The Volleyball Network

Live Updates, NYE 2009!

// December 31st, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

We figured we oughtta give you guys one more show before we enter a whole new decade (although technically the new decade begins in 2011 but who’s counting?). Reid will be celebrating the new year while on the air in Siberia. Woot!

Did you all see the Penn State vs Texas Women’s National Championship match???? Destinee Hooker is 6′4″ and possibly the best athlete to ever play women’s volleyball. She’s also a world class high jumper. At points it was PSU vs Hooker. And Alisha Glass, starting setter for all 3 PSU championships, is perhaps underrated… Lipscomb University head coach and The Net Live friend Brandon Rosenthal was surprised with how sloppy PSU played early on and how much Texas took the foot off the gas in sets 3 and 4 (after being up 2-0). He thinks the Texas libero was the most underrated player in the match. What a great final match of the year! Reid mentions that Hodge, Hooker and Fawcette all hit at a pace comparable to men’s speeds.

On to the 2009 Netty Awards!!!!

We’ve compiled our lists of the best and worst of 2009…

1. Most Influential Volleyball Event
Dan: American Volleyball Coaches Association Convention
Reid: NCAA Title Match, Penn State vs Texas
Kevin: USAV board meeting with AVP at the VB Hall of Fame

2. Team USA Player of the Year
Dan: April Ross
Reid: Penn State (best team in the USA)
Kevin: April Ross and Jen Kessy

3. Headline of the Year
Dan: Leonard Armato “Resigns” from AVP after buying it out of bankruptcy
Reid: Penn State, Russ Rose wins 3rd Straight Title
Kevin: 2 NCAA Coaches Get 1,000th Win (Dave Shoji at Hawaii & Russ Rose)

4. Issue that will be influential in 2010
Dan: NCAA Sand Volleyball…will it happen??
Reid: Commercial Viability and Sustainability of Volleyball
Kevin: Kerri Walsh Being Pregnant (again)

5. Biggest Disappointment of 2009
Dan: The constant bickering between seemingly every volleyball organization on the planet!
Reid: USA Men’s team NOT qualifying for the Grand Champion’s Cup
Kevin: Matt Anderson, USA Men’s Team. Lots of expectations, few positive results

6. Person of the Year
Dan: RUSS ROSE
Reid: John Speraw, UC Irvine men’s head coach. 2 titles in 5 years
Kevin: Jason Hodell, AVP CEO

Live Updates, 12/14/09

// December 14th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Big show going on. Russ Rose in the house. Geeter coming on soon.

Barney did an endo over his motorcycle on a picnic table last week. Broke his collarbone in a hundred places it looks GROSS. Reid is cold in Siberia. His team wants to win in better fashion (better passing). He also got a bear/dog german shepard animal. Dan and his “Creative Alliance” of friends wrote short stories and had them judged by Jeff Nygaard and Todd Rogers…

FREERIDE!!!
Penn State faces Hawaii while Texas faces Minnesota in the Women’s NCAA tournament semifinals. Hawaii is the 12 seed, Minnesota the 12. Would an 8-team Men’s tournament be successful? Probably, because right now it’s a singe weekend and often the semifinals are beatdowns (Sorry east coast teams).

Have you heard of the pregnant girl doesn’t want to be babied story? Quite an unfortunate situation.

South Bay standout Lara Dykstra commits to Nebraska as a sand volleyball recruit. Love it! Get on the beach boat!

GEETER!! Tells us that Texas got a huge win vs Nebraska. Texas may be the ONLY team to beat PSU and only because of their athleticism. Even when PSU is out of system they can make something happen. Hodge vs Hooker matchup…Geeter picks Hodge barely, but Hooker can just take over the match, though a little less dynamic. Geeter apologizes to Hawaii coaches, he doesn’t think they’re strong enough to beat PSU, nor Minnesota even with their new setter Taylor Carico. It’s destiny for PSU/Texas…But he’s got Texas for the win in 5 sets!!

Lots of partner shuffling around on the AVP. Misty May is playing with Nicole Branagh, Kerri Walsh will miss most of 2010. She is pregnant again. On the men’s side, one of the tour’s best players, Matt Olson, is partnerless and looking. Any suggestions? Rooney? Fuerbringer and Jennings are finally done-zo. We’ll see who does better for the remainder of their careers!

