Craig Skinner believes playing every team that reached the 2024 Final Four will only make Kentucky better. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky volleyball always plays a demanding preseason schedule and this year is no different with the Cats playing Pittsburgh, Nebraska, Penn State and Louisville, last year’s Final Four teams. However, coach Craig Skinner believes he has a roster that can cope with the scheduling challenges.
“We have players that have played against really good teams last year,” Skinner said. “We have experience returning. There’s inexperience in the setting position and on the right side. But the decision was to schedule tough because we have some great players and have a chance at the end of the year to compete for a national championship.”
Skinner said he had no choice but to be part of these high profile matchups. Kentucky plays Nebraska Sunday in the Broadway Block Party in Nashville on ABC-TV. The Cats play at defending national champion Penn State Sept. 5 on FOX-TV. They play Pittsburgh Sept. 10 in the Shriners Children’s Showdown in Ft. Worth, Texas, on ESPN. Skinner’s team will play at Louisville, runner-up to Penn State in 2024, at the YUM Center Sept. 18 on ESPNU.
“We need to learn about our team. So this schedule is what we typically do but maybe even a little bit tougher with all of the Final Four teams from last year on our schedule,” Skinner said. “But I do not feel like we will get to where we want to go if we don’t play these teams.”
Skinner knows the “most powerful teams” are player driven and he likes his team’s potential to do that.
“I can drag them down the tracks, but it’s not going to be as powerful as if they’re driving the train on their own,” Skinner said. “All of them are recruited into this knowing that this is your program. Wherever you take us is where we’re going to go and they all have to help guide us down the road.
“Our staff will help get us going in the right direction, but you (players) have to drive the bus. I kind of joke in the recruiting process, if they aren’t able to coach their own team when they leave this program, then we failed.”
Former Kentucky men’s basketball coach John Calipari preached that Kentucky was not for everyone. Skinner tells potential recruits the same thing.
“A program like this is not for everybody and that’s okay,” Skinner said. “If you want to play at this level you have got to crave volleyball. If you don’t crave it you probably will not do well at this level because it consumes you.
“Our kids crave volleyball and crave Kentucky. We talk about competing for championships. We have not talked about winning the SEC or national title since the first team meeting we had. We talk about playing in a way worthy of winning. If you are doing that then you have a chance to get victories.”
