The Coaches Group Chat
Grab a drink and a seat at the table with hosts Matt Houlihan, Arielle Houlihan and Chad Gordon as we chat about the world of volleyball, coaching, business, and whatever else Arielle feels like!
The Coaches Group Chat
S2E6: Rankings Debate, UCLA vs. Long Beach Recap, and College Volleyball's "Wild West" Era
Our latest episode dives into the fluctuating AVCA rankings, addressing issues surrounding team standings and the perceived favoritism affecting teams like Hawaii and UCLA. The discussion includes insights on weekend matches, reflections on coaching changes, and the evolving dynamics of college volleyball.
• Critique of current AVCA rankings and their formulation
• Arguments on Hawaii's ranking despite a recent loss
• Recap of Long Beach vs. UCLA: a disappointing outcome
• Stanford's bounce-back performance against Hawaii
• Examination of Mary Wise's retirement and potential candidates for her position
• Reflection on how players influence coaching hires and college athletics
We've voiced our beef. Do you guys want to hear the 11 through 20?
Speaker 2:No, no, okay, great, yeah, fuck them.
Speaker 1:They're dead to us. Speaking of dead to us, just kidding. Not dead to us, but there was a retirement.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God.
Speaker 3:Welcome to the Coach's Group Chat. We're here live 24 hours later after editing this. And we're going to talk to you all about things Ready Go.
Speaker 1:Ready set go. All right, we got a fun docket. I like this docket that we've prepared six minutes before this started. It's looking good First up.
Speaker 3:ABCA rankings. We have our.
Speaker 1:ABCA rankings and we've got beef Absolute beef right now.
Speaker 3:You were supposed to say beef when we said beef, beef. God damn it, cooper, it's what's for dinner.
Speaker 1:Come on, cooper. Oh man, all right, let me lead it off. First. I'm going to give you guys the top 10. Top 10. We'll go from here Number one. Long Beach State stays at the number one.
Speaker 3:Everybody thumbs up and thumbs down. When you hear one, Everyone at home.
Speaker 1:Uc Irvine is at number two. They also received one number one vote. Fair From no one knows.
Speaker 3:No, we will know, let's guess.
Speaker 1:Go yeah, we'll get there. Ucla stays at three. Ucla stays at three, it's fine. Hawaii stays at four.
Speaker 2:We don't love that.
Speaker 1:Southern California, usc at five Loyola Chicago Can we say this podcast.
Speaker 2:People are not watching your fucking thumbs, our thumbs went down when Hawaii came up.
Speaker 1:Good point, Not because we don't like them but because we don't like that ranking. Correct, we'll get there. Let's just lay the foundation. Okay, no foundation Number five USA. Fight now. Number six Loyola, chicago. Number seven BYU, the Storm and Mormons. Number eight Stanford, not the Cardinals, not the bird, the color Stanford Cardinal. Number eight Ball State at nine and Grand Canyon at ten. That's our top ten Now give me your grievances.
Speaker 3:I hate, everything.
Speaker 2:Where is CSUN and why are they not in the top ten?
Speaker 1:CSUN is at 13. They are knocking at the door. They're coming for your ass, don't worry.
Speaker 3:Honestly, we love staying an underdog, though we don't want to give them too much because then they have nothing to work for. Slow and steady Completely. I completely agree with that.
Speaker 1:CSUN wants all of the chips on their shoulder. Put all the chips on all the shoulders and let them.
Speaker 3:It's like giving. It's like giving a number five ranking. Yeah, Ball state a number five ranking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ball state was like whoa, you're not number five, like go get us out of here. Yeah, you know, I, my best friend in college, was a swimmer and he always, uh, he had a good reference. It was the, uh, the idea of outside smoke. When you, when you go through the heats, you qualify, you get the middle lanes because that's like the preferred spot for the top races, obviously, but you always got to look out for that outside smoke, the guy in lane number one who's just bringing absolute heat. That's season. They don't want to be in the middle lanes, they want the outside smoke.
Speaker 2:No one sees them coming no, they're just grinding nothing to win in february, sorry I'm I'm excited for season.
Speaker 1:You guys, you guys should know not to talk about season like this so early in the podcast come on.
Speaker 3:Okay, can we talk about hawaii?
Speaker 1:really quick. I think that's the number one gripe for me and everyone yes, I, but also you.
Speaker 3:Sorry, this is not just a homer podcast, or we just like we love stanford, blah, blah blah. Okay, that's not deserved. You can't have two undefeated teams right below them. They drop one at home and you don't move them.
