Quote from: SKUD on November 12, 2024, 03:01:58 PM^ not sure I understand? Wesleyan is NOT a top 16.

Am I reading something wrong? 11/10 NPI has them #16.

https://stats.ncaa.org/selection_rankings/nitty_gritties/40157?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Submit

Quote from: FCGrizzliesGrad on November 12, 2024, 02:27:06 AM

Quote from: Ejay on November 11, 2024, 10:40:05 PM

Quote from: rdanie03 on November 11, 2024, 09:14:47 PM

Quote from: FanaticFan458 on November 11, 2024, 09:10:55 PMHow does Cortland, who won the SUNYAC and had several incredible wins get such an unfavorable draw? Messiah and Williams is quite a gauntlet and for me is the toughest pod in the tournament.

I mean, Messiah is ranked 36th in the NPI, which is about what the 22nd ranked team should expect to see in the 1st round. Williams is a bit of a tough second round draw though.

Hmmm, interesting thought, but have you looked at the opponents of other teams ranked oround Cortland?
17 vs 131
18 vs 52
19 vs 60
20 vs 55
21 vs 71
Cortland vs. 36
23 vs 59
24 vs 80
25 vs 75
26 vs 41
27 vs 72

.

I made a bracket on a spreadsheet that has the teams listed with their rank 1-64 based on their NPI rank and how far off they are based on a perfectly seeded bracket. Obviously the seeding won't be perfect due to geographical limitations but it's not too bad.

10 teams are exactly where they should be.
11 teams are 1 seed off
9 teams are 2 seeds off
20 teams are 3-5 seeds off
9 teams are 6-9 seeds off
5 teams are 10+ seeds off (C-M-S is the furthest off. Should be seeded 31 but is in the 48 slot for geographic reasons)

1st round matchup extremes (ranks should add to 65)
55: 37 Otterbein vs 18 Wash & Lee
56: 48 Belhaven @ 8 Trinity
56: 34 Messiah vs 22 Cortland
58: 38 Emory @ 20 Lynchburg
58: 53 Suffolk @ 5 Conn College
59: 31 C-M-S vs 28 Oglethorpe
...
71: 54 St Mary's vs 17 Dickinson
71: 46 WestConn vs 25 Frank & Marsh
71: 44 UW-Superior vs 27 North Park
74: 42 DePauw vs 32 Hope
75: 63 Spalding @ 12 Kenyon
76: 62 Anderson @ 14 Denison
83: 50 Thomas vs 33 Buffalo St

I took a look at that as well but didn't reseed anyone... #1 Middlebury vs. #339 Hunter made me laugh. Reminds me of some of those UEFA qualification matchups. Basically anytime a world power plays San Marino.

Quote from: BTXCru18 on November 06, 2024, 02:38:07 PMI'm sure this might have been mentioned in the NPI or national threads, but with Colorado College having such a  high ranking but no proximity to hardly any school, what will happen to their hosting priority?

FWIW, all but Wesleyan(CT) are hosting 1st/2nd rounds of the top 16 seeds. CC was a convenient coincidence, but makes you think if that was the intention all along. Lynchburg(#20) is the only non top-16 host site.

Quote from: BTXCru18 on November 10, 2024, 03:24:11 PMASC Championship - #2 Hardin-Simmons vs. #4 LeTourneau

LeTu down to 10 men in the 12' for a DOGSO offense. Still 0-0. HSU leading with 4 shots, 2 on frame to LeTu's 3 shots, 0 on frame.

28' Update: HSU take the lead 1-0. Nick Ocasio finishes from about 10 yards out after LeTu fails to clear a cross. Ball falls straight to Ocasio for the first-time finish.

37' Update: HSU extends their lead 2-0. Jakob Fiol rounds the goalkeeper on a long through ball from Jordan Garcia and slots the ball past the lone defender.

75' Update: Still 2-0. HSU leading by a large margin in shots(27-12) and shots on goal(14-4). A lot of Cowboys getting minutes, 8 players off the bench so far.

FINAL: HSU cruises to a 2-0 win in this one, up a man for 78 minutes. They claim their first ASC championship since 2014 and Brad Bankhead's 3rd as a coach and 1st at HSU.

ASC Championship - #2 Hardin-Simmons vs. #4 LeTourneau

LeTu down to 10 men in the 12' for a DOGSO offense. Still 0-0. HSU leading with 4 shots, 2 on frame to LeTu's 3 shots, 0 on frame.

28' Update: HSU take the lead 1-0. Nick Ocasio finishes from about 10 yards out after LeTu fails to clear a cross. Ball falls straight to Ocasio for the first-time finish.

