E9: Prediction Recap, Regular Season Awards, and NCAA Bracket Expansion

Here is what ChatGPT spit out when we asked it to summarize todays episode:

Get ready to spike your knowledge of college volleyball as we serve up a hearty post-season analysis! Our special guest, Bobby, joins the crew to dissect our preseason forecasts, celebrating the aces and learning from the faults. We're not just talking about who soared and who stumbled in the Big West, MIVA, and EIVA—we're giving you an insider's play-by-play on how injuries and home crowds have turned the game upside down. And yes, we're taking a victory lap for our unanimous Ohio State for MIVA prediction!

But it's not all about the big hitters—our Coaches Group Chat Awards are here to shine the spotlight on the entire squad. Ever wondered who the unsung heroes of the volleyball court are? Discover our picks for the Seventh Man of the Year, the player who's ready to jump off the bench and into the fray. We're not just crunching numbers; we're unraveling the stories behind the stats, the quiet contributors, and the players who bring the heat even when they're not making headlines.

The net isn't the only thing that's tense as we volley over the top players of the season. Join us as we argue who deserves to be our hypothetical club's setter and who truly stands out as the Opposite of the Year. It's a battle of the volleyball titans, where stats, impact, and leadership all come into play. We don't just analyze the performance; we get into the very spirit of the game, projecting the bright future of these athletes as they leap toward their volleyball destinies. Spike your curiosity and tune in for a set of discussions that are as passionate as a match-point rally!

Transcript

College Volleyball Season Recap and Predictions

Arielle Houlihan 0:00

Because there's a hundred kids With 72 dudes on the bench. Okay, that was my other.

Chad Gordon 0:04

So when they go to war in Korea, they'll be ready.

Matt Houlihan 0:08

I will say I have the same thought. They've got six teams on the bench Six platoons.

Chad Gordon 0:14

Yeah, they are, they are.

Matt Houlihan 0:18

Stanford, we've got 18 guys. Our depth chart is like all right, we've got these three guys in this position. Long Beach is like all right.

Chad Gordon 0:26

It. Depth chart is like all right, we've got these three guys in this position. Long Beach is like all right. Which 19 dudes are we rolling out for the third practice? You don't have enough guys.

Arielle Houlihan 0:31

Long Beach has so many people on that team.

Matt Houlihan 0:34

They've got so many guys. I guarantee you there's plus or minus four people that Nipe doesn't know the name of. There's 60 dudes on the bench. Well, we're back. I'm calling this episode nine and three quarters because, yeah, because episode nine was never released, but maybe it will be, who knows Just kind of go with the flow here on TCGC.

Chad Gordon 1:12

Bob's a huge Harry Potter guy, so he's going to love it.

Matt Houlihan 1:13

Bob loves Harry Potter Speaking of Bob we have Bobby.

Arielle Houlihan 1:16

Bobby's, our new in the mix.

Matt Houlihan 1:21

Bobby, let's get your mic back on, just in case you have any thoughts to put in.

Arielle Houlihan 1:24

We sued for title IX, so we had to bring Bobby in, must be properly represented here Equal representation out here now.

Matt Houlihan 1:31

The reverse lawsuit came into effect on the coaches' group chat.

Arielle Houlihan 1:34

Yeah, I'm going to sue for a reverse Title IX. By the way, for men's volleyball. It's about time.

Matt Houlihan 1:38

I'm actually very excited about today's episode. We did not have a docket when Chad and Bobby arrived today and it took us a little bit. We had some drinks and we came up with a pretty good docket.

Arielle Houlihan 1:50

Two hours. It took us two hours.

Matt Houlihan 1:52

Yeah, that's just friends catching up, yeah, but we're bringing it back. The regular season has concluded for men's volleyball and we are into the postseason. We'll get into the bracket. We got the NCAA tournament, but episode one way back when was us going over predictions? So I think it's in good taste to bring those predictions back up, see how we did and then make some maybe end-of-season awards from us, Because forget Volleyball Magazine or whoever else does something that you wouldn't want to do A popularity contest.

Matt Houlihan 2:24

Let's start with the Big West, because that's how we began episode one Our predictions. I chose. Uc Irvine Made it to the finals, not the champs, chad Great choice though Long Beach State.

Chad Gordon 2:38

I mean, that was the easy one.

Matt Houlihan 2:39

Right, and that's what we said that's the steady choice. What did I?

Chad Gordon 2:43

say A lot of returning talent.

Matt Houlihan 2:44

You can see notes on the board here. Ariel chose University of Hawaii.

Arielle Houlihan 2:48

Oh.

Matt Houlihan 2:49

In your defense.

Arielle Houlihan 2:50

Yeah, I did it because everybody else didn't right. No, no.

Matt Houlihan 2:53

In your defense. You did it because it was hosted at UH, so you took that. But also if UH had Spiros, that's a whole huge piece of the puzzle for them, and obviously they just weren't quite the same after that injury.

Arielle Houlihan 3:08

I will say that I chose UH, but I'm happy about the outcome of all of this.

Matt Houlihan 3:13

Yes.

Arielle Houlihan 3:14

Not mad.

Matt Houlihan 3:15

Yeah, I believe the direct quote from the first episode was that you want UCI.

Arielle Houlihan 3:20

Oh yeah.

Matt Houlihan 3:21

You think it's going to be Long Beach, but you believe.

Kevin Tamura 3:28

But you're going to choose UH because it's at home.

Matt Houlihan 3:30

Yeah, yeah, sure, so all three. Those are the top three teams in the Big West. I think we were pretty darn close on that, not uneducated. And Chad hit the nail on the head.

Arielle Houlihan 3:39

We all picked Ohio State for the MIVA.

Matt Houlihan 3:42

We all picked Ohio State for the MIVA. We're really good at this.

Chad Gordon 3:44

We watch a lot of volleyball. We are really good at this. We nailed that one.

Matt Houlihan 3:48

Loyola was kind of the other option, but to go back to it Ball. State was the Miva regular season champ. Ball State was there.

Chad Gordon 3:58

Well, they had some injuries, right yeah, patrick Rogers.

Matt Houlihan 4:03

Yeah, the outside, the outside, Patrick, patrick Rogers. Yeah, the outside. So I think he tried.

Chad Gordon 4:05

I think he tried to play in the tournament or late in the tournament when they lost to Lindenwood yeah, I think. I think he's coming off an ankle and so he just he wasn't quite. Yeah, 100%. But yeah, I mean, from what I hear, I haven't watched Ohio State lately, but I hear good things, I hear they're trending up at the right time.

Matt Houlihan 4:24

Birch has them going in a good direction. And then into the EVA Penn State. Myself and Ariel Chad went out on the ledge, picked George Mason.

Arielle Houlihan 4:36

Hey, they had a good hot start for a second.

Chad Gordon 4:39

Look, man, they were in the finals. To be fair, they were playing at Penn State. And clearly, George Mason, what are you looking for over there? I can't see. Oh okay, Got it, Got it. Look, yeah, Mason, great season. But yeah, Penn State just a little bit more complete, Experienced too, right yeah, at the end of the day, I mean this is my money on Pav.

Chad Gordon 5:07

There's still a lot of, there's a lot of returners from last year's team and it's it's a good squad. So but honestly, like great for great for George Mason to be in the conversation. Sure.

