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SL Xpress

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Everything posted by SL Xpress

  1. Florida looks in free fall. The more compassionate side of me feels bad for Alexis Stucky. The Texas-centric side of me cares a little less. But she came on as such a phenom her true freshman season but her career has felt a little cursed, between injuries, Mary Wise's retirement, her most talented teammates transferring. She should try to transfer to Penn State where Kennedy Martin landed. They could sure use an experienced setter.
  2. I don't know what the numbers will say, but I felt like Stafford had her worst performance in backcourt defense since Stanford. I don't feel like I'm really criticizing her, because she has exceeded my expectations, but I will say how she played in receiving and defense was more along the lines of what I expect our outside hitters to do. I'll also say Missouri's middles were way more productive. This was the most lopsided blocking number to date, 12 to 4. 15 to 12 in kills, as well. It's not an anomaly. Against higher ranked foes it's highly likely our middles are going to get outplayed in some respects. My hope is for continued development. I like the future of Harvey a lot. I'm going to be a broken record here, but I do miss Singletary. I like seeing Crownover experience so much success. And Jhenna Gabriel, too. Dawn Sullivan has really impressed me. They recruit the state of Texas hard, with four girls from the state. That's more than anywhere else, including Missouri (3). They play taller than they are. Haith and Ariail, the middle blockers, are listed at 6'2 and 6'1 respectively. Alexander, who gave us so much trouble as the OH, is 6'. This team feels ridiculously clutch in late game situations. I wish we weren't so seemingly attracted to late set drama, but better that than a poor result overall. Abby Gaido looks smoking hot.
  3. It's so strange not going to a timeout commercial on the broadcast.
  4. I can't agree with your main point enough, which is the digs in the backcourt have gone up considerably. The data proves it, but it passes the eye test for me, too. And I agree with your conclusion that it's Stafford's presence that is making the biggest impact. To me it's important to note the evolutions those teams went through, too. In the 2022 tournament the blocking numbers were: Fairleigh Dickinson 2.5 bps Georgia 2.7 bps Marquette 3.75 bps OSU 4 bps San Diego 3 bps Louisville 3 bps I didn't go back and look it up, but I clearly remember being somewhat concerned early on, even while we were going undefeated. Especially since I didn't understand why the blocking numbers were so low. Then somewhere in the middle of conference season they started picking up significantly. I picked out the tournament numbers to limit my effort, but also because I remember the blocking numbers were really good. We all know what that 2023 season was like. It was a different team at the end of the year. Skinner in particular started becoming unhittable out of the back row. She hit over .400 on the season on the BIC that year, which is absurd. I'll never forget her killing a ball over the triple block Nebraska put on her in the championship game. She was playing next level volleyball at the end of the year. And then of course the serving. I remember in both postseasons for 2002 and 2023 feeling like the teams' overall serving was on a different level. Everyone who went up there was an extremely effective server both years. We all remember what happened to Nebraska in 2023, but in both years come tournament time Texas was dominating opponents in a way they hadn't been early in the season. I will say I've liked our serves overall on this team so far. On a personal level, I don't really get Kujundzic out there as a serving sub. I'd rather see Kendra Miller or if Lauenstein is healthy, see what she can do. I know neither one are defensive specialists, but I'd really like to see a more effective serve out of that rotation. I've liked Kahahawai's serves better than Kujundzic's, as well. But Elliott sees more than I do. I'm just watching the matches. To me she stands out as a weak link so far in terms of our serves. I'll also say Vander Wal doesn't frustrate me the way Wenaas always did. I feel like Vander Wal has so much upside. I'm excited to see where her career goes from here. Wenaas always felt like what you see is what you get. And what we got frustrated me to no end, from the time she announced her commitment to Texas out of the portal to the last match against Creighton, with a brief respite during the 2023 tournament.
