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
S2E13: Grand Canyon Cuts Men's Volleyball, NCAA Bracketology, VNL Roster Predictions
Grand Canyon University has abruptly cut their men's volleyball program, effective immediately, with no advance warning to coaches or players, sending shockwaves through the volleyball community. We explore what this means for the future of men's volleyball and share insights from our personal experiences with program cuts at Stanford and University of Pacific.
• Blueprint for fighting program cuts based on Stanford's successful campaign to save their program
• Importance of building alumni databases and organizing coordinated responses
• Strategies for fundraising through pledges rather than immediate donations
• Critical timing of GCU's announcement during peak men's volleyball season
• Complete NCAA tournament field breakdown and selection committee controversies
• Final Four predictions with analysis of key matchups
• Potential collegiate players likely to join USA Volleyball's training team this summer
If your program doesn't already have a comprehensive alumni database and communication system in place, start building one today. Don't wait for an emergency announcement to begin organizing your support network.
alert emergency pod emergency pod well, it's not an emergency conveniently scheduled.
Speaker 2:At the same time, we always record, but this is an emergency.
Speaker 3:I got the text I was like is it gonna be any different?
Speaker 1:like are we gonna? Have like some sound effects.
Speaker 2:Like Bobby hit the we've got things to discuss. Let me take it away from here, if I may. I've got a post-it note in my hands.
Speaker 1:Should I fight him on live television?
Speaker 2:Bobby, don't forget, you're on camera. I can splice this into the video at any point here.
Speaker 1:She's laughing at my face.
Speaker 2:We have some heartbreaking news that happened today. This is Monday, whatever April 28th. April 28th 2025, grand Canyon University announced the cutting. Or, to quote Grand Canyon's press release the lack of sponsorship, the responsorship the responsoring of the men's volleyball program from.
Speaker 1:Division. I Like they've been donating all of this.
Speaker 3:I'm pretty sure they were already kind of on like a books only kind of deal, so they're not really losing a full sculley here. They revoked not that much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Grand Canyon cutting the men's volleyball program and saying that they are moving them to club, it's not a hey, you got next year's the last year.
Speaker 1:No, it's not a. You get a farewell no no, farewell tour.
Speaker 2:No, we're not giving you time to really fight it. It is a we're done. Yeah, your coach's contracts are up.
Speaker 1:You played your last game. You're not allowed to celebrate anything. You're not allowed to do anything. We are cold and we are.
Speaker 2:Yes, so the? Uh, the first thing, first, first and foremost. Uh, obviously, ariel and I have been through this. Uh, before, uop men's volleyball, I was an alum the year after I graduated. They cut the program. Uh, very similar sentiments. Um, stanford men's volleyball same thing Cut in 2020 to 2021. Both of those programs were given one final year to kind of play things out. This is a different scenario there, but a blind side to the whole staff, to all the players, which sounds like for Grand Canyon, it was the same situation in terms of the announcement.
Speaker 1:I will say that when an announcement like this happens, like I know, I speak, I think, for both of us on like we've been through this twice in a sense of like hearing the Pacific got cut and hearing the Stanford got cut. It is and I read I want to say it was Kathy Litsky's post today of like the people that have gone through this. It is traumatic to to it like brought up some real emotion of like, like it is heartbreaking for people. It is a horrific thing to go through as a program to watch like your whole life, your, your kids. You're supposed you're telling your kids about the program that you played for you want to be able to take your kids to those games. You want to be able to like, have a legacy of like what you did and to have a university try and erase that is a really, really difficult thing for people to go through.
Speaker 1:The people at Pacific that we watched go through it, we went through it. The people at Stanford that went through it for almost a year and didn't know if they were going to have their program like. It's a. It's a really really difficult thing and so we are, uh, we feel very strongly about this.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, I mean, obviously number one hearts are out for the coaches and players that are currently there. But just to to be, just because we know we've gone through it. I think just talking through a little bit of the logistics and the tactics is kind of my thought process here and in goal for our little conversation. But I want to start with timing, because the timing also is very, very interesting. Obviously we just had conference championships, we've got the ncaa tournament. Uh, landscape has been announced. We know the nine teams that are in the tournament and normally this is the time of this is the peak of men's volleyball. The momentum is there, everyone's excited and great he doesn't give a fuck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the air has been removed from that bubble pretty quickly. Chad, let me bring you in what's your thoughts on the timing of this announcement from Grand Canyon. Where do you, where do you think this comes from, and you know what's the thought process that you see from your perspective.
Speaker 3:If I'm the AD I probably had this thought you know for a while that this was going to happen, so that you know it's probably just a Band-Aid rip right. So from that standpoint I understand kind of just the immediacy. But I think it's also interesting like you didn't wait until after the tournament. When people are like you know how much are we talking about men's volleyball collegiately in, you know june? Not really so much, like they could have waited a month waiting for everybody's contract, all this kind of stuff, obviously like with the portal reopening, all that um. But it's almost a little bit of a blessing because now people are really paying attention to this and still actively talking about the game this week, next week. So there's probably going to be more low back or more, yeah, just like just voices talking. Then had you waited two, three, four weeks.
Speaker 2:So, I think a little bit, I don't know a little bit of good timing wise, that may actually shed some light on this You're saying from a standpoint of the amount of eyeballs and coverage that's going to be on men's volleyball, all of these broadcasts are going to be most likely talking about Grand Canyon.