37' Update: HSU extends their lead 2-0. Jakob Fiol rounds the goalkeeper on a long through ball from Jordan Garcia and slots the ball past the lone defender.

HSU field looks great after all the rain, but we'll see how it plays today. Fortunately a sunny day to continue drying it out. Women's final kicking off right now, men at 2 o'clock.

Re: looking ahead to women's 1st & 2nd round host possibility.

Quote from: Kuiper on November 09, 2024, 03:06:18 PMThe grass was definitely torn up yesterday at SaberCats stadium.  Players were slipping and tearing up the grass on Hardin-Simmons' field yesterday and Thursday because of the heavy rain as well, though, so I'm not sure it's much better.  In SoCal, CMS's grass field is in bad shape.  It's probably worse than the Texas fields because I think they use it as their practice field for both teams as well and it's gotten really worn and bumpy with the lack of rain, especially near the goals.  It's hard to maintain grass fields in California and Texas given the vagaries of the weather, but Trinity or Redlands have some of the best.

Of course, if LeTourneau beats Hardin-Simmons, maybe LETU will host for once.  They certainly are committed to their athletics facilities.  In fact, on Thursday, they just announced they have broken ground on a 120,000 square foot Athletic and Human Performance Air Dome to house an indoor track and field facility and other athletics spaces.

IMO, Trinity has to be the favorite to host given their history. The only times in recent memory they didn't host was 2021 when their women had priority and 2022 when they didn't even make the tournament.

Schools have to apply to be a host site, it's not just awarded. In years past, UST hasn't even submitted a bid. Probably would incur some sort of deposit to reserve the venue for the weekend on the off chance they are selected, so I imagine that is the main factor in not bidding.

The ASC live stats and stream had difficulty tonight as well. They use different platforms, but odd nonetheless.

HSU tops ETBU 4-1 to advance to their first ASC championship match since the 2021 season.

Quote from: Kuiper on November 08, 2024, 06:20:18 PMA development to note in the St. Thomas - Colorado College game is that neither Daniel nor Tony Castro is in the starting lineup.  Not sure if they are hurt or they just want to start with a more defensive lineup, but those two account for 19 of the team's 33 goals this year. It would hurt if they were not available.

UPDATE:  Daniel Castro just came in in the 29th minute, so it must have been a tactical decision to start the game more defensively and allow him to use his speed against legs that are a little less fresh than his.

UPDATE:  St. Thomas 1 - Colorado College 0

The Castro sub worked well because he came right on and scored a beautiful free kick over the wall and into the near post to give the Celts the lead.  Only the third goal Colorado College has given up all season in SCAC play.  It resulted from a CC foul outside the box, one of 8 in the first half.  Colorado College has had the more dangerous chances thus far, but hasn't been able to put them away (in part because of strong GK play by St. Thomas) and St. Thomas capitalizes on their first real opportunity.

HALF:  St. Thomas 1 - Colorado College 0

Whether it was to keep Castro fresher so he could pick his spots or for some other reason, UST certainly benefited from bringing him on as an impact sub in the game as he was able to use his speed to menace the defense and his skill to score on the free kick in his 16 minutes in the first half.  Now, Colorado College is in the unfamiliar position of having to chase the game in the second half, which could leave them susceptible to UST's pretty strong counter attack.  I expect CC to come out aggressively to negate that advantage as quickly as possible.  The longer UST has the lead, the more likely they will start to engage in the dark arts to slow down the game and keep the clock moving.  One thing they won't get away with is a ton of hard fouls.  The ref has already handed out three yellows (2 to UST and 1 to CC) in the first half.  Plus, he stopped play to have a conversation with the UST coach at one point and called UST for a simulation offense near the box.  He seems determined to keep control of this one, having already called 9 fouls on each team.

UPDATE:  At the 54 minute mark, the dark arts have begun as the UST GK has appointed himself groundskeeper and is trying to stomp down grass and replace divots before taking goalkicks.  The ref appeared to caution him about delay.

UPDATE:  St. Thomas 2 - Colorado College 0 in the 88th minute

As I surmised, CC left itself open to the counter as it it got more desperate and Daniel Castro and his brother Tony worked it really well with two switches.  Even then, CC had two guys on Daniel Castro, who split them in the box and was taken down in the box for the PK.  Daniel Castro finished the PK for his second goal of the game and this one is just about done. 

Did the SID staff abandon the press box again? Live stats stuck at 65:25.

I'm sure this might have been mentioned in the NPI or national threads, but with Colorado College having such a  high ranking but no proximity to hardly any school, what will happen to their hosting priority?

