Men's World Championship Drama as Powerhouse Teams Fall Short of Playoffs

something that was not so straightforward were
the men world championships okay should i start
my apologies now or later gosh everything that
we were saying last week just forget about it
throw it in the garbage throw it away because
there were some Absolutely wild upsets. If anybody
says they predicted Japan, Brazil, and France
to not make it out of pool play, you're just
lying. It's not true because nobody saw that
coming. We saw them advance. We had Brazil going
all the way to the final, didn't we? Yes. Crazy.
Anyway, our bracket is more than just busted.
It is like disintegrated. It's a pile of ashes
there on the side. But we're going to dive into
what happened at Men's World Championships this
week and, you know, what the lay of the land
looks like for the rest of that tournament. Let's
get started. Our rundown for the week. There
was not a lot of movement in the top 10 of the
NCAA. But we will go over the biggest movers
from the top 25 again. I would say the biggest
positive was TCU improved upon their program
record ranking from last week. And they jumped
up even higher. from 15 to 9. I know they got
hammered by Texas this week, but they continue
to impress me. They're beating the teams they
quote -unquote should beat, and they're playing
well, so I think that's well earned. I like them.
I think they're going to continue to get better.
They were on my positive surprise list last week,
and I don't think getting smashed by Texas is
not going to affect their ranking too much because
they were 9, so I think they'll stay close to
that. rankings at this point when this episode
is released. Texas A &M dropped to number 14
from 8. They lost a couple games they probably
shouldn't have. I think they will end up climbing
back into the top 10 eventually. I think they'll
iron some things out, but they did have a couple
losses, so that's a fair drop. Tennessee entered
the top 25 after being unranked, and Pitt keeps
climbing back. We remember their preseason ranking
was number Three, they plummeted a little bit
after week one. Tough start for them. But they're
back up to number five. So they are clawing their
way back into the conversation. They beat Penn
State handily this week. I know it was in four,
but they were in control of that match. They've
kind of ironed it out since they started a little
slow at the beginning of the season. I mean,
ABCA first serve is a risk. Yeah. The preseason
is always like a balancing act. You want to play
tough teams so your RPI is good, but then you
also want to make sure you're beating those top
teams so your ranking doesn't drop. It's like
finessing the schedule in a way that like keeps
you in that top. group conversation but you also
need to make sure that you're going to win so
otherwise you drop it's really hard I don't know
how they come up with their schedules it's challenging
well and Pitt lost a few players they're trying
to figure out more than a few well yeah they're
trying to figure out what their offense is going
to look like what do they have who can they rely
on they obviously they have Babcock still but
it's not shocking that it took them a couple
weeks to kind of find a rhythm Well, and I'm
pretty sure they come up with their preseason
schedule before the season even starts. So they...
You mean before Tori Stafford? Yeah, exactly.
They had no clue what was about to go down. So
anyway, good for them. And finally, the voters
finally had enough of UCLA. They are gone. Gone
from the top 25. They let them hang around as
long as they possibly could. And then finally,
they're like, okay, enough's enough. You're gone.
I'm going to say never to return this season.
Oh, dear. You heard it here first, folks. We'll
see what happens. Some match notes, let's call
it, from the solid matches we saw this week.
Number one, Kentucky played Louisville, two top
six teams. That match went five. I'm not surprised.
You got the in -state rivalry. Yeah. It was hosted
by Louisville this year. Kentucky, I don't think
they won it for since, was it 2019? It had been,
I want to say, four or five years since they'd
beaten them. Yeah. I think they were 0 -4. against
them I don't they might not play every year but
I think it is a yearly thing which I think is
cool I do too I like those rivalries it's something
to look forward to it's always on the schedule
easy to get up for well now that like Creighton
is better it's like a similar thing that can
happen in Nebraska with like two solid programs
anyway very interesting match hit me with your
initial thoughts because this one in fairness
we watched a ton of men's volleyball this week
but we did watch this match I feel like I always
start with a negative, and so I was trying real
hard to think of a positive, but the negative
jumped out first. Well, and in fairness to people
who think Sarah's always negative, whenever she
talks about her own matches, having coached her,
she always starts with the negatives for herself
to, and quite frankly, never says anything positive
about how she plays. So this is not unique to
the podcast. This is just how her brain works.
This is how we have to be better to be the best.
Just throwing it out there. He's not wrong. Bottom
line is I don't discriminate. Okay. I'm harder
on myself than anybody. Okay, let's try to start
with the positive here. Cara Cressy started the
match... On fire. Very well. Set one, she was
unbelievable. Yes. And... Yeah. It went downhill
from there. But this is... So I think we saw
the fatal flaw in Louisville that we talked about
last week. Yes. Cara Cressy... is on. I think
she scored seven points in that first set. Don't
quote me on that, but it was seven or eight points,
I believe. Well, they want her to be the focal
point of their offense, which is great. You know
we love a middle. A hundred percent. We love
a middle. A hundred percent, and I watched them
play that first set. They passed well. They ran
Kara. The outsides were open and scoring, and
I thought, man, Louisville looks really good.
Cressy's playing well. They are grooving. That
was the best set they played. Yeah. And then
the passing kind of got pulled off the net. And
when Cressy's not an option, things kind of fall
apart a little bit. Well, and it was interesting.
There were multiple occasions in this game where
both teams gave up runs of four or five points.
I saw that both teams had certain rotations where
they really, really struggled. And the opposing
teams took advantage of that. both from a serving
and a defensive standpoint. And so you had these
big swings in this game where Cressy was in the
front row, they would push forward. Then she
would go to the back row and they couldn't score.
