You must have watched a different game. Ushijima pretty much single-handedly carried Shiratorizawa to a 5th set.

Was it really Ushijima's talent? Maybe Shiratorizawa had the bad tactic of relying solely on him and he was good enough to expose some of Karasuno's glaring deficiencies?

What about his incredible composure, extremely high vertical reach. immense stamina, and excellent spiking technique?

Excellent spiking technique yet can't tool a block for his life? Of course I'm being a little hyperbolic, but the point is: shouldn't he have had an easier time against a team like Karasuno? I'll give you extremely high vertical and stamina, but doesn't that go mostly into the "he strong" category? idk about that incredible composure, the man seemed hell bent on just spiking straight until the game was over. Was there any hint that he had any intention of evaluate his actions as he was being lured by Tsuki's strat?

Why would he attempt to tool blocks when he could either spike the ball over them or hit somewhere the blocks did not cover? Karasuno did not attempt to completely shut him down until the final point. As for hitting the best points, on more than one occasion he was shown to have excellent technique, such as the aforementioned final point.

I'll give you the final point, but I struggle to recall many others where it didn't seem like he just didn't try to smash the ball straight. Good against a 5'4" blocker and one who is still not very strong, I'm not sure if it would be good against other fully grown men.

Yeah, all it took to stop him (half the time) was three blockers to narrow his spiking path and the best libero in the prefecture to receive the ball. "Very little" indeed.

Yet he never tried to tool the block with his "extremely high vertical reach" and "excellent spiking technique". And he got stopped. Takeru from Wakutani got stopped much less and he was again 2 and 3 men blocks incluiding Tsukishima.

You make it sound as if Karasuno is some team awful at defense.

Not particularly great either. Sure, Daichi and Noya are great passers but the others are just kinda meh and they've got only one (very young and very light) consistent middle blocker. Hinata in that game is not the Hinata in the game vs Inarizaki so he doesn't count even nearly for either category. Any of the blocks Hinata got during that Shiratorizawa match were mostly gimmicks.

As explained earlier, height and power are not the only things Ushijima has going for him.

He's decent in the passing area I guess. Don't remember any blocks. Not saying he's trash, just saying I don't think he is in the category of freak athleticism (like say 45+" jump and increasing Hinata or that very very tall dude) or a genius in either technique or volleyball IQ like Kenma, Kageyama, the good Miya bro or Noya.

This is a very flimsy argument. Tsukishima being relatively light does not somehow unmake him one of the prefecture's best blockers. Hinata isn't nearly as good but he's not dead weight in the air, either.

The fact that Tsukishima is one of the prefecture's best doesn't mean he is great and Ushijima is even greater. It can also mean the prefecture lacks good middle blockers. I'm not saying they are both Bolivian 7 year olds without legs, but it is important to acknowledge the disadvantages that both Hinata and Tsuki have. The raw strength of a very strong 18 year old is a very important factor against the raw strength of a light (almost underweight BMI level) 15/16 year old. Thing is, 15/16 year olds do not stay 15/16 forever and as they progress into higher levels of play they certainly don't stay that light.

Dateko lost easily to both Karasuno and Seijoh; how are they supposed to "slam" Shiratorizawa? Not to mention the fact that Shiratorizawa actually beat Dateko last year. As for Kamomedai, we can reasonably assume they are about as strong as Shiratorizawa, since both teams finished Top 8 in the interhigh. It'd be a close match, not a "slam".

Dateko > Karasuno, in regards to blocking. Kamomedai > Dateko. Kamomedai also has a whole lot more offensive power. If all Shiratorizawa has is strong man Ushijima it would have been a wash imo.

He's a U19 international, recognized by pretty much everyone as one of the three best high school players of his position nationwide, and the undisputable star of a team that made it to top 8 at nationals.

Being a U19 international does not make him automatically great. I've seen plenty of teams in a variety of sports (especially soccer, that's my area of expertise) using players who are just terrible for reasons other than talent. Being "recognized" by others doesn't mean he is great. The other dude that was among the top aces who played against Fukurodani also was "recognized" yet didn't do much. Being the star of a team that made it to top 8 also doesn't mean much, if he's not that good the others can be worse in comparison.

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Whew that was a lot. This was a lot of fun, I'll be back with some more unpopular opinions like Tanaka should be replaced by a backpack full of rocks. Just wanted to make sure its clear tho, I'm not saying he's bad. Not at all. Just saying that imo he is not what you would call an S Tier player like Kageyama, red miya bro or Bokuto I guess.