BYU 2022

[pelagius]

If either Livingston or Grimmer has developed enough to play six rotations, then who gets the third pin will be determined pretty much just by hitting performance. Given what we saw this Fall, you give the edge to Callahan if that's the situation. But if neither Livingston or Grimmer can play back row, then I think Olmstead would give up a significant amount of hitting performance to get a six rotation pin (Olmstead stuck with Madi Robinson quite long because she was a six rotation in 2019).

[mintonetteman]

I think Pelagius is right on. That really is the million dollar question. I would add one other factor. IMO, Livingston is the most valuable as a hitter because she is a high contact OH (Taylen-Ballard and Koerber where also). I I believe she is the highest pin we still have. Pelagius correct me if I am wrong (and not based on club stats--surely BYU knows exactly what each player touches and even hits at). Grimmer's value as a right side pin is that she has very quick arm swing and sees the seam as well as any right side I have watched. But she is simply not a high contact swing like Koerber (or even Ballard-Nixon when she was playing right side before she had her knee injury) which is also why she is not a great back row attack player. Obviously if you have 3 high contact pins it is a huge advantage and most elite elite schools have this. You can certainly get a way with playing one pin that is not a high contact but usually that is the pin that plays back row. Because, as Pelagius noted, got to have that first contact.

For better or worse BYU is a data driven school...they are analytics driven because it is in their DNA. I think this is why they toyed with the Dodson at OH idea. You want to get to a final four? Better have a pin that can touch 10-6 (i.e. RJP). You want to win a national championship better, have two and through in some really good middles. Precisely why last year was SOOOO sad. I think we had close to that.

[pelagius]

I think your assessment of Grimmer's strengths and weaknesses as a hitter is correct. And I am sure from practice they have plenty of data on how well she hits a D-ball/D-set. That would be interesting data to have.

They definitely are a data driven team. I used to occasionally talk to the guys in the stats department about the data analytics they we doing for the team. That staff takes recording granular data very seriously.

[bbg95]

Jan 14, 2022 13:36:55 GMT -5 mintonetteman said:

I think Pelagius is right on. That really is the million dollar question. I would add one other factor. IMO, Livingston is the most valuable as a hitter because she is a high contact OH (Taylen-Ballard and Koerber where also). I I believe she is the highest pin we still have. Pelagius correct me if I am wrong (and not based on club stats--surely BYU knows exactly what each player touches and even hits at). Grimmer's value as a right side pin is that she has very quick arm swing and sees the seam as well as any right side I have watched. But she is simply not a high contact swing like Koerber (or even Ballard-Nixon when she was playing right side before she had her knee injury) which is also why she is not a great back row attack player. Obviously if you have 3 high contact pins it is a huge advantage and most elite elite schools have this. You can certainly get a way with playing one pin that is not a high contact but usually that is the pin that plays back row. Because, as Pelagius noted, got to have that first contact.

For better or worse BYU is a data driven school...they are analytics driven because it is in their DNA. I think this is why they toyed with the Dodson at OH idea. You want to get to a final four? Better have a pin that can touch 10-6 (i.e. RJP). You want to win a national championship better, have two and through in some really good middles. Precisely why last year was SOOOO sad. I think we had close to that.

As far as high-contact pins go, I think there's a reasonable chance that Mia Lee will play opposite when she arrives in 2023. I believe she has more experience in the middle right now, but she's listed at 5'11" and she could already touch 10'7" when she was a freshman. Really, though, BYU should have plenty of offensive weapons over the next few years, especially with Bower setting the offense for the next two. The passing is what needs to be solved. I'm not really concerned about the pins or the middles or the setting or the serving or even the floor defense. I'm very concerned about the passing. Right now, we're like a football team with a lot of great talent but a suspect offensive line. It's very hard to win a title that way. I wouldn't say that it's impossible (my Steelers won a Super Bowl in 2008, and I had written them off during the season due to their mediocre o-line), but it is very difficult. I hope Olmstead is focused on this.

