S4E12: Bracket Challenge, Big West is More Entertaining Than MPSF, Milan Mania

We lock in our NCAA men’s volleyball tournament predictions and argue where the real upset windows are hiding, especially around UC Irvine’s ability to turn a match with serving pressure. Then we zoom out to the sport itself, from Big West entertainment value and rivalry heat to what “Milan Mania” teaches about training, leadership, and letting athletes put on a show. 
• bracket pick’em challenge details and why the submission data is interesting 
• UC Irvine vs Penn State picks and what makes Irvine dangerous 
• how a play-in winner can threaten UCLA at home 
• Pepperdine vs Ball State as a true coin-flip match 
• USC vs Hawaii matchup factors including health and lineup questions 
• why tournament parity feels tighter than past seasons 
• Big West fan culture and player personality compared with the MPSF 
• rivalry moments and why drama helps men’s volleyball reach new fans 
• how coaches can encourage celebration without losing control 
• what “Milan Mania” really is beyond drills and why buy-in matters 
Head on over if you want to fill out your bracket, test yourself. 
We need tickets to the finals. I’m not saying like bad tickets, I need like front row tickets. Give us a call.

Transcript

Cold Open On Pets

Arielle Houlihan 0:00

No pets for you guys?

Daniel Rasay 0:01

No pets for us.

Arielle Houlihan 0:03

Did you grow up with pets?

Daniel Rasay 0:04

We had a dog and a cat.

Arielle Houlihan 0:06

Did Anne have a dog?

Daniel Rasay 0:07

They had dogs. They had Jerome Kersey was one of the dogs. He he was a That was the dog's name? Yeah. He played for the Portland Trailblazers and she's from Oregon. So his name was Jerome No Mercy Kirsty.

Arielle Houlihan 0:21

So did you guys just have like a that's a hell of a dog name?

Chad Gordon 0:26

What kind of dog?

Daniel Rasay 0:27

Uh Schnauzer.

Arielle Houlihan 0:28

Wow.

Daniel Rasay 0:30

He died. He had diabetes. This is gonna be our best. That's gonna be a great cold opening right there.

Arielle Houlihan 0:39

That's crazy.

Matt Houlihan 0:45

Welcome everyone to episode 12 of the Coach's Group Chat. It is it's National Championship Week. We are here. We had to get the pod back together to celebrate this momentous occasion and give our final predictions.

Arielle Houlihan 0:59

We haven't seen each other in weeks.

Matt Houlihan 1:03

It's been literally three days since I saw Daniel. So we had to get back together. And it's gonna be a good one because we got predictions, galore.

Arielle Houlihan 1:13

Matt's really excited about this podcast.

Matt Houlihan 1:14

I am I got it before we even started. I was I was fired up. I just knew that we were there was gonna be good things said today. And the number one thing that popped into my head was something that Chad had texted. Hoolie's pulleys. Not Juli's pulleys. It's that UC Irvine made it into the tournament. Oh hell yeah.

Arielle Houlihan 1:29

Yeah, congrats to UC Irvine. Can you snaps for snaps for the and heaters?

Matt Houlihan 1:35

We're happy for him. Years and years of just being NCAA purgatory. Yeah.

Chad Gordon 1:40

I thought it was a bad guy. Clearly, something went wrong. Um, but I don't think we're ever gonna see a streamed Irvine match now. He's found he's cracked the code. Yeah, don't let him watch and you get in.

Matt Houlihan 1:49

The key is to make national news by calling for violence upon a minority. That's their fault. That wasn't Irvine's fault.

Arielle Houlihan 1:59

Irvine even posted an apology. I was like, it's not even Irvine's fault.

Bracket Pick’em Plug And Data

Matt Houlihan 2:03

They're fine. All right, well, let's get into it. We got we got the prediction episode. We we have to throw, or I need to throw in a specific plug before we get into our personal predictions, but we've got the coach's group chat sponsored, not really, just adjacent to the coach's group chat. What? Bracket Pick'em challenge that I hacked together with Club. It's sponsored. Yeah, it's sponsored. Actually, it's sponsored by Drop Dimes. I put Drop Dimes on there because So is the podcast. Yeah, so it's the podcast as well. I might as well throw Coach's Group Chat up there. You know what? Let's do it. I'll switch it. So head on over to Vulcan Records.

Arielle Houlihan 2:36

We are the sponsor of the Yeah, why not?

Matt Houlihan 2:38

Let's do it.

Arielle Houlihan 2:39

I thought that the bracket was going to sponsor us.

Matt Houlihan 2:41

No, other way around. It's a two-way sponsor. It's a two-way contract, yeah. Yeah, seven-day, seven-day rookie contract. Uh yeah, so head on out if you want to fill out your bracket, test yourself. There's already 3,000 submissions. I got some good data.

Arielle Houlihan 2:54

That's a lot.