Matt Houlihan 5:16

So let's go to freshman of the year next year, Ariel who did you choose? Tread, tread, tread, rosenthal University of Hawaii, and he did get it. He got it for the Big West. Do they do? Do they do like a national?

Arielle Houlihan 5:29

they got to do a national. They do a national. Newcomer of the year or player of the year.

Chad Gordon 5:33

Women's volleyball. They do, they definitely do a I think it's a newcomer of the year. It's technically the term.

Arielle Houlihan 5:45

Yeah, yeah, redshirts or whatever it may be. Yeah, they should have a redshirt of the year, like if you get, if you redshirt, you go into a separate category on everything.

Chad Gordon 5:52

Yeah, freshman, plus I mean it's just.

Arielle Houlihan 5:54

It's just. It's like ESPN plus but it's.

Chad Gordon 5:56

It's just not the same, right Cause you have some of these kids who are coming from hey look, I took my two-year service mission, or military service or whatever, and they're like a 21-year-old freshman.

Arielle Houlihan 6:06

Do you know anybody in military service?

Chad Gordon 6:08

I'm rounding up, but we were having this conversation earlier of just hey look, I had to go serve my two years in Korea and now I'm back to play men's volleyball or something.

Matt Houlihan 6:17

Do we still have a conflict in Korea?

Arielle Houlihan 6:18

I do think the only military kids have got to be the Israeli kids that play here. No, no, that's what I'm saying.

Chad Gordon 6:23

We had a baby kid.

Matt Houlihan 6:24

Anthony Clowers went to the Air Force. He, technically speaking, I feel like he still could play.

Chad Gordon 6:30

The Israeli guys, I mean like Korea, right.

Matt Houlihan 6:33

I think you have to serve two years. I'm not saying Americans fighting in Korea. Mandatory service.

Arielle Houlihan 6:40

What American kids went to the military. The Korean War was a long time ago.

Matt Houlihan 6:44

Get your facts straight.

Chad Gordon 6:44

I think it's much more likely right that they are doing some kind of religious mission or something like that. But you get kids who are just like, hey, you're not 17 or 18. You're now 19 or 20.

Arielle Houlihan 6:56

And when you think freshman of the year, you kind of think, hey, it's their first year out, kind of thing, um, which is why I also think that none of these kids that were nominated for a freshman of the year are allowed to be on the fab 50 of this at the same time.

Chad Gordon 7:10

Yeah, you can't be on both feels like two of those three definitely are right. Freshman of the year yep, freshman year, oh man, yeah, I had I had westmith um with sc I think had he been healthy I stand by that pick Totally. I think they would also be playing a little bit better. So Blanchett also definitely in the mix if SC is playing a little bit better. And then Tread, yeah, I mean probably the biggest name team, biggest name player, most important player on an important team and yeah, without Spiros. Obviously that hurts their chances.

Arielle Houlihan 7:50

But I mean he was.

Chad Gordon 7:51

He may not be the world's greatest like setter on the second touch, but man, that guy serves well, he blocks well, he defends well like all of these other things he he attacks well. I mean and they can teach him how to set a little bit better. That guy's going to be really, really strong.

Matt Houlihan 8:06

He's already graded everything. Great starting point for a freshman setter, no doubt For sure. I went with Blanchett. So two USC guys Chad went with Wes Smith, I went with Blanchett. Yeah, I thought he had a pretty solid freshman campaign. I did not know who was going to take the starting spot for them and he ended up taking it and played 85, started 85, 90% of their matches.

Arielle Houlihan 8:29

Struggled by the end a little bit, I thought I thought struggled by the end.

Matt Houlihan 8:32

Yeah, he was. He was not as dominant as as a tread tread was, but just different player, different size, different different players around him as well, but definitely played a big factor for USC in terms of what they were able to do this year. Freshman of the year or newcomer of the year is what MPSF does. Ethan Watson was the NorCal boy. Shout out to St Francis. Lancers Pepperdine red shirt. Freshman won it for MPSF.

Chad Gordon 9:00

Yeah, and how do we feel about the freshman versus? The newcomer thing, because we were talking about this with CSUN as well. Right, I mean it's Jalen. Right, like that guy can score points. Yep, but is he really a true freshman?

Matt Houlihan 9:14

No, yeah, I like a freshman of the year, specifically for the freshman Okay.

Arielle Houlihan 9:19

Yeah.

Matt Houlihan 9:20

I mean, I get it the reason women's probably did.

Arielle Houlihan 9:22

That was because you had the kids that were coming in so early too. You got kids that were leaving high school in January.

Matt Houlihan 9:31

Well, that was Blanchett, that was Tread. They both did the same thing. Next one that we went over was the most improved team, and this was a clean sweep.

Chad Gordon 9:41

We all selected Stanford. You skipped player there, by the way. Oh yes, all right, we all selected Stanford you skipped player there, by the way.

Matt Houlihan 9:46

Oh, yes, all right.

Chad Gordon 9:47

We'll come back, we'll finish up there.

Matt Houlihan 9:48

Most improved. We all picked Stanford. How do we feel about this selection? Arielle, you want to start here.

Arielle Houlihan 9:55

No, I don't want to start, but I will Most improved. What does that mean? What's that Give?

Matt Houlihan 10:06

me the. You said the same exact thing, really, in episode one.

Arielle Houlihan 10:09

I also have dementia so this is all new for me.

Matt Houlihan 10:12

You talked about that in episode one you basically said, like, is it a team that makes the tournament? And we said, no, it's just the team that has the biggest improvement from where they were in 2023 to where they finished in 2024.

Arielle Houlihan 10:23

Okay, sure they're up there. Who else is up there, though?

Matt Houlihan 10:32

Do either of you have somebody that Would be most improved?

Arielle Houlihan 10:34

At the end of like Irvine yeah.

Matt Houlihan 10:41

But this was another one. Irvine was kind of in that same boat. They were in the Big West Finals in 2023. They were one match away from getting into the tournament.

Arielle Houlihan 10:49

Stanford was close.

Matt Houlihan 10:50

They returned a ton of people. They actually lost Sonny. It was a huge piece for them, st Francis or not St Francis, sorry, stanford was the same thing, right, but we didn't lose anyone Except for Justin Louie or Libero. Lose anyone except for Justin Louie or Libero, which obviously is a big piece, but not your OH1, right Like.

Chad Gordon 11:09

Irvine lost.

Matt Houlihan 11:10

Lost our OH1 and now is in the tournament, but they were still.

Chad Gordon 11:18

I'd say they were a top five team last year and but they were the team that was the outside looking in, just on the, on the records, yeah, I mean I, I I would buy irvine, um, just because of the turnover and you know niff has had to kind of slot guys in a bunch of different roles all season long and then they've kind of found the, the piece of the puzzle that's working for them right now.

Chad Gordon 11:36

I'd also buy a gcu right um and I'd also probably buy even like a csun yeah, I was gonna, I was gonna sayUN. Especially if you look at like from the beginning of the year maybe to the end, or even last year to this year of what they did.

Matt Houlihan 11:51

They definitely had a lot of really big wins. They had some I mean, they lost to Masters. They had some losses that would be considered maybe a blemish, but there was a lot of high-quality wins for that team Grand Canyon, over the last four years really has been on the steady increase, I would say so.

Arielle Houlihan 12:10

I think that that's more of a slower incline, instead of just last year to this year. I think that they've been waiting for this and they're at the peak of what they can do I mean they were in the tournament last year.