And Kentucky would come out and run a few serves
and the block would look really good. And it
wasn't clean side out volleyball. There were
definitely defensive runs and taking advantage
of certain rotations. Well, both teams have rotations
that they're very susceptible in. I will say
I am liking Brooke Baltimore. The middle for
Kentucky. She's got some juice behind her. They
got that connection flowing outstanding. And
that was something we talked about for Kentucky,
needing more options out of the middle of the
court, whether that be the pipe or the middle,
given that their outsides were hitting 100 -plus
balls a match. The libero, Molly Tuzzo, girl
needs to learn how to set. Here's my thing. I'm
going to just tell you I'm bothered by the...
fact that this girl insists on jump setting every
ball when she's spraying them all over the place
let's keep both feet on the ground until we can
dial in a perfect set at least eight times out
of ten then if you're feeling good think about
jump setting but girl you're jump setting all
over the place and these balls are literally
unhittable she is what I call a flashy libero.
She likes to make the big plays. I watched her
let some balls drop. She overpassed a free ball.
She got aced a few times. For me in that match,
I noticed her in the wrong ways. You don't want
to notice the libero, okay? If you're noticing
the libero, it's usually because they're not
playing well. I didn't think she had a great
game. And again, don't get me wrong. We played
five sets. She made some really good plays. But
there were some detail things, like you said,
some of the setting, some of the passing, that
was not there. She does have a really good serve,
though. I will give her that. Do you think Kentucky's
left side combo is the best in the country? Because
I heard that so many times on the broadcast.
I do. Okay. Adam approves. DeLay and Hudson can
score at any time from both the back row and
the front row. Now, I will say Eva Hudson started
really slow. Kentucky... She picked it up though
and it mattered. Well, they changed the setter.
I don't know if you noticed that. Originally,
I felt Hudson was getting jammed up in the front
row. The balls were inside. She couldn't hit
the line. And then they switched the setter and
they switched the right side. Daly came in and
did a great job. I don't think Thigpen played
particularly well on the right side. No, I thought
she actually turned the match around for them.
She gave them another option, and I thought the
setter switch was on point because the setter
got Hudson going, and she was really good down
the stretch. I feel like Hudson likes that setter.
I do too. And then O 'Brien connects better with
other players maybe. So I'm curious to see. For
me, there's a legitimate question on the right
side and setting position after watching that
match in terms of who's going to take that spot.
I think people are going to be so pissed that
you said that. From the setter perspective, I
think people are very high on Cassie O 'Brien.
I said I really liked her. She's a freshman.
She came in. She was one of the players I wanted
to watch. But watching that match, there was
some inconsistency. And the other setter came
in and connected with Hudson, who was struggling.
And we made the right side shift. So I'm not
saying O 'Brien. And she got injured. She was
massaging her leg. Oh, the cramp. She got a cramp.
Now, cramps are always interesting to me. If
things aren't going well, you get a cramp. Somebody
else comes in. I'm not saying that's what happened,
but it was a little coincidental. But that is
something to watch with them. Going back to Louisville,
I feel like they are very one -dimensional. Well,
they're one -dimensional when Cressy can't get
the ball. Well, that's what I'm saying. They're
great when she can. Your whole team revolves
around Cressy, which, again, love a middle, but
it's also high risk. Yeah, again, they're outside.
Why not serve her short every time? block jam
up her approach angle serve her short block up
her approach angle and then like your block defense
is so much more straightforward and I was surprised
Kentucky didn't do that they did it once and
Cressy got taken to the ground on a short serve
and then things just fell apart and I was like
now their passing did fall apart with the aggressive
serving in general so it was effectively the
same but I think that's a strategy against them
moving forward and they're gonna have to figure
out how to deal with it and I'll say it again
I'm not a fan of the left side combo for Louisville.
Okay, but I think you need to put a caveat on
that, right? Chacoin and Peterson are good players,
but there were a ton of digs in that match. Chacoin
doesn't have a Hudson to take the load. No, 100%.
Peterson doesn't have a DeBeer or a Charity Looper
to take the load. I think they are both secondary
type left side players. I totally agree. They
need a banger. Who do you like better, Chacoin
or Peterson? I thought Peterson played better
in that match than Chacoin did. I haven't been
impressed with Chacoin this season. I also said
it last week. I don't think Peterson's the answer.
Peterson's not the answer if they want to win
a natty with somebody who can score. But she
was not bad. When Cressy's firing and she doesn't
have a solid two -person block, she can put the
ball away. She scored a bunch of points. Anybody
can score with a one -man block. I'm not saying
one man. Anyway. What I saw coming down the stretch
was after those long rallies or during those
long rallies, DeLay and Hudson were able to put
the ball away more effectively than Peterson
and Chacoin. You know, that was a huge difference
because they stopped being able to get Cressy
the ball. I will say, last thing, I am really
liking Cabello, the setter for Louisville. Yes.
She was in that 6 -2 formation for the majority
of last season as a freshman. kind of won that
spot in tight moments during postseason play
last year. I am really liking her. She's aggressive.
I like how she's able to set with pace to the
outside for these left sides that aren't necessarily
huge bangers. I'm really liking her. We also
had Wisconsin -Florida that we watched. Maybe
Collier went off. Yeah. Hit negative in set one
and then completely dominated after that. Ended
with like 27 kills, I want to say, in four sets.