Speaker 1:It's a popularity contest honestly, that's the same thing for me with ucla. I want ucla drop back further than three I don't, because I think ucla is good I think hawaii is good, but when you have usc and loyola at undefeated like this is a ranking drop them back, they're gonna. It doesn't matter, just drop them back.
Speaker 2:They, they, they lost the other teams theory well, it's a made-up ranking, so yeah, it should be conspiracy conspiracized conspiracy based hit me I think that.
Speaker 3:I think that, uh, coaches are in their conferences, are voting up, voting their own conference that would make a lot of logical sense.
Speaker 2:Yes, based on how tight the margins are to make the tournament at the end of the year.
Speaker 3:Is this poll used for at-larges?
Speaker 1:RPI right. Rpi RPI takes rank into consideration.
Speaker 3:Where's RPI? I don't know. All we care about is RPI. We don't care about the popular.
Speaker 1:I'm just a boy. Your Honor, Leave me alone.
Speaker 3:If they're taking into consideration only rpi and not this. What's this? This is nothing.
Speaker 1:It's just like a popularity contest. Yeah, okay, that's exactly why. That's exactly why it's like all right if you yeah, you could think all right, ucla, they lost to long beach state, but they also lost to ohio state in a pretty ugly match, yeah, so if usc has beaten csun, that's their only true test. Loyal chicago beat uh pepperdine yeah, they'd be pepperdine. Uc, san diego and two close west coast matches sure not the they're not top five.
Speaker 1:Those are like top, that's like enough but this early in the season, if you're undefeated and you travel and you pass a test, reward them I just don't understand.
Speaker 3:You drop one at home to a top 10 team.
Speaker 1:I don't get how you stay up that high yes stanford moved up one right I'm I'm fine with where stanford's at, but I think, yes, hawaii probably should have dropped back to most likely six behind loyola and usc. Yeah, they're a friend of byu.
Speaker 3:Great, because they beat byu twice, honestly I'm also not saying that hawaii can't beat people. I think they can beat people. I'm just saying like oh of that's a joke of a ranking with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm no movement. Here's what I'd say If we, if you, want to create the drama, if we want this to be like an entertaining product, you got to move. You got to move those teams that are undefeated up. Let's up the ante here.
Speaker 2:Put the pressure on them. I want bigger swings in the rankings. That's all we really want. Right, like just hey lost one boom down four.
Speaker 3:Sorry, be better, play better next week. Sucks to suck, I agree, yeah.
Speaker 2:Again, if this rank or conspiracy doesn't really hold up, because if no one cares about this, for the tournament, alright.
Speaker 3:I care. Not the best conspiracy we've had, but let's just pretend like it does matter, and that's why they're doing it. We've got better conspiracies than this.
Speaker 2:This is the RPI yes, but yeah, I mean, why not? Especially, you have two pretty good undefeated teams right there. Give the people what they want. It doesn't seem that hard.
Speaker 1:We're fighting for you, jeff Nygaard, and.
Speaker 2:Shane Davis, who were you going to say? I didn't reference CSUN.
Speaker 3:And CSUN. We are fighting for them to stay out of the top 10. I'm fighting to hold you back so that you can overperform.
Speaker 1:I don't want middle lane for you. We're outside smoke.
Speaker 3:We've established this we yes.
Speaker 1:Send me a CSUN hat and a shirt.
Speaker 3:They don't, can't afford that. What are you talking about?
Speaker 1:All right, fine, I'll come down there and take it you don't even need to ship it to me, just invite me to something. Damn it All right. Well, that's ABCA rankings. I think we've, we've, we've voiced our beef. Do you guys want to hear the 11 through 20?
Speaker 2:No, no, okay, great yeah.
Speaker 1:Fuck them. They're dead to us. Speaking of dead to us, just kidding, not dead to us, but there was a retirement. Oh my god, just kidding, definitely not dead.
Speaker 3:Okay, let's pivot to a different, let's do a different thing before we get into that pivot to another pivot to another pivot step, pivot step. Let's talk about the games this weekend yes, we watched games we did.
Speaker 1:We let's watch, let's watch.
Speaker 3:Stayed up for a while, okay, so we we, uh, did exactly what we're doing right now we sat our asses on this couch and we watched two games back to back.
Speaker 1:We looked that way at the TV and we watched Long Beach versus.
Speaker 3:UCLA at Long Beach, and then we watched Stanford versus Hawaii At Hawaii.
