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SL Xpress

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Everything posted by SL Xpress

  1. 2022 was the last time we hosted a regional. Like Wolf Brand Chili used to tell us, that's too long. But the matches then were crazy. The match against Ohio State in the Elite Eight was packed to the gills. It set the record for Gregory Gym at 5344. I feel confident there were some successful bribes to the fire marshals that day.
  2. Almost certainly at Gregory. I guess I could be surprised. Billy Strings is scheduled for Dec 13, and regionals is held Dec 11-14. All regional hosts are required to install a taraflex court or they can't hold regionals. But I'm assuming they're going to rent a court for Gregory and just hold it there. I could see future regionals being held at Moody, but probably not this year. I know the contract for Moody gives UT access to the building only so many times a year so they can host other events the rest of the year, but I don't know all the logistics around it. It seems like they'd have to organize something in advance, though, and there's definitely been no word on it. It was a big deal to host the Stanford match in there, and tickets sold out remarkably fast for that. There's also the issue of donors having their preferred seats. The selection for seats works differently at Moody, so there would be some upset volleyball fans to deal with. Not that it couldn't be worked around, but the more advance notice probably the better.
  3. I don't get all that concerned about Auburn. Florida plays up and down, but we're decidedly more talented. The Gators do not play up to their potential most matches. A&M is in College Station. That environment is going to be insane. Plus they're good. Lednicky is outstanding. Their middle blocker is outstanding. They have some other nice parts. Kentucky is in Gregory. They're almost certainly going to be a regional host. I'm looking forward to that one, and feel like we can win, but that's a test for how we'll perform in the Elite Eight and beyond. Could easily face them two more times this season. We waxed TCU and Baylor so thoroughly. Probably our peak performances this season.
  4. It feels like our seeding is pretty locked in at this point unless we lose a whole lot of matches. We're either going to be #1 or #2, and the only way we get #1 is to go undefeated, and maybe we don't get it even then. I'm fine with that. A #2 overall seed and hosting regionals would be an outstanding result, IMO. I would also like to win the SEC regular season. The tournament is not as important to me, other than we're playing in it, so might as well get a trophy out of it. First thing is next week. This week's matches against Ole Miss and LSU feels like the calm before the storm.
  5. Abby Wonder Wal for the two matches last week: Arkansas - 13 kills 2 errors 28 attacks .393 hitting percentage OU - 15 kills 5 errors 25 attacks .400 hitting percentagentage
  6. Watching the Florida-Kentucky match earlier, Kentucky head coach Craig Skinner finally lost his first challenge in conference play. He's now successfully challenged 8 out of 9 calls I believe, and 15 out of 19 on the season including non conference play.
  7. They recently fell out of the top 25 for the first time since 1991. 1991! Mary Wise is a legitimate legend, who just retired. They've had some tough breaks the last couple of years. Two years ago they looked like a legitimate national championship contender - the year Texas mowed through 3 #1 seeds in a row to win it all - when they're starting stud true freshman setter tore her ACL really bad and was lost for the season. It's funny, because they lost their 1st team All American stud right side attacker to Nebraska in Merritt Beason. Little did any of us know they had true freshman Kennedy Martin waiting in the wings who makes Cari Spears look like a piker. Then Martin transfers to Penn State. Last year they had chemistry issues. Eventually Mary Wise called it quits. Without Martin they don't have a balanced attack. Theis did a really good job at Marquette before taking the Florida gig. He was a former assistant in Gainesville back in 2006-2008 before starting his head coaching career at Ohio. But I am not feeling him at Florida. Kentucky is a relatively new bully on the block for the SEC. Before current head coach Skinner got there, they were nothing. Before that, Florida ruled the roost. There's a famous call/non call in the volleyball world. In the 2015 tournament match in the regional finals in Austin, Florida and Texas were battling in the 5th set. The score was 7-6 in favor of Texas, when Florida's OH hit a ball that landed within a couple of feet of the end line, but the official called it out. Texas would go on to win the 5th set in extended points, 17-15. It was a pivotal moment in adding some kind of challenge system to allow obvious blown calls to be reversed, which eventually evolved to the system we have in place now. They never did win a national championship under Wise, but she coached for 34 seasons, won 1068 games, made it to 8 Final Fours, and won a remarkable 25 SEC conference championships. As a comparison, Elliott has now won 675 matches in 26 years as a head coach.