Irvine Penn State And UCLA Test

Matt Houlihan 2:55

I know. There's I the I put there within an hour and there were 600 submissions. And to Daniel's credit, he was like, I posted, I did my bracket challenge before you put it behind an email gate. So I started started scraping all those emails off of people. Well, well played. Uh yeah. So head on over. If you want to, if you want to, it's free. Just drop your email in there and uh and and fill out your bracket. Set your spam filters on your email. I only email you once a week. And you and you have to opt in. You could just put your email in. If you don't opt in, we won't email you. God forbid a man just you know do a little bit of self-promotion on his own podcast, all right? Goodness gracious. But we're ready to go. Let's give our let's give our predictions. Now that we've seen the bracket, we've got the play-in game this upcoming Friday with the quarterfinal matchups on Saturday across four regional sites. We've got three, no, two in California, one in Hawaii, and one at Ball State in the Midwest. So uh would anyone like to set the stage for this tournament and we can kind of go uh pocket by pocket? Give us the first game. Irvine Penn State. Thank you, Chad.

Chad Gordon 4:02

I'm going Irvine. I'm also going Irvine because NIF is the king now.

Daniel Rasay 4:08

Irvine.

Arielle Houlihan 4:09

That would be mean it's Pav's last game, guys.

Matt Houlihan 4:11

I know. You gotta think there's a little bit of Pav magic in this game.

Daniel Rasay 4:15

Those aren't good guys, are the two coaches, good guys that we had from the one of the first episodes.

Arielle Houlihan 4:20

Yes, the good guys.

Daniel Rasay 4:21

How dare the committee match them up?

Arielle Houlihan 4:23

Yeah, the committee wants to get rid of the bracket. Exactly.

Chad Gordon 4:26

Not good boys, a little much, but even worse. At least the committee listens to this bond. So there you go, there's traction.

Matt Houlihan 4:39

Yeah, I just don't like the fact they're trying to get rid of the good guys. Uh yeah, I think this is the only I mean, all credit to Belmont Abbey, to St. Francis and the teams that, you know, the Fort Valley State that have gotten in. But if there's gonna be any upset in this first playing round, you've got to be able to be in the Penn State Penn State.

Arielle Houlihan 4:54

Penn State Urban State.

Matt Houlihan 4:55

There's just there's too much firepower for those other those other teams to see a any substantial blip. So Penn State would be the one where there could be some action here. And Irvine has had had some moments this season. I wouldn't say they have a bad loss. They lost to Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara was a pretty good team. Yeah, there was no bad losses for them. They've been pretty damn consistent the whole year. So I'm also gonna go Irvine. But winner of that then leads into UCLA, which begs an interesting question of can an Irvine or Penn State, if we're all taking Irvine, can an Irvine take down the Bruins at UCLA after already seeing this matchup once before in the regular season where Irvine took him to five. What's your guys' thoughts? We gotta do we have a anyone want to take that action here? Irvine upset? Obviously. Yeah, you want it? I would love that.

Arielle Houlihan 5:43

I would love it too.

Matt Houlihan 5:45

I mean, I'd love it. That'd be great to see for the sport. But do you if you're betting?

Chad Gordon 5:50

Yeah, if I have a hundred dollars, I I need I need good odds. But of of the teams that I think can do it, like Irvine is like they're just a little wild, right? Like they're running like you know, you'll like two-ball in the middle, basically. You've got some firepower on the pins, you got Cam Cossi slinging it. I think you know, it could be a little trappy for UCLA. You know, they're gonna have all week, they're not doing anything, they just get a you know, they skip the plane, obviously. Irvine's gonna play on that floor, they're gonna be ready to go from the night before. Yeah, you know, I'm not saying it's a lock, but I would love to see that, and they got a chance.

Arielle Houlihan 6:21

If I have a hundred dollars, I'm putting it on Irvine. If I have a thousand dollars, I'm putting it on UCLA.

Matt Houlihan 6:29

Gotcha. All right. Honestly, a great way to describe that bet. Got it. Doc, any thoughts there?

Daniel Rasay 6:37

I picked UCLA from the get-go, being at home, being comfortable, sleeping in home beds, and another factor that we'll talk about later, probably. Yes. Umeshadowy. Nice job. I would like an Irvine upset, but I think UCLA's got it.

Matt Houlihan 6:53

Yeah. I mean, I I feel like it was us that were talking about this. Uh the only people I talk to really is you guys. That's a good chance. Yeah. I mean, the conversation we had even before the bracket came out was I think if there's anyone that could take down UCLA, Irvine is one that makes absolute sense. Like, I if I'm UCLA, I wouldn't want to see Irvine on my side of the bracket. Yeah.

Arielle Houlihan 7:13

Nobody wanted to see that.

Pepperdine Versus Ball State Breakdown

Matt Houlihan 7:15

Dark Horse. Correct. Went to college with a bunch of swimmers and they called it outside smoke. You always got to be aware of the outside smoke. The guy in the outside lane, you can't see him coming, right? They usually put the fastest racers in the middle of the pool so you can see the guys next to you, but you don't see that outside smoke. Irvine is definitely kind of an outside smoke team. If they if they serve, which seeing them firsthand going against that team, they can absolutely crack it from the service line. Yeah. They can wreak some havoc. And if that is on, I I think it's hard for them to maintain that over the course of four matches, two weeks. But man on man, if they can get it going for one weekend, UCLA, UCLA can have some fits. And they've already had they had fits against Irvine the first time of the year. When we were scouting UCLA, the most knowledge I got gleaned was in that matchup. There you Urvine did a really good job of kind of exposing some things, or at least making UCLA really uncomfortable. So that is certainly one that UCLA is not going to overlook, but is one that's got to be circled for all of us watching.