RUSS ROSE
He’s got 999 career victories…100 consecutive wins…The 2nd tourney match against Penn his team was flat emotionally, overconfident, hence his upset comments directed at his star players. He’s excited about reaching another final four appearance. There are veteran players from the last 2 championship teams, which helps the level of play each match. He doesn’t know too much about Hawaii because they’re not on TV much, Shoji is a great coach with great assistants, their players are extremely impressive as well. They play bigger than they are and their volleyball IQ is typically higher than most college players. They beat Michigan and PSU had dificulty with them. Jump Serves…most top teams are going more towards a jump-float instead of the topspin rip. The best jump servers were always the best all-around players, so sometimes they are backrow players. As far as scoring and different rules for college…Russ doesn’t really know why they change rules. He got stuck one year when the rules changed to rally-score, because his team wasn’t created to focus on rally ability. He doesn’t like the let-serve rule. Recruiting…Russ looks for a good attitude, kids who can play hard, be accountable, etc. He’s into telling his players the things needed to play at the level he wants them to play at. It’s about scoring points and there’s a lot of ways to win. It’s as important to score as it is to not make errors…He’s upset at AJ for not pressing the “record” button on the first take of Danny Kinda’s peptalk to his team in 2007, hours before they won the national championship.
Danny Kinda Fires up PSU

Today’s show, 12/14/09

// December 14th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Geeter does his thing.

After that we’ve got AVP tour announcer and volleyball personality Chris “Geeter” McGee. He’s gonna talk with us about the NCAA tournament and the craziness going on with AVP partnerships (the players, not the sponsors).

Links on stuff we could quite possibly talk about…
• The Women’s NCAA Championship Bracket is almost complete!
• Beach volleyball standout commits to Nebraska
• Haneef-Park, Joines Tamas A Tall Order on Dr. Phil

Kevin will play hurt

// December 13th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

A source close to someone, close to Kevin has reported that allegedly there has been a motor-biking accident. Though unconfirmed, it is believed that Kevin will suit up for tomorrows show. Reid and Dan are expected to do the heavy lifting but Kevin will be ready if called upon. The above photo is also believed to be Kevin’s collar bone seen in 3 pieces…again, details pending whether this was due to the accident or other extenuating circumstances. Tune in tomorrow morning for The NET LIVE streaming at 10am @ The Volleyball NETWORK or in HiDef on demand on iTunes.

Live Updates, 12/07/09

// December 7th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Reid’s car froze over in Siberia. It wouldn’t start. When he got it “fixed” they fixed the seatbelts.

Cuz Dan writes this, he gets to put his link up first

Trivia Contest: What weight dumbbell does Billy Allen toss around in the Ultimate Beach Volleyball Workout?? Email your answers to dan@kindagood.com for a chance to win a brand spanking new KG tee!
KindaGood.com/store

Texas A&M stuns #15 LSU. Britnee Cooper has 28 kills on 40 attempts. Nebraska hasn’t lost a set in over a month, and they’re in line to play Texas in the round of 8…IN OMAHA! The Big 12 got 12 teams in the tourney, 5 are still playing. 4 are playing in the same region, Texas, Texas A&M, Nebraska, and Iowa State. Reid has Tourney Fever!

Pac 10 awards…Player of the Year from Croatia Hana Cutura… Barney doesn’t believe any good foreign players are eligible. There are many players who have played professionally overseas for many years already.

Paula Weisoff at UC Irvine didn’t make the tourney, but she’s got a great rep…

Concordia College wins another Division II championship! And Loyola Marymount University head Coach Steve Stratos is out after 20+ years. Who can fill that spot? Jeff Stork comes to mind…

We’ve got AVP pros playing indoors in the offseason…Austin Rester starting in Bulgaria for Sofia and playing in Champions League. Casey Patterson is playing in Puerto Rico and BOOOOMing as always with Team Kinda Good member Nils Nielsen.

Big changes on the men’s side of the AVP…Kevin Wong and Casey Patterson are 2 big men rumored to be playing together in 2010…That leaves Matt Olson and Ty Loomis looking for blockers. Also, Nick Lucena and Matt Fuerbringer are gonna fire it up…Will Brad Keenan and Casey Jennings team up or will John Mayer win his former teammate and partner back?

World League Finals Location; Kordoba Argentina, rabid fans, fun times!

On “The Net Live” Podcast, 12/07/09

// December 7th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Hey Fans. Reid’s in Siberia, Kevin and /Dan are in Redondo Beach, CA. Get ready because we’ve got some Women’s NCAA tourney news to discuss with guest Brandon Higa. We’ll also talk about Russ Rose, Penn State, and why he said “I thought Darcy won the first game for us, that’s why she’s sitting here and the All-Americans are sitting in the locker room.”
D1 Tournament Bracket
D2 Tournament Bracket

Also, the PAC 10 player of the year is foreign import…Are many of these foreign players eligible? How many have already played professionally?

