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Post by brucks on Dec 17, 2018 12:35:07 GMT -5
You should be right to be afraid of Tamas leaving. He will absolutely be courted when PSU or Nebraska open up. Obviously Nebraska more than PSU. As much as he’s connected now, his job to win volleyball matches and titles becomes much easier at Nebraska. Plus the fanbase there is amazing. I was in Minneapolis and it felt like a home match for the Huskers. They easily outnumbered the fans from any of the other teams and probably outnumbered the fans from all other teams combined. The Husker fans that I talked to all seemed knowledgeable about Tamas and thought highly of him and Jen.
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Post by vbkahuna on Dec 17, 2018 12:42:58 GMT -5
My concern now with the volleyball program is whether Illinois can manage to keep Coach Tamas as our coach for the long term. To my mind, any AD worth his salt who gives a damn about women's volleyball would want to see if he or she can pry Tamas away from Illinois. I was at the Final Four celebration yesterday afternoon in Huff Gym. All indications are that Chris Tamas is a great fit for Illinois despite his and his wife's connections to California and to Nebraska volleyball. Nebraska definitely has the financial means to pay Coach Tamas an astronomical salary once Coach Cook decides to retire. I have felt since Tamas' arrival in Champaign-Urtbana, that he feels a certain kinship with Illinois volleyball. In his two years here, Chris seems to have formed a close, personal connection with our excellent, young, AD Josh Whitman. Josh and Chris are similar in age, both with very young families, meaning they share the same kind of experiences at home balancing that with a lot of time away from home dealing with athletes and athletics. Coach Chris seems to have bonded quickly with the Illinois student group the Spike Squad. From my perspective, Chris seems to have a personality that truly connects with the personality type of those types of students drawn to joining the Spike Squad. And similarly, I think the Spike Squad members may identify more with Coach Tamas' personality than with other personality-type coaches. I know personally that Illini fans are crazy about having Chris Tamas as our coach. The Illini volleyball support group, the Networkers, are especially over-the-moon with our new coach. The Illini nation is always hungry for a winner, and Chris Tamas is a winner! My final hope is that Coach Tamas will want to build his own legacy as a collegiate coach, an Illinois Volleyball Legacy, rather than step into the shadow of say Hall of Fame Coach John Cook. Tamas took over an Illinois volleyball program that was consistently in the upper half of the B1G. Once Coach has a few years to recruit his own players, I believe Tamas will consistently be fighting for the top spot in the B1G and nationally. This is just the beginning! Really excellent and insightful observations. Family and strong connections to key individuals, groups, and the community certainly seem to be strong motivations for Coach Tamas, and not just the compensation. He certainly appears to not just accept but relish big challenges. Definitely strikes me as someone who wants to build his own legacy, with his own kind of team. In that regard, I'm really looking forward to seeing what kind of team that will be. I've already mentioned that I think the first clue was his selection and transformation of Kuper from a terrific but undersized hitter into a DS and the development of Quade into a genuine six rotation star. This is National Team strategy. Great, versatile athletes at every position and not just volleyball position specialists. And a team that flexes as a unit between defense and offense, with attacks coming from anywhere on the court. We got a great preview of this with those jaw-dropping back row attacks by Quade. Wouldn't surprise me to see Kuper flying in for a few next year when Quade gets double and triple block set-ups in front. Should be rock-n-roll time in Huff as this develops. Must-See-VB for Illinois fans.
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Post by ilalum92 on Dec 17, 2018 12:48:10 GMT -5
I think Tamas is the kind of coach who wants to build his own legacy, not take over someone else's. Why not build your own powerhouse instead of taking the easy way out.
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Post by FreeBall on Dec 17, 2018 13:21:31 GMT -5
I think Tamas is the kind of coach who wants to build his own legacy, not take over someone else's. Why not build your own powerhouse instead of taking the easy way out. More $$$ at an earlier point in your career can be a powerful motivator. Plus, due to the power of compounding, it creates more financial stability at (and after) the end of your working years.
