone has seen in a decade when voting for All-Conference.

I thought the official All-SLC teams were very, very well chosen by the coaches and SID's.

Except they made one HUGE mistake. 

The voters owe Jessica Pancratz an apology.