Chad Gordon 12:20

Yeah, yeah, now it's a fully mature team.

Arielle Houlihan 12:23

Yes, I would actually rather go over most disappointing, but we're not going to do that.

Matt Houlihan 12:32

I will abstain.

Kevin Tamura 12:33

But that's a better From this segment. So the opposite of most improved would be like the least improved.

Chad Gordon 12:39

Maybe that's a good one. Maybe we could go to player of the year instead Not even least improved. Most downtrodden.

Matt Houlihan 12:46

Let's go. Player of the year predictions Chad, start us off. What was your player of the year prediction at the start of this?

Chad Gordon 12:53

I had UCLA setter Andrew Rowan. It felt like a layup. Just because he's a good player on a great team, he has probably one of the easier jobs of all of the setters and that he has you know, basically first team all-american attackers at every position and so, just as the central guy in that offense, it felt like he would be the one to pick up player of the year for this. Um, but yeah, I was wrong. There's a clear and obvious favorite that we'll get to here, I think in a second.

Arielle Houlihan 13:32

It's not my pick, but I think that if Rotman wouldn't have gotten hurt midseason, that this might be a little bit different of a conversation, yeah.

Kevin Tamura 13:43

Rotman got a bad shake in the middle of the season, for sure.

Arielle Houlihan 13:46

And yeah, too bad.

Coaches Group Chat Awards

Matt Houlihan 13:49

Yeah, injury definitely played a factor there. Matt who you got, mine was Heno. I'm feeling pretty good about that selection currently. Yeah, he's been the man throughout the course of this season. I think he's got to be the frontrunner right now for ABCA. Player of the Year. There's a couple other guys that are in that conversation for sure.

Arielle Houlihan 14:11

I think they win one game and he's it.

Matt Houlihan 14:14

He's done it all for that team.

Chad Gordon 14:16

They don't even have to win one, because they'll announce those awards before.

Arielle Houlihan 14:19

No, they've got to win one.

Chad Gordon 14:21

You think? The banquet's got to be? Don't they announce those things like Tuesday or Monday or something?

Arielle Houlihan 14:26

Not for player of the year. It's got to be the day after the semis.

Matt Houlihan 14:29

Yeah, I think it's after the semis.

Chad Gordon 14:37

Well, at least that's what they do for the women's.

Matt Houlihan 14:39

I don't know, I think they do the same. I thought it was. I thought it's like coming you. I think you've seen this has Heno's serve been less effective this year than last year?

Kevin Tamura 14:46

Yes.

Matt Houlihan 14:47

Yeah, it definitely seems like there's something a little bit different there. Maybe it's just a load that he has taken on offensively for this team.

Chad Gordon 14:54

He is scoring and blocking. He's attacking and blocking better than last year, but he's serving and, I think, receiving worse than last year. Interesting which I mean he was hands down, it wasn't even close. He was the best server. Yeah, it was not even a conversation and now he's still in the upper echelon, but he's not the number one guy.

Arielle Houlihan 15:16

He's the number one attacking, though.

Chad Gordon 15:18

He's one of the top attackers. Yeah, it's pretty obvious. For a sidebar, just because I'm interested, can you give me the top?

Matt Houlihan 15:23

attackers. Yeah, it's, it's, it's pretty obvious for a sidebar. Just because I'm interested, can you give me the top servers? Who's been the top server? I don't know.

Chad Gordon 15:29

Oh, you don't know, I can look, but we'll have to cut this part.

Matt Houlihan 15:31

Yeah, can you give me a Volador post on that, maybe next week?

Arielle Houlihan 15:38

Next upcoming week isn't going to come out soon enough. We're going to give our own awards.

Matt Houlihan 15:43

Yeah, I think it's time. Time for the first annual Coaches Group Chat Awards. And man, oh man, we're not holding back. We've got literally every position covered here.

Arielle Houlihan 15:54

Are you More awards? More people watching, starting with people who don't play, Starting with all the volumetrics filmed I've watched of the bench all year because that's all that I will watch.

Matt Houlihan 16:08

Seventh man of the year. This is like the Ariel Hulana award right here. Why? Because you're all about the Bench.

Arielle Houlihan 16:16

I love.

Matt Houlihan 16:16

The Bench and the guys that come off the Bench.

Arielle Houlihan 16:19

Love the Bench. I haven't picked any of mine yet, though.

Matt Houlihan 16:23

And your college career spent most of your time on the bench, like me. Oh, come on.

Arielle Houlihan 16:28

That's some shots fired right there. I will say I'm getting a ton of comments lately being like pull up the footage, pull up the film. I'm like YouTube was not around, Just started, Just come out.

Matt Houlihan 16:42

Thank God, just kidding, she started every match. She was not around, just started. Thanks God, just come out. Thank God, just kidding, she started every match. She was a beast. You actually did. You jumped very high pre-ACL injury you had some hops. Yeah, guys, all right. Well, let's get to it. Seventh man of the year.

Chad Gordon 16:58

Should I start, or yeah, because we're still thinking of ours.

Matt Houlihan 17:00

Great, it's obviously Neil Finnegan.

Arielle Houlihan 17:05

No.

Chad Gordon 17:06

You piece of shit. Yeah, that's not.

Arielle Houlihan 17:09

You can't do that though.

Matt Houlihan 17:11

I stand by Neil Finnegan. Okay, number one. I love Neil.

Arielle Houlihan 17:15

So do I. He's a beta bay guy. Yeah, you can't just pick beta bay kids.

Matt Houlihan 17:18

I know it's not just the fact that he's a beta bay guy. Go on CSUN social media. Who's always the guy that's taken over social media for CSUN? It's always Neil. Okay, social media guy Neil is always taking over the Instagram. He is running that account for them. He's cheering on the bench. He's working his ass off Neil Finnegan. He's great Seventh man of the year. You're welcome, neil, and I pass the mic to you. Who do you guys have?

Chad Gordon 17:42

I so I mean, this is a little bit biased. No, is a little bit biased. No, it's not biased at all, um, but it's, it's, I don't know half illegal because he ends up starting at the end of the year. But I'm gonna pick county, county, sure, and I I think, like you're looking at someone who's been in that program for a long time has has always been a a piece of the puzzle, usually from the service line undersized and he yeah, man, this guy, like he must have a chip on his shoulder after all of these years are like no man, you're not big enough, you don't whatever and he is coming for you.

Chad Gordon 18:13

He's got a bomb of an arm and he's been their top outside and in the last stretch of the season. Yeah, I mean, I like I only say this because I've been running the numbers for all this stuff and I'm like, statistically, he's great because kioni serves so well, he receives pretty well, he attacks pretty well.

Chad Gordon 18:30

Maybe he's not the most dominant blocker, but like who cares? He's of really quality outside and he didn't play until Spiros went down and he's been doing his job and he's been crushing it and I love that that's great for him, man like.

Matt Houlihan 18:44

So that's your job as a seven-man, yeah, as a seven-man, next guy up.

Chad Gordon 18:48

If you don't run the team social media, you have to side out. There's just not a third option If you can't.

Matt Houlihan 18:55

Irish jig or fight somebody, you better pass the lock. Yeah, totally.

Chad Gordon 19:00

Jig or die.

Arielle Houlihan 19:03

Great, let's go to best bench.