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Post by tallguy86 on Dec 17, 2018 14:19:00 GMT -5
Hambly has created Illinois into a great volleyball program from a less than average one. Everyone, even he, thought he would stay.... then his dream job opened up. Nebraska is probably Tmas’s Dream job.
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Post by oldmanvb on Dec 17, 2018 14:28:26 GMT -5
I wish that there was a way to build a volleyball arena close to the center of campus, available to the students, with good parking. Huff is a terrific place if you are a season ticket holder in the lower arena. If you are sitting in general admission, the seats are terrible, usually with an obstructed views. I personally think that the general admission seats discourage attendance. I for one would attend more games if I could get a reasonable, unobstructed view. Driving an hour plus to spend the match twisting to watch the flow of the game does not encourage attendance. There has to be third option other than keeping Huff or playing downtown with a sheet of ice underneath the playing surface and seats a long distance from the court.
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Post by vbkahuna on Dec 17, 2018 14:59:32 GMT -5
Hambly has created Illinois into a great volleyball program from a less than average one. Everyone, even he, thought he would stay.... then his dream job opened up. Nebraska is probably Tmas’s Dream job. While I do think that Hambly is a very good coach, I think it's a big stretch to claim that he "created Illinois into a great volleyball program from a less than average one". Here is his W/L record at Illinois: 2009 26-6 (+ Sweet 16) 2010 24-9 (+ Sweet 16) 2011 32-5 (+ FF, lost in Final) 2012 14-16 (+ Didn't make playoffs) 2013 18-15 (+ Sweet 16) 2014 26-8 (+ Sweet 16) 2015 21-13 (+ Sweet 16) 2016 17-14 (+ Didn't make playoffs)
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Post by tallguy86 on Dec 17, 2018 15:16:30 GMT -5
Hambly has created Illinois into a great volleyball program from a less than average one. Everyone, even he, thought he would stay.... then his dream job opened up. Nebraska is probably Tmas’s Dream job. While I do think that Hambly is a very good coach, I think it's a big stretch to claim that he "created Illinois into a great volleyball program from a less than average one". Here is his W/L record at Illinois: 2009 26-6 (+ Sweet 16) 2010 24-9 (+ Sweet 16) 2011 32-5 (+ FF, lost in Final) 2012 14-16 (+ Didn't make playoffs) 2013 18-15 (+ Sweet 16) 2014 26-8 (+ Sweet 16) 2015 21-13 (+ Sweet 16) 2016 17-14 (+ Didn't make playoffs) Illinois was not a perennial sweet sixteen team before Hambly. Hardin’s teams were overall not very good nor nationally relevant. How many senior aces did Hambly recruit to the middle of nowhere Illinois cornfields? He completely changed the program. If you don’t think that, you don’t understand how hard it is. And the two years he missed the tourney, you could argue they should have been in (2017), or could have won games in it if eligible (2012). Either way, the rosters were very good every year Hambly was there. Illinois is now a great program because of Hambly, not Tamas. Don’t get it twisted.
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Post by vbkahuna on Dec 17, 2018 15:44:44 GMT -5
My only quibble with your comment was the word "great", not with whether Hambly is a very good coach or whether he improved the program overall. Other than 2011, those annual W/L records collectively are not "great". Nor, for that matter, does making Sweet 16 constitute "great". You have a very low bar apparently for what constitutes greatness.
Furthermore, regarding Tamas, I made no assertion about him. However, he's off to a very good start, including taking virtually the same team Hambly had in 2016 (that didn't make the playoffs) and getting it to the Sweet 16 in 2017 and the Final Four in 2018. The coming years will be the judge whether the term "great" can be applied for his results.
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Post by brucks on Dec 17, 2018 15:47:49 GMT -5
Mike Hebert was the architect of Illinois volleyball.
