WEBVTT 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:02.480 Hi volleyball fans and welcome back to Volley 00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:04.639 Talk, the podcast created for volleyball lovers 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:06.980 who want to dig deep into what is going on in 00:00:06.980 --> 00:00:10.019 NCAA and international volleyball. I'm your host 00:00:10.019 --> 00:00:11.980 Sarah Pavan. I'm an Olympian, beach volleyball 00:00:11.980 --> 00:00:14.939 world champion, former Nebraska Cornhusker, and 00:00:14.939 --> 00:00:18.179 longtime pro, both indoor and on the beach. And 00:00:18.179 --> 00:00:20.440 I'm Adam Schultz, former indoor player, international 00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:23.300 volleyball coach, and the show's resident stat 00:00:23.300 --> 00:00:27.460 guy. We are popping into your feed a little bit 00:00:27.460 --> 00:00:33.060 earlier than usual. Because we wanted to highlight 00:00:33.060 --> 00:00:37.000 the NCAA Men's Championship that happened. So, 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:40.100 a little back -to -back action this week with 00:00:40.100 --> 00:00:44.140 the PVF episode and then the NCAA Men's Championship 00:00:44.140 --> 00:00:47.799 episode. That being said, there will not be an 00:00:47.799 --> 00:00:49.799 episode this coming Monday. This is replacing 00:00:49.799 --> 00:00:52.240 that. But we wanted to get it in, you know, while 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:58.899 the memories are still fresh. Okay? So... That 00:00:58.899 --> 00:01:01.479 is what we are up to today. We are breaking down 00:01:01.479 --> 00:01:05.079 the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship that ended 00:01:05.079 --> 00:01:10.260 on Monday. So buckle up because we are excited 00:01:10.260 --> 00:01:13.319 to chat about it with you. Let's get started. 00:01:26.859 --> 00:01:30.540 So before we get into the games, I have a couple 00:01:30.540 --> 00:01:34.180 questions for you. We'll call it maybe a mini 00:01:34.180 --> 00:01:36.340 game. I don't have a name for it. Oh, dear. Okay, 00:01:37.140 --> 00:01:43.400 so give me your top three performances from an 00:01:43.400 --> 00:01:48.920 individual player over all the rounds. You couldn't 00:01:48.920 --> 00:01:50.799 prepare me for this? No, see, this is the fun 00:01:50.799 --> 00:01:53.819 part. I never give Sarah any heads up, and I 00:01:53.819 --> 00:01:55.659 just ask her questions and see what her answer 00:01:55.659 --> 00:01:58.980 is. Okay, I'm going to say, you guys, I haven't 00:01:58.980 --> 00:02:01.200 had time to think about this, so lay off me. 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:05.819 Okay, this is literally off the cuff. I'm going 00:02:05.819 --> 00:02:12.280 to say Kondev in the final. Okay. I'm going to 00:02:12.280 --> 00:02:19.800 say Cooper Robinson in UCLA semi. Okay. This 00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:23.800 is tough, Adam. This is tough stuff. So far, 00:02:23.819 --> 00:02:27.199 we have the same two. I have one other one in 00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:30.699 mind. Who's your other one? I thought Cole Hartke 00:02:30.699 --> 00:02:36.199 had an impressive weekend. I know his team didn't 00:02:36.199 --> 00:02:39.280 necessarily go on, but I thought him as an individual, 00:02:39.379 --> 00:02:43.300 his progression through the tournament, I thought 00:02:43.300 --> 00:02:47.159 was really good. And I liked, given that he's 00:02:47.159 --> 00:02:49.860 a freshman, how he came in, handled the pressure, 00:02:49.939 --> 00:02:51.840 how he played down the stretch. I was impressed 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:55.289 by him. I think the thing that impressed me about 00:02:55.289 --> 00:02:59.530 Cole Hartke is that he started real slow in that 00:02:59.530 --> 00:03:02.849 quarter against Loyola Chicago. I didn't think 00:03:02.849 --> 00:03:04.650 they were coming out of that match. He didn't 00:03:04.650 --> 00:03:09.389 score a point. He was struggling. And he somehow 00:03:09.389 --> 00:03:14.110 managed to flip a switch, find his rhythm, find 00:03:14.110 --> 00:03:16.069 some confidence, and then carry that into the 00:03:16.069 --> 00:03:19.449 semifinal against Long Beach, which... As a freshman, 00:03:19.590 --> 00:03:21.729 to be able to dig yourself out of a hole like 00:03:21.729 --> 00:03:24.810 that says a lot. So I did really appreciate that 00:03:24.810 --> 00:03:28.810 about him. Best libero performance. Where are 00:03:28.810 --> 00:03:31.610 you coming up with this stuff? These are like 00:03:31.610 --> 00:03:36.909 the NCAA national like MVPs or awards. I think 00:03:36.909 --> 00:03:39.050 we watched a lot of volleyball. I was just curious 00:03:39.050 --> 00:03:41.069 if anything resonated with you or stuck out. 00:03:41.810 --> 00:03:44.409 Honestly, I'll probably say Pepperdine's libero 00:03:44.409 --> 00:03:48.389 impressed me the most in the tournament. Like, 00:03:48.430 --> 00:03:51.389 obviously, like, the Long Beach Libero did his 00:03:51.389 --> 00:03:54.330 job, blah, blah, blah. But, like, I don't think 00:03:54.330 --> 00:03:58.789 he stood out particularly. He was who I was going 00:03:58.789 --> 00:04:02.229 to pick. The Long Beach Libero? Fair. I mean, 00:04:02.250 --> 00:04:05.150 I can't argue with that. They played well. He 00:04:05.150 --> 00:04:10.030 played well as well. Yeah, I think that's tough. 00:04:10.069 --> 00:04:13.729 That's a tough question. And then last one, top 00:04:13.729 --> 00:04:17.079 middle performance. I'll probably give it to 00:04:17.079 --> 00:04:21.300 Sean McQuiggan in UCLA's semifinal victory over 00:04:21.300 --> 00:04:27.139 Hawaii. He is not the most offensive middle. 00:04:27.980 --> 00:04:30.980 He's primarily there for blocking, but Rowan 00:04:30.980 --> 00:04:33.500 was able to find him. He was able to score some 00:04:33.500 --> 00:04:38.279 points, and his blocking in that match I thought 00:04:38.279 --> 00:04:41.319 was outstanding. Yeah, I had the same in mind. 00:04:41.319 --> 00:04:46.399 I thought he was really, really good. Okay. That 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:50.000 was just a little taster, okay? That was a warm 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:53.519 -up. To start and see what your highlights were, 00:04:53.639 --> 00:04:56.980 what your takeaways were. What's your biggest 00:04:56.980 --> 00:04:59.540 surprise of the weekend? My biggest surprise 00:04:59.540 --> 00:05:02.899 of the weekend was that Hawaii got demolished 00:05:02.899 --> 00:05:06.939 by UCLA. Yeah. You guys, I was so heartbroken. 