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SL Xpress

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Everything posted by SL Xpress

  1. Ayden Ames and Taylor Harvey were both at Nebraska for their big 92k football stadium event. I want to thank John Cook for putting them together on that recruiting trip so they could figure out they wanted to play together...somewhere else. Cook has been an MVP for helping Texas put together finishing touches on its championship winning program for a couple of years now. I want to thank him for creating a culture that continues to drive talented players our way.
  2. I haven't heard anything along those lines, 10SNE1. The thing that's been remarkable about her recruitment is the number of unofficial visits she's taken to Texas. Like 4? I don't remember ever seeing any volleyball recruit for any school take as many unofficial visits as she has to Texas. Her sister goes to Stanford. Like Js1 already said, beating Stanford is really tough. It would be a huge feather in our cap for recruiting purposes. Texas is for sure a goliath when it comes to volleyball recruiting, make no mistake about that. But Nebraska and Stanford are really our only peers, and historically it's been tough - but not impossible - to beat either one. It would be really nice. Especially since she's considered the best middle blocker in her class.
  3. I really do think we're getting Taylor Harvey. Could be a transfer portal person, though.
  4. I love facing Nebraska in the postseason. I don't care what round we see them. It was funny watching them lose to Oregon in the Sweet 16 last year to break their Elite Eight streak, especially in part because they got stuck in a really bad rotation in set 4 after running out of subs. But it sure would have been fun to steam roll them in Omaha, too, if they could have made it there. Which we would have done. Losing to them sucks more, but winning against them is so much sweeter. I love that feeling.
  5. Forget Elliott. It was big for me!
  6. Caffey was an All American for Nebraska. Bergmark was one of the best middle blockers in the Pac 12. Deandre Pierce was a starter for a very good Georgia Tech team the next year. Parra practically won Big 12 player of the year with TCU. Ewert is playing better as a professional than SKT, who was rated as the best setter in the country by some sources her last year at Utah, and in my opinion was severely underrated as a setter at Texas. O'Neal was the best player in the country not named Skinner this past year, with arguably the most historic serving run in volleyball championship history - as a middle blocker! She's the school record holder in blocks and one of the best slide attackers in college volleyball ever. Halter is going to go down as a legend, IMO, and that year was her true freshman season. Akana was a celebrated server/DS for Nebraska who took over the same role at Texas, going on fire from the service line in the tournament including the match point ace versus Louisville. Kahahawai has been a national team member for u19 and u21 for years, winning a gold medal as a starter last summer. Molly Phillips is another all American who during her career won two national championships and made another final as a starter. The roster was unbelievable in 2022. I never thought we'd see the like again. But who knows? Maybe 2024 we have something similar. Lauenstein, Rutherford, and Carlson are unbelievable roster additions. If Kahahawai decides to stay and keeps improving, and we see something from Helmers, Bunton, Singletary, Ames, and Byrd, this roster is going to be crazy from top to bottom. Their toughest opponent will be the 2nd team, just like it was in 2022. But getting back to Skinner, it's one thing to go from a relatively underrecruited talent to an All American. That's not what she did. I'm just saying that happens pretty regularly. That's very impressive for sure. It's an entirely different dynamic to go from an All American, to head and shoulders the best player in the country. Everyone notices her crazy elevation at the pin and basically her being indefensible from the back row. But her defense has improved so much this year. And that serve! Honestly, I think her serve might be better than Eggleston's. Because of O'Neal versus Nebraska, we tend to forget a little bit about Skinner's run against the Badgers! She just keeps improving every match, every week, so so much. The amount of time she has to be putting into her game must be insane. I know she's still not the best passer in the NCAA. Elliott even took her out of serve receive completely a few times this year when she was getting picked on. Just stood Halter right next to her and basically had her lined up practically at the sideline of the court. But I bet she's good next year. She just works so hard. I don't remember her being a weakness in the final four, that's for sure. Especially compared to her counterparts Franklin and Murray. But defensively she's really good! She saves a lot of hard hit shots, never gives up, and plenty of her digs put us in a great place in transition. She's an asset back there outside of serve receive. I can't wait to see what she does in 2024. To me having her come back is just as unfair to the rest of volleyball as having O'Neal return this year was. She's a cheat mode, for sure.
  7. She's better than Logan Eggleston. I did not have that on my bingo card.
  8. Whatever he wants to do, I'm on board with. But Leyla Blackwell out of San Diego has much better stats. I also like her better watching the two teams play. After Lauenstein, Rutherford, and especially Carlson, I'm just going to assume Elliott is going to get whoever he wants. I know no one on the team has entered the portal (other than Phillips/Heinrich for beach, and Crownover) but I have to assume after spring practices and the European tour we'll get some folks entering the June window. What has happened this winter portal period is crazy to me. Even with all the craziness we've seen in the past.
