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Post by badatnames on Jun 11, 2023 16:45:27 GMT -5
Wowza. We have some excessively dramatic, doom-and-gloomers in the thread today. Maybe we all settle down a bit? It’s Week 1 of VNL, which is generally chaos week. This tournament is generally used to get the youth some reps in international competition and evaluate focuses for the next TWO YEARS until the next Olympic cycle. Try not to lose your minds. It’s not nearly as deep as some of you are making it out to be 🙄 Yes I want to calm down, but everyone on court is no longer young. Hanes is blocked &%$ times today, I cannot count. He is slow, and he cannot jump. Do you know how old our middles are? Holt and Averil do not connect well with Ma'a, of course passing is not good, that is a reason. Also, they let the Brazil middle attack 12 out of 12 without any blocking. Did you see Ensing? Did you see any little bit of promising future with him as OPPOs, in Paris, maybe? I cannot see any. It's Ma'a's first game as a starter. Give them time to develop their connections. Brazil played an awesome match. I would've liked to take the win, but today is just not our day.
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Post by momorabbit on Jun 11, 2023 16:50:07 GMT -5
Well... I watched the game and I'm just gonna assume this was jitters from a lot of the hitters bc WHEW It was poor setting, Ma is not the answer and was just better hitting the ball, John is dedicated to his UCLA players The nepotism will ruin a lot of things and he continue does that. We already see the result of bring Garret in so many years. What did he achieve? Save USA at a crucial moment like Priddy at the Rio? No, the best he can do is to get two good sets in last year VNL final and unfortunately in fifth set, he cannot sustain. Did he save USA at WCH last year? Of course not.
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Post by momorabbit on Jun 11, 2023 16:53:05 GMT -5
Yes I want to calm down, but everyone on court is no longer young. Hanes is blocked &%$ times today, I cannot count. He is slow, and he cannot jump. Do you know how old our middles are? Holt and Averil do not connect well with Ma'a, of course passing is not good, that is a reason. Also, they let the Brazil middle attack 12 out of 12 without any blocking. Did you see Ensing? Did you see any little bit of promising future with him as OPPOs, in Paris, maybe? I cannot see any. Quite frankly, we don’t line up well for Paris. While a lot of other federations had mass retirements after Tokyo or brought relatively young rosters (that extra year due to COVID really made things messy), our men are in a strange off-cycle of talent right now. Our best talent is attempting to hold on for one more Olympic run and the next up group is just ok. They’re going to do their best to develop the younger age groups and make some deliberate choices to test out athletes over the next two years to give us our squad the best shot in Paris. That’s literally what the VNL is for. Clearly, not everyone from this group is going to make it. And there will be a bunch of people not currently there that will. It’s Week One. Try not to lose your mind 🤷🏽♀️ Yes my bad. wondering who is going to make it from this group? I do think Tuaniga is better in setting/connecting. Middle blockers I do not know, Smith is a lock, the rest should learn to catch up Smith's skills. OPPOs, Gabi, all hope is on your shoulder....I do not want to see Hanes/Ensing ever again..Ever again...
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Post by volleyguy on Jun 11, 2023 16:57:16 GMT -5
I’m wondering if Speraw was expecting Canada to be a bigger challenge, and didn’t want to risk that loss? Otherwise, I don’t understand starting Ma’a (which I’m not as opposed to as some are) against Brazil instead of Canada.
I’m also ready to jump off the Speraw NT coach train. He’s got a lot of admirable qualities, but this moonlighting thing isn’t getting it done.
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Post by momorabbit on Jun 11, 2023 16:59:17 GMT -5
I’m wondering if Speraw was expecting Canada to be a bigger challenge, and didn’t want to risk that loss? Otherwise, I don’t understand starting Ma’a (which I’m not as opposed to as some are) against Brazil instead of Canada. I’m also ready to jump off the Speraw NT coach train. He’s got a lot of admirable qualities, but this moonlighting thing isn’t getting it done. Did you see last year VNL? He let all the starters start against German/Canada, and rest Aaron/bring Garret when facing Argentina....He always makes confusing decisions that no one understands.
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Post by tamz on Jun 11, 2023 17:00:40 GMT -5
I am really sick of watching Garret. i'm sorry, ten years of bench players make him become a player who cannot even go to Italy/Poland to play currently.This is really bad. Speraw thinks he is defensive? Today Cody receives more balls without errors with higher efficiency than him. This is really really ugly. Also, Cody attacks more balls with much higher efficiency than him. I do not know what to say. Overall, the most concerning is OPPO, we do not know what Gabi can bring. There has to be something in the gym that Thomas isn't what John wants also says something that this could have been a one game show for Cody since he was part of the program for so long...if Christenson gets injured we are in trouble and the only hope is Tuniga cause he can connect with Defalco so we are thin at setter outside opp If Christenson is injured, we are screwed.
