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Post by pennstate1973 on Dec 21, 2023 21:24:20 GMT -5
I'm reading competition for a starting position is good and players should welcome it.
Jurevicius left Nebraska because she didn't want to or felt she couldn't compete for a starting position. Everyone here seems to think it's a good thing Jurevicius left because she didn't want to compete to be in the starting lineup.
What am I missing? Seems like contradictory thoughts.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2023 21:42:51 GMT -5
I think you can still ride the bench and be developed to become an extremely talented international volleyball player.... Nia Reed. She did not get the accolades she deserved but stuck with PSU volleyball. She was able to shine at the end and has had a marvelous career. Competition is a good thing. My fear is players do not buy into the process and just want to be a starter right out of the gates. Very hard to do at the top schools. I have been very impressed with Markley and feel she has a legitimate chance to be a starter. She reminds me so much of Megan Courtney, especially her blocking. I look forward to the 2024 season. Same. She has Courtney vibes all over her when she blocks. It's unbelievable how far over the net she gets. I love it. |
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Post by dc155 on Dec 21, 2023 21:47:56 GMT -5
As fans not only of the program but of individual players, it's hard to see players not play... and even harder to see some move on.
That said, one of the main responsibilities of any staff is to continuously improve their roster. Yes, by developing their current players, but also by attracting (I hope saying this isn't offensive...) "better" ones. Whether current players can then beat out the new additions to keep their place in the depth chart - That, in my opinion, isn't something any coaching staff should consider nor be concerned with. Coaches should always seek to bring in the best, and then be fair in letting the players figure out the hierarchy during practice.
To our staff's credit, what I hear often from those who are deep in recruiting circles is that the PSU staff never promises a starting job to anyone during recruiting. They make it clear that everyone must come in ready to compete. On the other hand, it's clear from various interviews that the staff continues to emphasize to current players that they must still compete everyday. As the expectation is to compete... If a recruit is worried about committing to PSU because of who's already on the roster or who might come in, I'm guessing that's not the type of player our staff would want.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2023 21:48:52 GMT -5
I'm reading competition for a starting position is good and players should welcome it. Jurevicius left Nebraska because she didn't want to or felt she couldn't compete for a starting position. Everyone here seems to think it's a good thing Jurevicius left because she didn't want to compete to be in the starting lineup. What am I missing? Seems like contradictory thoughts. I think that some competition is good, but too much competition affects some players negatively. Nebraska brought in Beason (who is playing the same position as Jurevius) AFTER they signed Jurevicius. My guess is that move sent the wrong vibes to the incumbent recruit, especially since that recruit was so highly ranked. |
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Post by nittanye on Dec 21, 2023 21:53:44 GMT -5
I'm reading competition for a starting position is good and players should welcome it. Jurevicius left Nebraska because she didn't want to or felt she couldn't compete for a starting position. Everyone here seems to think it's a good thing Jurevicius left because she didn't want to compete to be in the starting lineup. What am I missing? Seems like contradictory thoughts. There’s wayyyy too much assumption about why she left. What about Lauenstein, Akana, or Caffey? Were they all afraid of competition? Maybe they just didn’t like Nebraska. |
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Post by dc155 on Dec 21, 2023 21:58:49 GMT -5
I'm reading competition for a starting position is good and players should welcome it. Jurevicius left Nebraska because she didn't want to or felt she couldn't compete for a starting position. Everyone here seems to think it's a good thing Jurevicius left because she didn't want to compete to be in the starting lineup. What am I missing? Seems like contradictory thoughts. It seems the problem with Nebraska is that they didn't give CJ the opportunity to compete to play this year. In a fairly recent article in The Atlantic, it's implied that Nebraska redshirted her without discussion. I have no idea, but I wonder if CJ is moving on because with Beason still around for one more year, she knows she won't be given a fair chance to compete again next season. Per a lot of Husker fans, "CJ is too good to wait for two year." |
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Post by nittlion on Dec 21, 2023 22:14:10 GMT -5
