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SL Xpress

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Everything posted by SL Xpress

  1. And now he dates Madisen Skinner. That's like fucking the prom queen right there.
  2. 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).
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. 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.
  21. I also like Dawn Sullivan. But Missouri may not even make the tournament at this point.
  22. 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.
  23. Alex Loeb and Shelby Coolidge on the call for the A&M/Kentucky match.
  24. 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.
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