Reader J.S.: “Cook failed! He had one job, and that was to stabilize the team until he could rebuild it into what Gopher VB fans have come to expect. I’m done with him; maybe he should enter “the transfer portal.” Maybe he’ll prove me wrong (upon which I’d happily recant) but I doubt it.
In hindsight, we (McCutcheon) should have let Wenaas play Left-side instead of Landfair, because Wenaas has clearly stepped up to be an on-court leader for Texas, and a power house at her position. (She was amazing against Wisconsin.) If we had, we would have had powerful offense — plus the court leadership that we lost when Samedy graduated. Landfair never stepped up; and now we’ve lost both.
I hope this is the last defection, and that our committed recruits also stay committed. But Landfair sent a strong message that others are likely to follow. And she couldn’t do it fast enough; pulling the plug before the season was even over.”
JOHN HERE: I understand JS’s angst; these are trying times. I find it hard to blame Cook for the 3 excellent players we lost last Portal-season – before Cook had a chance to work with them. But this year’s defections are at least partly on Cook; part of his resume was that he had never lost a player to the portal. We don’t know what pushed Landfair into the portal, but Cook’s streak is broken.
I wrote multiple times during the 2022 season that Wenaas was the Gophers’ best all-around player – based on the fact that she was the team’s only 5-tool player, she can serve, bump, set, hit & block. Wenaas had a nice game vs Wisconsin Thursday night, but she was not the hitter, throughout her Gopher career, that Landfair was.
We missed Wenaas the most on our serve-receive. Here’s a hard fact to ponder: during the 2022 season, Wenaas was the Gophers’ best serve-receiver, even better than McGraw. This season at Texas, Wenaas isn’t even part of the Texas receive! Presumably, she’s not one of their top 3 receivers!
I certainly share JS’s hope that Landfair will be our only defection this year. Part of that will depend on how well Cook has “connected” with the players he inherited. But Landfair’s “message” depends on how much of a leader Landfair was. If players such as Shaffmaster, Wooker, and Grote look up to Landfair, then they might be gone too. But maybe Landfair was never regarded as a leader, and maybe our other Left-side Hitters (Wooker, Hanson & Swenson) will anticipate increased playing-time with landfair gone – and therefore be more likely to stay.