Arizona State Volleyball Head Coach JJ Van Niel
Previews the Rest of Season and Arizona.
On the energy evolving around Sun Devil Volleyball:

“It’s just testament to what we've been doing since I walked in the door. We've had a lot of special players doing really special things. We love the fan support. We want to continue to get more fans out there for sure. All the (national) recognition is great for them. I don't pay attention to the rankings, but I think it's just a testament to how hard these kids have been working and we put a good product out there.”

On the dynamic between the other head coaches at ASU:
“It’s been really fun since I walked in the door. I think the culture with our head coaches is awesome. We have a head coach's (group chat) and we bounce ideas off each other. I've gone to lots of practices. I like watching other coaches to see what they're doing in their spaces. I remember the first day I got here, (former women’s tennis coach) Sheila (McInerney) and (head soccer coach) Graham Winkworth were the first two that came down. I barely settled in my office and they were coming by to say hi, and I think that's just kind of the culture that permeates here. It’s really special because that's not what it's like everywhere, but it can be lonely being a head coach and when you have a nice support group, it makes it really fun. Everyone's been great here.”

On ideas he’s borrowed from other head coaches at ASU:
“The most recent was probably Kenny. I met him at 6:30 in the morning in the spring and spent a whole day with football. Obviously they have a huge roster and a lot of coaches and resources there, but I thought I was pretty organized and always felt like it's been one of my strengths as a coach. I walked out of there going, ‘Man, I'm not even the same zip code,’ because they’ve got everything down. Anytime you go into another sport, when you hear how they do things strategically, it might make something click in your mind. What happens in sports is that people can get stuck saying ‘This is what we do and this is how we do it.’ But, we’re always trying to innovate and do things differently. I think when you watch other teams practice, there'll be little snippets here and there where you'll see something. Kenny was showing me some (film in football) that really got me thinking about a couple of things that I can try to implement, offensively. Anytime you go into other practices and you just look at how they communicate with their team and how they structure practices, it just makes you rethink everything you're doing.”

On what gave him confidence that ASU would be a good fit:
“Every time I would come here, even when they didn't have a lot of fans, it was a rowdy crowd. Desert Financial Arena was uncomfortable to play in and it's loud. Tempe is awesome. Anyone who lives here knows that. It's basically a college town. Everything around here is ASU, it's plastered everywhere. So you've got this really cool school spirit, but you're also in the fifth largest city in the country. I always felt like this was a place that could be good. There's a lot of good volleyball here. It's a big city. I think fans are really important for building a program.”

On first meeting Athletic Director Graham Rossini:
“I’ll tell you a story about Graham which told me everything I need to know about him. When I flew in, Graham didn't just pick me up on the sidewalk. He was waiting there for me as I walked off the plane. People don't do that anymore. It's really rare. Those are the small little things to me. I still remember that from three years ago. It was a whirlwind process. I just had shoulder surgery, so I was in a suit with a sling and I was walking off the plane thinking, ‘Oh man, he literally came here to greet me in person’ Those are the little, special things and attention to detail that told me everything.”

On what made ASU appealing in terms of recruiting:
“Tempe is a fun town, for our dinners and everywhere you go, it's lively, there are students here and it's got a good vibe. I thought this was a cool place and President Crow had come from a hedge fund world. When I grew up, ASU was, and I mean no offense, but it was like where the partiers from my schools went. But he had flipped that, you know, and we don't have to fight that as much in recruiting anymore. You still have it because there's people my age that, you know, they're the parents, and they go type in the 25 party schools in the country and ASU is not even listed. I think Dr. Crow has done a phenomenal job of creating high level programs because volleyball is an academic sport. There's a lot of high academic level kids in there and you want to be able to sell them like and go to Barrett Honors College. There are all the places that they're placing their students, which is a pretty amazing list. Those things go into your recruiting pitch, if you have a high academic kid, I promise you they can be a top academic performer here and still have an unbelievable outcome. I learned over my years as an assistant how important it is to build connectedness in your team. I think sometimes it gets missed because teams get really connected. But then the coaching staff maybe aren't as connected, especially the head coach because we have to do things like this. One of the things that I’ve talked about in the recruiting process that I thought was vital to building a strong culture was not just being connected with each other as a team but connected with the staff, the staff connected to each other and then us connected with the community and the university. As a coach I knew what I wanted to build, but the hardest thing we have to build is our culture, and we only had nine kids and I still to this day I am grateful for each and every one of them because they helped set the standard of what our culture was and I told them at the beginning that it's going to be uncomfortable because I'm going take you guys to lunch or coffee and the only thing we can't talk about is volleyball. If that's not what you're going to be about, then this won't be the place for you, because I think that part is they have to know that the coach is a normal person. I think if you're setting out from the top and everyone else is doing that. I only had nine scholarship kids when I walked in the door, so I had seven open scholarships and in volleyball you can't film, they commit their sophomore year. So we got a couple of transfers, we're filling in the depth where we can, but I thought the cool thing was that we brought in I think five or six kids that year and like the nine had set the tone and so those ones came in and just kept it going. We've had to continue to use the transport until we can start getting bigger in recruiting classes. They've said they like what we do and that's really special. The team has been, I thought with all the transfers, there's going to be drama, that there'd be all this stuff, but this is the most connected group like I've ever been in. That's what you want, you want it when they walk out the door. I think the players are the ones that set that and continue to build that for us and it’s really special.”

