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2018 Texas Volleyball

texasstrong12

By texasstrong12
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sushihorn
sushihorn

I took my nieces to the TCU game in Ft Worth.  The youngest is a 12 year old libero for her school team and a HUGE Longhorn fan.  When it got to 12-12 in the 5th, she said "They're so young and probab

texasstrong12
texasstrong12

My thoughts so far.  1) I hate to say it because I loved Cat but I think we upgraded at libero. Petersen won't make the wow plays that Cat made but she looks to be much more consistent in serve r

Js1
Js1

Screw her. I predict team chemistry is 1000x better this year. 

TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 32077

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 minutes ago, Longhornmaniac8 said:

Honestly just unfortunate there at the end. Our game certainly elevated from set 1. Hard for it to go any other direction, but still.

True true.  Still just gross.  We didn't look like we belonged in the same gym.

 

One thing I noticed over on volleytalk.  We apparently hyped this up on social media and Stanford ignored it.

 

I know road games are funny things, but there was nothing intimidating about that crowd.  We may have headfucked ourselves.

Edited by TwiceHorn
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TexasDPT

TexasDPT 338

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Posted

Stupid coaching...keep track of your substitutions especially at the end of a set...

That's why you train 6 rotation players....and sub in those DS's when those players are struggling...

And WTF do they work on in practice?  It's not Serving...it's not passing...

Elliott and his staff should be embarrassed for putting that shit show out there!

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 32077

Posted
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1 minute ago, TexasDPT said:

Stupid coaching...keep track of your substitutions especially at the end of a set...

That's why you train 6 rotation players....and sub in those DS's when those players are struggling...

And WTF do they work on in practice?  It's not Serving...it's not passing...

Elliott and his staff should be embarrassed for putting that shit show out there!

I think it's solely because he put Gabriel in to serve twice.  For one thing, why wasn't she brought in in the second set?  For another, when you make that switch and it works, stick with it.

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TexasDPT

TexasDPT 338

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, texfan11 said:

That’s just poor coaching with not managing the subs properly. Also, Autumn should have NEVER been trying to block, instead you put up a solo block, have Autumn drop off, and adjust the defense to cover more of the court

Exactly!  We lost on a blocking error by Autumn! Why even try to block a 6'7 hitter...LOL

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TexasDPT

TexasDPT 338

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

I'm honestly not sure why the 10-plus-year fans aren't calling for Elliott's head.  I'm sick of it and I've been watching for 6-7 years.

 

I'm also crabby af.

I agree.  At some point, something needs to change.

Elliott actually coaches his passers to pass the ball up to the 10' line.  He'd rather them err on the side of caution and pass the ball somewhere in the court to at least get an out-of-system swing on the ball.  Watch them in warm-ups.  They actually practice out of system passing and train to throw it up high to the pins....which is fine if you have players like Destinee Hooker, Bailey Webster, and Haley Eckerman who can hit over the block. 

Watch any other elite team.  The passes (whether on serve-receive or in the transition game) are 2-3 feet off the net, where the setter doesn't have to chase after every ball...

And it all falls on Elliott...Erik Sullivan coached at Nebraska and his players at that time weren't consistently passing out-of-system...and the same for Salima Rockwell and the system she coached at Penn State. 

Elliott's system has only won 1 NC in 17 years...and that's with all the bad-ass players he has had...players who have become National Team members and Olympians...

 

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WJC88

WJC88 97

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, TexasDPT said:

Stupid coaching...keep track of your substitutions especially at the end of a set...

That's why you train 6 rotation players....and sub in those DS's when those players are struggling...

And WTF do they work on in practice?  It's not Serving...it's not passing...

Elliott and his staff should be embarrassed for putting that shit show out there!

That's what I was wondering. 

The names have changed but the play remains the same.  Ridiculous. 

Edited by WJC88
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perfectchaos007

perfectchaos007 6780

Posted
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It’s like we say in tennis: serving is 50% of the sport. All points begin with serve, and if you can’t get your serve in, you’ll lose at least half the points in the match. It’s the most important shot in the game, and needs to be one of the biggest focuses in practice. I think most coaches outside of Elliot would agree....

Edited by perfectchaos007
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Aleemay

Aleemay 304

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Posted

The weird thing is that one of the critical passers of the 2012 championship team Sha'dare McNeal didn't even play back row until her senior year of high school!

Somehow Elliot, Rockwell, and Sullivan were able to develop her passing and defense skills during her four years

 

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sunset87

sunset87 255

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Posted

The only facet of the match that UT was the equal to Stanford was hitting...that's it.  Against elite competition it becomes painfully obvious that this team is consistently inferior in serving, passing and setting.  Against Stanford they were also out blocked by a large margin, which is a little unusual. But the same thing happened against Wiscy. Of course a good setter can make blockers look bad.

