Hawaii problems/potential solutions

[IdahoBoy]

People have called me wrong before, bunnywailer/38 Skynyrd. I typically am not. It's a character flaw.

[Aikea]

bunnywailer said:

Problem #1 Lack of depth One backup (Keefe) at three outside hitting positions. Not good. One backup in the middle. Not good.
Mix and match bazillion backrow players all under 5'9" who will never play frontrow against top-tier competition. Not good.

Solution: Teach Shoji to recruit and roster-plan better. One year he has 5 middles and 2 outsides. Other years he has 7 outsides and 2.5 middles. And EVERY year he has 16 backrow players. Exagerrated a bit, but you get the point.

Aren't all Hawaii's DS/L players walk-on (maybe not Duggins)? I don't see a problem having them on the team. It doesn't cost UH any scholarships.

[5100]

bunnywailer said:

Well, since this thread was called "problems/solutions" I'll give my brief reasonings here:

Problem #1 Lack of depth One backup (Keefe) at three outside hitting positions. Not good. One backup in the middle. Not good.
Mix and match bazillion backrow players all under 5'9" who will never play frontrow against top-tier competition. Not good.

Solution: Teach Shoji to recruit and roster-plan better. One year he has 5 middles and 2 outsides. Other years he has 7 outsides and 2.5 middles. And EVERY year he has 16 backrow players. Exagerrated a bit, but you get the point.


Problem: Talent (or lack thereof) Contrary to IB's biased opinion, Hawaii does not have Top 5 talent. There is maybe one athlete (Kamanao) that has a career following the college game. Top-tier teams have 3-4 athletes that are being looked at beyond the college game. Top-tier talented teams have athletes at every position that may or may not be superstars, but they are all way above average athletically when compared to their peers. Hawaii has some good athletes, but none are far above average. Position-wise, Hawaii's position players (except for maybe Kamanao and Hittle) all have major weaknesses in their game. Middles who can hit but not block, or block but not hit. Outsides that can hit but not pass, etc.etc.etc. Compare that to the rosters at Stanford, Nebraska, Washington, and (a couple years ago) USC.

Solution: None that can be fixed in the season.


Problem #3 Passing - unusual for any Hawaii team to have passing problems. Passing/defense are usually a Shoji trademark. Attribute that again to recruiting/roster selection and the philosophy to recruit raw talent over refined skill. This is one of those years that the raw talent gets a trial-by-fire.

Solution: Patience. We'll see if Kamanao really is the setter that everone thinks she is. It's easy to look good when the passing is perfect, but the real test of a great setter is to continue to run a good offense when the passing is fair or marginal.


I see this as a down year for Hawaii. They will win the WAC again (obviously), but even with hosting a regional, I don't see them getting very deep into the NCAAs, unless they find some kind of magic midway through the season.

I honestly don't think the UH coaching staff has ever gotten their recruiting right. Even when Willougby/Kahumoku were playing, Shoji lucked into the roster he had during that era, and he still messed up and didn't address his issues at the setter and RS positions. Go even farther back to the '96 team that made the finals, and he lucked into that lineup with a combination of foreign superstar (Ljungquist) plus lightly recruited local kids who overachieved bigtime (Goods, Ah Mow, Yama%*$#a, Robins, Nobriga). Maybe he still thinks the formula that won him championships in the early 80's still works today. It doesn't. Until he goes out and recruits himself a class or three that addresses every position on the court, he won't win another championship. There's no excuse for having holes in his roster year in and year out.

I can't help but agree with every point you raised. Shoji needs to recruit "complete" players who can remain on court for all rotations if needed. I think the last time he had that team was in 2003 - even the middles like Duggins and Lundqvist could pass and play defense.

USC's 2003 squad was extremely impressive - just about everyone got All-America honors. Ross, Burdine, Adams and Candelas were all AA that year and libero Nicole Davis should have been AA.