Arielle Houlihan 8:14

Okay, let's talk about some other teams.

Matt Houlihan 8:16

Yeah, take us to the next side. Pepperdine. Pepperdine, Fort Valley State. Yeah, we got Pepperdine, Fort Valley State, then what? Then into ball state at ball state. So this is a this is a very interesting one on the bracket pick'em of the 3,000 brackets. I believe almost, I want to say almost 80% of teams.

Arielle Houlihan 8:40

I wouldn't consider it an upset.

Matt Houlihan 8:42

From a seating perspective, it it will be, right? Traveling to balls.

Arielle Houlihan 8:48

Yes. It's not an upset.

Matt Houlihan 8:49

I mean, Pepperdine is very, very good. This is definitely the this is definitely the the snake of the club volleyball world, right? Where the the four meets the five. Uh, this is gonna be a big one. Obviously, at home is always a nice advantage. Patrick Rowland.

Arielle Houlihan 9:03

I love that it's at ball state.

Matt Houlihan 9:04

I do too.

Arielle Houlihan 9:05

I would prefer for it to be at ball state just to give it a give them a little bit of a lean on that. But I do think that overall Pepperdine is the better all-around team, slightly.

Matt Houlihan 9:18

Pepperdine's got weapons everywhere. I think uh I like Ryan Barnett a lot. I think he's a really good left side. I would still put Patrick Rogers as the better left side, but Pepperdine has a right side. Pepperdine's right side, really. Probably the national team right side in uh in a in a quad or so here. So they definitely have the firepower across the board to support.

Arielle Houlihan 9:42

So and I also think they have the best libero in the country.

USC Path And Hawaii Injury Questions

Matt Houlihan 9:45

Yeah, Jacob Riley, real good. I think he's one he's probably the top, I would I would agree there from a server seed perspective. Defense, pretty good as well. So, yeah, it's it's it's gonna be a good matchup at home at Ball State. We'll make it definitely an intriguing factor to watch. What's our next one, Chad? What do we got? Uh SC Belmont Abbey in the uh Hawaii region. Let's go to Daniel here for the uh for the the locals, the locals narrative. What do we got here?

Daniel Rasay 10:11

Locals narrative. Crazy way to put that. So the we'll go to the Hawaii, our Hawaiian correspondent. I'm coming to you from Waikiki Beach. I don't know. I kind of like, I mean, I got SC making that first round, past that first round. I think it's interesting. It's an interesting matchup with Hawaii at Hawaii, and you know, I thought they weren't their best in the finals of the Big West. And um Todd went down with an ankle injury as well, so probably not gonna be at full strength, even though um they were still pretty good. It's intriguing. There's some potential there, I think.

Matt Houlihan 10:56

Yeah. I mean, USC beat Hawaii at Hawaii last year in the Outrigger, I believe, and it was actually a really impressive performance from USC. So matchup-wise, we've seen this before. Chad, we got the you you talked about it last week on the USC kind of still figuring out setters, rotating. Chapin's been kind of I think the the arrow is pointing more in his direction now. I gotta think that he's probably getting the nod in this next match, but who knows? Um, so there's definitely some question marks for USC as well, but certainly an interesting one if you compare and contrast last year what this team did to what they're doing currently.

Chad Gordon 11:33

Yeah, I mean I like I like SC in the middle on this one, uh, especially with Todd, you know, not not probably not being available. Um but what I think is really interesting is USC's lefts against Hawaii's right side blocking. Because those are some big dudes, both in in tread and and KT. And that's that's where what? I mean, how much of SC's offense is gonna flow through the left side, especially, you know, UH is gonna rip heavy, heavy serves, probably you know, getting them off the net. Like, I think that's whoever wins that battle is is probably gonna come out ahead on this one.

Matt Houlihan 12:02

Does anyone think we might see a Kainoa Wade in the middle this week? Yeah, maybe for sure. That's when I first saw that, I was like, I I know they have another middle who uh I'm OFEC. I'm blanking on his name.

Chad Gordon 12:15

I believe it's yeah, the guy the guy who came in. Yeah.

Matt Houlihan 12:17

You came in. Like he's obviously very capable as well, but when I'm looking at who I need to beat, I want another get me another really good server, and I've got a near seven foot guy on the bench and who's also my son. I might think about finding a way for him to play.

Chad Gordon 12:34

I mean, to be clear, Justin Todd wasn't a middle book for this, right? Like this isn't this is not unprecedented.

Matt Houlihan 12:39

We've talked about it ad nauseum on this podcast before, right? Put your best volleyball players out there. I absolutely think you might see right away against SC Kinoa in the middle, yeah, and just let him go, let him go back there, start him on the service line, get him minimize his minimizes front row rotations, run a one and a half, type a deal with them and see how see how it looks. Closing thoughts for us on the Hawaii USC most likely matchup there, Ariel.

Arielle Houlihan 13:04

Uh, I think that both the Hawaii SC matchup and the Ball State uh pep matchup are both like flip a coin. It will depend on on who shows up that night and is like electric and good and is able to handle both like home crowds and going into a gym. Can can a team go into a gym and play well, not in their own space, or is the home crowd going to be a huge deal here? I think that majority of people are fairly healthy at this point in the season. So it's nice to see like the majority of these teams have like I think we said this about SC at the beginning of the year. Like, if they're healthy by the end of the year, that's a pretty legitimate team to be able to go and make a run. So um I don't know.