Speaker 1:Let's start with this Long Beach UCLA game, because we got the rematch coming up Sold out crowd.
Speaker 3:Girls volleyball was in some wigs Screaming at them. I was like bring back fun volleyball. This is a good show right here we felt like ever. That was like the place to be yeah, there was the, uh, the.
Speaker 1:The get in price was like 20, 30 bucks but the resale market for the game at one point had tickets listed at a thousand dollars. It plummeted down to 250. So like the actual like resale get in the day of was like 250 for a seat, but still that was like super impressive. At one point there was maybe 15 tickets available and they were a grand, which was wild. So, yeah, sold out crowd, really good environment. But the game was like, like to chad's credit, he called it, he absolutely called it last week Just aggressive, serving a bunch of misses but a bunch of out-of-system play. And you know it was good, but it was.
Speaker 3:It was kind of a smackdown.
Speaker 1:I called it a snooze fest. It wasn't as exciting as it could have been. Ucla was pretty flat, minus that second set.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Let's go to Nostradamus over here on his prediction.
Speaker 2:How did you pretty flat minus that second set? Yeah, let's go to nostradamus over here on his prediction.
Speaker 3:How'd you feel? How'd you feel this game went?
Speaker 2:my nostrils were not tingling at all for this thing. It was I. It's not a good joke, I'm so sorry. No, I mean, uh, I think long beach played probably like a b jackson's like chad shut up up. Hey, you watch it, dog. I'll share this couch with you, does he?
Speaker 3:come up here at the same time, every single podcast.
Speaker 2:We should probably track this. Yeah, he's like hey, who's this guy talking? I'm going to get some pets, you won't. But yeah, I thought UCLA was probably like C.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Didn't pass the ball, great. Everybody kind of a little bit flat. I don't know if that's a you know hey kind of their first crack in the pyramid this year or whatever. And it's again to Long Beach's credit, like you know, selling that thing out. That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I guess minus the 15 seats, but yeah, just it lacked the kind of heavyweight bout that I thought it was going to bring. But we get another.
Speaker 1:Another crack out of this week right, yeah, we'll see how how comfortable they get in between. But yeah, it was the fourth set. That's what really left us with that taste in our mouth, though long beach kind of took control the second, we were.
Speaker 3:We were in good spot oh yeah the third went down a little bit more, and then the fourth was not it, and so it just was like yeah, long beaches got him and they were like just clip, farming them and you know I mean there was one, it was one clip really, but how many clips have you seen of that game? That was just normal the only like yeah, that's normal. Was cooper sending a free ball right to?
Speaker 1:nicole up in the front row. That was the only like all right, that was a. That was a bad play like you gotta be aware of. Uh, we're gonna be aware of the big guy right there. But I mean beyond that, just look to ucla. Was was flat offensively. They the serve just couldn't get going. I thought rowan didn't play his best game. Yeah, either, like he looked. He looked a little bit out of sorts. They definitely he was uncomfortable. Setting the ball out to the left side is what it looked like. He was pretty comfortable with bringing it back. Yeah, I think I think them coming in on wednesday will be a little bit more. You got your footing, you're at home. Hopefully they have a good crowd. Paul is tough, though, because it's not the pyramid in the sense where, right, you feel it, and that thing's loud and packed, you feel like yeah you feel is like you could fill it and that thing's loud and packed.
Speaker 1:You feel it. Yeah, you feel it. Paul is like you could fill it. You could have the same amount of people in there and it's going to feel empty, that thing is palatial so we'll see Great word.
Speaker 2:We'll see what they bring on a.
Speaker 1:Producer, really like that word Palatial. You like that? From the pyramid to the palatial.
Speaker 3:It's big, big right, but what's your thoughts? What's your thoughts?
Speaker 1:on this game. No, I have no more thoughts. I want to go to stanford, hawaii.
Speaker 3:All right, okay, now for the game of the night uh stanford, hawaii, hawaii beat stanford the night before night one cinco sets five, two nights, and then, uh, and then Stanford, one and four. We were pumped. Bobby was asleep on the couch. It was like 1 am Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially Hawaiian time, it's like three. Yeah, it's the other way, but yeah, it was a long night.
Speaker 3:Somebody, I'll get that bit of shit out of here and set one, and then it was over. Right, yeah, to provide some.
Speaker 1:and then it was over Right. Yeah, to provide some context, it was Stanford night. One put like back and forth kind of it was more of the bout that we were expecting from UCLA Long Beach, where it was like set per set, like very close, and one push like it got the team through and Stanford was playing very fast. T was Stanford Center was throwing the ball very fast, the pins, and so there was a lot of space to deal with nate clinton, who's, you know, an undersized outside hitter, six, three, six, four, but just could do nothing wrong yeah, I mean he on night one yeah beginning.
