It's the time of year again; my thoughts on the North 2017 Season.

Overall, I think the North region will be down w/exceptions to St. Thomas and Whitewater.

IIAC: Dubuque, Luther, Loras, and Simpson will be a four way race to win their conference. Loras looks down after losing a solid senior class. Should be a wide open race.

MIAC: St.Thomas, Macalaster, who knows? This is always a fight much like the new IIAC.


Midwest Conference: Knox or Norberts - Norbs was just beat by Chicago 7-1.

Non-Conference: UWW + Platteville.

Top Teams to watch this year:

St. Thomas - have to respect last year's run
UWW - Lost quality seniors, but picked up a great recruiting class. Probably gained more than lost. Believe this is their year to finally make a push in the national tournament. Guinn is starting to build a reputation of reviving players careers.
Loras - Rothert always finds a way. Although I do think this year will be a rebuilding year.
Luther, Dubuque, Simpson - 1 or 2 of these teams will take over the IIAC.
Platteville - They return their goal scorer, but will be over-shadowed by their big brother, Whitewater.
Knox will win the Midwest.

Honestly, the committee may have seen a Loras-Chicago second round match up as being unfair to Chicago...

Loras always seems to get the better of Chicago, regardless of how great of a Chicago team that is.

I mean seriously, you have Chicago as undefeated and you give them a team that was just in the national title the year before and whose style of play really benefits against a possession style of Chicago.

St. Thomas is the lone survivor of the North.

What does this say to you?

Was the North having a down year, relative to years past?

A visit to the optometrist 

I just don't see an experienced Loras team, coached by Rothert, losing to a Westminster side. No offense to Westminster, but they wouldn't place even top 5 in the IIAC (a 3-0 loss to Simpson proves my point).

I understand Dubuque received a red, but I don't recall a Rothert coached side every receiving a red during national tournament play (and we all know there have been a lot of games for them).

Plus, I would have loved a Loras - Chicago match-up!!!!

Quote from: KICKIN95 on November 12, 2016, 09:39:31 PM
Nice pick by the committee to UD instead of Loras. 1st round exit to a mediocre at best Westminster side.  Glad to see the Norse representing the IIAC well with a W over a solid St Norbert side.

Somebody had to say it!!

Stanko starts up top, scores a quick goal off a long throw at forward.  Very smart decision, need his ability to score goals but don't mess with a back-line that is doing a great job.

UWW 1 - Hanover 0

As a ref in that situation (talking about Carthage), you just can't call that! He didn't get mugged, there was no saving the ball of the end-line with a hand, no punches thrown...  That was a mediocre foul, if that, in the center of the field. But to call a PK in double overtime in the national tournament.. wowzers!

But with that said, Benedictine missed a breakaway prior to that in the first overtime.

I think if UWW makes it through their match against Hanover, I think they may be viewing this game as being very winnable.

Hanover and UWW may be a sleeper game if UWW doesn't show up! Stanko UWW's 6'6/6'7 center back is back in action... Should point to mention, he was out for a majority of the remainder of UWW's season (where they finished with a 9 game unbeaten streak).

CSS shooting themselves in the feet.

Gave up a goal with 3 minutes left, just picked up a red card with 1 second left.   

If you are keeping track at home, that's 3 red cards in 2 games for Scholastica...

St. Thomas just hit a PK off the post... still down 0-1!

St. Thomas is down 0-1 to Scholastica! Can CSS hold on for the major upset?!

But my question is, having a worse RvR than an other team really a bad thing? So what we are saying is that you lose to more 'good' teams than another team....

Loras' losses: Norbs, at Carthage, at Dubuque, at UWW and Luther (in the conference championship)      All national tournament teams!

Dubuque's losses: at North Park, Simpson, Wartburg, Platteville, Luther.                 1 National tournament team!


So one head-to-head game on the road with a won goal loss decides a teams fate; meanwhile you have a better SOS (by far), you at least made it to your conference championship, your only losses came to teams in the national tournament, oh and you were in the national championship before (which obviously isn't criteria that you should base your assumptions off of, but still)

Dubuque vs Westminster-   3-1 Dubuque, Westminster capitalizes on a very weak conference and may be one of the weakest teams in the tournament.

UWW and Hanover- Don't know much about Hanover due to them not playing in either the North or Central. They did smack Carthage 4-1 at the beginning of the year and won their conference. UWW did align with Rose-Hulman last year and won in PK's. I'm expecting a similar game. Surprised UWW was given this tough off a test with how high they were ranked. 2-1 UWW

St. Thomas and St. Scholastica- St. Thomas will win easily 2-0. I think Scholastica is highly overrated and St. Thomas has a tremendous defense.

Luther and Norberts- I think Luther should steal this one pretty handily. 3-0 Luther.

Blind Resume time according to 11/2 regional rankings: 

Team 1
SOS: .581
Vs Ranked opponents: 2-4-0
Winning Percentage: .750

Team 2
SOS: .565
Vs Ranked opponents: 1-2-1
Winning Percentage: .684

Team 3
SOS: .536
Vs Ranked Opponents: 1-2-0
Winning Percentage: .765

Team 4
SOS: .524
VS Ranked Opponents: 0-2-2
Winning Percentage: .794

Team 5
SOS: .575
VS Ranked Opponents: 2-2-0
Winning Percentage: .625

You have Loras, You have Macalester, You can even make a case for Dominican out of the Central....

But then you take a Dubuque team who has a Subpar SOS, 1 Regional win... and didn't even reach their conference championship....

DUBUQUE OVER LORAS!!!!! 

That's a Christmas present if I have ever seen one!