The Coaches Group Chat

E10: NCAA Men's Volleyball Final Four Reaction

• Matthew Houlihan, Arielle Houlihan, Chad Gordon

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Get ready to relive the rollercoaster emotions of the men's volleyball semifinals, where UCLA narrowly clinched victory from Irvine and Long Beach State mounted an incredible comeback against Grand Canyon. Feel the electric charge as we dissect Mason Briggs' game-changing performance that turned the tide for Long Beach, and join us in pondering the historic moment men's volleyball made its debut on ESPN's main network. We don't hold back on our critique of the semifinal's camera work, either – because let's face it, we're here for every heart-pounding play, not an endless sea of fan faces.

Transitioning to the tactical realm, this episode offers a deep dive into the high-level strategies of club volleyball, just in time for tryouts. We break down the art of out-of-system plays with insights from Long Beach State and Grand Canyon University, and delve into the strategic use of middle hitters. Discover how lineup changes and injuries can shake up team chemistry as we analyze UCLA's noteworthy performance. Plus, don't miss our Summer Pod Fun Intro Time, where we embrace the season's energy and prime you for the episode's journey with a blend of discussion, anticipation, and that indispensable summer vibe.
Arielle Houlihan:

Intro Summer intro For the summer pod.

Chad Gordon:

Well, one door closes, yeah, Another lazy river opens.

Arielle Houlihan:

Ah, cute.

Chad Gordon:

Cold open.

Matt Houlihan:

Cold open's been secured.

Chad Gordon:

Let's get out of here. Let's go Nice job everyone. Okay, reporting live from the coaches group chat.

Arielle Houlihan:

This is the live pod. We just watched this. The let's catch everybody up to speed. We just watched the semi-finals, two five setters, um, and since 3 30 it just ended it's 9 30 now um, and we just watched all of the matches.

Chad Gordon:

I'm very upset.

Arielle Houlihan:

Are you? Because both you wanted it to be the opposite.

Chad Gordon:

We went 0 for 2 on Harker Eagles. Yeah, it's tough, that pains me. I wore my Harker green.

Arielle Houlihan:

Yeah.

Chad Gordon:

For nothing.

Matt Houlihan:

For nothing Damn that's a dark green.

Arielle Houlihan:

You wore your Harker.

Chad Gordon:

I'm more Harker green than you are. No, you didn't go to. Harker green, that's closer. Yeah, it's like a foresty.

Arielle Houlihan:

We all guys were matching. That's cute.

Chad Gordon:

I spent 12 years.

Matt Houlihan:

Give us the rundown, give us our semifinal results here.

Arielle Houlihan:

UCLA beat Irvine in a barn burner. Sad for Irvine, happy for UCLA. Then Long Beach beat Grand Canyon. That was a little bit more.

Matt Houlihan:

That was gut-wrenching.

Arielle Houlihan:

On the gut-wrencher for Grand Canyon because they were up 2-0 and then had something in the third a little kind of they had some momentum in the third. And then Mason Briggs just flipped a switch. He turned the lights on in the third. And then Mason Briggs just flipped a switch.

Chad Gordon:

He turned the lights on in the pyramid. He ignited his own face.

Arielle Houlihan:

He ignited the Luxor.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah, it wasn't like anything specifically with Mason's play. He literally just got the crowd involved.

Arielle Houlihan:

He got the crowd going. The refs went after Mason a little bit. He was like what the hell? And everybody kind of started getting hot Then Then Grand Canyon kind of went back at him a little bit and it was like blah, blah, blah and it was like, oh, this is entertaining stuff. And then it was like, oh, it's on with Long Beach. And then the Harlan kid was going off a little bit and like it will get God.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah, submed out God bold, put in Harlan, yep, harlan.

Arielle Houlihan:

Yeah.

Matt Houlihan:

And Harlan played well.

Arielle Houlihan:

And then they got their hearts just broken at the end.

Matt Houlihan:

So we have a date on Saturday with the 1v2 UCLA.

Arielle Houlihan:

On ESPN.

Matt Houlihan:

The UNO, the UNO, the actual ESPN. That's big have you ever called it that before.

Chad Gordon:

No, that was. I was going to yell the Ocho, but then I was like that was really good. The UNO, espn, have you ever called it that before?

