There's not another division I a.d. in their right mind at a "better" job that would hire a coach that's won one conference tournament championship in over 10 years of coaching at a school. Of course I could be wrong and there be an a.d. more incompetent than Mullins, but I've yet to see who it is.

(11-23-2012 12:08 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  There's not another division I a.d. in their right mind at a "better" job that would hire a coach that's won one conference tournament championship in over 10 years of coaching at a school. Of course I could be wrong and there be an a.d. more incompetent than Mullins, but I've yet to see who it is.

I completely disagree with you. If she is looking to leave, she can get a job. She's won a championship and that's an incredibly difficult thing to do. I think you are quite unreasonable in what you consider success as a head coach. There are very few head coaches out there in any sport who have won conference championships, the number really shrinks when you try to find coaches that have won more than one. I would be willing to bet that she will get phone calls from ADs to talk to her about open jobs without her having to seek them out.

Think for a minute about football. Dan Mullen will get looks for other openings because he's performed well at Mississippi St. James Franklin at Vanderbilt will have options because he's won 7 games this year. There are plenty of examples of that. ADs will hire someone who they think performs well in their environment. ETSU does not provide a lot of support for volleyball. Winning a championship over programs with better funding and tradition (Lipscomb and FGCU) impresses administrators and rightly so. Devine has performed at or above her situation at ETSU. If she wants to leave, she won't have trouble doing so. Coaches move up after winning one championship all the time.

Lover, here is an honest question. Why do you think Devine should have won championships before now at ETSU? What do you see about ETSU that sets her up for success? I'm not trying to antagonistic, I'd really like to understand your line of thinking on this.

She's had the resources and instate recruiting to get it done. With a nationally ranked high school program in Franklin among other solid programs, the talent was here.
And let's think about football, Dan Mullen has been in Starkville for less than five years, James Franklin only two at Vanderbilt, and he's won with Bobby Johnson's REDSHIRTED talent, and I wouldn't call beating historically bad Auburn, Tennessee and Kentucky teams coupled with wins over a D-1 transition (Umass) and a pathetic FCS program (Presbyterian) a great accomplishment.
You talk of Devine getting a better job for winning ONE conference title in ten years. How many has Murry won again to go with 20 win seasons? Hmm, he's still here. Wonder why that is...

(11-24-2012 10:48 AM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  She's had the resources and instate recruiting to get it done. With a nationally ranked high school program in Franklin among other solid programs, the talent was here.
And let's think about football, Dan Mullen has been in Starkville for less than five years, James Franklin only two at Vanderbilt, and he's won with Bobby Johnson's REDSHIRTED talent, and I wouldn't call beating historically bad Auburn, Tennessee and Kentucky teams coupled with wins over a D-1 transition (Umass) and a pathetic FCS program (Presbyterian) a great accomplishment.
You talk of Devine getting a better job for winning ONE conference title in ten years. How many has Murry won again to go with 20 win seasons? Hmm, he's still here. Wonder why that is...

What resources do you speak of? I gave you actual, concrete numbers that show we aren't even in the top of our conference as far as spending. Also, talk about the first five years or so Devine was the head coach. Do you really understand the environment for women's sports at ETSU at the time? I believe it was up until around 2007 before they stopped putting four to a room on road trips, because they didn't have a budget for more rooms. That's all women's sports, including volleyball. The only reason it changed was because of an audit that revealed Title IX deficiencies and a lawsuit waiting to happen. They also weren't at the scholarship limit (which is 12 for volleyball if you're wondering) until that same time frame. It's only been in the past few years that one assistant was a full time position. So for the first half of her tenure, the volleyball program was woefully underfunded to expect any sort of championship level team. In the past five years they've won a regular season conference championship and appeared in two tournament championship games, winning one. That's pretty good. I would argue that the resources in fact, have not been there. If you can provide evidence to the contrary, I'm all ears.

