Dave Shoji Quotations

We're going to have to play smart. Hit around the block and there are some players we just can't challenge. We have to pick our spots. They are big everywhere.

Maybe the final four a few years ago (2002 against Stanford). Just too many weapons. Nebraska was too balanced tonight. A lot of times we were confused because they were running an offense we really hadn't seen. We just finally got down. We needed to have somebody to rally the troops and no one did. Everybody was in a daze.

He has a good eye for the player that has a lot of upside. I think UOP is kind of going to be in the same situation as Hawaii in that we're not able to get the high school All-American player. I think he'll be able to find players he can train who will be way better when they leave than they are when they get there.

Kari has done such a tremendous job for me. She has been here eight years and quietly gone about taking on a whole lot of responsibilities. She has been a very good and loyal coach. She needed to be rewarded. Now is the perfect time.

I thought all our middles hit for good percentage. At times our block looked good.

I think Ashley was probably the only one who played up to her capabilities. She played great D (defense) and kept us in the game. She had played well last weekend so I was close to putting her back in the position. I probably should have done it earlier. She'll be in that position tomorrow (tonight).

I think they just wanted to get some confidence. I'm sure he wanted to see better play out of his starters.

I think the travel and being on the road so much the last three weeks finally caught up to us. The kids didn't have enough gas. We didn't have another gear to go to. We kind of ran out of magic here at the end.

I thought he would give us a fresh and different approach to the game. Almost all the other candidates were women's coaches coming from the game the way I had seen it.

I'm hoping the third game was more indicative of our team than the first two. We started so slow. They obviously are a great team, but we couldn't do anything right. We couldn't pass, couldn't defend it, couldn't block it. We were just half a step slow the first and second game. It was disappointing we weren't ready to play.

You don't coach to win necessarily. You'd like to win, but you need to see most of your players, especially the ones competing for starting positions. This is the start of evaluation for next fall. We'll establish a depth chart starting now.

We didn't have a scholarship for Tamari. She's a good volleyball player. I don't know what our plans for her would have been. We would have evaluated her if she had been here.

There's a lot of interest from very qualified coaches, coaches who have had success at their programs. I was very surprised that it would create that kind of interest, and that quickly.

It's not the same. We're going to have tough situations in the WAC but not like Washington where the talent on the other side is better than us and we're having to battle.

It's not going to be an overnight situation with UOP. When you're down a little bit, it's going to take longer nowadays because the competition for kids is so much greater than when UOP won the championships.

It just wasn't pretty for a long time and that's disturbing. It felt like our team just wasn't prepared, and that's the fault of the coach.

They beat us in every phase of the game. It was not a match. We were just not ready to play at that level.

I just want to be comfortable with our 'physical' level. I want to know we are physical enough to compete at the highest level.

I recruited a bunch of his players, and we were always on the same wavelength as far as technique and tactics. When I had a chance to hire him, I jumped at it.

Because of injuries and Alicia's virus, we've been forced to play Houston more than we expected. I thought we'd be going with our older, experienced players, but she has accelerated her growth over the weekend. She's a terminator and, for the moment, the (starting) job is hers.