#306 - 2010!

so if you've been watching "attack of the show," it should be no news to you that this is now the year 2010, and it is very exciting. so what do i have to get excited about in 2010? not much i thought. but let's try and be a little more positive huh? here's something that can ring in 2010 on a high-note:

UH men's vball - of course vball is always fun, but 2010 brings a new season, a new coach, and a new system for the UH men. last night they started out with a win against #10 Ohio State and looked great doing it. i am already impressed with charlie wade as the new coach (i always thought wilton had a lot of short-comings in the coaching department... of course he had some great talent in the past, but lately his inability to recruit locally, his "cauldron-system" that used points earned during practices to determine that week's starters, his lack of creativity and intelligence in running offensive/defensive systems and such left UH with 3 consecutive losing seasons). i liked wade as the wahine's assistant coach and i think he brings the same kinds of good points to the men's game as well. such as:

- quick-tempo offense: it's about time hawai'i got with the national and international scene in running a quick-tempo offense, getting the ball out of the setter's hands and to the hitter much quicker and running fast and multiple hitter plays much more often. it's efficient and effective. much like the wahine team this year.
- the middle attack: there IS one this year! amazing. of course the passing has to be on target in order to run the middle, but i think a good ratio of kills for outside hitters to the middles is 2:1 and that's pretty much what they got last night. last year the middle attack was pretty much non-existent.
- blocking: last year's block was pretty much the ONLY good thing about the team (that and ric cervantes) and it looks as if that will continue this year. they didn't get as many block in the stats, but it was an effective block, changing the other team's shots and putting ball back (if not down).
- serving: last year's serving was like "flash in the pan" serving, one great serve sandwiched around multiple service errors. they still had a lot of errors last night, but now those are sandwiched in between pretty great serving. with zemljak in all the time and tuaniga really improving his already pretty good serve from last year, they put a lot of pressure on other teams. (still, no one can match eyal zimet, remember him? he used to yo-yo other teams, ace them twice deep and then pull the string and send a roller short over the net for another ace).
- jonas umlauft: i love when freshmen start. because then you know they're good (if they're starting as freshmen) and you know they'll get better for 4 years. he doesn't jump very high (he probably touches just as high as joshua walker) but he's got smart arm swing and uses the block very well. he reminds me a lot of costas theocharidis (he even kinda looks like him) the way he gets most of his kills off the block. but what he is to the team is the outlet, something they haven't had in a few years. someone who can take a good swing out-of-system. the middles and walker are great in-system players (walker's vertical looked pretty spectacular actually), but this new guy can keep hawai'i in a lot of plays that they couldn't last year.

overall i think it'll be a big year for hawai'i volleyball, i'm not sure what the other teams in the country look like right now, but i say no way will hawai'i end up #12 in the country (like they are now) when this season is over. i think the possibility for a top 5 is there, and a run at the post-season wouldn't be out of the question either... but then again it's a long tough season in men's vball. there aren't a lot of schools even fielding teams and even less scholarships to go around so every single team out there is quality. it's going to be an exciting year though, and it continues tonight vs. #5 Penn State and saturday vs. #1 USC. good stuff.