Post by Semp12 on Mar 30, 2014 9:36:50 GMT -5
Matt Anderson could obviously be a very good player. I don't think "minimal prep" would win him tournaments against the top US teams, but he could do well pretty quickly. Rooney was a stereotypical indoor stud who played some beach and got a stud partner (Nick). He was good but I do think it takes a bit more to take you to the next level (Phil, Gibb, etc).
Lastly, the indoor game has changed. More times than not, at 14 years old you get put in the middle if you are the tallest, and taken out in the back row for the libero as that is the "norm". Even with all the subs available, the specialization indoors is at a different level from the past.
Nick in those days was not the top 3 defender he became.
I think a lot has changed since Rooney played. Specifically the game has adapted to the short court. I think if you look at how easily Brad Keenan adapted to the beach game just a couple years after Rooney, it shows how much easier it got for big guys.
Also if you look at Theo and Ryan last year and the year before, it shows how much less is required of a big guy now.
Anderson would be better than Ryan at every single skill except maybe setting within 45 days and he is a much better athlete. I think if he stated April 1 of this year to train beach, and got a good partner, he would make a final this year and probably get a win.
Top 3 no, but Nick was right there with the next group of guys and showed he had the ability to beat the top top guys. The AVP as a whole was a whole different level of competitiveness then. The year previous was his big year with Phil. Phil was not yet the absolute stud that he became. I gave Nick a lot of credit as Nick was the one who teams focused on.
I'm not sure the game has "transformed" in one year. Both Rooney and Keenan played through 2006. Keenan's first successful year was 2007.
A "top blocker" is probably not saying much nowadays anyways. I just don't think "minimal prep" from Anderson is beating Gibb/Casey or a healthy Rosie/Phil (which is what it'd take to win a real US event.
(edit) To just address the last part, I'd imagine Anderson could be a complete game changer from the service line and at the net.