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Post by marnvbc2 on May 26, 2022 1:48:18 GMT -5
You are right. Just would have been easy to get another top team with Pitt and Cincy already in town. The more BYU plays top tier teams the better they will become as a program. Olmstead can sustain 6-7 losses and still show up with a battle tested team and do very well in the NCAA's. She just has to change her mindset and forget about winning %. I hope the backrow can show up in the fall!
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Post by marnvbc2 on May 26, 2022 1:56:35 GMT -5
So the PrepVolleyball final rankings for the 2022 class came out, and all of BYU's recruits were in the top 150 according to this this post. 49. Kate Prior 79. Eden Bower 99. Hannah Billeter 115. Nataly Moravec 138. Briley Decker I'm not exactly sure where the class ranks, but that's seems pretty good. Interestingly, Pepperdine also has five incoming recruits who were in the top 150. If that kind of recruiting continues, they will likely challenge San Diego at the top of the WCC once BYU departs for the Big 12. These are impressive rankings but I just don't put much stock in them anymore. BYU has had super high rankings before and almost none of the girls impacted the program. Prior is legit and everyone else on that list might not even make the starting lineup in their career. But lets hope not. |
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Post by marnvbc2 on May 26, 2022 2:18:03 GMT -5
I think you might actually be right on the 2023 class. Stadium Talk also listed Claire Little and Silina Damuni as best players in their States of California and Utah. Brielle Miller has played on the USA training program team and all these girls are playing up against each other towards the Open 17 Nationals in Indiana. Excited for this BYU season and for the future as well. Little is in the top 5 in CA as an OH. She probably isn't the best player in the state. Damumi isn't the best player in Utah and isn't a scholly player at BYU. Mendelson (MB Neb), Mia Lee (MB BYU), Hawkins (S HPU), J Harvey (OH Stan) and Burgess (MB Utah) are better players at their positions than Damumi according to scouts on the private services. The Club V 17 team is loaded with physical talent that could win a national championship. The coaches do some strange things with lineups while playing every player on the 12 deep roster so my guess is that they will get tripped up and finish 6th - 10th somewhere. But just from a player standpoint, they have all the components to win it all. |
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Post by marnvbc2 on May 26, 2022 2:30:52 GMT -5
I think Mia Lee is taller than 5' 11". I think she is only 5-10. She isn't very tall but her leg strength is off the charts along with her quickness. She was recruited as a direct result of what BYU ran into at Pitt last season. Shorter girls with huge jumping and athletic ability who can block and hammer the ball. |
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vvv
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Post by vvv on May 27, 2022 17:46:21 GMT -5
I think you might actually be right on the 2023 class. Stadium Talk also listed Claire Little and Silina Damuni as best players in their States of California and Utah. Brielle Miller has played on the USA training program team and all these girls are playing up against each other towards the Open 17 Nationals in Indiana. Excited for this BYU season and for the future as well. Little is in the top 5 in CA as an OH. She probably isn't the best player in the state. Damumi isn't the best player in Utah and isn't a scholly player at BYU. Mendelson (MB Neb), Mia Lee (MB BYU), Hawkins (S HPU), J Harvey (OH Stan) and Burgess (MB Utah) are better players at their positions than Damumi according to scouts on the private services. The Club V 17 team is loaded with physical talent that could win a national championship. The coaches do some strange things with lineups while playing every player on the 12 deep roster so my guess is that they will get tripped up and finish 6th - 10th somewhere. But just from a player standpoint, they have all the components to win it all. |
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vvv
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Post by vvv on May 27, 2022 18:32:10 GMT -5
Yah... That all seems accurate about the 17s team and the coaches playing all 12 players. My daughter is on a younger team and idolizes that team, so I watch this team very closely. She even likes to go back and look at their games and watch Jordyn Harvey over and over as she is an OH. That team can definitely win a national championship, but it will be hard with the way they work the line up. Now whether you think Claire Little is the best player as the Stadium article stated, she must be pretty high to be given an invitation to play on the US U21 training team with Coach Olmstead and she is coming our way. Next, the Stadium Talk article was written when Damuni was playing High school last year and had just won Region Player of the year for the 2nd time and played her 5-1 system. So, at that moment, she very well could have been the best in the state as she was able to play the entire floor. This year, I notice they play a 6-2 on this 17s team- so it is no wonder private services don't have her listed as high as the other players- She isn't doing what she would normally be doing. I know you seem to think she isn't a setter and only an athlete, but I sure beg to differ. She is by far the better setter on this team that could possibly win a national championship and still has a whole year left of high school. Lastly, it is very interesting that you have all that information about Brielle Miller being the 2nd best L on her team from their coaches? Hmmmmm. I think the way the coaches have worked this team, this year, will be the reason they don't win a national championship. They should be playing a 5-1 and have both L on the floor with the top hitters. They would kill every team, but the coaches want to play everyone and run a 6-2. They may still pull it off though?
