Shane Davis Fired
- Thread starter CSCatFan1
- Start date
I was really excited when NU was able to pull Davis away from Loyola. Really thought he’d lead us into consistent success. I’m not really sure why it never seemed to click here, but this is likely the right move at this point.
I wouldn’t think that had more to do with it than pure results. Those allegations were even softer than football. The player also alleged they went directly to Gragg and nothing was done, and he’s still here, so I doubt we know the whole story.
Oh I know. The Big Ten is a tough volleyball conference, but NU should be able to improve on that conference record.
Women’s volleyball is a sport that NU should be much better at. I understand why we struggle in baseball but don’t understand why we’re not a regular tourney team in volleyball. I don’t know if we’ve finished in the top half of the Big 10 (which is admittedly the best volleyball conference in the country) in at least 20 years.
So? NU sits in one of the national hot beds of talent and has a unique value proposition vs. a Wisconsin, Nebraska, or Penn State…especially for a sport that doesn’t have a viable professional exit in the USA. We have great facilities now and getting athletes through admissions for women’s sports is also generally much easier.
There’s no reason NU shouldn’t be a presence at the top of the conference with the right coach.
Davis coached Loyola Men’s team to a Natty. Something else is going on here that prohibited the team from improving.
He actually won 2, but that was nearly a decade ago. The men’s game is still more limited in scope than the women, and certainly was more so then. As with all college sports, it all comes down to recruiting. Davis was just never as effective recruiting on the women’s side as he was on the men’s. My hunch is that it’s due to how much more competition there is for talent on the women’s side than the men’s. I’m not sure if it caught him off guard or if his style just never resonated with top women’s recruits. I don’t think it’s as deep as some sort of structural issue at NU (we have plenty of really successful non-revenue women’s sports).