The Coaches Group Chat

S4E1: The 2026 Prediction Episode

• Matthew Houlihan, Arielle Houlihan, Chad Gordon • Season 4 • Episode 1

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 38:37

We trade life updates for bold calls, then break down who wins men’s college volleyball and why. Awards, freshmen to watch, coaching philosophies, officiating shifts, and the growth of the sport all get a clear, candid look.

• Title picks for UCLA, USC and Stanford with reasons
• Player of the year cases for Andrew Rowan, Dillon Klein and Jaylen Phillips
• Freshman standouts including UCI’s French pipeline and Sosa
• Coach of the year criteria and nods to Kniffin, Winder and Pavlik
• Technical trends like the two-handed recycle and no-double setting
• Juniors officiating contrasts with college play on lifts and throws
• NIL gravity and the squeeze on high-academic programs
• Program expansion logic at smaller private schools


Daniel Rasay:

Thanks for bringing in the DEI hire.

Matt Houlihan:

The doctor is in.

Arielle Houlihan:

Yeah, we were about to get canceled, and then we buy you.

Matt Houlihan:

Javi showing up once every season to drink a beer does not count. What season is this?

Arielle Houlihan:

I don't even know where I am right now.

Matt Houlihan:

Three and a half.

Arielle Houlihan:

We've multiplied.

Daniel Rasay:

I don't know what to do with my legs.

Matt Houlihan:

People are gonna judge your socks. So be careful.

Arielle Houlihan:

Chud steals a new pair of socks every time you're in the house.

Chad Gordon:

Yeah, it's great. Huge perk. I'm not compensated very well.

Arielle Houlihan:

Okay, everybody. We are back for season 52 of the coaches group chat. Uh we have decided to add a coach. New coach. And a new assistant. Head? Are you the head coach?

Matt Houlihan:

Associate. He's associate head.

Arielle Houlihan:

You're the associate head of the coach's group chat now. So we have Daniel Rasai here today. Best known for. What are you the best known for?

Matt Houlihan:

Rasai performance coaching, obviously. Snacks. Probably broken things.

Arielle Houlihan:

Your food. You're the best known for your food.

Daniel Rasay:

Yeah, I would say so.

Matt Houlihan:

That's true. Well the short he made short ribs on New Year's Eve that were tasty meat snacks. Meaty meaty snacks.

Arielle Houlihan:

We were all sitting in the airport and a lady came up to, we were all standing there together, and a lady came up directly to Daniel and said, You're from Beta Bay, right? Can you tell me about the youth clinics that are coming up? And we are all sitting right there. And she looked directly into his soul and was like, You are Beta Bay. It was great. And we were like, Yeah, Daniel, when are they? Tell me everything.

Daniel Rasay:

Daniel's the face. I have an invisible face. I'm a forgettable face.

Matt Houlihan:

I believe it's called aura. That's what kids are calling that.

Arielle Houlihan:

Daniel does have aura.

Matt Houlihan:

That is something I think I've always loved about Daniel. He'll go to the convention center. You don't seek, it's not that you're invisible, it's that you just you are very comfortable just observing. And you don't like insert yourself into many things. But we've we've inserted you into a podcast now. So now you have to actually share your thoughts and wisdom with the uh 110 viewers that we average each week.

Daniel Rasay:

Some people call that social anxiety, man.

Matt Houlihan:

That's facts.

Arielle Houlihan:

Yeah, yeah, whatever, whatever.

Matt Houlihan:

Sweaty. It's his word of the word of the year for Daniel Sweaty. He's actually sweating underneath all of his clothes right now. He's so nervous. We we are getting into our prediction episode, but before we get there, I think it's it's fitting for us to give a little preview of what's to come. Ariel, kick kick us off.

Arielle Houlihan:

No, I don't want to kick off.

Chad Gordon:

Yeah, Chad. You definitely asked you. Well, I got engaged. So there's that. Round of applause over Dick Bobby. So yeah, we uh went to London, did all that, got the right answer. At the Shrek Experience, right? It was not the Shrek. It's uh adjacent to the Shrek experience. Most people call it the London Eye, but you know, locals refer to it as Shrek's. Yeah, Shrek's uh Shrek. That's the Shrek bulb. Uh then what do we do? We went to ABCA. Uh for us, we launched uh Volley Station Next, right? Our computer vision AI platform. So that's it.

Matt Houlihan:

Which is sponsoring this podcast now.

