S4E6: Chair Etiquette, NCAA Rule Changes, Setter Dunks

We kick off with a viral chair-etiquette debate, then push into real fixes: retire work teams with smarter tech, clarify NCAA rule changes, and make the case to let setters dunk with two hands. Along the way we argue for consistent officiating, cleaner gyms, and better fan behavior.

• chair etiquette and common-sense seating
• parents’ role in sideline tension
• removing work teams with AI-assisted tools
• rebranding officiating roles for clarity
• NCAA pursuit rule and space constraints
• challenge timing limits and game theory
• court and jersey commercialization pros and cons
• the two-handed setter dump legality and consistency
• reducing judgment calls to improve flow
• culture notes on food lines and venue design
• quick hit: Chad’s Wedding Woundup update

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Chapters

• 0:00 Cold Open And Chair Chaos
• 0:45 The Case For Chair Etiquette
• 3:05 Parents Vs Chairs And Common Sense
• 6:20 Replace Work Teams With AI Tools
• 9:00 Court Babysitters And Arbiter Rebrand
• 11:05 Food Rants: Smoothies, Dippin’ Dots, Tenders
• 13:20 NCAA Rule Changes Overview
• 15:10 Pursuit Rule Nuance And Space Limits
• 18:00 Timeouts, Challenges, And Game Theory
• 20:00 Court Ads, Patches, And Messages
• 23:20 The Two-Handed Setter Dump Debate
• 28:10 Judgment Calls, Doubles, And Consistency

Transcript

Cold Open And Chair Chaos

Matt Houlihan 0:00

Yeah, no, we didn't even we didn't even need to ride on the coattails of Ariel's Instagram. We did it on our own.

Arielle Houlihan 0:04

The coach's group chat's group chat has been. Yeah, it's going on its own now. It's going on its own. It's like the little engine that could.

Matt Houlihan 0:11

Yeah. That's you know, you just needed to tap into the right zeitgeist, which is Puerto Rico.

Arielle Houlihan 0:15

So now this is a Puerto Rican podcast.

Matt Houlihan 0:17

Hola.

Arielle Houlihan 0:23

It's a good open.

The Case For Chair Etiquette

Matt Houlihan 0:31

No, English subtitles. Ariel's got a lot of tear with her social media right now on the rules of chairs. Right? We're talking about chair etiquette.

Arielle Houlihan 0:48

Well, we had our head of security came into our first our tied on meeting. The beginning of the event was like the chair situation has gotten so out of control. The last event I was at, we like the amount of altercations that happened because of the chairs. I was like, oh, that's so interesting. Should I do a video? And he was like, yes. And I was like, okay. So then we filmed one. We were gonna post it during Capitol Hill. We filmed for 35 minutes talking about chairs, and I was like, I can't get through this right now. So now we have a multiple part series that's coming out about chair etiquette. And honestly, based off the comments, I'm not looking forward to the rest of the post because I'm like, oh, we actually make an actual joke out of this, and all these parents are literally livid.

Matt Houlihan 1:32

Can we put our can I put my official stance on on chair etiquette out there? There was someone in your comments who had a very straightforward response. I was like, perfect. It's like it's if it's your kids' game that's what they're watching, you get a chair. You can all be polite, we can treat each other with respect. If you have an elderly person on any team, they get a ch they get a seat. If you have a child, a small child, they get a seat. But if your team is not playing and they're you just gonna vacate the seats, if there's no one in a seat after the game has started, you can come sit, come see. Is there make sure they're not saving any seats? And then you can take a seat.

Arielle Houlihan 2:08

No problem.

Matt Houlihan 2:08

Great. Common sense, easy. No problem. We don't need we don't need fisticuffs over over chairs that doesn't.

Arielle Houlihan 2:13

But let me be very clear. In those comments, the word my chair or our chairs is not valid. It is not your chair. Nobody deserves a chair, nobody gets one. No, just go in. Chairs are for winners. Yeah, like what are you talking about? My chair. My chair is a crazy statement. It's not your chair. You should go, assuming like I'm going to stand, and if the chair is open for you, great, amazing. Take care.

Matt Houlihan 2:40

I think people think of the chairs like they think of national parks. It's my national park. I pay for this chair. I support this chair. Yeah, your taxes are in the case. I paid my tax my taxes entry fee for this.

Parents Vs Chairs And Common Sense

Arielle Houlihan 2:49

Yeah, that that's crazy. I've got some parents going bananas in that comment section, be like, I pay for my kid to get here, and so I'm gonna take a seat and watch my sweet baby angel daughter play. I'm like, Sally, bro, chill. Like you do not deserve a chair. You probably need to go stand.