That's pretty impressive. Florida couldn't stop
her. No, Florida couldn't stop her. They didn't
look like they had a great game plan around that.
And they also, they made bad mistakes. There
were balls they let drop. There were setting
issues. numerous set points in set four it went
like 37 35 or 35 33 or something wild stucky
on they get a transition opportunity for the
set and stucky sets a back row ball to this girl
who came in two points before instead of setting
like jordan bird or something i was like what
are you doing or said august why are you setting
this girl who just came in when you have two
people who can score i don't know that was the
case of trying to be Trying to make the sneaky
set. Sneaky. No. It doesn't work. At that point,
you've got to set your bangers. When you're at
the end of the match, you're not trying to be
sneaky, okay? We're not trying to fool anybody.
We need to get the ball to the people who get
the job done, and that is why they get the job
done, because they score when everybody knows
they're getting the ball, period. Collier was
banging angle, and their defense was sucked into
the court. I thought they should have been able
to dig a few more balls. They looked disjointed
to me watching that match. smooth on the Florida
side and I thought Florida I know the sets were
close but I thought they would look better I
thought this would be a better game well they
just dropped a match to Marquette this weekend
as well yeah Florida was my dark horse team and
they've got some work to do they're not all on
the same page Wisconsin however their team identity
has had to completely shift they are not the
tallest team anymore Their blocking is, what,
96th in the country when it's been one or two
for the last four seasons. So they have a complete
identity shift going on. I'm very curious to
see how they do in Big Ten play. I thought Furbringer
played well. I think she's more comfortable running
this offense. She had some blocks. She serves
well. Carter Booth. She was running Carter Booth
well. Yeah. And Mimi Collier likes a little bit
of a faster set. So I think that that works in
her favor. Grace Egan, I think, is doing a decent
job on the right. Yeah. The Serbian girl. They're
finding their way. Do I think they're going to
be a top five team? I don't think so. I think
their ceiling is a little lower than some of
the other top teams. But if they can get... two
or three players playing at a really high level
in a particular match i think they can beat anyone
but i think that it's going to take consistently
high play from two or three athletes for them
to beat really good teams they don't have an
it player like some of the other teams collier
i think you could argue is she was unstoppable
yes i'm sorry when you get to like overtime It
just takes one mistake for the set to be out
of your hands. She was automatic. 100%. She was
fantastic in this match. I need to see her do
that. She's already gone National Player of the
Week this year. You guys, can we talk about this
role reversal going on right now? Since when
am I the one defending a player? It's too early
for me to put her with the likes of Babcock or
Stafford or Martin. These players who can carry
the load, match in and match out. Let's talk
about this at the beginning of November. I'm
not saying she can't do it, I'm just, I need
to see more. Okay, last match we're going to
touch on. Nebraska Creighton went five, but they
did set an NCAA record. But for like not postseason,
there was like over 17 ,000 people at this match.
Nebraska, like I said, squeaked it out in five.
We did not watch this one, but I have received
a bunch of questions about Nebraska's system.
So I want to address one of those now. One of
the questions that we've received is, can you
give your analysis of the libero situation at
Nebraska to a non -expert? It seems like Choboy
can't be a libero because she doesn't have the
serve receive skills. Mouch is a great passer,
but lately her defense has seemed poor. What
would you do if you were a coach at Nebraska?
And then a follow -up question to that from someone
else was, is it weird that Nebraska is playing
so many rotations with both Mouch and Choboy
on the court? To answer question number two,
I would say this seems to be Nebraska's MO. We
saw them have two to three littles on the court
at the same time for the last several seasons.
The reason this person was asking is they're
like, oh, you only have three attack options
at any time when Bergen Riley's in the front
row. I feel like Nebraska's fine with that because
they've been running Jackson on the slide. murray
on the pipe and then the left side as well they
only need one back row option and they can move
that around and with jackson running the slide
the rare that you'll see them run a back row
ball on the right side over that anyway so that's
not weird to me because that's like nebraska's
system like ball control you to death yeah the
other part however i agree with this statement
i would take the passing libero no i completely
like lamey cho boy has been a defensive sub Her
whole career at Nebraska. She comes in to serve
and play defense. Mouch was the top receiver
in the NCAA last season statistically. So yes,
your statement, 100 % correct. I would run a
two libero system personally, but that goes against
Nebraska's system. They don't play hardly anybody.
I want to say they play two players, six rotations,
Harper, Murray, and Bergen -Riley. And that has
been their thing for years. I love a six rotation
right side. Maybe because I was one, I'm a little
bit biased. Having a six rotation right side
would alleviate some of that. You could run a
two libero system, put your passing libero in
for serve receive and vice versa. But that's
just not the system they run. They don't develop,
they don't have the six rotation players developed
or they don't use them. So this is what they're
stuck with. But you can't tell me you don't have
another defensive player who you could put in,
even if you're running a two libero system. No,
they do. They just never play her. I think it's
Macy Basinger or something. I would give Mouch
a few more matches to settle in defensively to
see where she gets to. In my opinion, the passing
is the first. I would say. You want to be able
to run Jackson. You want your setter to be in
system all of the time. That just makes it harder
on your opponents. The more first ball kills
you can get, the less defense you have to play
anyway. Passing is the priority for me. And then
you kind of hope she settles in and figures out
the defensive side. And I think Dani's teams
are generally really good defensively. So I would
trust Dani to work with her to kind of up that
level. And then you have Chillboy coming in and
playing defense. If you get halfway through the
season and for whatever reason Mouch just can't
figure it out defensively, I would go to the
two libero system and then sub in the next defensive
player in that regard. Well, I think it's worth
having Mouch as a libero period because she's
only a sophomore. Yeah. Like if she figures it
out, you've got her for two seasons past this,
which is not the case with Choboy. So that's
what I would do. As we said, we focused predominantly
on the men's side of things this week, but we
just wanted to talk about some of the matches
that we did watch because they were quite entertaining.
