Long Beach State Athletics!: Re: Tatum Hoff shout out

well, they were doing more than tipping until yesterday. the slides to Sheffie started out horrible after they had been run well the last couple of weeks, and that was due in part to setting.

it was funny after about 3 straight borderline pushes/lifts by our Middles, Walters had a long discussion with the down ref complaining about it.

Poly's Leluge is a much better talent than our middles to begin with. the point is our two middles had shown zilch in their career before this year and from my POV the staff maximized their contribution

maybe you go to practices so have insight on what is or is not taught

and NO, the point is not to be a mid tier team, it's to be upper tier in the Big West and play for titles. which they have been, and granted not getting to the finals sucked.

not gonna hold Reagan's grin against her, so long as she is teaching. and this team showed improvement while losing 3 all league players, but maybe others do not think so. the team served very precisely and intentially. there were positives.

but again, we'll see what transpires with the portal, it's an uphill battle. & see if they can leap UCSB & Cal Poly next year.

and see if Reagan can get enough trust to run more back row sets to King next year, assumes she gets convinced to stay

also, in regard to 'grumblings' I have little confidence in what 20-21 year olds might rumble about these days. the attention span and impatience of 20-21 year olds is pretty bad from my experience. not good judges of assessing many things. but I could be wrong lol

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If you compare the Cal Poly Middles to Long Beach’s, they are much better in system and capable of hitting hard angles with power. LB’s middle are often not in position, tend to tip a lot, and rarely hit sharp. They have good physicality no doubt, and fairly good on the block. That’s my biggest criticism of Reagan—she doesn’t really have a specific VB PO—mostly smiles and muddles along.

If being a mid-level team in a less than mid-level conference is our goal—she’s our gal I guess.

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well, your comments are vague.

yes, Natalie has that perma-grin

I don't know what the associate HC does. your comment doesn't really provide insight. his resume is I guess ok lol. pulling away Full/Irv assistants does not seem like some coup

what I do know is that despite losing a high level MB to a top 5 program (ASU), the block and defense were solid considering the resume of the MBs having to take over. something happened correctly in terms of teaching this year. maybe you can provide insight in to who did that teaching?

agree, a bit stunned at the lack for student turn-out for the BWCT semis and yeah not getting just 100 students in there was bad, there was little/no home crowd advantage or not much of one last night.

and agree, if there is no NIL, I think there might not be a King, and

Davis will be a total reload.

SB, assuming they don't lose to the portal (never a safe assumption anymore), is going to be a huge favorite if Beach does not have King return

one thing that drives me nuts is Natalie has this annoying habit of these useless lengthy discussions with the refs that just comes across that the refs are explaining the rules of VB to her; granted BG would do similiar in his later years, but he had earned the right to lecture refs or do any gamesmanship.

yep, they need NIL, no NIL then no King. I'm sure the staff knows and does the AD care? by now I'm sure he has heard of prioritizing VB, just how much more sunk cost will go in to MBB where teaching ability seems in short supply.

given the MBs available in particular, and untested backcourt players, hard to argue this team did not perform well. It was a top 60 program this year. hardly something to disparage too much. the team looked much more cohesive in the backrow than the prior two years of breakdowns. maybe that is Molina - he certainly projects confidence out there.

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Tom Hoff was in the stands, as he has been for virtually every match.

The conventional wisdom and narrative is that this team met or exceeded expectations, and in general they did, even if we factor in that Hawai’i was a complete non-factor this season. The number of fans in the stands was disappointing, and other than the men’s team, the student section was anemic. The athletic dept should spring for a few hundred student passes and invest in the environment.

There are still rumblings, however. Logan King is rumored to be considering entering the portal—and she’s likely to get some attention and offers even If she isn’t. Natalie has a perma-grin pasted on, and gives the impression that everything is peachy, but the team isn’t enamored (although the team is fairly tight-knit). Not enough involvement from her, and too much delegation to Molina is the complaint (and no one knows what the Assoc HC does).

With Hawai’i and Davis gone, the Big West keeps lurching into mediocrity, and the goal of at least being the best in the conference starts to resemble a rearranging of the deck chairs on the Titanic. I would like to see a revitalized plan for some NIL for women’s volleyball, but I don’t really expect it to happen.

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had another stellar serving game. She had great movement on that serve all year and she rarely made service errors, which is tough for a serving sub.

wish she would play another year, she was a top notch serving specialist.

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an entertaining match....for the first 3 sets lol

Beach had chances each set, especially in that crunch 3rd set, and just could not make some plays. Had real trouble with Beshear's serve.

and then just flopped on some not so difficult serves in a run by Poly 4th set.

Agi had a great attacking game, and helped keep things close.

now see what transpires in the new era of the portal.

even assuming everyone that could came back, there's a lot of development/recruiting for the OHs and pins.

hoping some way they can keep this young core together, and King obviously is a stud to build a team around. Painful to see her out of the rotation in that 4th set and often. She has a back row attack and in the future has to be in there.

Mad Max developed quite a bit. This was a fun team to see develop and watch, especially how defense played with the MB and backrow liberos and DS all starting for the first time.
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