[azvb]

Watch the ball, move to the ball, platform to the target. I’m sure I’m oversimplifying it, but isn’t that the how to pass a ball? I don’t get what’s so hard.

[volleyfan1566]

Jan 14, 2022 16:06:30 GMT -5 azvb said:

Watch the ball, move to the ball, platform to the target. I’m sure I’m oversimplifying it, but isn’t that the how to pass a ball? I don’t get what’s so hard.

Yes those are the basics of passing, but passing is one of the most mentally challenging skills in volleyball. It’s easy for a player to lose their focus during a match, or get overwhelmed by a strong server when they’re being targeted.

[azvb]

Jan 14, 2022 17:05:31 GMT -5 volleyfan1566 said:

Jan 14, 2022 16:06:30 GMT -5 azvb said:

Watch the ball, move to the ball, platform to the target. I’m sure I’m oversimplifying it, but isn’t that the how to pass a ball? I don’t get what’s so hard.

Yes those are the basics of passing, but passing is one of the most mentally challenging skills in volleyball. It’s easy for a player to lose their focus during a match, or get overwhelmed by a strong server when they’re being targeted.

I agree! So it’s the mental aspect that needs to be improved. Not sure if there is a “mental” coach on the staff. If so, he/she needs to do a better job.

[volleyfan1566]

Jan 14, 2022 22:47:11 GMT -5 azvb said:

Jan 14, 2022 17:05:31 GMT -5 volleyfan1566 said:

Yes those are the basics of passing, but passing is one of the most mentally challenging skills in volleyball. It’s easy for a player to lose their focus during a match, or get overwhelmed by a strong server when they’re being targeted.

I agree! So it’s the mental aspect that needs to be improved. Not sure if there is a “mental” coach on the staff. If so, he/she needs to do a better job.

I wonder if BYU has a sports psychologist they could use. Sometimes players struggle with passing because don’t have the skills/technique, but to me it looked like the back row was lacking confidence during the Purdue match. Lots of passive moves and miscommunications.

[beba]

I think it would be much more helpful, instead of just repeatedly saying that BYU needs to recruit better passers, if you would just list the back row recruits they should sign, and the players in the portal they should get. Then we would have the best passers. Problem solved.

[bbg95]

Jan 14, 2022 23:56:41 GMT -5 volleyfan1566 said:

Jan 14, 2022 22:47:11 GMT -5 azvb said:

I agree! So it’s the mental aspect that needs to be improved. Not sure if there is a “mental” coach on the staff. If so, he/she needs to do a better job.

I wonder if BYU has a sports psychologist they could use. Sometimes players struggle with passing because don’t have the skills/technique, but to me it looked like the back row was lacking confidence during the Purdue match. Lots of passive moves and miscommunications.

BYU's passing has been an issue for the past three seasons. Usually, it's not such a disaster that it costs them a match, especially because their setter is really good at getting to out-of-system balls and making serviceable sets out of them. But it bit them against Purdue. And yes, they have a sport psychology staff. It looks like they have two psychologists. The first guy's responsibilities didn't list the volleyball team, so I would guess the other psychologist is theirs.

[vvv]

Jan 6, 2022 2:48:17 GMT -5 marnvbc2 said:

Jan 6, 2022 2:05:34 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

Why is the departure of Meyer "troubling"? She wasn't going to play for two more seasons (and even then, she still would have had to compete with Damuni). This isn't 2010. Players in that situation tend to transfer. Running a 6-2 last year would have been a comically bad idea. BYU's problem this season wasn't blocking, it was passing. And even then, they still had an extremely high hitting percentage in large part due to their setter. I genuinely don't understand the obsession some people have with 6-2s. It's like having two quarterbacks in football--it very rarely is the ideal solution.