So that is kind of the landscape and where we're
at on the NCAA side of things. I know the Power
Four conferences are starting conference play
this week, so it'll be interesting to see how
the preseason has prepared them for that. What
adjustments, if any, we will see from certain
teams. But that is where we're standing. Those
were the weekly highlights and happenings. A
little longer segment today. All right. Let's
get to the meat and potatoes of this. And I'm
going to start by saying I was wrong. I think
everybody was wrong. And I apologize to Turkey,
who did not collapse in the playoffs. Well done.
Adam was like, they're going down first round.
There's so many storylines and there's so many
things to cover with this World Championships.
And the YouTube feed was blowing up with people
wanting our takes on all of this happenings and
teams not making it. So where I would like to
start is I would like to look at the three teams
who we expected to do really well in France,
Brazil, and Japan. What are your observations?
What are your thoughts? How did we get here?
And just dissect that before we get into the
teams who are still playing. I want to start
with France, who I think, I mean, we had Brazil
going to the final mostly because of their draw.
I think France not making it out of pool in the
fashion that they did was probably the biggest
shocker of world championships. And they brought
their big boys. There was a 0 % chance. that
this was going to happen going into world championships.
Oh my gosh. Okay. They lost to Argentina in five.
Yeah. And they lost to Finland in five, finishing
third in pool. Yeah. Give me your thoughts, because
we watch both of these matches. I have a couple
thoughts. First of all, the sheer number of serves
France was missing. Against Finland in particular,
they gave them an entire set in missed serves.
So I'm going to throw these stats at you while
you... bring up these points so against argentina
they actually had the same number of miss serves
in the match it was 22 apiece okay however you
are correct against finland 27 miss serves to
finland's 17. it is really really hard to win
matches if you're giving the team a complete
set wild wild tell me if you agree with this
i understand wanting to be aggressive and the
need to be aggressive on your serve 100 do you
think France's ability to like maybe not do 100
% serve, maybe do like a 70 % serve because technically
and systemically you trust yourself to be better
than like a Finland. Or do you think that that
is like underestimating Finland? No, they 100
% should have made that adjustment against Finland.
What I read in that was we're going to try and
dial in our serving so that further on in the
competition. We're feeling it and we can unload
on our serves. And we trust ourselves to be able
to win even while we're trying to find our rhythm
from the baseline. It came back to bite them.
Obviously, I'm not on the bench. I can't speak
for their mentality, but that's what it looked
like to me. And I kind of thought they had that
attitude and mentality through all of pool play.
Un peu laissez faire. Oui, oui. because it's
France Sarah's actually fluent in French I don't
actually speak French like that I was just you
know so that was my first thought my second idea
as to what happened is France has won the last
two Olympics they've been very successful in
recent years maybe they just don't have that
same drive and level of motivation to win those
matches and maybe it's not as much of a like
necessity you know to get these wins as it is
for some other teams and maybe what we saw was
a little bit of complacency I agree with that
I think they were obviously prepared it's not
like they got blown out in those matches so they
were playing and they were competing but it was
definitely a different level of urgency than
we saw even in the important matches in VNL.
Argentina is obviously a really good team. I
don't think that they took them lightly, but
I think lining up, it's hard to get up for a
match against Finland. And I mean absolutely
no disrespect to Finland, but when you've won
that much and they're in your pool, that's a
match where it's, hey, we come in, we warm up.
We can play at 80 % and we're going to go on.
And I just don't think when it came down to it,
they couldn't flip the switch in those big moments.
And again, you see it from the service line because
that's an entirely mental skill. They just weren't
sharp enough. And if that's a byproduct of having
won so much, not being able to get into that
mindset for pool play matches, it's something
along those lines because they just weren't crisp.
The other thing I will say is their left sides
were not very good. They brought Engapeth. You're
supposed to have all of your big guns here, all
of your options. I went deep diving into the
stats. And I combined all of the outside attacks.
I'm not including the right side. All of the
outside attacks during the VNL. So Engapeth was
not there. So he was not included in this. As
an outside core, they hit .358 on the entire
competition, which is a very, very good number.
Now, you would expect World Championships is
an easier tournament, especially in pool play,
and you upgraded, theoretically, that position
bringing in Ingepeth. You would expect to be
at the same level or higher. And during those
matches, they hit .259. That is a marked... difference
from your outside core when you put those three
things together the serving issues the it wasn't
a lack of intensity but a lower intensity that
we've seen in big matches from them and the left
side struggles from a scoring standpoint if teams
come to play and both Argentina and Finland did
you're not going to win okay what about Brazil
all right I saw a couple things for Brazil now
Brazil lost matches very closely. For people
who weren't dialed into everything, there was
a three -way tie for first place in that pool.
And the only reason that Brazil didn't make it
was because they dropped one set to China and
the other two teams in their pool did not drop
a set to China. Brazil was right there. I think
they needed to beat... They needed to push Serbia
to five or win one set to make that a tie and
then go out ahead. And Serbia beat them in three.
