|
|
Post by redcard🏐 on Apr 23, 2021 9:45:59 GMT -5
Anyone else noticed how awesome black girls have performed in this tournament? And don't come at me cos this is a black girls appreciation post. They bring extra juice to every team that has had a deep run. Note to coaches, diversify your teams and reap the rewards. You have nothing to lose! Yes they are. I think volleyball is pretty diverse and getting more so. Personally I think the coaches are doing a good job both with international players and domestic. I follow the Big10, Big12, Big East and some SEC and ACC team and I see diversity. |
|
|
|
Post by diggerdive on Apr 23, 2021 9:47:14 GMT -5
No worries. These days, you expect transfers and under-the-table pre-portal recruitment of players. She has a health-related type major and chose Texas for grad school. I still find it mind blowing she didn't drop a DM onto the coaches and hint around to see if she could get a scholarship while going to grad school. Maybe a club coach of hers from the past reached out and told the Texas staff she was there? Unsure. Also, I don't get the feeling she leapt at the offer to play with Texas. Stories I read said she mulled it over for a while before agreeing.
The one thing is look at her shoes. They're an older model of neon yellow-green that the previous years team wore. The current team's shoes are grey. I'm purely guessing that since they found her so late, they hadn't ordered shoes for her and went into the extra shoe inventory and found a pair for her to play in. Let's not get carried away on the shoe story. She's been with the team since August. They've had plenty of time to buy her full complement of shoes. I suspect she wears those by personal preference, not because they are the only ones she was given. It’s so sad. I heard the team manager was asked to go to the storage shed they have out in the parking lot behind Gregory Gym, because that’s all they can afford. He came back to Coach Elliott looking dejected because all they had was one lonely pair of neon colored shoes that were in the corner - the box had evidence of some rodent mischief. Eric took the shoes home to wash them. When they were given to Morgan during her first team meeting you could see her tear up. She looked up and said “thanks coach. These are the best shoes ever. I won’t let you down.” Eric reportedly said “I know you won’t. Go get em champ.” It was very touching. If you can spare a few dollars please consider donating to the Longhorn Foundation so they can afford shoes and a new storage shed. |
|
|
|
Post by vbcoltrane on Apr 23, 2021 9:47:50 GMT -5
We received an invitation from the B1G several years ago. So, I believe that door is not closed.  There has been no formal invitation from the Big Ten to Texas. There may have been talks by powerful people behind closed doors, but nothing was ever concrete beyond blogger speculation. Think you are confusing it with the Pac-12 who got into far more advanced talks that included bringing a handful of B12 teams but fell apart cause of Texas Tech and Oklahoma St. Right. There were definitely some big rumors. I remember hearing Texas and Georgia Tech to bring the B1G to 16. People may ask Georgia Tech? But, it makes sense since it's all about getting a foothold in new, lucrative media markets and Ga Tech brings Atlanta and other parts of the Southeast. Not as much as an SEC power like Bama or Georgia would, but they're not gonna leave the SEC. Plus, the B1G always wants AAU schools and both Ga Tech and Texas are members. But as you said, it was just rumors and speculation. I don't think any hard offers were made. |
|
|
|
Post by hornfanaustin on Apr 23, 2021 10:01:33 GMT -5
No worries. These days, you expect transfers and under-the-table pre-portal recruitment of players. She has a health-related type major and chose Texas for grad school. I still find it mind blowing she didn't drop a DM onto the coaches and hint around to see if she could get a scholarship while going to grad school. Maybe a club coach of hers from the past reached out and told the Texas staff she was there? Unsure. Also, I don't get the feeling she leapt at the offer to play with Texas. Stories I read said she mulled it over for a while before agreeing.
The one thing is look at her shoes. They're an older model of neon yellow-green that the previous years team wore. The current team's shoes are grey. I'm purely guessing that since they found her so late, they hadn't ordered shoes for her and went into the extra shoe inventory and found a pair for her to play in. Let's not get carried away on the shoe story. She's been with the team since August. They've had plenty of time to buy her full complement of shoes. I suspect she wears those by personal preference, not because they are the only ones she was given. Actually, I went back and looked up the pictures. My bad. Yellow shoes, a made up urban myth by yours truly.
From first home game in October, there's two things about this picture. 1. She's wearing white shoes - my bad 2. She's wearing a generic libero shirt, with TEXAS underneath the number 44 And last night's game with: 1. Yellow shoooze (which I thought were ugly as sin) 2. Her correct jersey number with a NAME!