I'm reading competition for a starting position is good and players should welcome it. Jurevicius left Nebraska because she didn't want to or felt she couldn't compete for a starting position. Everyone here seems to think it's a good thing Jurevicius left because she didn't want to compete to be in the starting lineup. What am I missing? Seems like contradictory thoughts. I don’t think it’s the aspect that it’s good she left because she didn’t want to compete, rather she probably has a better chance of competing for a starting spot or at least significant/more playing time on PSU’s roster compared to Nebraska given the eligibility and talent the players ahead of her have. It was very unlikely for her to play over Murray, Beason, Krause, or Batenhorst next season or the following and I’m sure some top pins recruits are headed their way next season. Whereas at Penn State after this season there are much fewer upperclassmen pin hitters and the next ones coming in will be freshmen. Like previous posts say, KSC has made it pretty clear no spot is guaranteed on their starting lineup but I would also say there’s a little more wiggle room for CJ to earn a spot compared to at Nebraska. Nia Reed is a great example of someone buying in and developing and waiting until it’s their time, but unfortunately not every player has those views and would take their chances somewhere they believe they have a higher chance to start sooner. I’m sure at the end of the day CJ’s goal is to get better and win a national championship and knows that she will still need to earn her spot. Let’s not forget this is still Penn State we’re talking about! And honestly if these are their “rebuilding” years I’m pretty happy about it. Obviously final fours and national championships has become the expected outcome, but compared to other top schools who’ve had turnover and went through some “rebuilding” (i.e. Stanford), Penn State hasn’t had as big as a drop off during this time. It may be taking longer than anyone wants to get back to the normal standard, but the way I see it is lots of the other schools are still trying to or just now catching up to PSU. But the ability to recruit top high schoolers and transfers (for 3 consecutive seasons now) by this staff shows a lot of promise for the future. |
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Post by nitneliun on Dec 21, 2023 23:30:59 GMT -5
After Caroline committed to Nebraska, Joe moved his family to Lincoln. I wonder if he'll move them from Lincoln to Happy Valley. He is from the Cleveland area and has a successful business there that he co-owns with a former NFL teammate.
I'm not sure if any of you remember, but when Joe left Penn State, it was not on the best of terms. JoePa kept him out of a bowl game because he missed come classes. JoeJu believed that it had a negative impact on his draft status. During his introduction at an NFL playoff game, Joe had his high school announced as his alma mater, instead of Penn State.
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96psu
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Post by 96psu on Dec 22, 2023 2:17:14 GMT -5
The portal has changed everything in BOTH directions, PSU has just been on the receiving end of the game and everyone here thinks it’s great, but if we don’t think we can lose talented young players to it as well I think that’s misguided. The portal has made it just as easy for talented and highly recruited young players to leave if they don’t get the opportunity to develop and play because transfers are brought in at the same position as it has for players someone else developed to transfer in. That’s likely the reason why we were able to get the transfer we did today. Nebraska signed a highly recruited high school player and then brought in an all-American with 2 years of eligibility at the same position and the red-shirt freshman hit the portal. It’s great for us, this time…. but let’s say we do the same thing to Izzy Starck we’ve done to our young pins by bringing in a 5th year setter and red-shirting her (like we did Katie Hurta…who knew when she transferred out that we’d be bringing in another transfer setter). Would Izzy stay? What if her red-shirt freshman year we brought in another transfer setter with 2 years of eligibility? Would she leave then? What advice would the next highly ranked setter we recruited hear from her club coaches and what would she decide when another school said PSU did their young players dirty in the portal…come here instead? Slippery slope. If the team was playing extremely well, and we knew for certain that good players were riding the bench, then your argument would be justified. But the reality is that PSU struggled this past season against the top 12 teams. Our best players were starting and even they struggled at times. Markley was had plenty of opportunities this season to show her stuff. I think she played well at times and then struggled at times. By mid-season, Alexa was starting regularly over Zoe, but Zoe ended coming back strong at the end of the season. Sometimes that's how things work out. Willow is only a freshman, she will get her opportunities, there is still plenty of time. Izzy should be starting from day one. I'd be really surprised if she's not, but we definitely need a good backup setter. I think the slippery slope argument can be made for teams that are highly competitive. I don't think we are