00:05:07.060 --> 00:05:09.399 Okay, let's break this down bit by bit here. 00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:13.089 The quarterfinals, not a lot to talk about. Can 00:05:13.089 --> 00:05:15.209 we just talk about the Loyola Pepperdine match 00:05:15.209 --> 00:05:18.750 real quick? I guess. No, I'm just kidding. Well, 00:05:18.870 --> 00:05:23.610 we talked about Cole Harkey, and he... I can't 00:05:23.610 --> 00:05:25.310 say it any other way. He was atrocious in the 00:05:25.310 --> 00:05:30.269 first set. And I thought they were going to lose 00:05:30.269 --> 00:05:33.129 to Loyola Chicago because Loyola Chicago was 00:05:33.129 --> 00:05:35.949 on point. They were playing really well. Really 00:05:35.949 --> 00:05:40.110 well. It was... And I kind of had predicted that 00:05:40.110 --> 00:05:41.709 they were going to win. I thought the ball control 00:05:41.709 --> 00:05:44.310 might win out over that. And I was like, okay, 00:05:44.370 --> 00:05:46.769 here we go. This is going to be where we are. 00:05:46.769 --> 00:05:48.449 And Cole struggled. And I was like, it's his 00:05:48.449 --> 00:05:51.490 first tournament. He's a freshman. It happens. 00:05:52.189 --> 00:05:56.029 And Parker Van Buren played unbelievable in the 00:05:56.029 --> 00:05:57.649 first set. I thought it was going to be a battle 00:05:57.649 --> 00:05:59.750 of the right sides. And Van Buren was going to 00:05:59.750 --> 00:06:03.110 win that battle. Oh, at the start, I was like, 00:06:03.209 --> 00:06:05.170 I agree. Going into the match, I was like, this 00:06:05.170 --> 00:06:08.139 is going to... Barnett has been carrying the 00:06:08.139 --> 00:06:12.240 load and playing very well lately. And so I was 00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:14.420 curious how they were going to match Barnett 00:06:14.420 --> 00:06:17.420 up with Van Buren. But I was like, is Hartke 00:06:17.420 --> 00:06:20.399 going to step up? Who's going to step up in more 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:22.560 of the secondary role? Is it going to be Hartke 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:25.839 or is it going to be Fabikovic? I think that's 00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:29.579 how you say his name. And Hartke was leaving 00:06:29.579 --> 00:06:33.240 a lot to be desired early. Well, I think Loyola 00:06:33.240 --> 00:06:34.860 Chicago is kicking themselves on that one. Because 00:06:34.860 --> 00:06:38.600 in my estimate, they gave that match away. They 00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:41.220 should have won the second set. And then at that 00:06:41.220 --> 00:06:42.939 point, you need one of three. They're having 00:06:42.939 --> 00:06:46.379 nightmares about this match. And it's crazy because 00:06:46.379 --> 00:06:49.980 Pepperdine only set two guys in that match. Cole 00:06:49.980 --> 00:06:55.120 Harkey got 39 sets and hit 077. But that's not... 00:06:55.319 --> 00:06:56.879 Really representative. Because he was hitting 00:06:56.879 --> 00:07:01.040 negative 1 ,000. So he progressively got better 00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:03.019 as the set went on, and I thought he did a really 00:07:03.019 --> 00:07:05.560 good job. And then Ryan Barnett also played well, 00:07:05.620 --> 00:07:10.579 37 sets, hit 297. And the next closest guy was 00:07:10.579 --> 00:07:14.459 13. Like, they didn't have any rhythm. They looked 00:07:14.459 --> 00:07:18.319 nervous. It wasn't good. But winning that second 00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:21.300 set, and it was fun to watch. Loyal Chicago had 00:07:21.300 --> 00:07:25.470 a set point. They sure did. So I thought that 00:07:25.470 --> 00:07:27.009 game was interesting. I thought Loyola was going 00:07:27.009 --> 00:07:29.750 to win. It flipped. Cole kind of found his rhythm 00:07:29.750 --> 00:07:33.050 and took off from there. And then it was a beatdown. 00:07:33.230 --> 00:07:35.149 And then it was a beatdown. And then they kind 00:07:35.149 --> 00:07:38.810 of rolled. So that one wasn't the most interesting 00:07:38.810 --> 00:07:40.790 quarterfinal to me, and I just wanted to highlight 00:07:40.790 --> 00:07:43.209 that because I thought Cole Harkey, he kind of 00:07:43.209 --> 00:07:46.529 came into his own this tournament, in my opinion. 00:07:47.009 --> 00:07:50.689 Okay, semifinal number one, we had Long Beach 00:07:50.689 --> 00:07:53.509 State against Pepperdine. Let's continue. The 00:07:53.509 --> 00:07:57.449 Pepperdine train here. Sure. I thought that Long 00:07:57.449 --> 00:07:59.009 Beach State, going in, I thought Long Beach State 00:07:59.009 --> 00:08:04.350 was going to, you know. Roll? I thought four 00:08:04.350 --> 00:08:09.290 sets max. I just, Pepperdine, they played well 00:08:09.290 --> 00:08:11.829 in the NPSF tournament. They, you know, found 00:08:11.829 --> 00:08:13.610 some really good rhythm against Loyola Chicago, 00:08:13.709 --> 00:08:15.550 but I just didn't think they had enough pieces 00:08:15.550 --> 00:08:19.899 to compete with Long Beach State. And I think 00:08:19.899 --> 00:08:22.319 they surprised Long Beach State, kind of woke 00:08:22.319 --> 00:08:24.480 them up a little bit after winning that first 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:28.279 set. It was much closer than I thought it was 00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:30.560 going to be. And quite frankly, Pepperdine played 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:33.340 a great match. They should be very proud of themselves 00:08:33.340 --> 00:08:37.480 for that performance. Yeah. The reality of it 00:08:37.480 --> 00:08:39.620 is they're not quite there compared to those 00:08:39.620 --> 00:08:42.879 other teams. But when you can go out and play 00:08:42.879 --> 00:08:45.519 a good game of volleyball, they just got beat 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:48.779 by a better team. And I thought, You know, statistically, 00:08:49.080 --> 00:08:53.279 other than blocking, that was kind of the biggest 00:08:53.279 --> 00:08:56.240 factor. Long Beach had seven blocks to their 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:59.259 three. But if you look at their hitting numbers, 00:08:59.379 --> 00:09:02.059 like on the match, they hit 421. Like if you 00:09:02.059 --> 00:09:04.659 manage to do that in most games, you're going 00:09:04.659 --> 00:09:07.179 to win. A lot of their star players, like Ryan 00:09:07.179 --> 00:09:14.279 Barnett, 357. Ethan Watson, 15 sets, 600. Eli 00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:18.919 Haver hit... 545, Cole Harkey hit 333. Like those 00:09:18.919 --> 00:09:22.100 numbers are really good. If you took the score 00:09:22.100 --> 00:09:24.340 away and looked at the game sheet, I'm not sure 00:09:24.340 --> 00:09:26.620 you could distinguish who won on that one. So 00:09:26.620 --> 00:09:28.120 I was impressed by that. No, but even watching 00:09:28.120 --> 00:09:31.720 it, we were watching the match in real time being 00:09:31.720 --> 00:09:34.259 like Pepperdine is playing really, really well. 00:09:35.259 --> 00:09:39.440 Like they're laying it out there. Like they are 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:43.919 maximizing what they can do. They've shown up. 00:09:43.919 --> 00:09:46.919 They're making a push. They're doing their job. 