I have another solution to add:
In addition to recruiting front row players who can play all-around, Shoji needs to recruit a real libero. Like I said before, Melissa Villaroman and Hedder Ilustre-type liberos won't be willing to walk-on these days, and not all walk-ons will end up becoming a success story like Ashley Watanabe. Every year, he has a plethora of walk-on liberos - most of whom don't see the court at all. Some of them even end up walking off.

[USAFAN]

While vball is a team sport and no one player can be singled out for the Hawaii team, I have been terribly dissapointed with the play of Tara Hittle. Right now Jamie Houston, a sophomore with relatively unpolished skills, is getting way too many sets which I feel is partially due to Hittle's lack of effectiveness. Besides the Colorado match, Hittle hit under.200 and hit negatively for the match against UCLA. She has substantial experience playing full time both her freshman and sophomore years and for UH to get to an elite level Tara has to play like an elite outside hitter.

[5100]

bowzo said:

bunnywailer said:

Problem #1 Lack of depth One backup (Keefe) at three outside hitting positions. Not good. One backup in the middle. Not good.
Mix and match bazillion backrow players all under 5'9" who will never play frontrow against top-tier competition. Not good.

Solution: Teach Shoji to recruit and roster-plan better. One year he has 5 middles and 2 outsides. Other years he has 7 outsides and 2.5 middles. And EVERY year he has 16 backrow players. Exagerrated a bit, but you get the point.

Aren't all Hawaii's DS/L players walk-on (maybe not Duggins)? I don't see a problem having them on the team. It doesn't cost UH any scholarships.

I'm pretty sure all the liberos are walk-ons. Including Duggins.

Scholarship: Sanders, Kaufman, Hittle, Gregory, Keefe, Arnott, Houston, Thomas, Kamana'o, Mafua, Thurlby, Mason.

Walk-ons: Blood, Kitaguchi, Ong, Woolford, Duggins, Lee and Recca.

All the walk-ons are libero/DS candidates although Blood is also a middle blocker/opposite hitter.

[5100]

usafan said:

While vball is a team sport and no one player can be singled out for the Hawaii team, I have been terribly dissapointed with the play of Tara Hittle. Right now Jamie Houston, a sophomore with relatively unpolished skills, is getting way too many sets which I feel is partially due to Hittle's lack of effectiveness. Besides the Colorado match, Hittle hit under.200 and hit negatively for the match against UCLA. She has substantial experience playing full time both her freshman and sophomore years and for UH to get to an elite level Tara has to play like an elite outside hitter.

In addition, I think people expected a lot from Tara because she was so good as a freshman. So explosive.

[Wolfgang]

Tara beefed up, too between her freshman and junior years.

Sometimes, I incorrectly associate beef with skillset, esp. for volleyball players. Yeah, I know it's boneheaded to think this way, but I can't help it. It's like this invisible force is fighting inside me and I can't win. It's like that with chess. Some doof told me a long time ago that if you encouraged chess-playing in kids, they would grow up to be smarter. Turns out, some psych guys did some research and concluded there was only one thing that resulted from teaching/encouraging kids to play chess: the kids didn't get smarter, they just got better at chess. Same with beef. If you spend time in the weight-room, it didn't make you a better volleyball player, it just made you a bulkier and more muscular person.

[5100]

wolfgang said:

Tara beefed up, too between her freshman and junior years.

Yeah, I noticed that. She was a really slim freshman. With great, long legs.

[bunnywailer]

ericplim said:

bowzo said:

Aren't all Hawaii's DS/L players walk-on (maybe not Duggins)? I don't see a problem having them on the team. It doesn't cost UH any scholarships.

I'm pretty sure all the liberos are walk-ons. Including Duggins.

Scholarship: Sanders, Kaufman, Hittle, Gregory, Keefe, Arnott, Houston, Thomas, Kamana'o, Mafua, Thurlby, Mason.

Walk-ons: Blood, Kitaguchi, Ong, Woolford, Duggins, Lee and Recca.

All the walk-ons are libero/DS candidates although Blood is also a middle blocker/opposite hitter.

There's your answer right there:

3 out of 12 schollie players won't contribute at all to this season's outcome because they are redshirting.