Speaker 1:I mean nate had 11 kills on night one. Six of them were in the first set, so he ended up hitting below 200.
Speaker 3:No, I meant in the first set. Yeah, yeah, In the first set it was like he was digging everything. Yeah, like Nate could do that wrong. I was literally laughing.
Speaker 1:Being like Nate can literally do nothing wrong right now. It was amazing.
Speaker 3:The Moses five transition row was pretty sick yeah, but yeah, you could just see this.
Speaker 1:The stanford style of play was very uncomfortable for hawaii. It was fast, it was a lot of off speed, there was a lot of recycling and there was a lot of just reversing flow once they got that ball. So it was fun to watch the architect chad's offense in effect over there. Um, but no, it was just. You could see, hawaii got very fresh. I did a video about it and they were struggling with the off-speed ball so much. And then teo, teo was had a breakout week on night.
Speaker 1:Two, and the thing that I thought stanford did a really good job of is it was just such a good balance of power and taking taking advantage of the space so when the space was there.
Speaker 1:That wasn't a necessary like hey, I need to rip this ball. It was. I'm gonna, you know, hit this ball sharp, get the kill. Or throw it in the middle of court, get the kill. When we got out of system, they were patient, they were putting balls tight. That's where nate kind of thrived. He got a lot of resets that they would then dig and throw it back to moses on the other side. And, yeah, the night night two, it was stanford in control for most of the sets minus the first, and then they would let hawaii in at the end and you could feel like the crowd, um, and why they had, like some spreads that were like 18, 12 and then it was like you know it's gonna be 22 all yeah, hawaii scrapped their way back and, you know, to stanford's credit, they stayed in it and hawaii kind of gifted it to them at the end of two of two of those sets.
Speaker 1:They made errors at the end to close it out for stanford and then stanford earned it in the last set. Yeah, um. So yeah, it was a really impressive game just to see, and that was more of the style of volleyball that we were hoping for and the big matchups of like, oh, these are two teams that are they're getting after it, and hawaii was chirping and and stanford was chirping back. And yeah, I was texting with moses about the game because at the end of the win you could see like some of the players like yelling through the net at hawaii and he was like, yeah, they were just talking smack the whole way through and he referenced it of some fan yelling get that beta base shit out of here.
Speaker 1:Nate clinton took that personal and he, uh, he kept throwing double down. He said I'll take, I'll take me some more jam and some more wipe, which was just hysterical to to watch and see. But yeah, some high level volleyball across the board for uh, for that week. And you can just see the parody amongst the teams, and long beach has certainly established itself as like the juggernaut. But just from one through ten there's a lot of teams that can beat up on each other, so we'll see if there's anyone that can crack that number one code. All right, in this week's coaching update news we had another big name retirement one. Mary wise from the university of florida announced her retirement. Do we have any thoughts from the panel over here?
Speaker 3:uh, I'm excited to see who they hire. Okay, so I have no thoughts about mary leaving. I think that it's. Yes, I don't how long was she there for a long time a long time 30 plus yeah, um, so the girls on the team got on t and I've been posting like hire Dave, he's the first assistant at at uh.
Speaker 2:Dave was being the associate head defense, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3:Uh. So, like all a bunch of the girls I've been on like hire Dave TikTok, that's been my alligator, tiktok. I'm always, I'm on, I'm on, hire Dave TikTok, and all the girls are posting a bunch of stuff, being like hire him, hire him. What are we doing? Are you serious? What are you doing? And now everybody's like what's going to happen if they?
Speaker 2:don't hire him head coach thinks you get 30 days, 45 days when she retires.
Speaker 1:Does that mean they get the 30?
Speaker 3:day activation. Yeah, of course, but there's no movement that can happen right now. They could transfer, but the portal is kind of closed.
Speaker 2:But those kids can go anywhere.
Speaker 3:They can go anywhere, but you've got to.
Speaker 1:You've got to get cap space for other schools.
Speaker 3:You've got to have cap space to be able to do it.
Speaker 2:I thought money was made up this year.
Speaker 3:Money is also made up.
