Kurogo is not a defensive player. Hayashi has improved more on defense than Kurogo. Mayu is doing well but we don't know if she can actually keep up at a beast pace
Maybe get rid of Nabeya
If the starting line up will be Ishii - Ishikawa - Kurogo, I think Kurogo still have to receive in some rotations, just like what she’s now doing in her club.
I'm serious. I probably threw you off with the Uchiseto reference. Nabeya is wiggly and soft. Reception is very good. She's not playing much this year in league though.
Wiggly is the best description for her LOL. She almost looks deranged sometimes. It gives me anxiety just watching her play. She's not smooth and it's like you don't know if she's gonna hit it just right. I need to probably rewatch some old Denso matches
If the starting line up will be Ishii - Ishikawa - Kurogo, I think Kurogo still have to receive in some rotations, just like what she’s now doing in her club.
Koga is likely to preclude Ishii or Ishikawa. Which is a step in the right direction. Ishii is a bench player. It's good for the team for her to be the one waiting for one of the starters to not show up with their game face. Makes them better.
Watching Kurogo, she "looks" like the better receiver than Mayu. I don't quite understand why her numbers don't reflect that
Wiggly is the best description for her LOL. She almost looks deranged sometimes. It gives me anxiety just watching her play. She's not smooth and it's like you don't know if she's gonna hit it just right. I need to probably rewatch some old Denso matches
I love Yurii but I think there are better options than her now. Maybe she gives you anxiety because she's really best when running low percentage shots==fading left in 4, or coming in from wide and going down the line. That's what she does that's cool. And that's the kind of thing Japan needs to do.
People dismiss her (and others) because she's not going to be the next Boscovic 
People dismiss her (and others) because she's not going to be the next Boscovic
tbt to that time Japan destroyed turkey and everyone was getting mad because zehra/hande duo could not stop them
i feel that japan post-saori has been massively overlooked, underestimated and just put down in general. haikyu doing gods work for the men's team because lbr they would have no hype either if it wasn't for that anime. it's a shame it doesn't benefit the women's team at all
tbt to that time Japan destroyed turkey and everyone was getting mad because zehra/hande duo could not stop them
i feel that japan post-saori has been massively overlooked, underestimated and just put down in general. haikyu doing gods work for the men's team because lbr they would have no hype either if it wasn't for that anime. it's a shame it doesn't benefit the women's team at all
But you gotta admit those 2 are so pretty and cool on the court you just hate for them to lose 
Turkey is hard to root against because their visual game is everything. I didn't mind it at all cuz none of my faves were playing then but I get your point.
I don't know about that. Since Risa wasn't a major scoring threat, other teams never served to her to keep her out of the offense. (A tactic I don't understand, really, because if you watch Japan play it's more often than not the person who receives who makes the attack--but I suppose hammering someone for an entire match wears them down). So Risa's 'great reception' didn't matter. She never got the chance to show it. "Avoid #4! Avoid #4"! Risa was there to field batting practice against the big world leaders.
If you look at the stats of the last few years, Kobata and Ishii are the golden receivers. I sort of agree that Ishii's toes are fading but that doesn't mean we can re-write history. She's been a damn good receiver. Koga made a brief appearance in the WCh with good reception but her overall performance this cycle was pretty dismal. I'm very anxious to see if whatever re-ignited the spark in Koga's butt keeps firing. Her reception isn't what it was like a 3-4 years ago, but it's not bad. Could be that serving has just gotten better.
Risa and the libero could cover over 2/3 of the court space when receiving, so even when other teams always tried to target the OH and avoid her and the libero, Risa still received a significant amount of serves. “She never got the chance to show it” wasn’t really the case. You may look at the stats of World Cup 19, the total number of reception between Ishii, Kobata & Risa was 209, 171, 130. Risa was important in their receiving line.
I never worry about Japanese liberos, Kobata is just as great as the retired Yuki Sano. While for Ishii, she is a very good receiver when she does not have to cover too much space. But this season when she no longer has Risa next to her in the club, her reception has been worrying.
Koga to me is still a question mark on international level. She shined in the World Cup 15 but didn’t show that level consistently again afterwards. Also the NT coach seemed always trusts Ishii way more than Koga, so I don’t really know if Koga could really take the starting position from Ishii.
Risa and the libero could cover over 2/3 of the court space when receiving, so even when other teams always tried to target the OH and avoid her and the libero, Risa still received a significant amount of serves. “She never got the chance to show it” wasn’t really the case. You may look at the stats of World Cup 19, the total number of reception between Ishii, Kobata & Risa was 209, 171, 130. Risa was important in their receiving line.
I never worry about Japanese liberos, Kobata is just as great as the retired Yuki Sano. While for Ishii, she is a very good receiver when she does not have to cover too much space. But this season when she no longer has Risa next to her in the club, her reception has been worrying.
Koga to me is still a question mark on international level. She shined in the World Cup 15 but didn’t show that level consistently again afterwards. Also the NT coach seemed always trusts Ishii way more than Koga, so I don’t really know if Koga could really take the starting position from Ishii.
You should definitely be worried because Ishii is technically the current official face of Hinotori.