The new libero looks pretty good, especially for a freshman.  Why doesn't Elliot recruit a few liberos, let them compete for the libero position and move the others to DS? You can't win with just a bunch of big athletic hitters. They've got a least 2 or 3 sitting on the bench that will rarely see the court for their entire careers.  Elliot's teams are consistently out classed against high level competition in the other fundamentals of the game. I mean he's a good recruiter and coach but he has some blind/weak spots that need some introspection.

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Aleemay

Aleemay 304

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Posted
1 hour ago, sunset87 said:

The only facet of the match that UT was the equal to Stanford was hitting...that's it.  Against elite competition it becomes painfully obvious that this team is consistently inferior in serving, passing and setting.  Against Stanford they were also out blocked by a large margin, which is a little unusual. But the same thing happened against Wiscy. Of course a good setter can make blockers look bad.

The new libero looks pretty good, especially for a freshman.  Why doesn't Elliot recruit a few liberos, let them compete for the libero position and move the others to DS? You can't win with just a bunch of big athletic hitters. They've got a least 2 or 3 sitting on the bench that will rarely see the court for their entire careers.  Elliot's teams are consistently out classed against high level competition in the other fundamentals of the game. I mean he's a good recruiter and coach but he has some blind/weak spots that need some introspection.

That's the problem. Elliot does recruit liberos...McCoy, Brooks, Yogi, Palmer, Olschwanger, Rounsaville, Hahn, etc. were all recruited specifically for the libero position competition. While a lot were walk ons, they were all highly touted. Go to the archives of volleytalk and every year it's the same- posters getting all excited and singing the praises of the next defensive recruit (before coming onto campus and not panning out). Even Olschwanger was honored as a 'Defensive Dandy' by PrepVolleyball magazine. McCoy was one of the top 2 liberos of her class. Petersen has been recruited since 2015, back when she was just a sophomore in high school. I know the current Stanford libero Hentz was also recruited by Texas.

Thus the problem is development, which brings the spotlight on Sullivan- the defensive coach.

Actually, the libero position is pretty unstable on the national team. I think the US is going to go with a converted OH into L at this World Championships in Japan this year.

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 32077

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I have also seen reference to Elliott recruiting DSs from a particular Centex club that his ex-wife had some affiliation with.

 

And. it's an exaggeration to say he "doesn't recruit" DS, but he clearly does not put the effort into it, usually, that hitters get.   What it kind of seems like is, he gets one high-proflie libero every now and then (four years, really, eg Palmer, McCoy, Petersen) and a bunch of no-name DSs.   If we are going to have 2-3 of them on the floor at any given time, I think it needs to be a point of emphasis.  And, yeah, development is an issue.  But, if what TexasDPT says is true (and I am sure that it is, subject to interpretation), it may be the system within which Sullivan operates.

Edited by TwiceHorn
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sunset87

sunset87 255

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2 hours ago, Aleemay said:

That's the problem. Elliot does recruit liberos...McCoy, Brooks, Yogi, Palmer, Olschwanger, Rounsaville, Hahn, etc. were all recruited specifically for the libero position competition. While a lot were walk ons, they were all highly touted. Go to the archives of volleytalk and every year it's the same- posters getting all excited and singing the praises of the next defensive recruit (before coming onto campus and not panning out). Even Olschwanger was honored as a 'Defensive Dandy' by PrepVolleyball magazine. McCoy was one of the top 2 liberos of her class. Petersen has been recruited since 2015, back when she was just a sophomore in high school. I know the current Stanford libero Hentz was also recruited by Texas.

Thus the problem is development, which brings the spotlight on Sullivan- the defensive coach.

Actually, the libero position is pretty unstable on the national team. I think the US is going to go with a converted OH into L at this World Championships in Japan this year.

So it sounds like identifying high level liberos is a problem, maybe like trying to recruit and project good OL prospects in football.  I was not aware of that.  Even so, the other top level teams are better overall, at passing and defense at all positions.  Either the Texas coaches are not spending the time and effort practicing or they're not as good at developing some of these other skills. 

I don't like how it went down and am not close to the program at all, but there was speculation that some of these issues are why Sun left...Overall development, yada, yada.

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 32077

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All I bring to it, really, is the perspective of an entitled fan.  Elliott has done a good job overall.  The number of really competitive teams and final four participants has been remarkable.

I was on campus for Haley's great run culminating in the title in 88. 

When I started watching again, I kind of assumed that level of dominance had remained consistent over the intervening years.  It hadn't.  Elliott brought it back.

