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SL Xpress

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Everything posted by SL Xpress

  1. The Big 10 used to be so fun for me to follow. This year it's a train wreck at the top other than Nebraska. I remember when people used to criticize Texas for not facing enough challenges in conference prior to the tournament. The thinking was - and I'll admit I've always bought into it some - that it's not good for a team to face the uptick in competition that comes in the Elite Eight/semifinal/national championship rounds without facing an equivalent squad in conference play. The Big 10 used to have so many of those types of teams, with Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Penn State. Even Purdue always put out solid teams, and Ohio State was an up and comer for a couple of years. Then they added the 4 west coast schools, all with their fair share of historical volleyball success. Now Minnesota and Penn State have imploded. Wisconsin just lost their starting setter to a dislocated shoulder injury - no timeline for recovery says Sheffield. Purdue is miraculously solid after having a gigantic exodus of talent, sending starters hither and yon including to national championship hopefuls Kentucky and Louisville. Ohio State will likely fire their coach either this year or next. UCLA is awful. Oregon took a step back when their coach departed for...Kansas? USC is playing out the string with Keller. Washington is a shell of the program it was under Cook when he brought his team to Gregory Gym for that classic comeback in 2021. Nebraska is in the same kind of quandary Texas faced in the Big 12. No real superlative teams, with Wisconsin coming the closest. I am interested to see if Florida can put it together somewhat. They're obviously not a very good team this year, but they do have a lot of talent. But I'm not going to watch the match, so I'll just have to see what the scores end up being.
  2. Henley and Harris become the new double sub! I'm not going to like Gaido transferring. But it's like Kenna Miller, except to a greater degree. I'm convinced Miller could start at plenty of Div I programs. And Gaido comes in with a higher profile than Miller did. Who is she beating out for playing time? It's not about her talent level, it's about competing with the other players in the same gym. Plenty of our back up transfers start at pretty high profile programs. I'm with you on Bunton. It's going to be interesting to see how Elliott handles the rotation from now on. It's obvious Harvey is much more explosive and makes the team way more competitive than Bunton. Ames is the one with the most experience, and so far she's been getting more attacking opportunities. Bunton seems like our best blocker, but to me she seems to lumber on the floor a bit. And going into the portal has its own issues. You want someone talented, but someone talented is usually going to want a clearer path to starting than competing with Ames and Harvey. And then if you succeed, you end up bringing in someone that displaces either Ames or Harvey. That will create its own problems. But you can't stand pat. Even just 3 middle blockers on the roster is not great.
  3. I watched her in international play. I think she's going to be fantastic for us. She's just showing glimpses of her potential. It's tough to focus on her when Spears and Harvey bring such a wow factor. And then we have Hayley Anderson coming in. An embarrassment of riches.
  4. They showed the passing numbers for Tennessee. Plante had a similar passing rating to Wonder Wal, but ended up with 46 attempts to Wonder Wal's 26. Given how close the sets were other than the 5th, that might have been the difference in the match.
  5. Yeah, mrshusker did that. It was in a response to a conversation criticizing the lack of middles being involved with Stafford swinging 64 times. Which...fair. But I felt there was context to it. The truth is I hope we get our middles more involved, but Spears' involvement from the right side mitigates that. I did a little research, and in the 4 years with Phillips as our starting opposite she swung the ball more than 30 times once. It was against San Diego in the semifinals in 2022, when Phillips took 34 attacks. Rutherford did it 3 times last year, but also had 18 matches with less than 20 swings. Spears already has 3 such outings with more than 30 swings, and in every match she's swung at least 20 times other than TCU, when she took 19 attacks in the 3 set win. Even without the middles involved as much as I'd like, we have a more diverse offense in many ways than we've had previously. They can certainly improve on a number of facets, with the middle attack being one of them, but at about the midway point to the season, there's a lot they're doing well. Obviously, given their record and the competition level. I loved the percentage of total attacks she compiled. That was very interesting.
