New club team

[TeeterTot]

So far, these AAU's have really brought the question to the forefront, "Is it better to win one game in Open or drop down a level (or two) to be competitive?".  

 

Alliance has been getting destroyed in the Open division while TPV has won one National championship (congrats to TPV 18) and a 2nd place finish (congrats to TPV 14).

[TheNoise]

Based on what I saw in wave 1, there's no rhyme or reason to what teams enter what division.  Some of the absolute best teams I saw were in Aspire and Classic divisions.  The breadth of competition across the board is staggering.  That being said, it certainly stands to reason that the consistency of competition is stronger the higher up you go, but depending on the draw regardless of division you can run into absolute buzzsaws.  All that aside, the 18's division of Apex was the highest option (only two available, Apex and Pinnacle).  I'm sure the TPV girls who played for that championship and won wouldn't trade that experience for anything in the world.  

[Osage]

23 hours ago, TeeterTot said:

So far, these AAU's have really brought the question to the forefront, "Is it better to win one game in Open or drop down a level (or two) to be competitive?".  

 

Alliance has been getting destroyed in the Open division while TPV has won one National championship (congrats to TPV 18) and a 2nd place finish (congrats to TPV 14).

The TPV Paragon team really earned it in the semis... Carolina Rogue is an up and coming club on the National scene, and their 18 team is / was pretty good. Congrats to that group... you guys are right, it's an experience I am sure those kids and parents will never forget.

Are all the Alliance 1's teams getting killed in Open? I'll have time later to take a look at results.

 

[TheNoise]

Alliance 13-1s - 24th out of 32 teams in Open

Alliance 14-1's - 25th out of 37 teams in Open

Alliance 15-1's - 29th out of 51 teams in Open

Alliance 17-1's - 20th out of 59 teams in Open

Alliance 18-2's - 9th out of 17 teams in Apex (18's equivalent to Open, highest division)

 

Like I said previously though, lots of teams playing down from what I could see.  Clubs like Kiva are pretty standard in how they distribute teams across divisions, but I saw several 1's teams that were as good as any I'd seen playing not just down a division, but way down.  Alliance showed well I thought, especially given that it appeared this was the first time to Orlando for AAU's for several.  12-1's for example, struggled the first two days, but really played well the last two and came into their own.  Some teams struggled and were probably playing over their heads a bit, at least in the 2's and 3's groups.  

[Osage]

13 hours ago, TheNoise said:

Based on what I saw in wave 1, there's no rhyme or reason to what teams enter what division.  Some of the absolute best teams I saw were in Aspire and Classic divisions.  The breadth of competition across the board is staggering.  That being said, it certainly stands to reason that the consistency of competition is stronger the higher up you go, but depending on the draw regardless of division you can run into absolute buzzsaws.  All that aside, the 18's division of Apex was the highest option (only two available, Apex and Pinnacle).  I'm sure the TPV girls who played for that championship and won wouldn't trade that experience for anything in the world.  

It would be a shame to be a really good team and enter a lower AAU division. The level of play falls very, very quickly. If you're going to travel 1000 miles (or however far it is to Orlando) and roll everybody, you've wasted the potential experience.

[TheNoise]

I guess my point is getting lost.  Across all divisions I saw teams that could have or should have played either up or down.  Not every team that enters has an AES ranking to go off of, but I saw plenty of teams get rolled and also roll others.  So it didn't seem to matter as much what division it was, you had plenty of excellent teams in Aspire and Classic while at the same time some really weak teams in Open and Premier.  The number of teams entered in Open seemed to be much smaller than other divisions.  Ultimately you'd like to see the division be a better barometer for the competition seen, but based on what I witnessed in the 12-14's and 18's age groups I watched, it was all over the board.

[TeeterTot]

If, before the season, you told Alliance parents on "Open" teams that only two of them would finish in the top half of teams in their class and the rest would finish in the bottom 25% with the majority of wins on the last day of play at Nationals,  they would not consider that showing well.  There 16's went 0-3 today in opening pool play. 

[Osage]

25 minutes ago, TeeterTot said:

If, before the season, you told Alliance parents on "Open" teams that only two of them would finish in the top half of teams in their class and the rest would finish in the bottom 25% with the majority of wins on the last day of play at Nationals,  they would not consider that showing well.  There 16's went 0-3 today in opening pool play. 

