Taylor Landfair has entered the transfer portal.

Donate To GopherHole
This is becoming more and more like football, only a few teams at the top with maybe 1 other team that breaks through every once in awhile because they were able to formulate a good team.
 

Yep. If you want a better product, you make student-athlete employees and give schools a salary cap. (This should be a separate thread.)
 


MplsGopher said:
Yep. If you want a better product, you make student-athlete employees and give schools a salary cap. (This should be a separate thread.)
Click to expand...
This is only underscored more by the generational perception of a post-secondary education being "worthless". It's not necessarily correct, but the economic value of of a PSE is eroded.

Universities are perceived as takers from economic resources, no matter how much they want to prove otherwise.

Athletics are the most visible give back to a community. Jobs are created for maintaining facilities, selling tickets to games, selling concessions at games, etc. Student-Athletes can advance to visibly significantly better economic status upon advancement to the next level, thus becoming potential donors. None of this is as visible for pure academic accomplishments.

UMN likes to sit back and expect people to give them money. They really like to make the most effort at the legislative level which has been geared toward less for them. They mount ad campaigns that don't move the needle in perception because of the niche accomplishments they tout. These niche accomplishments yield public benefits that take decades to be recognized and that is not the attention span for the general public.
 
Last edited:



GopherVB23 said:
I really hope she doesn't. It's such a slap in the face to her teammates and fans to transfer to your top rival. There are so many other places you can go, it feels very gross to choose the one place that will hurt the most.

Even if you're hurt or angry at your teammates, just choose literally any other school.
Click to expand...
Well, if that is the case, we know where to put the ball on serves and hits whenever she is in the back row.
 

MplsGopher said:
Like it or not, Wisc is elite in volleyball. They have the #2 attendance behind Neb and are fully on board with paying players whatever it takes to make an all-star team and win nattys.

Until/unless the current system changes, there is zero reason to doubt that Neb, Texas, and Wisc won’t compile a new all-star transfer team every single year and that at least one of them will be in the FF every year.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure for 2024, but Penn State isn't far behind. Pitt has had their moments of portal success too.
 

When Landfair came to Minnesota, I remember that Hitch in her swing and how Hugh worked on it with her. Then we never saw it for the next two years until the beginning of this season. There were moments of it as brief as they were. One would have to go back to the early matches to see what I am referring to.

I too am not happy with this performance by TL this past season, but I do believe the changes in coaches absolutely did not benefit her in any way. I feel Hugh was developing her the best way he could. He hid her a lot in the back court and her vulnerability was extremely exposed this season with this new coaching staff. However, in her defense, there just wasn't a back court to speak of to defend her weakness in SR.

Did TL have a choice in the matter or not? I really don't believe she did, because our roster and options were really thin this past season. Our 2022 back court was made up of Kilkelly, CC, and Wenaas...they were all gone for 2023.

At this point, IDK exactly how much growth these players will get with this coaching staff....time can only tell. Everybody needs to remember how much Wookie struggled back there too. Also the slow progress of inserting Z into a DS position. IMO McGhie, Crowl, Hanson, and Grote's back court wasn't much of an improvement either. In defense of TL and others, maybe this coaching staff needs more help with their ability to develop in that area of this program. I can't believe nobody was able to really step up to the plate this season for us.
 

MplsGopher said:
Why didn’t you answer the question? What signs?
Click to expand...
Third hand hearsay, if you really want to know. It's just what I've heard. Take that for what it's worth. Shesh. Didn't think I needed to provide evidence to post here. I'll crawl back into my hole.
 




The problem for me is that sports are more and more about cheering for a uniform. That, for me, isn’t enough. Pro sports have long since gone that route and college sports are well on their way.
 

vonner said:
What's VT? Something tells me it's not Vermont.
Click to expand...
VT is Volleytalk, a fan forum for volleyball. Lots of posters over there with lots of opinions. Some have actual knowledge of the portal, and others speculate based upon social media stalking, etc.

If you want to go down the rabbit hole, here's the thread regarding transfer portal speculation (yes, there really are 258 pages):

2024 Transfer Portal Tea | Volley Talk

I am starting it since its been mentioned here a lot. Also I have no tea so don't come at me... Just putting the convo here!
volleytalk.proboards.com volleytalk.proboards.com
 

vonner said:
Third hand hearsay, if you really want to know.
Click to expand...
Of course I’m not just going to plainly accept anything that any internet person says at face value.

It’s not personal. If that bothers you, then indeed I would recommend just keeping those to yourself.

If you can’t and/or won’t elaborate further on how this information came to be, then I’ll just dismiss it.
 



(R)uffda! said:
The problem for me is that sports are more and more about cheering for a uniform. That, for me, isn’t enough. Pro sports have long since gone that route and college sports are well on their way.
Click to expand...
Hmm. Can’t say I agree in the slightest for the NFL. Feels the opposite quite frankly.

And that’s not a bad thing. Seems like you agree.

Yes the free transfers make the human bodies inside the uniforms feel faceless.