As far as in state talent, do you think anyone else in state in our league has a roster full of Tennessee players? Lipscomb has one. Belmont has two. ETSU's in state talent is local and is not a recurring thing. A few of them are also walkons I believe. Like most sports in Tennessee, if you want to be successful you have to recruit out of state. What nationally ranked high school team are you talking about? There is no team in the entire state nationally ranked right now. (I googled it and found the Maxpreps rankings) Even if there was one, do you really think one high quality team in the state is sufficient to fill out the roster for ETSU (assuming no other school in the state or out of state is interested in those players)? I think the suggestion that one talented team (which may have only had 2, 3, or probably at best 4 DI level kids on it) is all you need to supply a college roster is ridiculous. The state of Tennessee lacks talent. Look at the University of Tennessee. They have five in state kids. They also have a roster of 19 (typical of high level programs who are willing to spend more to fill out a stronger practice squad). Again, the scholarship limit for volleyball is 12 and it's a head count sport, so only 12 girls can receive a scholarship of any amount on the team. The odds that all five of those in state girls are on scholarship are extremely slim. I may be stubborn, but I am far from convinced of your statement that the resources and in state talent were in place to provide a championship for ETSU volleyball.

All I know is there's a three time defending state champion who's nationally ranked in volleyball instate. Where are these players ending up? It's like saying there's no baseball talent in state in a year where David Price and R.A. Dickey win the Cy Young.
Again, here's you some more numbers. She's bee on the job over 10 years and has ONE impending NCAA tournament appearance. Most any other Division I university it never gets this far, the most would've been six years.
It doesn't take away that the girls accomplished something nice winning the beer league volleyball championship. The lambs will go to slaughter in the NCAA's, and we'll move on to our drug dealing seniors on the basketball team.
Meanwhile, Lindsey Devine will not find a bigger/better job in Division I college coaching for winning a single tournament title after 10 years on the same job. Just the same as we're stuck with Murry until Dave retires.

I don't know. I think a new day is here. Noland is watching closely. He's not pleased over the basketball arrests. We'll see if he's a man of action.

(11-27-2012 09:08 AM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  All I know is there's a three time defending state champion who's nationally ranked in volleyball instate. Where are these players ending up? It's like saying there's no baseball talent in state in a year where David Price and R.A. Dickey win the Cy Young.
Again, here's you some more numbers. She's bee on the job over 10 years and has ONE impending NCAA tournament appearance. Most any other Division I university it never gets this far, the most would've been six years.
It doesn't take away that the girls accomplished something nice winning the beer league volleyball championship. The lambs will go to slaughter in the NCAA's, and we'll move on to our drug dealing seniors on the basketball team.
Meanwhile, Lindsey Devine will not find a bigger/better job in Division I college coaching for winning a single tournament title after 10 years on the same job. Just the same as we're stuck with Murry until Dave retires.

Solid evidence to support your position there. What three time state champion that's nationally ranked are you referencing? Name the school? I have no idea where their players are ending up because such a school doesn't exist. Maybe you're talking about Ravenwood, they had a pretty good team a few years ago, with a dominant player who went to Texas (a top 5 national program. I'm sure we could have competed for her). That team however lost to DB in the state championship with the players that currently helped ETSU win a conference championship. You're right about the NCAAs. We probably will get beat. Just like every single basketball team save one in ETSU history. So, if you can come up with actual numbers and some actual proof to back up what you say or at least refute what I'd say, I'm going to go ahead and continue to disagree with what comes off as nothing but random grumbling a based on mere opinion.

Ravenwood High School. Back to back to back TSSAA State Champs.

Ravenwood Raptors

They haven't updated to include the 2012 championship they won a couple of weeks ago.

Take note of the beating Ravenwood put on Sullivan South enroute to this year's title, as well as the beating Ravenwood's crosstown rival Brentwood put on Sullivan South.

TSSAA volleyball bracket AAA

They fell out of the Top 25 because they lost a couple of district matches this year. They were state runnerup in 2009, so basically the last four years they've won or finished 2nd.
But hey, there's no talent here.

(11-29-2012 06:19 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  Ravenwood High School. Back to back to back TSSAA State Champs.

