The Mount: Week 3

The records so far for our 2016 season college pick em are as follow: Emily (7-3), Elizabeth (8-2), fan vote (6-4).

But we don’t want to be the only ones with opinions. We want to hear your opinions too! So play along by answering who you think will win each matchup by participating in the polls. And if you feel strongly about your choices, feel free to let us know in the comments below.

No. 1 Florida at No. 8 Auburn: Friday, January 22 at 8:30 p.m. ET
Florida Preview | Auburn Preview

Florida’s coming off a strong home opener where it scored a 197.675 to launch it into first in the rankings. Bridget Sloan did Bridget Sloan things, Alicia Boren finally started to show she could be a potential replacement for Kytra Hunter and the rest of the team easily handed UCLA the loss. However, this all happened at home, and the Gators are on the road this week as they travel to Auburn to take on the Tigers who have been having quite the season themselves. After keeping it neck-and-neck with Alabama in the first half of the Elevate the Stage meet, the Tigers had a mini-beamplosion to hand the Tide the meet. Getting that event under control will be crucial if the team wants any chance against the Gators.

No. 11 Oregon State at No. 6 Utah: Saturday, January 23 at 5 p.m. ET
Oregon State Preview | Utah Preview

Utah should win this meet. It’s at home after all. And Oregon State hasn’t been the same team it was last year. The Utes are slowly coming into their own and the freshmen are finally starting to get this whole college gymnastics thing. The team still needs to find some viable Dabritz and Wilson 9.9 replacements, though. The 9.85s won’t cut it come postseason. Oregon State is hurting a bit after losing All-American Erika Aufiero to a knee injury before the start of the season, but it’s dealing. Getting Kaytianna McMillan back on more events was an important factor in the team’s success at Lindenwood this past weekend.

No. 10 Arkansas at No. 4 Alabama: Friday, January 22 at 7 p.m. ET
Arkansas Preview | Alabama Preview

If this competition was at Arkansas, it would be a closer matchup with the outcome being less certain. The Razorbacks did win the last time out. But an average competition against Oklahoma Sunday showed there’s still areas of concern for the team. The 196.7 team that competed against Georgia needs to be the one that travels to Tuscaloosa on Friday, not the 195.9 one. If the Razorbacks are going to have any chance at keeping it close, staying on the beam, hitting vault landings and bars handstands are must-do things. Alabama, on the other hand, needs to continue to chug along, improving bit by bit so that the team can have the chance to surprise everyone once again and steal away an SEC title.

No. 5 UCLA at No. 29 Arizona: Saturday, January 23 at 3 p.m. ET
UCLA Preview | Arizona Preview

Last time Arizona was at home, the Wildcatssold outthe arena for Tabitha Yim’s first meet as head coach. That’s impressive for a team that hasn’t ever been exceptional. The team dropped a bit from that high, however, posting only a 193 in its meet at Texas Woman’s Sunday. Meanwhile, UCLA has started off stronger than it has in years. The team looks actually pretty good and Katelyn Ohashi has continued to get better with each passing week. The team needs to hit beam every time out though. Yes, the fall from Peng-Peng Lee was most likely a fluke, but it can’t happen again. Until the Bruins can get vault and bars up to speed, they need to take advantage of their excellence on beam and floor to make up the difference.

No. 20 California, No. 50 San Jose State at No. 24 Stanford: Sunday, January 24 at 10 p.m. ET
California Preview | SJSU Preview | Stanford Preview

Speaking of making up the difference on events, Stanford is another team that’s quite strong on bars and beam and very, very weak on vault and floor. No top-10 team should ever have to compete a Yurchenko layout. They’re better than that. But that’s exactly what Stanford did against Georgia. Floor looked to be getting there, though, with Melissa Chuang back in the lineup being a huge plus. Bars needs to work out some kinks, but it’s Stanford. There’s also the slightly concerning fact that the team barely beat a Georgia team that had FOUR FALLS on beam. If your opponent falls four times on one event, you shouldeasilybeat them, not by less than two tenths. California has also being doing pretty well this year so far. But there’s plenty of room for improvement. Toni-Ann is throwing tons of difficulty in her routines, which is making gym fans everywhere swoon. But she’s also getting hit a bit for it. There are no 9.9s flying for the sophomore like they did last year. We think it’s only a matter of time, though.