Matt Houlihan 13:53

I'll pose this question this way: you only get to watch one of those matches ball state pepperdine or Hawaii. Hawaii SC. SC, where are you going?

Arielle Houlihan 14:01

I'm watching Hawaii SC. I will forever watch the game that is most likely to get a little controversial.

Matt Houlihan 14:09

A little chirpy.

Arielle Houlihan 14:10

Yeah, I agree.

Matt Houlihan 14:11

I'm watching Hawaii SC too. I think it's a good thing.

Arielle Houlihan 14:13

As much as that can be controversial, it's not as controversial as Hawaii SE.

Tournament Parity And Must-Watch Matches

Chad Gordon 14:18

Alright, our last one, Chad, what do we got? Uh this is Loyola St. Francis in the Long Beach neck of the woods.

Arielle Houlihan 14:25

The majority of these games are gonna be at 21 all. And it's gonna come down to the end of these games and see what happens. It's not like there's this huge spread between the one and the eight or whatever it is here.

Matt Houlihan 14:39

So to the credit of men's volleyball coaches and programs around the around the country, pretty razor-thin margins from top to bottom here. Like last year, Long Beach was pretty clearly uh a level above most. This year it's been it's been like UCLA is for sure probably uh still a level above.

Arielle Houlihan 14:59

But it doesn't mean that they're like this shoe. We've seen them play bad before, too.

Matt Houlihan 15:03

So like you can absolutely see any team, any teams making the national championship in that top eight.

SPEAKER_04 15:11

Yep.

Matt Houlihan 15:11

Right? Those those four playing games, meh, Penn State, meh. But everyone else, you could see them making the national championship.

Arielle Houlihan 15:18

Okay, respect for Pab for Plenty of respect for Pab.

Big West Energy Versus MPSF Vibe

Matt Houlihan 15:21

That man's walking out with national championship rings, he's doing just fine. Speaking the dynamics of these different programs, Ariel put a little text into our group chat.

Arielle Houlihan 15:32

I did.

Matt Houlihan 15:33

Yeah, you did, talking about how the big west is just far more entertaining than every other conference.

Arielle Houlihan 15:38

I didn't just put a little text. I went on like a rant while watching a game to you guys and was like, I just need to put my notes in here so that I remember.

Matt Houlihan 15:45

Share your notes to the people.

Arielle Houlihan 15:46

Okay, so my my thoughts are that as a whole, the big west is more entertaining than the MPSF. They're more entertaining teams to watch, they're more entertaining players. I was having this thought while watching Irvine play. I think it was Irvine Long Beach that they were playing, and reaction just from the moment that the point stops till the moment that the serve happens every single time, it's pretty electric to watch. And I don't see the same thing happening in MPSF games. Pepperdine versus Stanford or whoever whoever it is that I was watching in the MPSF, it just isn't like as uh performative, isn't the I wouldn't say that's the right word because that's not a good thing, but I do think that when you have Long Beach that is playing to their crowd at the pyramid, when you've got uh Irvine playing to their there, all of those kids are performing and are showmen when they're playing volleyball. Uh when you've got Northridge doing what Northridge is doing, when you've got like all these different Jordan Lucas in his own his own category. That's a completely separate category that has launched men's volleyball into oblivion this year, which hasn't been done before. Um so many of these Big West programs, I don't exactly know what it is. I put some pretty like controversial things in our group chat that I probably won't mention here, but like keep those blurred. But like I do think that there is support at these big West programs of these kids going and like performing, and I don't know if the same thing is happening in the MPSF.

Matt Houlihan 17:24

Yeah, let's drill down on that because you brought that up and and you put that text into the chat, and I we're live in the same house. So I immediately started talking to you about it. I was like, I feel like one of the reasons is because the big west has more of a stage, specifically because Long Beach has a culture of showing up at the pyramid. They sell that thing out constantly.

Arielle Houlihan 17:45

Sure, you're just saying the fans.

Matt Houlihan 17:46

Hawaii has a has a culture of fans.

Arielle Houlihan 17:48

Yeah, so you're you're the culture, not the you know what I'm saying? You didn't say that beforehand.

Matt Houlihan 17:54

Maybe let me finish the thought and then you can you can go after it. It's you've got the fans at Hawaii and Long Beach. Irvine has probably the number four attendance behind BYU of the MPCF, the only one that has any crowd there. But Irvine does it a little bit differently. Like NIF is doing as many things as possible to build up that Irvine culture. I think part of that comes from being in the Big West, seeing Long Beach do it, seeing Hawaii do it. He's like, Why can't we do it? So he's got his guys out literally panhandling the campus, being like men's volleyball game tonight, doing everything he can. There, they take a 10-minute intermission between sets two and three, and they go, I don't even know why I didn't mention Hawaii.

Arielle Houlihan 18:33

Hawaii is also in the big west. There's I mentioned that for you. Don't worry. Sorry.