Chad Gordon:

Obviously. I mean the check hasn't cleared, but like in theory, it'll put a logo somewhere. It's what's next for sure.

Arielle Houlihan:

It's what's next.

Chad Gordon:

Um and yeah, so we're just we're grinding on that, trying to make that better. And uh I think those are kind of the two big rocks for me.

Arielle Houlihan:

Planning a wedding, planning a business.

Chad Gordon:

How hard could it be? Let's do it at the same time.

Arielle Houlihan:

I agree. Me turn me turn? Yeah, why don't you turn why don't me turn go? Me turn it. Um I uh what am I doing? I'm coaching a team and we're trying to figure out how to side out, and uh the refs are trying to take my microphones away. That's fun. Uh I'm not giving it to them, obviously.

Matt Houlihan:

Um what if they actually tried to strip search you?

Arielle Houlihan:

I'm trying to I've been thinking about it lately of like what funny situations I could get myself into.

Chad Gordon:

Just being like you'd have like one of those like gag t-shirts that they saw like the beach or whatever of like this, but like the six-pack guy or something.

Arielle Houlihan:

It'd be funny if I got one of those and then I drew a microphone on it.

Chad Gordon:

You could do that too.

Arielle Houlihan:

Yeah, okay. A lot of options if you kind of go down this path. It would be really funny. Um, yeah, I don't know. Uh I'm mom of two kids, and I am I don't know. What else am I doing? Anything else?

Matt Houlihan:

I don't know.

Arielle Houlihan:

I'm getting into the fashion world a little bit. And by that I mean I'm just buying a lot of clothes lately. Uh yeah, that's about it. I'm trying to go to the Super Bowl. I'm gonna sneak my way in the Super Bowl probably.

Matt Houlihan:

Was that on your vision board this year?

Arielle Houlihan:

Uh yeah. In my head. I can put it up there. Yeah. I don't know. Just got a lot of fun things coming up.

Matt Houlihan:

Love it.

Arielle Houlihan:

I think.

Matt Houlihan:

Let's hear from the newest member of the uh of the of the squadron over here. Daniel, what do what do we got? What's your update?

Daniel Rasay:

Is this an update or like an introduction? Yeah, probably an intro, honestly. Intro yourself. Sure. Uh my name's Daniel Sai.

Arielle Houlihan:

Hi, Daniel.

Daniel Rasay:

Hello. Uh I don't know. I played volleyball in college at UH and moved here and started coaching some college and got into Stanford somehow as a volunteer in 2010 and won a national championship, and they decided to offer me a full-time position there. And uh Matt convinced me to quit uh Stanford. Sick.

Arielle Houlihan:

Whoa, what a long con. He had that on his vision board.

Daniel Rasay:

Uh left Stanford to spend more time with my family and started RBC, Recide Performance Coaching, uh, coaching kids on the mental side of the game, and been steadily growing thanks to uh the assists from the Beta Bay people. And I'm also a not a mother, but a father of two children who may try out this spring for some volleyball.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah. I'm just looking forward to having Anne Rasai back. Sure. Let's get Anne back in there. She's the goat.

Daniel Rasay:

That's the long con. Yeah. But uh yeah, happy to be here.

Matt Houlihan:

Love it. Uh Daniel, uh, I'm gonna give Daniel a little side intro as well. I definitely did not convince him to leave Stanford. I'm just gonna say that right now. I was happy to talk to him about entrepreneurship and going out on your own way and being an ear, just as he has been the ear for me in almost everything uh I've done over the past probably decade now.

Chad Gordon:

And then he said no, and then now look at his finger. Look what you did to that guy. Are you kidding me?

Arielle Houlihan:

Owner of the world's craziest finger.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah, it's a great story. Uh yeah, but my update is Yeah.

Arielle Houlihan:

What's your update, Matt?

Matt Houlihan:

Nothing. I got nothing for this episode. We'll have more for you guys later on.

Arielle Houlihan:

Matt has a big update coming. He just can't tell us right now because we're trying to get this episode.

Matt Houlihan:

I signed an India and you can't talk about it yet. If you guys don't mind, are we ready to get into our predictions for the men's collegiate volleyball season?

Arielle Houlihan:

Yes.

Matt Houlihan:

All right, good. Do it overwhelming. Yes. We're starting. We're gonna start right at the top. Right at the top. We're going straight into national champions. Oh, okay. We're gonna go down the list and we're gonna start with Chad. Chad, can you give us your prediction and give us a little taste of why for who's winning the 2026 Natty?