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:51.179 They just aren't quite at the level of Long Beach 00:09:51.179 --> 00:09:54.779 State, which is why Long Beach won. They need 00:09:54.779 --> 00:09:57.600 to be proud of that performance because I think 00:09:57.600 --> 00:10:00.899 that they definitely just laid it out there and 00:10:00.899 --> 00:10:03.279 have nothing to be ashamed of. I totally agree. 00:10:03.460 --> 00:10:06.159 Their coach has to be happy with that performance. 00:10:06.519 --> 00:10:09.480 And it was a really entertaining match to watch. 00:10:09.580 --> 00:10:11.789 And I thought... I mean, I thought the Hawaii 00:10:11.789 --> 00:10:14.049 -UCLA game was going to be the semifinal to watch, 00:10:14.149 --> 00:10:16.190 but this one was thoroughly entertaining, and 00:10:16.190 --> 00:10:19.669 they played very well. Very well. What did you 00:10:19.669 --> 00:10:23.870 think of Long Beach State's performance? If I 00:10:23.870 --> 00:10:25.590 had to sum it up, I would say they played well 00:10:25.590 --> 00:10:29.250 enough to win. Like, they weren't bad. Nikolov 00:10:29.250 --> 00:10:32.330 had that player of the year swagger. He's like, 00:10:32.450 --> 00:10:36.210 I just collected several awards. Welcome to my 00:10:36.210 --> 00:10:39.460 gym. He was just like... Strutting around the 00:10:39.460 --> 00:10:43.960 court. He had a good weekend. I mean, as a team, 00:10:43.960 --> 00:10:47.200 they hit .482. Their big players showed up. Like, 00:10:47.220 --> 00:10:49.840 Kondev had a great weekend. He was probably tournament 00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:52.860 MVP for me. And you would think, like, he stepped 00:10:52.860 --> 00:10:55.980 up big time. And he is a solid player. But, like, 00:10:56.039 --> 00:11:00.080 Skylar Varga you typically think of as being 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:04.179 the go -to left side for Long Beach State. But... 00:11:04.940 --> 00:11:06.820 And, you know, teams were prepared for him. He 00:11:06.820 --> 00:11:09.700 still found ways to score. He still did his job 00:11:09.700 --> 00:11:12.580 from the service line, defensively, ball control, 00:11:12.740 --> 00:11:15.639 whatever. Like, he played well, but I was very, 00:11:15.820 --> 00:11:18.720 very impressed with how Kondav stepped up the 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:21.620 whole weekend. I think those were his best two 00:11:21.620 --> 00:11:23.480 matches of volleyball that I've seen him play. 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:28.120 He was unbelievable. He hit 533 in that semi 00:11:28.120 --> 00:11:31.059 on 30 balls. It's silly. And then when they were 00:11:31.059 --> 00:11:33.559 finding their middle, which they don't set the 00:11:33.559 --> 00:11:36.960 middle. But when they were finding the middle, 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:41.460 it was aggressively being scored. Nobody was 00:11:41.460 --> 00:11:44.980 touching the ball. I think Nato Dickinson, you 00:11:44.980 --> 00:11:48.679 know, after, you know, he's been playing a few 00:11:48.679 --> 00:11:51.419 matches. Teams have some video on him now. Like, 00:11:51.460 --> 00:11:55.500 he slowed down a little bit for me in this tournament. 00:11:55.580 --> 00:11:58.960 He kind of, he's, Adam's laughing because he's 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:02.450 like, his numbers, he hit 880. I don't know what 00:12:02.450 --> 00:12:05.590 his numbers were, but like he did, he wasn't 00:12:05.590 --> 00:12:09.070 standing out to me like he did when he first, 00:12:09.169 --> 00:12:12.690 I think I was just surprised when he first got 00:12:12.690 --> 00:12:14.990 a starting spot and I was like, oh, this guy's 00:12:14.990 --> 00:12:18.110 been on the bench. Yeah. I mean, he played well. 00:12:18.149 --> 00:12:23.330 He had 33 sets. He hit 485. Wow. Forget everything 00:12:23.330 --> 00:12:27.389 I say. But he's not, the thing I like about. 00:12:27.950 --> 00:12:30.470 nato dickinson is that he's not flashy he jumps 00:12:30.470 --> 00:12:32.850 really well he hits the ball well but you know 00:12:32.850 --> 00:12:34.809 he doesn't make a ton of errors he only had three 00:12:34.809 --> 00:12:38.570 errors he's relatively terminal like 33 swings 00:12:38.570 --> 00:12:42.090 and 19 kills like he's just he's not flashy but 00:12:42.090 --> 00:12:45.389 he's efficient no it's this is one of those cases 00:12:45.389 --> 00:12:51.169 varga had 21 sets he hit 381 you guys these numbers 00:12:51.169 --> 00:12:55.529 are outrageous i mean long beach came into this 00:12:55.529 --> 00:12:59.419 tournament And they knew they were going to win 00:12:59.419 --> 00:13:02.960 the quarterfinal, and then they were ready to 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:05.600 go, and they came out firing on all cylinders. 00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:09.919 For all you people who wanted to, like, throw 00:13:09.919 --> 00:13:14.059 hands about Long Beach State being ranked number 00:13:14.059 --> 00:13:18.080 one, they won the tournament, fine. I will die 00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:20.460 on the mountain that they did not deserve to 00:13:20.460 --> 00:13:23.360 get the number one seed. I stick by it, okay? 00:13:25.580 --> 00:13:29.759 Yeah, you got to win the matches that count and, 00:13:29.860 --> 00:13:32.379 you know, whatever. It didn't really matter in 00:13:32.379 --> 00:13:35.700 the end because they were just so good. Well, 00:13:35.740 --> 00:13:39.259 we had like some defense happening too, shockingly. 00:13:39.259 --> 00:13:41.480 That might actually be the surprise of the tournament. 00:13:41.639 --> 00:13:44.399 This is the shocker, okay? All these hitters 00:13:44.399 --> 00:13:48.500 are hitting like 400 plus, but there were some 00:13:48.500 --> 00:13:51.460 digs. So 34 digs for Long Beach in this match, 00:13:51.639 --> 00:13:55.919 31 for Pepperdine. Do you know who led Long Beach 00:13:55.919 --> 00:13:58.059 in digs? And this is really impressive to me. 00:13:58.279 --> 00:14:05.399 Was it Nikolov? Yes. Like, absolutely incredible. 00:14:05.960 --> 00:14:10.460 So his stat line for this match was kind of silly. 00:14:10.860 --> 00:14:16.200 He had 10 digs. He had one block assist. He had 00:14:16.200 --> 00:14:21.519 five aces and five errors. And he hit .357 on 00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:25.789 14 swings. He's just better than everybody else. 00:14:26.830 --> 00:14:29.029 We got a question relating to this that we're 00:14:29.029 --> 00:14:31.669 going to touch on later. I have some theories. 00:14:32.490 --> 00:14:36.970 He passed 100 aces on the season in that match, 00:14:36.990 --> 00:14:41.309 too. The next closest guy is not even in the 00:14:41.309 --> 00:14:44.789 ballpark. No. It's wild. Absolutely wild. That 00:14:44.789 --> 00:14:47.889 was a much more entertaining semifinal than I 00:14:47.889 --> 00:14:52.019 expected. Agreed. I thought... I didn't think 00:14:52.019 --> 00:14:55.480 Pepperdine was going to have the horses to keep 00:14:55.480 --> 00:14:57.879 up with them. And in the end, they didn't. But 00:14:57.879 --> 00:15:00.480 all of their players played well. Everybody had 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:03.960 a good match, and it made it entertaining. So, 00:15:04.039 --> 00:15:06.799 I mean, it was great. Both semifinals were great. 