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SL Xpress
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Recruiting - 2020
2019-2020 Football Season
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It's the stuff of nightmares. He felt like the Chosen One. Not just basketball success, either. He was going to be such an amazing ambassador for all the sports programs. I won't ever forget how I felt watching him give his speech at the Longhorn Welcome, proudly shouting that he's an alum. Gave me chills.
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I'm not even going to think about it until the writing is on the wall for Terry. Mostly I've just wanted to stay away from making a lot of negative posts. I'm a big volleyball fan these days. I'm very curious as to what collegiate athletics looks like in 2 years. I'm not concerned about us. But I am curious what the landscape is going to look like. We'll be at the top of the pyramid in terms of bringing resources to bear, but I feel like there are going to be more and more pressures on the cost of doing business that may start pricing other programs out of the market. And look, for the people who prefer to hope for the best, the season is hardly over. This game is a snapshot. Not a requiem. It dovetails with preconceived notions I have about Terry that goes back to his days as Barnes' assistant, but maybe I end up wrong about the guy after all. I just think this is a clear example of someone getting Peter Principled.
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Your answer confuses me. Primarily because I used a double negative. So that's on me.
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You're not going to believe this. I didn't. But I've been told she's not exactly "no longer even in his life." I'm just going to wait for Terry to run out the string. I like the guy on a personal level. I've never liked him as a coach. I'm still in favor of him being hired last year after taking the team to the Elite 8. It's not like we have a ton of those to boast about. But right after he was named the interim coach, him being successful was something I had mixed feelings about. I was told I was getting too far ahead of myself, which was true, but the scenario played out exactly how I envisioned it might. What are ya gonna do? I wasn't going to root against Texas simply so he wouldn't get the job. It was a magical season and now we're going to be consigned to something not special until he's fired and his replacement is found - which is also no sure thing. My biggest hope is that Beard has another meltdown at some point. Otherwise that guy is going to make me miserable with his future success.
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I apologize if this was posted previously, but this really is a must read from Asjia. It's long but so worth it. Right up there with Jordan Whittington's recent goodbye video. Holy crap I'm going to miss watching her play for Texas so much. Reading this makes me so proud to be a Texas volleyball fan in ways I haven't earned, but I'm grateful for nonetheless. https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/asjia-oneal-texas-longhorns-ncaa-college-volleyball
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I wasn't a big fan of the Lauenstein pick up at first. But I wasn't a fan of bringing on Wenaas, either, and that turned out okay after not seeming to be okay for quite a bit of the year (with no knowledge of how bad it might have been if she hadn't been here). It helped immensely to have Skinner in the back row for her rotations, but it still worked regardless. But I'm with you. With Rutherford coming on board, I'm like, "who cares? Let's see how it pans out!" Plus Carlson? What kind of witchcraft is this? And both Lauenstein and Carlson are outstanding servers.
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This is Rutherford's highlight reel for 2023 put together on January 4. Her season long hitting percentage out of the back row wasn't all that impressive, but you can see her showing what she can do from there on a few plays in the video. It is a highlight video, of course, so you're not really seeing her when she's struggling. I will say the editor picked matches against top opponents. While you watch the video, just think of her and Skylar Fields being on the same high school team. Also, both she and Skinner played club together. Anyway, to call her a dynamic right side is an understatement.
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There is no pin out there with ambitions beyond college who aspires to be a 3 rotation hitter. The only reason 3 rotation hitters are able to be as common as they are in the college game is because the rules allow for 12 substitutions per set (the libero does not count as a substitution). In international play, including the Olympics and national team tournaments, but also in professional leagues, only 6 substitutions are allowed, and they're more limited in nature. Only being able to play 3 rotations severely limits any aspirations beyond college, especially since international leagues limit the amount of foreign players each team can sign. It's a big reason why Skylar Fields left Texas for USC. Even though she was pretty bad defensively both of her years there, USC was willing to feature her as a 6 rotation player because she was so good offensively in ways that Texas never would have. It's very common for transfers to occur among top pin hitters because even though they're playing, they don't have a path towards being a 6 rotation player. A player like Madisen Skinner was willing to play 3 rotations last year, but it was with the understanding she'd be trained as a 6 rotation player in practice, and then after Eggleston left (even while Eggleston was on campus last year towards the end of the season) Skinner started playing all 6 rotations. There will be a lot of juggling going on. Also, Henley Anderson is in the class of 2026 out of Austin. She's unbelievable as a left pin, and she loves Texas. Not to mention Byrd, Helmers, and Tompkinson already on the roster, all of whom redshirted. And Kahahawai who has two years of eligibility left. Plus you have Rutherford as a one year rental, and Lauenstein who still has 2 years of eligibility left. A lot of these players are almost certainly transferring at some point, when the rubber hits the road. I'm beyond shocked Kahahawai didn't enter the portal, but I still expect her to be in it in the spring period. Just like Parra left last year. Nebraska has similar issues after recruiting in cheat mode for 3 years in a row, plus adding Landfair and Beason. Jurevicius, the #6 player in the country last year, already transferred to Penn State. Lauenstein left the team last year. Kubik transferred to Tennessee. Batenhorst and Krause are having to compete with Landfair, who probably has 2 years of eligibility remaining. It's doubtful they have a 6 rotation spot open, given that Murray and Beason have two spots locked up, and they're going to want to play one of Choboy or Mauch. Rodriguez is considered one of the best liberos in the country. Choboy was the top libero recruit last year, and Mauch is the top libero recruit this year. First world problems.
