Q&A with Head Coach Mark Rosen
10/24/2001 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
A Weekly Visit with the Michigan Volleyball Head Coach
On home-court advantage in the Big Ten ... "It's no question there is an advantage to playing at home. However, I don't think it is the actual facility. You are used to playing in the lighting and the court setup at home, but I think it's more the travel in the Big Ten. We play back-to-back nights on Fridays and Saturdays, and our travel partners are very spread out. We go from Penn State to Ohio State or Northwestern to Wisconsin or Minnesota to Iowa; we have to make some pretty significant trips with a one-day turn around. After playing on Friday night, somehow you have to get to your next opponent and play on Saturday night. It's a huge disadvantage when the other team is sitting at home. They play on Friday night and then get to rest with no travel. There has been a lot of talk about spreading our matches out like basketball and play a Friday-Sunday schedule or a Thursday-Saturday schedule, but the problem then becomes missing more class time. That is something that right now, we are not ready to make that change. It definitely gives the home team an advantage. You'll see more home teams winning than road teams in this conference and not just this year but also historically."
On hitting down the line against Penn State, something that Michigan had done little of in previous matches ... "More than anything else, it's what they gave us. Every defense has weaknesses, and their line diggers cheat down the line. They play a perimeter defense, which typically takes the line away, but their defensive players have a tendency to cheat slightly down the line. We saw that on tape when we were scouting them, and we felt like the line was available as long as the blockers didn't take it away. They did give us the line, and I thought our attackers did a good job of taking it."
On preventing anterior cruciate ligament injuries with a different court surface ... "I have not seen an increase of ACL injuries when playing on Sport Court instead of a regular court. Female athletes do have a much larger number of ACL injuries compared to males, and they are doing a lot of research on why. A lot of it has to do with strength issues, including the ability to land and maintain the integrity of your joints. There are some strengthening things to do, but it is just really baffling to us as athletes. Women's basketball, volleyball and soccer have seen these a lot. We are trying to do some strengthening things, but a lot of the reasons are still unknown."
On the limits involving redshirting an injured athlete ... "There are two types of redshirts. There is the normal redshirt, which is a decision we would make if someone wasn't quite ready to make an impact and we can give them an extra year of training. The other is a medical redshirt. A player can get that if an injury happens in the first 50 percent of the season and they've played less than 20 percent of the athletic contests. If that is the case, they're eligible to petition for a medical redshirt year. With Chantel (Reedus), her injury happened right at 50 percent, but she had played in well over 20 percent of the matches. So, she was ineligible for a medical redshirt."
Past Q&A Sessions with Coach Rosen
Contact: Jason Gerdom (734) 763-4423