Matt Houlihan 18:37

Um, yeah, and so you've got you've got these programs that are used to playing in front of these large crowds that entertain in these actual arenas of battle. Whereas like, don't get me wrong, like we're trying to do the same thing for Stanford up here with volleyball day in the bay and things along those lines. But when you're playing in uh 700 capacit, 700 people crowd in Maple's Pavilion, and it feels like no one's there, it's real hard to be like, yeah, guys, like go entertain. Like entertain who? The red mobile. Like, no, I don't need to. So it's just a it's a different, you're playing in a different theater than the other conferences.

Arielle Houlihan 19:16

Uh yes, I do think that that is a part of it. I think there's a lot of things that are that go into this, but I for sure, and I take the crowds out. You're right, but I also think that take the crowds out of it and the big west, the characters are more entertaining than the MPSF.

Matt Houlihan 19:35

Would completely agree with you there, too. No doubt. There's also good rivalries going on in the Big West. Like Long Beach Hawaii, after specifically after that final, like, and Daniel can talk to the history of it for sure, but after that final, my goodness, please give me a Long Beach Hawaii semifinal. Yeah, that would be incredible. Yeah, that would be incredible television, that'd be an incredible product on the floor because those two teams want to kill each other.

SPEAKER_04 19:59

Yeah.

Rivalries Virality And Coaching Celebration

Matt Houlihan 20:00

All right, and that's that's not a new thing, that's been a renewed rivalry for a while here. Like Daniel, talk about when you were a player for the Hawaii versus Long Beach Rivalry.

Daniel Rasay 20:09

Long Beach used to talk a lot of shit, and then they went through a period where they didn't have those characters that were that, you know, outgoing with the way they talked to their opponents. But I just remember during the season we played Long Beach, and David Lee looking at the camera during introductions just gave the throat slash, and we showed it in film the next day and got us fired up. And of course, the people of Hawaii were gonna get fired up, and then we ended up beating them, and our middle gave them the basically the sucket after the match. And things got a little heated. But it's nice that we have the partition in in between us and nobody got hurt, and there was just some yelling, and that was that.

Arielle Houlihan 20:52

And because it's Ben's valuable, and that's what's gonna happen is people yell at each other, and then that's it.

Daniel Rasay 20:57

Yeah. But there's there's a good guy and a bad guy on both sides, right? And the home team, you're the good guy, obviously. And but uh on the other side of it is people that aren't on the good guy or bad guy side are gonna start wanting eyes on it because it's entertaining. Yeah, right. And that's what we need for men's volleyball. We we need people outside of us to start watching the game and be like, wow, this is cool. There's athletes here, and they get after each other. Yeah, yeah.

Matt Houlihan 21:32

I mean, that's that's you can take the example of last year was probably the most viral in the volleyball community with Moni, right? Moni encapsulated the volleyball community. Everyone wanted to see it and everyone wanted to watch. Sure. This year you got Jordan Lucas that just got posted by the human rights campaign. Yeah, it's every insane, every single news you know, cable station possible. They had our who was it our Armani, Armani White that came to the game and posted a video about it as well. Like just it's it's a different level of connection with the general zeitgeist of just the current moment. Not just the volleyball zeitgeist, but the zeitgeist in general of the world right now. Or not the world, maybe the United States.

Arielle Houlihan 22:18

I mean, imagine imagine if Jordan Lucas is on Hawaii and is starting and is playing, and they're playing Long Beach, and that's happening in the semifinals. You think that it's big right now when you have a combination of all of these things that hit throw gasoline on it. It's literally throwing gasoline on it. It's that's exactly what it is, is when you have a combination of all these different things that happen, that's when it actually hits the real zeitgeist here of making virality happen in a way that is sustainable. Yep. That is that that's what everybody in women's volleyball is looking for. It's what everybody in men's volleyball, it's what everybody in all these small Olympic sports are looking for, is something that is going to make them get over the like just the volleyball people watching.

Matt Houlihan 23:05

Yep. Do you um do you think as a coach, right? You you look at Gyek's celebration in the fifth set where he hits the shakas and then shakas down to the Hawaii fans and the crowd. Like, do you as a coach do you try and coach that? Do you try and teach that? Do you encourage, like, hey, go like go out and do I I do.

Arielle Houlihan 23:26

I've I have given direction to my kids before of when you see when we have a crowd or when we have things happening, you have full reign to go and do whatever you would like to do. Yes, there is a point at which like you have to rein in. I would rather I'd prefer to rein kids in than I would have to try and make them do something that they are like, I don't want to I've I've been in your house before and you will say in those moments, go entertain.

Matt Houlihan 23:56

Yeah. Go entertain. Maybe not go do go do anything you want to do.

Arielle Houlihan 24:00

No, but it's not even well, that it gets to the point where I'm saying that when they know what I mean by that. But I also think that it's like I've taught with little kids being there that when they're going back to serve, you are allowed to say something to the little kid that's right there. You're allowed to go give a high five after you go get a kill and go do so like you're allowed to interact with the people that are watching and the people around in a healthy and positive way too, let alone fighting fighting the other team. That's no problem. Like I'm I'm I'm good with teaching how to entertain because it is of major value in our sport.

Matt Houlihan 24:43

Agreed. I agree. It's gonna and it's gonna continue as long as the authorities that be don't try and don't try and dampen that.