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Post by marnvbc2 on May 28, 2022 14:59:33 GMT -5
So it looks like BYU won't have anyone from the 2020 recruiting class on the team for the 2022 season:
name year position height Current
Madi Allen 2020 L 5-9 San Diego
Allie Hakes 2020 MB 6-4 Mission
Leilani Dodson 2020 MB 6-1 Northwestern
Makayla Tolman 2020 OPP 6-3 Boise St
I mean BYU should get Hakes back but she left in September of 2021 so she will miss the 2022 season unless she comes home early. I don't mean this to be criticism of Olmstead. Everything around Covid is weird. Looking back at the 2019 class shows a bigger trend: Erin Anderson, Morgan Bower, Whitney Bower, Abbey Dayton, Kate Grimmer, Morgan Johnson, Grace Wee and Callie Whitney. 4th ranked class in the nation! Whitney Bower and Grimmer are the only impact players and Grimmer is borderline. It would be really interesting to do a study of the top 60 programs in the country and look back over the last 10 years and see which programs are exceeding their recruiting rankings ..... and those who are underperforming. This class may be ranked in the 50th - 60th range in reality. Dayton would have been a complete write off if BYU was actually able to hit on backrow passers in the recruiting arena and didn't have to use OH's who aren't good enough to play front row to pass. |
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Post by bbg95 on May 28, 2022 15:53:45 GMT -5
So it looks like BYU won't have anyone from the 2020 recruiting class on the team for the 2022 season:
name year position height Current
Madi Allen 2020 L 5-9 San Diego
Allie Hakes 2020 MB 6-4 Mission
Leilani Dodson 2020 MB 6-1 Northwestern
Makayla Tolman 2020 OPP 6-3 Boise StI mean BYU should get Hakes back but she left in September of 2021 so she will miss the 2022 season unless she comes home early. I don't mean this to be criticism of Olmstead. Everything around Covid is weird. Looking back at the 2019 class shows a bigger trend: Erin Anderson, Morgan Bower, Whitney Bower, Abbey Dayton, Kate Grimmer, Morgan Johnson, Grace Wee and Callie Whitney. 4th ranked class in the nation! Whitney Bower and Grimmer are the only impact players and Grimmer is borderline. It would be really interesting to do a study of the top 60 programs in the country and look back over the last 10 years and see which programs are exceeding their recruiting rankings ..... and those who are underperforming. This class may be ranked in the 50th - 60th range in reality. Dayton would have been a complete write off if BYU was actually able to hit on backrow passers in the recruiting arena and didn't have to use OH's who aren't good enough to play front row to pass. Grimmer isn't really "borderline." She was first-team all-conference in the spring of 2021. It's just that an even better opposite transferred in for the fall. Also, I'm not sure if you're aware, but Erin Anderson and Erin Livingston are the same person, and she's definitely an impact player. But sure, they only got the best setter in the WCC the past two seasons (and the best overall player in the spring) and two other all-conference players on consecutive Sweet 16 teams. Obviously, that class wasn't very good. To be honest, your bias against Olmstead is so ridiculous that it's hard to take anything you say seriously. |
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Post by marnvbc2 on May 28, 2022 16:00:46 GMT -5
Yah... That all seems accurate about the 17s team and the coaches playing all 12 players. My daughter is on a younger team and idolizes that team, so I watch this team very closely. She even likes to go back and look at their games and watch Jordyn Harvey over and over as she is an OH. That team can definitely win a national championship, but it will be hard with the way they work the line up. Now whether you think Claire Little is the best player as the Stadium article stated, she must be pretty high to be given an invitation to play on the US U21 training team with Coach Olmstead and she is coming our way. Next, the Stadium Talk article was written when Damuni was playing High school last year and had just won Region Player of the year for the 2nd time and played her 5-1 system. So, at that moment, she very well could have been the best in the state as she was able to play the entire floor. This year, I notice they play a 6-2 on this 17s team- so it is no wonder private services don't have her listed as high as the other players- She isn't doing what she would normally be doing. I know you seem to think she isn't a setter and only an athlete, but I sure beg to differ. She is by far the better setter on this team that could possibly win a national championship and still has a whole year left of high school. Lastly, it is very interesting that you have all that information about Brielle Miller being the 2nd best L on her team from their coaches? Hmmmmm. I think the way the coaches have worked this team, this year, will be the reason they don't win a national championship. They should be playing a 5-1 and have both L on the floor with the top hitters. They would kill every team, but the coaches want to play everyone and run a 6-2. They may still pull it off though? There is an influence on which players play on the national team's at the lower levels by who is coaching. Olmstead had a hand in putting Little on the