Volleyball | Huskies coach a man with plan

Sitting next to Jim McLaughlin, her coach of the past four years, Courtney Thompson reflected on a question after her final home match with the Washington volleyball team: What memories will she cherish most?

"I've been so fortunate to have the career I've had, the teammates that I have," Thompson said.

And her coaches? "The coaches are all right," she deadpanned.

Everyone in the room cracked up, McLaughlin included.

Jim McLaughlin — a Malibu, Calif., native who spent his teen years surfing almost daily and who on occasion still addresses people as "dude" — can take a joke.

McLaughlin has proven he can also take a group of volleyball players to unexpected heights, which explains why he and the third-ranked Huskies (29-4) are in Omaha, Neb., to play No. 2 Stanford (29-3) at 6:30 p.m. (PST) in the Final Four semifinals.

The three-time Pac-10 coach of the year and 2004 NCAA coach of the year is a masterful strategist who embraces innovative, sometimes unconventional approaches to the game, some of them rooted in slide-rule math. McLaughlin is guiding a once-moribund UW program, which finished last in the Pac-10 the year before he arrived, to its third straight Final Four.

Washington is just the 13th school in 26 years of NCAA women's tournaments to string together three consecutive Final Four appearances.

How does he do it?

Through attention to every detail and purposeful repetition. The goal: Endlessly aspire to improve in all areas — whether it's timing a jump or something as minuscule as aligning thumbs for a pass — until a state of near-perfection becomes a habitual act.

Players have grown to appreciate that the low-key McLaughlin, who frequently speaks in bromides — "There are no little things," for example — moves in not-so-mysterious ways.

Last Friday it was junior outside hitter Stevie Mussie sitting next to McLaughlin for post-match interviews after the Huskies had dismantled Ohio State 3-0 in a regional semifinal.

Washington's chief advantage? "Our scouting report was right on," Mussie said, giving McLaughlin's leg a tap with the back of her hand. "I really didn't have to do much. I just had to follow the game plan. They went right to their tendencies, so it made it that much easier."

How about playing at home? How did that affect the outcome? Mussie redirected the question. "I just can't emphasize enough the game plan," she said. "Our team was totally in sync. Our game plan was perfect."

McLaughlin and his staff — assistants Leslie Tuiasosopo and Jose Gandara, plus technical advisor Tom "Laptop" Murphy — spend hours breaking down film and charting tendencies to expose exploitable flaws in opponents. They operate like a CSI: Seattle team, where no imperfection is considered too minute to consider.

McLaughlin crunches many numbers and downloads them into a game plan that emphasizes a component he regards as volleyball's most vital element — the serve-and-receive game, the lifeblood of the all-important kill.

"You have to kill the ball," McLaughlin said. "That's the No. 1 coefficient in the game. But serving and passing have dramatic effect on your ability to kill effectively."

McLaughlin launches into a dissertation on productive and counterproductive actions and a host of other analytical data points that can cause a casual fan's eyes to glaze over.

McLaughlin prizes a study paper he owns that was commissioned by his primary mentor, former U.S. Olympic coach Carl McGown.

"Only four people have a copy," he said almost conspiratorially. It contains, McLaughlin said, biostatistics and math-intensive analysis of every facet of the game.

Arcane academia to most people (including too many coaches, McLaughlin says) but a source of revelation and enlightenment to a McGown acolyte such as himself.

"It's better than 'The DaVinci Code,' " he said with a laugh.

"They're not playing with theory," McLaughlin said of the paper's doctorate-level presenters. "The numbers do not lie. They show you, 'Here are the situations, here are the answers.' They answered questions with facts, with math. It's nonfiction."

After McLaughlin and Co. studied Ohio State for Saturday's NCAA regional semifinal, UW servers were directed to pepper the Buckeyes' libero all night. The aftermath: Washington held Ohio State (with 29 errors to UW's 10) to a hitting percentage of .043, the fifth-worst total posted by an opponent this season.

Last year, facing taller, higher-ranked Nebraska in the NCAA championship match, UW opened Game 1 targeting 6-foot-5 Sarah Pavan with serves. She shanked the first one; the second led to a Washington kill. So rattled was Nebraska that coach John Cook called a timeout with the score 2-0.

Washington went on to win the match 3-0, becoming the first team to sweep six NCAA tournament foes in a 64-team format.

And they're in Omaha today, aiming at a second straight title. Like last year, the Huskies are not the favorite, but if there's a secret weapon at this Final Four, it's that swirl of data spinning inside McLaughlin's cranium.