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Post by cathy5 on Sept 29, 2023 5:07:10 GMT -5
2 of 17 in 2017 were from Illinois. So did having Poulter as the setter cause the out of state recruitment? Did the coaching change shut out Illinois recruitment?
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Post by pointillinois on Sept 29, 2023 5:58:21 GMT -5
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Post by bucky415 on Sept 29, 2023 5:59:37 GMT -5
If you are winning, it doesn't matter where your recruits come from. It is best if you can find good players in your traditional recruiting area and then build off that, so I am happy Wisconsin is back to that a bit in their 2025 verbals after a far flung 2024 class and losing out on some top 2023 recruits, but getting a top setter from So Cal for 2024 is huge (I don't have to tell Illinois fans how much of an impact an out of traditional region setter could potentially have!). If I were an Illinois fan, I would be most upset they were not able to mine the transfer portal much this year. So many grad transfers, and Illinois has flipping great grad programs!
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Post by bucky415 on Sept 29, 2023 6:08:58 GMT -5
Illinois does have a way to get things turned around, though. Beating Penn State at home on BTN on Friday would be huge!
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Post by oldmanvb on Sept 29, 2023 7:23:42 GMT -5
Illinois has not done well recruiting Illinois since the Poulter/Bastianelli class. Birks/Viliunas was the last strong Chicago area class recruited to Illinois. Poulter had strong Illinois ties through her family. There was a lot of tension when freshman Poulter took the setting position from senior Viliunas, a player who was very popular with the older players on the 2015 team. Poulter started at the beginning of the year, struggled, Viliunas played a number of matches, Poulter came back and finished the season. Both Birks and Viliunas were from the Chicago area and were close. At about the same time there was a lot of turmoil in the Sports Performance club with allegations of improper relationships between the SP coach and players, something I believe spilled over into relationships between any number of college coaches who appropriately disapproved of the SP coach. About this time Hambly started recruiting other areas hard. Many believe those three issues, with some others, contributed to souring the relationship between Illinois and Chicago area club volleyball. I suspect no one other than a few “insiders” will ever know what really happened. It may be the rumors and speculation are like the proverbial eclipse that occurred during a train wreck, causing some to conclude eclipses cause train wrecks. Regardless, we need to do better close to home.
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Post by volleyaudience on Sept 29, 2023 9:46:12 GMT -5
As Hambly shifted to recruit out of Illinois players too, I'm wondering if there were strong efforts to keep close ties to Illinois high school and club coaches. Departures seem to indicate that coaches from surrounding states have developed some relationships.
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Post by northwoods on Sept 29, 2023 10:47:31 GMT -5
The Poulter-Viliunas/Birks thing was on Hambly. And while it didn’t play well at 1st Alliance, Poulter was clearly the more talented setter. (she just didn’t do anyone any favors by arriving late from some USA Junior event and not building early connections.)
Tamas issues early on was how he treated Illinois club players when he got there. Kaylin Korte and Marijke Van Dyke were not going to tear up the B1G, but they were important players at 1st Alliance & SPRI. He shuffled them out which didn’t play well at their clubs (along with other Hambly recruits like Deberg & Omazic).
Sometimes to build relationships you need to treat lesser players well to get the top recruit from a club down the line. In any event the experience of those players was not good and that gets back to Club Directors….
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Post by ilalum92 on Sept 29, 2023 13:59:01 GMT -5
The Poulter-Viliunas/Birks thing was on Hambly. And while it didn’t play well at 1st Alliance, Poulter was clearly the more talented setter. (she just didn’t do anyone any favors by arriving late from some USA Junior event and not building early connections.) Tamas issues early on was how he treated Illinois club players when he got there. Kaylin Korte and Marijke Van Dyke were not going to tear up the B1G, but they were important players at 1st Alliance & SPRI. He shuffled them out which didn’t play well at their clubs (along with other Hambly recruits like Deberg & Omazic). Sometimes to build relationships you need to treat lesser players well to get the top recruit from a club down the line. In any event the experience of those players was not good and that gets back to Club Directors…. Korte was never gonna crack the starting line-up so she wanted playing time. Same with Van Dyke who was playing behind Cooney. DeBerg & Omazic left for entirely different reasons. Birks / Vill were besties and Birks got mad when JP came in to start. She tried to strong arm to get her back in the line-up. Birks could also only hit moon ball sets. JP was a fast tempo setter. Vil never jump set and barely set the middle. JP had all the tools, especially out of system. JP was dawn and away a better setter talent wise. JP was playing USA U19 and did so well they wanted to use her in the U21 or U23??? Team ( can’t remember which). Sorry but I would rather get USA Team exp than report early for college. Looks what is did for her - GOLD MEDAL.