What I saw from Brazil, and we had this a little
bit, we talked about this last time, and people
were not happy with my assessment, but it's going
to stand because I saw the same thing. Kachopa
struggled to set the left sides. There were so
many unhittable balls. Kachopa runs. right side
middle pipe combination beautifully and quite
frankly Brazil often does this very very well
however on the left side the balls were often
low and inside and tight and what I think was
happening was they were trying to run that ball
so fast that the location was just inconsistent
I'm not sure Arthur specifically He's not a fastball
hitter. He's 6 '10". He was volleying some balls.
If you need to slow it down to give Arthur a
chance to reach high and hit deep, give him a
chance to score. And I thought he was handcuffed
there. And Luccarelli's the same thing. He jumps
well. He can handle the fast sets a little bit
better. But overall, there were too many unhittable
or times where the left side was in a compromised
position. And when we're talking about losing
sets by two or three points, that's an issue.
I don't disagree with you. It was all the sets.
Not all. A lot of sets to the left side were
trailing onto the net. Now, the other thing that
I saw, Alain didn't play poorly, but he also
didn't play as well as he played in VNL. Yeah.
He hit 284, which is not bad, but it's not good.
Especially if your left sides aren't scoring.
The statistical standards in men's and women's
are different too. Like 284 for a left side in
women's volleyball is like pretty good. But there's
also a lot more defense being played. So that
is not the same for men's, I don't think. Fair.
But he also guts the garbage balls. Okay. And
that's, we're talking efficiency here. So errors,
blocks as well. What I will say, Atlanta was
a black hole on defense. There were so many times
where he was in position and got hit with the
ball or it was half a step one way or another,
and he was just not making plays. And Bernardo
was about to lose his mind. He's like, the game
plan is good. You're standing in the right place.
Execute the dig. And there may have been a few
words before the dig, but it was just not good
enough. And again, we're talking about matches
where it's two points. You've got to make those
plays, especially when you're in the right place.
He made one dig against Serbia. And there, I
counted, there were seven balls I thought he
should have had touches on. Let's say he doesn't
dig all seven. Let's say he digs three more.
That's three more opportunities and you need
two points. It's just that part also wasn't good
enough. I thought that Mikey and Lucarelli do
a good job playing defense. I thought the blocking
schemes for Brazil were good. I think that Arthur...
has a little ways to go on his defensive game.
Brazil was close. They couldn't close it out.
They missed a few key plays. I liked what I saw
from them. Arthur's young. There's some room
for growth there, I think, with this team. I
thought their performance, even though they didn't
make it, was better than France's. We had a ton
of questions about Japan. Oh, we did? Yes, we
did. Japan... lost a shocker to turkey a and
then i boldly predicted that they would hammer
canada and that did not happen canada laid the
boots to them and then they were eliminated japan
just like that they had a they had a rough ghost
i'm curious what you saw oh okay i honestly felt
a little bad for japan and i don't usually feel
bad for anybody In this case, balls that were
close or any balls that could go either way,
none of them went Japan's way. All of them went
Turkey's way. All of them went Turkey's way.
And none of them went Japan's way. When stuff
like that happens, they would make a great swing
and it would be like an inch out. And it was
a great swing, great choice, just missed. Or
a scramble play, something weird happens and
it just like doesn't go their way. And so it
was happening consistently. At that point, it's
just, oh, it's so hard to watch because it's
just like they could not catch a break at all.
I thought specifically, Mia Ora. You know, normally
he's finding fingers. He's finding holes in the
block. He's catching sidelines. He was making
good swings that were missing by barely anything.
You would see on the bolt six, it was slivers
of space. And I'm watching this from a coaching
perspective going, I would tell you to make that
same swing again. You hit that shot. 85 % of
the time, and it goes your way. There was a little
bit of loaded dice in the Turkiye match, I thought,
specifically. And Turkiye played well. Turkiye
played lights out. Yeah. But I would say Miura's
serve also wasn't working. The Japanese left
side combo of Ran and Ishikawa, they didn't score
enough. Well, statistically, they were terrible.
Yeah. Against Turkiye... Ran went one for 22,
hit 0 -46, and Ishikawa went six for 23, hitting
2 -61. And they only ran the middle 10 times.
Lackluster production from the left sides in
that match. And the big thing to me was Turquoise
out -aced them 7 -1. And those statistics for
Japan, they need to be serving well. You need
to be serving well, but also as an undersized
team in the men's landscape, you need to pass
well to give yourself a chance. And then on top
of that, you and I talked about this, they were
running such a vanilla offense. And I know that
they have had success running that way for a
while, but... You guys need to create some movement
in the block or distract the block defense a
little bit with some combo plays or something.
And granted, if you're getting aced that much,
your passing's not outstanding. We need to get
a little more creative to make up for the things
that maybe are not your strengths compared to
other teams. So I felt that they're moving away
from their typical identity. And my question
to you is, Do you think that's because of the
setter change or do you think that's the coaching
influence? My ins, obviously, I don't know. No,
but I'm... I would guess it's the foreign coaching
they're bringing in. What they're running right
now is a very Western style of volleyball. Even
going, like I played pro in Asia for what, four
years in different countries. That is a thing
that I really had to adjust to as a Western.
