April 14, 2016

The National Championship Is TOMORROW

Tomorrow. As in, you know, tomorrow.

Let this be your headquarters for all the necessary and wildly unnecessary links and information you could possibly need for the championship. But before I present the links, I have some truly terrible news. Nationals will be using statbroadcast for the live scores. Sigh. They might as well be sent by raven or etched in cuneiform on a tablet and then buried by the sands of time. We all need to be there for each other in this time of crisis.

At least ESPN is continuing the system from SECs and giving us both a TV broadcast and the four-event online view.

"Live" scores
ESPN3 four-event and single-event streams

Going with the main TV feed and the four-event window seemed to work well during SECs. We'll still miss things because there are too many important events going on at one time, but now we have only ourselves to blame instead of the old "I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY DIDN'T SHOW HER, BURN LIFE," which is actually a shame. It's a gymnastics tradition. Where would we be without it?


Times are central, with semifinal #1 at 1:00 CT and semifinal #2 at 7:00 CT. Just know that it's your whole day. You will not be able to do anything else. These are the rules. Super Six is later this year than in the past, at 8:00 CT on Saturday. Oooh, nighttime. Spicy. 

Previews
Semifinal #1
Semifinal #2
Super Six
Individual titles

Semifinal #1, projected lineups and regional scores


Semifinal #2, projected lineups and regional scores


A few little nuggets of news have also been rattling around this week, significantly that Lindsay Mable scored the upset of the century by beating Bridget Sloan for the AAI Award, news that has been communicated in exactly zero places. Great job once again, college gymnastics. Seriously, there's not even an article on Minnesota's website about it. Anyway, it's kind of a big deal. I'm assuming some strategic voting was in place here that gave it to Mable instead of Sloan, enough people thinking that everyone was going to vote for Sloan, so they decided to throw votes at the underdog pick. Or people thinking that Sloan had already won everything and life, so why not go a different direction? Sloan got Streeped here, I think. 

Yesterday also began the spring NLI signing period, which has become the annual Stanford and UCLA former elite announcement day. Stanford signed rare Canadian gem Aleeza Yu, who will fit right in because she's already in a knee brace. Welcome to the team! UCLA announced the signing of Felicia Hano to join the giant bangarang class for next year that will cover everything in sheets of gold and fix all the problems, including Kyla Ross, Madison Kocian, Anna Glenn, Grace Glenn, Schmuel Glenn, Curly Glenn, and Zeppo Glenn. Nica Hults was also supposed to sign for next season but is currently nowhere to be found. If you're thinking that's a lot of people, it is. Even without Hults, my current count of UCLA gymnasts for next year who at least were on scholarship at some point is Cipra, Gerber, Glenn, Glenn, Hall, Hano, Kocian, Lee, Metcalf, Mossett, Ohashi, Preston, Ross, and Toronjo. That's 14 people, so who wants to play a rousing game of Which of You Aren't on Scholarship Anymore?

Also, can Hano maybe vault tomorrow? That's probably allowed, right?

14 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. As far as the AAI award, does GPA factor into it as well? I don't know anything about Mable or Sloan's GPAs, just saying that could be a reason for a surprise winner.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The only place I saw the AAI award winner was ironically on Florida's twitter!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. With UCLA and their scholarship issues: it's an annual renewal, right? So maybe some of the underperformers won't get renewed? Metcalf and Hall come to mind -- compare their efforts with Honest and Meraz and it really feels like a scholarship switcheroo should be in order (in that ideal world, of course)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wouldn't be surprised to see PPL and Mossett "medically retired" by Miss Val as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd be surprised at both! Mossett just seems to keep chugging along (I'm a fan!) and PPL is obviously a favourite of Miss Val... Metcalf, Hall and PPL do make sense to me though.

      Delete
  6. From the UK and wondering if I'll be able to watch these... Happy to sign up for a day/month pass to ESPN but currently when I click on ESPN Player full schedule the gymnastics isn't displayed - anyone have any idea if this might work (am I looking in the wrong place)
    Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I almost bought a pass for SECs but gymnastics didn't seem to be an option. I'm wary of it tbh. Already got stung buying the pac12 YouTube pass. Just want to watch gymnastics dammit!

      Delete
    2. The ESPN3 streams (AA, individual events) will be free to everyone. The onyl one you need a cable login for is the commentary feed on ESPNU.

      Delete
  7. Do you know if the event feeds being shown on ESPN3 will be available without a login? There isn't a key next to it, so I'm assuming we won't need one, but not entirely sure.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Theoretically, yes. The streams listed as ESPN3 (not ESPNU) should be available without a TV login. They are for all the other sports.

    As for the UK question above, I believe ESPN streams are geoblocked and access is tied to your ISP, making it harder to get around the geoblocking, but I don't have any experience with it myself. Any other UK readers with experience/advice/knowledge?

    ReplyDelete
  9. If GPA factors into the AAI, the Lindsey had a huge advantage with a 3.88 to Bridget's 2.88. Lindsey is also already accepted, with a full scholarship, to the education Masters program for next year.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Will super six be a free live feed, or at least a free archive? Sigh. Wish this sport were more accessible, and inclusive to people who are not rolling in money. Even NBC would be OK because even cruddy cable packages include that...

    ReplyDelete