When she was wearing the temporary "44", I thought, "Surely UT can call up Nike and get them to send her a full uniform set?"
|
|
|
|
Post by stevehorn on Apr 23, 2021 10:08:52 GMT -5
Let's not get carried away on the shoe story. She's been with the team since August. They've had plenty of time to buy her full complement of shoes. I suspect she wears those by personal preference, not because they are the only ones she was given. Actually, I went back and looked up the pictures. My bad. Yellow shoes, a made up urban myth by yours truly.
From first home game in October, there's two things about this picture. 1. She's wearing white shoes - my bad 2. She's wearing a generic libero shirt, with TEXAS underneath the number 44 And last night's game with: 1. Yellow shoooze (which I thought were ugly as sin) 2. Her correct jersey number with a NAME!
When she was wearing the temporary "44", I thought, "Surely UT can call up Nike and get them to send her a full uniform set?"
I think it was the second or third weekend of matches before she played in the #16 libero jersey. I suspect someone in the AD office dropped the ball on ordering her jersey in a timely manner. |
|
|
|
Post by staticb on Apr 23, 2021 10:13:39 GMT -5
I agree, always been a fan of Gabriel. I do, however, think the difference between her and Lilley will be on display on Saturday night, and you'll be able to see that difference clearly. Not a knock on Gabriel, more of a testament to how incredible Lilley is. I hope Gabriel takes that personally and outperforms herself from last night.
Texas runs a safe offense and relies on their awesome outside hitting to get the job done. I don't watch every Texas games, but I've never seen Gabriel (or any Texas setter before her in a long time) really try to take over a game and make higher risk sets out of necessity. If their teams were switched, I'm not sure Jerritt wouldn't tell Lilley just to set high sky balls to the outside and we would have gotten to see how good they are.
|
|
|
|
Post by arclight on Apr 23, 2021 10:21:34 GMT -5
Let me put it this way. Let Texas, Kentucky or anyone else schedule home and aways with Purdue, Ohio State, Penn State, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nebraska in the same season for the next five years and see how well they do. This %*$# again. Even the Big 10 schools don't play that schedule. Quit being a conference homer and accept that Texas just took down three of those schools 3-1, 3-1, 3-0. OK, I'm not counting this year because every volleyball fan knows this pandemic has ruined this season. And if you don't believe me go put house money down in Las Vegas that Stanford will only match their win total next season. But, research the schedules from 2015-2019 for Big 10 teams and Texas all the way through the season to the final match in the tournament and see who played the toughest schedules. |
|
|
|
Post by diggerdive on Apr 23, 2021 10:25:02 GMT -5
I agree, always been a fan of Gabriel. I do, however, think the difference between her and Lilley will be on display on Saturday night, and you'll be able to see that difference clearly. Not a knock on Gabriel, more of a testament to how incredible Lilley is. I hope Gabriel takes that personally and outperforms herself from last night. Texas runs a safe offense and relies on their awesome outside hitting to get the job done. I don't watch every Texas games, but I've never seen Gabriel (or any Texas setter before her in a long time) really try to take over a game and make higher risk sets out of necessity. If their teams were switched, I'm not sure Jerritt wouldn't tell Lilley just to set high sky balls to the outside and we would have gotten to see how good they are.