Arielle Houlihan 24:50

Which most of the time they do.

Matt Houlihan 24:51

Exactly. Which is like you gotta allow someone. Honestly, coaches do too.

Arielle Houlihan 24:54

Uh there's plenty of coaches that don't that don't want that to happen. I could name a hundred.

Matt Houlihan 24:58

There are plenty of coaches that so let's take let's take Jordan Lucas as an example. He has another year of eligibility. He just posted a TikTok about, you know, kind of not fully saying that he's coming back, but kind of hinting at it, which honestly 1000% he should. In any smart school that has a spot where they like you see the type of player is he's starting for C Sun right now. You know he's good enough to compete. Maybe not competing for a starting spot at a Hawaii or UCLA or a place like those top programs, but any other program where he could play, you gotta be going, like, can I get this kid? Because that kid brings a whole nother degree of focus to my program. But there's plenty of coaches that are probably coaches that don't want that too. I don't want to deal with it.

Arielle Houlihan 25:43

Yes. I I if I was a coach currently, I would be making moves for sure.

Matt Houlihan 25:52

For Jordan Lucas, hundred percent.

Arielle Houlihan 25:54

Yeah.

Matt Houlihan 25:55

Devin Young, University of the Pacific, Jordan Lucas, match made in heaven slash Stockton.

Daniel Rasay 26:04

If I I mean, yeah. Is there tampering in uh college men's volleyball? Tampering?

Matt Houlihan 26:09

I think I did what I just did was probably the closest thing to tampering, but I don't work at Stanford anymore, so it's fine. Also, I'm not even trying to recruit for Stanford. Uh no, but it's it's it is just to wrap that part. I I think finding the ways to be able to bridge the gap between the volleyball nerds like us and the rest of the sport watching community, you need something that everyone can understand. Everyone can understand friction and drama. Not everyone understands the bic, a D-ball, back row attack, a dump, service air. Not everyone understands that, but everyone can understand, oh, Jordan Lucas is just got a kill and is looking across the net and flipping his non-existent long hair at them, like I gotta watch this guy, right? Or someone's gonna punch somebody here. Like those are the things that anyone can can see. And you, of course, you have to be cognizant of you don't want to just turn it into some joke of a game.

Arielle Houlihan 27:12

But none of that is a joke.

Matt Houlihan 27:14

Exactly. None of that is a joke. That's the best part. You just don't, but you don't there is a slope, right, where you kind of have to understand that it could go too far in some capacities, but I think most of the time referees and coaches don't even get close to the level that they should allow athletes to go out and entertain.

Arielle Houlihan 27:32

Well, I think that there's a hard line on the kicking a ball at a referee. That's it.

Milan Mania And Why It Works

Matt Houlihan 27:38

Everything pre. Everything pre is fine. Daniel put into the uh the coach's group chat text thread this week. He wanted to talk a little Milan Mania.

Arielle Houlihan 27:47

So what is the branding of this? Milan Mania?

Daniel Rasay 27:50

Magical, magical magical Milan. Melania.

Arielle Houlihan 27:55

Melania. I like my suitcase.

Daniel Rasay 28:02

I was watching MPSF tournament, and you know, I've had a lot of interactions with Milan, so I know his magic, and he carries a big reputation as well. But just seeing him speaking in a huddle in crunch time, and everyone's engaged and looking at him, and he is bringing energy that you can see just flowing through the group, you know, there's a reason why everyone thinks he's great, because he is.

Arielle Houlihan 28:32

100%.

Daniel Rasay 28:33

And I thought let's talk about Milan and his greatness. Let's do it.

Matt Houlihan 28:39

I think we can all agree. There's uh we've we've all been affected by some Milan mania throughout uh throughout the past couple years that we've gotten to kind of interact and see and be around him. Um I think we steal, we've stolen so many things from Milan through Alex Jones and andor just watching him and Taylor Averill, bringing a lot of his drills and skill sets in. And I think you can watch other college men's volleyball programs. Literally, we would do a first point, we do the first point challenge, and there's a clinic that's run every at the start of the every year for the tournament where all the colleges come in and run stuff, and year one, Hawaii's there with Stanford and us, and everyone's doing the drills, and then Milan comes out and they do their drills, and everyone goes, This is different, completely different, like just balls flying everywhere, step closing, mm always multiple ball. The next year we come back and we we go to do the drills again. All four of the schools all have some iteration of exactly what that drill was now in play. Yeah. Right. It was like, oh, yeah, okay.

Arielle Houlihan 29:47

This is for real.

Matt Houlihan 29:48

This is yeah, everyone's stealing from this guy. Great. Okay, let's let's see more. What have you guys what have you guys noticed? I that that's just one one key point of it.

