FightingBird

Congratulations to the UND Volleyball team on a great win against Idaho. Let's take this momentum into this week's matches.

Once again I think Jesse has all the right pieces to win, but I think his wins will come from the freshmen, sophomores, and transfer athletes. Although, these three groups of players must beware because if they hit one if not two balls out he will sit them. If they shank any balls out he'll sit them. The juniors and seniors have shown that they can make a lot of errors and continue to play. Why is this so? Here's something no one has mention. Is it possible that Tupac is looking to be replaced before his contract expires so he can receive a buyout? Those in the Grand Forks area agree with me that we've never seen this type of coaching before from any other coaches. He's creating projects instead of placing the right personnel on the court to win. WE HAVE THE RIGHT PLAYERS!

There's a few things I noticed from tonight's game where the UND Volleyball team played UTSA. I noticed that Coach Tupac has a real challenge coaching and leading players that have been on this team for 3 to 4 years. If you're a transfer, freshman or sophomore Jesse has no problem pulling you out the game. He's real strong with these three groups of student players. If you're in these three categories, and if you hit one or two balls out Jesse will pull you from the game. Although, those juniors and seniors that have been here for 3 or 4 years can hit out as many balls as they choose with no repercussion. They can also shank as many balls as possible and continue to play. Why are the back row players reaching up and trying to keep a ball in play that's coming at their face on serve and receive? I thought it was volleyball 101 that if the ball comes at your face or it's higher than your head that you let the ball go out of bounds. As I attended tonight's game, I don't think we need an all around person or we need a different person as the all around. The around player cost the team so many points on the serve and receive by not being able to pass the ball easily to the setter. Coach Jesse failed to make a change, and allowed the player to stay in without making a change. There was such a breath of fresh air when Tupac finally put in a freshman back row player that passed the ball smoothly to the setter. Can someone please ask Jesse why is he always playing the juniors and seniors that have been here forever, and they have a negative hitting percentage. Here's my message to Tupac you can't force LEADERSHIP on a person. Leaders take leadership, and sometimes it takes time to develop people into being great, and that's if they develop into a leader! We have the right players to WIN![

I've never played volleyball, but I have nieces that love the sport. I've followed und sports all my life, but I think this is a coaches issue. For starters does the team have a front line hitting coach. Most of the coaches have experience as back row players. I like numbers, and if I go to any big name programs their outside hitters have a hitting percentage of a .250 or better. Now we have talented players, but our outside hitters haven't hit over a .170 for the last 3 to 4 years, so why are they still major contributors? Then the only returning person that led the team in blocks and hitting percentage is on the bench. How does that make sense. The media needs to stop asking those easy snow ball questions and ask the coach hard questions like: why did he sign so many freshman and transfer players, but they're on the sideline not contributing. If you look at the serving errors and hitting errors it's mainly from the upper class players. I think most of the freshmen and transfer players are really good, but they'll transfer out pretty soon. Lastly, if Coach Tupac was to ask his assistant coaches their opinions I'm pretty sure they would run the program differently. We have to ask if the leadership mainly the juniors and seniors have most of the errors then why are they playing. Does Tupac have the strength to bench the juniors and seniors when they screw up to give a serious opportunity to the freshman and transfer players. That takes leadership and not EGO. His EGO has stalled the growth of the team, but it's not to late to change it up! But we do have the players to win it all! GO HAWKS!