Speaker 3:You could have dumped this into the Father's Day weekend tournament? Oh, by the way, where's Grand Canyon? Oh, they're not here because they just got cut. You'd be talking about it for like a day, but then you're not really thinking.
Speaker 2:Ncaa men's volleyball so okay, I could buy that argument, for sure, I think there's an opportunity.
Speaker 3:I'm not saying it helps.
Speaker 1:Well, I do think that there's an opportunity now. There's an opportunity for broadcasters. There's an opportunity for people that are going to be shedding light on men's volleyball in the next upcoming week here to talk about this and to spread some real awareness, I guess, of what is actually happening here, yeah, and how bad this is for the sport.
Speaker 2:Oh, totally, I mean, it's such a moment. I think the biggest thing, it's a momentum blow across the board. Same thing was felt when Stanford announcement was made. Same thing was felt when Pacific got cut. Same thing with Kyle Baptist. Right, kyle Baptist being, you know, a D two and a smaller.
Speaker 1:Less people cared about that in that eyes, but when you have, a division, but they were number five in the country when they got cut Right.
Speaker 2:Exactly when they got cut, they were one of their top ten program, grand Canyon, same thing. They were a set away from going to the national championship last year. You've got a program that has showcased that they're one of the highest performing teams on campus at Grand Canyon. And it doesn't matter. It's not basketball, it's not football, obviously they don't have football, but for them and their strategy some way shape or form doesn't fit in. So it leads to the next question and, ariel, maybe you have a thought here it's what's the why? And when we sat down, when this first happened at Stanford and we got on this massive Zoom, we had almost 200 alums and Stanford men's volleyball people. The biggest question immediately is okay, let's get to the bottom. Why? So that we can strategize from there. And obviously, like the announcements, announcements are all kind of vague and you don't really know, but you got to get down to the real, real detail of why did they do this? Do you have any thoughts or is this just a money thing?
Speaker 1:I mean, I think I look, I relate this a lot more to the Pacific cutting than I do to the Stanford cutting, just because you, there is a conference realignment going on and when Stanford?
Speaker 2:when they're switching to the Mountain. Grand Canyon is switching to Mountain West.
Speaker 1:And when Pacific cut men's volleyball it was a conference realignment shift from the Big West into the WCC and they were adding men's soccer.
Speaker 2:That was a part of the deal to join WCC. Correct Civic had to add men's soccer and so it was.
Speaker 1:There was a reasoning of we've decided that we're not, we're going to take from this and we're going to go into this and the. I don't know if the savior effort was enough, with that being the push, because there was no, you'd have to add a women's sport as well, and there was, there was a lot more there, yeah, um, so this with the conference realignment, I do think that that is a uphill battle with and I don't know if they're adding a different sport.
Speaker 1:If they are, uh, if they no announcement about it no announcement and really no, no real reasoning has been given yet. Um, obviously, hopefully there's more of an uproar and they're able to sit down and actually get some real, real thought behind it.
Speaker 2:But fun fact, uh, Pacific men's volleyball alumsums. We have a fantasy football league that's called pacific men's soccer as a little bit of a joke uh, just to make a little bit of light in this situation, uh, but thinking about the grand canyon side of things, obviously, I think most of it's going to come down to dollars, right?
Speaker 2:that's the same thing that was in reality, pacific was as well. Right, it was dollars and stanford was for sure dollars. Um, and so figuring out kind of what that path forward looks like, um, and just to give a little bit of a little bit of an overview of kind of the tactics from the stanford perspective of how this was processed and obviously very different cases in every university, yes, but the first and foremost thing was they got together and they were trying to figure out the why. Why did it happen? So that they could actually strategize. The kind of first piece that Stanford did was gather every single alumni that's been through the program.
Speaker 2:So they built up a database and an alumni list and for Grand Canyon I know Worley has some of this already, but working to get that together and for any program out there right now. If you don't have this, do it Like you need to have this on hand and ready to go now. Don't wait for these types of situations. Have that alumni base, have that connection already built in place. So building out that database.
Speaker 1:Also, can I just add a little small tidbit in here. If I hear any matt worley slander through this, I will lose my mind yeah absolutely lose my mind yeah, there was a.
Speaker 2:There was a post that went out and I kind of brought that question of like I wonder if we really knew anything just there's no chance there's no chance. Yeah, yeah, I think we're really. Probably it's a little bit of a vindication for his decision, but that's it's. He made the decision for himself and his family with the writing on the wall that women's volleyball was going to be the right place, and he's getting paid way more to do it.
Speaker 1:Like you can't hold that against them and to think that he knew and like didn't tell Brian or Gerton and for and for somebody who had been dealing with this administration for that long and had had his own with this administration, like you cannot put him and throw him under the bus through this. It's just like nobody wants this to happen for men's volleyball. Like that's not a there's no conspiracy theory there. I'm a big fan of a good conspiracy theory and that is not the conspiracy theory I'm getting behind.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's for sure there's. I've got a little bit of a thought on on that situation as well, but let me just let me get through the, the tactics you just said really his name, so I was like yeah see ya so once you once, like, all of the alumni's have been gathered and you have that database from, you know Grand Canyon's been around for 17 years.
