Why isn't UCLA's men's volleyball team better than they are? With great players and coach?

One thing I've noticed about them is that their offense has gotten very predictable. Everybody knows how to defend them. Also their defense doesn't adjust very well. They do great against relatively slow offenses but when teams run double quicks they don't seem to have an answer.

They have a very deep bench this year though, with a lot of talent, and have pulled off a couple of wins mostly thanks to their reserves. The league is incredibly tough this year. There are no undefeated teams in the MPSF. Cal State Northridge is the big surprise as far as I'm concerned.

Everything comes down to coach preferences. I coach a faster ball to the pins and quicks to all middles, including the backrow quicks. The only "slow" ball I want to see is to the opposite in the backrow as a bail out. That, of course, goes out the window and means nothing if the players can't do that.

As for UCLA they may run a slower offense because it suites their players better. IPFW had a slower than slow offense two years ago and became national runner ups because they ran it great and had the hitters who could do it. Top players does not mean speed, it means talent. The coach's job is to see what he has and adjust the game plan as is needed.