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:10.659 Okay, semifinal number two, and probably the 00:15:10.659 --> 00:15:16.600 shock of the tournament for me, was UCLA absolutely 00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:23.809 dismantling Hawaii. My pick. To win it all. The 00:15:23.809 --> 00:15:27.610 team that I was standing behind, obsessed with 00:15:27.610 --> 00:15:33.049 all season, got absolutely shellacked by UCLA. 00:15:33.429 --> 00:15:38.629 I don't know what happened to UCLA, but I have 00:15:38.629 --> 00:15:43.669 not seen that much emotion from them collectively 00:15:43.669 --> 00:15:47.590 as a team all season. And don't get me wrong, 00:15:47.669 --> 00:15:52.350 UCLA has... the horses on the outside to be incredibly 00:15:52.350 --> 00:15:55.889 good. And I would say for most of the season, 00:15:56.049 --> 00:15:59.789 they were flatline. Like they didn't really look 00:15:59.789 --> 00:16:02.669 like they were super engaged or cared about winning 00:16:02.669 --> 00:16:05.509 that much. They were very up and down. Yeah, 00:16:05.570 --> 00:16:09.490 very inconsistent, kind of laissez -faire on 00:16:09.490 --> 00:16:14.590 the court, not a ton of fight or pushback. And 00:16:14.590 --> 00:16:17.440 it just... You know, they're so skilled and talented. 00:16:17.500 --> 00:16:19.799 They jump so well. They're big. They're physical. 00:16:20.360 --> 00:16:23.360 But they're, I mean, I don't know how to say 00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:26.519 it other than California cool. Yeah, yeah. And 00:16:26.519 --> 00:16:30.360 they showed up ready to punch Hawaii in the face. 00:16:30.639 --> 00:16:34.679 And they were incredible. Flawless. Absolutely 00:16:34.679 --> 00:16:38.240 incredible. We were watching this one. I was 00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:40.440 upset, obviously, because Hawaii was getting 00:16:40.440 --> 00:16:44.850 dismantled. We were saying to each other in the 00:16:44.850 --> 00:16:49.889 moment, when a team is playing like this, there's 00:16:49.889 --> 00:16:52.129 nothing you can do. Hawaii would have needed 00:16:52.129 --> 00:16:56.350 to play just as well. All of their players would 00:16:56.350 --> 00:16:59.990 have needed to be on, and that so rarely happens. 00:17:00.129 --> 00:17:04.930 I mean, they only set their pin hitters. I didn't 00:17:04.930 --> 00:17:09.490 think Hawaii played at the level that they needed 00:17:09.490 --> 00:17:12.890 to. Like, Nusser. looked out to lunch on the 00:17:12.890 --> 00:17:16.630 block he looked so overwhelmed which yeah sure 00:17:16.630 --> 00:17:20.109 ucla was in system the whole night and every 00:17:20.109 --> 00:17:25.250 single guy was scoring so yeah nuster just he 00:17:25.250 --> 00:17:29.009 looked oh in like he was in over his head eventually 00:17:29.009 --> 00:17:33.549 gets taken out sakunoko same story what did you 00:17:33.549 --> 00:17:36.460 think of that sub I think I was a little more 00:17:36.460 --> 00:17:39.039 put off by it all because the sub is the coach's 00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:42.680 son. And he had been like a serving sub the whole 00:17:42.680 --> 00:17:45.700 season. Obviously, I didn't watch every match 00:17:45.700 --> 00:17:47.839 Hawaii played, but the matches we did, he just 00:17:47.839 --> 00:17:49.940 came in as a serving sub. But like Sakonoko, 00:17:50.220 --> 00:17:55.500 I don't think he was given enough of a chance 00:17:55.500 --> 00:17:58.279 to find his rhythm. He got taken out like so 00:17:58.279 --> 00:18:01.930 fast. and then kept out for a really long period 00:18:01.930 --> 00:18:05.029 of time. I think he needed to be given more of 00:18:05.029 --> 00:18:08.349 a chance to work through his stuff. Unless he 00:18:08.349 --> 00:18:13.410 was hurt, that sub happened too fast. Which we 00:18:13.410 --> 00:18:15.950 don't know if he got injured or not. But that's 00:18:15.950 --> 00:18:19.069 the only reason you don't let a guy like that 00:18:19.069 --> 00:18:22.150 work into being your best player. But then even 00:18:22.150 --> 00:18:25.170 Finn Carney, like... Finn Carney was just not 00:18:25.170 --> 00:18:27.609 good enough. He has been doing a great job filling 00:18:27.609 --> 00:18:30.710 in for Tetriski when Tetriski got injured. This 00:18:30.710 --> 00:18:34.930 match, though, where were you, my man? He did 00:18:34.930 --> 00:18:40.670 nothing for me. Like, Adrian Rohr was... And 00:18:40.670 --> 00:18:43.390 Tread Rosenthal were the two bright spots for 00:18:43.390 --> 00:18:47.710 me. But, like, everybody else seemed to be a 00:18:47.710 --> 00:18:50.049 little step down from what we're used to seeing. 00:18:50.430 --> 00:18:52.750 Well... There were two things that were glaring 00:18:52.750 --> 00:18:56.789 to me. One, UCLA handled Hawaii serving. They 00:18:56.789 --> 00:18:59.869 were in system all night and they run a pretty 00:18:59.869 --> 00:19:03.369 quick offense and their hitters are big and they 00:19:03.369 --> 00:19:07.650 jump well and physical. So here's, I mean, they 00:19:07.650 --> 00:19:10.869 just went pin to pin to pin on Hawaii and they 00:19:10.869 --> 00:19:13.490 didn't have an answer for them. So Kuba Robinson, 00:19:13.769 --> 00:19:20.879 23 sets, hit 304. Zach Rama, 24 sets, 250. Sean 00:19:20.879 --> 00:19:25.319 Kelly, 23 sets, 435. This kid is going to be 00:19:25.319 --> 00:19:27.359 really good. He's going to be very good. And 00:19:27.359 --> 00:19:30.039 then they only set Cameron Thorne five times. 00:19:30.420 --> 00:19:34.480 That's it. He hit 1 ,000. And they set Sean McQuiggan 00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:36.700 three times. So eight balls to the middle in 00:19:36.700 --> 00:19:39.299 total. I do not think that these numbers tell 00:19:39.299 --> 00:19:43.630 the story. Like watching the match, it was so 00:19:43.630 --> 00:19:47.970 dominant. And it wasn't so much me feeling like 00:19:47.970 --> 00:19:52.529 Hawaii sucks right now. It was like UCLA just 00:19:52.529 --> 00:19:56.329 keeps coming. Their ability to run their pipe 00:19:56.329 --> 00:20:02.150 over top of the middle was scary. I will say 00:20:02.150 --> 00:20:03.970 the top three teams in the country, when they 00:20:03.970 --> 00:20:06.309 run their pipe, they do it beautifully. Long 00:20:06.309 --> 00:20:10.130 Beach, Hawaii, UCLA. UCLA was exploiting that. 00:20:10.750 --> 00:20:14.869 So much in this match. Yeah, the Hawaii middles 00:20:14.869 --> 00:20:20.569 just didn't know where to go. I mean, UCLA, all 00:20:20.569 --> 00:20:23.410 of the pieces fell for them. They passed really 00:20:23.410 --> 00:20:25.690 well, so they were in system. But the numbers 00:20:25.690 --> 00:20:28.750 kind of suck compared to how much we're talking 00:20:28.750 --> 00:20:32.230 them up. I mean, 435 is pretty good for Sean 00:20:32.230 --> 00:20:36.369 Kelly. Yeah, but Cooper Robinson, I picked him 00:20:36.369 --> 00:20:39.490 as my top three performances in the first part. 00:20:40.980 --> 00:20:43.779 Yeah, I mean, three. I'm just saying, compared 00:20:43.779 --> 00:20:46.539 to the stats from the previous semifinal, these 00:20:46.539 --> 00:20:49.880 numbers are not nearly that. But they were dominant. 