there yet, but who knows, by next season we might be. Markley didn’t start over Zoe or vice versa. Markley was in an OH role all season except for the mid set 6-2 sun we ran for a rotation when we were getting crushed. When Zoe lost get starting RS job it was because she was playing poorly and Cam was moved to RS and Markley moved back into the starting OH role she played the second half of her freshman year. After disappointing non conference losses, this sparked an improvement and we won 9 B1G games in a row with Jess/Alexa on the left and Cam on the right. Markley played well during that stretch, statistically better than she did coming in relief of Cam during the non-conference marches. I remember seeing a comparison B1G put up of her early season play vs B1G play. The side by side was a big improvement, and she had a career high in kills at Iowa. The decision to go back to the line up we started the season with was made after the blowout loss at Nebraska which wasn’t a loss you could blame on one player, particularly not one where we set Jess 50 times in 3 sets. In my opinion, nothing that happened in that match warranted a big change but we panicked and abandoned something that was working, and when we went back to the line up we started the season with Jess/Cam on the left and Zoe on the right we struggled vs Michigan and lost at MSU and Purdue. We stuck with it and got better obviously, but Markley never played a significant role after that, coming in only when we were bleeding so badly we needed a 6-2 to get out of a bad rotation. That doesn’t exactly add up to plenty of chances to prove herself and Zoe didn’t exactly finish strong. I know her strong arm made her fun to watch, but she was remained inconsistent hitting negative numbers in multiple matches and not blocking as well as she had at times in her career. We gave up significant points to opposing OHs (OSU and Kansas games come to mind) and I was surprised Markley didn’t get a chance at RS late in the season, especially with her big block. It makes me wonder, with Cam and Jess both coming back, what KSC sees her role will be this coming season. IMO, she has already proven herself capable as a starter on the left, but I hope we get to see that big block on the right side. |
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96psu
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Post by 96psu on Dec 22, 2023 2:43:08 GMT -5
The portal has changed everything in BOTH directions, PSU has just been on the receiving end of the game and everyone here thinks it’s great, but if we don’t think we can lose talented young players to it as well I think that’s misguided. The portal has made it just as easy for talented and highly recruited young players to leave if they don’t get the opportunity to develop and play because transfers are brought in at the same position as it has for players someone else developed to transfer in. That’s likely the reason why we were able to get the transfer we did today. Nebraska signed a highly recruited high school player and then brought in an all-American with 2 years of eligibility at the same position and the red-shirt freshman hit the portal. It’s great for us, this time…. but let’s say we do the same thing to Izzy Starck we’ve done to our young pins by bringing in a 5th year setter and red-shirting her (like we did Katie Hurta…who knew when she transferred out that we’d be bringing in another transfer setter). Would Izzy stay? What if her red-shirt freshman year we brought in another transfer setter with 2 years of eligibility? Would she leave then? What advice would the next highly ranked setter we recruited hear from her club coaches and what would she decide when another school said PSU did their young players dirty in the portal…come here instead? Slippery slope. To my understanding, the staff needed a setter to transfer in for 2023 because Hurta decided that she didn't want to be a collegiate setter - She wanted to be a pin so she sought out a new program that had room for her at RS. Her transferring to had nothing to do with Mac/Ally. Hurta set and hit in club so she had the ability to do both, but was expected to be a setter when committed to PSU. After decomitting from Indiana, she committed to PSU in March of her senior year, after the departure of Blossom, Oerther, and Musinga and it looked like she had an opportunity to playas a setter right away. Elisaia committed 6 weeks later and Hurta never saw the court. When she didn’t gain any experience by the time Elisaia exhausted her eligibility she had to figure there would be another transfer setter coming in. It did NOT have to do with Mac/Ally specifically because she left before they committed, but it was going to be someone. To my point, young players, particularly with skill sets that allow them to provide value at multiple positions, aren’t going to wait around to get transferred in on top of again and again. She made a good decision and saw significant playing time this season as a hitter at Clemson, and I’m happy for her. I do think this serves as an example of how if we continue to bring in transfers instead of developing and living with the growing pains of a young player, we will lose more young talented players to the portal who simply don’t have to wait it out like Nia Reed did. That option didn’t exist back then and it’s not a fair comparison to say athletes today will or should do what Nia did. Whole different world now. |