Matt Houlihan 3:06

Pace. Probably pace. They probably need to go pace in the corner. But on that same vein, we pose the question to the coaches' group chat of if there's something that you wish you could get rid of at volleyball tournaments. Obviously, fights over chairs is an easy answer. But as we go down the list, does anyone have any other any other pepps or things that you'd love to see get removed? Daniel, you got a you got a first thought for us?

Daniel Rasay 3:31

It's not the chairs that are that's the problem. It's the parents that are the problem. So I'd get rid of parents.

Arielle Houlihan 3:36

Parents first. We get rid of parents or we get rid of chairs. I say we get rid of parents.

Chad Gordon 3:40

Do you keep the chairs without parents? Does that open up some interesting possibilities now?

Arielle Houlihan 3:46

Yeah, attention. I can sleep. Take a nap on all the chairs.

Chad Gordon 3:49

Okay, get rid of the chairs, bring in the sofas.

Arielle Houlihan 3:52

Just beds.

Chad Gordon 3:53

Perfect.

Arielle Houlihan 3:54

Doc, your turn.

Matt Houlihan 3:55

Go. Beds all around the courts. Remove chairs. Remove parents. Add beds. You're right. It's it's more of a uh it's like this is probably not a great reference, but guns don't kill people, I do. You know that that t-shirt from Happy Gomorrah.

Arielle Houlihan 4:18

Everyone is allowed to clip Matt saying not.

Chad Gordon 4:21

Give us the next sentence of what you mean.

Matt Houlihan 4:25

Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Like, you know, the chair's not the pro the chair's not the problem. The person.

Arielle Houlihan 4:31

I'm gonna think that we're not gonna take that political stance as like a collective group of people on the coaches gear chat.

Chad Gordon 4:38

Yeah, if you like bludgeon somebody with the chair that you've picked up.

Arielle Houlihan 4:40

You thought that our social media was hitting now. Wait until you see this one.

Matt Houlihan 4:44

Oh, just wait. Just wait. Alright, well, I have mine that I'd like to remove. You guys ready? Remove the referees. Get rid of them. Great. All together.

Chad Gordon 4:55

Call your own.

Matt Houlihan 4:56

Not because I don't love I I love me, I love me some referees. Great people that are here's what I'm saying. I'm not saying get rid of R1s. We need the R1s. I'm saying remove the work team.

Chad Gordon 5:08

Let the kids for sure.

Matt Houlihan 5:09

Let the kids rest. You know how we're gonna do it? We're gonna solve it with AI. Great. Chad, I need you to get on this. We're gonna use, we're gonna use the camera on the court to be able to pick up in and out.

Arielle Houlihan 5:21

Libera tracker.

Matt Houlihan 5:22

The R1 is gonna use it. Is gonna use a simple iPad app. We can make it extra large for the refs that need to like see closer. You know, like my dad's my dad's iPhone's got like plus seven on the on the font. For sure. We'll increase it. You can do all that through an app. We don't need six kids to all trade off turns, shuffling paper, picking their noses, and not actually doing anything. Let them go, let them go, let them go rest off of the court and free up the chairs. We'll free up more chairs. See?

Chad Gordon 5:53

So that's what I'd like to hear about.

Arielle Houlihan 5:54

So now we have four extra chairs.

Chad Gordon 5:56

Oh, minimum. Yeah. You don't have you. I mean, usually you're gonna have the extra kids waiting, you know, playing games on their phones, just waiting.

Daniel Rasay 6:05

Where are the parents gonna yell at is the question. R1. Okay.

Matt Houlihan 6:09

That's why we need to be a big one.

Arielle Houlihan 6:10

Yeah, but they're not gonna be called the R1 anymore.

Matt Houlihan 6:12

We'll call them the arbiter. Ooh, with something official.

Arielle Houlihan 6:16

Or the court babysitter.

Chad Gordon 6:20

The court nanny. Leave your kids with the court nanny. Hey, the court babysitter told me I needed to come to see you.

Arielle Houlihan 6:31

Take it to the head court babysitter.

Chad Gordon 6:35

Who has jurisdiction on this court?

Arielle Houlihan 6:38

The top court babysitter, obviously.

Matt Houlihan 6:41

I have a protest. Bring me the head court babysitter.

Arielle Houlihan 6:48

We're on to something.