team. Fisher had a hand putting his current setter on the same team, Fairbanks. She lead Pitt into the NCAA tourney and finished ranked 4th at the end of the year .... as a freshman ..... she wasn't good enough to be on the younger national team last year? Politics is still behind the scenes until the top team qualifies for the Olympics. Back to your topic of that really good Club V team. Yes, it is a feature of Club V that they play and roster more kids than any other clubs ranked ahead of them in the country. Money issue 100%. IMO it hurts them. Looks like they are the #38 ranked club in the nation. Damuni is a perfect example of how V hurts their top players. I agree with you that she is a 5-1 setter and if she works at it she can be elite. BTW I didn't say that she wasn't a setter, just said that she is an athlete first. I am saying that Bower (BYU) is a better setter right now, but right now Damuni is a better athlete. Not a knock on either of them. Yep, having your best passers on the floor in the backrow is huge if you want to win it all at nationals or in the NCAA's. Club V is known for their ability to develop Pin hitters. They are as good as any top club in that regard. They aren't known for developing L/DS/S. They limit playing time by splitting playing time 50% for each libero in the example you mentioned on that 17-1 team. They seem to do this a lot on other V teams also. Doesn't it dawn on them that when they get to nationals that the top players on the other side of the net have about 40% more touches over the course of the season than top V players who are splitting time and shouldn't be? I guess not. That is what second and 3rd teams are for. Put the girls who aren't the best down a team and give them all more playing time. They also don't teach their MB's how to run slides at an elite level because they are busying playing 6-2's and this is a huge disadvantage for Damuni. The other setter on that top 17 team isn't a 5-1 prototype setter and I doubt that she plays for any D-1 college past club. I have heard comments that she a favorite of the coach, but that isn't substantiated and may just be a feeling from some coaches on why a coach with a Damuni talent on their roster wastes their time playing a 6-2? Politics/revenue again is my bet. Why not allow the elite level athletes to play the most and also allow your team to finish as a true contender for a national open club championship? It is almost like V hasn't really won at the 16 - 18 national level and they don't know how. There were 2 good V teams in the 17's last year but coaches didn't put all the top players on one team. Result = no open national bid won. I think, but not positive about this, but the 2nd team won a national bid and placed high at nationals and it actually beat the #1 V 17 team a time or 2 during the season while the #1 team didn't attend nationals. I stand to be corrected there, but a Hive coach told me that info. There appears to not be a serious drive at V to win and play the best players all the time to get the job done, in favor of revenue. Splitting time every other set with the players on a roster is simply not done at high club level or in the NCAA's. Mystifying! My best guess is that this a personality decision of V's top coach. But all will be washed away if V can get a top 2 finish at nationals and erase all my comments! I just bet they will stumble and better coaches at the top clubs will put some real scouting into how to beat that V team. Callahan and Coast may be standing in the way of that V team! |
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Post by marnvbc2 on May 28, 2022 16:07:53 GMT -5
Correction: Claire not Callahan and Coast
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Post by marnvbc2 on May 28, 2022 16:20:45 GMT -5
Looking back at the 2019 class shows a bigger trend: Erin Anderson, Morgan Bower, Whitney Bower, Abbey Dayton, Kate Grimmer, Morgan Johnson, Grace Wee and Callie Whitney. 4th ranked class in the nation! Whitney Bower and Grimmer are the only impact players and Grimmer is borderline. It would be really interesting to do a study of the top 60 programs in the country and look back over the last 10 years and see which programs are exceeding their recruiting rankings ..... and those who are underperforming. This class may be ranked in the 50th - 60th range in reality. Dayton would have been a complete write off if BYU was actually able to hit on backrow passers in the recruiting arena and didn't have to use OH's who aren't good enough to play front row to pass. Grimmer isn't really "borderline." She was first-team all-conference in the spring of 2021. It's just that an even better opposite transferred in for the fall. Also, I'm not sure if you're aware, but Erin Anderson and Erin Livingston are the same person, and she's definitely an impact player. But sure, they only got the best setter in the WCC the past two seasons (and the best overall player in the spring) and two other all-conference players on consecutive Sweet 16 teams. Obviously, that class wasn't very good. To be honest, your bias against Olmstead is so ridiculous that it's hard to take anything you say seriously. My bad, didn't know Erin Anderson was Livingston! I like her game a lot. I re-read what I put and I didn't say anything about Olmstead, are you her defender? This class was ranked 4th in the nation. Even with Livingston, this class hasn't produced any top 4 players individually or collectively in the country. Grimmer has been at BYU for 3 years and really only played for an impact in the spring of 2021, so she is borderline on being an impact player for the nationally ranked #4 class. She isn't an elite Opp. WCC standards aren't the same as national standards. Grimmer can prove herself this fall and if BYU can break through the Sweet 16 it may change the view of this class. If BYU were in the Big12 there wouldn't be any BYU players, including W Bower on any of the top 2 all league teams from this BYU class. Take off your Blue goggles! |