Chad Gordon:

Oh man, I mean, the the Vegas odds, I think, are are smart on UCLA. I mean, not losing, you know, really that much of that roster. And I think, you know, it's just it's an offense that's gonna hit like 600 on you, and then they'll get better defensively. I mean, they're just gonna be really hard to slow down, and I think we saw that over the per first couple games. So I I like I like their just evenness and depth kind of across across that roster, and I I think it's gonna pay dividends for them in the long long run.

Matt Houlihan:

Who was your favorite person from that roster watching at the uh the first point challenge? I didn't go to a single UCLA game.

Chad Gordon:

Oh, you didn't?

Arielle Houlihan:

Yeah, we all went to the first games, and then we were like, we need to get out of the community.

Chad Gordon:

But I am responsible, and I did pull some stuff up today and watched, and uh, I think Sean Kelly's playing really well. Obviously, Rowan is is flinging it around, but I think Zach Rama had quite a night of couple couple nights, I guess. Just clear the T on some out of system balls. I'm like, like Loyal is like not tiny, like and he's just going over the top and having his way and like picking spots. What are you gonna do? Like stack guys on top of each other to block. Like, I mean, if that's them when they're in trouble, like that's a that's a problem for other people. Yep.

Matt Houlihan:

All right, are we all?

Arielle Houlihan:

Um, I too like UCLA, but I like to pick what people don't pick. So I uh I'm gonna go with USC. Not because I want to, and not just because it's a ballot take. I uh like what Dustin is saying. Dustin's pushing USC right now, and I think that they have the two best the group best group of middles, I think, in the country. I think that Dylan Klein is uh very, very, very good. Um and I think that they have the ability to get hot enough to be able to take one off of UCLA in the at least one off of UCLA in the uh regular season, and I think that they could be good by the end. I think a lot is going to depend on who's healthy by the end and like where everything's gonna be. Um, but I do I think it might be cool to see them. The UCLA USC matchup is I think gonna be one of the better matchups between those two this year than it has been in a very long time. So I'm looking forward to seeing that. So I'm gonna take U USC.

Matt Houlihan:

I think that's I think that's a great pick. That's I mean, they they took down UCLA regular season last year. If they were healthy going into the playoffs rather than limping going to the playoffs, yeah. I mean, honestly, even if they if they were one of the at-largest going into playoffs, they probably would have been a major problem. Yeah. Right? They just kind of got injured towards the end, but uh you get that extra week of rest. Who knows what that roster does when you're stepping in the into actual playoff time. So this year expanded expanded bracket, I I absolutely think that's a good that's a solid pick. Doc, what do you got? You're gonna be a homer and pick Hawaii right now?

Daniel Rasay:

No. Uh I also wanted to choose somebody that people wouldn't choose, but I didn't, and I chose UCLA.

Chad Gordon:

The coward's choice.

Daniel Rasay:

Well, for all the same reasons that Chad said, right? A lot of depth and stuff, but two main reasons Milan on staff now. Okay, there's a there's a Hawaii bias right there. Sure. Great guy. Um, and the only other the other thing is they're hosting. Yeah. NCAA Championships. Oh, that's a good point. Very, very good point. There's extra motivation to win one at home.

Arielle Houlihan:

Yep.

Daniel Rasay:

It's a good feeling. There you go. Plain and simple. Have you done that? I have experienced that. Ah, Stanford. It was a crazy, crazy time on Stanford campus.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah. But man, I remember we went to that game. We were up, we were up in the rafters up there. The whole student section was absolutely packing it. They did a great job. Brad Lawson was hit like 9,000 for 100 students.

Chad Gordon:

At least his only error was a footfall that he got a kill on the bick. Like anyway. Like, what a that was insane.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah. It was wild. Uh well, speaking of, my pick is Stanford.

Arielle Houlihan:

So Oh, that's that's weird.

Daniel Rasay:

Wait till we get my trend get to my trends.

Matt Houlihan:

There's a couple things I think we we've hit upon for the next one. Uh all right, we've got our national champion predictions. We'll see who's we'll see who's right. We've done historically. Historically, we've done pretty good on uh on these predictions. At least one of us has hit them. Our next prediction, player of the year.

Arielle Houlihan:

Okay.

