Joined: May 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 1,164 Location: Los Angeles
World, Meet a Delusional Winnipeg Coach « Thread Started on Jan 10, 2006, 10:06pm »
After coming down here and having his hat handed to him on a tortilla, Winnipeg's coach thinks he's better than the two teams he got swept by. And this from a guy who admits he came down here for New Year's and spent it in his hotel room while his team enjoyed their time with Mickey and Minnie. Oh, and keep in mind UCLA used everyone but the janitor in game 3.
Sweeps week in L.A. (AKA = Winnie Gets Swept in a Big Way) Wesmen men put up fight, but NCAA squads prevail By ADAM WAZNY -- Winnipeg Sun
Most members of the Winnipeg Wesmen men's volleyball team rang in the New Year at Disneyland.
Larry McKay had other plans.
"I spent it in my hotel room," the head coach said, laughing at himself yesterday afternoon. "It was very unexciting."
The Wesmen returned home from the Golden State on Monday, winless in the two matches they played against the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, Irvine -- both NCAA Div.1 schools -- last weekend.
"This was a first in the respects that we played in UCLA, right in their main gym where I think they've won 18 national championships, so there's a lot of tradition and history there," said McKay, who in previous seasons has taken his clubs to places like Chicago, Santa Barbara, Calif., and Indiana for exhibition play.
"Overall, the trip was good from a volleyball perspective, seeing what the top teams down in the NCAA do and how they do it," the coach added.
"We'll be a better team as a result of it."
With all the stress of chaperoning a team around an unfamiliar area, McKay admitted he was glad to be home. Given the amount of worry about things like crossing borders and booking hotel rooms and driving athletes around in a van, it's easy to see why McKay spent the end of 2005 in his room.
"It's a lot of stuff to be concerned with, so no, there wasn't a lot of vacation time for me," he said.
"But it's for the players, anyway. They had a great time, I think."
On Friday, Winnipeg lost to the Bruins 3-0 (30-18, 30-25, 31-29). The next afternoon, the Wesmen were dropped 3-0 (30-26, 30-20, 30-19) by the Anteaters.
Third-year Ben Schellenberg led Winnipeg with 25 kills in the two games.
In NCAA pre-season polls, UCLA is ranked No. 2, while UCI is eighth. Still, McKay said his club should have won both matches and feels the CIS is actually the superior university association when it comes to men's volleyball.
'CANADIAN TEAMS ARE BETTER'
"I don't feel it's close at all," the 17-year coach said. "In my opinion, the top Canadian teams are better this year. Having said that, we didn't beat UCLA. We could have, but we had been off for a month, and that was our first time on the floor since we played Manitoba (on Dec. 3.).
In fact, McKay said if you matched up the top five teams in the CIS -- Alberta, Trinity Western, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Winnipeg -- against the top five in the NCAA, many would be surprised at the outcome.
"They're the top five teams in the country and if given a chance, with all things being equal, would probably beat the top five teams in the States," he said.
The reason for that?
Outside of California, volleyball isn't played in many high schools.
"It's popular in California and in the Midwest, but aside from that, it's not really big down there," McKay said, noting schools like Ohio State and BYU often recruit athletes from South American countries for their volleyball squads. "It's a club sport, so not everyone has a chance to play.
Joined: Oct 2002 Gender: Male Posts: 3,803 Location: Hawaii
Re: World, Meet a Delusional Winnipeg Coach « Reply #2 on Jan 10, 2006, 11:52pm »
I don't even know where to begin with this comment. First of all, I have to say there are some levels of truth for this. If they played a round robin tournament where each team would face off against all teams from the opposing country (a total of 25 matches), the US would not win them all. There are some very good teams in Canada that could match up well against the top US teams.
However, I believe McKay has a 1 v. 1 and 2 v. 2 situation in mind. Again, neither country would win them all. But UCI is probably the bottom of the top 5 and Winnipeg was just swept by them. I have seen Alberta and Mannitoba before and both have good programs. I have not seen the others but by the outcomes of some of the matches in the past few years, Canada wont dominate the US.
