[Mick]

[quote] [men\'s volleyball] is a SoCal sport.

UCLA has won 19 times.  Sounds like a good run to me.

UCLA won 7 times in the \'70s, 6 times in the 80s, 4 times in the 90s, and twice in the last ten years.

Create an all-star team from the talent within 50 miles of UCLA and I would take my chances.  Is there another NCAA sport with a more clear talent epicenter?  However, even your examples illustrate my original point and that is that this is not like fencing or men\'s gymnastics where the number of programs has dwindled to the point that a few select programs consistently finish in the top 4 or 5.

In the championship game, Stanford had four starters from Hawaii, one from Florida, one from Wisconsin...and one from California, Gus Ellis.  Penn State had two California players on their roster.

Right now, the #1 high school team in the country (per ESPN) is Punahou, from Hawaii.  Of the top 10 high schools in the country, three are from Hawaii (#1Punahou, #7 Iolani and #10 Kamehameha), two are from Illinois (#3 Maine Township South) and #4 Carl Sandburg), one is from Northern California (#6 Bellarmine College Prep), one is from Ohio (#7 Archbishop Hoban) and three from Southern California (#2 Mira Costa, #5 Loyola and #8 Huntington Beach).  I haven\'t seen the Midwestern schools or Kamehameha, but I\'ve seen the rest of them.  Punahou, Mira Costa and Loyola are the real deal with several D1 recruits on each team.  The rest are about as good as each other.

Stanford\'s seven recruits next year come from SoCal (3), NorCal (1), Hawaii (1), Pennsylvania (1) and Illinois (1).

[Mick]

[quote] [men\'s volleyball] is a SoCal sport.

UCLA has won 19 times.  Sounds like a good run to me.

UCLA won 7 times in the \'70s, 6 times in the 80s, 4 times in the 90s, and twice in the last ten years.

Create an all-star team from the talent within 50 miles of UCLA and I would take my chances.  Is there another NCAA sport with a more clear talent epicenter?  However, even your examples illustrate my original point and that is that this is not like fencing or men\'s gymnastics where the number of programs has dwindled to the point that a few select programs consistently finish in the top 4 or 5.

In the championship game, Stanford had four starters from Hawaii, one from Florida, one from Wisconsin...and one from California, Gus Ellis.  Penn State had two California players on their roster.

Right now, the #1 high school team in the country (per ESPN) is Punahou, from Hawaii.  Of the top 10 high schools in the country, three are from Hawaii (#1Punahou, #7 Iolani and #10 Kamehameha), two are from Illinois (#3 Maine Township South) and #4 Carl Sandburg), one is from Northern California (#6 Bellarmine College Prep), one is from Ohio (#7 Archbishop Hoban) and three from Southern California (#2 Mira Costa, #5 Loyola and #8 Huntington Beach).  I haven\'t seen the Midwestern schools or Kamehameha, but I\'ve seen the rest of them.  Punahou, Mira Costa and Loyola are the real deal with several D1 recruits on each team.  The rest are about as good as each other.

Stanford\'s seven recruits next year come from SoCal (3), NorCal (1), Hawaii (1), Pennsylvania (1) and Illinois (1).