Arielle Houlihan:

No, I was going to yell the Ocho, but then I was like I need one ESPN, the Uno, the big one.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah, this is big. I got to think this is the first time men's volleyball has been on the actual main ESPN network. Someone fact check us on that.

Arielle Houlihan:

What must have happened for that to happen?

Matt Houlihan:

I mean there's got to be an opening in programming.

Arielle Houlihan:

No but what seasons are not like? What's not happening right?

Matt Houlihan:

now you got nhl playoffs. Okay, you got baseballs on, but obviously they so the national championship's being played at 2 10 pm so they they made an adjustment for the time slot for sure. So it's kind of filling in, uh in an opening on the espn schedule. But I mean, yeah, what do you normally have? What Softball, beach volleyball?

Arielle Houlihan:

Beach volleyball. Nba playoffs, I mean is that any of that NHL playoffs? I'm surprised beach is going to be on NBA playoffs. When is beach going to be on? Beach has to be on if men's volleyball is on.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if it's on Sunday.

Chad Gordon:

Maybe they'll be like it's a volleyball Sunday Beach stuff is always like ESPN Plus and like because I mean they try and keep track of like a couple courts, yeah, so they actually they do a nice job for the beach.

Arielle Houlihan:

Okay, I have a bone to pick with the semifinals tonight. Oh God, yes, guess your bone. We all know what the bone is. The camera crew, the camera crew. Yeah, at long beach needs to have a conversation and I honestly would accept a formal apology letter from them stern talking to like what are we doing? Do you agree?

Chad Gordon:

I want them to come here, come to the office. Honestly, I want them on the pod. I want them on the pod.

Arielle Houlihan:

I want them on the pod. I want to hear what the deal was.

Matt Houlihan:

Well, yeah, not even the camera crew, whoever the producer was, you know. Obviously they're telling their guys like we want shots of the crowd here. It's like we don't care about the crowd in this situation. I mean, there were so many things, though.

Arielle Houlihan:

Like every sports videographer and every person that is doing live sports and is working a camera, your job is to tell an appealing story. You're trying to capture the heart and soul of what's going on there. It's not just to capture the shot of the play. Yes, obviously you do not want to miss the play. That is the number one. You do not want to miss the play. That is the number one. Most important thing is you make sure you capture the play, but from the time the play ends to the time the play starts again, which there is a significant amount of time in volleyball, where that is happening Jackson Hickman and Mason Briggs.

Arielle Houlihan:

Those are your number one people that you have to have the camera on the majority amount of time and we didn't see. Like what are we like? Yes, I get it Like camera, like crowd shot every once in a while.

Matt Houlihan:

Set the stage, add a little color.

Arielle Houlihan:

That is what B roll is, but like you don't like, do that the entire time. I want to see teams winning and losing. I want a at the end of a game. I want a split screen of teams winning and teams losing, and I want to see both emotions at the same time, emotions at the same time. I want to see people celebrating like their life depended on it, and I want to see them getting murdered, like I want to. I just want to see. I want to see all of it. And what are we doing?

Chad Gordon:

we got nothing I'm not happy about. We had fans from both sides just cheering and yeah we didn't see the players at all yeah, it was really depressing.

Matt Houlihan:

Can I give a little little credit? Now let's do a little compliment sandwich. Who is the announcer with Rob I?

Chad Gordon:

don't know. I only know Rob, because Rob's the important one.

Matt Houlihan:

I actually didn't think they did a bad job.

Arielle Houlihan:

I didn't think they did a bad job either. I thought they were fine.

Matt Houlihan:

They made me laugh a couple times, but their commentary was solid. It was informed. Was it perfect? No, but there was certainly. For a casual fan and for an advanced fan and someone who gets the game, they did a good job of crafting a pretty good understanding of what was going on. Talking about the good points, they were picking up on the strategy. They were picking up on the sense of the coaches and the players. I thought they were. They were actually a a bright spot on that broadcast in my eyes yeah, I would, I would, I would totally agree.

Chad Gordon:

I mean, rob has done a lot of, a lot of commentating. Um, I'm assuming his partner has as well, right, I mean?

Matt Houlihan:

obviously his time as a beta coach influenced him on that absolutely.

