Finally got around to watching this and I’m troubled by several things:
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Dejan dismissed disappointment about not playing in the world cup this year- I believe there is no way you go to that expense without thinking you have at least some shot of making it to the World Cup. And I don’t buy this narrative that it doesn’t matter- being relegated to division 2 and not playing abroad this summer IS a problem. I believe they overestimated both the ability of the older guys to make up for the number of inexperienced players and over estimated the talent of the u20 guys. They have been hyping those u20 players for years- though only one has lived up to the hype in college- the rest have had solid, but not spectacular college careers so far. Meanwhile, he has ignored greater talent in favor of this group of players. But it looks like he is going forward with this group- is Ben H really going to get stronger and back in shape being guarded by any of these younger inexperienced guys? And are the veteran center defenders going to be challenged by any of these players in set? This is why just scrimmaging ourselves will never work.
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He talks about the importance of players being utility players. All utility players say to me is that you are not good at any one position. If playing utility guys in the center position actually worked, Serbian’s, Hungarians, Italians, and the Greeks would have figured this trick out years ago. Dejan says he’s adjusting to the new rules- but how about the US finding and actually training players who know how to guard and not get kick-outs- or how about attackers not getting kicked out in the backcourt? When was the last time Ben played both set and set d?