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Post by marnvbc2 on May 28, 2022 16:29:35 GMT -5
This pre-season schedule is already much tougher than last season's. Step in the right direction. It would have been better to replace UVU with a UCLA or other PAC-12 team. UVU might be alright, but they didn't even win their conference last year. They relied on an upset in the conference tourney to steal the NCAA bid. Eh, UVU is pretty decent. Their record is more important than whether they win their conference or not for RPI purposes. And anyway, they are a crosstown rival, less than five miles away from BYU. So they were virtually guaranteed to be on the schedule anyway. "Their record is more important than whether they win their conference or not for RPI purposes" ...... what does this even mean? UVU is a upper mid-WAC team. They aren't that good of a program. Proximity to BYU shouldn't be a reason to play another school unless they happen to be a very good program. "Crosstown rival" isn't a factor in RPI either. Playing top 40 teams is a must for BYU in non-conf matches to get better as a program. If they had scheduled tougher last year I think the Purdue match would have resulted in BYU winning. |
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Post by marnvbc2 on May 28, 2022 16:52:20 GMT -5
That's funny...but probably true. Our success next year could be dependent on our ability to recruit a good male practice squad setter for the 2nd team!!!  BTW, my prediction for pins is Livingston, Callahan and Grimmer. My for sure is Livingston. But, heck, if Hunterjake is going to practices he likely knows more than anyone. And, I would love to pick up the Jepsen girl. I wonder if she is questioning her decomitment in light of the ND hire! I don't hear that BYU is expecting Bower to miss any of the season after surgery on her knee. But I see that they have only one setter, a freshman, coming into the program. She wasn't in BYU's top 3 but they had to get a setter. She isn't good enough to take the team on her shoulders if Bower isn't healthy so it a big risk coming up this fall. Boys auditioning for a setter spot might be needed! LBSU pulled a good setter out of BYU. Personally, I could see the handwriting on the wall that she wouldn't be happy sitting behind W Bower for 3 years. It never made any sense to me on why she committed to BYU. Damuni will be the air apparent for W Bower but I wouldn't get to excited if I were her because there is a younger Bower sister that will be handed the starting reins when she gets to Provo in 2024 if she doesn't graduate early, which I bet she will. |
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vvv
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Post by vvv on May 28, 2022 20:59:58 GMT -5
I don't hear that BYU is expecting Bower to miss any of the season after surgery on her knee. But I see that they have only one setter, a freshman, coming into the program. She wasn't in BYU's top 3 but they had to get a setter. She isn't good enough to take the team on her shoulders if Bower isn't healthy so it a big risk coming up this fall. Boys auditioning for a setter spot might be needed! LBSU pulled a good setter out of BYU. Personally, I could see the handwriting on the wall that she wouldn't be happy sitting behind W Bower for 3 years. It never made any sense to me on why she committed to BYU. Damuni will be the air apparent for W Bower but I wouldn't get to excited if I were her because there is a younger Bower sister that will be handed the starting reins when she gets to Provo in 2024 if she doesn't graduate early, which I bet she will. |
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vvv
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Post by vvv on May 28, 2022 21:26:56 GMT -5
Yes, hopefully Bower is healthy for this upcoming season. Yah, along with playing time, some players don't seem to pan out with the BYU and all the rules combined with their playtime. Oh and yes, there is another Bower sister coming up but not sure how you think she will just come in and take the reins. Oh I know there will be a battle.
You do seem to have a lot of inside information on all types of areas from behind the scenes to talking with coaches about personal information regarding players, etc. I guess time will tell if all your information and research pans out. Go Cougs!!!
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BTW, my prediction for pins is Livingston, Callahan and Grimmer. My for sure is Livingston. But, heck, if Hunterjake is going to practices he likely knows more than anyone. And, I would love to pick up the Jepsen girl. I wonder if she is questioning her decomitment in light of the ND hire!