Matt Houlihan 19:05

Best bench. Lead us off Do you have a best bench. I have my pick for this as well.

Arielle Houlihan 19:13

Best bench has got to be Lewis. When you make ESPN 20 years ago and you make top 10 on ESPN as a bench for men's volleyball, then you get the award for the next, until award is given out for it for two decades. Yeah, two decades, you get it. So Lewis wins. I didn't see a single thing that Lewis did this year, but I shout out to Ryan Collins.

Matt Houlihan 19:37

I saw some. I saw some good stuff from that man as well. Speaking of seven, he's a, he's kind of the seventh man for Lewis. Come and serve, kind of serve, kind of a bench hype guy. I appreciated what he was doing there. I'll go to me. Chad looks like he's still thinking this one over. I'm going sheer show of force bench.

Kevin Tamura 19:55

Long Beach State. Yeah, because there's a hundred kids 72 dudes on the bench.

Chad Gordon 20:01

So when they go to war in Korea they'll be ready.

Arielle Houlihan 20:04

I will say they've got six teams on the bench six platoons they are.

Matt Houlihan 20:12

They are stay over. We've got 18 guys. Our depth chart is like all right, we've got these three guys in this position.

Arielle Houlihan 20:19

Long beach is like all right, two iron curtains which 19?

Matt Houlihan 20:22

dudes, are we rolling?

Chad Gordon 20:23

out the coaches. You ever have to play in practice. You don't have enough guys.

Arielle Houlihan 20:28

Long Beach has so many people on that team.

Matt Houlihan 20:31

They've got so many guys. I guarantee you there's plus or minus four people that Knife doesn't know the name of.

Arielle Houlihan 20:47

There's 60 dudes on the bench. I got asked. We went to the Long Beach State of Barber game game and I got asked like uh, because I was looking at joe and and uh, ben on the on santa barbara. I'm like yeah, we got joe and ben on santa barbara and then they were like you don't have anybody on long beach. I was like no, and then like the whole game went by afterwards I see the bench like walking over. I was like oh, aiden powell in Powell, aiden Powell's on that team. But I was like I didn't see anybody the entire time because there was an army of people on the sideline.

Matt Houlihan 21:12

I legitimately had the thought we're sitting there we're watching the game Santa Barbara Long Beach in the sandbar and I was like give me a pair of black shorts and a beach t-shirt and. I should just go walk onto that bench right now and no one would say anything.

Chad Gordon 21:26

Knife won't know your name either. They'd just be like one of us. The bench just grows by one or two people each set when they change sides. No one, will you just pick up a third straggler?

Matt Houlihan 21:44

when you change sides. I can just see McKay Smith making eye contact with me, being like how many?

Chad Gordon 21:51

players, do they have?

Arielle Houlihan 21:52

Bobby.

Chad Gordon 21:53

Producer. What do we got Nine, 30, 31. Oh my God 31?

Arielle Houlihan 21:59

They have 31 people. That's the largest roster I've heard of since UCLA back in the day.

Chad Gordon 22:04

I think, I think Knife can name 25 of them.

Matt Houlihan 22:08

Yeah, I think plus or minus four is good. Let's, let's set it at three and a half. Sure, three and a half.

Arielle Houlihan 22:16

Okay, I'm getting on some panel where I get to ask him a question. I'm going to do it.

Matt Houlihan 22:21

I'm going to shock him, but also then again you, you look at that and you're like, all right, long Beach, obviously, is investing a ton of money into men's volleyball.

Arielle Houlihan 22:31

They're investing the same amount of money into men's volleyball as they are into women's volleyball?

Matt Houlihan 22:35

Yes, yeah, right.

Arielle Houlihan 22:39

But like most schools well, most football schools you're going to be capped at a headcount, right Like you can't go over a certain number because we need to be able to have title nine, or they're going to mandate the number of kids that you have to have on the team because they want admissions for the school.

Matt Houlihan 22:54

That's what a lot of schools without football do. They're like yeah you take a Concordia Irvine, who also has a big roster For them. It's like we add this more because we make money and we get men into the school.

Arielle Houlihan 23:06

How many are they graduating, though? Okay, I will say this has got to be the year of the largest rosters, because of the fifth years and the.

Matt Houlihan 23:14

COVID yeah, so that's fair.

Arielle Houlihan 23:18

But how many did they bring in? How many did they lose? Oh, I remember seeing some of these senior night pictures of like 25 people.

Matt Houlihan 23:24

They had nine also. Yeah, Sure Chad best bench.

Arielle Houlihan 23:29

Long Beach is a great answer.

Chad Gordon 23:31

I don't have a great answer. I did catch a little Damon this year and it's like the entire coaching staff, like Donnie and his crew. They're up off the chairs, everybody's standing. I mean it's the NEC, so everybody's kind of like smaller gyms and everything it just it looks like they're having a great time. Everyone's into it. It's rowdy. Give me some Damon.

Arielle Houlihan 23:54

Great.

Chad Gordon 23:54

Give me some Buffalo, New York why not.

Arielle Houlihan 23:57

I like that, Ken. First player of the position of the year.

Matt Houlihan 24:02

We're going into the positions.

Arielle Houlihan 24:03

Middle of the year.

Matt Houlihan 24:04

Let's give the middle some love. Middle of the year. Let's give the middle some love. Ariel, start us off. Who do you?

Arielle Houlihan 24:09

got. I'm going for Wes Smith. He didn't get freshman of the year, so middle of the year. So he gets middle of the year and he got hurt and that's not his fault, so he gets middle of the year. Okay, I'd rather take Wes Smith than anybody else. Right now. Merrick doesn't have any more time left.

Matt Houlihan 24:26

Oh, you're going from like.

Kevin Tamura 24:28

He's graduating General manager perspective.

Arielle Houlihan 24:33

From a GM perspective, I'd rather have Wes on my team right now at this point in time, trade him Merrick's a free agent.

Matt Houlihan 24:40

No offense to you, merrick.

Arielle Houlihan 24:41

Thank you for all your service but you're washed up, you don't have time anymore, so I want Wes.

Matt Houlihan 24:46

Well, I'm not going from the GM perspective, so I will take Merrick McHenry as my middle of the year. Because he was extremely efficient offensively. I think the stats will show blocking-wise, not as effective, but he already got an award. Yeah, I know he's the player of the year in the MPSF, but also the big thing I liked about him his serve.

Arielle Houlihan 25:05

His serve was really really good.

Matt Houlihan 25:08

So middle of the year he brought a lot from the service line and was in system quite literally untouchable.

Arielle Houlihan 25:17

Okay, great Merrick, you get Merrick too. No, I don't have Merrick.

Chad Gordon 25:21

Merrick's actually my second. First is actually Cameron Thorne.

Matt Houlihan 25:25

That's a great pick too.

Arielle Houlihan 25:26

That's a good pick.

Chad Gordon 25:27

Yeah, 3-5-2. 3-5-2. I would never. It's a painful. It was a painful summer. Yeah, no, I mean Thorne has just been so offensively sound and then he's a sneaky, quick blocker.

Arielle Houlihan 25:42

Yeah.

Chad Gordon 25:43

So I mean he's twitchy and he's fast off the ground when it's out of system and he's a big guy but man, his ability to just make moves laterally even when he's super, super late, and just good shape on the hands, he gets a lot of touches and just creates a lot of value as a blocker, not a massive server or anything for them. Obviously, I mean you'd probably take Merrick's serve, but if you're looking for things that you want a middle blocker to do, man attack and block and a little serve, cameron Thorne was my guy.

