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SL Xpress

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Everything posted by SL Xpress

  1. Someone was saying that in a Point Texas presentation prior to a match the speaker said the team is being told to block straight up more than aggressively leaning over every time. Rely on block touches and affecting the hitters' angles more than going for the roof and the point. With Sullivan gone different voices in the room affecting strategy, even if Elliott is the main stay. But 1.58 blocks per set in conference play is terrible. I'm just not used to seeing such low numbers for Texas. I remember in 2022 we spent half the season with abnormally low block numbers per set for us, but even then it was in the low 2's, and they really came on the latter half of the season and then turned it up a greater notch in tournament play. I don't see that happening with this team. They're just not a great blocking team. Nebraska made it to the championship game that year they beat us in Gregory without a good blocking team. It's not necessary if you have amazing backcourt play and are terminal, which this team does. I'm just not used to it, and find it a bit disconcerting, although I'll be fine with it. There's something so intimidating about a block score. I miss that. The biggest thing for me is I'd like to see serving improve some. Texas has always seemed to turn up the serving as the season progresses, so I'm hopeful that will be the case this year. When facing elite competition, the ability to get the opponent out of system with the serve becomes probably the most critical piece to winning.
  2. There were a few years there where Nebraska was winning every head to head battle against Texas in high school recruiting and in the portal. It felt like they were fielding the U19 and U21 national team. But Elliott did a better job with roster management in 2022 and 2023 to bring home the titles. And then Penn State squeaked it out against last year's Cornhuskers. Both of Stanford's last two coaches won national titles with talent recruited by the previous coach - Dunning in 2001/2004 and then Hambly in 2018 and 2019. Elliott took a lot of flak from a lot of circles for being able to recruit but not being able to win championships prior to 2022/23, but as we all know the program was a dumpster fire when he took over. He's managed everything extremely well. Not just the roster, but staff hirings, the atmosphere at Gregory. Scheduling. I only wish he'd do more media availability, but with the press corps that covers the sport, it's hard to blame him for not wanting to see them more often. In any case, we'll see what happens with this Texas team. I'm excited about the journey. Someone posted on Volleytalk we're now more than halfway through the regular season, which doesn't even seem possible.
  3. I don't really get too worked up about this stuff. I enjoy watching this team. I want to see them continue to improve. I notice we're still trying to develop a slide attack with Ames and Harvey. It doesn't look very smooth, but you gotta start somewhere. I'd like to see AVW and Swindle get a better connection, and for AVW to be more consistently terminal, but I never feel the same way with her that I did with Wenaas. I watched AVW be a star in international play even when playing with older players. I feel like she has a tremendous upside. And it's not all on her. There are times when Swindle really does her a disservice with some of the sets. But it's mostly on her. Just keep improving. Keep improving the serve. Maybe develop more of the bic with Stafford. Keep working with Spears. I don't see how Spears can get better than what she's shown so far, but I'm sure it's possible. Stafford came back strong in serve receive against Mississippi State. More of that. Keep being the backcourt wonder duo with Halter/Gary. Nebraska can do their thing. We just need this team to be the best version of itself if and when that matchup transpires. At least it's not like OU in softball. We have plenty of Nebraska heads on pikes. No reason why we can't add this version of the team up there.
  4. Nebraska has been on a ridiculous tear. I don't think their last 4 opponents have even hit .100, and they haven't hit less than .300. The Big 10 still looks like a strong conference, but they don't have the powerhouses they used to have. Minnesota is in a free fall. This looks like a good but not great Wisconsin team. Penn State has imploded. Purdue is surprisingly good given all the talent they lost, but not great. None of the west coast teams are super impressive. The SEC has Texas and Kentucky. The ACC has Pitt, Louisville, and Stanford. Volleyball is always top heavy as a sport, but it feels even more so this year.
  5. No, it didn't matter what fanbase he's from. I doubt satyanash cares what fanbase the guy is from. It's a reference to Greg Davis, not a reference to Kennythetiger.
  6. Well, I see improvement. At least I'm not looking at this game feeling like the one player on the team who deserves the most blame is Arch Manning. I didn't think anyone would move the ball on this defense the way Florida did in the first half. They came back and limited Florida to 7 points in the second half, but my goodness. I'm not saying Manning played the perfect game, but he played better. Now that our playoff hopes are pretty close to dead, I will hope he shows continued improvement over the rest of the season.
  7. It's a reference to Greg Davis moving on to Iowa for several years and doing Greg Davis things there, too. He also did Greg Davis things at North Carolina with Mack Brown before coming over to Texas. If a fan base is really excited to see someone leave, there's often a reason for it. Iowa fans dismissed Texas fans for a while until they finally came to the realization there was something to all the criticism.
  8. Yeah, probably should have spent more on Starck or her boyfriend.
  9. Rumor is she was paid $750k to transfer by Penn State alums.
  10. There hasn't been a more swift and ruthless mercy killing than Nebraska dismantling of Penn State in Happy Valley since Travis finished off Old Yeller.