00:20:50.759 --> 00:20:53.460 So they were in system the whole night. I thought 00:20:53.460 --> 00:20:56.279 they applied better service pressure than I've 00:20:56.279 --> 00:20:57.579 seen them apply all year. How many errors did 00:20:57.579 --> 00:21:02.539 they make? 16 over three sets. I've seen them 00:21:02.539 --> 00:21:04.839 miss that many in one set. Correct. And they 00:21:04.839 --> 00:21:07.880 had six aces. But their blocking and defense 00:21:07.880 --> 00:21:11.859 was so good. They had 11 blocks to Hawaii's four. 00:21:12.279 --> 00:21:15.759 Well, that's UCLA's bread and butter. Yeah. Hit 00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:19.059 the crap out of the serve. Feast or famine. Just 00:21:19.059 --> 00:21:23.380 go for it to bring everything into your block. 00:21:23.559 --> 00:21:26.380 But they outdug them 34 to 22. Like, the Hawaii 00:21:26.380 --> 00:21:30.059 hitters just couldn't find a rhythm. Like, Finn 00:21:30.059 --> 00:21:35.150 Kearney. 23 sets hit 087. That's just not going 00:21:35.150 --> 00:21:37.410 to cut it. And Adrian Roarkley, you said he had 00:21:37.410 --> 00:21:41.509 a good night, 24 sets, 333. But he was the only 00:21:41.509 --> 00:21:44.390 guy who was giving them any kind of production. 00:21:45.410 --> 00:21:50.190 My heart was so broken. I mean, Hawaii just needs 00:21:50.190 --> 00:21:53.009 to always host the national championship. I like 00:21:53.009 --> 00:21:57.210 UCLA too, but I was like, you want to see teams 00:21:57.210 --> 00:21:59.809 playing at their best on that stage. You know 00:21:59.809 --> 00:22:03.710 what I mean? UCLA played to their potential. 00:22:03.970 --> 00:22:07.549 This was the best game of the season. It was 00:22:07.549 --> 00:22:12.630 incredible to watch. They were so good. So good. 00:22:12.789 --> 00:22:17.190 It was wild. So before we get in and talk about 00:22:17.190 --> 00:22:20.329 the final, let me ask you this. So UCLA plays 00:22:20.329 --> 00:22:22.869 the game of their year in the semifinal against 00:22:22.869 --> 00:22:26.009 Hawaii. Do you think that Hawaii would have given 00:22:26.009 --> 00:22:29.069 Long Beach a better game in the final than UCLA 00:22:29.069 --> 00:22:33.549 did? Or did it not matter? I don't think it mattered. 00:22:34.890 --> 00:22:40.329 Seeing how prepared Long Beach State was for 00:22:40.329 --> 00:22:43.710 that match, I think regardless of who they were 00:22:43.710 --> 00:22:46.089 going to face, they would have had that same 00:22:46.089 --> 00:22:49.670 level of preparation. I just think that Long 00:22:49.670 --> 00:22:55.089 Beach State, they were going to win this weekend, 00:22:55.230 --> 00:22:57.849 given how they were playing. Yeah, they were. 00:22:58.829 --> 00:23:03.269 They were on a mission. The final, I expected 00:23:03.269 --> 00:23:05.910 it to be a lot closer than it was. Going into 00:23:05.910 --> 00:23:07.970 that final, I thought it was going to be a knock 00:23:07.970 --> 00:23:12.269 down, drag out battle. With UCLA passing that 00:23:12.269 --> 00:23:16.029 well and all of their weapons firing, I was so 00:23:16.029 --> 00:23:22.210 excited to see the showdown. And Long Beach just 00:23:22.210 --> 00:23:26.920 asserted their will on that match. Yeah. I mean, 00:23:26.940 --> 00:23:30.839 the match started with a nickel of ace and finished 00:23:30.839 --> 00:23:35.779 with a nickel of kill. Yeah. The thing, okay, 00:23:35.859 --> 00:23:39.119 watching the match, the commentators kept, which, 00:23:39.140 --> 00:23:43.640 can I just, as an aside, let's just take a sharp 00:23:43.640 --> 00:23:46.779 right here for a second. I saw one of our listeners 00:23:46.779 --> 00:23:52.740 sent me this video of this girl who was sitting 00:23:52.740 --> 00:23:56.559 there being like, why is it? That of all the 00:23:56.559 --> 00:24:00.259 sports I watch, men's volleyball is the only 00:24:00.259 --> 00:24:02.660 one where the commentators need to know absolutely 00:24:02.660 --> 00:24:05.119 nothing about the sport. And I was like, amen. 00:24:06.200 --> 00:24:10.319 Because in the quarters and semis, those commentators 00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:12.660 did not know anything about the sport. And I'm 00:24:12.660 --> 00:24:16.140 like, this one girl is so obsessed with the amount 00:24:16.140 --> 00:24:19.019 of timeouts. Oh, it was. I wanted to pull my 00:24:19.019 --> 00:24:22.740 hair out. They knew nothing. So all that to say. 00:24:23.400 --> 00:24:26.940 Thank you so much, NCAA, for investing in some 00:24:26.940 --> 00:24:30.019 commentators who actually are familiar with men's 00:24:30.019 --> 00:24:32.299 volleyball or just the sport in general. They 00:24:32.299 --> 00:24:35.680 did a really good job. They did a good job. Let's 00:24:35.680 --> 00:24:38.319 circle back here. Okay, we're back. In the first 00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:42.480 set, they were saying that Andrew Rowan was setting 00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:46.640 the ball too low. I thought his back set was 00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:50.619 way too high and slow in the first set. I didn't 00:24:50.619 --> 00:24:54.549 think they utilized... Sean Kelly enough. They 00:24:54.549 --> 00:24:57.670 needed to set him more. But I was like, am I 00:24:57.670 --> 00:25:00.289 missing something here? Because I thought they 00:25:00.289 --> 00:25:02.710 needed to speed up the back set. I think the 00:25:02.710 --> 00:25:04.730 way that they were running the offense in front 00:25:04.730 --> 00:25:08.690 of the setter was great. But I think the way 00:25:08.690 --> 00:25:12.329 that they were running the back ball, it just 00:25:12.329 --> 00:25:14.710 allowed Long Beach State to put a double or triple 00:25:14.710 --> 00:25:17.869 block up on the right side early. Well, I think. 00:25:18.200 --> 00:25:20.000 I think that comment came because there was one 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:22.119 or two balls that I think were a little inside, 00:25:22.220 --> 00:25:25.839 and there was a little bit of a lack of rhythm 00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:28.259 there, and then they kind of cued in on that 00:25:28.259 --> 00:25:30.460 because Zach didn't look like he ever really 00:25:30.460 --> 00:25:32.940 found his rhythm. I think the ball needed to 00:25:32.940 --> 00:25:35.519 be a little further out for him and a little 00:25:35.519 --> 00:25:37.779 flatter so that he could find hands. I thought 00:25:37.779 --> 00:25:41.740 the tempo against Hawaii was really good, and 00:25:41.740 --> 00:25:43.900 it was definitely different to the right side 00:25:43.900 --> 00:25:47.200 against Long Beach. I mean, I think they found 00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:49.539 their tempo and stuff in sets two and three. 