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Post by tomclen on Jan 9, 2015 21:26:08 GMT -5
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Post by Pirate VB Fan on Jan 9, 2015 22:15:20 GMT -5
I am surprised that no one had mentioned (at least that I have seen) that he was an Assistant Coach at Notre Dame. That is where he met Margaret. No -- they met at USC. OK, I always assumed they met at Notre Dame, but I never asked. He was an Assistant Coach there in 1996, so that was after U$C.
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Post by ay2013 on Jan 9, 2015 22:16:41 GMT -5
I won't gossip about his reasons, but I will say that if he does choose to leave, I want thank him for everything he has done for the Washington program, and I hope he finds challenges and exceeds expectations in his future endeavors.
On a slightly more disturbing note, as if we needed anymore reasons to express the fundamental shift in volleyball to the midwest, a coaching drain from the west to the midwest/east is frightening.
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Post by dorothymantooth on Jan 9, 2015 22:32:33 GMT -5
If you're a highly-rated high school player from the Midwest, where would you rather go - a B1G school where you can play against great competition and be on TV all throughout the Midwest, or Notre Dame, which plays in the mediocre ACC? This is how I regarded the situation. describing the ACC as mediocre is ludicrous. The ACC had four teams with a higher rpi than Purdue, Minnesota, and Michigan. The ACC is one of the top 5 conferences that hardly makes them mediocre. Are they as strong as the Big? No. But are they mediocre? of course not. The ACC is solid and getting better every year.
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Post by Cruz'n on Jan 9, 2015 22:34:42 GMT -5
This is how I regarded the situation. describing the ACC as mediocre is ludicrous. The ACC had four teams with a higher rpi than Purdue, Minnesota, and Michigan. The ACC is one of the top 5 conferences that hardly makes them mediocre. Are they as strong as the Big? No. But are they mediocre? of course not. The ACC is solid and getting better every year. I think calling the ACC mediocre is a fair assessment. Just my opinion.
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Post by #skoskers on Jan 9, 2015 22:43:00 GMT -5
This is how I regarded the situation. describing the ACC as mediocre is ludicrous. The ACC had four teams with a higher rpi than Purdue, Minnesota, and Michigan. The ACC is one of the top 5 conferences that hardly makes them mediocre. Are they as strong as the Big? No. But are they mediocre? of course not. The ACC is solid and getting better every year. Is that conference consistently getting players like Gibbemeyer, Dixon, Harms, Wittman, Dannemiller, Cole, Nichol, or Turner?
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Post by dorothymantooth on Jan 9, 2015 22:45:56 GMT -5
You can get kids from anywhere to ND, you cant at UW. Really? I'm not being sarcastic or a smart ass, either. If that's the case, why don't they already have top girls from everywhere? Is JMac that dreamy of a coach for girls in Indiana, Florida, Illinois, and Kentucky to pick him over Nebraska, Penn State, Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Purdue? Because they havent worked very hard, had much success, and did not have an exceptional coach, or at least one who had enough drive everyday to be exceptional. As great a draw as Jmac is, he isnt as great a draw as ND the institution, but the combination is incredibly attractive. Name the number of schools that right now are as strong in ALL these areas? Some are stronger in some areas, but in terms of having all of these things, the list is very, very, very small, and UW is also probably not on that list of having ALL of those things, Nebraska certainly isnt. Great academics Great reputation prestige in degree great campus great athletics great regional recruiting base ability to recruit nationally unlimited resources great coach
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Post by dorothymantooth on Jan 9, 2015 22:47:35 GMT -5
describing the ACC as mediocre is ludicrous. The ACC had four teams with a higher rpi than Purdue, Minnesota, and Michigan. The ACC is one of the top 5 conferences that hardly makes them mediocre. Are they as strong as the Big? No. But are they mediocre? of course not. The ACC is solid and getting better every year. I think calling the ACC mediocre is a fair assessment. Just my opinion. mediocre would be in the middle of division 1 conferences, that is far from the case.
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Post by Babar on Jan 9, 2015 22:51:24 GMT -5
IMO Notre Dame is one of the top five jobs in the country for seveal reasons. They have won national championships in multiple women's sports. If they choose to support vollleyball and Jim wouldn't take the job if they didn't, they have more resources than other school in the ACC and quite likely the BIG as well. There is another advantage as well. While the ACC has several strong programs it does not have a program that has dominated the conference like Penn State in the BIG, Texas in the Big 12 or Stanford in the Pac 12. It will not take Notre Dame much time to recruit the level of athlete needed to compete for an ACC championship, and eventually a Final Four birth. Athletics today are driven by money more than anything else, and Notre Dame has much more money and a stronger athletic tradition than almost any school in the country.
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Post by Barefoot In Kailua on Jan 9, 2015 22:55:05 GMT -5
I've no doubt that JMac could build a competitive program at Notre Dame. His success at K-State and U Dub speaks for itself. That said, it's going to take time for him to turn the Notre Dame program around.
On the flip side, U Dub will be okay. Obviously, losing JMac is a huge loss but the Huskies are not going to fade into obscurity, far from it.