Matt Houlihan 26:16

I like that pick, yeah. I thought he was very good at the end of it.

Chad Gordon 26:21

Fuck, damn it, matt.

Arielle Houlihan 26:23

That was also going to be my pick Cameron Thorne.

Chad Gordon 26:26

You're out of memory.

Matt Houlihan 26:27

That's a great pick 20% battery left on the camera. We're good, we're fine.

Chad Gordon 26:30

Just plug it in, no.

Matt Houlihan 26:31

Plug it in. No, we're fine. 20%, keep going.

Arielle Houlihan 26:34

Oh, I thought you said 2%. I was like no, you have to plug it in right now we're just plugging in before we do all this stuff out there, gm, gm pick, all right outside of the year chad.

Matt Houlihan 26:47

Let's start with you. I feel like you have numbers on this so you can give a good uh benchmark yeah, the interesting thing for me is kind of how you think about it.

Chad Gordon 26:55

Like if you're looking for somebody to fit into a system, right of, hey, I already have the best player at every other position, I need just the steadiest outside. Yep, right, you would take. I still don't know how to say his name Siopanus Chopanus. Yeah, how do we say?

Kevin Tamura 27:11

it Chopanus you don't know no.

Chad Gordon 27:13

Okay, I heard they announced the state of Chopanus and it sounds fancier so I'm going to do that. But you take him or you take like Champlin, right, they're just saying who plays the position the best this year chopanos all right, I like that, ariel I'm only giving awards to people that you don't think are going to get awards.

Matt Houlihan 27:47

Shocker, great. Let's hear it. Let's hear the hot take. Do you need a second? If you?

Chad Gordon 27:55

pick a name from a team we don't know, I will go next.

Matt Houlihan 28:00

I'm going to hit you with a spike. I am taking Heno because I already selected Heno as my player of the year months ago and I think he has performed at that level. I love the way he plays. I think it's super creative. It's my coaching style, so I have a soft spot of like he's playing the game, that I want the game to be played and he brings just some French stability and I love that if you don't think heno is the mvp of men's volleyball this year, you're not watching yeah

Chad Gordon 28:36

yeah he's easily watch out for dogs he's been through.

Arielle Houlihan 28:40

Enough, he's been through enough I'm sorry. Uh, I'm going to pick Champlin. Reason being was your what?

Chad Gordon 28:53

Because he came and hung out with us and has a great mustache.

Arielle Houlihan 28:55

Yeah, well, he's very nice, but like also to be like the yank around of like are you going to libero, Are you going? I think the reaction is like good and like has played steady and he's against some guys that on paper like to me look like world-class freak athlete outsides like Robinson like major physical body guys and then to be able to be that steady in that gym all the time and to be able to prove yourself on the court. I think that there's something, probably intangible, that is like the reason.

Chad Gordon 29:33

He's one of those guys where it's just like pound for pound. He may be one of the best volleyball players 100% Like we've seen in a long time.

Arielle Houlihan 29:38

So that's why I'm going to go Champlin.

Chad Gordon 29:41

Huge fan, big mustache guy.

Matt Houlihan 29:42

I like it. Setter of the year. Setter of the year.

Arielle Houlihan 29:45

I'm for Rowan, for the national team setter right now. I think he should be in Paris and setting the national team.

Matt Houlihan 29:51

You think he's better than Micah Christensen? I?

Arielle Houlihan 29:53

think I want him over Micah.

Matt Houlihan 29:55

Oh boy.

Chad Gordon 30:00

Why she's wrong that's going to be inaccurate.

Matt Houlihan 30:08

I say let him fail now, so that he can win us like seven golds in a row.

Arielle Houlihan 30:10

Seven golds in a row. Give him experience now, so that he can just like go All right, she's looking for clickbait here.

Matt Houlihan 30:16

guys, don't buy into this. Don't buy into this.

Arielle Houlihan 30:19

I think he's great.

Matt Houlihan 30:21

Micah is so much better.

Arielle Houlihan 30:22

Micah is great. I know Rowan's going to be great.

Matt Houlihan 30:26

He's going to be great, he's going to be great. I think he's going to be in the national team gym for sure.

Arielle Houlihan 30:29

No doubt about it Micah's great I got it Not in the squad.

Matt Houlihan 30:32

Not in the squad, yeah.

Arielle Houlihan 30:35

Come on, guys.

Matt Houlihan 30:36

All right, rowan, for Ariel's player setter of the year. Fair enough, chadwick Bozeman.

Arielle Houlihan 30:42

Gordon, are you going to pick anybody but Rowan actually?

Matt Houlihan 30:46

Yes.

Arielle Houlihan 30:46

For not clickbait, really, yeah, you think somebody deserves it over Rowan.

Chad Gordon 30:52

You'll see soon enough. He's got the easiest job. You can set unhittable balls at these guys. They're so good he's setting two balls to his middle.

Arielle Houlihan 30:59

Are we talking? Who's the setter of the year? Who was the best setter?

Chad Gordon 31:05

I don't know. I'm in your house. You pick the question.

Arielle Houlihan 31:08

What do you want? So I'm going to take that. My center for me is going to be placed on any team, and Andrew Rowan makes every other team in the country better.

Chad Gordon 31:20

No.

Arielle Houlihan 31:21

Who.

Chad Gordon 31:25

I have a statistical answer.

Arielle Houlihan 31:28

Okay, yes, please go, I don't.

Chad Gordon 31:30

And that's.

Matt Houlihan 31:31

Ariel's all about the feeling she's in her feels.

Chad Gordon 31:34

No, and this is the thing I think With some of these things. Right, I mean, the numbers are one thing, but that's really the question, right, if you had the best players at every position, who would be the best setter for that right?

Arielle Houlihan 31:47

Andrew Ryan be the best setter for that right and you're on because the best players that are. Positions on ucla but why?

Chad Gordon 31:52

can I mean, I could set for ucla and we'd still probably do pretty well, I'm setting two balls that's the issue with.

Arielle Houlihan 31:57

That is, though, is this is men's volleyball. Men's volleyball, the setter is probably the least important. You like teams like byu, however, long ago, they had setter. That was was absolutely garbage, garbage and literally throw a ball up there, and if you had the best attackers, you're going to win.

Chad Gordon 32:12

Sure.

Arielle Houlihan 32:12

The game has evolved a little bit more than that.

Chad Gordon 32:15

Well Aiden Ipe standing on the ground just setting balls to people, right?

Arielle Houlihan 32:19

Real.

Chad Gordon 32:19

Just like I don't need to jump, so who's? Your setter. Statistically, it's Loyola's Dan Mangun.

Arielle Houlihan 32:30

You. It's uh loyalist dan man gun. You haven't watched this guy.

Chad Gordon 32:32

You don't know anything about this guy. I don't know, I don't know.

Arielle Houlihan 32:33

I know that he's gotten abc player of the week like a couple years and it's, I guess, statistically. But I just don't get it I'm on the statistical train um so what's his stats?

Matt Houlihan 32:44

what does the stats show that makes it the best setter?