Matt Houlihan:

Would you like me to start? Yeah, you want to go the other way? Gladly start. All right, my player of the year. Uh couple things I think about when we're talking about player of the year. You gotta be you gotta be on a team that's gonna make the playoffs, in my opinion. So uh thinking about which players are gonna help. We're gonna be on rosters that can make the playoffs, which players have enough volume. You're either a setter that's running a super strong offense, or you're a super high volume attacker. And so for that reason, I'm going with the high volume attacker. I'm going Jalen Phillips. I think he's gonna be the highest volume attacker in the country this year, and I think he is yes? You think oh, you don't think they're gonna make the playoffs, huh? Are you betting against my Mataballs?

Daniel Rasay:

No, though the the way you were steering it, I wasn't sure what direction you were going in. So I was a little surprised.

Matt Houlihan:

Oh, okay. All right. Well, I'd love to hear more why you're surprised. But yeah, I'm going Jalen Phillips. Opposite, C Sun. Um, gonna get a ton of balls this year. I think he's gonna put away a ton of volleyballs. And I think that C Sun is definitely on the cusp of being able to make the tournament. And if they make the tournament, it's gonna be because Jalen Phillips was real, real good this year. Setter's still there? No. New Setter, but he's good. I have a question. I see Legend Setter, Dauphiner.

Arielle Houlihan:

If you think that C Sun is making the tournament, do you also think that Stanford is making the tournament?

Matt Houlihan:

Stanford's winning the MPSF tournament.

Arielle Houlihan:

Okay. So they're number one. We're getting the auto bid. So MPF's tournament, you have Stanford is number one, and C Sun is number two.

Matt Houlihan:

Well, C Sun's in the Big West.

Arielle Houlihan:

Never mind. So C Sun's winning the Big West.

Matt Houlihan:

No, I think C I think C Sun is going to be viable for an at-large bid.

Arielle Houlihan:

Okay.

Daniel Rasay:

Who's hosting the MPSF? BYU? BYU.

Matt Houlihan:

BYU, yeah.

Daniel Rasay:

Okay.

Matt Houlihan:

Bulls at altitude. Daniels. Daniel's looking at the betting odds on uh on DraftKings right now, like questionable.

Arielle Houlihan:

Okay, Daniel, who do you got?

Daniel Rasay:

Um the safe choice for me is Rowan. UCLA. Right? Picked him to win a national championship. Yeah. So they're gonna be in the playoffs and make a deep run. Um with what you said though, I had a kind of a 1B. And this might be just recency bias of watching Ball State play, but Patrick Rogers. Patrick Rogers.

Chad Gordon:

I love Patrick Rogers. That's a good name for this this house.

Daniel Rasay:

He was so efficient and like limited on attempts, too. He I don't think he had the most attempts, but hit close to 600 um in both matches this weekend, and they could feed him a lot more, and his numbers could go up, and he could be a high volume guy as well. He was just impressive attacking-wise all the way.

Arielle Houlihan:

Who's that player of the week this week?

Daniel Rasay:

Right?

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah. I mean, if they if they would beat UCLA, for sure would have been him. But yeah, he was a stud. Sally Dang at Sal Sal's Flicks on Instagram posted a video of Patrick Rogers' first serve against UCLA, and it was the most wicked right-handed jump serve I've you've seen like the lefty on Japan's curve serve. He hit a righty curve that was the most insane spin I've ever seen. I was like, you this needs to turn this into a um like a true reel so I can share this with my right-handed players of like that, do that. He was real good.

Chad Gordon:

I saw that one, I that was one of the things I pulled up, and I was like, man, he must have like mishid it or something. And that thing, I mean, it it bites like eight feet.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah, it goes from like four feet to your left to five feet to your right on on the crossover. It was crazy. Witchcraft for sure. I like that pick. That's a good one. Ariel, who you got?

Arielle Houlihan:

Um I also think that Rowan should get player of the year if UCLA wins and he they have a great season, like regular season. I think that Rowan should probably get the game.

Matt Houlihan:

If they make it to the national championship.

Arielle Houlihan:

Yes. Um But I also think that if Dylan Klein has the year and is healthy and has the year that he's gonna have that that I think that they will have, then he could probably be in contention as well.

Matt Houlihan:

But you're going you're going Rowan. I need a I need a pick. I need to.

Arielle Houlihan:

I think I'm gonna go Rowan, but I'm also gonna say USC wins a national championship, so I'm right at something. Because I'm smarter than everybody else.

