2014 D3 Season: National Perspective

[TheSoccerGod10]

As stated earlier when the bracket first came out, I find it funny and still hard to believe that Dickinson got in over Lycoming from the Mid-Atlantic. Point proven when Dickinson lost in the first round. That makes them what, winless in their last 6 which is about the past month or more? Glad the committee picked a team based on historical performance and conference rather than streaking, upcoming programs such as Lycoming or John Carroll. Such a shame that they wasted a bid.

[D3soccerwatcher]

Lycoming is a well coached team on the rise.  I'm sure we will see more of them in the future.  And agree there is certainly a case to be made for them to have made it into the dance this year.

[Mr.Right]

Lycoming's SOS .504 is not going to cut it. I think anything under .545 should not be considered for Pool C's. Their first 9 games while maybe helping their confidence certainly killed their SOS. I suppose 1-1 at Geneva is decent I guess? 1-0 over Ursinus is a ok win against a mid to lower level Centennial team.  Their win vs UR is the best win of the season and really is the only way this team cracks the Regional Rankings. Frankly, I do not think they deserved to even be ranked based on their weak schedule. Had they won every game they played and then lost to Messiah twice I could see it even with the same SOS but in reality they are not in a good conference so they need to start challenging themselves out of conference and get out of their comfort zone

[CentennialFan]

Good point Mr. Right about the conference Messiah and Lycoming are in. If Messiah was in a tougher conference, they may not be in the position they are in now.
As far as Muhlenberg goes, watch Centennial player of the year #10 Dotzman. The guy is great with the ball and has a great SOG percentage. Other offensive threat #14. EVERY set piece on the offensive side of the field is dangerous for the other team, including throw ins. #6 Joe Adams can throw it into the box from anywhere, and they have taken full advantage of that this year.
If Tufts can keep the ball from going out of bounds on their end, and minimize the fouls on that side of the field it will help them...
Should be a great game to watch and I am looking forward to it...I have never seen fans like Muhlenberg's either, they get pretty crazy!

[Nutmeg]

Yes, the game should be a battle. Tufts beating a tough Wheaton team on Wheaton's home field in Round 2 should help their confidence on Muhlenbergs turf....

[jknezek]

It's definitely within the upper third of D3 schools. It may even be in the upper quarter.

RE: Muhlenberg's 150 million endowment.

Probably. You'd have to ask someone more knowledgeable than me about endowments. I track a few because my job is in finance and even in D3 you have some serious endowments that dwarf 150 million. There are at least a couple of $1B+ D3 school endowments including at least one NESCAC school and one ODAC school. There are some huge endowments (5B+) in the UAA, but those are different types of schools than Muhlenberg.

There are also a ton of sub 100million endowments and some schools that don't really have a pot to pee in.

[lastguyoffthebench]

As stated earlier when the bracket first came out, I find it funny and still hard to believe that Dickinson got in over Lycoming from the Mid-Atlantic. Point proven when Dickinson lost in the first round. That makes them what, winless in their last 6 which is about the past month or more? Glad the committee picked a team based on historical performance and conference rather than streaking, upcoming programs such as Lycoming or John Carroll. Such a shame that they wasted a bid.

If historical performance were the case, Rutgers-Camden would have gotten in over Lycoming.

Another question...when was the last time two previous years final 4 teams missed the tournament altogether?

2011, when Lynchburg and Bowdoin failed.

Actually three 2010 Final Four teams missed the 2011 tournament.  Lynchburg went 7-9-4, Bowdoin went 4-7-3, and UW-Oshkosh went 10-6-2.  Only Messiah got back to the tournament the next year, and they went one-and-out being upset in the 2nd Round after a first round bye.  So only one of four got back to the tournament, and not a single one made the Sweet 16.  Pretty incredible.

Very interesting, FW.    Just goes to show how difficult it is to sustain a program.   Loras has done a great job and it would be phenomenal to see them get back to the final 4 again considering what they lost this year in terms of graduating class and injuries...  While I'm not so much a fan of the Loras style of play, I am a big fan of how they've built the program and consistently schedule top teams outside of their conference.



Mr. Right's statement about teams under SOS .545 should not be considered for Pool C is exactly how I feel.    He was talking yesterday about the big boys eating up all the at-large bids in D1, and that is the way it should be.   

