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Post by future on Jul 11, 2012 12:11:53 GMT -5
Player personality is very relevant, especially in an Olympic year. Men's volleyball has one chance every four years to get some coverage and when the players have no star power, the game loses it's chance to reach a huge audience. Not saying that the guys have to put on an act... they are who they are. Just saying it's a shame nobody on the team has any natural charisma. I heard Chris Marlowe will be travelling with the team for this reason. Good God folks these guys will have plenty to bring to that table. Go Squeaks!
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Post by memorybankrupt on Jul 12, 2012 12:52:42 GMT -5
I'm really excited to see how this new generation of players develops over the next quad. The current Olympic team has no charisma at all, which explains why they got such limited media hype in '08 despite winning a gold medal. There was a surge in volleyball popularity after '84 and '88 because of players like Kiraly and Timmons. Friends of mine who had never followed volleyball knew about the guy with the funny name and the guy with the red flat top. Going into the London games, I don't see NBC paying much attention to any of the current players. It'll be fun to see players like Troy, Sander, Menzel, Ciarelli, and the Shoji's bring some excitement back to the national team. I think the men's team has charisma. Sure, they don't have anyone that looks like Sean White, but they're a pretty good looking group. In 2008, they had that tragic event w/ Hugh's step dad getting killed, so their team had one of the more compelling stories at the Beijing games and got some coverage. I dunno. Sometimes I'll be watching the men's game and marvel at how exciting it is, and I just don't understand why it doesn't catch on w/ the rest of America just based on the game alone.
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Post by Gorflorg Orshforg on Jul 12, 2012 12:59:43 GMT -5
I'm really excited to see how this new generation of players develops over the next quad. The current Olympic team has no charisma at all, which explains why they got such limited media hype in '08 despite winning a gold medal. There was a surge in volleyball popularity after '84 and '88 because of players like Kiraly and Timmons. Friends of mine who had never followed volleyball knew about the guy with the funny name and the guy with the red flat top. Going into the London games, I don't see NBC paying much attention to any of the current players. It'll be fun to see players like Troy, Sander, Menzel, Ciarelli, and the Shoji's bring some excitement back to the national team. I think the men's team has charisma. Sure, they don't have anyone that looks like Sean White, but they're a pretty good looking group. In 2008, they had that tragic event w/ Hugh's step dad getting killed, so their team had one of the more compelling stories at the Beijing games and got some coverage. I dunno. Sometimes I'll be watching the men's game and marvel at how exciting it is, and I just don't understand why it doesn't catch on w/ the rest of America just based on the game alone. Yeah, it has a lot to do with the perception of volleyball as a girls sport, mention men's volleyball and you'll get a lot of 'Guys play volleyball?'.
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Post by jna on Jul 12, 2012 14:45:07 GMT -5
Whoever it said that volleyball is a girls sport is doing nothing but putting his intelligence in doubt. The history of the sport itself belies that statement. Volleyball was created by a man and practised only by men for a considerable time. Besides, volleyball may be taken as the only sport 100% originally american.
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Post by Gorflorg Orshforg on Jul 12, 2012 14:59:13 GMT -5
Whoever it said that volleyball is a girls sport is doing nothing but putting his intelligence in doubt. The history of the sport itself belies that statement. Volleyball was created by a man and practised only by men for a considerable time. Besides, volleyball may be taken as the only sport 100% originally american. Ignorance more than intelligence, but that is the dominant perception of volleyball, something girls do in bikinis on the beach.
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Post by jdolson on Jul 13, 2012 14:08:21 GMT -5
Whoever it said that volleyball is a girls sport is doing nothing but putting his intelligence in doubt. The history of the sport itself belies that statement. Volleyball was created by a man and practised only by men for a considerable time. Besides, volleyball may be taken as the only sport 100% originally american. Ignorance more than intelligence, but that is the dominant perception of volleyball, something girls do in bikinis on the beach. Do we thank beer commercials for that one? I think most non-volleyball people associate men's volleyball with the beach and the AVP and women's volleyball with the spandex shorts...