Matt Houlihan 6:50

We're rebranding everything. We're gonna change, we're gonna change the game. Alright, we've got core babysitters. Ariel, what do you want to get rid of?

Arielle Houlihan 6:59

I think I'm good now.

Chad Gordon 7:02

Chad, what do you got? Get rid of the smoothies and the Aussai. I don't want I don't want it. I don't need that. I don't need that nonsense. Are you that's a blasphemous statement?

Arielle Houlihan 7:14

Grinch. The volleyball Grinch was spoken.

Chad Gordon 7:16

I'm not playing.

Matt Houlihan 7:16

What do you want them to have? Chicken tenders?

Chad Gordon 7:18

Oh well, obviously.

Arielle Houlihan 7:19

We'll keep chicken tenders.

Chad Gordon 7:21

How are you gonna rate the tournament otherwise? Like there's an objective like way to do it in attendees. The chicken tender. I don't I don't need these lines. And why is why is my smoothie$23? Like it's just sugar and fake mango and ice. You'd rather it just be removed entirely.

Arielle Houlihan 7:38

Or kill dip and dots.

Chad Gordon 7:41

Why would you slander dip and dots? Yeah.

Arielle Houlihan 7:43

So keep the chicken, keep the dip and dots, but get rid of the SIE.

Chad Gordon 7:46

All my asses and coaches coach best eating dip and dots.

Arielle Houlihan 7:50

That's the only semi-healthy, healthy branded thing in there.

Matt Houlihan 7:55

Dip and dots.

Arielle Houlihan 7:56

No, Asi.

Matt Houlihan 7:58

Oh yeah. I was like, what?

Arielle Houlihan 7:59

But the SIE really isn't healthy.

Matt Houlihan 8:01

It really depends. Like Norcal cup asae bowl, most atrocious acid. Oh my gosh, that was so bad. And then you got like you got the sambasan asaí balls. Those look pretty good. Right?

Chad Gordon 8:12

But it just kind of depends on which I get if you're a player and you're like scooping it out of ice cream. You're going back to back matches, you're tired. Like my dad used to like throw starburst at me like before I would serve. Like, I get it. Like you need a little sugar. I don't I don't need the lines. Be off in the corner. Why you why are you in the middle of the thing? I think I think you're just rage baiting right now. But I respect it. No, I don't need the smoothies. I don't need the odds I get out of the way. Put them in the corner at the middle.

Arielle Houlihan 8:36

At a court.

Matt Houlihan 8:37

There you go.

Chad Gordon 8:38

Well, you're welcome.

Matt Houlihan 8:39

With all of these tournament changes that we've now proposed, let's let's head into the next portion of our docket, which is rule changes from the NCAA Women's Volleyball Rules Committee. We've had a fair amount. I think we we had a some pretty good conversation going on in the group chat about liking what they have put into play.

Court Babysitters And Arbiter Rebrand

Arielle Houlihan 8:58

After it's settling, do you like what they've done?

Chad Gordon 9:01

Yeah, I do. Um we've talked about it before on this very illustrious podcast, and maybe this is the reason for said changes. It is. Uh, but pursuit in the women's game. You know, one, yeah, obviously we had Have you read that rule though? Uh no, not yet, but you're ruining my joke. Uh now that we've removed all the chairs, it's gonna be a lot safer for the women to pursue at the collegiate level. Ah. See? Sofas.

Arielle Houlihan 9:22

Sofas. Not a problem.

Chad Gordon 9:24

Honestly, more sofas to the men's game now. Okay, everybody wins. Uh yeah, the under rule, I don't care. Uh they got rid of the double. We love that. The challenge and the timeout stuff.

Matt Houlihan 9:33

Let's take it, let's take it one at a time. Let's talk with let's talk with the pursuit. You know, on the pursuit side of the.

Arielle Houlihan 9:37

Okay, read that rule though. That rule is a little weird.

Matt Houlihan 9:40

There is. There's some there's some nuance to it. I think on the whole, we all agree women's volleyball should be able to pursue. Right? They still are not allowed to run under the net to pursue, like the men's game can. And then there is also a Why, man?

Chad Gordon 9:56

I don't make the sexist rules. What are you talking about? Explain yourself, man. I got rid of the chairs. I did my part.

Arielle Houlihan 10:02

You're a van tell me clown.

Chad Gordon 10:06

Explain this, man. Oh, we're off the rails.

Arielle Houlihan 10:12

Oh, that's good.

Chad Gordon 10:13

Uh so they're the can't go under men. It can't go under the men's can. Got it. Why why can't you?