Speaker 2:So getting together that 17 years worth of alums, emails and phone numbers, getting them on a call, everyone that's interested in being a part of it or interested in helping in some way, shape or form, getting them on a call. Stanford organized and established a like leadership hierarchy within a matter of a week from from the jump Right. It was every single, every single contact was already there. They built that out. They got the group of guys that wanted to fully take charge and they put them in charge of basically five committees.
Speaker 1:If you had advice for how to go about deciding on that, what would you say?
Speaker 2:For who?
Speaker 1:mans it.
Speaker 2:It's a lot about who has the band, the bandwidth right, that's that's part of the struggle.
Speaker 2:For grand canyon being around 17 years, most of your alums are going to be like your oldest alum is what? 40 to 45. Right, you're like stanford we had. We've got the full, we had the full gamut of people, of socioeconomic background, with money and also the time they had the time to be able to put into this. So that's part of the challenge, but for those that are a part of it and willing to take on, some of it is establishing who's going to be in charge of fundraising, who's going to be charged with the media push that was one huge thing from the Stanford side not just social media, but pushing local television, local newspapers, writing stories, getting the word out there uh, from the, from the local standpoint, and putting pressure. And these are, these are people who live in those communities and so you need the pressure from within the community to really make, make a big push from there.
Speaker 2:Stanford took it to kind of step three, which was gathering pledges. Right, they, they got, got to the point where they were able to have meetings with the university. Uh, and they said no to them the entire time. Right, everything was no, no chance, not coming back, not coming back, not coming back. But they kept pushing and they got to where it's like okay, like no, it's not coming back, it's because we don't have enough money to support the program. The university is not going to subsidize athletics anymore. That's why, okay, great, all right, now we know like it's. It's truly, it's about the money. Okay, let's get to work. Right, and they gathered pledge after pledge after pledge, and what they did, which was interesting, is they set up, basically, every five years, they found a point person in that group. They were in charge of going through that list of all of the alums in their five-year period. So if it was me at pacific, it'd be, you know me, 2013 to 2009, and I'm I'm dialing to all of my friends and saying hey, listen, here's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 2:We want to make a pledge. It's not a donation, it's not a hey. Here, grand canyon, here's a hundred thousand dollars. Yep, grand Canyon, here's $100,000. Yep, go do with it, it's a hey, I will pledge to you my $100,000. If men's volleyball is reinstated to its full capacity, all the scholarships, full staff, everything comes back. I will make this donation.
Speaker 2:And they got that to the point where they were able to basically endow the program, meaning that Stanford men's volleyball is fully funded by itself. They have an investment account that is fully. I think the total was just under $14 million. What was the number that was needed? Right, breaking down the budget of the program every year, how much do we need in an investment account to be able to take the dividends and the return from that investment to pay for the program in perpetuity? And that's what they got to Pledge by pledge, over and over again.
Speaker 2:And one of the biggest things that they were able to push to and sorry I know I'm going long winded, but it's because I've gotten so many messages today on how they can help and this is the easiest thing I could be able to send them is to put this out there Um, the biggest two, two pushes, besides just the dollar amount, was the percentage total of alums that donated. Stanford got to just under 100% of every alum from the programs that were being cut and, mind you, stanford was cutting 11 sports, not just one. They got every single alum to pledge to donate and that's a huge amount of alumni support and they were able to build a multi-sport push and a. They were able to gather, you know, the support of athletes from other athletes from other sports within the programs, alumni from those other sports. They got all these big names from stanford to be able to come back. Grand canaan's a different boat and that's part of the uh.
Speaker 2:That's part of the interesting challenge. Um, I don't know, chad, if I ever told you the story of the Pacific side of things, but there was a two pronged approach with Pacific. One was trying to go directly through Pacific, but the second prong was also basically reaching out to other universities, and Bobby's Bobby's uh former school, santa Clara university, was one of the routes that we tried to go through was to basically transplant Pacific men's volleyball to Santa Clara.
Speaker 2:Um, what do you guys think about that idea of trying to leverage connection within the greater Phoenix area? Asu, university of Arizona, u of A yeah.
Speaker 1:And I mean I think it's a great idea. U of A is not in the best financial situation.
Speaker 2:U of A's got its own financial woes going on.
Speaker 3:All right, scrap it. University of Phoenix. Uop is back. Yes, classic Phoenix maneuver. The Grand Canyon president was the former president of university of phoenix. So full circle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're full circle here I mean, it's a it's obviously a good way to pit it against each other of like, we're gonna just take it here and I mean I think that you just have to knock down every door, yeah you gotta I think you gotta go through multi, multi-prong for sure, but that's, that's one of the things and it comes back to whirly is the thing that stanford also had going for.
Speaker 2:It was they had and this is a big credit to cassie's. Cassie's been a stanford lifer, pretty much right. It's been there for decades. He wasn't going anywhere without a fight. Yeah, right For Worley, and it's no fault of Worley's right. He made a, he made a switch and moved, uh, moved on to the next position. But to expect Gerton and Brian to take up that fight?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And their contracts are going to be done right. They're one year contracts. Those contracts are up in a in a maybe a month?
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, like they're not going to fight for this without a job. Yeah, they have to they, yeah, and so it's. That's where the real challenge comes in is you've got who's going to head this. Who's going to, who's going to take the charge and push for grand Canyon or or push for another university? And from the Pacific standpoint, it came very much from the parents of current players and parents of recruits. Right, if basically all every single athlete at Pacific would would have stayed and gone to Santa Clara university if we were able to make it happen.