  8. Florida has all kinds of issues, but they're a talented team overall. Two good to great middles in Auguste and Rothe. One of the best setters in college volleyball in Stucky. Two good but journeymen for a reason outside hitters in Byrd and Madkin. A serviceable at best right side in Serbian Vidacic. For me their biggest issue is this insistence on playing Hutson in the front row for 3 rotations. Florida consistently gets outscored with her up there. Kentucky went on an 8-0 run in the first set, and blew the 4th set open from a 17-17 tie. Theiss is the worst kind of play not to lose head coach. He doesn't put their most aggressive server on the service line for the 5th set because he's scared she's going to hit an error. Meanwhile they get demolished 15-6. He puts Hutson on the front row for her "defense." Dude, you have no out of system options other than the left pin. And now you have a substandard attacker over there. What are you thinking? And he does this regularly. Byrd and Madkin have issues, but they're legitimate attackers who can go get you points. All I know is that I hope he please please please puts Hutson in the front row as much as possible when they play us. Also, Kentucky is great, but they're very pin dependent with Deleye and Hudson. They have a freshman setter in Katy, Texas native Kassie O'Brien. They've got that 6'6 tree in the middle in Carr that leads the SEC in blocks. The Opposite hasn't been a productive position for them all season long. I like their floor defense, but I like ours better.
  9. I had such high expectations for this season. I feel like an idiot. I feel like this Texas team is a Nigerian prince promising to deposit millions in my bank account, but I keep hitting refresh, and my balance keeps showing $0.
  10. I don't know. You guys were pretty successful when Waco became Rapetown. You could want that.
  11. He should tell anyone who asks, "I think it's pretty selfish of you to ask me that question. I took the job at A&M to never take another job again." That should calm down any worries Aggies might have about him leaving.
  12. "All I do is win. Google me." - Curt Cignetti at his press conference after being introduced as the new head coach of Indiana football
  13. Please make the beatings stop. Please.
  14. And now he dates Madisen Skinner. That's like fucking the prom queen right there.
  15. I think the Arkansas head coach is in trouble. They're a far cry from their Elite Eight team from a couple of years ago. That group was so fun to watch. Pretty much everyone played all 6 rotations with a bunch of undersized front row attackers, led by 5'7 OH Jill Gillen. I guess it's not a formula easily duplicated. I have always liked Florida better from a talent perspective. They should be performing better than they are. The match against Tennessee was a nail biter 15-13 5th set win. It was at Tennessee, so that matters. Replacing a legend in Mary Wise is never easy, but Theiss isn't making his job any easier with some questionable long term personnel decisions. We already beat Tennessee, but I consider Florida a more dangerous squad talent wise. After that this conference takes a big dropoff. I'm not a fan of either Auburn or Oklahoma, although both teams might make the tournament. It's a good thing Elliott scheduled such a challenging non con and the team did so well against it, because outside of Kentucky and A&M, this conference isn't doing us any favors this year. A far cry from a couple of years ago when Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas were all loaded for bear (Stucky ended up with an ACL which doomed Florida, but they were looking awesome before that).
  16. People love to say serving isn't that difficult. You know what is difficult? Actually winning a point on serve. In men's volleyball it's way worse because they hit so much harder, but even in women's volleyball the serving team only wins the point about 40% of the time. Against good teams that can plummet to 30% or lower. I would argue that serving effectively is the single most important competitive advantage a team can have. It's not the only advantage, or else a program like Indiana whose head coach emphasizes serving (as an example Texas' defensive specialist Ramsay Gary rarely served for Indiana as their #1 libero because of her lollipops, even though she's very good at keeping her serves in the court - her serves aren't difficult as you say, that's for sure). And yet Indiana struggles to make the tournament most years, and is very mid to bottom of the conference in the Big 10. That's just an easy example. When Texas won the national championships in 2022 and 2023, their tough serving across all 6 rotations was a big reason why. Not the only reason, mind you, but I'd argue the biggest reason simply because that was the biggest gap between Texas personnel and their opponents. In 2023 in particular, they practically served Stanford, Wisconsin, and Nebraska off the court. But it wasn't because it was so easy. It's because serving tough is so hard, but Texas was very good at it. Texas is not as good this year at serving. Maybe they can be, but I don't think so. We just don't have the potential lineup for it across the 6 rotations. Stafford is awesome. Halter is very effective. But after that there's a dropoff. I like Swindle's serve, but statistically it's one of the worst on the team in terms of scoring on her service rotation. I feel like Gary rarely gets the opponent out of system. She has a pretty good short serve where she gets it in no man's land closer to the net, but if she's not accurate with it the opponent ends up with all 3 options on attack, which is extremely difficult to defend regardless of opponent. I'm not a huge fan of Kujundzic's serve. Spears is working on a top spin serve (where the server jumps real high and then sends it to the other side with extreme velocity) but she rarely breaks it out in matches because it's not reliable enough, yet. Her float serve is fine, but still has work to do. Binney comes in and serves with the double sub Elliott often employs. Again, her serve is fine but it's nothing to write home about. Miller also has a top spin serve that she dials down with its aggressiveness simply to better ensure she keeps it in