You might be right, especially for the kids who have enjoyed Open success in the past. But bear in mind, the exodus of Open-level players to TPV (as you know) created opportunities for Alliance kids who had previously been 2's and 3's kids to play Open for the first time. Imagine the season from their perspective. If you had told THOSE families back in January that their team wasn't going to finish in the top half of Open at AAU, do you think they'd have made a different choice? I'd bet a lot of of them were just happy to be there. Others might not have even really known what they were getting into ("What's Open?"). But now after a year competing against the best teams in the country, their standard for what constitutes high-level volleyball has now been re-calibrated. Bar is raised. That's not a bad result.

I do wish more of the former Alliance kids who are now at TPV were playing Open at AAU. I'm glad you guys are, it will be a good barometer for you to compare with previous finishes this group has enjoyed. But I was surprised the 18's and 14's kids weren't. Those are Open-level kids, many of whom will play for Power 5 schools.

[Osage]

4 hours ago, TheNoise said:

So it didn't seem to matter as much what division it was, you had plenty of excellent teams in Aspire and Classic while at the same time some really weak teams in Open and Premier.  

This has always been my complaint with AAU. The good news is, by the end of the 4 day event, you are likely matched with your peer teams regardless of what division you entered. But it weakens the quality of the event, in my opinion, that it takes so long to get to that point.

USA JNC is not a perfect event, but at least you're matched and seeded against your peers from the start.

[Osage]

On 6/24/2019 at 8:29 AM, TeeterTot said:

So far, these AAU's have really brought the question to the forefront, "Is it better to win one game in Open or drop down a level (or two) to be competitive?".  

 

Alliance has been getting destroyed in the Open division while TPV has won one National championship (congrats to TPV 18) and a 2nd place finish (congrats to TPV 14).

I just took a look at results. It's worse than you suggested... Middle Tennessee in general is not getting it done. 37 teams have finished their AAU tournament (TPV, Alliance and Ethos). How many finished top half of their division?

• TPV 18 Paragon (1st of 17 in 18 Apex)
• TPV 14 Zulu (2nd of 50 in 14 Premiere)
• TPV 18 Bravo (5th of 17 in 18 Apex)
• Alliance 17 Ren (20th of 59 in 17 Open)
• Alliance 15 Premiere (35th of 103 in 15 Aspire)

5 of 37 is not very good. I'm not going to go back and look at previous years, but wow, I'd be surprised if we've collectively ever done this poorly.

 

 

[TeeterTot]

It is very bad.  Where was MidTN?  I heard a rumor that there could be another migration this off season, Murfreesboro to Gothic court.  I agree with you in regards to TPV 14's, they should have been in Open.  If the Alliance director would attend tournaments,  she would realize that none of her clubs should have been in Open this year.  

[TheNoise]

5 hours ago, Osage said:

You might be right, especially for the kids who have enjoyed Open success in the past. But bear in mind, the exodus of Open-level players to TPV (as you know) created opportunities for Alliance kids who had previously been 2's and 3's kids to play Open for the first time. Imagine the season from their perspective. If you had told THOSE families back in January that their team wasn't going to finish in the top half of Open at AAU, do you think they'd have made a different choice? I'd bet a lot of of them were just happy to be there. Others might not have even really known what they were getting into ("What's Open?"). But now after a year competing against the best teams in the country, their standard for what constitutes high-level volleyball has now been re-calibrated. Bar is raised. That's not a bad result.

I do wish more of the former Alliance kids who are now at TPV were playing Open at AAU. I'm glad you guys are, it will be a good barometer for you to compare with previous finishes this group has enjoyed. But I was surprised the 18's and 14's kids weren't. Those are Open-level kids, many of whom will play for Power 5 schools.

Osage, again, there were only 2 divisions in 18's for AAU Nationals last week.  Apex (higher) and Pinnacle (lower).  I know there was an event in May for 18U, but that conflicted with Graduation and other locally important things to those kids.  I'm all for playing the best competition you can when it makes sense, and here the TPV 18 1's and 2's played the toughest schedule available to them.  The 14's played one level down and believe me, there were Open teams that would have struggled significantly against some of those teams in Premier, especially in the last few games.  Personally, if I were an Alliance parent of a kid who used to be a on a 2 or 3 team who had never played Open before and got routinely abused in Open, I'd be worried more about my kid's confidence going into next year vs proud of just doing ok.  The major Alliance kids that went to TPV everyone seems to talk about  ARE playing in Open (16 Alpha) and they did well today.  Not sure to which former Alliance kids you are referring.