  6. The number one setter is coming in, too. Genevieve Harris. Might not be Binney getting the double sub opportunity. Also Emma Cugino, the staffs' pick at libero after having their top targets in camp. That's with Callie Krueger on campus right now as a top libero, and Gary almost certainly taking the libero jersey next year as a senior. There are a lot of great players in Texas that UT doesn't recruit. Not enough room in the inn, and the state produces as much or more volleyball talent than any other state in the country. Just like it does in a lot of sports. Plus Texas volleyball recruits nationally at an elite level. There were a couple of years where Texas didn't bring anyone in from in state. Tennessee has 3 players from the state of Texas. Including Plante, they also have their starting middle blocker, Zoe Humphrey. She's a redshirt freshman. The one who was jawing across the net in the 4th set after scoring a point. And there's also Brynn Williams an outside hitter who transferred in from Texas Tech, but doesn't play much.
  7. It's probably a shame they didn't put the A&M match on a network. The Aggies go apeshit for that match. The thing is, everyone thinks Reed Arena is like that for every match. Although, to be honest the first part of the Kentucky match I saw, the fans looked like they turned out. Not like they do for Texas, but that's a pretty big arena. 4469 was the official attendance.
  8. I will say the Mississippi State announcers couldn't quit fawning over the Texas program. I also like Saltzman a lot more than Loeb. He's more invested. His ability to give context, referencing past Texas matches, at the drop of a hat was impressive to me. But yeah, Georgia was amateur hour. The color commentator was a former player, but I don't remember her name. Just awful. Listening to Logan Eggleston interview Stafford after the match was so awesome.
  9. Uh, the other thing being when Binney enters the match Spears sits on the bench. That's even bigger to me than replacing Swindle, and I love both Swindle and Kahahawai. I think there's something to be said for getting an investment from the whole team. We don't like that kind of stuff as fans. We want to see the most productive players out there. If a player isn't being productive, we want to see them replaced. Damn the consequences for team chemistry. It's not really something that enters our calculations. I look at Kahahawai, and I question her career choices depending on how important volleyball is to her. She was the highest ranked player to come out of Hawaii, a state where volleyball has the same kind of reverence that football has in high schools in Texas. A true 6 rotation OH. She played for multiple U19 and U21 national teams. She could have transferred at any point, but bided her time on the bench. Now it's her senior year - her last year - and Spears has come in to be a force of nature. There is no universe where Kahahawai will be a better volleyball player than Cari Spears. I feel like Elliott has been trying to find a way to keep Kahahawai invested in this team. Also, we're one slip up away from Binney being the starter. Swindle already took a match off with a boot on the sidelines. Wisconsin just lost their starting setter to a dislocated shoulder. Penn State has completely imploded with the drama around their setter who helped lead them to a national championship last year and now is no longer on the team. Elliott has created a system where he can get Binney and Kahahawai on the court in a way that has buy in from the whole team, especially Swindle and Spears. It's late in matches when Swindle rotates to the front row, and he does his double sub. It doesn't feel like a punishment to Swindle or Spears for sub par play. It creates an investment for Binney and Kahahawai, so they feel like they're making substantial contributions to the success of the team. And frankly, it's been effective at times. I will note that Texas closed out the first set in dramatic fashion, going down 22-20 and then scoring the next 5 points, with Swindle on the serving line, so your point is well taken. Also, Swindle got a critical early solo block in the 5th set with the following stare down that really set a tone. At some point I just have to trust the coaches. There have been times I've had some doubts. I wasn't a fan of bringing Wenaas in. I wasn't a big fan of bringing in Carlsen last year, even though I feel like she's an outstanding setter (better pure setter than Swindle). I don't really like our lack of blocking as a team this year and the way we've seemed to deemphasize it. But Elliott has earned the right to make whatever mistakes he's going to make. He also has a tendency to let players play through struggles, even to an extent that can be frustrating to us fans, but earns him a tremendous amount of investment from the players he's working with. That's something we aren't going to see from the outside.
  10. I think Abby Gaido may be the prettiest volleyball player we've ever had on the team. Her profile pic is fine, but when she shows up on camera she stands out. I will say they featured Madisen Skinner in a close up during the match, and she's an incredible looker, too.