On preparing for the NCAA Tournament and building relationships with his players:
“I think the prep for the tournament started with how we built our non-conference (schedule). We built the hardest non-conference schedule I’ve built since I’ve been here. So we played Pitt and Penn State in front of huge crowds right away. We played Texas at their place which is always a sold-out crowd and a hostile environment. So the idea was, ‘hey, can get our kids as uncomfortable as possible’ so that when it comes to tournament time. They’ve already been around it and they’re more comfortable, being uncomfortable because it’s really hard to replicate the stress of the tournament. So that’s kind of that piece of it. In practice we're trying to find ways to put pressure on them. The little things that we try to do is simulating those environments and then our relationship piece is connecting with Noemie (Glover), I think she's really competitive. So one of the best ways to motivate her is to score stuff. Today we were playing a drill and all she was doing was looking at the whiteboard to see what her score was the whole time. And then you got to have your conversations with them and still get them focused on, ‘hey, here are the things that we need you to do.’ And I think she's really has impressed me with how competitive she is about improving what she's trying to get better at, which is not always the case, but she's done a nice job there. I think someone like Colby Neal absolutely sets the bar for that and it's been phenomenal, and she was another transfer that's come in and has improved dramatically compared to where she was, and again, that's what you're trying to build into the culture.”

On having one regular-season loss at home so far:
“It's really big. Volleyball is a sport where home court matters. They've run the analytics on it, and I think as we build our crowd base, it is unbelievable. I mean, when we were playing BYU on Friday,at one point, BYU had a pretty big crowd.They had brought in like a school of kids and they started this BYU chant and the whole rest of the crowd just started screaming ASU over them. And you know those are like fun little moments that the players remember, I remember last year at the UFA game at home, that environment was electric. We had an overscore in the first set that was crazy. From like 24,or whatever it was on and it kept going. I think it was 30-to-28. The whole crowd was standing. The energy was electric, and the team feeds off that. Any fan who doesn't believe in a home-court advantage is crazy. It makes a difference. So the more people we get in there, the better we have at beating that opponent for sure.”

On the message to the fans for the upcoming match against Arizona this week:
“Yes, get out there. We want to break our attendance record. We tried last year, we came up slightly short. We continue to break an attendance record since I've been in here, but we haven't broken that 5000 mark, and I know we can do it, and it's a huge match. That team down south has been playing well. It's a big match for them. It's a big match for us, and they're going to be busing students up. So yeah, we've got to get out there and show them that this is our home court and we own it.”

On shaping a culture similar to football and hockey:
“If you watch our game-changers, our kids off the court, they’re unbelievable teammates and not only are they cheering like crazy, they are genuinely excited for every player on our court but they’re also helping them. Like they come off, a player comes off and they’re telling them what they’re seeing. That’s a huge thing and that was all set from how we started and we’ve built this really fun culture where everyone feels involved, is involved and genuinely loves and appreciates and is cheering for their teammates that are playing. No one’s happy when they’re not playing, like if they say they’re happy, they’re lying and we know that. I think it’s probably the hardest role in sports is to be that awesome teammate that’s totally engaged, cheering for the team, even through you’re not. You don’t have the role that you necessarily want and I think that original group and everyone that’s come in has continued to perpetuate that has really built that and it’s a huge different on why we call them game changers. 

On his card tricks:
“I have this weird side hobby, I started doing back in January which is just doing magic tricks through cards. I found out Kenny (Dillingham) has some card tricks too. So i’ve done a couple of episodes, I think we call them card tricks with JJ. So I had Kenny be on the show and then Kenny did a card trick on me, I went into his office and he recorded so it’ll be fun. I hope all the fans love it.” 

On how he stays ahead of the curve regarding recruiting:
“The portal is not going away. Every program in the country is going to continually use it. But we've already built our ‘27 class. I'm really excited about our 26th class. Not that there's anything wrong with the ‘25 class, but every year since the ‘25 class, we hadn't even competed in the season. So it's really hard to get a ton of kids on the phone. And then we went to the Sweet 16 that year, so we got more interest. Maybe not as many commits as we like, but we got more interest and then last year we had a lot of interest. So I think if you're having success on the court, you're inevitably going to get more people talking to you. As long as you can get the conversation and if we can get someone visiting, I think we can get them. (Noemie) Glover is a great example. She had no interest in ASU. Like we weren't even in the zip code, and I fought to just get in. I said, ‘look, I know we're not even on your list, but just come visit. It's a free official visit. You have nothing to lose. Just come out here.’ Fortunately, she had some people she knew that knew me and spoke highly of me, so that was great. But she came on the visit and was like, ‘oh my God, this place is awesome.’ It was like a done deal after that. You have to get in the conversation first, which is what we started doing. It’ll be a mix going forward. Last year, we graduated I think 8 players, including our whole starting lineup. This year's lineup is a completely new lineup. So you have to use the portal for that because you haven't gotten enough recruits. Eventually it'd be great to not have to really worry about the portal and have four kids every year coming in and you're all set. What I've learned in recruiting in college sports is it's never like that. A kid could quit, retire, transfer for various reasons. You always have to have the flexibility to go in the portal.”

On if the talent in the upcoming classes is the best he’s worked with in his career:
“I feel very confident that we do a good job of developing players. Every kid that's been in here has performed better here than they have at their past places. In my recruiting presentation, sometimes it's a little over the top because it's analytics, but in the first two years here we were one of the top five passing teams in the country. And no one on those rosters had anyone ever considered a good passer. Even this year I thought our passing would be way down and we've been hanging in there pretty well. So development is a pitch, and I think the longer you have someone, if they stick with it, they get ingrained in your culture. Kind of the intensity in the gym, I am a fairly intense coach with high standards. But even one of our players brought this up. They brought it up because they were talking to another player and kind of revisited a conversation. They're like, ‘we have to remember we are lucky that the standards are so high here.’ I've always been that coach where it's like, ‘OK, you hit that level, all right, great, you're done. But now's your next level.’ It's not like, ‘oh, you hit it. OK, we're done.’ You're never done. Which includes us as coaches, and I think my staff does a good job of pushing me and pushing themselves.”