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Post by cathy5 on Sept 29, 2023 15:15:55 GMT -5
I was told in a pm why Omazic left. Why did DeBerg?
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Post by oldmanvb on Sept 29, 2023 17:15:36 GMT -5
My guess, and guessing is the beauty of anonymous internet posts, is she was a freshman without a path to playing time. She started the first weekend and was not terribly effective. Red shirt sophomore Prince was moved from opposite to one left pin, Sophomore Quade had a firm grip on the other left pin, and freshman Cooney took control of opposite. After an early season match against Tennessee State in which she had 28 swings and hit .125 deBerg played another 7 sets in 5 matches. She did not play in 15 of the B1G matches. In those 5 B1G matches in which she played she had a total of 18 swings. It didn't take a genius to conclude barring a Prince, Quade or Cooney injury she was going to be an infrequent substitute until her senior year. Tamas decides on a set lineup and doesn't sub very much. Missouri presented an opportunity to transfer with a couple of other Illini friends and not have to wait several years before she got her chance to play.
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Post by cathy5 on Sept 29, 2023 17:20:47 GMT -5
My guess, and guessing is the beauty of anonymous internet posts, is she was a freshman without a path to playing time. She started the first weekend and was not terribly effective. Red shirt sophomore Prince was moved from opposite to one left pin, Sophomore Quade had a firm grip on the other left pin, and freshman Cooney took control of opposite. After an early season match against Tennessee State in which she had 28 swings and hit .125 deBerg played another 7 sets in 5 matches. She did not play in 15 of the B1G matches. In those 5 B1G matches in which she played she had a total of 18 swings. It didn't take a genius to conclude barring a Prince, Quade or Cooney injury she was going to be an infrequent substitute until her senior year. Tamas decides on a set lineup and doesn't sub very much. Missouri presented an opportunity to transfer with a couple of other Illini friends and not have to wait several years before she got her chance to play. Thank you!
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Post by ilalum92 on Sept 29, 2023 18:48:55 GMT -5
Illini recruit freshman Kenna Wollard, now Boilermaker, playing first set vs Nebraska...what could have been at Illinois this season. LOL I was just going to post about this - hurts my heart to see her play at Purdue, especially with parents who were both athletes at U of I.
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Post by ilalum92 on Sept 29, 2023 18:49:45 GMT -5
Illini recruit freshman Kenna Wollard, now Boilermaker, playing first set vs Nebraska...what could have been at Illinois this season. Did we even offer her? When she committed it was all Purdue?
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Post by inpaign on Sept 29, 2023 21:30:53 GMT -5
Starting my post-game write up early because I'm tired of watching this game haha. Not that it is a surprise but we were outplayed in every aspect of the game. Our inability to serve receive was glaring yet again. Our disorganization and confusion was apparent. Penn State felt very beatable, we made them look like a team that can contend for the conference lol. On offense, our tipping is terrible. On defense, our tip defense is terrible. The one bright spot was Barnes' defense - she looked really good tonight. Maybe we can beat Iowa tomorrow night. Until then!
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Post by inpaign on Sept 29, 2023 21:36:52 GMT -5
Starting my post-game write up early because I'm tired of watching this game haha. Not that it is a surprise but we were outplayed in every aspect of the game. Our inability to serve receive was glaring yet again. Our disorganization and confusion was apparent. Penn State felt very beatable, we made them look like a team that can contend for the conference lol. On offense, our tipping is terrible. On defense, our tip defense is terrible. The one bright spot was Barnes' defense - she looked really good tonight. Maybe we can beat Iowa tomorrow night. Until then! Another side note: commentator just said "it's the quality of the first contact that just isn't there for the Illini." I think that sums up a ton of our problems best. and now that I think about it...its weird because thats the exact same thing we were saying last year about the team. but we brought in Pan so we should be good right!?
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