Volleyball

[salcat]

He's not going anywhere, and injuries really hurt the team in 2024.

But he's facing a massive re-tooling of his roster in year 3 and it'll take a major, major overhaul for this to be a tourney team in 2025.

Yeah I think the staff should move on from some of the Fritz recruits

[Kid In the Hall]

In other news, Dawn (Cady) Sullivan leads Mizzou to the Sweet 16 in year two.

[MakeItRain]

HEY!!!! STFU!!!!!! DON'T TALK ABOUT IT!!!!!

[Kid In the Hall]

In more not great news (in addition to this staff seemingly being uninterested in upgrading the roster this offseason), KU hired the Oregon coach to replace Bechard (who retired).

This is an upgrade for KU - the Oregon coach has been to an elite eight, several sweet 16s (including this past year where they were a few points away from beating the No. 1 seed in the sweet 16), etc. Quite possible he brings several players from that Oregon team with him.

We are falling further behind...

[MakeItRain]

That's a really good hire. I do wonder if Ulmer was on his way out at Oregon, or if there's more trouble on the horizon for him. He was previously under investigation at Oregon for treatment of players. It's just weird because a move like this is what you'd expect for someone doing a job reset, not someone who has been to the tournament 7 times in 8 years. Maybe he sees a much easier path to championships in the Big 12?

Ulmer was hired at Oregon by the original architect of volleyball success at K-State, Jim Moore.

[sonofdaxjones]

I would think that Oregon would have greater resources to support Vball than KU.  Particularly knowing that KU has already admitted they're going to have budget deficits.

This sounds like a coach looking for a fresh start

That of course does not deflect from the concerning trendline of K-State Volleyball.

[Kid In the Hall]

If anyone wants to geek out, there's a fair bit of chatter on the volleytalk boards about it. In essence, the sentiment is that Oregon was not investing in VB to the degree one might expect (below other women's sports at Oregon - T&F, WBB, etc.).

Another factor could be the fact that even if KU was a wash from a budget standpoint, KU is likely to be in the upper half in the Big 12 compared to Oregon quite possibly being in the bottom half in the Big Ten with VB juggernauts like Nebraska, Wisconsin, Penn State, etc.

[sonofdaxjones]

That makes sense