Other Notable Matchups
No. 9 Georgia at No. 14 Missouri: Friday, January 22 at 8 p.m. ET
Georgia Preview | Missouri PreviewGeorgia is coming off a fine meet and a oh god no meet while Missouri had a strong showing at Alabama. Tiger Britney Ward is coming off a SEC Freshman of the Week win after posting a 9.925 on vault and a 9.9 on beam. On the other side of things, Georgia had a rockstar performance on vault in its Monday meet, posting the nation’s highest total of the season so far. The Gymdogs continued the high marks on bars and had a solid floor performance as well but imploded on beam, having four falls in the single rotation. If Georgia’s not careful, it will come out the other side of this meet with a loss, which shouldn’t be the case because its a strong team when it hits.

No. 20 Kentucky at No. 7 LSU: Friday, January 22 at 8:30 p.m. ET
Kentucky Preview | LSU Preview

LSU also has something to prove. The Tigers had less-than-great beam and floor rotations at the Lady Luck invitational last Thursday have had plenty of time to train both the mental and physical side of those events. Sophomore Myia Hambrick was held out of floor after falling weirdly on a beam skill. Having her back 100 percent healthy will be important if LSU wants to post a high score to add to its average this weekend. Kentucky also needs a strong showing. With improvement from last season, the Wildcats need to continue to plug along with hit landings and made routines. It’s not going to beat LSU at home, but the team does have a chance of having a strong team total.

No. 3 Michigan at No. 17 Illinois: Friday, January 22 at 8 p.m. ET
Michigan Preview | Illinois Preview

It’s Michigan’s time to get out of the 196.9s. Maybe a change of scenery will help as the Wolverines will make their way to Illinois for the first away meet in the country this season. Illinois needs to show fans that the first two meets of the season are not going to be the norm of 2016. People picked the Illini as the team to watch out for this season, but so far we’ve seen nothing of the sort. It can’t be the O’Connor and Horth show. The others on the team need to step up and pick up some of the slack to post a solid score and start to erase the so-so scores from the first two meets.

No. 40 Washington at No. 16 Denver: Saturday, January 23 at 8 p.m. ET
Washington preview | Denver Preview

Denver is always a bit middle-of-the-pack, but shows signs of greatness here and there. We’d be alright with Nina McGee 10s in every floor routine of the season. We know it’s not realistic, but that’s another story. Julia Ross has also impressed, but now it’s time for the rest of the team to stay consistent and back those two leaders up. Washington had an OK meet at Arizona State Monday, but will have a quicker turn around than normal as it competed again Saturday. The team didn’t look bad and didn’t even have a bunch of falls all over the place. The GymDawgs’ main concern is little things like form, upping the difficulty on vault and landings above anything else.

No. 48 Arizona State, No. 35 Iowa State at No. 2 Oklahoma: Friday, January 22 at 7:45 p.m. ET
Arizona State Preview | Iowa State Preview | Oklahoma Preview

Oklahoma is back home and will be looking to clean up its performance in a number of areas, particularly floor. Vault was much improved in the landing department and bars is almost there but floor out of bounds aren’t a thing that should happen. It’s still early in the season, though, so toying with the lineups is a necessary step and growing pains are expected. Beam, on the other hand, is supposed ot be Oklahoma’s event. And the normally rock-solid Kara Lovan can’t be falling off every other meet. She needs to figure out what’s going on or the team needs to replace her with a 9.9-worthy routine. Arizona State is coming off a no good, very bad competition Monday night. Any improvement from that performance should be seen as success. Iowa State looked pretty OK at the Ozone Classic, at least from looking at scores (because no one will ever know how it really looked because there was no video of the event).

No. 51 Rutgers at No. 18 Nebraska: Saturday, January 23 at 7 p.m. ET
Rutgers Preview | Nebraska Preview

Bars. Rutgers had a miserable time on the event in its most recent meet, posting just a 46.0 after having a mid-7 and two 8s on routines. While looking pretty solid on the other events, one miserable event can undo even a 198-pace from the other three events. Nebraska improved immensely from its first showing of 2016, jumping from outside the top-25 to inside the top-20. More consistency is needed across the board and the filler spots in the lineups need to be replaced by long-term aid. So that’s an important next step that needs to be addressed this weekend.

These aren’t the only meets happening this weekend! To see all the matchups all in one place, take a look at our master schedule. You can also find live scoring and video links below.