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Post by brucks on Dec 17, 2018 15:53:16 GMT -5
I wish that there was a way to build a volleyball arena close to the center of campus, available to the students, with good parking. Huff is a terrific place if you are a season ticket holder in the lower arena. If you are sitting in general admission, the seats are terrible, usually with an obstructed views. I personally think that the general admission seats discourage attendance. I for one would attend more games if I could get a reasonable, unobstructed view. Driving an hour plus to spend the match twisting to watch the flow of the game does not encourage attendance. There has to be third option other than keeping Huff or playing downtown with a sheet of ice underneath the playing surface and seats a long distance from the court. Have you considered buying season tickets in the reserved seats? Reasonably priced and a clear view of the match.
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Post by volleyguy on Dec 17, 2018 15:57:49 GMT -5
The road is littered with coaches who have taken the reins at a program and found success with someone else's talent--Mike Sealy at UCLA, Kevin Hambly at Illinois, Mick Haley at USC, John Dunning at Stanford, among others-- and then struggled (to some degree or another) to create their own powerhouse. Tamas has as much potential as any of those coaches, but don't underestimate the difficulty of creating and maintaining a quality program over time. Tamas is still a young and relatively inexperienced coach, and he still has a lot to experience and learn, and Illinois still has a way to go as an institution before it can consistently deliver what is needed for that level of success.
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Post by tallguy86 on Dec 17, 2018 16:16:40 GMT -5
The road is littered with coaches who have taken the reins at a program and found success with someone else's talent--Mike Sealy at UCLA, Kevin Hambly at Illinois, Mick Haley at USC, John Dunning at Stanford, among others-- and then struggled (to some degree or another) to create their own powerhouse. Tamas has as much potential as any of those coaches, but don't underestimate the difficulty of creating and maintaining a quality program over time. Tamas is still a young and relatively inexperienced coach, and he still has a lot to experience and learn, and Illinois still has a way to go as an institution before it can consistently deliver what is needed for that level of success. Kevin only had success with his own recruits. He was there as an assistant for several years before he was the head coach. Kevin has had success at Stanford with dunning’s recruits.
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Post by tallguy86 on Dec 17, 2018 16:19:25 GMT -5
My only quibble with your comment was the word "great", not with whether Hambly is a very good coach or whether he improved the program overall. Other than 2011, those annual W/L records collectively are not "great". Nor, for that matter, does making Sweet 16 constitute "great". You have a very low bar apparently for what constitutes greatness. Furthermore, regarding Tamas, I made no assertion about him. However, he's off to a very good start, including taking virtually the same team Hambly had in 2016 (that didn't make the playoffs) and getting it to the Sweet 16 in 2017 and the Final Four in 2018. The coming years will be the judge whether the term "great" can be applied for his results. You don’t think that many consecutive years of sweet sixteen is great? Ask Michigan, Ohio State, and Michigan what they think of that. How many years did Illinois miss the tourney altogether in the 20 years before Hambly took over. People from Illinois think it’s so easy to have success at the highest level, but don’t appreciate how hard it actually is. Hambly did a great job. You’re drunk if you think otherwise. Hebert did, as well, but Hardin was mediocre and drove away the fruits of Hebert’s labor.
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Post by vbkahuna on Dec 17, 2018 16:24:41 GMT -5
The road is littered with coaches who have taken the reins at a program and found success with someone else's talent--Mike Sealy at UCLA, Kevin Hambly at Illinois, Mick Haley at USC, John Dunning at Stanford, among others-- and then struggled (to some degree or another) to create their own powerhouse. Tamas has as much potential as any of those coaches, but don't underestimate the difficulty of creating and maintaining a quality program over time. Tamas is still a young and relatively inexperienced coach, and he still has a lot to experience and learn, and Illinois still has a way to go as an institution before it can consistently deliver what is needed for that level of success. I get your point overall, but you need to edit John Dunning's name out of your comment. He's a Hall of Fame coach over 32 years and multiple successful records at different colleges, including 2 national championships at UOP and 3 at Stanford.
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