Chad Gordon:

We were dominated against the 17s or whoever we were playing that summer. Yeah, um, but yeah, I mean it, it's. It's tough, right, I mean this is the knock against karch as well. Right, like you know, you come into this kind of thing and you know whoever calls this game on ESPN right, they have to balance not only new fans, but also people like us who are like give us what we want, which is like in-depth stuff, but I don't need to know that the Libero is wearing a different jersey.

Matt Houlihan:

You know, or that we played a different sport. Do you want them to dumb it down for you? I want or do you want them to talk about the strategy and the in-depth? Go dive deeper into it. With a little bit of like, you can pick up on what's going on.

Chad Gordon:

Yeah, I think it's similar to like chess or something where it's like, hey, all of these like openings have crazy names and every all of these moves have like there's all this nuance where I'm like I don't know what that gambit means right, what is the jar? But I understand like oh, you want to, you know, dominate the middle of the board, or? Whatever I'm like okay, I, okay, I get that because it's going to help you.

Matt Houlihan:

Can I control the horizontals rather than?

Chad Gordon:

Sure, but I don't know the names of the things, right? So if they're like, hey, they're playing a lot of like you know, go three, red or whatever to open up something else, okay, like that makes sense, they're trying to move people over here to get a few people over there and maybe play it over there. Okay, I get that Sure, like ISO, I think if you can balance those two, I mean, that's probably where the sweet spot is.

Arielle Houlihan:

Yeah, that's why you get the funniest person in the sport that they're in to.

Matt Houlihan:

Is this your application?

Chad Gordon:

to be the commentator on Saturday. Well, the problem is that Ryan Smith is already committed to the all-star game.

Arielle Houlihan:

That's what I want to see. I want to see. I want to see the funniest person in the sport the pickleball. I'm sure there's somebody in pickleball that is completely educated on everything in pickleball and they are hilarious. That's the person commentating for the sport. That is the best person, who is entertaining, who is funny, who is able to relate to the high-level pickleball and able to relate to the regular person.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah, finding the balance where you can engage the newcomer who has no idea and the person with a breath of knowledge is, for sure, a difficult sweet spot to hit.

Arielle Houlihan:

Or honestly, or people who just literally have zero clue at all that are funny is better than.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah Well, nowhere to go but up. I wonder we'll see how this Saturday broadcast goes. That's not true.

Arielle Houlihan:

We could go lower than this. Fair Definitely could be worse. Definitely could be worse.

Chad Gordon:

Good job Rob. Good job Rob, rob St.

Matt Houlihan:

Clair, nice work. All right, let's give our championship preview.

Arielle Houlihan:

UCLA versus Long.

Matt Houlihan:

Beach. This will be the third time they've met this season. It is a season split. Ucla won at UCLA and Long Beach State won at Long Beach State when the two teams faced off earlier in the year.

Arielle Houlihan:

The national championship is at Long Beach.

Matt Houlihan:

Back in the pyramid.

Arielle Houlihan:

What a smart bid for them.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah, great timing. Great timing to earn that NCAA home bid. And, honestly, timing, great timing to to earn that ncaa home bid and, honestly, it's gonna look nice on tv. They're gonna pack it. They've they've had sold out crowds all year. There's no doubt it'll be sold out again for this one, so that'll be good. What'd you guys think about the ucla game tonight?

Arielle Houlihan:

uh highest level, uh jungle ball game in the united states. I've seen inest level jungle ball game in the United States. I've seen in a minute.

Matt Houlihan:

Jungle ball has an off-speed jams, wipes Off-speed jams, wipes. I mean, that's just Heno.

Arielle Houlihan:

Heno and Champlin.

Matt Houlihan:

Champlin is more than capable.

Arielle Houlihan:

I just thought it was back and forth of like a lot of on the net, a lot of just like pushing to space, and I thought it was pretty cool. Long Beach.

Matt Houlihan:

State does a good job of that Also.

Arielle Houlihan:

I think, like.

Matt Houlihan:

that's the one interesting thing that you can see all of these teams do is when they go out of system. That ball is going there. They are shooting for the tape, Correct? They're trying to put that ball up high inside on the tape and they're going to. They're going to play junk jam wipe.

Chad Gordon:

And if you blow by them on the block, they're going to hammer the ball across court yeah, yeah, I mean gcu really the only team that doesn't play that way yeah right like they're just they hit almost everything yeah right, unless it's unhittable, in which case yeah, but yeah, I honestly like just I don't know if it was because I was already tired coming to the second batch or what, but I mean the first one I thought was just like really high level volleyball, like I mean I was watching it at home with lacey and I was just like this is like I'm into this, yeah, 100.