Quote from: Kuiper on November 04, 2024, 03:58:59 PMASC conference tournament starts tomorrow.  Not as much drama as other conferences since everyone makes the tournament.  Nevertheless, that sets up the opportunity for a team to come out of nowhere and take the ASC automatic bid, and the two teams playing tomorrow would be coming out of absolutely nowhere if they did so.

https://ascsports.org/tournaments/?id=159

Quarterfinals:  Tuesday Nov 5 2 pm central

#4 LeTourneau hosts #5 Howard Payne

During the regular season, LeTourneau beat Howard Payne 4-0 on 9/28 at home and the teams tied 1-1 on 10/17 at Howard Payne.  LeTourneau (4-8-5 and 1-4-3) gets the benefit of hosting this game and should be heavily favored as Howard Payne is on an 18 game winless streak this season (0-14-4 and 0-7-1).  Howard Payne did only lose to Hardin-Simmons 1-0 on Saturday, though, so perhaps they will be full of confidence, if you can draw confidence from a close loss. LeTourneau, by contrast, comes in struggling, having gone winless in the last 8 games and is on a 4 game losing streak.  They have been outscored 17-3 in the last 4 games, so this is definitely a weakened LeTourneau team from the one that beat Austin College and tied Mary Hardin-Baylor and East Texas Baptist.  Realistically, neither team deserves to be in a conference tournament, but the ASC has only five teams, which isn't enough for a full non-conference schedule, so this is a way for them to get some extra games.

 

Changed to 7:30 CST and at a local high school on turf due to weather.

Quote from: Kuiper on October 31, 2024, 11:04:14 PMI only have time to go over one game tonight from the ASC, but it was a humdinger of a game.

Mary Hardin-Baylor 5 - East Texas Baptist 4

To give some context, it was raining and the field was quite wet (although playable).  Plus, the announcers, who I assume were ETBU students, had really thick Texas accents and some colorful sayings.  It was kind of hilarious watching some fast-paced action with some slow-paced talking.

Now, you would assume from the high score that this was a humdinger because of all the goals and the action must have been end-to-end with the teams trading goals.  Yes to the first part, but no to the second.  Mary Hardin-Baylor scored 5 straight goals in the first half, all between the 12th and 39th minutes, scored by five different players.  In the first half, UMHB outshot ETBU 19-7.  Going into halftime up 5-0, you can excuse UMHB's coach and players if they felt pretty comfortable in their lead and were looking forward to a hot shower and a cold beverage after the game. 

Turns out, this was a tale of two halves.  I don't know what the ETBU coach said to his boys at halftime, but I'm guessing it wasn't PG because they came out flying.  East Texas Baptist scored in the 53rd on a PK, 55th, and 62nd minutes and suddenly it was 5-3.  They were pressing constantly, almost scoring on a far post header from a cross that was saved off the line by a UMHB defender before finally scoring a 4th in the 85th on a fantastic shot from outside the box.  Now it was 5-4, and to use a phrase that would probably get you side-eyed looks at best in Marshall, Texas, and maybe worse, it was squeaky bum time.  ETBU had a couple more good scoring opportunities and got off a strong shot that went to the goalkeeper, but that's how it ended.  This game was going to have no effect on the standings or qualification for the ASC tournament (since everyone makes it this year), so ETBU was just playing hard for pride, which was kind of impressive.

Don't think I've ever seen a game where one teams scores 5 goals in the first half and the other team scores 4 in the second half.

Well, geez... glad that 2nd half is over. Exciting game for certain. The Cru officially clinch the top seed and their 4th straight regular season title.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on October 18, 2024, 01:42:00 PMCSO:  thanks for the added detail.  The fact that the conference never publicly announced these changes (or any disciplinary actions) continues to be a great disappointment.

Stuff *happened* but nobody took responsibility or even acknowledged what went on.

I agree there should have been some sort of announcement.

I wonder if this is more in part due to member institutions being largely(if not exclusively) private. Aside from presidents, compensation and employment details are largely kept private. Just a thought.

Quote from: College Soccer Observer on October 18, 2024, 12:15:19 PMRon:  Not sure I agree with your characterization of the response.  The entire St. Thomas coaching staff lost their jobs.  The player who committed the leg breaking tackle did not play again for the rest of the season.  The conference also implemented a number of policies that impact men's soccer this year, such as:

1. A total of 3 yellows to the entire coaching staff combined will result in a 1 game suspension for the head coach (NCAA rule is 5 to a specific individual)
2.  3 yellow cards in conference play to a player equals a suspension (NCAA rule is 5 for the season).

Wasn't aware of the disciplinary changes in the SCAC. I'd add that no UST players were awarded any USC all-region/American honors last season, not even Taty Aleman with 20 goal contributions.