Arielle Houlihan 10:18

Is this like air feet, their small feet.

Chad Gordon 10:21

Their hair, their hair is gonna get stuck in the net. Is this like an earrings thing, like on the net kind of thing? Or like what are they trying to say?

Arielle Houlihan 10:27

Well, they did say no jewelry from the chin down. So chin piercings.

Matt Houlihan 10:32

Their game. Yeah. Chins are in as long as it doesn't hang below the chin.

Arielle Houlihan 10:37

Your chin piercing's fine as long as it's a stud.

Food Rants: Smoothies, Dippin’ Dots, Tenders

Matt Houlihan 10:41

Or a bar. Like a straight bar. I think it'll booster flap. Yeah. What is that? A goblet? Yeah. A gibblet? A goblet? None of the words are right. What's going on right now? Get us back on track, Daniel. Get us back on track. Okay. The pursuit rule. The other degree of the pursuit rule that is in effect is you have to have two meters of space between the polls. Why the metric system? Didn't they see Team USA beat Canada? We obviously use feet here. We've won this battle. Oh my gosh. But there's gonna be some gyms where you can't do it, like at BYU. We were talking with uh we were talking with Costian. There's BYU, the scores table is like four feet. So that side so you can't pursue. You cannot pursue on that side. You can pursue on the other side because of the chairs, because of the tables.

Arielle Houlihan 11:44

But the men can.

Matt Houlihan 11:45

You can still go around. It doesn't make any sense. Correct. So it's it's a uh it's a you gotta you gotta walk in and measure the court to determine whether or not you can actually run around it.

Chad Gordon 11:55

Can we just push the announcers like bring your meter stick?

Arielle Houlihan 11:58

An extra meter?

Chad Gordon 11:58

No, you need like two-thirds of a meter, obviously.

Arielle Houlihan 12:00

Well, you have to bring your meter stick wherever you go now.

Matt Houlihan 12:04

You don't. Yes. You know how the refs have their little beads that they measure the uh the net width. Now they need another one that measures meters side.

Arielle Houlihan 12:12

The court babysitters. There's only works vertically.

Chad Gordon 12:18

The horizontal meters are different. The beads start to roll if you put them on the gravity. So yeah, yeah.

Matt Houlihan 12:27

The uh the other rule that became interesting, uh the challenge. We do have the challenge, yeah. Would you like to talk about the challenge? Is this the challenge with the timeout thing? Or is the challenge with the timeout?

Arielle Houlihan 12:38

Once a timeout is taken, you may not challenge the point. To which automatically my mind was like, Great, game theory, challengeable point. I'm taking a timeout, then the other coach can't.

Matt Houlihan 12:50

Yeah.

Arielle Houlihan 12:51

So it's gonna be like in football.

Matt Houlihan 12:52

The hurry up, a hurry-up play in football.

Arielle Houlihan 12:54

Correct. Which I was like, great, amazing. But then Costi, like, kind of was like, I'm on the rules committee. And that's I'm gonna send him this clip. Yeah, please do. I'll say it. I said it to him just like this. I was like, well, that's not what I was saying, and that I don't like it. I want to complain about it.

Matt Houlihan 13:12

Let me have my fun.

NCAA Rule Changes Overview

Arielle Houlihan 13:13

Uh apparently is like, no, there's like a just amount of time that you will get to challenge and then the timeout will be granted. And I was like, boo.

Matt Houlihan 13:22

Yeah, there's some there's some nuance. It's not, it doesn't allow you to freeze it.

Arielle Houlihan 13:25

I want some game theory on that.

Matt Houlihan 13:27

But that would have been that would have been fun, though. If that would if that were the rule where hey That would be fun. I I see a close in-out call. They call it timeout, timeout!

Arielle Houlihan 13:35

I want to see some coaches that know what they're doing here. I want to see some like quick on it things.

Matt Houlihan 13:41

Yep. Well, since that's not the case, we'll move to the next one. Yeah, lame. Commercial logos on courts. We also have the jersey patches are about to be are gonna be approved for next year. So we're gonna have we're gonna have some some new commercialization opportunities from the the women's volleyball space, men's volleyball space, I love it, basketball. That's can we get a coach's group chat logo patch? Maybe like the M AIA level.

Arielle Houlihan 14:05

The first thing that I said was for a commercial on the courts was I'm taking out an ad for Ariel Hulahan on a court somewhere.

Matt Houlihan 14:11

I don't know. What would be the best court to do it on?

Arielle Houlihan 14:13

I mean, obviously, like Nebraska, but like I let's be realistic, though.