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Post by jcvball22 on Jun 11, 2023 17:03:00 GMT -5
Quite frankly, we don’t line up well for Paris. While a lot of other federations had mass retirements after Tokyo or brought relatively young rosters (that extra year due to COVID really made things messy), our men are in a strange off-cycle of talent right now. Our best talent is attempting to hold on for one more Olympic run and the next up group is just ok. They’re going to do their best to develop the younger age groups and make some deliberate choices to test out athletes over the next two years to give us our squad the best shot in Paris. That’s literally what the VNL is for. Clearly, not everyone from this group is going to make it. And there will be a bunch of people not currently there that will. It’s Week One. Try not to lose your mind 🤷🏽♀️ Yes my bad. wondering who is going to make it from this group? I do think Tuaniga is better in setting/connecting. Middle blockers I do not know, Smith is a lock, the rest should learn to catch up Smith's skills. OPPOs, Gabi, all hope is on your shoulder....I do not want to see Hanes/Ensing ever again..Ever again... For someone who has such strong opinions, you seem to not at all understand how National Team cycles work. No matter how good Gabi is, it would be irresponsible to not cultivate additional Oppos, but from what is in the gym and through the next age group cycles. They will do that will all positions. And you use Smith as an example: he wasn’t great early in his career, but has steadily improved and is looking like he will peak in our next Olympic cycle after really jumping into the line up as a mainstay in the last Olympics. If he had as short of a developmental leash as you want the staff to give this young group, he’d never have made it. Tuaniga isn’t currently an option at setter until he’s done with rehab and we see how he comes out of it. He had a pretty gnarly elbow injury. I think criticism of the athletes is warranted. There are some that showed well and some that did not. But acting like everything is in shambles is melodramatic, at best.
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rstclaire1
Sophomore
VLA commentator/podcast host, Purdue alum, Chicago based
Posts: 230
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Post by rstclaire1 on Jun 11, 2023 17:14:48 GMT -5
Important postgame interview from John Speraw today
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Post by basil on Jun 11, 2023 17:24:56 GMT -5
great interview
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2023 17:34:12 GMT -5
If FIVB would follow their own rules, Russia should be -50 after being "inactive" last season.
So far, there has been no deduction in WR points.
Why is that?
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Post by volleyguy on Jun 11, 2023 17:44:26 GMT -5
If FIVB would follow their own rules, Russia should be -50 after being "inactive" last season. So far, there has been no deduction in WR points. Why is that? Russia mastered the IOC/Federation diplomatic game a long time ago. I don’t know how long it can last, since there have been so many challenges to overcome, but that also shows how widely and deeply they seeded the field.
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Post by momorabbit on Jun 11, 2023 17:48:35 GMT -5
If FIVB would follow their own rules, Russia should be -50 after being "inactive" last season. So far, there has been no deduction in WR points. Why is that? Does it matter? I suspect Russia can take part in Paris considering the current situation. But yes, that looks unfair. While so many teams are fighting and competing, Russia can stay at their place, even higher.
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Post by BigDigEnergy on Jun 11, 2023 21:00:26 GMT -5
John, if Matt is staying home for the next leg, you can go ahead and leave Ensing and Hanes with him to watch the kids. Bring Kyle Rusell and Francesco Sani instead. I'm serious. Put TJ on the right side. Yes they should try it like the last year VNL championship against France. They almost won that.
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Post by wilbur on Jun 11, 2023 22:44:42 GMT -5
Yes my bad. wondering who is going to make it from this group? I do think Tuaniga is better in setting/connecting. Middle blockers I do not know, Smith is a lock, the rest should learn to catch up Smith's skills. OPPOs, Gabi, all hope is on your shoulder....I do not want to see Hanes/Ensing ever again..Ever again... For someone who has such strong opinions, you seem to not at all understand how National Team cycles work. No matter how good Gabi is, it would be irresponsible to not cultivate additional Oppos, but from what is in the gym and through the next age group cycles. They will do that will all positions. And you use Smith as an example: he wasn’t great early in his career, but has steadily improved and is looking like he will peak in our next Olympic cycle after really jumping into the line up as a mainstay in the last Olympics. If he had as short of a developmental leash as you want the staff to give this young group, he’d never have made it. Tuaniga isn’t currently an option at setter until he’s done with rehab and we see how he comes out of it. He had a pretty gnarly elbow injury. I think criticism of the athletes is warranted. There are some that showed well and some that did not. But acting like everything is in shambles is melodramatic, at best. So true. I think the same people freaking out here were saying the same or worse about smith 4 years ago. Drama Queens
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Post by Spike Town on Jun 11, 2023 22:53:17 GMT -5
The reality is they played too loose the first two games and likely didn’t prepare that well (and to be fair not much time to). They then proceeded to get progressively worse the next two matches. I think a sense of urgency will serve them well.
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