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Ayden Ames and Taylor Harvey were both at Nebraska for their big 92k football stadium event. I want to thank John Cook for putting them together on that recruiting trip so they could figure out they wanted to play together...somewhere else. Cook has been an MVP for helping Texas put together finishing touches on its championship winning program for a couple of years now. I want to thank him for creating a culture that continues to drive talented players our way.
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I haven't heard anything along those lines, 10SNE1. The thing that's been remarkable about her recruitment is the number of unofficial visits she's taken to Texas. Like 4? I don't remember ever seeing any volleyball recruit for any school take as many unofficial visits as she has to Texas. Her sister goes to Stanford. Like Js1 already said, beating Stanford is really tough. It would be a huge feather in our cap for recruiting purposes. Texas is for sure a goliath when it comes to volleyball recruiting, make no mistake about that. But Nebraska and Stanford are really our only peers, and historically it's been tough - but not impossible - to beat either one. It would be really nice. Especially since she's considered the best middle blocker in her class.
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I really do think we're getting Taylor Harvey. Could be a transfer portal person, though.
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I love facing Nebraska in the postseason. I don't care what round we see them. It was funny watching them lose to Oregon in the Sweet 16 last year to break their Elite Eight streak, especially in part because they got stuck in a really bad rotation in set 4 after running out of subs. But it sure would have been fun to steam roll them in Omaha, too, if they could have made it there. Which we would have done. Losing to them sucks more, but winning against them is so much sweeter. I love that feeling.
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Forget Elliott. It was big for me!
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Caffey was an All American for Nebraska. Bergmark was one of the best middle blockers in the Pac 12. Deandre Pierce was a starter for a very good Georgia Tech team the next year. Parra practically won Big 12 player of the year with TCU. Ewert is playing better as a professional than SKT, who was rated as the best setter in the country by some sources her last year at Utah, and in my opinion was severely underrated as a setter at Texas. O'Neal was the best player in the country not named Skinner this past year, with arguably the most historic serving run in volleyball championship history - as a middle blocker! She's the school record holder in blocks and one of the best slide attackers in college volleyball ever. Halter is going to go down as a legend, IMO, and that year was her true freshman season. Akana was a celebrated server/DS for Nebraska who took over the same role at Texas, going on fire from the service line in the tournament including the match point ace versus Louisville. Kahahawai has been a national team member for u19 and u21 for years, winning a gold medal as a starter last summer. Molly Phillips is another all American who during her career won two national championships and made another final as a starter. The roster was unbelievable in 2022. I never thought we'd see the like again. But who knows? Maybe 2024 we have something similar. Lauenstein, Rutherford, and Carlson are unbelievable roster additions. If Kahahawai decides to stay and keeps improving, and we see something from Helmers, Bunton, Singletary, Ames, and Byrd, this roster is going to be crazy from top to bottom. Their toughest opponent will be the 2nd team, just like it was in 2022. But getting back to Skinner, it's one thing to go from a relatively underrecruited talent to an All American. That's not what she did. I'm just saying that happens pretty regularly. That's very impressive for sure. It's an entirely different dynamic to go from an All American, to head and shoulders the best player in the country. Everyone notices her crazy elevation at the pin and basically her being indefensible from the back row. But her defense has improved so much this year. And that serve! Honestly, I think her serve might be better than Eggleston's. Because of O'Neal versus Nebraska, we tend to forget a little bit about Skinner's run against the Badgers! She just keeps improving every match, every week, so so much. The amount of time she has to be putting into her game must be insane. I know she's still not the best passer in the NCAA. Elliott even took her out of serve receive completely a few times this year when she was getting picked on. Just stood Halter right next to her and basically had her lined up practically at the sideline of the court. But I bet she's good next year. She just works so hard. I don't remember her being a weakness in the final four, that's for sure. Especially compared to her counterparts Franklin and Murray. But defensively she's really good! She saves a lot of hard hit shots, never gives up, and plenty of her digs put us in a great place in transition. She's an asset back there outside of serve receive. I can't wait to see what she does in 2024. To me having her come back is just as unfair to the rest of volleyball as having O'Neal return this year was. She's a cheat mode, for sure.
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She's better than Logan Eggleston. I did not have that on my bingo card.