Speaker 2:But the biggest thing that they needed was they needed title nine. They need to add another one of the sport which Pacific actually got close to finding the funding for them to add both, but it, uh, it fell short at the end. So long, long windeded. But those are, those are the routes and the things that we've gone through. Um, between the two programs there's, there is a path, right, it's, it's, it's a hail mary, to directly quote the uh, some of the guys from the safe stanford program it's a hail mary of a, of a pass, but and it it's impossible, it's just a long-term game. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
Speaker 2:And you've got to have people who are boots on the ground knocking.
Speaker 1:People in the community in Phoenix need to be the ones that are trying to lead the charge the club directors and the people that are. Their jobs don't depend on, like getting paid doesn't depend on this program. Uh, I my advice would be for those people to really, really try and get, and they are.
Speaker 2:I I've got a number dms. I know troy from az fears working his ass off on this stuff and like what.
Speaker 1:And you're right when it comes to us when we, when stanford happened, like the, the school right next to you, I knew how many kids that we had that were coming up, that were high academic kids like I was like, oh my goodness, these kids are going to lose the opportunity to potentially be able to go there, and so well, also just something to be able to point to right, like here's the pinnacle of the sport and you take, that's why, like arizona is such a good example.
Speaker 2:It's such a, it's such a microcosm, just like norcal, where you have this up and coming sport. You've got so many explosion of growth, so many athletes right, and when you have something to point to, you see grand canyon, but you also see ucla come to town, you see stanford come to town, you see usc, you see all these big name schools and you're like, oh, this is real, there's something I can see in my backyard that is such a big deal and for us, when stanford's being cut that was the one of the big thing in my mind is holy shit don't have like our, our pipeline doesn't get to see that anymore if this goes away and that is such a horrible thing.
Speaker 2:And norcal's been lucky because now we have menlo, we've got growth. That is happening to a certain degree and you want the same thing for a place like arizona that has produced some fantastic talent in the past number of years yeah so I mean, I know there's there's, there's a lot there, obviously, and a lot to come, most likely. But any uh any closing thoughts on uh this, this topic I think hawaii pays for it, oh great idea finn kearney's been siding out like a champ Right.
Speaker 2:Okay, moving on, enough of that, let's get on to something better Men's National Championship. We are ready. We are ready for the. This is the pinnacle, this is it. This is what we play for. Sure Conference tournaments are complete. How were our?
Speaker 1:predictions Were. Our predictions bad.
Speaker 3:I don't know. Our predictions weren't good. I had money on Irvine.
Speaker 1:I had money on.
Speaker 3:Long.
Speaker 1:Beach. And I also had money on UCLA or USC. I think I said USC actually, I don't know.
Speaker 2:It was a good year to host the conference tournament, except for Princeton.
Speaker 1:Good for Penn. Let's start with the EIVA. For penn, let's start with the eiv. Sure, let's start there.
Speaker 2:We got conference state, penn state just playing chess. Absolute penn state move yeah, just getting their teeth kicked in the right time getting their teeth kicked in all season, just to peek right at the eiva tournament we literally just have this conversation and I just think it's bs, like just get rid of these conference tournaments, yeah, like, yeah, the whole season doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it doesn't.
Speaker 3:Like especially if you're in the EIVA or the MIVA or whatever, like where it's like a little bit lower level within your conference. Or you're letting everybody matter. At the end, sure, I will say, yeah, I, there's a degree like they mattered.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but like they got better so that they could be good at the end.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but like, why couldn't you just like be better during? Because they didn't need time to get better. I don't think that's a real. That's not a real thing.
Speaker 1:It could be real.
Speaker 2:I don't know, but I will say this the MPSF tournament there was definitely a degree where how you play during the regular season your path was progressively easier, Like Stanford.
Speaker 3:if Stanford would have won, they would have needed to win four matches in a row on four nights.
Speaker 2:That's such an impossible task, but Pepperdine had to win three in a row.
Speaker 3:God. Thank God that BYU is still rated higher than them in some poll. That we won't mention.
Speaker 1:It's unbelievable.
Speaker 3:God, they didn't beat anybody Idiots. They beat nobody. How are they to stuff it? I don't beat anybody Idiots. They beat nobody. How are they to stuff it? I don't get it. That's because they weren't at home.
Speaker 2:They weren't at home. That's why I don't understand. So I mean the conference tournament. They're all finished, so we know who's in there. Pep wins, hawaii wins All right, great. Do we think we should remove conference tournaments? Or do you like the cinderella?
Speaker 1:story at the end. I love the cinderella story. I just am so sick of a eight, seven team national championship.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's my problem yeah, I mean all problem with the sport.
Speaker 1:All of this is fixed if there's a 16 yeah, like it's a conference tournament, great, like I don't really, I don't really care, you may princeton doesn't get in yeah, right they need to win that one.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so for the, for the EIVA, ok, that's a different game, but for everyone else right, like the fact that USC deserves to be the Cinderella story of the tournament. The fact that USC and UC Irvine are not in the tournament is a shame yeah that's insane. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:I agree and I was about to break the record for for aces, and he tied it, and now it's over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now he's tied. But yeah, you give you, give me, you get top 16 in there and you get these conferences to get their auto bits Okay, no problem. But then you get in. All right, mckendree loses, but there's still that in a top 16. Boom, you got McKendree in the tournament. Now you got CSUN Obviously.