00:25:49.660 --> 00:25:54.359 But I was like, okay, I don't agree. But you 00:25:54.359 --> 00:25:57.880 can just tell. Like, UCLA didn't pass poorly. 00:25:58.940 --> 00:26:01.859 And Long Beach is a very strong serving team. 00:26:02.039 --> 00:26:05.559 I don't think they passed poorly. But Long Beach 00:26:05.559 --> 00:26:10.200 State just knew who was getting the ball in certain 00:26:10.200 --> 00:26:13.359 situations, where the pass is, how the play is 00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:16.920 developing. They knew. where andrew rowan wanted 00:26:16.920 --> 00:26:20.420 to set the ball and they put on a blocking clinic 00:26:20.420 --> 00:26:24.079 so again this is it's really interesting i thought 00:26:24.079 --> 00:26:26.460 the same thing like i thought the stats don't 00:26:26.460 --> 00:26:28.660 tell the whole story no stats don't they don't 00:26:28.660 --> 00:26:31.039 they don't tell i i totally agree with you i 00:26:31.039 --> 00:26:35.160 thought it was gonna be 16 blocks to four just 00:26:35.160 --> 00:26:39.759 off how many how disciplined the long beach block 00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:42.759 was and how many touches they got so it ended 00:26:42.759 --> 00:26:47.359 up being nine and a half to eight for kill blocks. 00:26:47.559 --> 00:26:51.480 But the thing about it was Long Beach got so 00:26:51.480 --> 00:26:56.759 many touches and slowdowns, and their blockers 00:26:56.759 --> 00:26:59.440 were always forcing their hitters into uncomfortable 00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:04.380 situations. And for me, I thought that was the 00:27:04.380 --> 00:27:10.339 story of the night, was just how often both Cooper 00:27:10.339 --> 00:27:14.759 Robinson and Zach Rama were facing. solid blocks 00:27:14.759 --> 00:27:19.119 and going back to your point sean kelly is in 00:27:19.119 --> 00:27:22.359 the front row with cameron thorn i hate to say 00:27:22.359 --> 00:27:26.200 it they needed they set thorn too much yeah they 00:27:26.200 --> 00:27:30.140 needed to use kelly more because i think he was 00:27:30.140 --> 00:27:32.960 their i watching he was their most effective 00:27:32.960 --> 00:27:36.259 attacker and he was underutilized yeah he got 00:27:36.259 --> 00:27:39.700 five sets in the hawaii match and sean kelly 00:27:39.700 --> 00:27:44.099 no thorn and he got nine In this one, which it's 00:27:44.099 --> 00:27:46.819 not a big difference, but they run that tempo 00:27:46.819 --> 00:27:49.259 over top of the middle to the left side so well, 00:27:49.380 --> 00:27:51.359 they needed to spread it a little bit more. What 00:27:51.359 --> 00:27:53.500 were Kelly's numbers in this match? Kelly hit 00:27:53.500 --> 00:27:58.019 zero. Oh, gosh. Forget everything I say. He had 00:27:58.019 --> 00:28:01.880 12 sets, three kills, three errors. I said what 00:28:01.880 --> 00:28:04.579 I said. I still think they needed to get him 00:28:04.579 --> 00:28:07.279 going. They needed to use him more. But we actually, 00:28:07.420 --> 00:28:09.500 I want to talk about Cameron Thorne because we 00:28:09.500 --> 00:28:11.180 have gotten a question. We talked about this 00:28:11.180 --> 00:28:16.500 question like a while ago in that is Cameron 00:28:16.500 --> 00:28:20.660 Thorne an international caliber middle? And I 00:28:20.660 --> 00:28:24.259 think this match kind of highlighted for me why 00:28:24.259 --> 00:28:29.339 he's not. It's because internationally, the teams 00:28:29.339 --> 00:28:33.829 are also very prepared. The blockers are very 00:28:33.829 --> 00:28:37.369 smart. And you could see how the Long Beach State 00:28:37.369 --> 00:28:40.250 block was able to dismantle him. The international 00:28:40.250 --> 00:28:44.369 blocks are even better. And so you just saw the 00:28:44.369 --> 00:28:47.849 struggle. And I just, yes, he jumps well. But 00:28:47.849 --> 00:28:49.589 at the end of the day, international middles 00:28:49.589 --> 00:28:53.769 are like 6 '10 plus. And he has to full commit 00:28:53.769 --> 00:28:56.569 to block the middles. And then at that point. 00:28:56.670 --> 00:28:59.349 No, but they were blocking him like crazy. Yeah, 00:28:59.410 --> 00:29:03.470 true. It's just. This match highlighted to me 00:29:03.470 --> 00:29:07.450 or put a magnifying glass on why I personally 00:29:07.450 --> 00:29:09.970 don't think that he's an international middle. 00:29:10.250 --> 00:29:14.950 I also thought that the UCLA defensive libero, 00:29:14.950 --> 00:29:18.150 Aziz, struggled. Thank you for saying it because 00:29:18.150 --> 00:29:20.670 I feel like I'm always the one calling out everybody. 00:29:21.410 --> 00:29:23.849 I know there aren't a ton of digs in men's volleyball, 00:29:24.069 --> 00:29:27.630 but when you get opportunities, you have to capitalize 00:29:27.630 --> 00:29:32.559 them. there were at least four or five opportunities 00:29:32.559 --> 00:29:36.259 where I thought not only could Aziz have made 00:29:36.259 --> 00:29:38.980 a dig, but it should have been a controlled play 00:29:38.980 --> 00:29:43.240 where you were able to turn points. And specifically 00:29:43.240 --> 00:29:46.299 in the second set, I think there were two after 00:29:46.299 --> 00:29:49.700 20, if I'm remembering correctly, where I was 00:29:49.700 --> 00:29:53.539 like, oh man, that ball needed to come up. You 00:29:53.539 --> 00:29:55.519 had a great serve. Your block was in place. Like 00:29:55.519 --> 00:29:57.200 they hit around it. He was either slightly out 00:29:57.200 --> 00:29:58.940 of position. Or they got a slowdown and he was 00:29:58.940 --> 00:30:01.339 tentative. There was like either, I think one 00:30:01.339 --> 00:30:03.880 of the free ball passes was over the net or, 00:30:03.940 --> 00:30:09.240 you know, I honestly thought that was the difference 00:30:09.240 --> 00:30:11.180 in the second set when you're battling it out, 00:30:11.220 --> 00:30:13.619 trying to go one for one. Well, UCLA was up. 00:30:13.619 --> 00:30:16.099 They had no, they were up like 12 -6 in the second. 00:30:16.180 --> 00:30:19.059 They had no business losing that set. I did think, 00:30:19.059 --> 00:30:21.839 however, and we've been critical of both UCLA 00:30:21.839 --> 00:30:24.619 Liberos, but I thought Kirchie had a good tournament. 00:30:24.759 --> 00:30:26.500 He did. He passed very well this tournament. 