Ooohhh. The moon ball critique! We haven’t seen that since Hurricane Sandy and Lance Armstrong was disgraced. Lol |
|
|
|
Post by donut on Apr 23, 2021 10:25:45 GMT -5
This %*$# again. Even the Big 10 schools don't play that schedule. Quit being a conference homer and accept that Texas just took down three of those schools 3-1, 3-1, 3-0. OK, I'm not counting this year because every volleyball fan knows this pandemic has ruined this season. lol you're a sh*tty volleyball fan if you believe this |
|
|
|
Post by stevehorn on Apr 23, 2021 10:26:29 GMT -5
This %*$# again. Even the Big 10 schools don't play that schedule. Quit being a conference homer and accept that Texas just took down three of those schools 3-1, 3-1, 3-0. OK, I'm not counting this year because every volleyball fan knows this pandemic has ruined this season. And if you don't believe me go put house money down in Las Vegas that Stanford will only match their win total next season. But, research the schedules from 2015-2019 for Big 10 teams and Texas all the way through the season to the final match in the tournament and see who played the toughest schedules. Texas' schedule has been rated one of the toughest in most years. Because the Big 12 overall is not as tough, Texas plays an OOC schedule that is typically stronger than the top Big 10 teams. Also quit using the COVID excuse because the Big 10 fell short of the championship game. I didn't see you preaching that before the match. Every team had to deal with COVID. |
|
|
|
Post by horns1 on Apr 23, 2021 10:32:52 GMT -5
We received an invitation from the B1G several years ago. So, I believe that door is not closed. There has been no formal invitation from the Big Ten to Texas. There may have been talks by powerful people behind closed doors, but nothing was ever concrete beyond blogger speculation. Think you are confusing it with the Pac-12 who got into far more advanced talks that included bringing a handful of B12 teams but fell apart cause of Texas Tech and Oklahoma St. No, I'm not confused. There was no public invitation. But, there was an invitation extended (not sure how formal or informal). But, Texas wanted to bring Texas Tech with it, which caused some hesitance by the B1G. There was even an email exchange from a B1G official titled "We have a Tech problem" (or something of the like). Plenty of stuff out there on the internet about it.
Make no mistake, the B1G wants in the Texas TV market and/or the Virginia/North Carolina TV markets. But, ACC's granting of rights are further from expiring than those of the Big 12.
|
|
|
|
Post by diggerdive on Apr 23, 2021 10:35:00 GMT -5
Yes! And the teams that started more athletes of color won their matches... Wisconsin started just one and Washington started zero. Ironically, every black player on Kentucky is from the state of Texas. I’m trying to understand the irony. |
|
|
|
Post by SportyBucky on Apr 23, 2021 10:35:32 GMT -5
OK, I'm not counting this year because every volleyball fan knows this pandemic has ruined this season. And if you don't believe me go put house money down in Las Vegas that Stanford will only match their win total next season. But, research the schedules from 2015-2019 for Big 10 teams and Texas all the way through the season to the final match in the tournament and see who played the toughest schedules. Texas' schedule has been rated one of the toughest in most years. Because the Big 12 overall is not as tough, Texas plays an OOC schedule that is typically stronger than the top Big 10 teams. Also quit using the COVID excuse because the Big 10 fell short of the championship game. I didn't see you preaching that before the match. Every team had to deal with COVID. Every team had to deal with covid, not every team HAD covid. It's all good. Texas is amazing. No one is taking away from Texas' achievement, but there's a reality you are ignoring. And to be clear, had our team not been plagued by covid, I still think Texas wins. Our passing was our liability and that was exposed. OHs didn't deliver. |
|
|
|
Post by staticb on Apr 23, 2021 10:37:01 GMT -5
Texas runs a safe offense and relies on their awesome outside hitting to get the job done. I don't watch every Texas games, but I've never seen Gabriel (or any Texas setter before her in a long time) really try to take over a game and make higher risk sets out of necessity. If their teams were switched, I'm not sure Jerritt wouldn't tell Lilley just to set high sky balls to the outside and we would have gotten to see how good they are.
Ooohhh. The moon ball critique! We haven’t seen that since Hurricane Sandy and Lance Armstrong was disgraced. Lol It's not meant to be a critique at all. You should absolutely run the system best suited to your players and it's hard to deny that system best suits Texas's players.
If anything, I think teams that run offenses heavily dependent on talented setters (Minnesota in the SSS era) are often more prone to being upset in the tournament. It takes a lot to get that to work and you're more susceptible to bad things happening if anything is a little bit off.
Nebraska, Stanford also run pretty safe offenses. Why do anything fancy when they can't stop your simple stuff?
|
|
|
|
Post by skullars on Apr 23, 2021 10:37:30 GMT -5
That is my opinion also. I thought it was apparent that Texas was concentrating on not letting Rettke having unchallenged attacks and the two middles have the vertical jump to keep Rettke from consistently hitting over them I think it's worth noting that Texas has almost always (like we're talking since at least 2007) had quicker / stronger / more athletic middles than 99% of their opponents, but have never before been able to utilize them to their full extent. Outside of the 2009 team, Texas has never had good ball control, but this 2020-21 version of the Longhorns has incredible ball control. This team minus O'Brien is an entirely different, one-dimensional team. Absolutely. Texas arms w/ball control & good setting is dangerous. Championship formula. Kentucky will finish second but had a great season and have built a great program. |
|