Chad Gordon 32:47

this would be great if I had like the whole blog post that I should put together over the next couple days. Sure, um, but I mean basically, like you split out all of the things that, like setters do, okay, look, two thirds of their contacts are setting. Then there's blocking, attacking, serving, oh, you know, like two defense for me. Right, like dan came out ahead, treads in the top three. Uh, I think rowan is third.

Arielle Houlihan 33:11

Uh, nick slight's like fourth or fifth or something like that dang it, I should pick and like and honestly I thought what am I?

Chad Gordon 33:17

doing. I thought you were gonna pick slight because if you were gonna drop somebody, if I was gonna drop somebody into a team that they didn't know and find a way to like ball and just win.

Arielle Houlihan 33:25

I'd probably take Sleight. I forgot about him, got it.

Chad Gordon 33:27

Because Sleight's kind of a gangster and Rowan's not Like no offense, he's a great setter.

Arielle Houlihan 33:35

I'm telling you, Rowan is very, very good.

Chad Gordon 33:37

Rowan's a really technically talented setter. He was a better server last year. He didn't serve that well this year. He's a crap blocker and he doesn't play defense, but he's really good on the second touch.

Arielle Houlihan 33:49

Slight's the right pick. I get it.

Chad Gordon 33:51

But it depends on what you need for your team. The same thing we're talking about with Tread. Tread doesn't touch the second ball all that well, but he's not my pick but he serves great, he blocks great, he attacks great and he plays some defense, but this is center of the year. Yeah, but there are other things besides just setting the volleyball right, and Andrew Rowan sets the volleyball really, really well, that's why I give him setter of the year. That's no problem. But you've already admitted you made a mistake by not picking Slice.

Arielle Houlihan 34:14

No, we have fighter of the year that I just added to the doc.

Best Volleyball Players Selection Discussion

Chad Gordon 34:16

That's not a thing, it is. If you were going to take one setter from any of these teams and put them on your club team right now, who would you pick? Okay, I take slight.

Arielle Houlihan 34:35

For the vibes. Slight For sure, taking slight. Yeah, I know, I know guys, we know you're taking slight.

Matt Houlihan 34:41

I know, I have an answer now, what's your? Do it. It is not Nick Slight what it is not. Andrew.

Kevin Tamura 34:48

Rowan, are you excited about this?

Arielle Houlihan 34:50

Dan Dan.

Kevin Tamura 34:52

Dan Mangum Dan from State Farm.

Chad Gordon 34:54

No.

Matt Houlihan 34:55

Dan from State.

Chad Gordon 34:56

Farm. No, come on. He doesn't work at State Farm just because he's from the Midwest, not Dan. Sorry Dan, I tried my pick.

Matt Houlihan 35:07

Are you excited about this? Let me give you the synopsis. It's not statistic, it's not Foley vibes. This is so mad.

Chad Gordon 35:15

It is Brett Schuer it is Brett Schuer, not, it is Brett Shuey Because of the beard, not because of the beard. What are they? I don't understand.

Matt Houlihan 35:22

It is essentially the idea that you put in the head of who do you take and you put into a team that makes that team the best possible can be. It doesn't need to be the best at the position, best at all these different skills, but can do it all together and bring the pieces to make them a more complete unit. In my eyes, that was sure this year. I thought the way that he played undersized did not matter. I thought he did a decent job blocking. He's great with the second touch. He's great on defense. He's a obviously a stoic leader for the team on the court and, yeah, I thought he made I thought he made Irvine better this year.

Arielle Houlihan 36:01

Okay, my pick is slight. And, rowan, I was just thinking my brain Since you wouldn't pick one, you would take both, since, yeah, I'd definitely take yeah, I'll take Micah Christensen.

Matt Houlihan 36:10

Yeah sure, yeah.

Arielle Houlihan 36:11

So you guys, yeah, yeah, give me Tony UT please, and Shuey, I'm taking Slight and I'm taking the MPSF setters All right Oppo of the year. Say it at the same time. Why? Because it's fun.

Matt Houlihan 36:26

Three, two, one Jarrett.

Arielle Houlihan 36:29

That was, mine, that was mine, too, mine's Parker Van Buren.

Matt Houlihan 36:33

Okay, I was going Jarrett too, not just because Fly Eagles fly. Let me hear your rundown.

Chad Gordon 36:39

I'll admit five seconds of bias. Harker guy His dad got me into volleyball so I'm super biased. That being said, the numbers are the numbers and there's an argument to be made of. Hey, he's coming into these matches, he's super fresh, teams don't know how to scout against him. I will buy all of those things, but statistically good server, great attacker, really strong blocker and he's just been unstoppable. The fact that he didn't make the MPSF alter, that's crazy. The guy hit like 600.

Chad Gordon 37:15

He doesn't make errors and he hit like 600. Like he does, doesn't make errors, yeah, and he serves aces and he blocks guys.

Arielle Houlihan 37:23

Like did you think that coaches put in for that? I have no idea I got to think. Coaches put in for that for the MPSF tournament.

Chad Gordon 37:30

I don't know, it's possible. And then, jerry, you can talk to Worley. I don't know, because he won an award maybe he nominated himself but also when you conspiracy honestly, it worked out for Matt, so it's fine, that's just like the tournament though for sure, for sure, right, and so like I think he's had a great month and a half, right.

Chad Gordon 37:50

The same way you could say, hey, look, spear should be a first team All-American, but you know, he's not still playing. And Jared didn't play the first half of the year because they were playing with carter rogers on the on the left. Yep, um, but yeah, I mean, even even compared with parker, I've got john kerr. Uh, second right now from penn state. Yep, that was mine, chad.

Matt Houlihan 38:08

We were, we were in tune on this one. I just thought I swear, I don't like.

Arielle Houlihan 38:11

Well, meva player of the year was an opposite, so I go parker, that's why that's.

Chad Gordon 38:16

That's fair too. Yeah, I mean, I swear like I'm not. I don't make up these numbers, it's just how things shook out and it was jared, then kerr, then parker yeah, no, I passed the.

Arielle Houlihan 38:26

I was really, I was really hoping the third place on chad's as my player of the year.

Matt Houlihan 38:29

I was really hoping that you would get that you were gonna go somewhere else for the shock value of jared, because jared didn't play for the majority of the season and I, watching him play and watching him come in, I was like here he goes again, sharper than anybody.

Arielle Houlihan 38:43

Here he goes again, this guy he just gets, we just completely.

Chad Gordon 38:48

You overlook Jarrett and he just goes out and quietly hits 600 on 20 balls and just yeah club.

Arielle Houlihan 38:53

I'm pretty sure we had an entire practice where I was like literally from the middle of the court, take one step and jump.

Chad Gordon 38:59

Yeah, you'll probably be in the two to two you will probably be closer than where you guys are at right now.

Chad Gordon 39:04

I don't know how many times I've told the story of like. So I mean the story here for the non-us is that you know he played for Harker. You know I'm coaching that team in high school with Alex Jones and then Josh Stewart, who was a really talented setter, mvp of adult nationals, played at Pepperdine. All this stuff we're like alright, our B-side at this high school can't stop Jared. What are we going to do? Josh, go get him. Josh can't touch him. Jonesy, it's like we're throwing pokeballs. Jones, your turn, I choose you. Go stop this guy. Jones can't touch him. I'm like guys, I'll handle this. I'm getting torched by this 17 year old. I'm like I'm gonna show line, take angle. I'm gonna show angle, take line. I'm gonna show nothing. We, we couldn't, we couldn't even touch it. It's, it's. It's sharp.