The men’s side of the AVP starts a mad scramble for new partners…Dan has some dirt on new partnerships and who just may be out of options. Champions League is underway, and we’ve found a great site to watch it!
http://www.laola1.tv/en/us/home/

More links…
Men’s Indoor World Rankings
Women’s Indoor World Rankings
Jason Ring’s former roommate
Kinda Good Releases more tees!

Live Updates, 11/30/09

// November 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Live updates happening now!

Links from today’s broadcast…
Kinda Good AVP Clone Challenge, Naked Volleyball

Kevin spent Thanksgiving at a pool, Dan went to San Onofre to surf and ball, Reid met up with some other Americans in Siberia to feast.

Brandon Rosenthal, head coach for Lipscomb University (28-3), talks to us about the NCAA Tournament. He is fired up to Play #9 Cal in a few days, though he’s a bit upset with having a very low RPI (34, low is good) and playing a top 10 team. Other teams in the 100s are playing teams in the 80s…

Senior women administrators, athletic directors, and a few other people make up the committee who select the teams and matchups for the tournament.

Did you know that Penn State has already lost 5 sets this year??? Yes, they’re undefeated, but at this point last year they hadn’t lost a single set!

POTENTIAL HOST CITIES, World League 2010
Via Mike Chandler, USAVolleyball
Chicago, San Jose, Wichita, Anaheim, and more! The locations will be announced at the end of December. Kevin wants to see the great crowds in Wichita, Chicago for the 3rd year, maybe Philly (so he can get Eagles gear). Reid wants markets where sports are big and covered by the media. The NY area is on his list. There’s a big club presence in PA, NY, NJ, and elsewhere. Hawaii would also be an awesome marketplace.

James Wilroy was on the show last week talking about his “DataVolley” statistics program for coaches and players. The USA National Teams have used it for years and it’s filtering down into the college ranks. Reid likes that players can now be a part of the PROCESS of coaching and see statistics matched with video and pick up on tendencies.

THE HOOPS WHISPERER
This article talks about Idan Ravin, a coach disciplining Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony and motivating them to compete hard even though they are at the top of their game. Ravin identifies the player traits and figures out how to talk to each player. For instance, to get Gilbert Arenas to practice a little longer and take a few more shots, he would comment, “Chris Paul is shooting free-throws right now. And you want to quit? Go ahead.” He lets the player dictate how much he practices and how intense it is. Hugh McCutcheon was great at approaching players with different tact.

USOC ousts CEO
USOC is a mess. Kevin is amazed with how often their CEOs change. Every 2.5 years they get a new CEO. Sounds bad. “Guest 1700″ from the chatboard says “If you change your CEO eery 2 years, you have to restart your organization every 2 years.”

BIGGER BETTER DEAL
Kerri Walsh is out for 2010 presumably. Who does Misty play with? Who ruins a great partnership to play with Misty? April Ross? Nicole Branagh?

On “The Net Live” Podcast, 11/30/09

// November 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Can Russ Rose and Penn State win for the third time in a row?

Also on the show…

• NCAA Women’s tournament Preview
• Guest Brandon Rosenthal of Lipscomb University will talk about the NCAA tournament bracket
• Here’s the bracket!
• Men’s and Women’s World League Pools + 2010 Prospect Cities
• The “Bigger Better Deal” on the beach…With Kerri potentially out in 2010, who would dump her current partner to play with Misty? (Answer: ANYBODY!)

And if we’ve got time, we’ll talk about USOC assessing its governance structure + The Hoops Whisperer and how this could be applied to volleyball (and life).

Team USA Open Practices, Information

// November 25th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

You can watch the USA Men and Women practice in Anaheim any time!

If you’re in the Anaheim CA area and want to learn more about practice times and how you and your team can watch National Team practices, contact info@usav.org.

On “The Net Live” Podcast, 11/23/09

// November 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Volleyball

UPDATE: The show is up on iTunes!

On today’s show Reid and Dan will discuss the FIVB Grand Champions Cup, sand volleyball in the NCAA, Dalhausser wins 3 FIVB beach awards, and…

Kevin Talks with DataProject’s James Wilroy about volleyball stats and the statistical revolution happening in the indoor ranks.
DataProject.com

Links For You:
• NCAA sand volleyball debate heating up
• Lindsey Berg’s Blog
• Dalhausser wins 3 FIVB Awards
• Elena Delle Donne, Basketball Phenom turned Volleyball Star
• NCAA Women’s VB Rankings
• Karch flips out at B-Lee
• Karch rips the net down in anger