But getting back into it, paying more attention, it does seem that Elliott has a glaring weakness in the way he recruits and coaches defensive specialists and anything that isn't the offensive game at the net.  It has gotten frustrating to watch.  And if we were in a more competitive conference, we probably wouldn't have as many skins on the wall.

And yeah, Sun wanted to be a six-rotation player by all accounts.  One kind of wonders why a player like that would come to play for Elliott in the first place, as his back row coaching deficiencies are known by fans and no doubt exploited by other coaches.  I'm sure that had something to do with, but I have a niggling feeling that she has a Marinovich Dad and the decision was as much his as hers.  He didn't like how much fun she seemed to be having off the court, among other things.

Edited by TwiceHorn
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Sandlot

Sandlot 2

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4 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

All I bring to it, really, is the perspective of an entitled fan.  Elliott has done a good job overall.  The number of really competitive teams and final four participants has been remarkable.

I was on campus for Haley's great run culminating in the title in 88. 

When I started watching again, I kind of assumed that level of dominance had remained consistent over the intervening years.  It hadn't.  Elliott brought it back.

But getting back into it, paying more attention, it does seem that Elliott has a glaring weakness in the way he recruits and coaches defensive specialists and anything that isn't the offensive game at the net.  It has gotten frustrating to watch.  And if we were in a more competitive conference, we probably wouldn't have as many skins on the wall.

And yeah, Sun wanted to be a six-rotation player by all accounts.  One kind of wonders why a player like that would come to play for Elliott in the first place, as his back row coaching deficiencies are known by fans and no doubt exploited by other coaches.  I'm sure that had something to do with, but I have a niggling feeling that she has a Marinovich Dad and the decision was as much his as hers.  He didn't like how much fun she seemed to be having off the court, among other things.

The word Entitled is right, especially if you think  that Texas fans should call Coach Elliott out like you said as if he’s been stinking up the joint like Herman. But I agree with sunset87. IMO it’s about being able to correctly identify quality Liberos/DS. I think that most players that are good defensively/passing come into college with that ability.

There’s only so many ways that you can teach a player how to receive serve. And it’s pretty hard for me to believe that Coaches like Elliott and Sullivan that have not only coached at a high level but also played don’t know what the hell they’re doing in that area. And as far as Lexi Sun is concerned, let’s MOVE ON.

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 32077

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26 minutes ago, Sandlot said:

The word Entitled is right, especially if you think  that Texas fans should call Coach Elliott out like you said as if he’s been stinking up the joint like Herman. But I agree with sunset87. IMO it’s about being able to correctly identify quality Liberos/DS. I think that most players that are good defensively/passing come into college with that ability.

There’s only so many ways that you can teach a player how to receive serve. And it’s pretty hard for me to believe that Coaches like Elliott and Sullivan that have not only coached at a high level but also played don’t know what the hell they’re doing in that area. And as far as Lexi Sun is concerned, let’s MOVE ON.

Well, there's serving too.  I don't recall it being such a glaring problem prior to last year, but we are the worst serving team we have yet to encounter, by a measurable and significant margin.  And that doesn't even take into account the fact that the in-bounds serves do not challenge the opponent more times than not.

But, I have to assume that it's something more than identification.  As noted, when the effort is made, approximately every four years, a marquee libero is brought in and that player generally lives up to expectations.  It's the other ones on the roster, that get extensive playing time, that cause problems. 

For all the good he's done, he's got a pretty glaring weakness and no apparent disposition to solve it over the course of 17 years.

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TexasDPT

TexasDPT 338

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Posted (edited)

I agree with your statement that most players come into college with the ability to pass and play defensively. 

Mira Topic, Alyson Jennings, Ashley Engle, Heather Kisner, Cat McCoy, and now Sydney Petersen are a few names that I think came in ready to play at the collegiate level (since Jerritt's tenure).

Kiley Hall, Sydney Yogi, Sarah Palmer, Sha'Dare McNeil, Kat Brooks, and Amy Neal are the ones that had the ability but REALLY had to develop and refine those abilities to play at a high level. 

If the coaches are not able to develop the passing/ball control/floor defense that's needed to be a consistent Championship-caliber team, then they need to focus on getting players that already have those skills and offer them a scholarship, instead of hoping that these walk-on DS's will develop. 

WIth 12 scholarships, I think 2 need to be given to Libero/DS players; 1 definitely for a libero and maybe offer a 2-year deal to a DS player that comes in as a walk-on and if she is the first DS to come off the bench by her JR year, then she earns the other scholarship.  I mean, I would gladly trade-in Orie's scholarship for a DS that could actually be a consistent force in the back row. 

I think there is a large pool of  5'8-5'10 High school OHs in Texas with great ball control skills that could transition nicely to a DS role if they were at least offered a 2-year scholarship at Texas. 

 

Edited by TexasDPT
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