Post by babybacksets on Feb 14, 2023 2:28:49 GMT -5
Agreed, the wealth of the state of Texas’ club scene especially has the program often with the ability to take its pick when it comes to some of the best players in the country because a lot of them are home grown. As much as I love Hawaii, money talks and kids these days like to flex on their socials and you can’t do much better than Austin, Texas.
Imo the glaring elephant in the room is that even though everyone has been able to drown out the story with all these amazing transfers in, the transfers out of Fields, Iosia, Cabello, and others is still something that should be looked at.
Yes there were some injuries in there that applied to a few but also some completely healthy athletes who simply did not feel as if they were developing into the best version of themselves as an athlete within the Texas program. To me, that’s AT LEAST an orange flag lol.
I think it was way for fans to write off Iosia has a subpar Libero and Fields has self-centered like in was reading on here, when I think at some point it had to come down to how the staff is developing them and what their long term plans are for their players.
If the only plan is to win and throw out the best combination of players that helps make that a high probability, then I can see why a player would think twice about committing to Texas in this current state of college volleyball. Because the focus is not on the individual player’s growth and improvement but rather whether or not that player contributes to what the program needs to win right then and there.
Texas is doing an amazing job bringing in some of the best players in the country, however I can’t really point to very many players who were/are 4 year starters who had demonstrably improved individual games from when they started at UT.
Does that mean Elliot is a bad coach? Eh debatable but not necessarily. I think it makes him a coach that has the luxury of not needing to care about developing players because he can have his pick of transfers if any of his current players were not panning out to his liking.
Last year Texas had O'Neal, Phillips and Skinner who were products of the Texas club scene as scholarship players. And Skinner as you know didn't commit to Texas out of high school.
After bringing in 5 highly regarded freshmen, Texas will now have...O'Neal, Phillips and Skinner who were products of the Texas club scene. As scholarship players. Kenna Miller is a preferred walkon. I'm assuming Carissa Barnes will have a similar status coming from Texas A&M-CC, but I do not know that. Deandre Pierce was on last year's team as a walk on but transferred to Georgia Tech.
Which is not to dispute the health of the Texas club scene. It just doesn't have much impact on the Texas program these days. A lot of those girls simply don't want to wait around for their opportunity to play, which makes sense. So Elliott and Co. find players who will.
Fields transferred because she preferred to have a better opportunity to play 6 rotations for someone she trusted as a setter, more than play for a potential national championship winning team. From her social media posts it's obvious there was some bitterness on her part regarding her departure, which she is entitled to, but the fact is she's not very good passing/defense on the back row, and it showed while she was at USC. But Keller stuck with her in ways Elliott would not have. In fact, she almost certainly wouldn't have had much of a chance to get many looks at Texas, so she undoubtedly made the right decision for herself. That said, there were plenty of matches - including in the tournament - where she pretty much put the team on her back for the win. I still miss seeing her play, and I'm glad when I catch a USC match to see her being her usual dominating self. I don't see where this is a black mark on the Texas program given that she made 1st team All American and played 6 rotations all season, while Texas brought in Skinner and won a national championship. This seems like a proverbial win-win to me.
Iosia was the starter at libero all season long for Michigan State. After bringing in Fleck, there was no way she was going to have that position at Texas. None. Zero. Nada. IMO Elliott should be looking to improve the team, not preserve returning players' ensconced starting positions. Sounds like she made a good move.
Cabello was a part time starter in NC State's 6-2. Given that she wouldn't get that much playing time at Texas, again, it seems like a good move to me to actually see the court.
Which other ones? Madison Williams joined Cabello at NC State and only played part time. She wouldn't have seen the floor at Texas at any point in her career.
Jhenna Gabriel retired then unretired and was the undisputed starter for UNLV all year, and led them to a tournament appearance. I didn't follow their team awards at the end of the year, but she had to be their team MVP. As opposed to being in a battle with SKT and all the contentiousness that would have brought. Her mental health issues are what she cited as her reason for retirement. Taking over at UNLV sounds like a much better spot for her than watching from the bench as another player leads what she considered her team to a national championship.
Sydney Peterson went to play with her sister for their Mom at Northern Iowa for her fifth year. That doesn't sound like some kind of evil doing on UT's part to drive her away.
I guess I don't think of that as an elephant in the room. I see that as each player making a decision that's best for themselves. Same for Melanie Parra this offseason. I wish Elliott would stop recruiting undersized pins. He's not going to play them. He gets too many giraffes on his roster and he values blocking too much. Same thing happened with Victoria Pilar. But they're really talented players so I don't blame him for signing them. And Parra contributed a great deal to the 2021 team. Especially from the service line. And she improved her back row play a great deal during her time in Austin. I'll be rooting for her to have outstanding success with the Horned Frogs, and I imagine she will.
