Illinois 2021

[azvolleydad]

Coach Tamas took over in 2017 and Illinois went 12-8 in conference play. In 2018, they went 17-3. In 2019, they went 11-9. Last season, the Illini were 7-11. Trend?

[vbkahuna]

Sept 15, 2021 14:08:32 GMT -5 azvolleydad said:

Coach Tamas took over in 2017 and Illinois went 12-8 in conference play. In 2018, they went 17-3. In 2019, they went 11-9. Last season, the Illini were 7-11. Trend?

I see what you did there. Ok, should be fun to try your observation on, say, a PAC12 team, like, ohhh, Stanford (coached by Tamas's predecessor at Illinois, whose last team included the great Poulter and Bastianelli and didn't even make the playoffs in Hambly's last year.)

In 2018 Stanford went 20-0 in conference play. In 2019, they went 18-2. Last year, the Cardinal went 2-8. Trend?

In both cases, we'll find out in the next few years. In both cases they inherited some great players. Unquestionably, Hambly got more and for a longer period of time, including most of the great Plummer, Hentz, etc. National Championship team that stayed on from 2017-2019. Now they're both rebuilding, so we'll see what trends develop for each.

I mean, if you're serious and not just trolling a B1G thread to stir them up.    

[azvolleydad]

Sept 15, 2021 16:16:29 GMT -5 vbkahuna said:

Sept 15, 2021 14:08:32 GMT -5 azvolleydad said:

Coach Tamas took over in 2017 and Illinois went 12-8 in conference play. In 2018, they went 17-3. In 2019, they went 11-9. Last season, the Illini were 7-11. Trend?

I see what you did there. Ok, should be fun to try your observation on, say, a PAC12 team, like, ohhh, Stanford (coached by Tamas's predecessor at Illinois, whose last team included the great Poulter and Bastianelli and didn't even make the playoffs in Hambly's last year.)

In 2018 Stanford went 20-0 in conference play. In 2019, they went 18-2. Last year, the Cardinal went 2-8. Trend?

In both cases, we'll find out in the next few years. In both cases they inherited some great players. Unquestionably, Hambly got more and for a longer period of time, including most of the great Plummer, Hentz, etc. National Championship team that stayed on from 2017-2019. Now they're both rebuilding, so we'll see what trends develop for each.

I mean, if you're serious and not just trolling a B1G thread to stir them up.    

It's not a B1G troll.  I'm only interested whether Illini fans are still high on Tamas.  As for Stanford, I agree with you completely.  Like Tamas, Hambly benefitted from his predecessor's recruiting in the first three years.  Last year, both were was on their own and it didn't look good.  

[notpriddy (COIF)]

Sept 15, 2021 17:00:31 GMT -5 azvolleydad said:

Sept 15, 2021 16:16:29 GMT -5 vbkahuna said:

I see what you did there. Ok, should be fun to try your observation on, say, a PAC12 team, like, ohhh, Stanford (coached by Tamas's predecessor at Illinois, whose last team included the great Poulter and Bastianelli and didn't even make the playoffs in Hambly's last year.)

In 2018 Stanford went 20-0 in conference play. In 2019, they went 18-2. Last year, the Cardinal went 2-8. Trend?

In both cases, we'll find out in the next few years. In both cases they inherited some great players. Unquestionably, Hambly got more and for a longer period of time, including most of the great Plummer, Hentz, etc. National Championship team that stayed on from 2017-2019. Now they're both rebuilding, so we'll see what trends develop for each.

I mean, if you're serious and not just trolling a B1G thread to stir them up.    

It's not a B1G troll.  I'm only interested whether Illini fans are still high on Tamas.  As for Stanford, I agree with you completely.  Like Tamas, Hambly benefitted from his predecessor's recruiting in the first three years.  Last year, both were was on their own and it didn't look good.  

I strongly believe in Coach Tamas' coaching abilities. Give Tamas the same 6 players as any other coach, and I would not bet against Tamas' side coming out on top. The Illini have been hindered the last couple of seasons by injuries to key players.

[mosser]

I'm not sold on Tamas as a head coach. They have more talent than Colorado. Not sold on his recruiting. Hasn't been able to bring a single top 35 recruit. Just see them constantly being middle of big 10 at best unless he figures out how to land some top recruits.

[oldmanvb]

I am a big fan of Coach Tamas. I agree he is as good as anyone using available talent. I am disappointed in recent recruiting and the team's struggles with first touch, particularly receiving serve. Tamas could be given a "pass" for the first two or three years because he was establishing relationships. That explanation no longer exists. Passing has been an obvious weakness ever since OBrien and Quade left. Healthy our current pins are good enough to compete at the highest levels. Hitting out of system as much as Illinois hits out of system will make anyone look average. The issue is recruiting and developing passers and defenders. Whether a player is a top 35 recruit is pretty much meaningless. Quade and Donnelly are prime examples. Brandy Donnelly's only other scholarship offer was to play softball at a D2 school and look at her career. As often as not Donnelly effectively passed more than half the court, something this team could certainly use, although in Kuper's defense it doesn't take a great scouting report to recognize to serve away from her. A good argument could be made Morgan O'Brien is the primary reason Texas played so much better last year. I don't know what it takes to recognize top defensive talent, but a B1G head coach needs that skill. MBH's improved passing leading up to the Olympics is proof passing can be learned. If no one on the current staff can accomplish the needed improvement Tamas needs to get an assistant who can transform our passing and defensive schemes. Rant over.