Matt Houlihan 14:19

I would like Nebraska Community College West. Nebraska Kearny.

Arielle Houlihan 14:26

No, like Santa Barbara.

Matt Houlihan 14:29

Well, I'm gonna take out a coach's chip chat logo at the Matadome.

Arielle Houlihan 14:34

Yeah, of course you are. No, you're gonna take out a Matt who lah approves this message.

Matt Houlihan 14:39

Actually, I'm not sure. What am I who am I kidding?

Chad Gordon 14:41

We're doing a Pacific. If we're doing anything, we're doing a Pacific.

Arielle Houlihan 14:44

Maybe.

Chad Gordon 14:44

The C Sun of the North. Yeah.

Arielle Houlihan 14:46

The Puerto Rico of Pacific.

Chad Gordon 14:48

No, C Sun's the Pacific of the South. C Sun's the Pacific of the South.

Matt Houlihan 14:52

I love Season.

Arielle Houlihan 14:53

Season is the Pacific of the South. I agree with that.

Matt Houlihan 14:55

But Pacific is still tops. They're peak. They're the peak.

Chad Gordon 15:00

Yes. There you go.

Pursuit Rule Nuance And Space Limits

Matt Houlihan 15:02

Anyone else have a would you what logo would you throw on uh on the UH floor? It doesn't have to be a logo, actually. Just what message? If you could just take if you get a five by five message that you get to put on the floor, what would you throw out there?

Daniel Rasay 15:16

Give us back our national championship. Oh, nice. That's funny.

Matt Houlihan 15:21

I like that. Okay. Chad, do you have a message that you would put on? Let's say you got you got UT Austin in their new brand new volleyball arena. The only logo or only thing on the floor besides the Texas logo. What message?

Chad Gordon 15:36

No, we just gotta put down Volley Station next. Like we need you gotta promote on that. You're promoting, yeah. You're not taking a hey, I would want, you know, peace and joy for the world.

Matt Houlihan 15:46

Oh, claim.

Chad Gordon 15:47

Everybody love everybody. Consumerism. Fan chairs. Buy our thing.

Arielle Houlihan 15:51

Fan chairs.

Chad Gordon 15:52

Couches instead of chairs.

Matt Houlihan 15:54

Alright, that's my backup plan in case vole station is a good for this. But yeah. Ariel, you got you got a message or are you going uh what are you doing?

Arielle Houlihan 16:00

Just a bubble of my a fat head of my face, probably.

Matt Houlihan 16:05

I like it. It's very nice.

Arielle Houlihan 16:07

I'm gonna go haunt some people. I got a couple skulls that I'm haunt? Yeah.

Matt Houlihan 16:13

Yeah.

Arielle Houlihan 16:13

I got some schools out there that I could haunt. I'd love some some people to look at my face every time their team has to play.

Matt Houlihan 16:21

Just to add a little context, uh Ariel was once asked what her spirit animal is, and her response cockroach. Was a cockroach. Yeah. She just will never she'll never she'll never let you she'll never let you get away. She'll she'll just keep coming back. You can't kill her.

Arielle Houlihan 16:37

Yep. I'm gonna be there.

Matt Houlihan 16:40

Yeah. Honestly, I think about I think about that.

Arielle Houlihan 16:42

Just a cuddling cockroach.

Matt Houlihan 16:44

Weekly occasion. I was like, God, my wife thinks she's a cockroach. Well, we're continuing along the lines of the rules. Uh we had a another viral video of a beta bay player that came out. One Norm Marks had a two-handed setter dump jam that the Instagram referees. Yeah, it went. I mean, it got a it was in the 100,000 view plus.

Arielle Houlihan 17:09

It went viral in my mind because I was thinking about it all the time because I was like, this kid's gonna get me kicked out of tournaments.

Matt Houlihan 17:14

Yeah, and and as his coach, you've seen that be called a couple times different ways.

Arielle Houlihan 17:19

So let's let's let's debate for all.

Matt Houlihan 17:23

Well in in the actual social clip, we'll we'll throw the video up right now for you to see.

Arielle Houlihan 17:27

We've got it in like 17 different angles.

Matt Houlihan 17:29

Yeah. But what is the what's the call? What's the call on these two hands? You got these two-handed setter jams, which I honestly the first person I saw do it from the United States was James Shaw. Yep. James Shaw for Stanford would turn with two hands and he would just he just dunked it. It was just a dunk. But what do we think? What's the uh what's the the ruling?