Arielle Houlihan:

I agree.

Chad Gordon:

And then grand canyon, like it. Just I don't know if, like the rallies were different or like the level. It just seemed like weirder plays were going on didn't seem kind of as is the level didn't seem as high serving wasn't as incredible as the first.

Arielle Houlihan:

The first was like bang bang.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah, long Beach State looked very flat.

Arielle Houlihan:

Yeah.

Matt Houlihan:

They made a lot of errors.

Arielle Houlihan:

We figured it out by the end and that was fine.

Matt Houlihan:

Sure, it could have been jitters, it could have been whatever it was. Long Beach State looked very flat and Grand Canyon was. They've done what they've done all year, which is they do a really good job with block touch and when they're in system they are extremely effective, right Like most teams, but even more so with grand Canyon, their middles are lethal when they're in system and then you get Jared going fast. It's so hard to stop, but long beach state was able to get them off the net.

Arielle Houlihan:

Misconnections happening. Misconnections, yeah More.

Matt Houlihan:

More misconnections. You get more tips coming that are not jamming and wiping, they're just literally tipping.

Arielle Houlihan:

I like the first. The first match was very high level. I thought UCLA was just hats off to you.

Matt Houlihan:

I just want to see Heno. Good thing Heno's a junior, we'll see him. Maybe, if he doesn't go pro, we'll see him play a whole other year. That guy is fun to watch Based on that, I'll take Lopes in three on Saturday. That bet was looking good for a hot minute.

Chad Gordon:

It was good until we got to the end of the fifth and then it was lackluster. Yeah, I don't know. I like UCLA, just based on what I saw tonight Trending up. Yeah, I mean, irvine put them in some weird spots. Uh, yeah, I thought everyone played great and obviously keel. Going down early did not help, um, but you know a great season for niff. But even even with long beach at home, I don't know. I mean like maybe if, if again vibes, if everything kind of hits or something like that.

Chad Gordon:

But yeah, I don't know, I wasn't, I wasn't super impressed with long beach um but maybe they're just easing their way in.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah it could have been jitters. They certainly did not. They did not look great, they did not look like a juggernaut tonight. But they found a way to grid it out. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to root against the home squad.

Chad Gordon:

Yeah.

Matt Houlihan:

Especially when UCLA Long Beach. Already it was a clean sweep for Long Beach against UCLA at the mid.

Arielle Houlihan:

Any switches in the lineup for UCLA for that?

Chad Gordon:

from that game when it was clean sweep.

Matt Houlihan:

Was. Knight playing, more I want to say they had McQuiggan in. I want to say they switched to McQuiggan in the middle, Uh-huh. So they got swept at Long Beach and then the following two nights later they played at UCLA. They put McQuiggan in the middle for Guy. Gennis, and that was the one switch there, but now Guy was back in in the semifinals. So, who knows? You got Rama, who's come in a bunch, but I got to think you're going to see Champlin Robinson.

Arielle Houlihan:

Rama came in and stayed in in the fourth.

Matt Houlihan:

Rama came in and stayed in At the end In the fourth yeah.

Arielle Houlihan:

And he came in and stayed in for a second in the fifth too.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah, they'll sub him out.

Arielle Houlihan:

They went in row one.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah, they'll use him in row one and then leave him in. Sometimes I got to think you're going to see the same UCLA lineup they've been rolling with. Yeah, sloan on the right, maybe ito because they put ito in in the set and in this quarterfinal or semi-final match, yeah I left him in, I think I think I think ito's gonna go.

Chad Gordon:

I don't know why he'd play sloan. Um, I'm gonna get you know. They took him out. I don't know if he's hurting a little bit or what, but I mean he's just been so good for so long for these guys it just doesn't make a lot of sense, and sloan hasn't played in matches like the one that's coming up on Saturday.

Matt Houlihan:

I mean Ito, Ito did Ito served tonight in the fifth. Yeah, it was ridiculous, yeah.

Chad Gordon:

So maybe they were just like look like Fort Valley State or whatever later in the NPSF stuff. Maybe just give them some time off and let Sloan play some big matches. Who?

Arielle Houlihan:

knows.