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Whatever he wants to do, I'm on board with. But Leyla Blackwell out of San Diego has much better stats. I also like her better watching the two teams play. After Lauenstein, Rutherford, and especially Carlson, I'm just going to assume Elliott is going to get whoever he wants. I know no one on the team has entered the portal (other than Phillips/Heinrich for beach, and Crownover) but I have to assume after spring practices and the European tour we'll get some folks entering the June window. What has happened this winter portal period is crazy to me. Even with all the craziness we've seen in the past.
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They weren't salty when they were winning every recruiting battle for the last 3 years, basically building a team from the u19 roster. It's amusing when a program's unfair advantages work in their favor, versus when a program's unfair advantages work in an opposing team's favor. Nebraska has dominated Wisconsin in recruiting since forever, yet Wisconsin won 4 Big 10 titles in a row, 9 straight matches, and a national championship over Nebraska and they all cry foul because Wisconsin brought in transfers. We used to carry our water against Nebraska in recruiting, but the last 3 years we hadn't won any real head to heads against them in high school recruiting other than Ayden Ames' recent flip. Plus Spears and Vander Wow, and possibly Taylor Harvey if we can get her, too. But 2022/2023/2024 for the most part Nebraska had first dibs on whatever high school recruiting talent they wanted. They even grabbed Kaitlyn Hord out of the portal over us a couple of years ago. It's so hilarious to be running circles around them in roster management, both the last two years, and apparently in the years to come as well. Akana, Caffey, and Lauenstein are sure going to make it tough for Nebraska to sell themselves as the more supportive environment.
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That's UT assistant coach Erik Sullivan directly behind and between the two head coaches. He was an assistant for Cook when this photo was taken.
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I think this post is absolutely hilarious. Prophetic, even.
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Led the team in aces. Is she a 6 rotation player? She was at Nebraska, but I don't think she'd be one at Texas. Elliott seems to like to go with one back row attacker at a time, and that will obviously be Skinner. Wenaas was a 6 rotation player at Minnesota with decent defensive stats, and we never saw her back there. Heck, Skinner played 6 rotations at Kentucky, but when she came to Texas - in part with the promise she'd at least get trained as a 6 rotation OH - Eggleston was the 6 rotation player for most of the year except for a couple of weeks when Elliott put Skinner in that role instead until the tournament came around. I've really enjoyed the 3 littles lineups with Fleck/Halter/Akana and Halter/Barnes/Akana. I hope we can get a good replacement for Barnes. She was shaky for a good portion of the season, but really pulled through late in the year and especially the tournament.
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That's hilarious. The problem is, she's not very good. She played against Texas and looked completely overmatched. Even more so than Batenhorst, who she replaced, who also looked overmatched (Batenhorst destroyed us two years ago in that loss in Gregory, however). The other Nebraska player in the portal, Caroline Jurevicius, was the #6 rated player in the country, a former u19 national player, with a long time pro NFL dad. She has a rocket for an arm, is 6'2, and will end up being a great pick up for someone. She redshirted as a freshman, so she'll still have 4 years of eligibility left. I actually wanted her more than Lauenstein, but heck, I had questions about Wenaas when got her, through most of the season felt vindicated by it, then we go on and win a national championship. At this point I just figure we'll win another one next year regardless what the roster looks like.
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The big problem with the Final Four in Texas is the absurd amount of extra elements involved. The AVCA has their big convention the weekend of the Final Four. They want a city with the hotel space to accommodate their convention. They want the convention to be within walking distance of the arena where the Final Four is being held. They want the rates to be reasonable. Also, the NBA isn't excited about scheduling around the volleyball Final Four, so cities where the event would be held in an NBA arena don't bid any more. To me it's kind of crazy they never go out to the West Coast any more, since that's where so much of the sport's foundations for future success were laid. At least send it to Las Vegas, which is going bonkers about all the NCAA championships they're putting bids in for these days. Houston has been putting in tons of bids for the NCAA men's basketball tournament and now the college playoff. But they can't be bothered with the volleyball Final Four so far. But with the way the sport has been growing, I'd love to see a return to San Antonio, or any of the other Texas cities.
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Just to give a head's up, the boom wasn't for Lauenstein. I don't think he does booms for portal players. I haven't noticed it, anyway.
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That felt like a slow start to me. West Virginia just looked awful. But maybe I'm picky. I felt like it was difficult to learn anything about the team with West Virginia being so woeful. I agree with Js1's comment. They seemed to tool off our block regularly. Only 5 blocks this match in 3 sets. Usually we average over 3 blocks per set, and West Virginia is one of the worst teams on the entire schedule. It seems like Texas has improved in the second match every time we have these back to back matches this season, so I expect more of the same at the ridiculous tip time of 4pm central.
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Ayden Ames switching from Nebraska to Texas one week before signing day and two months before she reports to on campus dorms has paid such dividends for me on the entertainment front. This has been a glorious 24 hours. And that's not even counting the fact she's a top talent at a need position. This has been beautiful.
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