Timeouts, Challenges, And Game Theory

Court Ads, Patches, And Messages

Arielle Houlihan 17:48

Okay, so the backstory on this one is that we've uh there was a point at which I had to tell Nolan, my setters, we're not gonna go over with two hands on two anymore because we are having to fight the wipe and jam game on our outside so much that having to fight it with you guys because this is getting this is getting so uh 50-50. Uh I want us to be able to fight it with our outsides, not put more pressure on them. And so we've had to like tone it back a little bit. I also don't believe in that, and so it's I hate that that's where we are at with the game right now. Um, I'm also trying to figure out a way to get my team to be successful, and so it's a very weird place to be in right now. Um Nolan specifically uh goes up. Matty does it too, honestly. Like both of my setters are doing this out of the over on two with two hands at a very high level. And you see international players doing it, you see college players all the time doing this. And uh I would say it's it's 50-50 whether we're gonna get called on it or not. Um, and it to me, sometimes if we turn it all the way and it goes the other side of the court, we get called, but sometimes even when we go straight away, it's getting called, so it doesn't even matter at this point. Um, Nolan goes up on this play, and Courtney had it on like a great shot of it in slow-mo, and also we have like a fast version of it as well. And so we were at dinner at Capitol Hill, and we're watching this video, and uh I show it to them, I show it to a couple people at my table, and Chad goes, You have an entire table full of referees over there. Core babysitters. And I hopped up as quickly as possible, and I walk over to them, I go, I got something to show you guys. So I showed this video to a table of seven or eight of our head referees at this tournament for the weekend. And uh one of the referees goes, I'm I'll probably say it's clean, and he'll probably say not. And I said, That's the problem here, but here, take a look. I mean, it sparked the debate of all debates where they were they were very hit or miss on it. I said, if there was a blocker there, this wouldn't even be a question. It's not Nolan's fault that there isn't a blocker there. And so if somebody else was contesting with it, it's so fast that there's no way that you can call a lift on this. Um that definitely stumped some people, and they had to but there just is no widespread uh I don't I people don't I think the referees really don't know what to think on this play right now.

Matt Houlihan 20:40

It's a it's a hard it's a judgment call.

Arielle Houlihan 20:41

It is a judgment call, but we need to get rid of that um with AI. And so I just really think that we need to figure out how to tray like honestly, if if the international is doing this, if Moni is doing this, if uh Andrew Rowan is doing this, if our top kids in the country are doing this, and we are trying to raise our children in this country to grow up and be great, we cannot, as adults, be getting in the way of that and and consistently calling this play and not letting them experiment and try and figure out how to get this done. I'm not saying that it can't, it can be a catch and throw, but it if it is fast, like we're showing that it is, there's no reason that this should be called as much as it is. And it and we are legitimately 50-50 on it right now. And I'm gonna get kicked out of tournaments for this one.

Matt Houlihan 21:37

Yeah, it's it's tough in those moments. You have to you have to depending on the referee, you're you're battling to try and maintain your style of play and what you're training.

Arielle Houlihan 21:49

And so that's where we're training them we're training them to emulate the best kids in the world and the best kids in college volleyball. We're not training them to Not do that. And so for us to for referees should be holding the standard of the game to that rate.

Matt Houlihan 22:07

I think that's the disconnect, too. And and I I think that that gets called in a couple different ways, even at the NCAA level. I'm watching the UCLA versus Long Beach State game, and that exact play happens. Long Beach setter goes up and two-hand jams it, and Rowan is yelling, calling for a lift. Yep. And I'm, you know, I'm not sure if he got called on it earlier or something along those lines, but right, there's there's definitely just a good degree of disconnecting. Maybe it's just the fact that you know you know you can influence these judgment calls based upon your response.

Arielle Houlihan 22:41

That's called gaming.

Matt Houlihan 22:42

Which is why I think so much of volleyball has you've seen these shifts of they're trying to remove judgment calls. Yeah. Right? Remove the double. They're taking steps towards can we just get rid of the judgment so that it makes it as clean and simple as possible for the viewer, for the referee, so that everyone's on that same equal playing field of understanding of what it is you can and can't do. And that's where I'm like, I I see the game going towards them, going no open hand tips.

The Two-Handed Setter Dump Debate

Arielle Houlihan 23:07

Okay, sure. You can say that, whatever, but the moment that that happens, the game, the game looks specifically different. And for sure. They didn't like what that game looked like either. And so I I really do think that that is a dynamic, athletic, aggressive play that makes the game look incredible, and we are taking away the kids' opportunity right now to figure out how to do that in a very all over the place judgment. And I think it's a trash way to raise our kids.

unknown 23:40

No.