Chad Gordon 39:55

When you don't think it's sharp, it's late line when you don't it's I I'm so stoked that he's having success, but it's just an absolute bitch to try to scheme against it's yeah it's not easy, it's tough.

Matt Houlihan 40:09

Oh yeah, we were coming from someone who was literally trying to scheme against him he, we. We had some good moments, some good opportunities, where he slowed it down a little bit, but, yeah, yeah, it wasn't errors. He wasn't making errors.

Chad Gordon 40:21

If he doesn't like it, setter, he'll literally just set it. He's like I don't need to hit this ball. No, thank you, that's what we were hoping for.

Matt Houlihan 40:28

And we were golden on those. That's what we were looking for, but yeah, no, he's been super effective. His serve serve got way better. They're bringing him in as a serving sub and he just really couldn't get it going.

Chad Gordon 40:36

He was mediocre as a sub.

Matt Houlihan 40:40

He missed a lot, but now that he's in and kind of has the confidence, the serve has been a big factor, no doubt. Yeah, Jarrett, Nice job. Shout out NorCal boy Getting it done. Harker Eagles Love it. Lastly, libero of the year for the positions. And then we'll get into our NCAA tournament overview.

Arielle Houlihan 40:57

I got Libero of the year.

Matt Houlihan 40:58

Do it.

Arielle Houlihan 40:59

Start us off. Ten minutes ago, Mason Briggs mentioned you in the comment.

Matt Houlihan 41:04

Mason Briggs- I think that's a great pick. What's the stats say? Chad. I feel like we've gone over this where Mason, because he takes so much of the court.

Chad Gordon 41:14

it's an interesting thing to have to stat to get a good understanding statistically speaking, yeah, he, he's doing a lot, and there's stuff that you just don't capture right. So, like when they show four passers and then somebody like the serve, the toss goes, and then they shift one guy back, yep, and then mason takes, you know, 40 percent. We don't, we don't have a value on that right now. Or if he jumps in front of somebody who may be a weaker passer, we don't know. All we know is that he touched the ball and it was either good or it wasn't.

Chad Gordon 41:49

And you get the same thing defensively. But when you compare Liberos at least you get pretty similar results on the defensive stuff, Because they're always like trying to scoop, they're running in trying to get blown up and and so you know when you, when you look at stuff off of all the metrics like those all count as negatives but it's.

Chad Gordon 42:07

It's kind of kind of a wash when you look between all the players but yeah, I've got, I've got mason, and again he's a great player. I've got him on the second team just statistically, because it's statistics and not your eye or your vibes or your feel or anything. But the top libero I have is Ryan Merck from Penn State. He was probably the best receiver last year and a strong defender as well, and it really hasn't changed. I mean, he's one of the best passers out there.

Matt Houlihan 42:35

He's just really steady. No notes to add. I concur that is my libero of the year as well, ryan Merck from Penn State.

Arielle Houlihan 42:45

He didn't comment on my Instagram, so he doesn't get libero of the year for me Cut him. Tell me two facts about Fort Valley State.

Chad Gordon 42:53

They're in the SIAC.

Matt Houlihan 42:55

There's one. They won the SIAC. There's two Eating shit.

Arielle Houlihan 43:03

Name one person on Fort Valley State Go.

Chad Gordon 43:06

You won't know if we're right or wrong. Tom Smith.

Arielle Houlihan 43:11

I'm pretty positive. You're wrong, he's the 31st player Check.

Matt Houlihan 43:16

Check it now, alan.

Chad Gordon 43:17

Knipe also doesn't know his name. That's a good joke.

Arielle Houlihan 43:24

Only our loyal listeners will understand that joke. Everybody else is turning some hours.

Matt Houlihan 43:31

Let's make our predictions. You guys ready? We know UCLA Long Beach.

Chad Gordon 43:35

UCLA in four.

Matt Houlihan 43:37

I'm going Irvine over Penn State, irvine over UCLA to the championship.

Arielle Houlihan 43:43

He's chosen every kid on the team as his player of the year.

Matt Houlihan 43:46

I'm going Grand Canyon over Ohio State. You're just choosing what you want. I'm going Grand Canyon over Long Beach, that's right, long Beach, long Beach we're going.

Arielle Houlihan 43:57

Grand Canyon, irvine final. That's a dream.

Matt Houlihan 44:00

And I'm taking Irvine in four. Irvine in four, that's Matt's prediction.

Arielle Houlihan 44:07

That is what I hope happens.

Matt Houlihan 44:09

What I think is going to happen. What I need to happen, what I need to happen.

Arielle Houlihan 44:15

Well, no, no, no, not what I need to happen, but what I.

Matt Houlihan 44:19

Yeah, give me your thinks, your thoughts. What I?

Arielle Houlihan 44:20

think is going to happen is UCLA and Irvine are going to play in the semis on one side, and then Grand Canyon is going to play Long Beach on the other side. Great, awesome. I think that Grand Canyon-UCLA is going to be final.

Matt Houlihan 44:38

On PSF Rematch. And who's your champion?

Arielle Houlihan 44:42

And my champion is going to be. It's going to be a draw, there's going to be a shootout, I don't know. We'll see.

Matt Houlihan 45:01

No, no, no, you don't get off the hook, let's go. Give me the prediction.

Arielle Houlihan 45:05

Grand Canyon. I want Grand Canyon to win that, but I think that UCLA should win that, so Some clear answers from you. Take it with a grain of salt.

Matt Houlihan 45:17

What is this political roundabout?

Chad Gordon 45:19

We need less salty answers.

Matt Houlihan 45:21

Yeah, the answer.

Arielle Houlihan 45:24

I, my head says UCLA is going to win.

Matt Houlihan 45:27

Okay.

Arielle Houlihan 45:28

Based off of statistics. What?

Chad Gordon 45:31

statistics they won last year.

Arielle Houlihan 45:32

They just lost but they won last year and they should win this year, because every, uh, every two year, the two because every two-year curse is happening.

Chad Gordon 45:43

Buy one, get one free.

Arielle Houlihan 45:43

Buy one, get one free Classic.

Chad Gordon 45:45

Okay, all right. Chad prediction UCLA over Fort Valley, irvine over Penn State. Grand Canyon over Ohio State. Long Beach over Belmont.

Arielle Houlihan 45:54

Abbey. So we're all the same on the semis, yeah.

Chad Gordon 45:59

I mean, I think the most interesting, I don't know, I think Ohio State trending up could be, interesting Grand Canyon maybe is looking a little bit too much towards Thursday, but yeah, I think, ucla over Irvine on the top and then I'll take Grand Canyon over Long Beach State on the bottom and, yeah, give me that same rematch and give me Grand Canyon in four Grand Canyon for the ship.

Matt Houlihan 46:25

Let's do it All right, we got Irvine for me.

Arielle Houlihan 46:29

You guys picked UCLA at the beginning of the year. You know that right.

Matt Houlihan 46:33

All three of us picked UCLA at the beginning of the year.

Arielle Houlihan 46:35

Well, I stood by it.

Matt Houlihan 46:37

Yeah, okay know, that right. All three of us picked you. So, yeah, well, I stood by it.

Arielle Houlihan 46:39

Yeah, okay, stand, stand on business, you do you I want something different to happen, but I think that that's gonna happen. All right, that's. I stand by that too. That's fair.

