Sidelines
Warriors’ win is nice,
but rally scoring still
tough to rally behindCONGRATULATIONS. The game has been altered, changed, ruined. Points are handed out like candy on Halloween. More scoring, they said. Faster action, they said.
And they got it. Volleyball did it. Volleyball changed and volleyball mutated and volleyball went along with the flow, just like the powers that be wanted. Volleyball needed to adapt to survive, and so it did, and now here it is.
Congratulations.
Perhaps you've made your peace with it. Maybe you don't even notice anymore, or tell yourself it's just as good, or that you should get a point every time the other team serves into the net.
And today Hawaii can stand on its tiptoes and see its first national championship, and maybe that's the story and everything else is old news. And like most outrages, everyone is over this but me.
But I'm not so sure.
The volleyball purists among us remember a game of emotion and momentum, where hard work had its just reward and wins were built, piece by piece. Side outs and serving were crucial, and a long run was like climbing a mountain.
And it meant something.
And it was wonderful.
And now that's gone.
Today, volleyball has followed that familiar blueprint for "success." It's edgier. It's extreme. It has fast-paced attitude. It is arena football. It is that voice-over guy from Fox Sports.
And it's a souped-up, hyped-up, inferior imitation of itself.
Someone told volleyball it needed to get new rules to be more TV-friendly, and so it did. And it worked. This final four, the crown jewel, is on national television, on ESPN2.
Yes, we saw it live here, thanks to a special arrangement (and so did Pepperdine campus television), but the rest of the country, the new fans the sport needed to win over with these new rules, had to stay up late into the night if they were looking for volleyball.
Even after all those concessions. The easy scoring. The faster action. And the made-for-TV timing improvements that still saw Hawaii's match start 45 minutes later than its time slot dictated.
Volleyball changed. Its Q-rating didn't. That's the shame of it.
Yesterday's semifinals were tape-delayed. Tape-delayed on ESPN2. So are spelling bees and dog shows.
Congratulations.
BUT THE CHANGES are here and they're real and they're not new anymore. And today, Hawaii celebrates its berth for the national championship.
Perhaps you've made your peace with these new rules, or you don't even notice them anymore, or maybe it really doesn't matter as long as there is the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat in there somewhere.
Those guys hugging and sliding on the court looked as happy as anyone ever did.
There are still great stories and excitement and adrenaline and sweat.
And I might even have liked this match.
If only we had never seen the real thing.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com