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Post by ilalum92 on Nov 27, 2023 23:56:11 GMT -5
Hey guys! Now that the season is over I wanted to log back on and briefly comment on some of the recent posts. 1. Huff needs an upgrade...badly. But it can't take the entirety of the blame. At the end of the day, when Huff is rockin', it is one of the best home environments in the Big Ten. Our facilities are outdated, yes, but they are better than many of non-power 5 conferences. Maybe we can't get transfers from within the conference, but we should (theoretically) have better odds at transfers from smaller conferences. We just haven't seen it. 2. I want to very quickly bring up a point to consider. The injury bug that has hit us hasn't necessarily been a coincidence. There has been a tendency for our coaching staff to recruit players that have a history of injury. If you go look back at our recent players that have come and gone, you will see injuries aren't rare. Of course, not every injury has had that connection (TdB for example is extremely unfortunate), but there are quite a few that do. I don't want to get into it any further because injuries prior to college is out of our realm to speculate, but just take my word for it. 3. As put best by ilalum92, Burbage is so hot and cold. I'm very interested to see if she can step up next year and play consistently. When she's on, she can take over a match. When she's off, it can be a tough watch. Does Tamas believe she is the answer at OPP? Time will tell. 4. I was not a fan of Tamas' rant on Twitter last night. I felt it wasn't the time and it wasn't the place to express those feelings. That being said, everything he was saying was true and I firmly believe that. We did not deserve a spot in the tournament, but RPI as a metric is flawed. We all knew we were out of contention (meaning we were a long shot) weeks ago, and that just shouldn't be the case. All of the noise being created by Kansas State and their discontent about not making the tournament is completely warranted in my opinion. They should've made it, they didn't, and the committee failed to put the best-looking teams in the tournament. That is my opinion, you do not have to agree, but please respect it  5. Tamas and staff have at least another year here. I am confident this next year will be much improved. Tamas recognizes the committee using RPI and KPI to make decisions isn't going anywhere. Take my word for it, he is going to schedule appropriately next year. Whether or not he has the girls ready for game 1 is something we will have to wait for, but I'm feeling pretty good about our chances. 6. Finally (and what's most anticipated by all of us fans in the offseason): the transfer portal. The information I shared regarding a defensive player in-conference fell through, as I suggested might happen. However, I can share that we are already active in the portal. Tamas knows what needs to happen, and I'm confident he will fill the needs of the team. He's being aggressive by getting involved MUCH earlier than he did last year. Of course the offseason is long and there are a lot of moving parts, but trust the staff is working to secure the transfers we need to succeed next year. I'm going to choose not to share names, at least for now, but wanted to let you all know that the work is being put in. Hope all of this is useful insight. Appreciate you all on this board! I know we all appreciate you coming on and dropping knowledge and insight. Please don’t be a stranger! |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2023 0:52:24 GMT -5
The problem is at some point you have to either extend Tamas (for recruiting purposes) or let him go. Illinois athletics brings in around $150 million a year in total revenue, so $1.2 million is not an end of the world figure. My wild uneducated guess is that Josh extends him for another year. If you look at some of our other coaches' performances the last 5 years, there are some pretty putrid results that make Tamas look like a rock star. Just don't tarnish the image of the school, finish .500 every year in the Big Ten, and you'll last a long time in the Whitman era. Josh values staying out of trouble (see Beckman, Tim). They just need to support the program. Tamas can get the job done but needs the support. |
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Post by photos1 on Nov 28, 2023 0:56:36 GMT -5
Hey guys! Now that the season is over I wanted to log back on and briefly comment on some of the recent posts. 1. Huff needs an upgrade...badly. But it can't take the entirety of the blame. At the end of the day, when Huff is rockin', it is one of the best home environments in the Big Ten. Our facilities are outdated, yes, but they are better than many of non-power 5 conferences. Maybe we can't get transfers from within the conference, but we should (theoretically) have better odds at transfers from smaller conferences. We just haven't seen it. 2. I want to very quickly bring up a point to consider. The injury bug that has hit us hasn't necessarily been a coincidence. There has been a tendency for our coaching staff to recruit players that have a history of injury. If you go look back at our recent players that have come and gone, you will see injuries aren't rare. Of course, not every injury has had that connection (TdB for example is extremely unfortunate), but there are quite a few that do. I don't want to get into it any further because injuries prior to college is out of our realm to speculate, but just take my word for it. 3. As put best by ilalum92, Burbage is so hot and cold. I'm very interested to see if she can step up next year and play consistently. When she's on, she can take over a match. When she's off, it can be a tough watch. Does Tamas believe she is the answer at OPP? Time will tell. 4. I was not a fan of Tamas' rant on Twitter last night. I felt it wasn't the time and it wasn't the place to express those feelings. That being said, everything he was saying was true and I firmly believe that. We did not deserve a spot in the tournament, but RPI as a metric is flawed. We all knew we were out of contention (meaning we were a long shot) weeks ago, and that just shouldn't be the case. All of the noise being created by Kansas State and their discontent about not making the tournament is completely warranted in my opinion. They should've made it, they didn't, and the committee failed to put the best-looking teams in the tournament. That is my opinion, you do not have to agree, but please respect it 5. Tamas and staff have at least another year here. I am confident this next year will be much improved. Tamas recognizes the committee using RPI and KPI to make decisions isn't going anywhere. Take my word for it, he is going to schedule appropriately next year. Whether or not he has the girls ready for game 1 is something we will have to wait for, but I'm feeling pretty good about our chances. 6. Finally (and what's most anticipated by all of us fans in the offseason): the transfer portal. The information I shared regarding a defensive player in-conference fell through, as I suggested might happen. However, I can share that we are already active in the portal. Tamas knows what needs to happen, and I'm confident he will fill the needs of the team. He's being aggressive by getting involved MUCH earlier than he did last year. Of course the offseason is long and there are a lot of moving parts, but trust the staff is working to secure the transfers we need to succeed next year. I'm going to choose not to share names, at least for now, but wanted to let you all know that the work is being put in. Hope all of this is useful insight. Appreciate you all on this board! Agree with most of this. The truth is, 2023 should be a clear shout out to every P4 AD and president that college volleyball’s fanbase is rapidly expanding and should be considered a revenue sport in the near term. With the capacity of Huff, that can’t happen at Illinois. The ball is in the administrator’s of Illinois court for a more suitable facility. This is out of Tamas’ control of course. Illinois core players, the setter, the OH1 and L are elite players. The question is what about the OH2, OPP and MBs? With Nebraska and Purdue being so young, Wisconsin bringing back a strong core, and the elite rosters of Oregon and USC entering the conference (along with UCLA and Washington) the B1G in 2024 is going to be a monster volleyball conference. Make no mistake, Illinois will have to be better in 2024 than they were in 2023. So how does Tamas get there? If Illinois is going to be better in 2024 they can’t lose matches to teams like Wichita State, Oklahoma and Notre Dame and when they have a team like USC on the ropes, they need to win that match. Of course Tamas knows all of this. i wish him good luck… 🏐 |
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Post by ilalum92 on Nov 28, 2023 21:42:42 GMT -5
Sydney Reed L/DS from WI is in the portal -- Inpaign??