  5. Absolutely. One of the biggest ways to quantify it is by the final score, but that's not ultimately very satisfying. For several years Nebraska wasn't known for their blocking. Part of their overall philosophy was to integrate the blocking scheme with the backcourt, so the libero and DSes could have advantageous positioning to respond when the ball came over, whereas Texas tended to be much more aggressive, encouraging the blockers at the net to put up as intimidating and forceful of a block as possible, then require the backcourt players to read the play accordingly. One system produced more blocks/points. The other produced better backcourt defensive stats. Texas has also been going against several outstanding blocking teams, statistically speaking, so when we're getting out blocked, it's against opponents who feature that as part of their team identity. There's a problem in the official stat sheet in that the only time a block is credited to a player is when it scores. Compare that to basketball, where a block is credited to the defender whether it results in a change of possession or not. There's also no official statistic when a defender puts up an ineffective block that leads to a score. Getting a block touch, or altering the shot of the opposition so their hit is not as effective, is way better than having the shot hit off their hands and go out of bounds, or have it go directly to the floor. But those things aren't measured in the official stat sheets. If our players are doing a good job of not only presenting a block, but presenting a block that's not getting scored on, that has value that's not properly accounted for. It's funny. Our hitting percentage is pretty high nationally, but not all that high by Texas standards. Our block numbers are good, but not super impressive, and certainly not up to the standard of past Texas teams. Watching the team play, I don't get the feeling our block is as effective or intimidating as either past Texas teams, or as good as other teams I watch this year. But overall this Texas team is playing the best in the country, in my opinion, along with Nebraska. I find them very terminal, especially when Spears is effective on the D-ball. Our floor defense with Halter/Gary is outstanding. Our serving is giving teams trouble in getting into their offense. Stafford is one of the best overall players in the country. Vander Wal has looked impressive at times, and I think she's going to continue to improve at a high rate. Plus, they're just so fun to watch. As an eye test I do not believe this middle blocker unit is as oppressive as other middle blocker tandems Texas has fielded, but since I think Texas is arguably the number one program in the country when it comes to its middle blocker units under Elliott, that's not the criticism it might otherwise be. I like the players we have there. I do miss Singletary a bit, but her absence has allowed Harvey to come on, and that delights me. I feel like we can win a national championship with this group, even if they only average around 2.3 blocks per set as a team. And that's what's important.
  6. The funny thing is, that was our best blocking performance, with 15 over 5 sets. Creighton, Stanford, Arizona State, TCU, and Baylor also out blocked us, although admittedly it was close in all of those matches. Arizona State was even competing without their star middle blocker.
  7. When you say the way we started off are you specifically referring to the 1st set? Because for the Creighton match as a whole Creighton outblocked us. Which is sort of a meme so far this season. But no one is getting extra credit for winning the blocking battle. Which is good, because we're invariably losing them against most of our opponents.
  8. It seems clear to me Bunton started the season as the #2 middle blocker but now the #2 middle blocker is Harvey. It also looks to me like Harvey could potentially become the #1 middle blocker, at least in terms of performance. She has a different level of twitchiness than Ames or Bunton. She simply explodes off the floor and stays up there for a while. And her lateral quickness is on a different level, too. She just needs reps, but it's not like Ames or Bunton have years of experience on her. There's a feature I saw somewhere where Elliott talks about needing to play all 3 middle blockers, so I'm sure we'll see a lot of combinations druing conference play including all 3 players. He specifically mentioned the importance of depth for the new SEC tournament. I'll also say I don't think this is going to be one of Texas' better blocking teams. I don't think we're going to be bad, per se, but the bar is pretty high at Texas. I remember the national championship season in 2022 when it felt like it took forever for the block to get going. But by the time the tournament rolled around Texas was blocking as well as anyone in the country. 2023 the season didn't start off great, but I felt like the block was in pretty good shape and stayed that way. Last year I don't like to talk about a whole lot. The strengths of this team are going to be being so terminal, and the backcourt defense. I don't think the block is going to be as critical for this team to do well in the post season. It's interesting to me that we went years redshirting every middle blocker that came through the program, and now it's two years in a row with Ames and Harvey playing significant minutes. I think even if Singletary had stuck around Harvey might have found her way on the court. She looks special out there.
