(VB) Ongoing Volleyball Thread

Ugh I guess he does! Well done APK

 

First game I have really watched this season. Use to follow VB more closely, but just got tired of never quite getting over the hump. To find out how young they were and that they played so well is encouraging. I need to tune back into the program a good bit more. I don't know that she will do it, but I would love to see Mary finally break through and win it all. No one deserves more to be the first female coach to win it... though there are a few still in that running this season.

 

If you get tired of volleyball not getting over the hump football must exhaust you. They haven't been near a hump for 15 years.

 

Lol.. I have seen football bring home 3 titles at least. VB has stayed good to really good for so long and just never quite gets there. It's frustrating. Mary deserves to finally claim one. She has done it the right way.

 

Mary has been a real treasure but hope that they give CK a strong look when Mary decides to call it a career.

 

You’re a bad man APK! JK!

 

East, I got a chuckle out of your comment, “just got tired of volleyball never making it over the hump.” This coming from you, our resident expert on women’s basketball! I’m just giving you a hard time, but you could have saved yourself years of frustration by watching more UF Volleyball and less UF women’s basketball! JK! Hopefully women’s basketball has finally turned the corner and headed in the right direction. Will be interesting once we get into the conference schedule.

 

If you are tired waiting to get over the proverbial hump in volleyball, try waiting over 50 years. Gator fans even had a catchphrase for it: “Wait ’til next year!” Up until the early 90’s, Gator fans were the most frustrated fans in the country. I only caught the tail end of it, but my father lived the majority of his adult life saying “wait till next year.” This is a great story on Gator footballl history: My dad grew up in Maine, and after nearly dying from hypothermia when he fell in the North Sea during WW II, he vowed to move somewhere where it never snowed when he graduatedcollege. After earning his Ph.D at Michigan St, my dad accepted an offer to teach at UF. Even though he loved football, at first my dad had only attended a couple of Gator games. Then a student-athlete from the football team enrolled in his class. His name was Jack Youngblood. He is responsible for turning my dad into a huge Gator fan. He adored my father and ended up taking other classes that my dad taught. I was still crawling in diapers when Jack would come over to eat my mom’s southern cooking so I have no recollection of him, only a signed football from Youngblood. Thru Jack my dad became friends with Ray Graves. I wish I had recorded my dad when he talked about going to Florida Field in the ’60’s. He was there when Spurrier kicked the “heisman trophy winning field goal” against Auburn that put us at 7-0 and needing 1 more win against Georgia to be SEC champs. “The reason why Spurrier HATES Georgia more than any other school and considers them our biggest rival is from that Georgia game where he played poorly and they whipped us badly” my dad told me. He loved talking about the Houston game in ’69: “we were big underdogs.” Playboy had Houston #1. The game started in front of a half empty stadium. “At kickoff we ran it all the way for a TD and kept on scoring. Word quickly spread and by 3rd quarter students and fans were coming in droves.” The AA decided to allow people without a ticket to enter the stadium- “they realized something special was happening, and by the end of the game there was not an empty seat.” He used to attend the Fla-Ga game in Jacksonville until a Georgia fan punched a Florida fan right in front of him: “Georgia was killing us and the Georgia fan had a flask and was getting more obnoxious. The Gator fan was ignoring him completely, was talking to someone when the obviously very drunk man leaned in and sucker punched him in the face. That was the last game in Jacksonville I went to.” My dad also talked a lot about the frustration Gator Nation had been enduring for decades, the “Wait til next year…” How so many seasons we were so close to winning our first SEC until Georgia would smack our hopes and dreams and stomp them into the Gator Bowl turf. “They have to travel 6 hours to our 1 and-a-half. We play them in the godd*mn GATOR Bowl. And they still destroy our seasons year-after-year…”The frustration of how it could be, how it should be: “Even coach Bear Bryant doesn’t understand what our problem is? He said Florida was a sleeping giant and had all the resources and a growing population, maybe when the right coach steps in and can wake it up it?” The frustration of having never won at Auburn until 1974. After Graves retired and became AD, he’d reserved for us 2 season tickets in the same seats. My mom would go to the games with my dad until I was old enough to pay attention for 2 hours. The 1st game I can remember was in 1972, a 40-0 win over Kentucky. The 2nd game was in 1973, a 49-0 over FSU. Starting in 1974, I replaced my mom for every game. In 1976 I was watching the Georgia game with my dad and a few neighborhood boys my age. We were very loud celebrating and wrestling with each Gator TD much to the disgruntlement of my dad. “God d*mn it! Carm down!” (he meant calm down, his Maine accent came out when he got angry). It was 27-13 at halftime and us kids started celebration a Gator win. My dad had enough with us. “We have won NOTHING yet! There’s still a half to play, AND it’s God D*mn Georgia! Go outside NOW!” We stood there dumbfounded, lowered our heads and quietly marched outside. During the 2nd half, we could hear my dad yelling and cussing. “GodD*mn Dooley! GodD*mn Georgia! Wait until godd*amn next year? We are never going to win the godd*mn SEC title!” Then my mom “The boys can hear you. You are scaring them!” I had never heard my dad cuss as much as he did during the 2nd half. When we finally officially won the SEC, I watched it with my dad in the hospital where he was recovering from major surgery. “For a while there I did not think I would be alive to see us win the SEC title.” He was still hanging in there when I called him from New Orleans after we won the natty. “So dad, we’ve won the SEC title and now we have a natty. Can we finally bury “Wait til next year” for good?” “You godd*mn right we can! Goooooo Gators!””Yes sir dad! Go Gators!”

 

which is why the poster using the phrase was grossly out of line. the gators have won far more sec championships than any other program-----liked your stories. back in the old days, the sec had uf playing lsu, au, and ugaly back-to-back to back without a week off which is why uf couldn't get over the hump. ugaly kept uf from 4 secs, but au cost uf 2-----btw, screw the sec, i count 84/85/90.

 

steve kerr??

 

This volleyball team is a remarkable group of players and human beings. Some of them have been posting on IG about their season and their love for each other.

 

Markova and Stuckey All-Americans

Two Gators Garner AVCA All-America Accolades - Florida Gators

 

Markova will be greatly missed.

 

Birdie Hendrickson to the Transfer Portal.
I really hate this, but she was out-talented by the newcomers.

 

Sucks but not unexpected.

 

I give her credit for giving her all to and with the team throughout the tournament.

 

bye bye birdie. (smile)

 

Pitt lost in five sets to Louisville, so it's the Cards vs Longhorns in the final.

 

I watched much of that match and it was tight for 4 sets, then the Cards just exploded and won set 5 15-2. Crazy finish. I would still bet on Texas tho.

Interesting that there were no Big 10 teams in the final 4 and no Stanford, but 2 ACC teams. Maybe finally a little more parity.