  9. They weren't salty when they were winning every recruiting battle for the last 3 years, basically building a team from the u19 roster. It's amusing when a program's unfair advantages work in their favor, versus when a program's unfair advantages work in an opposing team's favor. Nebraska has dominated Wisconsin in recruiting since forever, yet Wisconsin won 4 Big 10 titles in a row, 9 straight matches, and a national championship over Nebraska and they all cry foul because Wisconsin brought in transfers. We used to carry our water against Nebraska in recruiting, but the last 3 years we hadn't won any real head to heads against them in high school recruiting other than Ayden Ames' recent flip. Plus Spears and Vander Wow, and possibly Taylor Harvey if we can get her, too. But 2022/2023/2024 for the most part Nebraska had first dibs on whatever high school recruiting talent they wanted. They even grabbed Kaitlyn Hord out of the portal over us a couple of years ago. It's so hilarious to be running circles around them in roster management, both the last two years, and apparently in the years to come as well. Akana, Caffey, and Lauenstein are sure going to make it tough for Nebraska to sell themselves as the more supportive environment.
  10. That's UT assistant coach Erik Sullivan directly behind and between the two head coaches. He was an assistant for Cook when this photo was taken.
  11. I think this post is absolutely hilarious. Prophetic, even.
  12. Led the team in aces. Is she a 6 rotation player? She was at Nebraska, but I don't think she'd be one at Texas. Elliott seems to like to go with one back row attacker at a time, and that will obviously be Skinner. Wenaas was a 6 rotation player at Minnesota with decent defensive stats, and we never saw her back there. Heck, Skinner played 6 rotations at Kentucky, but when she came to Texas - in part with the promise she'd at least get trained as a 6 rotation OH - Eggleston was the 6 rotation player for most of the year except for a couple of weeks when Elliott put Skinner in that role instead until the tournament came around. I've really enjoyed the 3 littles lineups with Fleck/Halter/Akana and Halter/Barnes/Akana. I hope we can get a good replacement for Barnes. She was shaky for a good portion of the season, but really pulled through late in the year and especially the tournament.
  13. That's hilarious. The problem is, she's not very good. She played against Texas and looked completely overmatched. Even more so than Batenhorst, who she replaced, who also looked overmatched (Batenhorst destroyed us two years ago in that loss in Gregory, however). The other Nebraska player in the portal, Caroline Jurevicius, was the #6 rated player in the country, a former u19 national player, with a long time pro NFL dad. She has a rocket for an arm, is 6'2, and will end up being a great pick up for someone. She redshirted as a freshman, so she'll still have 4 years of eligibility left. I actually wanted her more than Lauenstein, but heck, I had questions about Wenaas when got her, through most of the season felt vindicated by it, then we go on and win a national championship. At this point I just figure we'll win another one next year regardless what the roster looks like.
  14. The big problem with the Final Four in Texas is the absurd amount of extra elements involved. The AVCA has their big convention the weekend of the Final Four. They want a city with the hotel space to accommodate their convention. They want the convention to be within walking distance of the arena where the Final Four is being held. They want the rates to be reasonable. Also, the NBA isn't excited about scheduling around the volleyball Final Four, so cities where the event would be held in an NBA arena don't bid any more. To me it's kind of crazy they never go out to the West Coast any more, since that's where so much of the sport's foundations for future success were laid. At least send it to Las Vegas, which is going bonkers about all the NCAA championships they're putting bids in for these days. Houston has been putting in tons of bids for the NCAA men's basketball tournament and now the college playoff. But they can't be bothered with the volleyball Final Four so far. But with the way the sport has been growing, I'd love to see a return to San Antonio, or any of the other Texas cities.
  15. Just to give a head's up, the boom wasn't for Lauenstein. I don't think he does booms for portal players. I haven't noticed it, anyway.
  16. That felt like a slow start to me. West Virginia just looked awful. But maybe I'm picky. I felt like it was difficult to learn anything about the team with West Virginia being so woeful. I agree with Js1's comment. They seemed to tool off our block regularly. Only 5 blocks this match in 3 sets. Usually we average over 3 blocks per set, and West Virginia is one of the worst teams on the entire schedule. It seems like Texas has improved in the second match every time we have these back to back matches this season, so I expect more of the same at the ridiculous tip time of 4pm central.
  17. Ayden Ames switching from Nebraska to Texas one week before signing day and two months before she reports to on campus dorms has paid such dividends for me on the entertainment front. This has been a glorious 24 hours. And that's not even counting the fact she's a top talent at a need position. This has been beautiful.
  18. I also think there is the very human tendency to believe what we want to believe and look for information to confirm what we "know to be true" that has nothing to do with what generation you were a part of. The point of propaganda is not truth. It's to put out information that buttresses the belief structure of people who want to believe in the first place, and to confuse the information space to where everything is questioned.