Chad Gordon:

She's placing her bets. It's called hedging your bags. Yeah, exactly. It's like roulette, just put one on everyone, exactly. No problem. Um, yeah, I mean, I I agree. I love I love the Rowan. Um, you know, you could you could throw a Zach Rama in there, but you know, because it's so balanced, he probably doesn't have the standout numbers, in my opinion. Personally, I like DK. I think he's going to be obviously the highest you know usage for for USC. I think the big kind of question mark is how healthy is he? Because he's going to take so many swings for them. Um but again, I think I agree, right? The caveat being like if USC is healthy enough, I think he's he's got to be that guy. I mean, he just takes over some matches that it's pretty impressive. Yep.

Arielle Houlihan:

So which one do you got?

Chad Gordon:

I'm taking DK.

Arielle Houlihan:

Oh, nice.

Chad Gordon:

All right, there we go. We have our EC.

Arielle Houlihan:

So we're doing the opposite.

Daniel Rasay:

Yeah.

Arielle Houlihan:

I'll go Rowan and USC, you go UCLA and DK.

Matt Houlihan:

Perfect. Okay. Perfect.

Arielle Houlihan:

Chad and I are gonna win something.

Matt Houlihan:

All right. Not player of the year, but still we're going freshman of the year now. Freshman of the year. Ah, okay. Daniel, can we uh can we get your first pick for freshman of the year?

Daniel Rasay:

I love the UCI French pipeline. I'm going French kid from UCI.

Matt Houlihan:

Yokonovich? Jokonovich.

Daniel Rasay:

I have no idea.

Matt Houlihan:

Andre Andre Yokonovich. Yep. I got you. I think that was someone else's.

Arielle Houlihan:

I was gonna pick him, but now I'm gonna go this bitches love so so kid.

Matt Houlihan:

Loyal opposite.

Arielle Houlihan:

Yeah. Yeah. That kid was uh lights out against Stanford the other night, and he, if Loyola does well, then he will be in contention for it. Um and I don't think does UCLA have a freshman playing? Playing. No. No. And then does USC? No.

Matt Houlihan:

Well, uh Cooper Keen could be the opposite.

Arielle Houlihan:

Sure. And I'm gonna go Sosa over Cooper Keen. Okay, okay.

Chad Gordon:

Jen? I couldn't name a lot of freshmen, and then I decided on red shirt freshman, Cameron Costi.

Arielle Houlihan:

I love that pick.

Chad Gordon:

That's a good pick as setter, right side.

Arielle Houlihan:

And personal fan favorite.

Chad Gordon:

Personal fan favorite. Maybe play some middle, you know what Ned likes to do with setters. Versatile. By the end of the season, he'll have middle setting and setters, you know. Yeah. Middle blocking. So yeah, give me uh give me some CK on that one.

Matt Houlihan:

There you go. I am following you on the redshirt freshman train. I'm going Grant Lemoreau from Pepperdine.

Arielle Houlihan:

Uh he's not a redshirt freshman, though, is he? Or is he redshirt?

Matt Houlihan:

Well, I think he's a true freshman. No, he was on he was in Jersey last year, but he did not play. He was like a high school senior, but went to school early. Yeah. Um so redshirted. Put some put some meat on the bones, you know, uh, and is looking pretty good thus far. I think he was leading the country in aces after two weeks. Obviously, depends on your competition. But um, I think he's he's gonna continue to rise in terms of the uh the stock market there. So a good mix. I like it. Um coach of the year is what we've got coming up next. Coach of the year. Daniel, can you give me your c what's your criteria first? Just set the stage for our our audience here on what coach of the year.

Arielle Houlihan:

Your criteria is gonna be different than my criteria. My criteria is gonna be different than your criteria.

Matt Houlihan:

How about when you give your answer, how about you give a little bit of your criteria just so everyone can hear that?

Daniel Rasay:

I mean, it makes it tough, right? Because if winning is my criteria, then I gotta go with Hawks, right? Because that's my choice for for winning national championship. But I think that's boring. That is boring. And that's why I don't want to go with it.

Matt Houlihan:

They also select the coach before the national championship. So it's selected before that. Sure. So that's not that's not the ABCA criteria.

Daniel Rasay:

Yeah. Uh my criteria is somebody that I like a lot. Um that I've had nice meaningful conversations with and have been able to connect with. So I'm going with NIF from UCI because I love that guy. And he asks the best questions to get you thinking about a lot of things and I imagine he does that with his players too. And so um he thinks outside of the box. And I like a coach that does that but also does a good job with his players and I think he does that as well. I think you have to have that certain connection with him too. Not everybody understands his personality but he's my choice.