If D3 had an RPI, teams like Haverford, RPI, and Camden are in the dance without question (power conferences are deserving of more bids).  Camden goes out and plays quality teams every year.  ALWAYS. With that being said, I would be hard pressed to find many teams in the country that played 9 games against teams that were NCAA regionally ranked at one point on another (Brandeis and Chicago come to mind)… I believe there were 4-5 against NCAA ranked teams (obviously once ranked always ranked doesn't apply anymore).   The recent box score of 1-0 vs NYU was similar to that of the Brandeis-NYU game.

Yes, they were 2-5 against NCAA tournaments teams, but take into account that they lost to F&M 1-0, CNU 2-0 (1-0 until 87th min) who are both in Sweet 16, lost to Montclair 2x, and Lynchburg…but beat Newark 2x who advanced to the 2nd round (beat Babson).  I would certainly love to have seen Camden play teams like Covenant and Emory who made the NCAA tournament (teams that also beat Newark).   Maybe we'll see them square off in the near future... 

Camden's out of conference schedule this year: CAC Champ, Centennial Finalist, Centennial Semifinalist/Reg Season Champ, ODAC Champ, ODAC Semifinalist, MAC Freedom Finalist, CSAC Semifinalist, , Landmark Seminfinalist.  No cupcakes on this grid.  The teams that didn't make the playoff had down years: Susquehanna who was in the NCAA the year before AND Swarthmore who typically is a Centennial power. If Swarthmore held off Haverford with less than 5 seconds to go, who knows... maybe Camden gets in because Swat would have been regionally ranked.    Also, they beat Dickinson in preseason.

I assumed they would have a year much like ONU after reaching the title game and losing a core of players for the following year.  The boys in Camden lost 8 seniors (7 starters) from 2013 NCAA Final 4 team…including their GK (AA and GK of year), 3 starting backs (two all conf), DCM, ACM (2x AA), and flank mid…    They started out like shyte this year, but really came together as the season went on.

I know the mentality of their coach… PLAY THE BEST TEAMS AND BEAT THE BEST TEAMS... AND IF YOU DON'T BEAT THEM, YOU DON'T BELONG IN THE DANCE.  Never hide behind a fluffy cupcake schedule because that doesn't make the team the best they can be AND it certainly doesn't prepare them for postseason play.  With that being said, although they didn't make the NCAA this year (3 years prior), the senior class finished 75-14-8 and had 8 NCAA tournament wins…  Camden played 9 of the D3soccer Top 25 in the last 2 seasons.  Compete against the best and chase the best... They will be back, just a matter of when.     

Camden scrimmaged Messiah in 2010 (tied 2-2) when the 2013 senior class were freshman in their 1st game as college players together (Messiah was on the tail end of 3 peat that year)…fitting that when you fast forward 4 years, they played them when it counted in the National Final...the last game of their career...
http://athletics.camden.rutgers.edu/sports/soccer/men/2010/news/082810.html

[KICKIN95]

It's definitely within the upper third of D3 schools. It may even be in the upper quarter.

RE: Muhlenberg's 150 million endowment.

Probably. You'd have to ask someone more knowledgeable than me about endowments. I track a few because my job is in finance and even in D3 you have some serious endowments that dwarf 150 million. There are at least a couple of $1B+ D3 school endowments including at least one NESCAC school and one ODAC school. There are some huge endowments (5B+) in the UAA, but those are different types of schools than Muhlenberg.

There are also a ton of sub 100million endowments and some schools that don't really have a pot to pee in.

This is a breakdown of endowments, but it includes all divisions and universities http://www.nacubo.org/Documents/EndowmentFiles/2013NCSEPublicTablesRespondentsbySizeofEndowmentRevisedJan232014.pdf

[oldonionbag]

It's definitely within the upper third of D3 schools. It may even be in the upper quarter.

RE: Muhlenberg's 150 million endowment.

Probably. You'd have to ask someone more knowledgeable than me about endowments. I track a few because my job is in finance and even in D3 you have some serious endowments that dwarf 150 million. There are at least a couple of $1B+ D3 school endowments including at least one NESCAC school and one ODAC school. There are some huge endowments (5B+) in the UAA, but those are different types of schools than Muhlenberg.

There are also a ton of sub 100million endowments and some schools that don't really have a pot to pee in.

There are actually quite a few NESCAC schools with endowments over $1 billion. Williams, Amherst, Tufts, Bowdoin, and Middlebury all boast endowments upwards of that number.