Speaker 1:You got USC Obviously you got Irvine Does a Stanford just squeak in there, probably Does a BYU, because it's our podcast and we decided that they did. Yeah, we decided that they do.
Speaker 3:You're going to have how many teams outside of the actual top 16, right Four, five, maybe.
Speaker 2:You got Fort Valley State, you got Damon. You got Fort Valley State, you got Damon. You got Penn State and Belmont Abbey. Three, four.
Speaker 1:Fort Valley State makes me think of Blue Mountain State every single time I hear that.
Speaker 3:I don't think it's where they filmed that.
Speaker 1:Maybe Where's Fort Valley State.
Speaker 2:You're right, I don't know. You put some respect on Fort Valley's name. They're going to take Long Beach State classic state school. Out to breakfast the next morning To dinner, classic state school Out to breakfast the next morning To dinner yeah, after getting their teeth kicked in.
Speaker 1:I was going to say something more vulgar, but okay.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, I mean obviously expansion fixes all those problems. But as we just saw with the first segment on the show today, it is hard to think about expansion when so much of men's volleyball is in a threat right now.
Speaker 1:Right yeah.
Speaker 2:This is. We can't think that Grand Canyon is going to be an isolated incident, right and so to think about the expansion of the tournament without thinking about where the state of men's volleyball is currently at is a disservice.
Speaker 1:There are other sports that are struggling like this too, though All Olympic sports are going to depending on how the settlement goes down.
Speaker 2:All Olympic sports have to be on edge.
Speaker 1:It's ridiculous. It's just the system here All right.
Speaker 2:We know the layout of the teams. We saw Hawaii wins the Big West. We saw that Pepperdine wins the MPSF, loyola won the MEVA and Penn State won the EV teams. We saw Hawaii wins the big West. We saw that Pepperdine wins the MPSF, loyola won the Miva and Penn state won the Eva. We got Belmont Abbey. We got Fort Valley state out of the SIAC. We got Damon out of the NEC. First year that they get an auto bid, belmont Abbey coming out of the conference Carolinas. Seeing all that, do you believe that Long Beach state and ucla are the correct at largest? Do you think irvine or usc had a leg to stand on in the at large department?
Speaker 3:I support long beach getting in. Well, yeah, I think we all are gonna do that.
Speaker 2:So let's get it. Yeah, let's get down to to ucla. Is ucla the yeah?
Speaker 3:I mean, for me it's tough, like Irvine. Really no bad losses except for San Diego, but not that bad of a loss. Ucla had a few of them and that's kind of that side of the argument.
Speaker 1:It's all about the head-to-head.
Speaker 3:And then that's the head-to-head right.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 3:Irvine needed to split with UCLA or beat Hawaii in Hawaii one of those three times yeah, um, and I think because of that it's just, it's a hard yeah it's hard to make the case against it, right yeah, especially. I mean if you're, if you're looking at it from the committee side, like I get like Irvine, whoever is on the thing, but like it's also just like I test like wait, this team has lost a couple times to these guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, bye, sorry, alright. Now let me just for one piece I liked Irvine over UCLA. What would have been your rationale?
Speaker 1:Irvine's post campaign.
Speaker 2:Number one strength schedule Yep. I did love Niff's sentiment on his press conference. Yep Scheduling's a choice. You choose to schedule tough or you choose to schedule easy, and you shouldn't. You should be rewarded for scheduling tough, not the other way around.
Speaker 1:But, that being said, they did need to win a game or two. That they. It was very, very close. Yeah, I just I go Irvine.
Speaker 3:I mean, they got screwed like this a couple years ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sick of them getting screwed and.
Speaker 3:I got a conspiracy I'll come back to in a minute, I know.
Speaker 2:I've been holding it. Everyone, get your tinfoil hats ready.
Speaker 3:No, I forgot what I was going to say. What was I going to say?
Speaker 1:You have a conspiracy.
Speaker 3:We'll cut to that. Did Long Beach and hawks? Do they throw it because they don't?
Speaker 2:like niff, I love that they didn't want to remind in there.
Speaker 3:They want to deal with them I love that hey I'm just saying no, okay, so what I was gonna say with them. But like before, right like everyone's like nah probably probably not but like niff is. Niff has been in the situation before and maybe my thought is like okay, he got shafted a couple years ago and they come back to him be like hey, hey, man, you guys had all these wins, but maybe you just didn't schedule tough enough, kind of.
Speaker 2:Thing.
Speaker 3:And he's like all right F that we're going to schedule crazy.
Speaker 2:I think he's scheduled tougher than anyone the past three years.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure he travels anywhere. Yeah, and this is probably a reflection of them not getting in the other time and, like him, responding with what they what he thought they would need to see, and maybe they need one more win.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you know well, I mean here, here's the all right, let's play this game then. Okay, let's say, pepperdine doesn't play spoiler and UCLA wins the MPSF. Is Irvine in, or is it USC? I think it's Irvine.
Speaker 3:I think it's Irvine too. I think it's Irvine. I think it's.
Speaker 2:Irvine too. I think it's Irvine as well. I think that eye test as well is just clear as day. So that's the other part In reality. Yeah, they just got screwed. It's a series of unfortunate events where this is the way it shakes out.
Speaker 3:But, you can't. Other head coaches conspired against them. How?
Speaker 1:about this one, Because they are so much better. They have to play back-to-back-to-back-to-back Delmont, Abbey, Damon and Fort Valley State, and if they beat all of them then they're in.