Imo, Ishii is the type of player that shines only when she's with stronger more capable players which is the opposite of dominant players like Saori. You can see when she plays with Shinnabe and Nagaoka they would exert 10x more effort than she would in either attack or reception. She could score a lot but also a lot of errors on her part. Which is why she doesn't do well when she's with average players like Nomoto.
She could score a lot but also a lot of errors on her part. Which is why she doesn't do well when she's with average players like Nomoto.
Totally agree!
You can see when she plays with Shinnabe and Nagaoka they would exert 10x more effort than she would in either attack or reception
Oh man ! 
Nagaoka's reception ? (I'm sure you just typed that haphazardly) but I disagree with the exerting effort part, either way.
Okay, so we're disappointed Yuki never became the New Saori. I never expected that. Who did? I'm sure she didn't. I think you and KVB nail it when you point out her "limitations", how we can appreciate her more when there are others around her to appreciate even more.
How many times do I have to say it: Yuki is a bench player. She's also one of the best, if not the best, non-libero floor defenders Japan has. Yuki is a role player and a team player. She's the Andre Iguodala of Japan. That takes effort. That's why I like her. And if she's going to be the one other teams target because Risa, I'm cool with that. I'm not worried about her. If Koga, Kurogo, or Ishikawa become that target, I'm a little worried.
Oh man !
Okay, so we're disappointed Yuki never became the New Saori. I never expected that. Who did? I'm sure she didn't. I think you and KVB nail it when you point out her "limitations", how we can appreciate her more when there are others around her to appreciate even more.
How many times do I have to say it: Yuki is a bench player. She's also one of the best, if not the best, non-libero floor defenders Japan has. Yuki is a role player and a team player. She's the Andre Iguodala of Japan. That takes effort. That's why I like her. And if she's going to be the one other teams target because Risa, I'm cool with that. I'm not worried about her. If Koga, Kurogo, or Ishikawa become that target, I'm a little worried.
Shinnabe's reception and Nagaoka's attack I thought that would be clear. Nagaoka is without a doubt Hisamitsu's strongest player and Shinnabe their best defense.
Shinnabe's reception and Nagaoka's attack I thought that would be clear. Nagaoka is without a doubt Hisamitsu's strongest player and Shinnabe their best defense.
Are you using defense and reception interchangeably here? I'm not dissing Risa. She's smarter than Yuki, but Yuki is faster and more courageous with her body. But you watch SAGA more closely than I do, so I respect your assessment.
But let's shift our disappointment from Yuki to Koga for a moment. Why hasn't she become the New Saori? I've watched every single second of every match Sarina has played since 2015. Some more than once, and I've watched butt-stalker videos of her to see what she's like between plays. Her lights went out after NEC won the V.League.
It must be a tricky transition from being a wunderkid to being the adult in the room. I never got to see the Saoris or Yuki or Risa or any of these other old farts make that transition. Sarina's lights are back on ... offensively, and in between plays. They are sort of on in reception but dimmed on defense. The lights gotta be on for defense. That's what RisaYuki have. They have both always looked to me like they're thinking: "lets get this offense bullshit out of the way so we can play defense". That's gold in my book. Sarina had that way back when. I hope those lights come back on.
I think Ayaka Araki makes wide roster. Not that she'll play this year but she's going to be there in the future so might as well start training
who is that?
who is that?
The MB with goggles on SAGA
I saw mucch_sys tweet about this. You guys should follow him on twitter, he was V.League's former official photographer
VBM started doing polls of who people want to see in the NT. This list goes until 50, more names in the link. I feel bad for Kobata because she's always in the bottom
I didn't get any results from 2018
Who they want to see in the 2019 roster http://vbm.link/29594/
| 長岡望悠 Nagaoka | 1,251 |
| 窪田美侑 KUBOTA?? Phoenix | 760 |
| 宮下遥 Miyashita | 710 |
| 石井優希 Ishii | 684 |
| 黒後愛 Kurogo | 672 |
| 石川真佑 Mayu | 671 |
| 関菜々巳 Nanami Seki | 545 |
| 新鍋理沙 Shinnabe | 531 |
| 古賀紗理那 Koga | 451 |
| 奥村麻依 Okumura | 410 |
2020 - who they want to see at the Olympics based on the 2019 NT roster
宮下遥 5.23% (4,113 votes) Miyashita. although it's quite obvious majority are rooting for Miya Sato now and probably Seki. Seki won V. League's Best Setter voted by fans. But I still don't trust her. Momii was robbed
井上琴絵 5.04% (3,960 votes) Kotoe
荒木絵里香 4.99% (3,928 votes) Araki
奥村麻依 4.98% (3,917 votes) Okumura
石川真佑 4.91% (3,858 votes) Mayu
石井優希 4.88% (3,834 votes) Ishii
田代佳奈美 4.82% (3,789 votes) Tashiro
古賀紗理那 4.79% (3,767 votes) Koga why is she so low
黒後愛 4.58% (3,605 votes) Kurogo
井上愛里沙 4.43% (3,487 votes) Arisa Inoue
Maybe if Kubota switches to libero but aside from that I don't see her making it. She's also in her mid-twenties already and my impression of her is that she isn't likely to stick around for very long.