[ilalum92]

Sept 16, 2021 11:59:56 GMT -5 oldmanvb said:

I am a big fan of Coach Tamas. I agree he is as good as anyone using available talent. I am disappointed in recent recruiting and the team's struggles with first touch, particularly receiving serve. Tamas could be given a "pass" for the first two or three years because he was establishing relationships. That explanation no longer exists. Passing has been an obvious weakness ever since OBrien and Quade left. Healthy our current pins are good enough to compete at the highest levels. Hitting out of system as much as Illinois hits out of system will make anyone look average. The issue is recruiting and developing passers and defenders. Whether a player is a top 35 recruit is pretty much meaningless. Quade and Donnelly are prime examples. Brandy Donnelly's only other scholarship offer was to play softball at a D2 school and look at her career. As often as not Donnelly effectively passed more than half the court, something this team could certainly use, although in Kuper's defense it doesn't take a great scouting report to recognize to serve away from her. A good argument could be made Morgan O'Brien is the primary reason Texas played so much better last year. I don't know what it takes to recognize top defensive talent, but a B1G head coach needs that skill. MBH's improved passing leading up to the Olympics is proof passing can be learned. If no one on the current staff can accomplish the needed improvement Tamas needs to get an assistant who can transform our passing and defensive schemes. Rant over.

I've said it a few times.  Tamas was handicapped in recruiting by the timing of Hambly's departure. A new coach doesn't start seeing results for 5 years after. When Tamas took over we had no one signed for the next 3 years (except Brown, who wasn't his recruit) He had to scramble to pick up who was left over.  Most of the top talent had signed already.  We do have some great recruits coming in the next two years.  

[ilalum92]

Sept 17, 2021 16:33:50 GMT -5 ilalum92 said:

Sept 16, 2021 11:59:56 GMT -5 oldmanvb said:

I am a big fan of Coach Tamas. I agree he is as good as anyone using available talent. I am disappointed in recent recruiting and the team's struggles with first touch, particularly receiving serve. Tamas could be given a "pass" for the first two or three years because he was establishing relationships. That explanation no longer exists. Passing has been an obvious weakness ever since OBrien and Quade left. Healthy our current pins are good enough to compete at the highest levels. Hitting out of system as much as Illinois hits out of system will make anyone look average. The issue is recruiting and developing passers and defenders. Whether a player is a top 35 recruit is pretty much meaningless. Quade and Donnelly are prime examples. Brandy Donnelly's only other scholarship offer was to play softball at a D2 school and look at her career. As often as not Donnelly effectively passed more than half the court, something this team could certainly use, although in Kuper's defense it doesn't take a great scouting report to recognize to serve away from her. A good argument could be made Morgan O'Brien is the primary reason Texas played so much better last year. I don't know what it takes to recognize top defensive talent, but a B1G head coach needs that skill. MBH's improved passing leading up to the Olympics is proof passing can be learned. If no one on the current staff can accomplish the needed improvement Tamas needs to get an assistant who can transform our passing and defensive schemes. Rant over.

I've said it a few times.  Tamas was handicapped in recruiting by the timing of Hambly's departure. A new coach doesn't start seeing results for 5 years after. When Tamas took over we had no one signed for the next 3 years (except Brown, who wasn't his recruit) He had to scramble to pick up who was left over.  Most of the top talent had signed already.  We do have some great recruits coming in the next two years.  

I would add that we have had our top 2 outsides sidelined with injuries most of the last two years.

[exit237a]

Hey, Bruna was doing some serving during warmups- possible indicator of shoulder progress!

[volleyaudience]

Is it possible that Coach Tamas has had the worst luck of any coach for injuries?

Any news available on the injured?

[BumpSetKill]

A lot of teams have a number of injuries every year. Some teams make their players play with them more than others, but IL is not alone.

[ilalum92]

Plus we lost 3 recruits from one class due to various reasons which we wont talk about. You can speculate on how good we would have been if DeBerg & Omazic stayed. But thats a woulda , shoulda, coulda.

We should have only 2 losses right now. We fumbled the Colorado loss in the 5th set.

[ilalum92]

Minn/PSU/NEB all with 3 match losing streaks? If we can clean up some things I think we can make some noise in the Big 10. I-L-L

[exit237a]

Hey Illini faithful!  Our conference opener is Wednesday at Iowa and we've got a match thread for game chatter here:

Illinois @ Iowa - Wed 9/22 - 6 PM Central - BTN

Glad we're only a few days away from conference play- our familiar measuring stick.  Can't wait!

[Pasquale]

Congrats to Diana Brown, Kennedy Collins and Jessica Nunge for making the All-Tournament Team at the Redbird Classic.