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Post by Gorflorg Orshforg on Jul 13, 2012 14:25:35 GMT -5
Ignorance more than intelligence, but that is the dominant perception of volleyball, something girls do in bikinis on the beach. Do we thank beer commercials for that one? I think most non-volleyball people associate men's volleyball with the beach and the AVP and women's volleyball with the spandex shorts... I think there's a pretty significant segment of the population who has no idea that men play volleyball, or that anyone plays volleyball indoors. And yes, we can thank beer commercials for that. Honestly it doesn't bother me that much though. There's plenty of great volleyball to be watched and played, do we really need to have it be a mainstream sport? It would be nice, but personally, selfishly, I'm fine with my favorite sport remaining on the margins. Not that I'd oppose efforts to spread the game here, it's just I don't feel that I lose anything personally because of the relative obscurity of the game in this country.
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Post by sistahsledge on Jul 14, 2012 10:28:23 GMT -5
I think we fans lose out on a lot because of volleyball's (especially men's) relative obscurity in the USA. The college game gets absolutely no TV coverage except for the final four. Other than the few World League matches each year, we rarely see the National Team on TV or even live in person. It sucks trying to find some crappy live stream or youtube clip for quality men's volleyball.
In the 80's, there were weekly broadcasts of MPSF matches, and I remember broadcasts of Junior Olympics (?) where all the best college players were divided into four teams, north/south/east/west, and played each other. The national team would have exhibition tours with other countries, host the America's Cup, Goodwill Games, etc. There was even the old Team Cup league in L.A. that mixed the nat'l team guys with the beach guys. They had some weird rules but it was still entertaining. Don't know why men's volleyball has declined in popularity over the decades. Maybe too much competition from the emergence or other sports. It's kind of a catch-22: men's volleyball gets no media attention because of its low participation vs. men's volleyball has low participation because it get's no media attention.
I think the biggest chance to get a boost is through Olympic coverage. That's what got the ball rolling in the 80's... it just lost momentum.
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Post by c4ndlelight on Jul 14, 2012 10:48:29 GMT -5
I think we fans lose out on a lot because of volleyball's (especially men's) relative obscurity in the USA. The college game gets absolutely no TV coverage except for the final four. Other than the few World League matches each year, we rarely see the National Team on TV or even live in person. It sucks trying to find some crappy live stream or youtube clip for quality men's volleyball. In the 80's, there were weekly broadcasts of MPSF matches, and I remember broadcasts of Junior Olympics (?) where all the best college players were divided into four teams, north/south/east/west, and played each other. The national team would have exhibition tours with other countries, host the America's Cup, Goodwill Games, etc. There was even the old Team Cup league in L.A. that mixed the nat'l team guys with the beach guys. They had some weird rules but it was still entertaining. Don't know why men's volleyball has declined in popularity over the decades. Maybe too much competition from the emergence or other sports. It's kind of a catch-22: men's volleyball gets no media attention because of its low participation vs. men's volleyball has low participation because it get's no media attention. I think the biggest chance to get a boost is through Olympic coverage. That's what got the ball rolling in the 80's... it just lost momentum. That's not the Catch-22. Men's volleyball has low participation because there are no scholarships.
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Post by 30killspergame on Jul 14, 2012 11:31:54 GMT -5
we will get MPSF men's volleyball matches on the Pac 12 network. USC,UCLA and Stanford.
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Post by cheeseburger on Jul 15, 2012 0:27:15 GMT -5
there is definitely going to be some good talent in the gym in the future. while that talent may not manifest itself in time for 2016, i think it could grow & mature into high quality by 2020...
which leads to this: who's going to lead the nt after london? the list of qualified candidates (w/ int'l experience) isn't exactly long. i've been trying to answer that question since speraw chose ucla, and i don't have a great answer. if i was a betting man, i'd say karch stays w/ the usa women (if he wants to stay int'l). i wonder if patchel coaching the pan am team is a little audition.
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