Arielle Houlihan 23:40

It's an aggressive way to say it, but I stand by it.

Matt Houlihan 23:44

Standards, right? It's like you're you're the plain standards and the refing standards have to be in line in order for you to get the best of the game.

Arielle Houlihan 23:51

Yep.

Matt Houlihan 23:52

Completely agree.

Arielle Houlihan 23:53

So will we be doing that or not? I don't know. That's a good question. But like I really do think that we need to let our kids We're starting a national campaign. Yeah, I just I just think that that is going the younger and younger that can do that, the more likely it is that that stuff is going. And the more visible and viral that is, the more that referees I do think have to have a conversation of like we need to standardize this.

Matt Houlihan 24:21

Daniel, when you were playing, were you a uh did you see any of that? Or was it just you know the traditional one-handed dump, one-handed one-handed kind of jam to the left?

Daniel Rasay 24:32

Yeah, it was definitely more just one-handed stuff, but I think athletes are just bigger and more physical these days, and we have to evolve with the athletes as well. And it's it's just tough because when you have a ref that's uh calling these, it changes the game entirely. Like you mentioned, James Shaw, he's set differently because he didn't have the option to be aggressive because they took that away from him, and that was one of his biggest strengths. But yeah, I don't know, it's an interesting thing because like when there's an overpass, right? And we're we're throwing the overpass down, probably never gets cold. Yeah, yeah. Right? And it's a similar movement, yeah. But that's a good point. You know, we just look at it differently because it's the setter and second contact. Second contact.

Matt Houlihan 25:18

Yeah, yeah. The the other part I was thinking of it too is how often are those balls, would you call a double on them?

unknown 25:23

Right?

Matt Houlihan 25:24

Like that same that overpass ball. Like it is the is correct me if I'm wrong, is that first contact immune from the double call? It is it's only second and third contact.

Arielle Houlihan 25:33

No, not really. It's the third contact.

Matt Houlihan 25:35

No, second and third contact. Well, it's the over the net, right? Yeah, but if I'm going if I'm going over on one as a attacker with two hands, that can't be called a double call. It's a block, okay. So yeah. Well, I mean, if it the What about like when Harper, when Harper Murray goes over on one in the Big Ten finals, she shoots it across the net.

Arielle Houlihan 25:56

That's enough time though.

Matt Houlihan 25:57

But it wasn't and it was spinning. But because it's the first contact, I guess it was safe. I was talking with Theron about this in practice today. That was a a play that got called out where we had a moment where it was like a scramble play, ball came over and they shot it across with their hands over on one and could have been called a double because it was the first contact that they let it they let it fly.

Arielle Houlihan 26:17

I think rarely happens, and uh the doubles being eliminated as much as it can. Hard to call a double now.

Matt Houlihan 26:29

Alright, well this is our this is our uh our calling for let the let the setters dunk. Yay.

Arielle Houlihan 26:37

Let them let them go up there and reward reward good passing.

Matt Houlihan 26:40

Yeah, meet the setters at the rim if you want to stop that ball.

Arielle Houlihan 26:43

Yep.

Matt Houlihan 26:44

Go up there and go up there and contest.

Arielle Houlihan 26:46

If it is not contested, what are we doing getting in the way of it?

Matt Houlihan 26:51

Then you're gonna get clipped. That's what's gonna happen if you're not contesting it.

Arielle Houlihan 26:55

Yeah, as referees, though, what are we doing get in the way of it if it's not contested? It's gotta be egregious if it is not contested.

Matt Houlihan 27:02

It's gotta be Troy Field behind the head. 100% forward through.

unknown 27:06

Yeah.

Matt Houlihan 27:07

That's the line.

Arielle Houlihan 27:08

That's the line.

Matt Houlihan 27:09

The guy's on that ball for like a long time.

Chad Gordon 27:11

If it crosses behind your back of your head through to the forward of your head. If you catch it, perform some like you know, dunk contest. He didn't get racial casting spells.

Daniel Rasay 27:19

He's two for two on not being called. He didn't get called for that.

Matt Houlihan 27:22

Yeah. He like caught it thinking it would be a joust. The blocker wasn't there, and then he threw it down, and then he just didn't get called. No call. Yeah. It was great.