Matt Houlihan:

I'm going uh to go next because I as well selected one David Niffin as my coach of the year. My criteria similar I have the I have the personal bias of just liking to hang with Niff. Like he is a just a quality human being and I love the way that he approaches the game recruiting everything. The dude is running a 7-3. He's got three setters three opposites going through these matches right now at the start of the year he does all sorts of wild and wacky things but he finds a way to win and this team theoretically losing Heno they lost a lot. They should not be as good as they were last year and they are already proving that not only are they good they are very good like contending for the Big West. They took down Pepperdine who was ranked four at Pepperdine and he's doing it in a typical NIF way and that's super impressive to me. So that's my pick as well.

Arielle Houlihan:

Okay well I'm not picking NIF. I love NIF but I'm not picking him because that's a boring podcast. Um okay now that like these these are like the criteria which I like these criteria if I had to pick a uh let's say a coach that I identify with the most and like think is doing a good job firing on all cylinders, I think it's McRae at Long Beach. And I think that that's that to me the way his transition now is going to be interesting and it's hard for me to pick him right now because it's going to be a little while before he gets this program going exactly in the direction that he wants it to go. So he probably needs a little time. So maybe I'll pick McCray in like two years. But that would be like my automatic that I would say uh and I also think that I would put Shane Davis also in that category because I think that's going to take it's it's going to take him a couple years to to I'm not going to say fix but change things into what uh he wants it to be um and then so I will say that who is doing that now that I wouldn't have given it to a couple years ago is Winder. And I think that Pepperdine is uh starting to uh come out of the Marv era and Hunt had it for a little while and they were going and they were they did well under Hunt and they've consistently been performing and finishing at the top of the MPSF and I think that um they're now at a place where like Winder is just doing a good job with what he's got going on there and is is recruiting and uh coaching to the brand of volleyball that Pepperdine is maybe name another coach.

Chad Gordon:

Yeah I mean I I think a lot of good things have been said I mean obviously Shane going back to Loyola he's got the pedigree there. Winter's done a great job at Pep. Niff couldn't find the box if he tried like I mean that guy is so unique and it's it's amazing to watch. Yeah 7-3. Sure this is why like yeah Cossy I don't know freshman year in any position who cares um for me though I am a coward and so I'm going Hawks because I think it's going to be UCLA at the end and it's one of those I think the joke last year was like Hawks like don't screw it up kind of thing. Like he really just has that now again but Long Beach doesn't have Moni and I think that's going to be not that like it's just because of Moni but like I think the setting's going to struggle at Long Beach. And then I don't think it's going to be Hawaii and I don't man like SC like Nygaard needs to do like a really good job with those guys. I mean he has that's the roster to deal with for sure. Yeah um I just think I think UCLA with the assist of Milan just is going to be that I mean they're going to be there.

Arielle Houlihan:

That makes sense because Hawks should get coach of the year for bringing Milan in that's the GM of the year.

Matt Houlihan:

Perfect. So good ass yeah sold. I like it all right we've got our predictions in for coach of the year change my answer.

Daniel Rasay:

Please do is that allowed on this podcast don't make it a th make it a trend. So based on my same criteria and also because I don't want the listeners to think that there's a bias towards the West Coast here. I'm going pav. Oh that's a nice one great guy great conversations I've had uh I hope Penn State does well I just think it's good for volleyball as a whole and final season pav. Yeah it's he's going out and so he's been around since forever. Yeah we played them in the final four when I was at Hawaii so that was a long time ago. Yeah. So I'm changing my answer. I like that same criteria.

Arielle Houlihan:

I like that too. I will allow you to change your answer.

Matt Houlihan:

I think Pav might be one of the most genuine coaches out there.

Arielle Houlihan:

And that man is just always best communicator best yeah agreed.

Matt Houlihan:

Yeah Peter Chris uh talking with talking with the Chris family on the Peter's recruitment process for Penn State uh the thing that stuck out for me the most and and chatted with them as well um Pav remembered Andrew the youngest brother at the time like he was I think he was 13 and Pav like went to go watch Andrew's games and they talked about I think baseball trading cards and they like he remembered everything about Andrew and like went out of his way to be super kind to the little brother Andrew which is such a no just such a no-brainer in recruitment but he just did that genuinely not because he was just trying to get Peter to commit to Penn State but because he genuinely was like I like this little kid. I'm gonna I'm gonna go check in on him so just fun cool stories. I think we need we need like a a call in episode of just good PAV stories from uh from the world of volleyball I'm sure there's plenty.