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Post by dorothymantooth on Jan 9, 2015 22:57:46 GMT -5
describing the ACC as mediocre is ludicrous. The ACC had four teams with a higher rpi than Purdue, Minnesota, and Michigan. The ACC is one of the top 5 conferences that hardly makes them mediocre. Are they as strong as the Big? No. But are they mediocre? of course not. The ACC is solid and getting better every year. Is that conference consistently getting players like Gibbemeyer, Dixon, Harms, Wittman, Dannemiller, Cole, Nichol, or Turner? That would mean they arent one of the best, not mediocre. Mediocre means moderate, middle of the road, not very good, that does not describe the ACC. They had 4 teams make the tournament, the SEC and Big 12 had 5. Saying they are mediocre is either avoiding the facts, (how well teams in the conference did, and how much they get better every year) or failing to understand the definition of the word. If you want to say they arent as good as the big and pac, that's fine, but middle of the road? Is totally inaccurate.
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Post by zenyada on Jan 9, 2015 22:58:11 GMT -5
Of note is that UW hasn't gotten a big-time commitment since 2012. Seems like not that long since those girls are still underclassmen, but for someone looking forward it could be concerning. JMac probably realized that while the rising sophomores are very good it was going to be tough going without Vansant. If he thinks he can get Chicago, Louisville, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana girls to Notre Dame more successfully than California girls to UW, then it makes sense. The UW title team had a huge concentration of PNW talent, but that hasn't been replicated and there's a lot more competition for those girls than there was 15 years ago. JMac will have to rebuild Notre Dame, but I don't think UW would have been back to competing for several years (2018/2019? and that would require winning over Cali girls he hasn't been able to make go to UW over Stanford or others the past couple of classes). If all you care about are the rings, the timeline isn't that different, if you're confident in your abilities to rebuild and the better draw of UND. It will be interesting to see if their is attrition off the current roster. The UW "sell" to recruits/identity was really heavily tied to the coaching. Tia Scambray? Not highly rated? Thats the shame of all this, on ibe level it sounds like he lost confidence in the girls he recruited.
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Post by gnu2vball on Jan 9, 2015 23:06:05 GMT -5
Question for Washington fans: You stay with the Huskies or go with Jmac?
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Post by c4ndlelight on Jan 9, 2015 23:14:51 GMT -5
Of note is that UW hasn't gotten a big-time commitment since 2012. Seems like not that long since those girls are still underclassmen, but for someone looking forward it could be concerning. JMac probably realized that while the rising sophomores are very good it was going to be tough going without Vansant. If he thinks he can get Chicago, Louisville, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana girls to Notre Dame more successfully than California girls to UW, then it makes sense. The UW title team had a huge concentration of PNW talent, but that hasn't been replicated and there's a lot more competition for those girls than there was 15 years ago. JMac will have to rebuild Notre Dame, but I don't think UW would have been back to competing for several years (2018/2019? and that would require winning over Cali girls he hasn't been able to make go to UW over Stanford or others the past couple of classes). If all you care about are the rings, the timeline isn't that different, if you're confident in your abilities to rebuild and the better draw of UND. It will be interesting to see if their is attrition off the current roster. The UW "sell" to recruits/identity was really heavily tied to the coaching. Tia Scambray? Not highly rated? Thats the shame of all this, on ibe level it sounds like he lost confidence in the girls he recruited. Scambray committed back in 2012.
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Post by #skoskers on Jan 9, 2015 23:30:46 GMT -5
Really? I'm not being sarcastic or a smart ass, either. If that's the case, why don't they already have top girls from everywhere? Is JMac that dreamy of a coach for girls in Indiana, Florida, Illinois, and Kentucky to pick him over Nebraska, Penn State, Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Purdue? Because they havent worked very hard, had much success, and did not have an exceptional coach, or at least one who had enough drive everyday to be exceptional. As great a draw as Jmac is, he isnt as great a draw as ND the institution, but the combination is incredibly attractive. Name the number of schools that right now are as strong in ALL these areas? Some are stronger in some areas, but in terms of having all of these things, the list is very, very, very small, and UW is also probably not on that list of having ALL of those things, Nebraska certainly isnt. Great academics Great reputation prestige in degree great campus great athletics great regional recruiting base ability to recruit nationally unlimited resources great coach I totally understand what you're saying, but I don't think any of those are applicable for the recruits that want the volleyball tradition of Nebraska, Penn State, Texas or Stanford and follow in the footsteps of its alumni. Or what if the recruit wants to be in the national spotlight or play tough competition in conferences like the B1G or Pac-12? It seems like the trend in volleyball is that in order to be the best (or be seen as the best), you have to defeat the best, which is why people feel the "rich get richer and poor get poorer" in volleyball. Is it possible JMac may have been able to do what he did at Washington because it was a Pac school that gave athletes who wanted to play in the Pac the opportunities to upset legendary programs like USC, Stanford and UCLA on a weekly basis, which was able to catch national attention, which put the team higher in the polls, which attracted better recruits? In order for JMac to get the ball rolling, which teams in the ACC will he have to defeat year after year that will catapult ND to a top 5 ranking? Or will ND be another program like Hawaii or Texas that almost gets to coast through their conference schedules and rise in the polls because the B1G and Pac-12 are beating each other up? If that's the case, JMac better start scheduling tough preseason matches, which has been one of his criticisms of not doing over the years, or pray that Florida State, UNC, and Duke don't fade back into the darkness anytime soon.
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