Men's players

[mungro]

Does anyone know where the NCAA Div 1 players who graduated are now a days? What ever happened to Milodinovic, Joaquin Acosta, Matt Kommer, Andy Rivera, Ben Koski, Lance Walker, etc? Are they playing in Europe?

[johnyjohnjohn]

I know that andy is working on his career in buisnus and ben is still in school finishing up the loose ends to become a teacher

[Peppfan]

Lance Walker is playing in Europe.

[EP]

Last I heard Dejan is an assitant coach @ UH

[VollyJigg]

Beau Daniels is an assistant at Pierce College

[James]

Last I heard the Santa Barbara guys have been playing some beach.

[WaveRider]

As for Pepp players, Walker is playing for a team in Belgium, Daniels is helping out a Pierce, coaching club and finishing up school at Pepperdine, Olson is studying at a seminary school and Van Reusen is working... speaking of, where is VBCruisin? The boys are doing well.

[Tag]

WaveRider said:

where is VBCruisin? The boys are doing well.

I wonder if he even knows that 24/7 board is RIP? I know he wasn't really a women's volleyball fan and mentioned last that he was coming back when the men's season started up again.

[VBCrusin]

Hey WaveRider...I'm back. Just viewed USC women beat Stanford for the title. Great game, BUT I love the men's volleyball teams better. Expect this year to be more exciting than last year...incidentally, Hawaii will NOT repeat as champs, in fact, I doubt if they will reach the final four. Every team will be gunning for them to knock them off the mountain. There are 5 teams who will battle it out, but I give the pre-season edge to UCLA (based on their returners & balanced lineup), provided they stay healthy. Pep will be there, but don't discount Long Beach, BYU or Santa Barbara. Toppel lead Stanford will be up there too.
This is a good site to posts views. Sorry to see the demise of RollShot.Com. Unlike last year, I hope the many comments remain on a high level from great fans instead of "foul-mouthed" houligans.
Hope everyone enjoys some GREAT volleyball games...I know I will.

[CardFan]

VBCrusin said:

Hey WaveRider...I'm back. Just viewed USC women beat Stanford for the title. Great game, BUT I love the men's volleyball teams better. Expect this year to be more exciting than last year...incidentally, Hawaii will NOT repeat as champs, in fact, I doubt if they will reach the final four. Every team will be gunning for them to knock them off the mountain. There are 5 teams who will battle it out, but I give the pre-season edge to UCLA (based on their returners & balanced lineup), provided they stay healthy. Pep will be there, but don't discount Long Beach, BYU or Santa Barbara. Toppel lead Stanford will be up there too.
This is a good site to posts views. Sorry to see the demise of RollShot.Com. Unlike last year, I hope the many comments remain on a high level from great fans instead of "foul-mouthed" houligans.
Hope everyone enjoys some GREAT volleyball games...I know I will.

You sound very confident about UCLA. But Id still have to give the edge to Hawaii, they are the Defending Champs and until they do get knocked off, they are the favorites. They do return the best player in the country Costas Theo sp? And I saw Delano Thomas play in the Jrs this year, he is unstopable. And if its true of what ive heard from my inside source from Brasil, Anzeha is just as good as Costas. The only question mark on their team is their M2, they return their entire championship team besides Dejan and Vernon. If they pass and set the way they did in the final they will easily get their again.

[Guest]

CardFan said:

You sound very confident about UCLA. But Id still have to give the edge to Hawaii, they are the Defending Champs and until they do get knocked off, they are the favorites. They do return the best player in the country Costas Theo sp? And I saw Delano Thomas play in the Jrs this year, he is unstopable. And if its true of what ive heard from my inside source from Brasil, Anzeha is just as good as Costas. The only question mark on their team is their M2, they return their entire championship team besides Dejan and Vernon. If they pass and set the way they did in the final they will easily get their again.

Maybe VBcrusin is still smarting from his prediction last season that PU would take the championship over UH.

After seeing the Warriors play in exhibition this fall, I am thinking they will be even better this season with a deeper and much stronger supporting cast. Wilton has been quoted that Zimet is no longer playing with pain (can't believe he gave the performance he did in the championships with a sprained ankle!) and stronger than ever. I think the only thing that will hold them back is a "been there, done" that attitude but I kinda doubt it. These guys are WAY too competetive.

[NET]

Never, ever count out UCLA until they are eliminated from championship contention. I agree with VBCruisin that Al Scates will be on a mission this year. Who knows what diamond in the rough will emerge from behind the blue curtain. I look for Al to be at his best this season as a teaching coach.

East of the Rockies, where I live, Lewis seems to have the best talent, Ball State will play very well as a team, & Penn State returns 5 starter. Dark horse teams are IPFW which gets 2 stars back from red shirt seasons, including All-American candidate Jeff Ptak, & George Mason that has a veteran club led by James Claney.

[Bruinsblow]

I don't understand how Scates can consistently get the top tier talent and not manage to make the final four every year. I mean look at who UCLA has sighed the last 2 years; Nihipali and McKinney and now Gaby and Klosterman. Yet despite all their talent they still lost to UCSB in the 1st round!! I think the reign of jolly old saint Scates should end soon.

[VB Dog]

Bruinsblow said:

I don't understand how Scates can consistently get the top tier talent and not manage to make the final four every year. I mean look at who UCLA has sighed the last 2 years; Nihipali and McKinney and now Gaby and Klosterman. Yet despite all their talent they still lost to UCSB in the 1st round!! I think the reign of jolly old saint Scates should end soon.

Well, you've listed names of 4 players who haven't been elligible to play yet as evidence of some sort of downward trend at UCLA-ville. Let's see, UCLA won the NC,when two years ago or so? That's hardly a spiral. The fact that Scates has acquired 4 top players in the past two recruiting classes is evidence that he and Roffer have the magic. They've also brought in a terrific JC transfer named Vince for this season who lit up the floor in fall matches. Add in the wealth of existing talent and they'll be amongst the most competitive teams this year. In most pre-season lists I've seen so far the Bruins are usually listed right up there in the top 3-5 projected for this coming season.

Nihipali is a freshman as is McKinney. Even if they both play this year it'll take them a year or so to come into full stride for the college game, although Nihipali played a lot in the fall. I'm not sure yet if McKinney is playing VB this season, or if he'll redshirt as he is doing in basketball. As far as Klosterman and Gaby go....well, they're still in high school.

[Woozie]

According to his homepage, www2.hawaii.edu/~dejan/, Dejan Miladinovic is presently working for John Hancock Financial Services. Based on the photographs on the site it appears to have been updated some time after the national championship match in May 2002. Whether all pages have been updated that recently is unclear.