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Post by prouddad on Apr 24, 2009 13:12:10 GMT -5
Congrats to Ring as Coach of the year. How about some love for Campbell? The two loses at Hawaii certainly hurt Campbell's chances for Coach of the Year. I admire Campbell's ability to recruit at CSUN since the school is hardly in the same class academically as UCLA, USC and UCSD in Southern California. I have to tell you, though, the times I have seen Campbell coach there is no other coach in the MPSF that I have less respect for than him. He and his players on the bench seem disrespectful of opposing teams and the officials. There is nobody I watch playing more than Eric Vance and he seems to carry himself in a very mature and professional manner. Too bad his coach can't seem to act the same way.
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Post by ucsdfan on Apr 24, 2009 13:25:57 GMT -5
Congrats to Ring as Coach of the year. How about some love for Campbell? Although Ring is an obviously deserving coach with what he has done and the obstacles he faces, Coach Campbell is always just a little out of coaching honors. The committee may have felt Speraw and Dunphy have had plenty of recognition and could be passed by once. But Campbell has done great things at CSUN and, as far as I know, not been recognized. He consistently turns average recruits into solid teams. He could have been a solid choice this year. I repeat my congratulations to Coach Ring and his great achievements. How about an Honorable mention for Campbell I 100% concur on this. What a tough year to be Campbell. He is arguably the second best coach in the college game (to Speraw). He manages to field a highly competitive team year in and year out despite having no money available to chase foreign players (see BYU, Pepperdine, USC, Stanford, and UCLA for those sort of budgets) and a home facility that unless you see it filled with their electric fans (and not the plug-into-the-wall type) is not going to move you. About the only thing he has in terms of recruiting is a slightly lower academic entrance standard than some of the other conference schools, but that might not help too much in the end. He is a fantastic coach who happens to be a victim of his own success. He has set a standard of excellence that we come to see as normal, so unless he wins it all (and even then it's no guarantee), he won't be getting the COY love. That said, Ring did an amazing job this year and fully warrants the praise. But he has an advantage of being at a school where 8-14 in the conference is a miracle. A couple upsets (and beating UCLA at that time might not even qualify), sweeping Hawai'i and UCSB in their off years, and showing up on time to receive their automatic victories against Pacific is what qualifies as an amazing year. However, the reason I am in awe of his performance is because for the first time I ever, I honestly felt disappointed after they lost at home to Pepperdine, CSUN, and Beach. In years past, stealing a game was the goal. This year, taking the match was the goal. Congrats to Coach Ring on recruiting that good of a team and getting them to believe in themselves. His encore next year will be to take the six returners, add their incoming libero (flanked by great OH passers), and make the playoffs. Actually doing some 'analysis' how did Baughman (LB) get it over D'Amore (UCI)? D'Amore leads the conference in blocking!?!? Was this a "courtesy" pick so each of the top 7 schools were represented on the freshmen team? That was EXACTLY my first thought. Your other thread prior to the announcement spelled out what a great year Austin had, and looking at that thread had me rank the new MPSF MBs as Futi, D'Amore, Tavaja, Amberg, and then Baughman. But I think that because Simmons was the starter until he got hurt, many voters may very well have seen D'Amore as a replacement compared to Baughman who was deemed a starter from early on. It's not right, and Austin was more deserving, but subconscious biases affect all of us. In the end, three years from now, D'Amore will have plenty of accolades. And think about how little love has been bestowed upon the last Newcomer of the Year UCI had. Brent came close to breaking Tony Ker's all-time dig record this year, but that never even got mentioned. How much love did he see after this freshman year? He is a quiet, solid performer; always consistent and smart on the court. Talk about a great kid who plays his heart out and serves as the glue of a great team. I was sad to see he didn't get some adoration last year or this year. I fully get that maxing UCI at 5 players was necessary to avoid the ciriticism the committee feared could come, but Brent was a far, far better libero than Grubbs and Cervantes this year. Maybe he needs to kick set or grow a mustache.
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Post by ucsdfan on Apr 24, 2009 13:40:53 GMT -5
The two loses at Hawaii certainly hurt Campbell's chances for Coach of the Year. I admire Campbell's ability to recruit at CSUN since the school is hardly in the same class academically as UCLA, USC and UCSD in Southern California. I have to tell you, though, the times I have seen Campbell coach there is no other coach in the MPSF that I have less respect for than him. He and his players on the bench seem disrespectful of opposing teams and the officials. There is nobody I watch playing more than Eric Vance and he seems to carry himself in a very mature and professional manner. Too bad his coach can't seem to act the same way. You bring up an excellent point. Whenever I see CSUN play, there is a distinct level of disrespect on their side (exactly as you point out). I always saw it as a chip on the shoulder motivational tactic that he plugged into the psyche of his team. "No one loves us and everyone is out to get us, so let's go show them." I was sitting in the stands in the preseason during one of those huge tournaments at UCI this past fall when he and his team sat down nearby. I saw both a disrespect for the hierarchy in him and his players, and a unity he shared with his players. And I overheard things out of his mouth when answering another fan in the stands that were honest to a fault about a missing player of his. So while I don't think he's the kind of person I'd ever want to be friends with, I get his approach and respect it greatly. And you can't deny that it works pretty well. Maybe it impacts how he's received by the other coaches and thus how the voting goes, but it works for him. But I don't think he's the type to lose sleep over not getting an award. In fact, I'll bet it's part of his pep talks. The worst thing the MPSF powers that be could ahve done for CSUN heading into this weekend was to give them five players on the all-conference team. Look for BYU to catch CSUN by surprise and come back for a date in the Bren next weekend. And absolutely no team's bench can ever compare to UCSB in 2006 and 2007. They were as classless as any group ever assembled, which made their losses so much more funny to watch. The new coach seriously gained my respect by cleaning that crap up.