[Ron Boerger]

This is a breakdown of endowments, but it includes all divisions and universities http://www.nacubo.org/Documents/EndowmentFiles/2013NCSEPublicTablesRespondentsbySizeofEndowmentRevisedJan232014.pdf

The link you really want is this one:
http://www.nacubo.org/Documents/EndowmentFiles/2013NCSEEndowmentMarket%20ValuesRevisedFeb142014.pdf

6> MIT $11 billion
16> Emory $5.8 billion
17> Wash U $5.7 billion
25> Johns Hopkins $3.0 billion
26> Williams $2.0 billion
38> Amherst $1.8 billion
39> Pomona $1.8 billion
44> Univ of Rochester $1.7 billion
46> Case Western $1.7 billion

and plenty more at the top end, plenty at the bottom, too.  FWIW Trinity (TX) is the last school in the billion-dollar club (83rd).

[jknezek]

Thanks guys. I know the endowment info is public, I just didn't feel like finding it so I only went with the top of my head. Either way, Muhlenberg isn't poor or unstable related to its peers. They have just not devoted resources to improving their athletic department web presence.

[chelseafc30]

The All-NCAC teams were released a short while ago. Can someone explain how Amolo (and Glassman for that matter) only make the Honorable mention team? I don't know how the process works with all conference teams but someone messed up BIG time.

http://www.northcoast.org/sports/msoc/All-NCAC/Files/2014_All-NCAC_Men-s_Soccer.pdf

[Ryan Harmanis]

The All-NCAC teams were released a short while ago. Can someone explain how Amolo (and Glassman for that matter) only make the Honorable mention team? I don't know how the process works with all conference teams but someone messed up BIG time.

http://www.northcoast.org/sports/msoc/All-NCAC/Files/2014_All-NCAC_Men-s_Soccer.pdf

My general thoughts/explanation for the results of all-conference:

(1) 10 teams aren't going to vote to put players from only 1-2 teams on the first team. If that were the case, then in most seasons OWU would have 7-8 first teamers, and this year it would split 50-50 between Kenyon and OWU. You get funny results with conference politics. I've seen players who failed to get first-team All-NCAC be the first name for first team All-Great Lakes region.

(2) For the second team, other teams get a lot more recognition because the best teams dominated the first team. Also, I know in some situations coaches "rank" their players for who should be up first. So if Glassman/Amolo were players 7-8 from Kenyon, it's hard to convince Wabash - which beat Kenyon - to put an 8th Kenyon player on a team before a single Wabash player is recognized. This is how you get players that wouldn't even play for Kenyon or OWU getting more recognition.

(3) History and age make a difference. Once you make the first team, you're infinitely more likely to get revoted there. Take Morrison - really weak stats this year, but he's dominated the NCAC in years past so he gets on the first team.

Bottom line, it's just the nature of the beast.

[PaulNewman]

chelseafc, now we know why all eleven NESCAC schools took a pass on him   

Maybe the snub will give him a little extra juice this weekend.

Some of those picks look like lazy choices based on who had made it in past years.  And the lone Kenyon defender who didn't make it on any of the squads may have been the most consistent performer on the Lords' back line.

Kenyon made out fine.  5 on the 1st team and 8 overall, although easily could have been 9 or 10.  Not unlike Serpone in the NESCAC, I have a feeling Brown isn't necessarily a favorite of the other NCAC coaches.

At least they got the DPOY right, thank goodness.

[LetteroftheLaw]

Caught the OTs for Catholic/Muhlenberg, Catholic's forward got in behind off a missed clearance w/ 5 to go in the 1st OT and was 1on1 with the Muhlenberg keeper... took a touch around the keeper, got completely laid out, no call. One of the clearest PKs/biggest missed calls I've seen.

Here is the link to the YouTube video of that foul https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9UC_o0AU-Y (Also an example of the poor quality of Muhlenberg's live feed). Absolutely egregious no call by center official,Matthew Richardson. Fans of college soccer can only hope that he never officiates another competitive collegiate match. Not only did he not have the courage to call the BLATANT PK, but he also had no control over the game in the second half. Like most NCAA games, the match got very intense in the second half with both teams going at one another. Catholic had the slight edge even on the road at a somewhat hostile environment. Having been at that match, I can say the field was not in good shape all weekend and I'm sure it will be worse this weekend, so that's something to watch for. With that being said, I like Tufts 2-0 because I think they will be just as effective as Catholic shutting down Muhlenberg's attack, and once they score a goal things will open up and I see them getting some insurance late in the second half. I like Messiah over Cortland St. (3-1) but I think that too will be a competitive game. I think the short, sloppy field will benefit Cortland St. who may be able to get a scrappy goal off a throw/ set piece. Looking forward to seeing how these games unfold!