Speaker 2:I feel like it's almost more interesting because you're entering a market where You're in a better spot. Well, everything's kind of Up for grabs. Everything has kind of settled from the first wave, sure, and now you have flooded the market with potential supply when no one else is able to be in that market. You know, I wonder if somebody comes after Kennedy, martin martin, and she's like, I have 500 grand for you yeah come to yeah, it could be one of those weird wisconsin.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, all of a sudden they're doesn't need her right now, but but other schools yes, right, wisconsin doesn't I mean wisconsin would probably take, I'm sure I'm sure any school in the country would take her, put her anywhere. I've never seen her play. Yeah, I have.
Speaker 1:When I got the clips. What clips? Tiktok clips.
Speaker 3:Of gators.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you told me I definitely have gator clips, but a different kind of gator. You told me about her name and so I looked it up. So I saw her play Sure.
Speaker 3:Sure, she's pretty good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's pretty darn good.
Speaker 3:But if she says hire Dave, I think they got to hire.
Speaker 1:Dave, that is an interesting one too. I love it. Can you imagine how much power these kids now have in the sense of dictating the hiring process? Players have always been involved. They're hiring assistants, you have the player, interviews, you do all this and that. But now it's like literally hey, hire this person or we're leaving, I'm gone yeah, like that is goodness that is.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna say it's the wild wild west, but it's, it's west, it's, it's wild. Oh, and it could be northwest, who knows, but it's, it's above board. It's just crazy. I love it. What's interesting is like all right, you think when I, when I think about nil, you always have to compare it to okay, this is professional sports. Right, it's more professional sports. Now, when this happens, when a coach leaves, and professional sports you have contracts still that it doesn't matter who the coach is. Yeah, I'm sure, like, maybe, hey, maybe bob knows, like, if you have it in your contract that if the coach leaves, maybe that's something that's written in your contract that you get out, no, no, that's not a thing. So at what point does this start to go even more to the professional level where, hey, we're signing multi-year deals? We are, we are truly professionalizing this rather than pretending this is just, oh, your name, image and likeness, rather than your performance on the field.
Speaker 3:Well, they're going to have to because there's going to have to be rules around all of this and there is no rules right now.
Speaker 1:And that's not just like professionalizing it, it's really just like creating security for people, yeah Well, I mean, yeah, the coaches need rules as well, but just so they can operate and live there. Like so many of the NCAA, rules for coaches were put in place to make their lives less chaotic, right, here's the recruiting timelines, here's the dead period, so that they can actually go and have vacation and not worry about hey, I have to be on this wheel of a rat race, yes, but also like it was to protect the kids before and the kids were not protected.
Speaker 3:So yeah, the kids flip the script for sure, so it's a it is interesting to see.
Speaker 1:But in this battle, you look at coaches still like, take, take the news in the men's world of Matt Worley leaving midseason in the men's season to go join Kansas. Right of that same idea, that same concept of of men's coaches or top talent seeking the higher support levels of what women's volleyball is going to bring. Still, with all of the unknowns that are out there, people are just are you're placing a bet, basically right, you're underwriting the risk of what's about to happen and thinking, okay, women's volleyball is going to have the resources to be able to deal with this, whatever we're going to have to deal with, whereas men's volleyball what the hell?
Speaker 2:are we going to do right? Thinking about that with whirly, my first thought was like really leaves mid-season portal, opens for 30 days for all their current players. So just like, yeah, well, I want to go to ucla later.
Speaker 3:Ucla doesn't want them to come to them, that's fine, but like someone right, um.
Speaker 2:And then my head went to like women's volleyball, because you have the preseason right and the same way the nfl. Hey look, you have training camp, you have some preseason games and but like you could be shot. You know you watch hard knocks.
Speaker 1:You'd be shuffling these players during that time like luca sure, not exactly, but I think I think I'd say saquon barkley would be the more pertinent example of that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably makes more sense right now. Uh, but my point is like what if you got through like double days with your team and was like yeah, oh, I'm clearly the fourth yeah, look, we don't play our first match until August 28th, 29th, whatever. Hey, the month of August you're allowed to do whatever you want.
Speaker 3:And there's a third portal.
Speaker 2:Is it? Would you miss syllabus week? No, not at.
Speaker 3:Stanford, because Stanford doesn't start school till september great, then you haven't missed anything.
Speaker 2:Stanford's obviously the outlier stanford's not taking anybody also in the fall like I mean, you guys know, like these course loads that the girls are taking, like it's not, it's not heavy, right? You know, or you know for the most part most schools are are trying to help their athletes you go lighter.
Speaker 3:Mid-season, you go lighter of course I don't know august transfer portal.
Speaker 2:You heard it here first and for the last time probably.