player going to asian countries is how reliant
those teams and the leagues were on running fast
combo like deceiving decoy plays as westerners
we don't really think about it my instinct is
it's a coaching thing because it's just probably
not on the radar of those coaches but overload
a middle left side run a pipe over top of the
middle if you're going to play a more quote unquote
western style of volleyball your middle has to
be a threat they're missing the key component
to doing that turkey a head they're outside hitters
i feel bad for them they were up against two
three blocks all night and well we said the same
thing about the women's side they don't run the
middle enough finally in worlds we we said wow
they ran the middle a bunch i think it's a systemic
issue i'm not sure the style matches their strengths
quite quite appropriately for whichever reason
they're they're doing that and then on the canada
side the story for me was 10 blocks to 2 and
canada outdug them 51 days to 44 and that shouldn't
should never happen it was the same thing like
mia ora hit 136 3 for 22 ishikawa hit negative
Ran actually got subbed out. I thought the left
side who came in actually played pretty well,
but they just, they did not have it for whatever
reason. It just wasn't a good turnaround for
them at all. I think they're getting away from
the things that make them successful. You see
Ran, he wants to zig and zag and hit balls and
cheer. Mia Ora is capable of running a little
more kind of up and down on his own. He just
had nothing go his way. The dice were loaded
against him in this tournament. And sometimes
that happens. The left sides struggled. So this
kind of builds on a question that we got that
we'll address now. In why are there so many upsets
on the men's side? This person gave two possible
reasons. Do you think programs aren't willing
to give their younger players a chance? Or do
you think that maybe the teams that have had
success, their game style has gone a little stale
and they're not evolving? But yeah, what do you
think? That's such an interesting question. There's
a couple things that come to mind with that question.
One is, quite frankly, World Championships is
not the time to play your young players. You
play the people who have earned time, who have
earned the spots. Well, you see the ins and outs
in VNL because it is such a long. And that's
where you play your young players. That's where
you figure out who's ready to perform. World
Championships is the tournament. It is what you
are trying to win. I don't think for this tournament
that is applicable. You look at an Ingepeth situation,
for example. Didn't play at all in VNL. I believe
he was injured this summer. Coming back to Worlds,
it was pretty clear he had not been playing all
summer. Do you know what I mean? To me, that's
not a case of not giving a young player a chance.
Ingepeth makes this better. He either wasn't
ready to go or wasn't. The other thing I will
say is that there are a crop of... young players
coming up for teams that are not traditionally
powerhouses who are upsetting the apple cart,
so to speak. So the top five scorers from Worlds
currently are all from teams you would not expect
them to be from. Now, before you tell me that
stats aren't everything, I understand that they're
playing some more five -setters, that they're
getting more balls than some of the other teams.
The teams maybe aren't as well -rounded. However...
Their hitting percentages are also off the charts.
So I want to go over this just to give you some
context. Regers from Belgium is leading the tournament,
and I'm not going to go by points. I'm going
to go by attack percentage. He's hitting .454
on the tournament. That is outrageous because
they are setting him a ton, and he is delivering.
That guy is so fun to watch. He jumps very well.
It's spectacular. You know, when you've got a
guy like that who's making a difference and scoring
that many points and Belgium's got some veterans
around them, they've got a couple other young
players, they come out of nowhere and they make
you play. And he was unconscious. Then you have
Jokula from Finland, who he has the second most
points, but he's hitting 372. That's very good.
You have Ayi from Netherlands. Third highest
score, hitting .301. The opposite from, or the
left side from Turkey, Lagunca. He's hitting
.446. That's crazy. Nikola from Bulgaria. And
so they're coming up, and I do think that having
something to prove and having a chip on your
shoulder and coming out and being like, I'm coming
for these guys, it does, it makes a difference.
It gives you a little bit of an edge, and I think
we've seen that so far in world championships.
We talked about the teams that... we thought
would do really well and didn't advance. But
then some teams have been pretty big surprises
and two in particular are Finland and Belgium.
Yeah, like I said, they have the two top scorers
in the tournament and they've got... pieces around
them so I mean Belgium has a pro league Finland
has a pro league they have a couple vets on there
it's not a great pro league no but but these
guys are playing relatively full -time and then
all of a sudden you've got a couple young guys
come in who can score points that kind of turns
the corner for the program I think it's also
like we have nothing to lose mentality and like
how exciting is it for these guys to play against
like they're heroes you know yeah and you know
when you're coming up you want to kind of measure
yourself against those athletes that you've watched
for a long time so you get so hyped to play them
and then you're having success you're like oh
my gosh am i about to beat these people so i
can see it being very exciting for them which
is like kind of you know, the opposite situation
we were talking about with like a France who
has had a lot of success for a long time. Yeah,
it's been really interesting to see because even
like some of the teams like DeRoe on Belgium,
he's not like a young guy. He's been around.
He's feeling it and it's really cool to see.
The youth revitalizes you. Yes. Because I believe
he's 36. Oh, is he really? Yeah. I love that.
What do you think playing for a contract means?