court, but she's in a battle with Kujundzic to see whose serve is actually more effective, so not even sure she's going to be a real option or not. Also in the Alabama match the Crimson Tide had issues keeping their serve in as well. The real culprit in that match was attack errors and the inability to be terminal, specifically in the first set loss. The service errors were 6 to 5, whereas the hitting percentage was .000 for Texas (Texas currently ranks #4 in the country with .304, and ended up hitting .385, .366, and .237 in the next 3 sets). Bottom line, I don't worry about service errors with this team as much as I'm concerned about the ability to get high quality opponents out of system consistently when at the service line. Won't matter against most opponents, but once teams make it to the Elite Eight and beyond, they're going up against one of the top 8 teams in the country. That's where it matters. If you can't get an elite opponent out of system with your serve, you're not going to win many points from the service line. If they're able to do the teeniest better job of that, they win the set and eventually the match. A good test of that will be A&M and Kentucky. Kentucky has a really good shot at being a regional host. May even be seeded above Texas if they can beat them in Austin. They have the best OH duo in the country, a candidate for freshman setter of the year in Texas native O'Brien, and they're extremely well coached. I don't think A&M is going to be a top 8 team unless they can beat Texas in College Station, but they're right up there on the cusp. Get those two teams out of system from the service line consistently, it shows we have a real chance when it gets deep in the tournament. If we can't, it shows a critical issue that hopefully can get addressed to some degree, although the options to do so are a bit limited.
  17. There's still a lot more value in volleyball than other sports, but it's on a steep rise. I don't know how much Stafford got to transfer from Pitt to Texas. There are rumors Kennedy Martin got a $750k deal to transfer to Penn State, but that's not a good source or anything. Could be completely made up. Nebraska outbid Texas for Kaitlyn Hord, a first team all American middle blocker back in 2022. They paid $100k for a single season. Texas got Madisen Skinner, an outstanding outside hitter after Skyler Fields transferred from Texas to USC. I don't think either of them got anything approaching $100k. Brian Davis when he was working at the AAS did a FOIA request from Texas for their reported NIL payments in 2022 and the highest one for volleyball was the $50k Eggleston received, but that was a legitimate NIL deal for Champion. Nebraska is known to have over $1 million for NIL available every season. But they actually make money in volleyball. And they're about to make more with the addition coming to their volleyball arena with added premium seating. Texas is considered second highest - and that includes local NIL deals with companies like HEB. I haven't heard any rumors about the overall payroll for Texas. Texas does not make money in volleyball. But neither does anyone else. Wisconsin comes the closest after Nebraska. We did flip Ayden Ames from Nebraska by selling her on the idea Texas has plenty of NIL opportunities in Austin even if she's not getting paid directly by the collective. She even participated in a panel about it at last year's South By Southwest. Marianna Singletary, one of the starting middle blockers, allegedly transferred to UCLA because she wasn't happy with her NIL deal at Texas. But UCLA isn't known for their robust NIL program, so it's hard to imagine she got paid more there. Her best friend goes to school there and she's able to serve, which she wasn't going to be able to do at Texas, so maybe it was for professional/national team development reasons, rather than a higher NIL amount. SMU brought in 5 prominent transfers from around the country, including 2 from USC, 1 from Auburn, 1 from Texas, and 1 from Colorado State. There was significant competition/interest for all 5 of these players. Two of them, the one from Texas and one of the ones from USC, are considered among the best at their position in the nation, but all of them had significant success at their previous school. Without knowing numbers, I can guarantee you SMU wasn't able to put together that roster without a significant investment...for volleyball, anyway. The real answer is I don't know exact figures for a lot of the personnel movement. I get some figures, but only rarely is it reliable like it was for Hort. I do know that there are more schools involved with tampering and NIL investments in volleyball. Nothing crazy like the $1 million per year Tech is giving to Canady for softball, but there isn't anyone in volleyball who can have the same kind of competitive impact Canady did. Softball pitchers are practically unique in almost any team sport in that regard. I would say right now anyone other than the very best at their position can be brought in for $100k or less. And I don't know exactly how much it costs to bring in the very best setter, OH, OPP, or middle blocker. LIbero and defensive specialists won't be at the same kind of premium. There are also going to be discounts available. For example, Penn State's starting setter from last year that won the national championship as a freshman has now quit the team because her teammates and coaches felt like she was experiencing physical abuse by her hockey boyfriend. She denies it and is now looking to go somewhere else. How much she will command on the open market I have no idea. It's very clear Texas has an attractive NIL pitch in volleyball, because we keep bringing in the best high school players in the country, plus many of the best transfers. Nebraska and Texas pretty much have their pick of the litter in both talent pools, and then everyone else chooses from what's left. That's a little bit of an exaggeration, but not much of one. Shockingly, the two teams are the last unbeaten teams in the country, ranked #1 and #2 in the polls, with the serious inside track on being the top seeds when the tournament field is announced. I know this didn't answer your question directly, but hopefully it provided some context.