Speaker 1:Hey, I mean, when it comes down to it, I think everything's on the table. There's still so much stuff that's just up in the air with the legalities of it, but when you're a coach and you're trying to think about the future of where things are going, you're trying to be aware, you're trying to be on top of it all, but it's still an arms race when it comes down to it yeah, I say, I say free market, professionalize everything contracts signing bonuses correct.
Speaker 2:You have to you have to buy out the contract then for college right hey look, if x player's making 100k to play for nebraska, I'm at texas. I want her my oh my, oh, she goes down. I gotta pay nebraska the money that they owed her, plus whatever. I'm gonna pay her. Great, because I mean I'm at, like you know, you're in double days, like that's when the most injuries probably happen, like your workload is the highest in the first 20 and it's the most revealing in terms of roster and what the what the dynamics gonna look like so you know, if you're a top team and, like you know, one of your kids goes down crap like I have to solve that problem immediately.
Speaker 2:And also, yeah, you get clarified on the depth chart real quick. Hey, I was on the practice squad, I'm going, I'm bye, I don't need this like I want to play.
Speaker 1:Well, I have a additional question. It's along the same veins. It's kind of that same concept of of players seeing where they stand and and where they're going to be at on the court, trying to be on the court.
Speaker 1:It's the uh, it's the breakout player of the year thus far for the men's season for men's and I'll go first because I think it kind of bodes and bounces off of what chad was talking about.
Speaker 1:Um, it's a transfer and it's kioni. For me, my breakout guy thus far has been kioni, I think he's been he's been the most steady guy for byu. He's been the heaviest offensive load. He has been a core of that passing rotation, uh, with a roster, been a core of that passing rotation with a roster where a lot of guys have been in and out as they try and figure out their lineup. He has been the one steady workhorse and he's certainly had himself a season of big plays, big moments and I think, even just kind of media impressions-wise, social media. He's been all over it and he's always kind of been all over it on the social media. He's been all over it and he's he's already always kind of been all over it on the social media stuff, um. But it's even bigger when he's playing at byu in front of huge crowds with a media team. That's also like producing for him and getting him content.
Speaker 3:What's the difference between that and in hawaii?
Speaker 1:he's playing. This is the biggest service playing, yeah that's the biggest service. So, right, right. So, like he, he saw the right on the wall. They've got these, these guys that you know. Charlie wants that, wants to be the future. All right, fine, I'm going somewhere else. I'm going to get. My time goes to be you. He's playing at playing at a high level, doing a really good job. So that's my my current breakout player of the year. I think he deserves a lot of praise for, for what he's done this far.
Speaker 3:I'd take teo I'd take teo too, all right you go first just kidding, you can take tail I'm gonna come up with another one while you talk I was.
Speaker 2:I was thinking of other people too. Yeah, no, I think I think tail's been playing great. Um, you know, obviously he's played a little bit on the right and in previous years a little bit on the left, and I think it's kind of settled into his role with this team. Um, yeah, obviously we're homers right of coach that guy for a long time back when he started in the middle he slowly made his way middle, right, right to left, um, but yeah, now now he's hitting just consistently good numbers.
Speaker 2:You know he's always kind of been really interested in that variety in the toolbox and, and you know he's always kind of been really interested in that variety in the toolbox and and you know he's always been a guy who's been physical. But yeah, to watch him like be able to score off speed, do some really nice things as a blocker, uh, and then go back to the service line and score some points, that's awesome. But I think what stood out for me against hawaii because hawaii historically is a strong serving team he's been passing the ball a lot better super steady and I think he does not get aced much, no, I mean, and that's that's massive right, and I think I don't know if that's just you know.
Speaker 2:Hey, he's kind of had more time to play on the outside at this level or whatever this is, but he's kind of found himself and he's he's looking confident in his abilities. So obviously, you know, as people who were involved, you know, with the young version of that, like it's just super cool to see. I'm like steadying to himself, that's awesome. Micah Goss oh, that was my other one too.
Speaker 1:Dig it. That's a great pick, well played, 100%, you're right.
Speaker 3:Micah Goss is the breakout player there so true where did he come from?
Speaker 1:Santa Barbara who shows. Yeah, santa Barbara, who chose. Yeah, santa Barbara, boy, his dad we're. We're watching. We're watching UC Irvine versus Stanford, and Dana are size up in the stands with me. He goes, yeah, his dad went to Stanford. I was like, well, what, oops, oops, I want that guy. That guy is, he is 100 where in the?