00:30:26.599 --> 00:30:29.740 Yeah, and I might have thought about leaving 00:30:29.740 --> 00:30:32.480 him in because I just did not think Aziz did. 00:30:33.579 --> 00:30:37.259 He cost them a few points. Your Libero has to 00:30:37.259 --> 00:30:41.980 be so confident, has to take control of the backcourt, 00:30:42.039 --> 00:30:44.880 and it seemed like he was always looking to other 00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:46.539 people to take the ball because even there was 00:30:46.539 --> 00:30:49.269 this ball that, like, Rowan called for help and 00:30:49.269 --> 00:30:51.890 he hesitated to set it. I'm like, dude, you're 00:30:51.890 --> 00:30:54.430 the libero. You need to step in. Like, why are 00:30:54.430 --> 00:30:56.170 you looking for your middle to set this ball? 00:30:56.829 --> 00:31:01.910 I 100 % agree. I was really disappointed. Like, 00:31:02.009 --> 00:31:04.390 yeah, if Long Beach State is coming at you and 00:31:04.390 --> 00:31:07.369 is just like detonating balls, sure, that's one 00:31:07.369 --> 00:31:09.250 thing. But when your block is getting a slowdown 00:31:09.250 --> 00:31:13.170 or they funnel a ball to you, like very controlled, 00:31:13.250 --> 00:31:17.680 you need to do something. I don't think that 00:31:17.680 --> 00:31:20.059 that changes the outcome of the match necessarily, 00:31:20.279 --> 00:31:24.700 but I think it makes it closer and you potentially 00:31:24.700 --> 00:31:27.420 win that second set. Okay, let's talk about Long 00:31:27.420 --> 00:31:31.099 Beach State. I actually thought that Nikolov 00:31:31.099 --> 00:31:34.900 ran a really good offense in this match. I thought 00:31:34.900 --> 00:31:38.380 he distributed the ball incredibly well. I thought 00:31:38.380 --> 00:31:42.140 he got all of his hitters involved in the match. 00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:46.890 I thought he was making good decisions. overloading 00:31:46.890 --> 00:31:49.789 when he needed to, taking the ball when he needed 00:31:49.789 --> 00:31:52.529 to. I thought his decision -making was good, 00:31:52.589 --> 00:31:54.849 except for the one ball that he tried to absolutely 00:31:54.849 --> 00:31:58.690 murder at the zero -foot line. Thinking that? 00:31:58.829 --> 00:32:00.869 That was maybe not a good decision. And then 00:32:00.869 --> 00:32:03.410 fell. He ran from the scorer's table, jumped 00:32:03.410 --> 00:32:06.230 across the court, and then slid to the other 00:32:06.230 --> 00:32:09.829 side. I'm like, okay. Not the best choice. That 00:32:09.829 --> 00:32:13.009 was maybe his one bad decision of the game. But 00:32:13.009 --> 00:32:17.099 it was just a really good... team effort. Like 00:32:17.099 --> 00:32:19.920 if I look at the distribution, Kondev got 20 00:32:19.920 --> 00:32:25.160 sets, Dickinson 12, Varga 11, Nikolov took 10 00:32:25.160 --> 00:32:28.740 swings, Pruitt took 10 swings. It was - I thought 00:32:28.740 --> 00:32:31.579 Pruitt came in and did a good job. Yeah. It was 00:32:31.579 --> 00:32:35.559 just, it was a full team victory. Yeah. They, 00:32:35.700 --> 00:32:40.460 they were on a mission. They were prepared. Their 00:32:40.460 --> 00:32:44.079 athletes showed up like they - They were winning 00:32:44.079 --> 00:32:46.160 that match. They were in control. Even though 00:32:46.160 --> 00:32:47.839 they were down in the second set, they were in 00:32:47.839 --> 00:32:49.660 control of that match the whole time. That's 00:32:49.660 --> 00:32:52.579 how it felt watching the game. I think the best 00:32:52.579 --> 00:32:57.839 team won. They 100 % outperformed everybody this 00:32:57.839 --> 00:33:02.779 weekend. And yeah, they definitely deserve to 00:33:02.779 --> 00:33:05.519 win. I just want to talk about, I loved Nikolov's 00:33:05.519 --> 00:33:09.099 little interview at the end. A, giving a shout 00:33:09.099 --> 00:33:12.789 out to his parents for, you know. instilling 00:33:12.789 --> 00:33:15.650 that competitiveness and desire to win and then 00:33:15.650 --> 00:33:18.289 like being asked you have one more national championship 00:33:18.289 --> 00:33:20.390 than your brother he's like sucks to be my brother 00:33:20.390 --> 00:33:24.690 like at the end of the day this kid is 18 years 00:33:24.690 --> 00:33:27.390 old and also dropped an f -bomb which i thought 00:33:27.390 --> 00:33:29.769 was funny and then he was so embarrassed but 00:33:29.769 --> 00:33:34.089 i know that we can be critical things like that 00:33:34.089 --> 00:33:38.700 but yeah i understand he's 18. But he is very 00:33:38.700 --> 00:33:41.579 good. I'm curious to see, because on the broadcast 00:33:41.579 --> 00:33:43.819 they were talking about how his brother kind 00:33:43.819 --> 00:33:47.099 of questioned his decision to go pro because 00:33:47.099 --> 00:33:50.859 he didn't, like, all of the men are, like, men 00:33:50.859 --> 00:33:55.640 and have families and, you know, are not hanging 00:33:55.640 --> 00:33:59.150 out. So it just kind of, like. I'm curious if 00:33:59.150 --> 00:34:01.650 he will stick around after hearing about the 00:34:01.650 --> 00:34:04.029 experience that his brother had, or if he's like, 00:34:04.069 --> 00:34:06.269 you know what, forget it. I'm going to go make 00:34:06.269 --> 00:34:07.950 some money. I bet he plays at least one more 00:34:07.950 --> 00:34:10.389 year. I mean, I would like to see that. What 00:34:10.389 --> 00:34:13.349 were your overall thoughts on the season? That 00:34:13.349 --> 00:34:15.550 was the first, this is the first year I've paid 00:34:15.550 --> 00:34:19.070 attention to NCAA men's volleyball, like pretty 00:34:19.070 --> 00:34:23.110 religiously. You know, I think three of the top 00:34:23.110 --> 00:34:25.530 four teams in the country were in the final four. 00:34:26.570 --> 00:34:30.570 I think the only team that was missing, you know, 00:34:30.590 --> 00:34:35.590 whether it be USC or UC Irvine, I think an argument 00:34:35.590 --> 00:34:39.679 could be made for either one. Pepperdine did 00:34:39.679 --> 00:34:41.619 what they needed to do to make it there. They 00:34:41.619 --> 00:34:43.500 played well while they were there. It's not like 00:34:43.500 --> 00:34:45.960 they were out of place by any means, but I think 00:34:45.960 --> 00:34:49.019 when you look at the body of work that these 00:34:49.019 --> 00:34:51.519 teams put together throughout the season, three 00:34:51.519 --> 00:34:54.639 of the top four teams that were the most consistent 00:34:54.639 --> 00:34:57.280 and most deserving, in my opinion, to be there 00:34:57.280 --> 00:35:00.719 in the final four were there. Yeah, and I enjoyed 00:35:00.719 --> 00:35:02.920 the volleyball for the most part. I think there 00:35:02.920 --> 00:35:05.039 were some games where you had a ton of errors, 00:35:05.099 --> 00:35:08.920 but the game has... There's blocking, there's 00:35:08.920 --> 00:35:13.840 defense. It's not all just terminal and power. 