Walk-ons aren't going to put any pressure on the position starters or backups on the practice court. Can a 5'4" DS really simulate a U of Florida outside hitter on the practice court?

Blood has been listed at every position except setter during her walk-on career. The fact that she is listed as a reserve MB/RS doesn't really mean that much. Don't know her at all, I'm sure she's a terrific kid, but she is the kind of athlete that might get in for 2 or 3 points of a match against a WAC bottom feeder team if UH is up by like 17 or 18 points.

The reason you make a long-term recruiting plan is so that you don't run into situations like this year's UH squad, which was young already to begin with after losing 3 key seniors last year, and further compounded the fact that 3 of their schollie players are redshirting. This is also why you try not to fill up the walk-on spots with defensive specialists only.

This idea that "well Shoji had to go out and get the best recruits he could" is hogwash. The top programs have a very systematic recruiting approach so that as each athlete goes through the program in 4 or 5 years, the program plans for it and reloads into that position when the player graduates.

Do you think football programs go out and recruit 15 linebackers in one class and 2 running backs?

UH needs to work a little bit harder on their recruiting, especially now that Wade is gone. That's one of the biggest areas where they fall short in comparison to programs like Nebraska, USC, or even Florida.

[5100]

Blood's biggest match was against Arizona in 2004 when she went in for about three rotations as a middle blocker. She behaved more like a defensive specialist in that she was covering the outside hitters' attacks. She has been in seven matches in two years with four digs, one kill and one block.

[Deleted]

I went back and read Skynards past posts, many were very critical of Shoji and his coaching methods, and or recruiting. He even said he lucked into his 2002/03 teams Some people are just tough to please. Give the guy a break. I think he knows what he is doing.

[jr67]

ericplim said:

Shoji needs to recruit "complete" players who can remain on court for all rotations if needed. I think the last time he had that team was in 2003 - even the middles like Duggins and Lundqvist could pass and play defense.

Yeah I know what you mean Eric. Those “complete” players are a dime a dozen so Shoji can certainly pick and choose from the hundreds of “complete” players that are clamoring to play at Hawaii every year.

[jr67]

bunnywailer said:

This idea that "well Shoji had to go out and get the best recruits he could" is hogwash. The top programs have a very systematic recruiting approach so that as each athlete goes through the program in 4 or 5 years, the program plans for it and reloads into that position when the player graduates.

Do you think football programs go out and recruit 15 linebackers in one class and 2 running backs?

It is a well know fact that each and every year Shoji has (will have) hundreds of player of each and every position chomping-at-the-bit to play for Hawaii. But you see Shoji is either incompetent or just plain evil. So instead of putting together a balanced roster by picking and choosing from the thousands of potential recruits at each and every position that Hawaii gets each and every year, Shoji (intentionally or not) makes sure that the Wahine is always lacking in at least one position and always overloaded in another.

Exaggerated a bit but you get my point.

[Deleted]

One thing I loathe about Shoji is he never recruits right side hitters, I wish he would quit placing outside hitters over there damn it. Mason is Ineffective over there.

[Aikea]

jr67 said:

bunnywailer said:

This idea that "well Shoji had to go out and get the best recruits he could" is hogwash. The top programs have a very systematic recruiting approach so that as each athlete goes through the program in 4 or 5 years, the program plans for it and reloads into that position when the player graduates.

Do you think football programs go out and recruit 15 linebackers in one class and 2 running backs?

It is a well know fact that each and every year Shoji has (will have) hundreds of player of each and every position chomping-at-the-bit to play for Hawaii. But you see Shoji is either incompetent or just plain evil. So instead of putting together a balanced roster by picking and choosing from the thousands of potential recruits at each and every position that Hawaii gets each and every year, Shoji (intentionally or not) makes sure that the Wahine is always lacking in at least one position and always overloaded in another.

Exaggerated a bit but you get my point.

Dave may have a lot of players wanting to be Wahine but are they quality players? Dave said in a pregame interview, that UCLA was filled with players that he tried to recruit but they chose UCLA over Hawaii. There is a difference between quality and quantity.