Do you think that that factors in? You know,
you've got these young opposites, these young
outsides who, you know, have played mostly in
their home leagues up until this point. That's
not all true. Some of them have been in some
other leagues, but this can up your contract
value, I feel like. It's too, probably too, it
is too late for this season, but like VNL is
typically, you know, a place where... These clubs
can see you, see what you're made of, offer you
that contract. Belgium just qualified for VNL
for next year. Finland's case, like this is a
great opportunity for those guys. Everybody is
watching world championships and like club presidents
and owners and agents and everything. They're
taking notes on like all these athletes. So yeah,
you want to show up when you have a chance because
like a lot of teams don't. And like speaking
from my own experience, when I was playing Canada
wasn't, involved or good enough to play in these
things so I had to rely completely on my pro
season to be able to get those opportunities
and then like have my agent sell me having this
opportunity and playing well in this stage is
huge all right one more quick thing about world
champs before we get into our new predictions
because the old ones are completely out the window
and useless but I have to say turkey a came to
worlds with pretty much the same roster that
they went to vnl with they are worlds better
so i hope they're a completely different team
i don't get it i hope that that coach is getting
paid triple what his salary is because for them
to be that much better in that short time how
does that happen it's well well i'll tell you
i'll tell you one thing the lagoonja brothers
are just playing out of their minds. If we look
at, I also did a comparison for Worlds and VNL
for them. The one hit 230 at VNL is hitting 373
at Worlds. And the opposite hitting 294 at VNL
is hitting 446. There you go. So that's pretty
much the difference. All right, hit me with your
new predictions for the rest of Worlds. So at
the time of this recording, There have been four
matches played. So we know that one of the quarterfinals
is Italy versus Belgium, and another quarter
is Turkey versus Poland. We are still waiting
on the other two. So for the round of 16, we've
got Tunisia versus Czech Republic. I think Czech
is going to win that one. Okay, I have no idea.
Then we have Serbia versus Iran. I also have
no idea. I watched Serbia play a couple matches,
and I liked what I saw. I think they're playing
well. I'm going to go with Serbia on this one,
actually. I think Serbia will win this one. Okay,
so you have Czech versus Serbia. And I think
Serbia is going to win and go to the semi. Okay,
and then for the other rounds of 16, Bulgaria
versus Portugal. I think Bulgaria will win. USA
versus Slovenia. I'm going to say Slovenia. Although
Micah Christensen is a massive difference maker
for USA, okay? I watched them play after we did
the segment of who improved the most. And just
watching him run that offense, I immediately
regretted not pumping his tires more in that
episode. I think he did a fantastic job. And
I actually voted against Karch and USA against
Cuba. I'm not going to do it this time. I think...
Karch gets the boys going I think USA is gonna
win and then who do you think will win USA or
Bulgaria I think USA is gonna go to the semi
I'm gonna take a flyer here and say Bulgaria
is going to the semi but then I think Poland
will be Turkey they're just the best in the world
right now yeah and I think Italy will beat Belgium
I'm actually really looking forward to that game
just I want to see Regers against the Italian
bloc. I want to see how long the Magic can keep
going. But I think Italy will win that one as
well. I think Poland will be in the final. Yeah.
I'm going to say... I'm going to say Bulgaria
in the final. I'm going Poland -USA in the final.
Poland winning the tournament. Okay. I think
Poland will win it all. But I'm just like, that
was my random, you know, let's throw it out there.
Love it. Okay, let's see how wrong we can be.
But we can't be as wrong as we were last week,
so we're already ahead. So if you have not been
paying attention to the Men's World Championships,
you need to. The parody, the volleyball, it's
exciting. There are players making a name for
themselves. There are upsets happening everywhere.
I think the final playoffs are going to be spectacular.
There's no way our predictions are right, and
so it'll be fun to watch these matches. I think
they're going to be super competitive, and I
think it's going to be a great week of men's
volleyball. All right, it is time for listener
questions. Question one, what are your thoughts
on the men's jump float serves? Does it need
to improve so reception breaks down more or should
they leave it alone and rely on the block? This
is totally situational. To be fair, there are
some guys who have great jump floats. I think
men's jump float serves are a joke compared to
women's. I think in general, that statement is
accurate. Women's jump floats are more effective
than men's jump floats, but I think it's for
a couple reasons. One, you don't have as many
women who have bombing spin serves. So the men's
float serve is, hey, you're our get it in guy.
So you need to make sure that that serve is in
because we already have these guys taking rips
from the baseline. It also, it's situationally
dependent, right? If you can hit a flat float
serve across a middle's approach or to a specific
side or eliminate an option, I think that probably
could be utilized more in the men's game, taking
a little bit more risk, but still making it a
safe serve. But it's also dependent on how good
your block defense is and what you're trying
to do. There's a lot of factors that go along
with how aggressive the float servers are in
this regard, in my opinion. So your answer is?
either one depending on the situation yeah it's
it's situational i will say in general it's not
as effective as on the women's side because the
net's lower they get for instance better trajectory
and it's can be more of a high risk serve where
that's not the case on the men's side question
two how do fans feel when their coaches are helping
other countries i've never thought about this
and i don't think anybody else thinks about it
in general i mean it's a way for them to earn
a living I've never thought about this, but I
saw the question and I was like, oh, interesting.
I guess I've never thought. Yeah, I mean, in
this case, there's a lot of Italian coaches out
there. There's a lot of Italian coaches. But
if you look at other sports, a lot of Canadian
coaches. But in beach volleyball, there's a ton
of Brazilian coaches. Yeah, I think. Canadian
hockey coaches. Yeah, wherever the sport is kind
of homegrown and you have a lot of expertise,
I mean, people are looking for jobs. And I don't
think. I've never looked at a Canadian coach
sideways for hockey. I'm a hockey fan. And said,
oh man, I can't believe he's coaching that team.
No, because I'm like, there are limited jobs.
Yeah. And like, if you're good at what you do,
yeah, take it. Yeah, it was interesting. I've
just never thought about it before. Question
three. Can you speak about the tradition of exchanging
mementos before matches at VNL and Worlds? Where
does this come from and what are the mementos?
So I think this is actually typical across...
all sports or a lot of sports when you have an
international competition you exchange tokens
from your country just to commemorate the match.
