Gymnastics: NCAA championships analysis
Georgia's edging of Utah (197.45-197.125) for the 2008 NCAA title was by the slimmest margin since 2002 when Alabama beat Georgia 197.525-197.25. Such a close meet created a lot of drama, and I expect it's going to create a lot of finger pointing and rehashing now.
There was a strong feeling the Utes felt they might get jobbed by the judges. Ashley Postell alluded to it after the meet saying the team knew what was going to happen and coach Greg Marsden referred to it saying Utah had a "snowball's chance in hell" of going to Georgia and winning.
I wish I could give you a well-educated opinion of how the meet went down and if Georgia got some gifts, but unfortunately I can't.
Covering the NCAAs is such a hectic time. I focus on Utah and try to make sure I see all of its routines. Even then I miss landings or skills and even full routines while I'm looking up facts, typing thoughts or notes. I also try to see as much as I can of Utah's biggest competitors, Friday that was virtually every team up until the final two rotations. I saw a little bit of this, a little bit of that, but definitely not enough to do a team by team comparison.
I do know Georgia's 49.475 on floor to start the meet was a huge score, a 9.9 average, that left teams little chance to match Georgia on that event. Was that the judges' fault, or was Georgia just good and deserving of the big scores? I didn't see enough to say one way or another. I did see steps here and there but I saw steps from all the teams, including Utah. I just don't know if Georgia received some gifts from the judges or not.
I do know Utah did a great job of overcoming a slow start on the beam and finishing that event strong. The Utes also did a better job of building momentum through their lineup than they did Thursday.
Unfortunately for the Utes it wasn't enough for them to get a win.
They did seem genuinely happy to finish second because they felt they did the best they could. They didn't need a judge to give them that satisfaction.
There was a strong feeling the Utes felt they might get jobbed by the judges. Ashley Postell alluded to it after the meet saying the team knew what was going to happen and coach Greg Marsden referred to it saying Utah had a "snowball's chance in hell" of going to Georgia and winning.
I wish I could give you a well-educated opinion of how the meet went down and if Georgia got some gifts, but unfortunately I can't.
Covering the NCAAs is such a hectic time. I focus on Utah and try to make sure I see all of its routines. Even then I miss landings or skills and even full routines while I'm looking up facts, typing thoughts or notes. I also try to see as much as I can of Utah's biggest competitors, Friday that was virtually every team up until the final two rotations. I saw a little bit of this, a little bit of that, but definitely not enough to do a team by team comparison.
I do know Georgia's 49.475 on floor to start the meet was a huge score, a 9.9 average, that left teams little chance to match Georgia on that event. Was that the judges' fault, or was Georgia just good and deserving of the big scores? I didn't see enough to say one way or another. I did see steps here and there but I saw steps from all the teams, including Utah. I just don't know if Georgia received some gifts from the judges or not.
I do know Utah did a great job of overcoming a slow start on the beam and finishing that event strong. The Utes also did a better job of building momentum through their lineup than they did Thursday.
Unfortunately for the Utes it wasn't enough for them to get a win.
They did seem genuinely happy to finish second because they felt they did the best they could. They didn't need a judge to give them that satisfaction.
12:41 PM
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1 Comments:
I am a Georgia alum, and attended the championships as a Georgia fan this year, yet even I was concerned about the fairness of the scores.
I thought Georgia was scored fairly on floor; however, I did think they received a few scores on beam that were higher than what the rest of the teams were getting with similar difficulty and execution.
Utah was definitely scored tougher on all of the events -- especially beam and vault. Most notable of the questionable scores was Daria Bijak's vault. Daria stuck a unique front handspring layout vault, which is an incredibly difficult vault, but only received a 9.85 for her effort. She was one of the only competitors that did something different than a yurchenko style vault. She flew off the vault table and then stuck her vault like she was landing on super glue and cement. The only deduction I think may have been her body form in the air, which was ever so slightly arched, but I thought that actually added to the flair and style of the vault. In any case, I could understand maybe a 0.5 deduction for the arch, but her height, distance, pop off the table and flawless landing deserved a score in the 9.9 or above range, and she received a 9.85. 3 other Utah gymnasts stuck their landings after that. I thought the scores should have been 9.95 for Bijak, 9.9 for Kyndal R, 9.95 for Baskett and 10.0 for Postell. Those scores would have been enough to catch Georgia. Beam is another story all together. I must pay all due respect to Georgia for their efforts. They are a talented well coached team, but I do believe they were given an unfair home advantage this year.
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