Speaker 3:I never saw that kid in the gym no, never saw him in club once.
Speaker 1:I don't know where he played. He must have been like santa barbara coast or something like that. But goodness gracious, he is effective and the big, the biggest thing that shocks me with him great call by you, by the way yeah, go ahead, take it over, go ahead his blocking. Normally that's the biggest thing from like a freshman middle stepping in the speed of the game. He's all over it.
Speaker 2:I remember that Santa Barbara team. I mean they had a couple good seasons because it was Dylan Bennett coaching that squad for most of the time all their better teams and I mean this must have been one of those guys, but this was a finishing T9 or TLM, whatever. I don't know that they ever won anything, so maybe we didn't see him in later rounds Just because he didn't win anything.
Speaker 3:you think he would have run into some kid on day one that like oh my God, have you seen this Santa Barbara Volleyball Club?
Speaker 2:Maybe, yeah, I don't know. Honestly with the way that they recruit, also at irvine, like I think that he, like niff, might have been the only person that saw it it's certainly 100 yeah like everybody else, missed him too, I think I mean, he could have been, you know, a rock climber, and you know when niff was forging through the forest like stumbled. Honestly, that wouldn't surprise you look, you look like a middle.
Speaker 3:I don't know he was just at the mall one day.
Speaker 2:It's not like max had played middle before he got to irvine.
Speaker 1:I don't know that's true, that's so. Niff niff is like give me a middle that can set and a setter that can play middle niff called me and said do you have any middles that could be setters and I was like no, I don't.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:I would love to tell you, yes, but I do not have one of those you gotta give, you gotta just tip the captain if on his recruitment process is different than anyone else's. We've gone through it with every school and niff takes his time. He gets to know every aspect. He spends so much time with these recruits, with these families it's insane and he also consistently finds just diamonds in the rough. Yeah for sure it is an impressive feat from him, because it's. I mean, there are not many players that get by us and we're just in the club world of like, seeing who's around us. There's not a player that gets by us, where we're like we don't know about a top recruit and that kid is a top recruit like he'd be starting on the vast majority of programs right now 100.
Speaker 1:He probably would be on every team he should be.
Speaker 3:Uh, is there a team that he wouldn't?
Speaker 1:I think like maybe, hey, maybe, usc. Usc is the best pair of medals I've seen thus far. Yeah, so maybe.
Speaker 3:Is there a team that he wouldn't? I think maybe USC.
Speaker 1:Usc is the best pair of middles I've seen thus far, so maybe USC.
Speaker 2:He doesn't start Biggest pair of middles.
Speaker 1:But they can move and they can block and they're attacking really well too, but still, even there, he's going to compete in that crowd for sure. Yeah, he's legit. That's a really good call by him.
Speaker 3:How tall is the kid from uh?
Speaker 1:352 who plays for ucla cameron?
Speaker 3:thorn. Yeah, cameron thorn. How tall is he?
Speaker 1:six five yeah, six five maybe not gigantic I mean he flies, yeah, it's just yeah. But yeah, cam thorns, cam thorn.
Speaker 3:One of my favorite usc medals, or would you rather take cameron thorne and Micah Goss together?
Speaker 1:USC's middles.
Speaker 3:Really yes.
Speaker 2:I'd go the other way. I'd go the other way too, I think. I might even keep Max, to be honest, and just keep her if I have to go, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:I'm thinking about it from a sense of building a roster for continued success. They're young. That's why I'm going with them. Just get rid of age. Okay, if I'm getting rid of age, you're winning this year. I'm trying to win this year. Okay, I would probably just stick with.
Speaker 3:USC Middles.
Speaker 1:No, I'd go Cameron Thorne and I'd go Max Over Goss, specifically because I just want all-around volleyball all the time and I think those two are probably the best.
Speaker 3:You think that Max is the best all-around volleyball middle.
Speaker 1:Yes, 100%. I think, honestly, honestly, I could see max starting at center for irvine by the end of this year. Honestly that might be. Yeah, I love joe carlos. I think he's a baller but, like I could, max could absolutely be a starting center as well. He was, he was fantastic in club physical, big, great serve I like thorn a lot in the middle.
Speaker 3:I just think that I like an undersized middle, that that is like he's always been oh yeah, offensively fantastic.
Speaker 1:And the block people. People knock on his block but they don't understand the numbers. Like he's one of the most effective blockers who's the other middle at ucla? Oh, hersh's friend yeah, they have a couple. They've had two that rotate. One of the guy who started for him last year was injured and he hasn't been playing.