I think international competitions used to be
a lot more rare back in the day so it was like
a much bigger deal. So to have like a token from
the country that you competed against is like
something special. Typically you see them being
pins whether from the country or the National
Sport Federation. Sometimes you'll see the captains
exchange like pendants to represent the federation.
Oftentimes though it is pins question four i
fell in love with volleyball around the 2007
-2008 years that's my era just aging myself when
penn state stanford nebraska and texas were constantly
at the top of the standings and all producing
insane volleyball players what do you think has
changed for better and for worse since this era
of volleyball i still look back at all these
teams and think that they'd beat the majority
of teams now honestly same I've had conversations
with people about this so often. And if you look
at the crop of athletes that were in that era,
so, so many of them went on to have really strong
pro careers and really strong national team careers.
And I would say you see that. I'm sure somebody
is going to pull up some stat and say that I'm
wrong, but you see that crop of athletes in that
span of time. More of them, I would say the per
capita number of athletes from that era played
for much longer than we're seeing in other eras.
So I think in that era, we saw a lot more six
rotation athletes, which is more conducive to
having an international and a pro career. So
I think that that is something that has changed
for the worse since that time is the number of
six rotation athletes has declined substantially.
I will say something that has come of that that
has been a change for the better is that we are
seeing a lot more strong teams. You're not seeing
just the handful who are consistently dominating.
you're seeing a lot more strong programs across
the board because you're not getting that specialization
anymore. I was going to talk about the parity
and the rivalries at that point in NCAA. When
you couldn't leave a school, it was a bigger
decision to go there. And you were there for
four years. So you also... It was much harder
to transfer. But I also think that that allows
you... more time to grow as an athlete, right?
If you can't just transfer out and start everywhere,
there's a little more of a hierarchy from freshman
to junior and you learn from your seniors. There's
a bit more of a pro mentality in terms of mentorship
and what you learn going through that process
when it's not, well, I'm not playing, I'm leaving,
I'm going here. And I think that that also adds.
to A, the rivalries, B, earning your spot, and
a little more competition internally, which might
lead to some of those better international careers.
Yeah, I mean, seniority was definitely more of
a thing. But also, I feel like coaches were more
inclined to really work on developing their athletes.
Well, you have them for four years. Exactly.
It wasn't so easy to just leave. there were you
know you'd have to sit out for a season perhaps
or you know you'd have to jump through so many
hoops so i think players were developed more
at their programs at that time again i'm biased
because i'm from that era but i have often thought
that teams from that era the top teams from that
era would beat the top teams from this era and
i'm sure let's open the floodgates Let's hear
it. That is my come at me statement for the day
because I have one every week so far. I've had
conversations about this over the years and I
agree with the person who wrote this question
is that I do think that those teams would beat
the majority of teams now. Our last question
of the week is what are your thoughts on Kari
Spears at Texas? I picked her up from my fantasy
team. She's on our fantasy team starting on the
opposite. So, and I'll, yeah, we've got three
Texas girls starting for us. She is one of them.
I mean, I think she's done a fantastic job so
far. It's a hard transition coming in from high
school to college. Yeah, she's athletic. She's
done a good job. I like her mentality. She's
aggressive. Once there's a book on you. Yeah,
the sophomore slump, they call it. So I'm curious
to see once we get into division play, teams
see what her tendencies are. You know, they're
a little more prepared. Then they are teams,
you know, in the preseason, you're working on
your own stuff, right? Well, to a certain extent.
Right. But a lot of the times you're internally
focused on this is what we're trying to do. This
is the offense. This is the defense. As we get
into division play. you're going to start to
see more and more game planning, more focus on
your opponents. And so when teams have a chance
to be able to do that to her, I want to see how
she responds. When you take away her favorite
shot, can she find another way to score? So those
will be the things that I'm looking at, but I
think she's done a fantastic job. as always thank
you to everybody who writes in we have got quite
the list of questions so i am pulling a handful
every week but keep them coming because we love
to receive them and think about them so yeah
thanks so much all right looking forward watch
all of the men's world championships all the
games at this point are going to be great there's
i believe there's two a day pretty much for the
pre -quarters and then quarters will happen the
same way so there's going to be great volleyball
on check it out i don't have any specific match
because at this point they're all going to be
good and we don't we we don't know who's going
to win anymore so whatever looking at the ncaa
a couple matches to pay attention to this week
wednesday at 7 p .m eastern missouri versus texas
a &m also on wednesday at 8 p .m eastern and
sunday at 3 p .m eastern pit versus smu so that
will be a really good game that's a back -to
-back for them And then Friday at 7 p .m., Kansas
versus Arizona State. They're starting Big 12
play with a bang. Normally you build up to the
teams that have a chance to win, but they're
like, no, we're just going for it. Honestly,
I like that. I want to see these matchups now.
You've played good schedules up until this point.
You should be ready to go. Let's see it. And
then we have Saturday at 3 p .m. Eastern, TCU
versus Baylor, which is a good kind of... ranking
there that'll be a good test for tcu and we'll
see what baylor has going on thanks for your
patience while our baby became very chatty this
week um she had lots of opinions she had lots
of opinions she's squeaking and squawking but
she yeah she had a lot to say so thanks for your
patience with that that being said baby's chattiness
she got a little impatient so here i am finishing
this by myself but that concludes this week's
episode of volley talk There's always something
shaking in the volleyball world, and we hope
you enjoyed this little fix. Be sure to follow
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