  18. I'm not coping. I don't care. I don't consider Texas Tech a real threat to Texas. I feel like NIL, the wealth of some of your donors, and their commitment to football and other athletic programs gives the Red Raiders a chance to build a nice little program in the Big 12. If you get competitive enough, start drawing eyeballs and building a brand, maybe you can get invited to the big boys club eventually. But I don't have a lot of emotional investment in it. Great if you do. Who cares if you don't. Same thing with SMU which is doing much the same thing, with a bigger metropolitan more conveniently located, but a smaller fan base and alumni base. SMU has shown a real NIL commitment to their volleyball program, which is another sport I follow closely. I'm casually interested in how it works out for them, but there's no coping, and as a fan I don't feel threatened by it.
  19. I will say Phil Knight isn't the cheapskate T. Boone Pickens always was. Oregon athletic department people feel like Phil Knight has given assurances he's going to donate $6 billion directly to the athletic department. We'll see if that really happens, and it's still not the same as having him alive, but it would help ensure the generosity he's already shown doesn't completely fall off the map. I mean, along with the myriad of physical infrastructure he either paid for or certainly was the financial impetus in getting built. I'd also say that Tech's mega donors number at least two. Cody Campbell gets all the media attention, but his partner and former football team mate John Sellers is also a significant contributor. The point remains the same. Being dependent on one financial source, whether it's a donor, or a business client, makes you vulnerable to your future relationship with them and their decisions regarding your relationship. The nice thing for Texas Tech is both of those guys are relatively young.
  20. I have gorged myself on Sooner podcasts this week. They're all awesome. I find myself while loathing everything about the Sooners, I have a certain respect for them I do not have for the Aggies. Or their various social media guys. Here was my favorite. It's 2 1/2 hours long, and ain't nobody got time for that. I think I made it about an hour in before getting satiated on OU tears. But the whole rant at the beginning about this being a culture loss, that this was OU's best chance to beat Texas for a long time to come, was incredibly satisfying.
  21. As expected. And Purdue on the road was Nebraska's biggest challenge in the conference with Fuerbringer out for Wisconsin. Maybe they can lose a match. But it will be just as much of a challenge for them to lose a set, much less 3 in one match. And yes, part of it is because Nebraska is loaded for bear this year, but part of it is because the Big 10 has suddenly imploded this season outside of them. It reminds me when Texas played in the Big 12 and sometimes there was a real lack of elite competition. It can make the Elite Eight/Final Four/championship match a bit jarring in terms of the increase in competition. At least Texas has Kentucky and A&M in College Station. And Florida is talented, if discombobulated. Purdue already beat Tennessee relatively easily in a 3-1 win in Nashville, so it's not like they're creampuffs. Already beat SMU, too, in a sweep. But I think they'll be a #9 to #16 host team. Probably #9 to #12 tier. But Nebraska does look good, that's for sure.
  22. First set Nebraska only scored on 29% of their serves. The problem for Purdue is they only scored on 25% of their's. 25-23 Nebraska. This goes back to my complaints about over emphasizing service errors. If you don't put enough pressure on the receiving team, it's hard to win matches. And it's hard to put pressure on the receiving team. Harper and Jackson both hit over .700 for the set. But no one else hit over .110 for Nebraska. Wollard trying to make Purdue fans forget about Hudson and Chicoine.
  23. 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.
  24. 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.
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