Would we still care and watch as contently if it were robots inside the uniforms assigned random levels of skill? Who knows
 

Post on VolleyTalk has Landfair down to either Nebraska or Wisconsin. If she goes to either I highly doubt she will be playing 6 rotations since both programs already have a strong defense and probably won't be taking a chance on her in the back row.
 

jham13 said:
Post on VolleyTalk has Landfair down to either Nebraska or Wisconsin. If she goes to either I highly doubt she will be playing 6 rotations since both programs already have a strong defense and probably won't be taking a chance on her in the back row.
Click to expand...
Well, there is the chance that no other colleges came "knocking at her door". I think this might be a huge possibility. She didn't go looking very far, which most of us expected would happen. I really think it will be Wisconsin.
 

4EverAGopher said:
Well, there is the chance that no other colleges came "knocking at her door". I think this might be a huge possibility. She didn't go looking very far, which most of us expected would happen. I really think it will be Wisconsin.
Click to expand...
Would she replace TTA? Weird landing spot for her unless she's going to take a lesser role.
 

I'm A Maroon 2! said:
Would she replace TTA? Weird landing spot for her unless she's going to take a lesser role.
Click to expand...
That is my guess. TTA did not play 6R and I am going to assume TL will not be either. The college announcement, with a BINGO from Sheff, will solidify this transfer soon enough.

The glue holding this program together is getting thinner and thinner by the day. Gopher fans talk about how so many of our programs have been down that "rabbit hole". Unfortunately, this is another successful program in it right now.
 


Davis gone too.

It’s possible they are in a scholarship bind but it’s funny how other schools never seem to be. NIL?

Apathy’s setting in for me. And just when the sport is finally being recognized.
 

(R)uffda! said:
Davis gone too.

It’s possible they are in a scholarship bind but it’s funny how other schools never seem to be. NIL?

Apathy’s setting in for me. And just when the sport is finally being recognized.
Click to expand...
Ohio State had the well publicized scholarship bind last year, but I can't think of a lot of other public situations. Perhaps some of the portal transfers are because of scholarships, but we never know.

Yes, our sport is in a precarious state, it seems. Recognition has never been greater, and yet the portal seems to be making sure that the balance of power will remain with only a few schools. Not sure that's the best model for growth. Volleyball was already quite limited in terms of who can win it all and seems to be going further down this road.
 

Doesn't help that we *were* one of those schools and now ... 5th in the B1G would be a major accomplishment, especially considering the 4 Pac12 schools coming in.
 

sptimes said:
VT is Volleytalk, a fan forum for volleyball. Lots of posters over there with lots of opinions. Some have actual knowledge of the portal, and others speculate based upon social media stalking, etc.

If you want to go down the rabbit hole, here's the thread regarding transfer portal speculation (yes, there really are 258 pages):

2024 Transfer Portal Tea | Volley Talk

I am starting it since its been mentioned here a lot. Also I have no tea so don't come at me... Just putting the convo here!
volleytalk.proboards.com volleytalk.proboards.com
Click to expand...
258 pages and, using their thread search function as a Guest, I found only three entries about Taylor Landfair.
 


(R)uffda! said:
Davis gone too.
…
NIL?
Click to expand...
Setting. Plain and simple.

She has basically only been used for blocking. Don’t even let her serve. Not saying she should.

Your last year of volleyball as a middle, you don’t want to waste it on yet another year of Schaff never setting you (because she can’t).


This to me says she had a convo with KCook about who was likely to be setter next year and if there would be more opportunities for the middle to contribute on offense, and the answer was basically “Schaffmaster”. And that was that.

Until she is no longer the setter here, there won’t be any potential for significant improvement.
 

MplsGopher said:
Setting. Plain and simple.

She has basically only been used for blocking. Don’t even let her serve. Not saying she should.

Your last year of volleyball as a middle, you don’t want to waste it on yet another year of Schaff never setting you (because she can’t).


This to me says she had a convo with KCook about who was likely to be setter next year and if there would be more opportunities for the middle to contribute on offense, and the answer was basically “Schaffmaster”. And that was that.

Until she is no longer the setter here, there won’t be any potential for significant improvement.
Click to expand...
If they keep shaft, then they should red shirt Swenson as to not waste her eligibility.
 

Ewert86PC said:
258 pages and, using their thread search function as a Guest, I found only three entries about Taylor Landfair.
Click to expand...
if you try TL and Tayla you'll find plenty more. There are also Gophers 2024 thread and Badgers 2024 threads with plenty more discussion. No real news, just social media follows and speculation.
 

MplsGopher said:
Setting. Plain and simple.

She has basically only been used for blocking. Don’t even let her serve. Not saying she should.

Your last year of volleyball as a middle, you don’t want to waste it on yet another year of Schaff never setting you (because she can’t).


This to me says she had a convo with KCook about who was likely to be setter next year and if there would be more opportunities for the middle to contribute on offense, and the answer was basically “Schaffmaster”. And that was that.

Until she is no longer the setter here, there won’t be any potential for significant improvement.
Click to expand...
what Mel do to you.. you really don't like her at all do you.. goodness..
 

sptimes said:
if you try TL and Tayla you'll find plenty more. There are also Gophers 2024 thread and Badgers 2024 threads with plenty more discussion. No real news, just social media follows and speculation.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the snob posters there act like they're on a first name basis with all these players, even though they've literally never met them before in real life. :rolleyes:
 


You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom