2015 NCAA TOURNAMENT THREAD

[Christan Shirk]

Just a little "inside baseball" talk here...the way it's listed on their men's soccer schedule has nothing to do with Amherst and everything to do with PrestoSports, their content management system. When you go to schedule a game in Presto, it has all possible opponents listed in their system, and you have to select what they have it labeled as. In this case, it appears Presto themselves haven't made the switch from Oneonta State to SUNY Oneonta. If you look elsewhere on Amherst's men's soccer page, like in the preview they posted for example, they use the SUNY Oneonta terminology.

That's true, however, each website using PrestoSports is able to customize any school name specifically for their website. That said, I don't expect an SID or his/her staff to take the time to utilize this customization feature. We at D3soccer.com have numerous customized names (most from before I was involved) where someone decided to deviate from what the larger network uses. And I know we could customize numerous others to get to a/the more commonly used variation of a school's name (changing Rochester Tech to RIT is on my list for next season as that has been annoying me for years). One reason we would hesitate to make a change is that it creates issues with the archives and naviagting into/through archived previous seasons unless you take a fair amount of time to update the name in numerous locations/files for each archived season. But this is boring for most everyone.  I would be curious to know (and another thread would be the place for it) what names we us on D3soccer.com that our visitors think we should go with another variation.

[PaulNewman]

Let's not lose sight of how the discussion about the Oneonta name came about.  The idea that Oneonta will use how the Amherst website referred to the school as some kind of bulletin board material ranks right up there with last year's most bizarre comment.

[Christan Shirk]

D3soccer.com's third coach's interview has been published.

December 2, 2015
Interview: Ryan Souders, Calvin men's coach
The 4th-year head coach of the Calvin Knights talks to D3soccer.com about
his team's difficult run through the tournament, their incredible team culture, and
their malleable playing style heading into this weekend.
By Ryan Harmanis

[Shooter McGavin]

A couple points I took away from the Serpone interview. In total random order.

1.  He really cares for his players and they work their ass off for him and themselves. That is most definitely a "culture" he changed when he arrived at Amherst. That to me is the biggest difference between Amherst prior to Serpone's arrival and now. They always had talent (2012 is the exception as that was the most talented Amherst side I have ever seen by a wide margin) but the players never had the work rate they do now under Serpone.

2.  He has officially jinxed GK Thomas Bull with the MLS reference. Alot of eyes will be on Bull, can he perform under even more scrutiny? You better believe that will be bulletin board material for Byrne motivating his players to knock a few in the back of the net.

3. A coach using the terms "dude" and "chill", I would need some time to get used to. But hey it is a different era. Rothert looks like he is the same way. Not a negative thing just something I would pick up on.

4. You can bet he got the better of the 2 scouting reports as Haverford's Head Coach is a former Amherst assistant.

5. His evaluation of NPL is very accurate especially what other coaches thought about him when he was getting recruited. He was passed over by some good schools who wish they could have predicted his development as a player. Serpone took a chance and he nailed that one. It happens to every coach at every school as you are not going to always make the right decisions recruiting. NPL reminds me alot of Bowdoin's 2007 graduate all-star Nick Figueiredo. They are different players but they were recruited the same way. Coaches in Nescac and Ivies backed off because they were not sure he was physical enough and Ainscough up at Bowdoin took a chance. He ended up being IMO in 2006 and 2007 one of the best Nescac players the league had. I believe Figueiredo ended up with about 40 goals in his career and had so much skill and composure. He also improved steadily every year( like NPL) and his teammates would look to him if they needed a big goal.

6. He knows his team better than anyone but I just cannot agree with the Orozco analysis. Just is not my cup of tea and personally i think he slows them down when they are attacking but he is a physical force and Oneonta will KNOW when he is in the game.

Didn't read the interviews yet but in reference to the bold section for #3 on your list Mr. Right...how a coach talks shouldn't define whether he/she is a good coach or not? It's just modern day slang that I am sure he picked up from being around other players at his previous schools and current school in Amherst. Also it probably makes him more favorable to the players since he is younger and hip and can relate a little better than a 70 year old coach who is stuck in his ways. I am curious to see the average age of coaches in the final 4 this year. It's gotta be below 40 right? That definitely tells you something. 

[Shooter McGavin]

Final 4 Predictions:

Oneonta 2
Amherst 1

Loras 3
Calvin 1


Oneonta 2
Loras 2


Oneonta in PK's (5-3)

[Mid-Atlantic Fan]

Amherst 1
Oneonta 1

PK's to Amherst 7-6

Loras 1
Calvin0
(2OT)



Amherst 2
Loras 0

Amherst=champs

[lastguyoffthebench]

Amherst 1, Oneonta St 1.   Amherst advances on PKs

Calvin 1, Loras 0.

Amherst 1, Calvin 0.

[lastguyoffthebench]

Haven't looked at the Loras interview yet... Was the 2011 4-0 loss to Calvin mentioned? Has Loras improved that much since then or has Calvin dropped off at all?   I thought the 2011 Oneonta St team was better technically than Calvin, but the Knights buried the chances early on in lieu of a 4-2 win. 