  9. Plus we needed Binney as an attacker out of the right side.
  10. C'mon, man. Consider the source. You've been trolled. It was a really good response by HJ, too, not that that's surprising.
  11. " Sooners is the name given to settlers who entered the Unassigned Lands illegally in what is now the state of Oklahoma before the official start of the Land Rush of 1889. The Unassigned Lands were a part of Indian Territory that, after a lobbying campaign, were to be opened to American settlement in 1889. President Benjamin Harrison officially proclaimed the Unassigned Lands open to settlement on April 22, 1889. As people lined up around the borders of the Oklahoma District, they waited for the official opening. It was not until noon that it officially was opened to settlement. The name derived from the "sooner clause" of Proclamation 288 — Opening to Settlement Certain Lands in the Indian Territory, which stated that anyone who entered and occupied the land prior to the opening time would be denied the right to claim land.[1] The designation "Sooner" had a very negative connotation.[2] While "Boomers" were merely expressing "pioneer spirit" in their desire to take and settle former Indian territory, Sooners were essentially stealing from other white settlers by cheating on the claim requirements to get better land.
  12. He's thrown bad balls to a number of receivers. He's also missed even seeing wide open receivers. If he keeps playing like he did against Sam Houston State we won't have to overthink it so much. If his play against Ohio State, San Jose State for most of 3 quarters, and UTEP shows up again, then we can once again parse his throws as to what is going on. I can tell you what is going on. He's pressing, he's overthinking things, the game is moving too fast for him still, and his mistakes then compound into more mistakes. He's hardly the first person to have this happen to him. The only cure for it is to execute when the moment matters. You do that enough then you earn the confidence to go out and do it again. It's the same in pretty much any avenue of life. Wingo also needs to catch the catchable balls thrown his way. Same type of concept.
  13. I don't understand the question. I responded to the post.
  14. I don't really get how you can overthink this so much. When the quarterback is missing as often as Manning was the first three games - inexplicably so - it's not because of the system. It's because of what's been going on between his ears. It ends up affecting the performance of everyone on offense. Everyone else starts playing tense as well, feeling like they need to be perfect or the offense is going to stall again, and even if they do play perfect, the QB may throw the ball into the stands. Livingstone it can be as simple as they practiced together a ton as the twos last year. As a tight end, Endries routes are different. Maybe there's something to it, but I think it's more about Manning pressing and getting out of rhythm than it is something remarkably complicated about the offense Texas runs, or Manning being some kind of racist QB who loves his white targets. Wadlington and Moore from Inside Texas had a film study of a few plays for Sam Houston State where they focused on a simple 9 yard gain to Wingo that's an easy pass and catch. They rightly emphasized it because it's the exact kind of throw Manning has been skipping to his receiver or throwing it over their head. I do not believe Manning is suddenly "cured" but I do know how he performed against Sam Houston - regardless of the level of competition they represented - was a step in the right direction. Now we have to see if he can duplicate it to some degree against a Florida team that is very close to quitting on their season.
  15. After four weeks, Texas is the only program to win an SEC player of the week award.
  16. Well, I've seen mediocre offensive line interiors play for national championships at Texas, so I don't think it's the limitation you do. I do not believe the skill position players are JAGs. I believe the panacea for head cases is getting little wins to build confidence. I do not know whether it happens with Manning. I just know it can. There's not a magic wand where Sam Houston State is some kind of cure all pill, but there is a reality where performing well week after week cures him of the yips. That's not some kind of delusion on my part. That's how it works. Texas has had issues inside the red zone the last two years and yet Texas still made the playoffs. Again, I don't see it as the limitation you do. I look at our schedule and it looks very manageable to me. Like the saying goes, I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun the guy next to me. And the guy next to me - as in our future opponents - do not scare me all that much other than Georgia, and they have their own issues as well. Plus that's so far down the road let's see what each team is doing heading into that week. The offense is not a rolling ball of butcher knives, admittedly. But the defense is. And I believe the offense has a lot more potential upside than you do, with a long runway to get there, thanks to the defense and the opponents.