Could be some other transfers in May, for all I know. I don't anticipate any, and I certainly hope not. Especially Kahahawai, who I see a bunch of people bring up randomly. But if anyone leaves for a better opportunity elsewhere, I can't blame them. I don't see where that's UT's fault, or Elliott's issue. He's going to keep bringing in a ton of talent year after year, both from high school and the portal. If that's something that's going to be an issue, Texas is not the place for you. Not sure why anyone should shy away from that with an "elephant in the room" mentality. There's nothing to be in denial about.
If you aren't aware of any players at Texas who improved over the course of their career, then you simply haven't been paying attention. Logan Eggleston? Give me a break. She's light years better than she was as a true freshman. Asjia O'Neal? Part of it is recovering from open heart surgery, but regardless her blocking is on a different level now, and she continues to improve her slide and middle attacks. Her team leadership especially has seen tremendous improvement. Molly Phillips has physical limitations in terms of her jump, but she's better within her role on the right pin than she started, especially considering she was recruited as a middle blocker.
The team as a whole took major strides from week to week, and was a much better team across a number of disciplines than they were at the start of the season. And they needed to. Because while they were ahead of the curve in the opening few games, everyone else in the country got better. If Texas hadn't kept pace they would have been bounced much earlier than ended up being the case.
Understand none of this is to convince you to think otherwise. You are entitled to your opinion. I'm not being dismissive of you or your beliefs. But here is another perspective of what you're seeing.
As far as the Hawaii coach, I have no bone to pick with her, nor does any UT fan. Honestly, people don't give Hawaii a whole lot of thought. There wouldn't be any comments about her or the Hawaii program on here unless someone calling themselves WahineFan comes over and starts disparaging Elliott's coaching ability, which you have now echoed to some degree. But you seem to like her quite a bit. Good for you. I'm happy for you.
That said, I think of Elliott has an elite program manager. We know what the state of the program was when he took over. Here's a hint: it wasn't very good. We've seen other elite programs at the school, including women's swimming, women's basketball, and football, have a challenging time getting back to that level after falling on hard times. It's not an automatic just because you have a lot of resources at your disposal, in the state of Texas, being able to recruit to Austin. It takes a special coach. We're glad Elliott is one, and that he's the person running things.
Now he has two national championships in ten years. I'd love to see him knock out one or two more to really cement his position. Doesn't matter if people want to disparage his coaching or not. What he's doing at Texas is remarkable. I'm grateful to him. All of us Texas fans are.
Thank you for your input and I appreciate your willingness to give your feedback to me in a civil manner. Although I’m not a Texas or even really a Hawaii homer, I love what I have seen from both programs i over the years.
I think where Wahinefan44 fell short was not being detailed about what they meant about a “bad coach” and I would agree that this is where I was in the wrong as well. I can’t speak for them but I was coming purely from a sense of ok, why are players transferring rather being developed into 6 rotation hitters, Liberos able to keep their spots, or setters that can hold their own against an experienced transfer with no previous connection with the team(Cabello) or stay with the team but never really excel at the position like one would’ve hoped (Shook)?
That was my reasoning with the “elephant in the room” comment because it obviously raises some eyebrows. I get that recruiting is always a gamble and things are starting to get more cutthroat each year with how much the portal comes into play. I think I really just wanted clarification from Texas fans about why they thought these transfers out were not marks against Elliot & staff and rather just recruits simply not panning out to the expectations of the program.
I agree with you that I think he is a flawless manager of his teams towards the goal of the Texas program, which is to be a Top 5 team every year and win a National Championship. That’s why I mentioned that he really doesn’t need to stick with a develop a player who is lacking because he has the luxury of bringing in the best out of the portal or out of high school.
That’s not a knock in my opinion, that’s an example of him having done his job in the best way he saw fit to put himself in a position to have those luxuries. Especially considering the wealth of resources the university provides.
I don’t know if his thinking even is “make Molly better OOS, Maddie reliable in the backrow, Asjia better in front of the setter, etc” but he definitely does make sure to build on strengths and has strong backups to cover weaknesses. So the need for overly focusing on getting a more “complete” player in their respective positions, isn’t that necessary.
Either way, thanks again for being civil with me, I stay popping off at the mouth on this site and in life in general 😅 but believe it or not I harbor no ill will towards the Texas program or it’s coaching staff.
I’m just a nerd for detailed volleyball dialogue 🤓🤷🏾♂️