  11. Allie Sczech wasting away on the bench is not quite as impressive as Landfair and Blackwell spending most of their time watching matches from the sidelines last year, but it's close.
  12. 25-6 in the first set. 25-15 in the second, which feels like a nailbiter in comparison. Hard for Martin to rack up any stats if Penn State never scores.
  13. Florida/Auburn was pretty entertaining. Just went final, with Florida winning 3-1. 3 lopsided matches to start then the 4th set went to Florida 27-25. It's interesting watching Byrd out there. I always liked her potential. Also, we really went after Alec Rothe, Florida's starting middle. Auburn runs a 6-2. I don't think I'm ever going to like that system. Stucky went for 42 assists, 12 digs, and 10 kills for a volleyball triple double.
  14. It is, but Minnesota has serious injury issues. Starting middle blocker Calissa Minatee is out for the season. Starting libero Zeynep Palabiyik is gone for the year because of an ACL. Starting outside hitter McKenna Wucherer has an undisclosed injury and has been out since September 1.
  15. They're not going to be regional hosts, but they'll likely host the first two rounds. No one else in the SEC is going to do that. They beat Minnesota before the Gophers went through a rash of injuries. Volleyball doesn't have a great depth of teams. No one is going to win the national championship outside of the top 8. And even outside the top 4 it can be unusual. The top 16 host the first two rounds, but the bottom 8 have a rough time in the regional. For many programs it's a big deal to make the tournament, but if you're not in the top 16 then you hope to get a high enough seed to head to the first two rounds against the top 13-16 seeds, because your season is pretty much guaranteed to end if you don't. So A&M being somewhere around the 10th to 16th best team is a big deal for them. But that can happen and you'd still be correct. I'm just saying, in the SEC it's a big drop off from Texas/Kentucky --> then A&M ---------> then everyone else.
  16. Yeah, I'm not worried in the slightest. I do look forward to a return to the program having a dominating block, but it's not an end all be all. Our middles are being effective. That doesn't have to result in a direct point. If they're altering shots enough to set up a terminal transition game, that's still winning volleyball, if not quite as spectacular. Georgia's tip defense was woeful. They're just not that great of a team overall. They're not terrible, but they're going to struggle to make the tournament. Outside of A&M and Kentucky I'm not sure how good the conference is, to be honest. I know we'll get some other teams in the tournament, but those are the only candidates to host the first two rounds, IMO. Florida falling off a cliff is a bit of a bummer from that perspective, although I can't say I'm all that invested in it. I was looking forward to having them as a fellow volleyball powerhouse, but they have work to do.
  17. I honestly doubt if either one of them have watched a single Longhorn volleyball match this season. They knew nothing about this Texas team that wasn't spoon fed to them pre game.
  18. I do a little bit. I really liked the LHN volleyball coverage. I especially enjoyed all the non Longhorn fans complaining about it when there was a match being played they wanted to see.
  19. They're obvious homers. It's going to be amateur hour for most of these SECN+ broadcasts. I feel like they pulled the play by play guy out of the communications school and the color commentator was some former player looking to make a little cash. Might as well have been saying boom goes the dynamite the entire broadcast.
  20. Georgia with 10 blocks to Texas 5. And Texas still sweeps. BTW, I really like Miller as the serving sub over Kujundzic. I hope that continues. She served for 2 points before the service error. It's a high risk high reward top spin serve, so you're going to get some errors.
  21. Maybe. I guess to me I'm resigned to our block being closer to above average than elite, and the fact we've played so many matches where we've been out blocked, my expectation is that we're going to get out blocked again. The point of the game isn't to out block the opponent, so again, I'm not terribly concerned. I will say our block has looked fine if we were a normal team. But to be a team from Texas with these blocking numbers is not usual. But if the team serves tough to get the opponent out of system, terminates at a high rate, and has great backcourt defense, it's not something to complain a lot about unless you're someone just looking to complain.
  22. Another strong blocking team. 6th in the nation at 3 blocks per set, led by 6'6 middle blocker Kendal Kemp at 1.5 blocks per set. Texas leads in almost every other category, though. Not terribly concerned about the match, but that's probably true for most of the teams in the SEC outside of Kentucky and A&M right now. I could change my mind. We faced them in the tournament a couple of years ago in Gregory. I can't tell how they compare to that Georgia team.
  23. It's down to Nebraska and Texas as the only undefeateds. Both of them have looked vulnerable at times, but both of them overall have looked like the best teams so far. I feel like we have our own version of freshman Martin in Spears.
  24. You say that like it's a bad thing.
  25. Singletary averaged more blocks per set in that match than our whole team does on average. It's so bizarre seeing a team go from winning the national championship to falling off a cliff. I mean, it's obvious what the explanation is, but it's still strange to me. I'm shocked Purdue is still able to be competitive after losing so many players from last year's team. You could field a really good team simply from the players that have transferred from Texas and are now starting on other teams. Setter alone you have Carlson, Crownover, and Cabello. I'm not complaining. I really enjoy our team. I don't know how far they go but this season is going to be a lot easier on me than last year.
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