00:35:14.039 --> 00:35:16.079 I mean, that does happen, but there were some 00:35:16.079 --> 00:35:19.059 great rallies. It was exciting. The game is evolving 00:35:19.059 --> 00:35:22.179 for sure. Yeah, I definitely enjoyed it, and 00:35:22.179 --> 00:35:25.840 I will definitely follow along again next year. 00:35:26.420 --> 00:35:32.780 We did get one question about NCAA men's volleyball 00:35:32.780 --> 00:35:34.920 that I wanted to touch on. I think this is perfect 00:35:34.920 --> 00:35:38.960 for... this episode. So it says, why is it that 00:35:38.960 --> 00:35:42.619 on the men's side players at this age level are 00:35:42.619 --> 00:35:47.239 more developed overseas than in the U S and basically 00:35:47.239 --> 00:35:51.119 referring to the like high amount of international 00:35:51.119 --> 00:35:53.579 athletes that we see on the NCAA men's side, 00:35:53.639 --> 00:35:56.239 a lot of Bulgarians, a lot of Israeli athletes, 00:35:56.400 --> 00:36:02.480 French athletes. So this person is asking. These 00:36:02.480 --> 00:36:04.980 foreign athletes seem to be more developed than 00:36:04.980 --> 00:36:07.860 the American boys. Does it have to do with them 00:36:07.860 --> 00:36:10.400 starting volleyball early or are there more club 00:36:10.400 --> 00:36:13.800 opportunities or why do you see that? I think 00:36:13.800 --> 00:36:16.480 there's two things. One is if you are good enough, 00:36:16.500 --> 00:36:19.440 you play with the men from a younger age. So 00:36:19.440 --> 00:36:23.800 they don't do. club sports in europe the same 00:36:23.800 --> 00:36:26.960 way we do here in north america so here you know 00:36:26.960 --> 00:36:29.059 you play with your age group you play with the 00:36:29.059 --> 00:36:30.920 high school kids you know if you're really good 00:36:30.920 --> 00:36:33.659 maybe you play up one age level so you're 16 00:36:33.659 --> 00:36:35.920 playing with 17 year olds before you go to college 00:36:36.590 --> 00:36:38.409 That's not how it works overseas. You have pro 00:36:38.409 --> 00:36:42.369 clubs and they'll have an A team and a B team 00:36:42.369 --> 00:36:45.570 and then maybe like a C youth team. And it doesn't 00:36:45.570 --> 00:36:47.849 matter how old you are. If you have the skill 00:36:47.849 --> 00:36:50.030 to play on the B team, you play on the B team. 00:36:50.130 --> 00:36:53.889 You could be 14 and playing with 23 -year -olds. 00:36:54.130 --> 00:36:59.010 Like when I played in Italy, we had... 16 year 00:36:59.010 --> 00:37:01.989 olds that came to practice every single day. 00:37:02.050 --> 00:37:04.710 They didn't dress for games, but they practiced 00:37:04.710 --> 00:37:06.809 every day. They traveled with us. They learned 00:37:06.809 --> 00:37:10.090 what it meant to be a pro. And now like, well, 00:37:10.289 --> 00:37:14.590 how old was Gabby when you played with her? Gabby 00:37:14.590 --> 00:37:17.849 was 18. She was in like her first couple of years 00:37:17.849 --> 00:37:20.969 of pro when I played with her in Brazil. Yeah. 00:37:21.050 --> 00:37:25.150 And you know, when you're around. professionals 00:37:25.150 --> 00:37:28.989 from that young of an age and you're playing 00:37:28.989 --> 00:37:31.070 with older people who are stronger they jump 00:37:31.070 --> 00:37:34.050 higher you learn to adapt to be able to hang 00:37:34.050 --> 00:37:37.349 and that's I don't think it necessarily is that 00:37:37.349 --> 00:37:39.630 the coaching is better or that you know any of 00:37:39.630 --> 00:37:43.650 that it's just you play against men more often 00:37:43.650 --> 00:37:48.929 and you have to figure it out and I mean I totally 00:37:48.929 --> 00:37:51.269 believe that's what it comes down to I agree 00:37:51.269 --> 00:37:55.420 I think that that's the difference So we have 00:37:55.420 --> 00:37:59.400 one kind of group of games for you guys to check 00:37:59.400 --> 00:38:02.420 out this week if you're interested. The Men's 00:38:02.420 --> 00:38:05.360 Champions League Final Four is happening. It 00:38:05.360 --> 00:38:09.960 is being held in Poland. You can watch the matches. 00:38:09.980 --> 00:38:15.420 It happens from Friday to Sunday on the CEV Eurovolley 00:38:15.420 --> 00:38:19.900 website. They do a fantastic job. So if you want 00:38:19.900 --> 00:38:24.480 to kind of wrap up, the men's professional season 00:38:24.480 --> 00:38:27.880 check that out it should be really good before 00:38:27.880 --> 00:38:33.940 we head into VNL and don't worry next episode 00:38:33.940 --> 00:38:40.480 we are covering VNL rosters what to expect who 00:38:40.480 --> 00:38:42.739 do we agree with the picks do we think people 00:38:42.739 --> 00:38:46.739 were snubbed we're gonna focus primarily on the 00:38:46.739 --> 00:38:50.530 U .S. We'll also add in Canada, but I think the 00:38:50.530 --> 00:38:53.369 snub potential is much higher on the American 00:38:53.369 --> 00:38:56.289 side. So we have already gotten a lot of questions 00:38:56.289 --> 00:39:00.929 about the VNL rosters. So if you have something 00:39:00.929 --> 00:39:03.849 you want to discuss, be sure to send in your 00:39:03.849 --> 00:39:06.449 question. We are not going to do the episode, 00:39:06.570 --> 00:39:09.010 like I said, this coming Monday, but next Monday. 00:39:09.190 --> 00:39:12.670 So you've got like a week to think up some questions. 00:39:13.469 --> 00:39:16.190 And so, yeah, that is what we are going to be 00:39:16.190 --> 00:39:21.090 covering. next episode is all things VNL rosters. 00:39:21.730 --> 00:39:25.630 But yeah, I can't believe the NCAA men's tournament 00:39:25.630 --> 00:39:28.670 is over. I can't either. It seems like just yesterday 00:39:28.670 --> 00:39:31.150 we were watching Penn State go 0 -8 and here 00:39:31.150 --> 00:39:35.510 we are at the national championships. Well, I 00:39:35.510 --> 00:39:37.670 mean, huge congrats to Long Beach State. Well 00:39:37.670 --> 00:39:41.480 deserved. Their fourth national title. There's 00:39:41.480 --> 00:39:45.199 a big tradition in the last decade and a bit 00:39:45.199 --> 00:39:49.659 of winning two in a row. So is somebody going 00:39:49.659 --> 00:39:51.940 to break that trend next year or is Long Beach 00:39:51.940 --> 00:39:54.139 just going to take another one and make it two 00:39:54.139 --> 00:39:56.340 in a row, continue the pattern? I think that 00:39:56.340 --> 00:39:58.360 totally depends on who comes back for Long Beach. 00:39:58.559 --> 00:40:01.500 We will find out. They definitely have potential, 00:40:01.739 --> 00:40:05.539 though. They're not losing many players. But, 00:40:05.619 --> 00:40:08.820 yeah. That was so much fun. I'm really glad. 00:40:08.920 --> 00:40:11.760 It was a great weekend of volleyball. Oh, fantastic. 00:40:12.539 --> 00:40:16.099 Sat on the couch and watched PVF, watched NCAA. 00:40:16.320 --> 00:40:20.340 It was amazing. And again, huge congrats to Long 00:40:20.340 --> 00:40:24.719 Beach State. The team that deserved to win definitely 00:40:24.719 --> 00:40:29.440 did. And we'll see what happens next season. 00:40:29.889 --> 00:40:33.309 That concludes this episode of Volley Talk. There's 00:40:33.309 --> 00:40:35.190 always something shaking in the volleyball world, 00:40:35.210 --> 00:40:37.929 and we hope you enjoyed this little fix. Be sure 00:40:37.929 --> 00:40:39.989 to follow the show so you don't miss any updates, 00:40:40.170 --> 00:40:42.869 and we'd be so grateful if you'd leave us a five 00:40:42.869 --> 00:40:45.250 -star review. You can also find us on Instagram 00:40:45.250 --> 00:40:48.949 at volleytalk underscore podcast. If you have 00:40:48.949 --> 00:40:50.969 a topic that you want us to discuss, be sure 00:40:50.969 --> 00:40:53.289 to let us know by reaching out to us on Instagram 00:40:53.289 --> 00:40:57.380 or at info at sarahpavin .com. Thanks so much 00:40:57.380 --> 00:40:59.679 for joining us and we'll be back next week.