Matt Houlihan:

I mean Sloan's been great too. So I would not be surprised to see Sloan start. Um yeah, they had night in libero for serve receive and they had um as these make as these and that defense, yeah, um yeah, uh, really quick before we.

Arielle Houlihan:

this is going to be a quick pod today, but uh, this is going to be a quick pod today, but Saturday is the national championship at 2 pm, 2.10. 2.10. Quick preview of where we will be on Saturday.

Matt Houlihan:

Yes, someone set tryouts as this upcoming weekend May 4th, idiot. Hey, that's not my fault, that's just the region. But we'll be at tryouts. It's not the region, club tryouts Well you's not my fault. That's just the region. But we'll be at tryouts. It's not the region Club tryouts. Well, you could technically do it this weekend, or you could do it next weekend, but everyone does it this weekend, so you can't like.

Arielle Houlihan:

Could you just do it on Sunday? What region?

Matt Houlihan:

The region, our area.

Chad Gordon:

Okay, cool, I wanted to say region, our, area.

Arielle Houlihan:

We have tryouts. We have how many teams right now?

Matt Houlihan:

We have 20 teams.

Arielle Houlihan:

We are adding probably three teams. We have how many kids signed up for tryouts right now?

Matt Houlihan:

I checked two days ago. It was 250. Two days ago, so we're going to be 250.

Arielle Houlihan:

A couple days before tryouts means about 300. Three to three 15.

Chad Gordon:

How are we going to have a hundred kids on each team? It doesn't make any sense. That's great Training groups.

Arielle Houlihan:

You never know the things that we can come up with, so we have a large amount of kids trying out, which is great for volleyball.

Matt Houlihan:

Good job Volleyball.

Arielle Houlihan:

Good job Volleyball.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah, we got tryouts. It's called Good job volleyball.

Arielle Houlihan:

Good job volleyball.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah, we got tryouts. Let's call it 300 kids, three new teams, any open roster spots on current teams. So those 20 teams, let's call it another 30 spots that are open. Maybe a little less On teams that were already formed. Yeah, so about 60 to 70 spots on travel teams, and then we'll add another 60 kids into our training groups. It's competitive during the summer. That's the beautiful thing about boys volleyball is that you get a bunch of kids after high school season who just started playing.

Matt Houlihan:

This is fun. Let's keep going. What else do we got they come out for club tryouts. A lot of good things that you pick up during the summer season.

Arielle Houlihan:

Yep, and then we are off to the races.

Matt Houlihan:

And then we're in summer season, baby.

Arielle Houlihan:

And we're going to the Bay FC game on. We're all going to the Bay FC game on women's sports on Sunday.

Chad Gordon:

Everyone watches women's sports.

Matt Houlihan:

So that's it. I think that, guys, let's make this the quickest coaches group chat podcast of all time sorry everybody.

Arielle Houlihan:

I know you want to hear us talk for longer, but chad has a curfew now, so my computer's about to die.

Matt Houlihan:

We have been watching volleyball all day.

Arielle Houlihan:

We've been talking all day long, so we've decided that we're gonna. We're gonna cut it short and give you our preview and hit the hay there you go.

Matt Houlihan:

but hey, no matter what, this Saturday, all of your TVs, all of your computers set it for ESPN and we're going to boost the men's volleyball TV ratings through the roof.

Chad Gordon:

Open it on 12 browsers on your same computer. Literally yes.

Arielle Houlihan:

If I remember, I will go live during it, but I probably won't remember.

Matt Houlihan:

Maybe I will. You're not going to remember. I might Pay a ClickFarm to turn on their live streams, and wherever the ClickFarms are.

Chad Gordon:

Whoever hacked the All-Star Game nominations we need that that was my team.

Matt Houlihan:

That was Jack on Ariel's team. Roll off we need you Men's volleyball to the moon. Saturday National Championship. We'll be back next week, espn, you know, with our National Championship recap championship recap and what else.

Arielle Houlihan:

Fun time is summer intro. Summer intro for the summer pod.

Chad Gordon:

Well, one one door closes, yeah, another lazy river opens.

Arielle Houlihan:

Ah, cute cold open.

Chad Gordon:

cold opens been secured. Let cute Cold open.

Matt Houlihan:

Cold open's been secured. Let's get out of here. Let's go.

Chad Gordon:

Nice job, everyone Send it.