  17. It's not Napier's last stand. That man is toast. We're just playing out the string, now. The outcome against Texas won't matter either way. I don't care how interesting a game is if Texas wins. Texas has played a lot of interesting games where they didn't put the opponent away the way I felt like they should have. But the win is all that matters. You don't even believe Arkansas is going to win that game. So what are we talking about exactly? Do the Razorbacks get beauty points for making it interesting? If Texas goes 10-2 in the regular season they're still making it in to the playoffs. I have concerns about Georgia in Athens, unless/until I have some kind of belief that Manning won't shit the bed. But I believe we'll beat OU, A&M, and Vanderbilt, and I believe we'll take care of the other teams on the schedule. The wiggle room will be enough. If we lose to the Sooners in the Cotton Bowl then I'll start getting concerned.
  18. Sure, but for me the ceiling you're talking about is the national championship. I don't think Manning has to play at a national championship level for Texas to make the playoffs. Maybe not even win the SEC. He does need to play decent. He needs to be able to hit the open receivers. He needs to be able to throw well enough in the short game that Texas can keep ahead of the chains. Green is a legit QB. Pittman is a dead man walking. I do not believe Arkansas can take a hit in the mouth and get back up any more than Florida can. And Florida IMO has a lot more talent. Arkansas just doesn't look like all that great of a football team, to me. And they're in Austin. I'm sure the fan base will be sooooooooo fired up for this alleged "rival" we have coming into town. I believe the defense sets the floor for this team - not the running game - and the floor is extremely high. I feel confident this is a playoff bound team. Beyond that, yeah, Manning needs to play with confidence and hit the open receivers. Other pieces have to step up, too, but Manning doing his job will help all the other pieces as well.
  19. I am not a full believer in OU. I don't think Arkansas is all that good. I believe Wisner and Baxter's return will be helpful. Baxter in particular. I believe the defense will continue to shut opposing offenses down, including the new Mateer driven, rules challenged Sooner offense. I do not agree that Manning needs to be more than decent. I believe he has the potential to be. Even being complete ass we had a very good opportunity to win the Ohio State game. They scored 1 TD on fourth down with Anthony Hill running through the hole without being touched. Then Carnell Tate made an insane grab for the touchdown catch after Guilbeau knocked the ball out. But it sure puts unnecessary pressure on the defense to be perfect if he can't hit the easy throws to keep making first downs and/or make big plays. I do not believe Wingo is being given many opportunities at 50/50 balls, so I don't see the same deficiency you're seeing. It doesn't mean he has those skills, either, though. I do think the freshman Lockett has those skills, so maybe we see more of him at some point, although for now it looks like McCutcheon is the top freshman on the depth chart. But for the receivers to matter Manning has to play adequately. We saw a flash in the 2nd quarter versus San Jose State and then the game against Sam Houston. We'll see what it looks like versus Florida.