Arielle Houlihan:

All right good good answer.

Matt Houlihan:

Good change. Good change. We're going into trend of the year trend of the year for collegiate men's volleyball last year I had said men's coaches getting poached to the women's game which is still a trend which is probably just always going to be a trend because men's volleyball is just the superior product. No I'm joking Ariel literally looked at me like you cannot say that. Obviously it's just men's men's here's what I would say about this and that trend and then I'll move to the to the next part I think the thing about men's volleyball and the reason why the women's game pulls a lot of coaches from it is because men's volleyball is such a great proving ground right it's quote the farm league but it's also the place where you can get creative right in order to win a men's volleyball with less resources you have to play in creative ways you need to train in creative ways uh and you learn to do things across the board right in a men's volleyball program you're much less funded and so you do every job. And so when you come to a women's program all of a sudden you know how to do everything in that program and it's a huge value add. So you're welcome women's volleyball um let's get to the next trend sorry for that little tirade Chad what do you've got on the trend of the year if I just give you more space you'll just keep going for a second let's not get ourselves out of here.

Chad Gordon:

Great. Yeah I mean I usually approach this more from like the technical side I think um and so something that I have been seeing a lot I saw it more internationally this year than ever and then just watch a couple matches this weekend it's like the two-handed recycle it's no longer like a hey it's just tip it it's literally guys like they're like straight up catching it and then like hmm and then they just take it right back if they're too far away or yeah if you're 50-50 then you're trying to joust or whatever but just so many guys just like run underneath it I don't like it boop cover and I was like oh try again yeah yeah and just keep going to you like uh like your chances so two-handed recycle I'm gonna put my name on that one okay we can make a montage at the end of this year on all the two handed recycles I would love that I think there's a lot.

Arielle Houlihan:

Arielle what do you got um I wouldn't say that this is I don't really have a good one for collegiate men's but the trend that I'm seeing in club is that the lift is the new double and now it's just getting called as a lift instead of anything weird is a lift and it's not like there isn't doubles anymore. The third contact over can be a double which they do call but anything else is just a lift. Is that the refs looking to just find something new to blow their whistle on well the two hand jam down that is not getting called in the college game gets called every time in club now. And so you've got kids trying to do what they see in college and they're going and turning and putting that third ball or the even the second ball down and it's over the net and they're calling it as a lift or as a throw um which is not being called internationally and not being called in the collegiate game. So there's a little bit of dis disparence trans disconnect disconnect between the between the two disparity is that what that was disparity disparity that's a good SAT word. Javi is over there and has no idea what I'm saying Javi learned something new today.

Matt Houlihan:

I like that take that's a it I mean when you think about what the rule change was supposed to do it was supposed to remove the whistle from more rallies right and oh the whistle is not the referee are finding finding yeah there's creative ways to continue to insert themselves where I think there's most of these rule changes are trying to minimize the insertion of referees.

Arielle Houlihan:

Correct nope that's not that has not happened yet in the juniors game.

Matt Houlihan:

It has in the collegiate game though and I do think that the the no double is great for the collegiate game someone asked me um when we were we were watching in Phoenix this weekend they're like what do you think after it's been a year now like how do you feel about the no doubles roll I love it. I love it too and I thought I might not let it fly. Yeah like let everyone go be aggressive with their hands set the rock put it up on the net let us get the best opportunity to swing for every age group it is so much better. And then there's just less calls.

Arielle Houlihan:

And nobody's trying to double it like you're trying to cleanly put that ball up there and so there's so many times mid-rally that you'll see a ball spin weird and that would have been called a double beforehand and you're like wow this is kind of nice that we don't have to stop the play just because of that and it's a question mark. I thought I might hate it and after watching for a while I love it.

Daniel Rasay:

Yeah for sure I want to see people start purposely doubling putting the spin on the ball for the hitter so that they can just get more speed off the hand that would be amazing.

Arielle Houlihan:

In practice you can come in and try and okay great perfect out of out of system setting from Daniel just double it putting extra back spin on it.

Matt Houlihan:

Shoot that to the moon well is that your trend of the year Daniel or do you got something different?