Arielle Houlihan 29:58

I it's taken me a lot longer to get uh behind the whole millania. Uh for a while. I was I was watching like people are taking drills from this guy, but like I don't give a flying, I don't care. Like I don't, I don't, I really don't. Like, yes, there's plenty of people in this country that can come in and say, like, I really like training like this, and then a bunch of people are like, Great, I like training like this too. I just think everybody's dumb. And so there it's taken me a lot longer to realize, I think, how good he is, and the majority of my experience in watching uh the especially game time of the the way that he interacts with his team, there is something that he is doing that I'm not seeing from anybody else in college men's volleyball. I'm seeing grown kids smiling and laughing and enjoying playing volleyball, and it's visible, and uh you can see that happening, but it's not coming from the coach, it's coming from the game. And with Milan, it's coming from the coach, like it's coming from somebody else that is changing dynamics and changing the flow of things because of his communication or relationship with these kids and the way that he goes about doing things with them, and you can see it on their face, you can see it with the way that they uh and the more and more that I've seen that, the more and more I've been like, oh no, this guy is actually really, really good at what he does. Like these kids trust him. They they actually are they're not just implementing the things that he is telling them to go do, but they have completely and totally bought into what he is saying, and they they would they're gonna go and fight for what he's what he believes in. Um and I haven't seen I haven't seen a UCLA team act like that before. I haven't seen uh that kind of leadership uh so present from an outside point of view.

Matt Houlihan 32:10

Yep. Chad, you got any uh any thoughts over there?

Chad Gordon 32:14

Uh maybe not as well formed, but I mean the first 30 to 40 minutes of every practice I've written in the last five years, it basically starts with like Milan shit, just in some form or another. Um this is why I enjoy working with Jones, because I can just be like, you know, for the first couple of years it was like, hey Jonesy, like just buy me 20 minutes, I gotta step outside and have a conversation or whatever. And then you come back in and he's like, Oh yeah, I got eight drills that I have 13 players, and two of them are left-handed, and the sun is at 4 p.m. I'm like, and you have two balls but no net. I'm like, how why do you have so many drills? Like he's just like, I don't know, man. Like Milan would do it, like he would just make stuff up on the spot. It was amazing. But like what you realize is like it's it's high rep, it forces it forces you to discover the right way to do things, kind of like just inherently built into the structure of the drill. Um and don't don't get me wrong, it's it's magic, but it's not it's not a secret pill or something like that. Like these are constructed in a way that is thoughtful and takes time and takes discipline and takes you know this this commitment, but you get so much better, and so I think that speaks to then the trust that the guys have because they're like, Wow, I've worked with this guy for like a month and like I'm feeling it, and like things are coming together, and you can see the joy that Milan takes when the guys like achieve these things. I mean, it's he is he is part of that process with him, and it's it is really cool. And I mean, I think like the first time I saw Milan, like I knew the name before I I knew who he was, but like then you watch UH and like who's this guy hugging everybody as they come out, and you're like, Oh, kind of tells you like pretty much what you need to know about him and his impact. So yeah, I love I love to steal shit from Milan, it's the best.

Matt Houlihan 34:03

Yeah, it's a I think he does a fantastic job. I call it the the bacon wrapped dog pill, where it's like, yeah, you gotta give your medicine, but you make it tasty. Yeah, he does a fantastic job of that. And part of that is yeah, it's it's challenging, hard, difficult stuff, but you can tell just the joy that he brings to the game and the position that he is in. Milan is the bacon. Well, yeah. He's he's certainly he's certainly the the missing ingredient in the sense that like he you can just tell the passion that he brings and how much he enjoys being around the guys. And I think he's also just like a funny joking guy in his thick accent. Uh like he he's pretty lovable too. So the T like the guys love him and respect him because of the energy that he brings, and they know that he's knowledgeable and passionate. So it's this really cool concoction where you can see he's got knowledge of the game, but he also has knowledge of people.

Chad Gordon 35:00

Yeah.

Matt Houlihan 35:01

And he may not be a fantastic English communicator, but he is a person-to-person communicator that is undeniably unmatched.

Arielle Houlihan 35:10

Yep.

Chad Gordon 35:10

It you can't just roll out the balls and run Milan drills and I mean you can, but that's not the bad thing.

Arielle Houlihan 35:17

That's not the reason why he's as good as he's he is. Yeah. I w I really do wish that people coaches, when they try and steal from people, I wish that it wasn't just the on paper stuff. I really, I really think that it is important for and maybe speaking to the older coaches is is a is gone and they are set in the ways that they do things. I wish that there would be changes in the way that the older coaches did things, but for all of the younger coaches that are getting into the sport and are trying to develop who they are as a coach, when looking at who is the best in our sport at what they're doing, Milan is up there and stealing from him, which you should, uh the way that he runs his practices, his drills, those things, that's all great. And you can play volleyball and get better at volleyball too. But the way that he deals with people is something that I think that should be studied.

Matt Houlihan 36:18

Daniel, we'll let you have the the the final the final word here on the Milan Mania.

Daniel Rasay 36:24

I'm gonna share a story about Milan that will kind of maybe bring this to a head. So I was out recruiting Josh Walker, who used to be an assistant at Hawaii.

Arielle Houlihan 36:35

Were you in Virginia? Really?

Daniel Rasay 36:38

Huh?

Arielle Houlihan 36:39

You were in Virginia?

Daniel Rasay 36:40

Oh he we were recruiting, and he was recruiting for Hawaii, Hawaii, I was recruiting for Stanford. So we're sitting and we're watching, and all of a sudden he pulls out this plastic bag with things wrapped in tin foil. I'm like, what is that? And he goes, sandwiches. And he's got basically like a white bread bologna craft single sandwich, and I was like, Where did you get that? And he goes, Milan. And he said, Every time we got recruiting, Milan goes to the store and he gets a loaf of bread and meat and cheese and he makes all of the coach's sandwiches. And I was like, that is amazing. That is amazing. Yeah. And he just pulls out a sandwich and starts eating sandwiches for Milan. I was like, that's great.