Speaker 2:Oh, you mean, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, that's mine. Look, they're going to split their team in half and they're going to scrimmage. First, the 10 versus 11.
Speaker 3:And the winning side gets to play Damon. How did the B's end up in the finals? We don't know.
Speaker 2:Cameron Gossie had himself a heck of a match against Fort Ballastate Wasted a red shirt on that.
Speaker 1:That's crazy.
Speaker 2:Oh man.
Speaker 1:Akil. Tangator came back for his sixth year, wild yeah. Pull it from the alumni game yeah, make a mistake, you're out all right, let's get down to our predictions here.
Speaker 2:We uh, who we got? Who we got in the finals? Let's just go, let's make the prediction who we have into the finals. The national championship you got long beach state on the side with loyola and pep. You got hawaii on the side with ucla and most like, honestly, I could see damon beating penn state. You could totally see it, you got. You got ucla, hawaii most likely meeting in the final four, and long beach versus pepper. Loyola in the final four is the most likely. Look so who you got in the finals? Chad where it starts off.
Speaker 3:Long Beach over UCLA.
Speaker 2:Long Beach over UCLA. Okay, you're going UCLA over Hawaii on the neutral site in Columbus.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a couple like I mean getting three owed by Northridge, getting three owed by Santa Barbara on the road. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got to see him win something big on not in the stand?
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it's it's an advantage advantage. Yeah, it's a tangible advantage. I'm a big fan of hawaii, but wait, I've heard a rumor about that.
Speaker 3:What that you love, hawaii? I know that's I don't know where that started buzzing this week that's unbelievable, right I know um? Yeah, I just think that uh your love for hawaii will just power them through. Maybe Okay.
Speaker 1:And if they win, it's just because of me.
Speaker 3:Great.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go UCLA Long Beach.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:What are you?
Speaker 2:I will be the contrarian. Ew, I think Hawaii is going to steal one here.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's nice.
Speaker 2:I think Hawaii is going to beat Long Beach State for the third time at. Ohio State for the national championship. Why?
Speaker 1:Because they're. You're just trying to get the people to like you.
Speaker 2:No, I could care less if Hawaii likes me. Here's the reason why they're the healthiest in my eyes.
Speaker 3:now they're missing to trinsky if I'm saying his name right, they're missing him, but finn kearney has played fantastic yeah, instead, and he's doing it for grand canyon and he's doing it for arizona, he's doing it for every kill he gets I heard he's donating, yeah, yeah, actually you know what I love?
Speaker 1:love that.
Speaker 2:Still picking UCLA, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I got Hawaii peaking at the right time. They look number one, they're healthy. And number two. They look great.
Speaker 3:That win over Long.
Speaker 2:Beach they look great. Ucla against Pepperdine. Should have probably gotten Pepperdine, but they crumbled at a few different at a few different, very important points now. Obviously I think the tournament brings out a whole new level in teams. I think ucla has shown they have a low floor and high ceiling, but they've been trending the right direction so it is hawaii.
Speaker 1:Hawaii has a low floor, high ceiling too who did? I say, that's what I said you see, oh sorry, I meant hawaii hawaii has a low floor and a high ceiling, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think UCLA's floor is lower than Hawaii's, but they still have an up and down season thus far. Yeah when they're bad, they're pretty bad.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'd say Long Beach State has the lowest of the floors and the highest of the ceilings.
Speaker 3:Highest, highest floor.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Highest floor? Yeah, highest, sorry, thank you, god. Words are, words are hard. I was like that's wrong, sorry, laughing at me over there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, wait, thank you for correcting me. Long beach has the highest floor and the highest ceiling check, check. But. But hawaii's highest ceiling is higher than long beach's lowest floor, so, as I've demonstrated, they can beat them no, not at all.
Speaker 3:Long beach's pyramid is way taller than the top of the stand. That's, that's just get out of here with your ceiling jokes there we go.
Speaker 1:That's like wait for you, sorry who do you have in the pepperdine loyoyola game?
Speaker 2:Ooh I like that yeah.
Speaker 1:That's the game of the round.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's definitely the most compelling.
Speaker 1:It's an interesting game.
Speaker 3:It's a lot of big guys in that one man. Yeah, I mean they've already played once this year.
Speaker 2:Loyola beat Pepperdine at Pepperdine.
Speaker 1:Loyola beat Pepperdine at Pepperdine. Yeah, they did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean both teams streaking. They're streaking into the tournament on and up, I think.
Speaker 1:Parker is the most dynamic. I'm going to take Loyola.
Speaker 2:They've played at the Cabela Center, yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm going to take Loyola.
Speaker 2:They're in their time zone for sure. Yeah, I think Pepperdine flying out there. They're going to be out there early. They'll be adjusting.
Speaker 1:I do have to give Pepperdine a shout out a little bit. Pepperdine started their season in a tough way with the fires there, yeah. Pepperdine started their season not in school.
Speaker 2:Yeah, canceling games.
Speaker 1:And canceling games so good for Pepperdine.
Speaker 2:With that whole thing going on, I was down at Pepperdine this past week for the first two rounds of the MPSF playoff, and man, I love it there. It was a ton of fun. I will say this like Firestone, fieldhouse is a tough place to host.
Speaker 1:That is a high school gym.
