2016 NCAA Tournament

[PaulNewman]

Bloots, great job on the Midwest piece.  I can imagine those aren't easy when you aren't previously very familiar with most of the teams.  That Kuplic story should be a full future article!  Would love to hear his story between getting cut and then coming back several years later and what happened in between.

[blooter442]

Thinking forward to tomorrow, I am particularly intrigued by Tufts vs. UMass-Boston. As a previous poster said, it seems that UMB likes to be the villain. With that said, I think Tufts really needs to score first; UMB is certainly capable of imploding, as we've seen, but the fact that they came back from 1-0 down with 10 men and then hung on with 9 suggests that they won't quit. And if they get a head of steam by getting a goal, Tufts could well be in trouble.

Bloots, great job on the Midwest piece.  I can imagine those aren't easy when you aren't previously very familiar with most of the teams.  That Kuplic story should be a full future article!  Would love to hear his story between getting cut and then coming back several years later and what happened in between.

Cheers! I do a fair amount of research to compensate for my lack of inherent knowledge, but that was by far my favorite discovery while researching (and writing) for that piece.

[Mr.Right]

Simmer down please, Mr. Right. Even Mr. Right can be Mr. Wrong sometimes!

Also, Lee Owen is more than capable in net for Amherst. Anyone who disagrees should reference Amherst's NCAA win against St. Lawrence in 2014 when Bull was taken out for the shootout because Owen is such a good shot stopper. He's not as massive or commanding as Bull, but still a very solid goalkeeper.

Owen is average at best and will be the reason Amherst does not win the 2016 NCAA Championship. I will be the first to admit if I am wrong but as I have said before he lacks confidence back there and is a real liability with low dipping shots from even 25-35 yards out. He will "stop" them but coughs up plenty of juicy rebounds that good teams will pounce on. After the 3-0 drubbing Amherst suffered at Tufts, Serpone made one change the next day v Bates. You guessed it he changed GK and started his Frosh in net. Coaches do not just make changes for no reason. I will give him credit for going back to Owen after that which I thought was an odd move but since then he has not really been tested except for the Wesleyan game in which he gave up 2 goals. Conn, Hamilton,Trinity(2x) and Daniel Webster did not put to much pressure on him. He might prove me wrong this weekend and I will admit that if it happens but the pressure is on now going against stronger competition.

[oldonionbag]

Messiah 2 - Calvin  1
Cortland St 0 - F&M  1
Tufts 2 - UMASS Boston 1
Amherst 2  - Brandeis 0
RUN 3 - Oneonta St  1
Trinity(TX) 2 - Kenyon 0
Chicago 2 - Redlands 1
St.Thomas 1 - Benedictine 0

[Soccer is a sport]

Messiah 3 - Calvin 1
F&M 2 - Cortland St. 1
Tufts 2 - UMASS Boston 0
Kenyon 3 - Trinity 2
Amherst 2 - Brandeis 0
RUN 4 - Oneonta St. 2
Chicago 3 - Redlands 1
St. Thomas 3 - Benedictine 2

[Mr.Right]

Of all the Sweet 16 games who do people think the biggest margin of victory will be and who will get it done?

[lastguyoffthebench]

Mr. Right...

o/u on games decided by PKs...  2.5

o/u on games reaching OT...   3.5

[lastguyoffthebench]

Messiah 2 - Calvin  0
Cortland St 0 - F&M  1
Tufts 3 - UMASS Boston 0
Amherst 1  - Brandeis 1 / Brandeis in PKs
RUN 2 - Oneonta St  2 / RUN in PKs
Trinity(TX) 2 - Kenyon 1
Chicago 2 - Redlands 2 / Redlands in PKs
St.Thomas 1 - Benedictine 0

[Mr.Right]

Mr. Right...

o/u on games decided by PKs...  2.5

o/u on games reaching OT...   3.5

PK's-Over
OT-Under

[blooter442]

Of all the Sweet 16 games who do people think the biggest margin of victory will be and who will get it done?

Redlands will hang tough but I think Chicago beats them by two goals. Probably 3-1.

Everyone knows I don't care about karma. Hah!

+K for this.

[Mr.Right]

I think the game that stands out to me that could be the biggest margin of victory would be Tufts defeating UMB, however I have a feeling UMB is going to make it a game and Tufts is not known for scoring a ton of goals.

I also would say he Chicago v Redlands game would be another one to pick for biggest margin but I have not seen Redlands play this year. I just am not expecting the Redlands of 5-10 years ago when they were nasty.

If Messiah scores early and forces Calvin to go at them it is possible they could get a 2-3 goal margin of victory but I really feel that game will be extremely close.


So I am going to go with F&M defeating Cortland St by the biggest margin of victory this weekend.

[PaulNewman]

Less than 4 hours from kickoff at Shoemaker...

I'm expecting Calvin versus Messiah to be a great game.  I don't know if the very similar missions of the schools and types of young men recruited to them adds to the drama or not, but regardless these are two teams that hardly ever lose and should be expecting to win.  The natural pick is Messiah as we are seeing from posters offering predictions, and given how good Messiah has been looking and the home field that makes sense.  However, don't be shocked if Calvin advances.  The key is to still be in the game late (with a full 11 men) so that Messiah starts feeling the pressure of realizing they could lose.  Calvin's centerback duo is as good as any pair in the country.  Groenwald got most of the attention last year and now Vegter this year, but Noyola who has partnered with both them of them is rock-solid.  As I suggested in another post regarding the field size, another key will be how much Messiah can get Calvin spaced out and nobody should be better at attempting to do just that as Messiah.  As someone else alluded to the game may be decided by Messiah's pace on the wings.  I don't have a good feel for how well Calvin's outside backs can handle the Messiah wingers.  Messiah probably has more overall firepower as their offense could come from basically anywhere, but if Calvin can get a goal I would like their chances to grind out the game with a lead.

In the other game, which Cortland will show up?  The squad that lost to Oneonta 3-0 or the one that beat Oneonta (and everyone else) late in the season?  I think F&M will believe they should win this game and I'm gonna guess that they will.

[D3soccerwatcher]

Everyone knows I don't care about karma. Hah!

+K for this.
[/quote]

Hey blooter - your post got a chuckle out of me. Thanks!

[PaulNewman]

RH nailed the Transcontinental.  Well done.

[SoccerFollower]

More of a NESCAC guy so I'll stick with what I know...
Amherst 2 - 0 Brandeis: Amherst at home and on grass is a difficult task, especially for what I see as a Brandeis team that likes to play on the ground and can be easily affected by Amherst's physicality and speed. Amherst definitely the favorite for the title in my mind

Tufts 1 - 2 UMASS Boston: All the people swinging in Tufts' favor have short term memories. When it counts and against teams they are overconfident about (supposed to beat), Tufts loses. Simple as that. UMB loves to play the villain and you can bet they won't be caught thinking about Mr. Wirz or Haverford, they'll be gunning all out to win. Just don't think Tufts has the consistency or mentality to win this game, and if by some miracle they do win this game because UMB is short handed, they'll lose the next one.

Hope Tufts proves me wrong because NESCAC teams advancing further adds legitimacy to the league, but those are just my thoughts.