  20. Yeah, I don't think there's much disagreement there at all. I do feel like we have some deep ball threats. Maybe not to the extent Worthy/Bond/Golden were, or even Mitchell. But I feel like Wingo can be more of that dude than he has been so far, and Livingstone has shown he can beat people deep. But he has to be able to make the throws to wide open receivers, which is not just about making the actual throw. It's about seeing it as well. The game still needs to slow down for him. But that's something of a different part of the equation from the yips. Colt McCoy needed the game to slow down for him before he went from what he was his first two years to what he became as a junior and senior. But he wasn't missing wide open guys in his first two years. He was simply not seeing the coverages as well as he did later on. And he increased his accuracy to inhuman levels, and even quickened his release, when it was already really good. But yeah. Manning doesn't need to be elite. He just can't be awful. And those first three games he was awful. The competition wasn't a factor, whether it was Ohio State or UTEP. In any case, an awful Manning can put all kinds of stress on the offense, regardless of opponent. My main point wasn't about Manning, though. It was about Florida. They're either on the precipice and we just need to push them off, or they've already jumped off the cliff, and we just need to hand them a bag of rocks so they'll drop faster and hit harder once they reach the ground. Like they say, it's not the fall that hurts, it's when you reach the ground.
  21. Are we disagreeing? I feel like that's exactly my point of view. He made the throws in practice. Then in games he short circuited. That's what I mean by the yips. I do not believe for one moment that's now gone. He needs more positive reps during game time so that becomes his earned identity. I also feel like people who want to point to other aspects of the offense are going pink elephant in the room on us. When Manning is fubaring on plays that either make first downs or get us ahead of the chains that end up creating 2nd and 10 or 3rd and 10 series - or force us to punt, or give it over on downs - that's setting everyone else up for failure. We don't need Manning to be spectacular to have a very successful season. But we need him to make the easy throws for sure.
  22. Like everything in life, it depends on a number of factors. If Manning shows the yips early, he's going to have a tendency to revert back to pre Sam Houston Manning. Florida frankly HAS to have success early. That is a program about to completely implode. Well, I'd argue they already have. If Texas gets up on them by a couple of scores early, everyone on the Florida side is going to give up. The fans, the players. The coaches will be texting their buddies pleading for a job opportunity. Napier will project delusion, but he knows the score. He's gone. If Florida gets up early maybe they get a dead cat bounce effect. Regardless, that program is going to have a new coach next year. They're just playing out the string at this point. Manning just needs to keep stringing together successful plays. One thing about the yips, is that once you get them, there's a niggling feeling in the back of your mind they can come back at any moment. He had one good performance against poor competition. It still counts, because what we saw in the previous 3 games wasn't about the opponent. It was about what was between his ears. I have hope and faith that he's going to be fine, but he'll have to earn his self confidence. There's no magic wand that's going to give it to him. And he knows that. I hope he has another opportunity to give someone a stare down. He says he doesn't care what the media writes about him. I'd like for him to show it. I like fired up Manning.
  23. There's not a single position where you can bring in an otherworldly talent that can make the same kind of difference in soccer as a pitcher can in softball. There may not be another individual position with more difference making ability in team sports than the pitcher in softball. She had two otherworldly talents at pitcher early in her tenure in Christa Williams and Cat Osterman. That's how she made those college world series (Blaire Luna was the primary pitcher in 2013 - also very good - but Williams and Osterman were the Canady of their day). The offense was always incredibly anemic. It's almost more of an indictment she couldn't bring home a ring with that kind of competitive advantage (to be fair 1998 was the start of the program). That was also before the pitching mound was moved from 40' to 43'. That said, you're of course correct. Connie Clark did achieve success at first. She was still an incredible underachiever with the resources at her disposal. Angela Kelly is at another level of underachievement, but that's in part because she couldn't just magically bring in a star player at one position that could dominate the competition to put the rest of the team on their back. The fact that both coaches completely wasted what should have been a monstrous talent advantage given how much talent this state produces, and the kind of resources the university was willing to dedicated to both sports, especially following the Title IX court settlement, is almost criminal. Thankfully, Mike White is how in charge in softball, and he's kicking ass. I look forward to seeing who our next soccer coach will be. It's been absurd how long this has been allowed to go on.
  24. Sam Houston State is a 400lb last call slumpbuster. Does it mean we can go out and fuck any 10 we want to? No. But for someone who has been having issues getting lucky with anyone, this is exactly what our offense needed.
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