  19. Yeah, I don't see how I can't get too CR-y by commenting a whole lot more. He's talked about the need to separate Ukraine from Israel, which in principle I agree with, but in practical terms as a one issue guy - Ukraine - it concerns me. I have hope...but still have concerns. At least he's not speaking in Jim Jordan-esque language. That's significant progress to me.
  20. The clear choice in this country is aid to Ukraine or no aid to Ukraine. There is no real choice to be more aggressive in how Ukraine is armed. Whatever mistakes have been made, I feel fortunate that they're getting the ATACMS at all at this point. That they received 1980s built main battle tanks. That they're getting F-16 fighter jet training. Whatever political will that has successfully pushed for more weapons, with more modern and lethal equipment and ammunition, is coming from the same side that has been hesitant in supplying it in the first place. So I'm just grateful it's happened at all. I am completely unsympathetic to any criticisms of the approach of this administration to Ukraine, because I have seen no evidence that there's a better choice available. I wish that wasn't the case. But it is.
  21. You can say that again. We certainly fought like fucking crazy. What a stupid way to prosecute a war.
  22. That seems like a bad example. It doesn't make any sense to go into a detailed critique of the US prosecution of that war, other than to summarize it as McNamara was an idiot. Smart man, but an idiot. He was an idiot at Ford and he was an idiot as Defense Secretary. What I will say, and you've said it many times, is that Russia does not look like it can successfully prosecute an attack any more. It felt at the time like Bakhmut was their last hurrah in that area, and nothing since then has made me think anything differently. What would change that is if Western resolve to keep supplying Ukrainian troops with arms and ammunition faltered (Mike Johnson, I'm looking directly at you). But the Russian army's ability to prosecute a large scale war is severely lacking. It was shockingly lacking at the start of the war, and its abilities have been severely degraded since then. Never mind their ability to supply their troops with the equipment necessary for a combined arms attack in any phase. Their training infrastructure is decimated. They have no ability to even teach new formations how to properly conduct war. Combine that with the fact competency is not the priority. Not being a threat to the state is the priority. Which means the chain of command is full of yes men whose path to promotion has to include how adept they are at successfully finding scapegoats.
  23. So your personal view is that if Israel/third parties compensate Palestinians for their displacement that should be enough that they ignore their claims on their ancestral land? And you think that would realistically happen?
  24. Are there a lot of you that think a two state solution is actually reasonable? To me the fundamental question is, do you believe Israel has a right to exist as a country of Jews, or do you feel like the displacement of Palestinians to form the state of Israel is a modern act of colonization that someday needs to be rectified? As the radical left says, "decolonization is not a metaphor." Everything we've been doing for almost 90 years feels like a dance pretending like these two fundamentally disparate views don't exist, and that there's some kind of middle ground that can be broached between them. Which I do not believe. I don't think Arabs in general (add in non secular Iranians, Turks, and Pakistanis), and Palestinians specifically, are actually going to be satisfied over the long term until Israel ceases to exist. Voices urging violence, jihad, and martyrdom will always have an audience. It doesn't have to be a majority. It simply has to be enough to cause chaos. This doesn't even touch on the yearning for a new Caliphate, and the impotence of the Islamic world in the face of Western dominance, that's no where more exemplified than the existence of Israel. It's like a modern day successful Crusade executed by the Jews. Israel, on the other hand, has no chance to ever be a true democracy because their priority is to remain a Jewish state, not to have truly free elections. When Jewish people say, "Never again" I don't ever believe they're actually saying we need to make sure genocide on the level of the holocaust never happens again. I believe they're saying they're never again going meekly into the ovens and gas chambers. I have never believed a true peace in the area is possible. Maybe if Arabs wanted to allow Palestinians into their country to assimilate, but neither Palestinian leaders nor Arab rulers want that even a little bit. And I don't blame them. But as long as the Palestinian people exist as a cultural entity, and as long as Israel continues to insist they have the right to control the land they do as a Jewish state, I feel like there will be continued ongoing conflict on one level or another. To me the negotiations for a two state solution have been a farce to keep the violence from becoming worse. And the cycles of violence ebb and flow depending on how hopeful the unrealistic negotiations have been. But I am of the cynical opinion that a two state solution is no solution for Israel, and only creates a future greater existential crisis in the future, rather than lessens it. But I'd like to hear from people more hopeful than me on either the Israeli, Palestinian, or a more allegedly neutral side that just wants peace in our lifetime, as it were.
  25. It's happening regularly, even in this day and age. The only time it's not possible is when there are strong militarized advocates for the weaker group* Edit - that are willing to actually do something to help defend the weaker group by force, either through direct intervention or the supply of a gratuitous amount of weapons and support. The idea it can't happen any more sounds naive to me. Which sounds like an attack on your position, for which I apologize. You don't sound naive. Just this statement.
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