  11. That 5th set where Tennessee hit -.052 did some heavy lifting there. 3 blocks in the 15 points and 17 swings overall for Tennessee in that set. Without going back and calculating it, that's by far the best ratio of blocks per point in a set on the season. That translates to 5 blocks in a 25 point set, which wasn't unusual in the past, but feels like a mission impossible for this team. That solo block by Swindle was a killer. Plenty of stare downs going on in that 5th set. The girls were feeling it.
  12. I also like Dawn Sullivan. But Missouri may not even make the tournament at this point.
  13. I'd argue Florida is more talented, but yeah, it's hard to say they're tougher. But I said that about their football team, too. I worked with David Saltzman about 15 years ago. Good dude. He was on the Houston radio at the time. He's one of the more knowledgeable regarding volleyball that we have covering us. I don't want to say he has the expertise of a former player or anything, but he knows the sport better than a lot of the play by play guys. Like Loeb.
  14. Alex Loeb and Shelby Coolidge on the call for the A&M/Kentucky match.
  15. There's a lot of stats I don't have access to. Volleymetrics has a lot of stats, but it's limited access. It's not so much a paywall, as you have to be involved with a college team in some regard. Permission is granted through the schools. But I don't know if even then those stats are tracked. And there's some debate over how blocking stats are kept. For example, in international play, a block is not considered an attacking error. I'm sure coaches keep track of unforced attacking errors versus errors caused by stellar defensive play, but in college it's not separated in the box score. Any attack into a block is considered an attacking error. At the end of the day I mostly have to go by the final score and the opponents we're doing it to. That's not very satisfying, but what we're doing seems to be working even if relatively woeful blocking stats.
  16. Arch Manning scores against Sam Houston State .gif.
  17. You're probably right.
  18. I'm all in favor of more blocks. I feel like blocks intimidate the opponent and either charge up the home crowd or silence the road fans. I don't think there's a more intimidating play in volleyball. But I watch this team, and I just don't see a great blocking team. As sunset87 notes, they're not always quick to get to the outside. They're also young, but Bunton is kind of a lumberer to me, and Ames isn't a whole lot more impressive in that regard. I like them both fine. They can both terminate the quick sets in front of the setter with aplomb. Harvey seems to have the most upside athletically. She twitchier. She explodes off the floor in a way neither Ames nor Bunton do. She's quick laterally. It feels like she stays in the air forever. But she's young. She didn't even early enroll. So I either lament our poor blocking numbers the rest of the season like a broken record, which I may very well do. I'll for sure continue on some level to miss Singletary, who would have been the eraser in the middle we're currently lacking. Or I accept this is a 2 block per set type of team, and hope they at least hit that mark. In the meantime all is not lost. Maybe the coaches saw we're not going to be a good blocking team, and so chose to deemphasize it. I don't know. But yeah, in international play it's way more common to go straight up. It comes from the men's game, like a lot of the strategies we see implemented. As Js1 notes, it keeps the ball from going between the defenders and the net to fall on the good guys' side. It provides higher elevation for the block, so harder to effectively hit over. It provides more block touches at the expense of blocks that score. I'm not going to sit here and advocate for it, because I love how dominating on the block we've been traditionally. But that's not the hand we're dealt with this season. I've said it a bunch on volleytalk, but if a genie were to suddenly appear to me to grant me one wish for this volleyball team, it wouldn't be to improve the blocking numbers anyway. I'm always interested in serves that get the opposition out of system. I think it's the single most critical component in winning matches, especially at the highest levels where everyone can terminate with aplomb. I don't think we're a bad serving team, but our collection of servers do not create the same fear factor our murderer's row during the two championship runs did. I miss that. It's interesting that we have Kujundzic as the server sub, with Lauenstein on the bench, who was the best server on her Nebraska teams, and Miller and Kahahawai, who are both top spin servers.
  19. 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.
  20. 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.
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. 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.
  25. 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.
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