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Post by maigrey on Nov 28, 2023 21:47:40 GMT -5
Sydney Reed L/DS from WI is in the portal -- She's great,and Illinois would be lucky to get her. But, She unfortunately was on the bench for most of her time at Wisconsin, I'm not sure she would transfer just to sit behind Caroline and Lilly. |
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Post by ilalum92 on Nov 28, 2023 21:49:40 GMT -5
Sydney Reed L/DS from WI is in the portal -- She's great,and Illinois would be lucky to get her. But, She unfortunately was on the bench for most of her time at Wisconsin, I'm not sure she would transfer just to sit behind Caroline and Lilly. true but she was behind some serious L. Cant imagine she didn't good practice the last 4 years trying to pass/dig from the WI arms. |
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Post by kevinmalone on Nov 28, 2023 22:24:32 GMT -5
She's great,and Illinois would be lucky to get her. But, She unfortunately was on the bench for most of her time at Wisconsin, I'm not sure she would transfer just to sit behind Caroline and Lilly. What makes her great? |
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Post by oldmanvb on Nov 28, 2023 23:45:02 GMT -5
Barnes will be the Libero, we all agree. Is our freshman walkon DS capable of taking Pan's place or will we be relying on a transfer for the second DS position after Lilly?
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Post by inpaign on Nov 29, 2023 12:14:00 GMT -5
Barnes will be the Libero, we all agree. Is our freshman walkon DS capable of taking Pan's place or will we be relying on a transfer for the second DS position after Lilly? Transfer. & if we get one we've been looking at, I think they will hop Lilly for that second DS position. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2023 15:27:18 GMT -5
Whitney Launstein (who’s rumored to be in the portal) recently started following Tamas and Barry on instagram
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Post by GoGophs on Nov 29, 2023 15:45:43 GMT -5
Whitney Launstein (who’s rumored to be in the portal) recently started following Tamas and Barry on instagram Lauenstein + Terry would be a crazy pin duo |
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Post by pointillinois on Nov 29, 2023 16:09:58 GMT -5
I was curious about the records of our most recent coaches, so I put together this chart. | Coach | AVG OW | AVG OL | AVG CW | AVG CL | | Hardin (1996-2008) | 18 | 13 | 10 | 10 | | Hambly (2009-2016) | 22 | 11 | 13 | 7 | | Tamas (2017-2019,2021-2023) | 21 | 12 | 12 | 8 | | Average Totals | 20 | 12 | 11 | 9 |
(COVID season was excluded b/c it was just so abnormal) I will note, if you take out the Final 4 year, Tamas looks more like Hardin...and that season is looking more and more like an exception. Fun/Scary thought experiment: Could this staff get another Jordyn Poulter-like player to commit to IL? I-L-L |
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Post by maigrey on Nov 29, 2023 17:03:36 GMT -5
Barnes will be the Libero, we all agree. Is our freshman walkon DS capable of taking Pan's place or will we be relying on a transfer for the second DS position after Lilly? Transfer. & if we get one we've been looking at, I think they will hop Lilly for that second DS position. is the one we've been looking at in the portal already? 🧐 |
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Post by exit237a on Nov 29, 2023 19:33:25 GMT -5
Hey fellow Illinois diehards! As our conversation is starting to turn to 2024, I thought we might migrate the conversation to a fresh Illinois thread for next year: Illinois 2024
The thread formatting is gonna look pretty familiar ; ) but I swear there are a few changes to it. Our roster still has our players' names linked to their official Illinois roster pages and our recruits' names linked to their prep highlight sites (either Hudl or SportsRecruits). We'll update the OP if we have any roster changes and the second post will have our full schedule when that finally drops.
While I'm bummed we're already in the offseason, I'm looking forward to chatting with you all while we wait for Illini Volleyball play to start back up, hopefully with a few spring matches in a few short months. As always, thanks for your support of the Illini and thanks for contributing to the conversation!
I-L-L
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Post by ilalum92 on Nov 29, 2023 20:32:52 GMT -5
Whitney Launstein (who’s rumored to be in the portal) recently started following Tamas and Barry on instagram Lauenstein + Terry would be a crazy pin duo That would be an incredible get! |
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