Matt Houlihan 37:24

Did Milan ever give you a sandwich? No. Oh. I'm gonna ask for a sandwich.

Daniel Rasay 37:28

Milan did tell me. We played them in the fall. I had a mustache because of November. We're shaking hands, and he looks at me, says nothing other than man with no mustache is like pan with no handle.

Arielle Houlihan 37:42

Oh my goodness. And just walks away. The funniest thing I've ever heard. That's crazy.

Daniel Rasay 37:47

Yeah. Bars. That was I think that was the first thing he ever said to me, too.

Arielle Houlihan 37:51

That is so funny.

Daniel Rasay 37:52

Yeah. So then that's the magic of Milan.

Arielle Houlihan 37:54

When you said you were out recruiting, I thought you meant you were recruiting Josh Walker. Oh no, okay. And I was like, were you in Virginia for that? Like, and also, no. Did you recruit Josh Walker?

Daniel Rasay 38:05

No, I wasn't recruiting then because he was.

Arielle Houlihan 38:08

I was about to say that might that sound like not enough time between K.

Daniel Rasay 38:13

Yeah. Now, okay, now that makes sense. Yeah.

Arielle Houlihan 38:16

Why would you be in Virginia?

Daniel Rasay 38:17

Yeah.

Arielle Houlihan 38:18

Okay, well.

Matt Houlihan 38:19

There you go. We gotta So we like Milan. Team Milan.

Arielle Houlihan 38:23

Team Milania.

Matt Houlihan 38:24

Team Milan. Speaking of tinfoil wraps. Hey Milan, I hear there's an opening at Stanford Men's Volleyball for an assistant computer.

Arielle Houlihan 38:31

No, Stanford Men's Volleyball, my ass. Beta Bay Volleyball Club. Come on over.

Chad Gordon 38:36

We've been talking about this for like the last five years of like director of social media.

Matt Houlihan 38:40

I actually did. We actually did uh at this year when uh we went up. It was at the end of the UCLA just beating us and Milan and Hawks are talking to us.

Arielle Houlihan 38:48

I said I pay more than they do.

Matt Houlihan 38:50

Yeah, and we we we pitched we pitched Milan in front of Hawks. Hawks like you can't do this in front of me. Yes, we can guess.

Arielle Houlihan 38:56

We can do whatever we want.

Chad Gordon 38:57

It's no violations, it's club bullet.

Matt Houlihan 38:59

I was like, you stole them from Hawaii, we can try and steal them from you too. Well, that's the uh that's the end of our beautiful, big, beautiful docket.

Arielle Houlihan 39:09

Is it?

PSA Asking For Finals Tickets

Matt Houlihan 39:10

Oh, wait, no, we have one final thing because I tried to set you up. My bad. The tin foil rep Sandy's.

Arielle Houlihan 39:16

I thought we were gonna talk about conspiracy theories or the new Noah Khan album.

Matt Houlihan 39:20

No, we're gonna talk about we do have the national championship first round this week. Okay, this is a public service announcement week at the national championship.

Arielle Houlihan 39:28

I have flights booked, but Okay, this is a public service announcement to Matt. You have to clip this for social media.

unknown 39:36

Click click click click click click.

Arielle Houlihan 39:39

We need tickets to the finals. We could buy them. Where's the fun in that? Uh so we like a challenge. We we asked our friends right before this podcast if they wanted to go, to which they said sure. And I said, Okay, we need to tell everybody, the whole, all of our listeners, that we need tickets to the finals. And I'm not saying like bad tickets, I need like front row tickets.

Matt Houlihan 40:10

We're looking for I want end zone view. So lower bowl, end zone view. I tried to buy them, they're not available. Only the side lower bowl is available, and I was like, no, we need Am I a parent?

Arielle Houlihan 40:23

Yeah, whoever has the access to those tickets, or like we need to the coach's group chat needs to be there, or we're gonna have to like sneak our way in or get a media pass, or do like, oh, there's too many other things, and like I don't want to do that. So somebody at Holly, at Hawks, at anybody at UCLA, anybody at Whirley.

Matt Houlihan 40:43

I know you got tickets.

Arielle Houlihan 40:44

Yeah, Worley, where are you? Like, we we need some help. So whoever can get us some good.

Daniel Rasay 40:50

Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

Arielle Houlihan 40:51

Yeah, like so all of our friends, all of our listeners. Because Kareem listens every week. Al skates.

Chad Gordon 40:58

The big four there.

Arielle Houlihan 40:59

Okay, we're only naming UCLA people. We also like other people that have access to tickets. I don't know. We just need tickets, so hopefully niffin. Yeah.

Matt Houlihan 41:09

Oh, wait, that would mean UCLA would be out. So that would mean there's a lot of tickets open, probably.

Arielle Houlihan 41:15

Um yeah, so give us a call. Me, Matt, Daniel, Chad. Nice to meet you.

Daniel Rasay 41:22

Call me.

Chad Gordon 41:25

Chuck us down.