The Damuni girl is a great athlete but not even in the same orbit as Meyer.  She is also a 2023.  Damuni as a 5-1 setter is extremely limited and she doesnt have the ball placement of Bower (even in HS).  Damuni is on the BYU team because of her dad's  position at BYU.  Her club team has a bunch of highly touted players but the coaches (college too) all say that Damuni is the second best setter on that team.  She also runs a 6-2 in club and has for years.  I think she ran a 5-1 in school ball, but she consistently lost to better setters and didn't repeat as the MVP of the state is what I was told.  Might be wrong on that.  

[vvv]

Just coming across this excerpt dedicated strictly to the "Damuni girl." My daughter plays on a younger team in the same club she does and in my opinion as well as other coaches, (College too), this synopsis could not be further from the truth. First off, she is the starting setter on her club team and has always been. She played a 5'1 until a second setter (very good though) came down to play on this team with family connections to the directors. As a sophomore she took her Timpview High School team to win the 5A state championship against her club team members including 2023 Mia Lee. This year they got 3rd but thats because 3 starting seniors graduated and 3 starting freshman came in- still got 3rd. I have been watching High School Volleyball for many years now and there is no "better setter," than Damuni in the High school scene right now. She is versatile, smart, accurate and a leader. She isn't perfect and yes, she didn't repeat MVP for the state this year because they got 3rd, but she earned MVP for 5A as a sophomore?? This year she did get Utah Valley Setter of the year, Region 8 player of the year and First Team All-State. With Timpview's first appearance at the Durango Classic, this year, she was one of 2 setters that made the All-Tournament team. Lastly, I saw that she was also named by Stadium Talk Best Player for each state article, as Utah's best player. So, I guess just reading this inaccurate overview of the "Damuni girl," got me wanting to give at least a little more info and confidence in BYU and their setting situation present and future.

[bbg95]

Jan 16, 2022 15:38:03 GMT -5 vvv said:

Just coming across this excerpt dedicated strictly to the "Damuni girl." My daughter plays on a younger team in the same club she does and in my opinion as well as other coaches, (College too), this synopsis could not be further from the truth. First off, she is the starting setter on her club team and has always been. She played a 5'1 until a second setter (very good though) came down to play on this team with family connections to the directors. As a sophomore she took her Timpview High School team to win the 5A state championship against her club team members including 2023 Mia Lee. This year they got 3rd but thats because 3 starting seniors graduated and 3 starting freshman came in- still got 3rd. I have been watching High School Volleyball for many years now and there is no "better setter," than Damuni in the High school scene right now. She is versatile, smart, accurate and a leader. She isn't perfect and yes, she didn't repeat MVP for the state this year because they got 3rd, but she earned MVP for 5A as a sophomore?? This year she did get Utah Valley Setter of the year, Region 8 player of the year and First Team All-State. With Timpview's first appearance at the Durango Classic, this year, she was one of 2 setters that made the All-Tournament team. Lastly, I saw that she was also named by Stadium Talk Best Player for each state article, as Utah's best player. So, I guess just reading this inaccurate overview of the "Damuni girl," got me wanting to give at least a little more info and confidence in BYU and their setting situation present and future.

Thanks for the insight. The poster that you responded to seems to have a real axe to grind with Heather Olmstead for some reason (not really sure why). So they've posted a number of critical posts over the last year or so that don't seem to have much basis in reality. 

[pelagius]

I am bullish about Damuni as well. I think she's a good get for BYU. Honestly, she reminds me of Bower. Hopefully, another good setter prospect is around in 2024 to compete for the spot against her.

[bbg95]

Jan 16, 2022 20:48:31 GMT -5 pelagius said:

I am bullish about Damuni as well. I think she's a good get for BYU. Honestly, she reminds me of Bower. Hopefully, another good setter prospect is around in 2024 to compete for the spot against her.

I agree with the Bower comparison. That's who Damuni reminded me of as well after watching her highlights.