Ravenwood Raptors

They haven't updated to include the 2012 championship they won a couple of weeks ago.

Take note of the beating Ravenwood put on Sullivan South enroute to this year's title, as well as the beating Ravenwood's crosstown rival Brentwood put on Sullivan South.

TSSAA volleyball bracket AAA

They fell out of the Top 25 because they lost a couple of district matches this year. They were state runnerup in 2009, so basically the last four years they've won or finished 2nd.
But hey, there's no talent here.

Actually that just proves there is a state champion. How many of those girls are playing Division I volleyball? That's the only relevant stat to this discussion. Tennessee is an awful state for DI volleyball state. There is definitely not enough talent for for over ten DI programs.

Well if South had three girls go D-1, what do you think of two teams clearly above them having?
Next time I visit RHS ill ask about them. Pay close attention to Middle Tn. in all sports, with three Nissan plants, a GM plant, two Amazon DC's, and smart kids being fostered from VANDY, HCA and Community Health (owns Bluefields hospital) theres a run of outsiders here.
D-1 numbers here are picking up in all sports.

Well Ravenwood has a player at Texas who is in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament. They have another at NC State who lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
two others were freshmen at Evansville and MTSU.

Is anybody else surprised by the seeding the VolleyBucs got? I figured they'd be playing one of the top 3 or 4 seeds but instead they are playing the 16. That means the committee thought 15 other teams were worse than ETSU. ETSU even got a better draw than Belmont, who made it in from the OVC.

(11-30-2012 12:03 AM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  Well if South had three girls go D-1, what do you think of two teams clearly above them having?
Next time I visit RHS ill ask about them. Pay close attention to Middle Tn. in all sports, with three Nissan plants, a GM plant, two Amazon DC's, and smart kids being fostered from VANDY, HCA and Community Health (owns Bluefields hospital) theres a run of outsiders here.
D-1 numbers here are picking up in all sports.

What three girls from South? Are you talking about the local girls on ETSU's roster? There are three from DB and one from Science Hill.

(11-30-2012 12:03 AM)RodShaw2 Wrote:  Well Ravenwood has a player at Texas who is in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament. They have another at NC State who lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
two others were freshmen at Evansville and MTSU.

The girl at NC State is a junior, the girl at Texas is a sophomore. That's basically one DI prospect a year from the school. Two last year. There are more than ten DI programs in the state. With 12 scholarships to offer, I would say a handful of DI prospects a year for the entire state is not enough to focus your recruiting at home, even if they all stayed in state, which they don't. Take a glance at the volleyball rosters of DI programs in the state. Most programs have one or two kids in their roster. MTSU is the one exception, as well as ETSU who has four. So either every volleyball coach in the state can't see the talent here or there actually just isn't that much. I would also add that high school rosters and rankings don't mean all that much. Like many other sports, college coaches barely even attend high school matches. Recruiting is done at club tournaments.

(11-30-2012 12:28 AM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  Is anybody else surprised by the seeding the VolleyBucs got? I figured they'd be playing one of the top 3 or 4 seeds but instead they are playing the 16. That means the committee thought 15 other teams were worse than ETSU. ETSU even got a better draw than Belmont, who made it in from the OVC.

It's not completely about match ups, the geographic factor is of more importance in post season brackets for sports other than basketball. It's definitely a good draw for ETSU. Kentucky is questionable to even be seeded. They're unranked now but started the season ranked pretty high. They do have a good RPI. The Bucs have a stronger resume than Belmont. ETSU is 23-12 compared to 18-16 for Belmont. The Bucs RPI is 134 compared to 167 for Belmont.

Rough first set for volleyball. They got thumped 25-9. Looks like they were overwhelmed by the size/power of Kentucky plus the first time in the tournament jitters. Competing in the second set though, up 10-8 early.

Led the second at 14-13, but couldn't hold on and lost 25-17. Too much size from the Cats.

Bucs lose in straight sets. Congrats to the women on a great season and making history. Hopefully it's the first of many tournament appearances for the program.