Chad Gordon 27:30

Beachy. But I mean, you get the like my my point before has been like you go watch uh SE, you watch like Dylan Klein like set a high ball. It's beachy, right? And you're like, oh, it's down, it's up, it's across his body, and he's on it for like, wow, that was like two and a half seconds. We're fine when it's on your side and you're just setting the ball, but I can't be on top of this thing and just push it straight down. It doesn't make any sense. Yeah.

Matt Houlihan 27:54

So there you go. Well, I don't make the rules. Neither do I. But apparently, apparently, apparently we can influence people because we made them change the pursuit rule.

Judgment Calls, Doubles, And Consistency

Chad Gordon 28:04

I can't wait to go to the next tournament and see sofas. Then I'll know that we've made it.

Matt Houlihan 28:10

Well, speaking of what Chad wants to see, we need to get our newest segment.

Arielle Houlihan 28:14

Yes, my favorite segment of the day.

Matt Houlihan 28:17

On the recording here, it's Chad's Wedding Woundup.

Arielle Houlihan 28:21

Chad's Wedding Woundup. So Chad is getting married.

Matt Houlihan 28:24

We're setting a one-minute timer, and Chad has to give us his weekly recap of what has transpired in wedding planning this week. Can someone get the one-minute timer prepared for happy? It won't help because it'll take six seconds.

Arielle Houlihan 28:36

No, you have to talk about it for a minute.

Matt Houlihan 28:38

Mind you, your fiance is here and she would like to know how Chad is getting married to Bobby.

Arielle Houlihan 28:45

Wait, where is a camera? Where's a clo Okay? Here we go. Ready?

Chad Gordon 28:48

Turn it for the camera.

Arielle Houlihan 28:50

One minute. Go.

Chad Gordon 28:53

Go. Uh we hired a planner.

Arielle Houlihan 28:57

Yay!

Chad Gordon 28:58

Congrats. In New York.

Arielle Houlihan 28:59

Ooh.

Chad Gordon 29:01

That's it so far. What's her name? Great question.

Arielle Houlihan 29:05

She's not Jenny. It's not Jenny. It's okay. Shaking head in disappointment. It's okay. Jenny, but her name's not Jenny.

Chad Gordon 29:15

Yeah, but it could be. I call her Big J.

Arielle Houlihan 29:16

It's like privacy issues. Big Jenny.

Matt Houlihan 29:18

For HIPAA reasons, Chad's not using her real name. Yeah, yeah.

Chad Gordon 29:21

Uh yeah, we have a planner. It's New York. This is all we have. We're going to New York in one week. To look at places. To look at places. To see Big J. Big J. Do a little shopping. See a little Harry Potter.

Arielle Houlihan 29:34

That's not the way.

Chad Gordon 29:36

That's about it. I don't know. Do we have any venues lined up?

Arielle Houlihan 29:39

Why are you talking to her? She's in hell. She's in the room.

Chad Gordon 29:41

This is why we were making her leave. I'm very nervous right now. I don't like any of this.

Arielle Houlihan 29:46

Big Jenny is the only thing we got out of this. Okay, well, that was one minute. He's got a lot of work to do, but but I'm so excited to get married and get to New York.

Chad Gordon 29:56

It's the best.

Arielle Houlihan 29:57

Okay. Well, you maybe you make a notes thing in your phone and during the week when you're going to be able to do it.

Matt Houlihan 30:01

I'll have my own docket, I think. Have Claude Bot just keep track of what's been going on for you. Yeah, I should probably get a well.

Arielle Houlihan 30:07

Thank you for Chad's wedding update. That was the wedding. Wedding wound up.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

Brought to you by the way. So wove we're we wove we that was woo-e wovy. You guys should have uh the Princess Bride guy marry you. Oh Mawage, Mawage, Mawage.

Daniel Rasay 30:25

We be woven.

Matt Houlihan 30:27

Or just seen Princess Bride. Oh my god. Add it to the list.

Arielle Houlihan 30:34

Not a prerequisite for getting married.

Chad Gordon 30:35

No, no, but it's just like if you want to be not a good idea.

Matt Houlihan 30:38

If you want to be a good human being, you should probably watch it.

Arielle Houlihan 30:40

I mean, that's not true either, but it's pretty aggressive. You're a good human being.

Matt Houlihan 30:45

It felt aggressive.

Arielle Houlihan 30:46

I just want to learn more about Big Jet.

Matt Houlihan 30:48

I can't wait to it's gonna be huge. Great job, everyone. Tigers. Is that it? Like, comment, subscribe. That was that was it. That was all finito. Bienvenidos. Adios. Adios Emilia.

Arielle Houlihan 31:01

Adiós. Our Puerto Rican podcast.