I thought OWU was better than Calvin, but the Knights got it done.  (missed the games vs F&M and Kenyon).   In looking at the box scores, Calvin has been outshot 3 games in a row this tournament:
13-12 OWU:   5 shots on goal, 2 scored.
14-9 F&M:      2 shots on goal, 1 scored.
10-7 Kenyon:  1 shot on goal, 1 scored.

My heart says Oneonta and Loras, but my head says Amherst and Calvin.   

[Ryan Harmanis]

Haven't looked at the Loras interview yet... Was the 2011 4-0 loss to Calvin mentioned? Has Loras improved that much since then or has Calvin dropped off at all?   I thought the 2011 Oneonta St team was better technically than Calvin, but the Knights buried the chances early on in lieu of a 4-2 win. 

I thought OWU was better than Calvin, but the Knights got it done.  (missed the games vs F&M and Kenyon).   In looking at the box scores, Calvin has been outshot 3 games in a row this tournament:
13-12 OWU:   5 shots on goal, 2 scored.
14-9 F&M:      2 shots on goal, 1 scored.
10-7 Kenyon:  1 shot on goal, 1 scored.

My heart says Oneonta and Loras, but my head says Amherst and Calvin.

2011 game wasn't mentioned - Souders (Calvin coach) wasn't there in 2011 and unless they have redshirt seniors nobody from either team would still be around.

Loras interview spoke about the change in style and subbing that didn't really yield results until 2012, but since then it's been three Final Fours in four years.  Calvin had the same dropoff after the coach left, but was very good last year and obviously have been great this year. OWU struggling in the regular season at times both years, plus Calvin's strength of schedule this year, led to unfortunate early matchups.

I thought OWU had Calvin in the first 55-60 minutes and should have been 2-3 goals up, but nobody else has managed to put Calvin's defense on its heels yet. The goalkeeping is really good, the defense is huge, athletic, technical, etc., and they're just very difficult to break down.

Also, with the way Calvin attacks the SOG stat is somewhat misleading. From the 3-4 times I've watched them play, they go through the wingers, who try to beat their man to the endline and "bangoo" (or cut back) a pass for an easy tap-in. So while I agree they haven't created quite as much as you'd expect from a Final Four team, when they do get those opportunities I'm not surprised the goals/SOG ratio is quite high. As an example, the tying goal against OWU was just like that, great cutback and the guy just passed it into the net from 10 yards out.

[firstplaceloser]

I think I already did one, but I'm going to change it. and I may surprise a few of you.

Oneonta State 3 Amherst 2 (1OT) 96th minute

Loras 2 Calvin 2 (pks) loras wins


Loras 2 Oneonta 1 (2OT) header off a corner or set piece

Loras is deep enough to survive the first overtime game, and it gives them a major advantage on Saturday.

I know I'm not the biggest Loras fan but i think I have to give it to them this year

[Christan Shirk]

D3soccer.com's fourth and final coach's interview has been published.

December 3, 2015
Interview: Iain Byrne, Oneonta State men's coach
The 13th-year head coach of the Oneonta State Red Dragons talks to D3soccer.com
about how he's built the program, his team's great defense and exciting style of play,
and the drive to go one step further than 2014.
By Ryan Harmanis

[Dark Knight]

Loras 2 Calvin 2 (pks) loras wins

You do realize Calvin has given up 5 goals all year?  I think if there are PKs the most likely score is 0-0.

Massey says about a 50% chance that Loras will score 0 against Calvin, 32% that they'll score 1, maybe 12% that they'll get 2.

[KICKIN95]

Haven't looked at the Loras interview yet... Was the 2011 4-0 loss to Calvin mentioned? Has Loras improved that much since then or has Calvin dropped off at all?   I thought the 2011 Oneonta St team was better technically than Calvin, but the Knights buried the chances early on in lieu of a 4-2 win. 

I thought OWU was better than Calvin, but the Knights got it done.  (missed the games vs F&M and Kenyon).   In looking at the box scores, Calvin has been outshot 3 games in a row this tournament:
13-12 OWU:   5 shots on goal, 2 scored.
14-9 F&M:      2 shots on goal, 1 scored.
10-7 Kenyon:  1 shot on goal, 1 scored.

My heart says Oneonta and Loras, but my head says Amherst and Calvin.

Ryan was correct, there aren't any players from Calvin's current team that were on that 2011 squad.  I think Johnny Rummelhart is the only player from Loras that is still around after his medical Redshirt last season.  I wouldn't think a match from 5 years ago would have any affect whatsoever on either of these team.
Should be a great one, weather looks like it will cooperate.  I will see whomever is going to be there tomorrow evening. Safe travels to anyone planning on attending.

[firstplaceloser]

Loras 2 Calvin 2 (pks) loras wins

You do realize Calvin has given up 5 goals all year?  I think if there are PKs the most likely score is 0-0.

Massey says about a 50% chance that Loras will score 0 against Calvin, 32% that they'll score 1, maybe 12% that they'll get 2.

just a gut feeling, I know how it feels to play in a final four game and it's tough
not to give up any goals.

[Saint of Old]

Oneonta 2 Amherst 0 In a dog fight that becomes an instant classic.

Calvin 0 Loras 0 PK Calvin

Oneonta 2 Calvin 0

Champion SUNY Oneonta or Oneonta State.

The Boyz wont care once they win.