Speaker 2:The amount of balls that were like clearly going out of bounds, but guys were able to run it down because it hits a light and it did make it very entertaining but I just the I really do enjoy how how the pepperdine staff has gotten their team going like yeah culture. Wise pollock is one of my favorites. He is giving so much credit away that team. I made a post about it earlier in the year.
Speaker 3:But like their floor wipers, just they're just grinders that was one of the first time I I had seen them, like you know, working a non-pepperdine match and I was like, oh they were, they were in the paint always post-season form, dialed, dialed in right, but that it starts from the program and they are so bought in to the program and the alumni are so bought in.
Speaker 2:There's so many alums that were there for it. I was like this is this is a really good literal beacon on the Hill for men's volleyball of what a program could look like, and so that was a very cool factor. The other thing that I really love, too, is winders got his kids there. All the kids in the neighborhood, they live on campus, so all of the like professors. Winder's got his kids there. All the kids in the neighborhood they live on campus, so all the professors' kids and other coaches' kids are all around the same age.
Speaker 1:They've got a cult of kids up there.
Speaker 2:They're in the second deck where it's empty and the kids are just sprinting back and forth. I was like it's daddy daycare up there.
Speaker 1:It's so funny. Yeah, it is pretty funny.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it was a very cool setup and vibe and obviously they just they rode the wave of momentum and they were at home and their, their student section came out to sport. They rode the wave of Pepperdine. So yeah, I'll take Pepperdine, because I have recent.
Speaker 1:I have recency bias and think that they are doing a good job. Chad I've been. I've been more impressed lately with Pepperdine.
Speaker 3:A good job, chad. I've been more impressed lately with Pepperdine. I think they're kind of finding their stride. They're hot right now.
Speaker 1:So is Loyola, though. Let's be real, I don't know about that. I think Ohio State was just bad.
Speaker 2:No dude. Loyola got their teeth kicked in by Lewis twice this year, and then they just mopped the floor with Lewis during the playoffs.
Speaker 1:They were ready to play. I didn't see that game. I saw them beat Ohio State handily.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they mopped the floor with both of them.
Speaker 1:It was like 25-10 in the first.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:I agree that's the most compelling matchup.
Speaker 2:For sure of that quote-unquote second round, I guess all right to close it off the the last thing we have today we have one more docket item today. The u19 team was announced. Ariel has four athletes from her 18 ones team about this cool name to the u19. So shout out to some fantastic coaching. Yeah, that was number one, but it did bring me to the next point as well of we're thinking about horrible day for USA Volleyball to announce the U19 team yeah, is that your?
Speaker 1:thought, because that was mine A little tough.
Speaker 2:a little tough Probably could have waited till tomorrow. But it does bring up a good point. As we look to the summer, usa is already automatically qualified for LA 2028. So how do they approach the VNL?
Speaker 2:So I would love to hear and here's what I'd like to get, because it's easy this is going to be a big roster, it's going to be like 30 guys which current collegiate players do you guys think are going to get named onto this training team to go and compete, assuming that a lot of the old guys are taking this year off?
Speaker 1:I'm going to say that the old guys are taking the year off to go be in caves, blind for a week.
Speaker 2:Pull a Taylor A roll, yeah, just like they need some time to find themselves.
Speaker 1:Find yourself. So the young guns are gonna have to like step on up. Yep, in the vnl um, who are the potentials?
Speaker 2:let's go. Let's go position by position you ready outside hitters.
Speaker 1:I think that's the easiest starting outsides in the country are that are American.
Speaker 2:That's a kicker If Mony wants to transition to a USA origin story, we could probably make that happen.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we got Rama.
Speaker 2:Rama Robinson. Yeah, I think those those two right off the bat for UCLA, dylan Finn, dylan Finn, dylan Klein would make sense if he's healthy. If he's healthy he's got some injury stuff he might want to deal with. Finn's interesting Cole Harkey from Pepperdine, but more on the right side, big boy, yeah him Parker on the right.
Speaker 1:Cole Harkey's young yeah.
Speaker 2:He's a freshman, he's 18. Middle blockers Does Cameron Thorne get the? Get the nod? Does he get a? Does he get a chance to showcase?
Speaker 1:Do you think Cameron Thorne is the best middle in the country?
Speaker 2:Think he's one of the best middles in the country. She's asking yeah, I can see him getting a showcase. Do you think Cameron Thorne is the best middle in the country? I think he's one of the best middles in the country.
Speaker 1:She's asking.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I can see him getting a chance.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Parker Tompkinson yeah, some of these big guys.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Is Wes healthy, If he's healthy? If he's healthy, I guess he's not. He hasn't played all year.
Speaker 2:But if he was healthy, healthy, I would see him as another guy that you'd want in that, in that group, for sure. Big body, physical. You need some of that, especially when maybe ben patch makes a return the return of benjamin? What?
Speaker 1:in the middle I've seen him hit a couple two balls.
Speaker 2:Karch is a genius, it's old school, we just talk about the 18-year-olds and Ben Patch.
Speaker 3:He could do it. He could do it for sure.
Speaker 1:Any other predictions Libs?
Speaker 2:Libs who's your top lib Merc? Probably Merc. Yeah. Recency bias yeah, recents recency bias.
Speaker 1:We're on the. We're being so suspect.
Speaker 2:Recency bias. One of my favorite all right, my favorite lips, I like named him my top NCAA lips was a lawyer. How do I say his name? Choi Choi, from Hawaii. I'm not going to try and butcher it.