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96psu
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Post by 96psu on Dec 22, 2023 3:39:59 GMT -5
As fans not only of the program but of individual players, it's hard to see players not play... and even harder to see some move on. That said, one of the main responsibilities of any staff is to continuously improve their roster. Yes, by developing their current players, but also by attracting (I hope saying this isn't offensive...) "better" ones. Whether current players can then beat out the new additions to keep their place in the depth chart - That, in my opinion, isn't something any coaching staff should consider nor be concerned with. Coaches should always seek to bring in the best, and then be fair in letting the players figure out the hierarchy during practice. To our staff's credit, what I hear often from those who are deep in recruiting circles is that the PSU staff never promises a starting job to anyone during recruiting. They make it clear that everyone must come in ready to compete. On the other hand, it's clear from various interviews that the staff continues to emphasize to current players that they must still compete everyday. As the expectation is to compete... If a recruit is worried about committing to PSU because of who's already on the roster or who might come in, I'm guessing that's not the type of player our staff would want. Well stated dc155. “Come compete” is what every coach at a top program should be telling recruits. I do hear that’s true at PSU, particularly for high school recruits. I also think one doesn’t transfer somewhere unless think they will play or were promised they will play. Logically, why go somewhere else and be in the same situation you were before, or worse, if you saw significant playing time at your previous school? |
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Post by EnglishPennStateFan on Dec 22, 2023 8:55:23 GMT -5
Once again, thanks everyone for all the informative posts across this forum. I'm learning so much and it will make my viewing of the 2024 BIG10 season via VTV in England so much better. I've come a long way since my visit to Rec Hall in Sept 2019 when I asked Jonni Parker's grandma before the Stanford game "Does she get much court time?" Still feel embarrassed about that.
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Post by dc155 on Dec 22, 2023 11:01:06 GMT -5
IMO that’s somewhat expected. With Allie leaving, the coaches are probably trying to get one of the big names in the portal (e.g. Blackwell). But those big name middles are going to be in demand, so they probably are consider a lot of offers. Jurevicius seems to be a good prospect and the number of Penn State people that are following her are growing each day (atm it is, KSC, Coach Brian, Coach Dan, Alexa, Izzy, Quinn, Jess, and Ava) *crosses fingers*. Someone on the other forum insinuated a while ago that we already have a decent setter scooped up but I have 0 idea who it is and is not being discussed. The follows between Ava & Quinn are recent as of today. Hopefully that is a good sign for PSU? Also I think it was rumored that she entered the portal with a do not contact which often seems that the player knows where they want to go and dont want other contacts (Carter Booth) If my stalking suspicions are correct the setter transfer may be Aly Borellis (Ole Miss), when she was first posted on CVT insta account I noticed that AC Toron was following her but now she only follows him. I think that the coaching staff is trying to be more secretive with portal recruiting this time around last year we saw them following along with the hoards of coaches who follow players that enter the portal, this year they have been pretty silent. And yes I know its dumb for me to put stock on insta follows but 99.9% of the time its accurate. IMO, I think when the staff stops following a player it just means an initial conversation (assuming there was one) didn't lead to further talks. That said, Aly (Ole Miss) announced that she's transferring to Rutgers. Onto the next prospect!  |
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Post by nitneliun on Dec 22, 2023 12:04:09 GMT -5
I believe the signing period for WVB ends on Jan. 1st. It's time to get cracking on a setter and middle. Getting Jurevicius was great, but she can't be the last one for the year.
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Post by nyline on Dec 22, 2023 12:19:13 GMT -5
I believe the signing period for WVB ends on Jan. 1st. It's time to get cracking on a setter and middle. Getting Jurevicius was great, but she can't be the last one for the year. I think the deadline to enter the first transfer portal period is January 3, 2024 (not positive about that), but once in the portal, I don't believe there is any signing deadline other than the pragmatic one of needing to sign in time to enroll for classes at your chosen school by the date at which you want to start competing or training. |
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