There are a lot of factors to consider when creating this match up. First of all, Canada has the luxury of not competing for players with football and basketball, as well as not having to deal with a Title IX situation. They also have a longer season as they start in September and continue for the entire year. So while it might be true that Winnipeg hasn't played in a while, UCLA and UCI just started their season and have little playing time experience. In the same sense, the US might have an advantage in that since there are so few volleyball programs, the top talent will always be there for the top 5. Canada might not have that luxury. And I am sure Canada has their own situations that make it difficult for their sport.
In my mind, what is most telling are the national teams. You have up and down years for college sports, as the players only have a few years to compete. However, in the national team, there are longer time frames and you can judge what country is better using their best athletes in that given country.
Joined: May 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 1,164 Location: Los Angeles
Re: World, Meet a Delusional Winnipeg Coach « Reply #3 on Jan 11, 2006, 12:04am »
"In NCAA pre-season polls, UCLA is ranked No. 2, while UCI is eighth. Still, McKay said his club should have won both matches"
I wasn't at the UCI match, but he got swept there and judging from the unbalanced scores, they were creamed by UCI. I was at the UCLA match and the Bruins were so dominant in the first two games it was painful to watch. UCLA subbed freely throughout the match, and the last game score was close. Now that I've read his comments, it's clear he was still working at full speed while the Bruins had the brakes on the entire game. We joked that we should really play a friendship, non-counting 4th game feeling sorry for the Winnies that they'd come all this way for this pounding.
As far as the other teams in the MFSF go against the top Canadian teams, we all play them pretty well. If you took say, BYU, LBS, UCLA, UCI and oh, CSN and put them into a round robin tourney with the best 5 Canadian teams, with all of the MPSF teams playing at mid-season condition and ability, I say we take at least 85% of the matches or more. Being generous.
The lack of respect toward the two teams that showed them how the game is played is pretty poor.
Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 328 Location: Sandwich Isles
Re: World, Meet a Delusional Winnipeg Coach « Reply #4 on Jan 11, 2006, 12:44am »
Quote:
In fact, McKay said if you matched up the top five teams in the CIS -- Alberta, Trinity Western, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Winnipeg -- against the top five in the NCAA, many would be surprised at the outcome.
Especially Saskatchewan...Pepperdine played them (twice) in Canada last week. The first time was Pepperdine's first match since October and they lost to Saskatchewan 3-1. The second time they met, Pepperdine had played two other matches (splitting with two other Canadian teams) and they beat Saskatchewan 3-0 to win the tournament. They won the tournament last year as well.
Re: World, Meet a Delusional Winnipeg Coach « Reply #5 on Jan 11, 2006, 6:20am »
Also ,if I am not mistaken the Canadien team players all have 5 years of eligibilty . The Canadian teams all have good players , but at the end of the MPSF season and the end of the Canadian season the MPSF would come out ahead . ( The top 5 teams ) . That said ,i don't think the same is true about the Eastern and Midwestern teams and leagues . Cal Baptist will probably do good against these teams too. ( also different recruiting and eligibity rules than NCAA schools.
Joined: Jul 2003 Gender: Male Posts: 2,059 Location: Chicagoland
Re: World, Meet a Delusional Winnipeg Coach « Reply #6 on Jan 11, 2006, 6:31am »
Quote:
After coming down here and having his hat handed to him on a tortilla, Winnipeg's coach thinks he's better than the two teams he got swept by. And this from a guy who admits he came down here for New Year's and spent it in his hotel room while his team enjoyed their time with Mickey and Minnie. Oh, and keep in mind UCLA used everyone but the janitor in game 3.
He is probably a VT poster and he wanted to see what kind of reaction he got!!!!
Joined: Aug 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 81 Location: Toronto
Re: World, Meet a Delusional Winnipeg Coach « Reply #7 on Jan 12, 2006, 11:25am »
Larry is a good guy and an awesome coach but he must have smoked some good bud before making that coment.
Having been a part of both volleyball scenes (US and Canada) i will be the first to admit that overall the US university scene is better. True there are a few teams in Canada (mainly Alberta) that would on a given day match the top NCAA teams but they are few and far between.
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