Speaker 1:Choi from Hawaii, that was my one.
Speaker 2:Two was Rowan David Alvear, rda.
Speaker 1:RDA. Why did we never call him RDA?
Speaker 2:Rowan David Alvear from Princeton. He's a beta boy, so that's a homerism. I really liked Dykstra from USC. He was awesome to watch all year.
Speaker 1:Shocking that he's not related to the other Dykstra. I think he actually is?
Speaker 2:I don't think he is. I read his bio. Brad was wrong, brad, you were wrong. He's literally like the cousin of Dykstra, brad, you're an idiot.
Speaker 1:How many things has Brad been wrong about this year?
Speaker 2:Plenty, plenty things, but USC versus Pepperdine. In the finals, mr, I believe it's Riley. Is that the libero from Pepperdine? Pepperdine libero, jacob Riley, jacob Riley. There you go. Former Concordia, golden Eagle. Concordia, golden Eagle. Exactly the dude is he's pretty nails. He's pretty nails and got a great mustache. So I also really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Related to JP Riley.
Speaker 2:Probably not, because I think Jacob Riley is from Texas and JP is from Manhattan Beach. But yeah, he was a baller. And then Merck. Just such a tough year for Penn State. But they're in the tournament.
Speaker 3:You know he was just working all year getting better. He wasn't ready. I'm so glad he learned something?
Speaker 1:this podcast Chad. That's bullshit.
Speaker 3:He's had that mullet all year Are we missing any Setters?
Speaker 1:Rowan.
Speaker 2:Andrew Rowan.
Speaker 1:And probably Tread.
Speaker 2:Tall Tread, Not another setter probably.
Speaker 1:Tread and Rowan for sure.
Speaker 3:That makes sense. They'll start with eight guys, or something like that.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of college guys that we're talking about here.
Speaker 3:I mean, on that, you're going to have Micah. On the 30 men, you're going to have Micah.
Speaker 2:You're going to have 30 men. Yeah, I mean, you have Micah. You're going to have.
Speaker 1:Quinn Isaacson. Yeah, Well, you're. You don't know who of the group is going to be taking some time and who is going to be.
Speaker 2:I'm just assuming, like Micah Christensen does.
Speaker 1:Micah.
Speaker 2:Ma probably does. The guys that are like the, that were the fringe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're the babysitters. You've been here.
Speaker 2:You've got to raise the children I wouldn't call them the babysitters, I'd call them the bridge.
Speaker 3:The nannies.
Speaker 1:You've got the bridge guys.
Speaker 2:You've got all the older guys that were on the Olympic roster. They're not coming back the fancy babysitter. It should be interesting, I think. Strategy-wise they can just play a bunch of young dudes and yeah they're gonna yeah, they're probably gonna get cooked pretty quickly in the vnl for sure, maybe, maybe not I mean a lot of a lot of other countries will do something similar.
Speaker 3:Yeah right, like you're not gonna qualify in the first year right, you don't qualify there's. You know, we're just testing out, so we're gonna get there for fun, yeah well for a lot, of, a lot of the guys right. Like you know, I heard like nishita is like trying to take time off and whatnot like guys gonna be on the team. Rest, take a summer for once.
Speaker 2:You're gonna rest, especially the year after the olympics but, like for the jordan uart's and the pat gasman's of the world, for, like usa, like this is their time to.
Speaker 2:Hey, we get to go be in this international stage and show out and hopefully, kind of prove. I deserve to be in that true conversation when all of the big names come back as well and you're really making choices. For you know, I think it's a trust building year, right like. When it comes down to it, coaches play the people they trust, and so this is an opportunity for younger guys to build trust with Karch and a new staff to be able to get in there. So a lot of those what I would say bridge guys not super, they're not old and on the like on the end of their career and they're not super young or fresh out of college this is a is a great opportunity for for them to showcase what they could do. So I'm interested to see what they do with the roster, but I'm going to guess that it's going to go pretty young, pretty quick and give a lot of those guys shots to be seen.
Speaker 1:But hey, what do we know?
Speaker 2:We're just a podcast.
Speaker 1:We're just a bunch of friends on a couch hanging out.
Speaker 3:That is all we are.
Speaker 1:Eating Reese's Chad likes black licorice. Can we talk about that for a second?
Speaker 2:No, Actually I just reported him to the police for insanity. Black licorice.
Speaker 3:There's a blue dot on your house because of that mustache, so do what you will.
Speaker 2:All right, that's twice. You've used that joke, right, exactly, once was enough.
Speaker 3:Too late.
Speaker 1:Bobby, you got anything for us? For us, nope.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Thank you guys all so much for listening to the coaches group chat. Please think and pray about Grand Canyon, because they have decided to stop thinking and praying for them, so let's think about. We talked about what Jesus would think about what thoughts, prayers and money thoughts, prayers and money, but like, not in that order.
Speaker 3:Like they need one of those more than the others.
Speaker 2:Yeah those are great. Yeah, stay on the lookout and if you are a fan of another men's volleyball program, make sure you are in tune with that alumni base and let's, let's rally people. This is men's volleyball needs.
Speaker 1:Let's sell out a Stanford game. Raise some money for green Canyon.
Speaker 2:I don't know. That's an interesting segue on that note. Emergency podcast complete.
Speaker 1:My sound effects. My sound effects are really funny.