Knipe must be feeling pretty proud today, seeing this team win the BWCT, and how things have unfolded.

after all is said and done, have to give MacRae a ton of credit. He has a solid case for Big West COY or co-COY with Wade. Team was 0-2 and down to Northridge up in NOrth staring at an 0-3 start, was looking bleak.

none of the team signed up for this as much as they said the right things when Knipe stepped down

the early season was difficult, especially sorting thru the dynamic of two stellar Opps in Gajek's brilliance and Hershy's solid execution. It's mind boggling to have two Opps at this talent level. Herschy had some stellar games the last month as well

Navigating who the MBs should be between Braun, frosh sensation Cryst, Marguardt (sic), and Pruitt. Again mind-boggling that the athletic Pruitt was a key in last years NCAA championship game and due to injuries and depth has barely been on the court. The depth in MB on this team is just incredible. and only Braun graduates, sure hope all 3 come back.

seemningly malaise for over a month with so so play of Pazanti, not finishing well in UCLA aand Hawaii matches.

Pazanti injured, Kandev Injured, Gajek Injured

his line up management shows a lot of perspective and insight, from having Doty and Herschy start with Pazanti & Gajek coming in late, kept the team confident with Doty, Herschy was playing great, and the injury and 6-2 switch seemed to make Pazanti a better setter and then got Gajek inspired

and then the use of Hillis, wow. Bloom was struggling, being targeted, and having confidence in the situation and just gave the team some better attack opportunities even if not gonna set Hillis back row or on the left.

Pazanti's development. So huge last nght, don't know if Pazanti could ahve handled the situation two months ago like he did last night. stepped up in the match to give Braun and Cryst and Gajek crisp sets they were crushing.

Bloom stepping in, Hillis stepping in.

adept challenges. Knipe for all the great things, would be quick to use a challenge as a TO, and miss some challenges. MacRae I think is clearly seeing objectively what goes on out there, not that Knipe doesn't. Plus don't miss Knipe's 'gamesmanship' with holding his challenge card talkingn to the refs biding time while taking up time thinking about a challenge.

I think in terms of how he views the players, he put Peluso in that 5th set to give Peluso a shot at closing the match, that said a lot to me, a move a lot of coaches would not have done given the stakes and changed things up just to give a player time in a big game. Confidence breeds confidence. decided to have Pazanti go float serve, and that was working well Pazanti wasn't scoring a lot on his jump serve.

yeah, MacRae can come off like an infomerical at times, lol, still he is sincere, and hopefully over the season the players have taken their development in total and come away as a top tier team. I'm not sure Knipe could have managed this team as well. one more loss than last year, with a team that had Moni.

to see the dynamic we saw back in Jan/Feb with Gajek and to see what transpired last night shows thte coaching staff managed the team well. Even if they had lost, the difference the last 5 weeks was clear in how well the team developed.

hope he gets COY

will be interesting to see the FOY with Cryst and Gajek elevating their play the last month vs. Irvine's head case frosh from France, lol, given we thought we had a bit of a frosh head case two months ago.