CU Volleyball & new practice facility

[NashBuff]

A lot of people are probably focusing more on the basketball programs when it comes to the new practice facility but how will this benefit the volleyball program? Will they benefit as much as the basketball teams will since they won't have to fight over practice time at the CEC? When could we expect them to be a regular contender for the post season tourney?

I sincerely believe that all three tenants of the CEC will no longer have valid excuses for not making a postseason tourney due to the new practice facility.

 

[Buffnik]

Volleyball benefits a lot. Beyond the difficulties of getting court time we had before, Volleyball's practices were shortened because they also had to set up the nets. It was a mess.

The Pac-12 is brutal, but since it's the Mecca for college volleyball it also means that being a part of this conference is a huge draw.

Between the new facility and new conference, the Buffs upcoming recruiting class is expected to be ranked in the Top 10.

We need to recruit that well, because being ranked #10 in the nation may not be good enough to get us a top 4 seed in the Pac-12 tourney.

 

[Goose]

Between the new facility and new conference, the Buffs upcoming recruiting class is expected to be ranked in the Top 10.

Serious? Wow. VERY impressive.

The Daily Camera had an article on the volleyball team this weekend saying that going from the Big XII to the Pac-12 is like the football team all of a sudden being in the SEC West with Bama, LSU, Auburn, etc. etc. etc..

 

[BeBe]

Assuming everyone who has verballed actually signs (which usually happens in VB) I expect the 2012 class to be very good but will be very pleasantly surprised if ranked in the top 10. I'd think more like somewhere around 15-20. But given CU's recent history, even that would be great. The problem is that, in the Pac 12, we are dealing with about half of the schools having been consistently pulling in recruiting classes in the top 20 so we will need more than one such class, along with good coaching, to get up to their level. The good news is that, like in BB, just a couple of really good players can really elevate a team.

The analogy to football in the SEC West is right on. In the preliminary VB coaches poll, 5 of the top 11 teams are from the PAC 12. I agree with Nik that being part of the PAC is a big draw. If you want to consistently play against the best, the PAC is the place to be (even tho the NCAA champ has been Penn State for several years now). The conference schedule is a complete home-and-home each year so you will always be playing all the top teams twice.

 

[Goose]

I have very little knowledge of volleyball outside of the fact that the women are all tall and therefore awesome, but are the Olympic teams chosen from college students? Is this a case where us changing our conference to higher competition levels will get the players extra visibility and could lead to Olympic tryout invitations, etc.?

 

[BeBe]

There is a US National team in volleyball all the time, not just a team put together for the Olympics. There are other international competitions....they just don't have the visibility of the Olympics. There are also junior national teams, etc. The members of the national team typically have several years of experience playing professionally overseas in addition to having been outstanding players in college. Once in a while a super player joins the national team right after college but the level of competition at the top in the international game is much higher than at the top level of the NCAA. If you made up a team of all first team All-Americans fresh out of college they would not be able to compete with the top tier of national teams. That said, the additional exposure of playing in the top conference can't hurt players who are looking for future volleyball opportunities.

 

[BeBe]

.....Between the new facility and new conference, the Buffs upcoming recruiting class is expected to be ranked in the Top 10........

Well, Buffnik, you might just be right about this.

The source I use for high school VB info (prepvb.com) has just finished coming out with their rankings of the 2012 senior class HS players, with the rankings based on the players perceived potential as college players. They rank a "top 100 senior aces" and then a "next 150".

CU has 6 players who have verballed for the class of 2012. (And in VB almost all sign where they initially verbal) Four of those (an outside hitter, 2 who are setter/right side hitters, and a middle blocker) are all ranked in the "top 100" at positions 92, 46, 38, and 26 respectively. The other 2 verbals are both defensive players and are both ranked in the "next 150" part of the list. This is a downright allsome recruiting class.

Consider that, on the current CU VB roster, there is only one player who was ranked in the "top 100" as a HS senior and that is JR Kerra Schroeder who was ranked somewhere in the 60's. There are also 3 other players who, when they were high school seniors, were ranked in their classes "next 150" grouping... FR Kelsey English, SO Hannah Walker, and SR Anicia Santos. With Santos finishing her eligibility after this season, that leaves CU with 3 returning players for next season who got this level of recognition coming out of high school. And they will be adding 6 more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is one heck of a potential talent improvement.

But before anyone gets too excited, this is whats needed year in and year out to have any chance in the PAC 12. Consider that Stanfords entire 2012 class (5 players) is ranked in the top 10!!