Speaker 3:So yeah, interesting.
Speaker 1:You go, max and Goss, I'll probably just keep it yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean just based on who you have right. If you can't pass the ball, then your middles don't matter. But I mean shoot you back up Max at the serve receive. I mean shoot you back up Max at the server. See, if you probably find to. I mean, so those guys pass the ball pretty well. Therefore, yeah, just give me Wes's Give me another guy.
Speaker 1:That's why. That's why I went with them to start, is they're?
Speaker 3:huge.
Speaker 1:They're huge, they're young and they're effective. Yeah, any life update before we sound off here. I'm leaving at 530 tomorrow morning.
Speaker 3:For exactly I'm trying to help you out right now. See why I didn't. Yeah, I'm leaving at 5 30 in the morning for a tournament. Which tournament? Triple crown bomb.
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna like that quote.
Speaker 3:Sorry, mom I'm going to capitol hill the capitol hill classic supposed to snow an hour before I land. We're supposed to get six inches of snow tomorrow, and so that's looking special.
Speaker 1:And yeah, I'm a little concerned on how I'm going to get three checked bags around tomorrow, but hey, I'm going to figure it out, skycap, just drop it off for the second you get out the door of the car, you'll be good to go. I have a great life update for you guys. You ready for this? This weekend we had a special guest Kiwi the class pet for Hallie's pre-kindergarten class, and they send you home with this. It's a it's a chameleon.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, this story is actually really stuffed animal and they have a binder and you have to do a. Not a real animal, it's a class pet. It's a stuffed animal, it's a chameleon. They're not trusting a 20, 25 year old.
Speaker 3:Do you know how many class?
Speaker 1:pets bring home like animals.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then all the animals had lost or died and then they canceled the animals.
Speaker 1:So Kiwi is a stuffed animal, kiwi, comes home and so you get a paper and you're supposed to take pictures and you document your weekend with Kiwi and then you write a story. Of course I took some pictures on day one, we got some pictures of her on Saturday and then we forgot about it on Sunday, completely forgot. And you're supposed to turn it in on.
Speaker 3:Monday Last night we scrambled.
Speaker 1:So we're scrambling this morning we scrambled. I have a total of four photos and I'm looking at all the other classmates. There's 25 photos.
Speaker 3:Yeah, these parents are going bananas with the weekend they had with Kiwi.
Speaker 1:So you, know what I do? I take Kiwi while the girls are sleeping. I did a little photo shoot. We got Jackson in there. We did some photos. Then Hallie wakes up. We get her ready, we take some more photos, throw her in the bed of the truck Photo. Put her on her bike Photo.
Speaker 3:Kiwi had a weekend.
Speaker 2:Kiwi had a ghost ride, the whip, and then.
Speaker 3:ChatGPT came into play.
Speaker 1:You have to write a story of your weekend with kiwi, and so I'm like all right, chat gbt, pull it up, chat gbt, write me a poem about our weekend with kiwi, the class pet for hallie's kindergarten class.
Speaker 3:Here's the things that we did keep it under matt got fucking compliments from the kindergarten teacher and man, oh man chat gbt crushed it. It was a dr seuss poem on kiwi the chameleon seen riley and hallie's faces when they heard matt reading this to them.
Speaker 1:They were like shook they were kidding me, it was magic it was magic and I arrived today like a king. I pick up hallie from school, sign her out and the teachers are fawning. They're like the poem, the poem, the poem was amazing. That was the most artistic thing we've ever seen. I was like you know what.
Speaker 3:Just do it for the kids.
Speaker 1:Just do it for the kids. Yep, yep. I definitely threw in the voice of Dr Seuss and we got a great four lines of rhymes in there. And yeah, hallie, hallie was real pleased. So ariel's mad because I got dad compliments and she got nothing. That's what happens when I get to pick up the girls. It's good stuff. I get to take all the credit for the good things that I legitimately don't care I love that you guys at all.
Speaker 2:I love that you guys pay all this money not for your kids to cheat at school, but for your parents.
Speaker 3:That's why they never compliment me, because I say that. And I'm like we're paying a lot of money for me not to do homework.
Speaker 2:No for your husband to cheat with Chachapiti and write a poem about Kiwi.
Speaker 1:Hey, I'd said I think the direct quote.
Speaker 3:Work smart, not hard.
Speaker 1:Well. You said that like five times at dinner tonight not how I said it, but the sentiment remains, remains the same hey, great episode everyone. Let's uh, let's do it again sometime soon.