Daniel Rasay:

Cat posit balls balls um mine's in the men's collegiate game the trend and I asked is it okay if I talk about something trending downwards and I don't want this to be a trend. It's the smart kids trending downwards and this might be the overreaction of seeing Princeton, Harvard, Stanford I think they all went OFR in these first couple of weekends um and the landscape of college athletics with NIL money and talking with somebody that went through the recruiting process recently and he was saying that you know I want to go to a place that there's a high chance that we're gonna win a national championship and that is becoming fewer teams per se. You know the Hawaii's Long Beach UCLAs have been pretty dominant in recent years. And so some top recruits are going in that direction and money may be a factor but um again I don't want that to be the trend but I know having firsthand experience at Stanford the challenges of recruiting high level athletes and students is pretty tough. And so I'd like to see those programs turn around this season and and hopefully your prediction is close to being right. And um that is not actually a trend and just a overreaction to the first weekend.

Arielle Houlihan:

I have a lot of thoughts about that and I am absolutely not going to say them on camera because I don't need to do that. But let's talk after this because I have some I definitely have some thoughts on that.

Matt Houlihan:

That is a I mean an interesting and probably pretty valid take in terms of like I agree the synopsis of where things currently stand and maybe it's less about where the you know the the pieces on the on the board are right now but where it's going to be right as as things continue to go. Because you see it trickle down anything from football basketball trickles down eventually that is the case. You get more and more haves and have nots um in in the world when more money gets involved. So that's that's what's your trend Matt my trend is expansion. My Pacific added well yes Pacific added that's uh that's hell yeah that's my that's my guy over there yes Pacific getting added uh is a is the start is I'm hoping is the start of the the trend the spark that lights a little bit of fire but it it goes a little bit actually counterintuitively to what Daniel's talking about where you have these very well funded high level programs that are constant national championships. I think the trend that we're gonna see is and the trend that's a little bit already developing Pacific being a good example of it is smaller private institutions are looking for ways to drive enrollment and one of the ways that they are seeing an opportunity to get more students on campus specifically in a lot of these smaller liberal arts schools is they need more males at school they can bring in sports.

Arielle Houlihan:

Click the link below for Matt's mini pod on how to bring back a sport to your school we got one more prediction category.

Matt Houlihan:

You guys ready? Yep international of the year can I go first yes you can go first all right great my international of the year is our neighbor to the north in Canada Skylar Varga of Long Beach State senior outside hitter barely barely counts barely counts it's it's they are a neighbor but they're still in a it's still a nation that is not ours so it's international. Skylar Varga's my pick I'll leave it at that it's not ours well I won't count Greenland we don't own them I won't count Greenland because they could be ours who knows I have a question speaking of nations that are ours we don't have any transfers from Iceland are there any Puerto Ricans playing in college volleyball right now for sure for sure Javi for sure what there's definitely Puerto Ricans playing name one there's got to be a libero out there definitely is I'll find there's gotta be one at like Purdue Fort Wayne or something. I'll find you a Puerto Rican from being oh oh oh Lewis's setters Puerto Rican no Menlo's setters Puerto Rican same as my freshman French freshman Yukonovich that's not his name I don't know how to say it but me neither that's why I've been calling him the French guy the the Irvine outside hitter got it with a with a face mask mask next week uh mine is uh the bitches love sofsa again this is really easy wasn't it Chief Keith getting a lot of playtime on the pond tonight right that's fine sure is there another one that I had you tell us I like the French kid me too Chad who you got I like France but uh everybody from Sofia Bulgaria seems to be a winner so I'm taking Titritsky Christian yeah I can't say that last name Titritski Christian Titritsky yeah I struggle with it but that guy can side out he can he really can side out the only thing on him is that you got you got Kinoa right behind him so that it's like he constantly gets swapped right now.

Chad Gordon:

Not worried about a serving sub no he's been I mean he got swapped in the Loyola game real quick worried about nepotism I'm not worried about I well yeah but like not in this case because yeah it's gonna play but volleyball nepo babies you always gotta be careful about him we've had a whole episode about that I thought yeah or is that just one of the ones that one of the last volleyball nepo baby the shojus oh yeah duh that was easy or my own kid that made a team that probably shouldn't have yeah that was nice what are you talking about you paid club dues so we'll take anyone now I'm kidding he earned that spot Eli you earned that spot Eli's listening on his listening on his iPod or that's on the podcast appear he's on the Apple Watch right now seriously play the coach's group chat uh okay well that's it for uh this episode hopefully not recorded it and push play we are so bad guys cannot wait