Keegan Cook on Year 1 as Gophers volleyball coach: 'The urgency is really high'

Keegan Cook settled onto the couch in his still unfurnished office at the Bierman Athletic Building on Monday morning, his first year as Gophers volleyball coach bleeding into year two.

He had little time for reflecting, or decorating, the hectic personnel decisions after a season keeping him as busy as the season itself.

So far, none of his players were leaving via the transfer portal.

"No one has said that, yet, which I think in itself is a victory," Cook said. "If it plays out, if we make it through this holiday period without losing anybody, I think it says a lot."

Additions were also possible; his staff was preparing to host a potential transfer this week who could have an immediate impact.

The Gophers won't need a lot of help if their core roster returns, but they will have to replace graduates Kylie Murr and middle blocker Phoebe Awoleye. Their two incoming recruits, Wayzata standouts and twins Stella and Olivia Swenson, are keys to the future just not at those positions.

Other wrinkles are coming: Minnesota will enter a revamped Big Ten with UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington joining to create an 18-team league. The 20-match conference schedule has every team play each other once with three home-and-away matchups.

The schedule for next season was on Cook's mind. Ask him what mistakes he made in his first year as coach and he can't help but look to the grueling nonconference schedule his team played, every opponent an NCAA tournament team. The Gophers started 6-8 before finishing the regular season winning 10 of 14.

"Was it too strong? Quite possibly so," Cook said. "It didn't allow us to build our own side of the net because we were constantly competing with greatness on the other side of the net. That's something I can control and be better about next year."

Because it took so long to get settled, it felt like the Gophers were playing catch-up to other top teams. They couldn't defeat Purdue despite winning the first set. They couldn't push Nebraska to a fifth set in the regular season finale. They figured out how Creighton was attacking them in the second round of the NCAA tournament, but not until a heavyweight third set they lost by a fingertip.

"It took too long for me to find the right lineup, and it took long for us, chemistry aside, to get organized and do what we needed to do and get everybody in the right spot," he said. "We just started our exponential growth later than everybody else. We didn't get to see the peak we would have if we had invested in the right areas earlier."

Cook started the season expecting to play in the second weekend of the tournament for a shot at the Final Four. He fell short.

"I don't seek to escape that at all," he said. "That's what I was hired to do."

But he also rejects judging this season simply on results.

"Even against all the other metrics a coach at this level is evaluated on — internally and externally — the only true measure of success that has any value to me is the tangible development and intangible development of our student-athletes," Cook said. "Both as I see them and as they see themselves."

The message he gave players after the season was to regroup, spend time with friends and family, then keep moving. "It's like a shark," he said. "It's got to keep swimming. And it has to keep eating. Or it dies."

To find different results, the Gophers will need Melani Shaffmaster healthy and setting at her highest level. Taylor Landfair will have to attack and defend for a full season the way she did in conference play. Mckenna Wucherer has to turn the glimpses of dominance she has shown into a reliable all-around game.

Not to mention, can Zeynep Palabiyik start at libero as a sophomore? Can Lydia Grote find an even higher level in her final collegiate season? Can Arica Davis and Calissa Minatee anchor the middle?

Equally important, Cook has to have his team ready from Day 1 and coach what needs coaching.

"The urgency is really high," he said. "If you didn't respond to this season with a real sense of urgency to develop — especially someone like Mel and Taylor and Mckenna, where they're at in their careers — you have to go for it here."