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Post by mikesmith on Apr 24, 2009 14:37:51 GMT -5
I saw both a disrespect for the hierarchy in him and his players, and a unity he shared with his players. Can you explain this statement better? I have to tell you, though, the times I have seen Campbell coach there is no other coach in the MPSF that I have less respect for than him. He and his players on the bench seem disrespectful of opposing teams and the officials. There is nobody I watch playing more than Eric Vance and he seems to carry himself in a very mature and professional manner. Too bad his coach can't seem to act the same way. I have spoken to several coaches who have worked directly with him and can tell you that Jeff Campbell is not disrespectful of other teams in anyway. Nor is he disrespectful of other coaches. In fact, every word he says about other teams revolves around how good the teams in the MPSF are, and how easily CSUN can lose if his team is not focused. One coach told me that Jeff Campbell refuses to negatively recruit. He actually praises other programs and will encourage recruits to go where they most want to go. Even if it isn't CSUN. Now his bench players? They are a little raucous, but CSUN's bench worse than LBSU's, UCSB's or USC's? No way. If you believe that, then you must have a grudge against Jeff Campbell.
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Post by prouddad on Apr 24, 2009 14:52:36 GMT -5
When your team is up 2-0, and 28-15 in the third game and your bench players are laughing at a shanked ball by the opposition, and you are heckling the server, I call that disrespect, and that is exactly what I saw this year at CSUN sitting right behind their bench. I file this under the coach condoning this type of behavior. LBSU has (seemed) cleaned up their act; UCSB (?) their roster is so depleted they barely have a bench; and USC, well they are USC. And no, I have no grudge against Campbell. Admire the guy for getting CSUN where they are. All he has to do is to tell his tell his bench players to tone it down when your team is way ahead.
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Post by vballs on Apr 24, 2009 15:09:50 GMT -5
I also happen to get the same vibe from Campbell, having watched CSUN play several times over the past few years. No disrespect to the man whatsoever, I personally think he is the most underrated coach in the country, but he comes across and a bit of an @$$%*!*. He may very well be a good guy when it comes down to it, but the way he composes himself and his bench during games doesn't suggest anything of the sort.
What Campbell does amazingly well is develop talented individuals. Vance was a nobody out of high school, and now he is one of the better outside hitters we have seen in a few years. Similarly, the Polish kid was a piece of work a couple years ago, to say the least, and this year he was one of the best middles in the conference offensively. One can say Speraw does this comparably well, but he typically gets better recruits. Clark, Harrel, Jablonsky, Weber etc were not the biggest players in their class, but still highly sought after.
Not sure of Campbells in game coaching though. His philosophy on serving is simply ridiculous. There are games when they will have missed 3 serves in a row, and the next guy still goes back and swings as hard as he can into the bottom of the net. About half their losses have come as a result of this poor serving, when they could have won had they simply rolled the ball in and forced the other team to side out.
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Post by ucsdfan on Apr 24, 2009 17:54:47 GMT -5
I saw both a disrespect for the hierarchy in him and his players, and a unity he shared with his players. Can you explain this statement better? God, that was one terrible sentence I wrote. I'm not even sure my random collection of words even constitutes a sentence. What I was trying to say is that I got an impression that he's an anti-establishment guy, right down to where he sat and how he interacted with his team and fans. he was openly rooting during the match between UCSD and Stanford. It could be misconcieved as disrespect for the unwritten formalities, but I got the feeling that he's not at all concerned with that sort of thing. What you see is what you get. As far as in game performance goes, the only thing I've seen that maybe he could be chided for is getting on the officials a little more than the average coach (by a pretty good margin). Every time I've seen CSUN play in his era, he's given a ref or two an opinion on their performance. He's passionate about calls and apparently feels as though they're playing six-on-ten. However, I have never seen him do this to anyone but an official. What I really was impressed by was that the team obviously got along well with each other and with the coach. He seemed liked an overgrown kid in his element, eating burgers with the boys. They all seemed united by being different. But again, I have to hand it to him for being an excellent coach. As I see it, he is second to Speraw. I know this has been hashed over in many threads before, but he is amongst Pavlik, Dunphy, and Speraw as the best in the game at the moment. But to incorrectly quote Barcelona Bob grandson thereof, most coaches in the men's game are on autopilot and asleep at the wheel most of the time.
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Post by volleyone on Apr 24, 2009 19:52:37 GMT -5
Great posts by UCSD...I agree. He should get post of the year. I do like and agree with the MPSF selections except that it appears that they use the peanut butter principle....spread it evenly across the board.
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Post by notsocal2 on Apr 24, 2009 22:39:32 GMT -5
prouddad - i have seen CSUN a number of times the past few years, and must admit that I have not seen any downright "lousy" behavior by the bench. But if what you say is normal re: the bench players - then that is "bush" --- and that would go for any of the other teams as well --- Players usually have ways of taking care of this kind of BS, and if not any coach worth their grain of salt should be stepping in - fast - especially at this level ... I sort of think fans get the right to ride the opposing team, the servers, etc - provided it doesn't get too crude or rude - hey that's part of being the home team, ...
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