Matt Houlihan 46:46

Let's get into the real fun part of this now yeah if we could add four more teams into this tournament recede no not a reseed. Who's being added? Who do you guys have? Damon, damon, gotta have it. I love that. Gotta have it.

Chad Gordon 47:06

I love that.

If we could expand to 12 teams, who would you add?

Matt Houlihan 47:06

I feel like they could actually pull an upset too.

Chad Gordon 47:08

No, this is. I mean, this is dumb, this is a dumb ad, but like I know we can, we add Masters.

Matt Houlihan 47:17

Are they Division I? No, it's not relevant though the number one team in NAIA. Can we add them in?

Arielle Houlihan 47:21

You can't the reason why the rules for NAIA make this completely unfair.

Chad Gordon 47:25

You can play there for 27 years, pretty much. Yeah, but if you're just taking the team of like, hey, the quality, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's keep NAIA quality. Yeah, yeah, yeah let's keep.

Matt Houlihan 47:39

Let's keep an ad. All right, all right. Okay, fine, we'll play this one straight up.

Kevin Tamura 47:42

Uh, I'm going to take hawaii.

Matt Houlihan 47:43

Hawaii is one I like damon, I think that's a great pick right they won the a1 their their conference.

Matt Houlihan 47:50

Let's get them in there absolutely for the fun, for the funsies. Biased, yes, but also reasonable in range. Stanford I know byu was ranked ahead of us. We beat byu. We're one on one with them. We finished higher in the tournament than they did. I think we're trending the right direction. I'm going stanford as the third team in and for my fourth team in, I am going ball Ball State, ball State out of the MIVA Regular season. Champs Got to the semis. Lost that one match I think they're deserving.

Chad Gordon 48:25

I'm going Ball State, I think at full strength. I'd buy that.

Matt Houlihan 48:29

Yes.

Arielle Houlihan 48:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah, where they are today, then you think Hawaii should be in.

Chad Gordon 48:34

I think even without Spiros, Hawaii is the top 12 team. Probably I'd take Hawaii, BYU, Stanford, Damon I don't think that Damon is necessarily the 12th best team in the country, but you can look at the bracket and you can tell that we don't have the top eight teams already Correct. But I think you know Damon won that conference.

Matt Houlihan 48:57

I like that. So BYU over Ball State for you on that one. Won that conference. I like that. So BYU over Ball State for you on that one.

Arielle Houlihan 49:01

In that case yeah.

Matt Houlihan 49:02

Nice.

Arielle Houlihan 49:03

Can I call with one story about my life? Yeah, I talked to Gary Vee last week. Yeah, that's it, gary.

Chad Gordon 49:13

Vee. Friend of the pod, Friend of the pod.

Arielle Houlihan 49:16

Talked to Gary Vee last week.

Matt Houlihan 49:17

He knows who I am fun fact Gary Vee is like my favorite social media follow and when she sent me a screenshot of Gary Vee sending her a direct message, I was like let's fucking go yeah, we've made it, gary writing a children's book, sending a children's book to my children. Gary, I will read that book to my children at bed.

Arielle Houlihan 49:43

And.

Matt Houlihan 49:43

I will be very, very happy.

Arielle Houlihan 49:46

That's one of the more exciting things that has happened to me. That's all.

Matt Houlihan 49:49

Her car is just a million empty Aulani energy drink bottles.

Arielle Houlihan 49:53

That's not true, it used to be when I had the other car. Now I have a nice car and I try and get rid of my trash, yeah.

Chad Gordon 50:02

I guarantee you go look in it right now there's probably three of them, at least no Two.

Arielle Houlihan 50:07

I don't think so. Two and a half is the line.

Matt Houlihan 50:09

It's true. With the new car you've been trying to keep it clean.

Arielle Houlihan 50:11

Just to let everybody know there's a new Alani drink out that they have little baby cans now that are 100 milligrams of caffeine and they taste like cherry slushies. You tried it today.

Matt Houlihan 50:23

Yeah, it tastes like you're at the movie theater.

Arielle Houlihan 50:26

They are so good. Zero calories, 15 calories, 15 calories. Have you been in your Insta DMs yet? Yeah, they sent me all those for free. Oh, they did. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Chad Gordon 50:38

Sponsored by. No, those are all free.

Arielle Houlihan 50:39

I didn't know that they're like. We came out with our new cherry slushes here and they gave me two cases. I didn't even know they did that and then got home and there was two in the fridge. Yeah, they're really good, though it's like every two weeks. Alani package, just I would not like if I didn't like it. I would just be like this is stop sending me this, but I actually like it and Celsius. So yeah, we are, we are at war. I had multiple people come up to me this past week and be like so what's up with?

Arielle Houlihan 51:12

you and Celsius, I'm like I don't know man, bad company, I know Bad vibes. The amount of Celsius in smelling salts that has gone through the staff over the year.

Matt Houlihan 51:23

Oh man, I never knew how much of a hit smelling salts are.

Chad Gordon 51:29

Smelling salts are. I was like punch me in the nose, literally, and they would do it in front of people.

Arielle Houlihan 51:34

It was like a thing. It's not drugs, it's a smelling salt. Well, you just said I never knew how much of a hit smelling salts they would do it in front of people.

Matt Houlihan 51:41

It was like a thing. It's not drugs, it's a smelling salt. Well, you just said I never knew how much of a hit. Smelling salt. Yeah, like a literal hit in the face. It's like a punch in the face. You're like I'm awake, I'm ready, okay.

Arielle Houlihan 51:47

All of them stand in a circle and they're like for every game.

Matt Houlihan 51:54

We got John to do it once Got.

Audio Message from a friends Soccer Dad

Arielle Houlihan 51:55

John to do it once. Matt went up into the stands and made all the Stanford parents do it one time. And all the moms were like what is that? Yeah, it was disgusting.

Matt Houlihan 52:08

When a guy in a polo shirt walks up to you and goes smell this Not sketchy at all.

Kevin Tamura 52:26

It's like you know, I think it's great that our club has so many like female coaches. Like in the club, it's like yeah, yeah, you know it's good, like it's cool, and he's like. You know. One thing I wish, though. I wish we had more female coaches like on the boys' side, for, like our boys, he's like I'd love to have you know one thing I wish, though I wish we had more female coaches like on the boy's side, for, like our boys, he's like I'd love to have, you know Jack, have a female coach. He's like.

Kevin Tamura 52:46

I've been watching on Instagram or something like on social media. I've been following this. Uh, you know this, this woman coach. She coaches like this boys club and they're really successful, they're killing it. She did like a post about, a post about, you know, like coaching the boys.

Kevin Tamura 52:59

I was like, oh, this sounds like really familiar. I was like I know someone like that, and you know he's talking more and more and gassing it up, and I'm like are you talking about Ariel? And you know he was like I don't know. So I pulled it up and he was like I, he's like I don't know. So I pulled it up and he was like oh yeah, like that's like I was like oh, like, yeah, like they do great, like beta base, beta base, a jam, and like she crushes it. Um, uh, and he was just like he was super hyped and I was like I'm hyped up and uh, yeah, anyway. So he says um, he's a a huge fan, keep doing what you're doing so great. You know, next time you have, uh, if you have any influencer meetings, you can let them know that you're apparently doing really well with the uh middle-aged soccer dad demographic kevin tamura the mvp.