Comments on: Wilhite POY, Dunning COY, Stanford vs. Texas Saturday

By: Cindy Luis

Cindy Luis — Sun, 18 Dec 2016 02:07:19 +0000

http://www.hawaiiwarriorworld.com/?p=40698

new thread up with title links

By: Bleachercoach

Bleachercoach — Sun, 18 Dec 2016 02:03:31 +0000

I love the volleyball IQ from most of the bloggers. “MERRY CHRISTMAS ” to Cindy and all the posters. May you all have a healthy and blessed 2017….I guess I will be impatiently awaiting 8 months to VB again. Coach Shoji, may God bless and free you from your affliction. Thank you for all you have done for the State of Hawaii……..

By: blunite

blunite — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 23:08:26 +0000

Well spoken words by Noblesol. Apparently, it is all relative depending on perspective. (Coach is a firm believer in OTT regardless of talent.)

What is indisputable is that good passing is a pre-requisite for success. In light of the last 3 years, Hawaii’s passing remains a question mark (going into 2017).

By: cruisecontrol

cruisecontrol — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 22:44:50 +0000

I just got a tweet from @HawaiiSB that Brittany Hitchcock is graduating early. Isn’t she just midway into her Junior year? If so, that is what I call a Student athlete!

By: islandman

islandman — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 20:08:19 +0000

Per volleyball mag site.

By: islandman

islandman — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 20:07:39 +0000

LBSU, Cal Poly and UCSB would have been in the new NIVC tourney if held this year.

By: islandman

islandman — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 19:57:26 +0000

Stanford has a tall team.

By: noblesol

noblesol — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 14:07:21 +0000

No one recruits strictly by height. All want to recruit players that can terminate and not fade away when facing height. If not tall, then must have superior hops, arm, quickness, endurance, and court vision. Top college recruit in the country may be Lexi Sun, headed to Texas next year. 6’2″ and touches 10’9″. Weakness, digging and passing. Strengths are OTT w/cannon arm, great court vision and all the shots, super athletic with a high motor. But, this years phenom freshman is Plummer, all 6’6” of her is OTT underlined and in bold. Not particularly quick, but she smashes downhill from all over the court, and blocks out the Sun. Coach of the Year, Dunning from Stanford, recruited and plays OTT with power. Texas, a perennial power, is recruiting OTT-capable players. If you can’t OTT, you have to play superior serve-receive-passing with superior quickness and superior setting. In other words, you have to compensate for your OTT deficit against teams that know how to recruit and play to win it all.

By: blunite

blunite — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 09:04:58 +0000

As Coach would say, it comes down to passing and hitting. Even Minnesota has trouble with passing and without accurate passing there is no fast offense. Just as Hawaii’s passing has been up and down so too do other teams, but to a lesser degree. You don’t see Karch Kiraly and the National team going OTT. In fact, Karch does not recruit purely by height which explains why foreign teams are often taller.

It will be interesting to see next season how well Hawaii fares with MG and KS trying to go OTT on the left side, assuming the passing does not break down.

By: noblesol

noblesol — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 06:18:05 +0000

I think the two teams in the final four that needed to run fast and in-system have both lost already. Which I think is the typical outcome when you get into finals play with teams that are taller and more physical. Stanford and Texas are both powerful OTT type teams first and foremost and defensively rely on their block. Stanford can possibly take some of that away from Texas, so the Longhorns may have to rely more on their speed and backcourt defense. That style of play didn’t work for Minnesota against Stanford, and Minnesota was probably the fastest team in the finals with the best setter. If Stanford can play the same high level of serve-receive and passing as they did against Minnesota, I think they could give Texas a tough match.