2023 D3 Men's Soccer National Perspective

[Newenglander]

Oh, I wasn't comparing it to the Oxford campis, which barely recruits! I was comparing it to many of the NESCACs and similar schools.

I do think work ethic in recruiting is a differentiator.

When I was involved in the US Development Academy club system, i would go to all the DA national events and would always see Serpone (Amherst head coach), Josh Shapiro (former Tufts head coach) and a bunch of other schools assistants.

In MLS Next national events, you will almost always see Serpone (Amherst) and Reuben Burk (Conn College) if their teams aren't playing.  Lots of coaches will come to one event a year, either one closer to their area or the summer event.  For example, Chris Apple from Rochester and Carter Poe from CWRU) are usually at the summer event.  There are some new head coaches who have been visible recently as well at multiple events - Edward Cartee (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps) and Kevin Brenner (Haverford).  Rod Lafaurie (Occidental) is at a lot of events too, but he coaches an MLS Next team.  Many other D3s are represented, but often by assistants rather than head coaches, and some skip it altogether and still recruit by video primarily and at local events.  I would say that Serpone and Burk are the most tireless among head coaches on the national recruiting circuit.  They are at MLS Next, ECNL, big tournaments at all levels etc.  They are often in on kids that have both D1 and D3 interest.

Add Coach Poe from Case Western to that list - he's at every one himself as well.

[College Soccer Observer]

small quibble with 2021.  It was 4 in Elite 8, as Amherst beat Midd and Conn beat Tufts to advance to final four.

[PaulNewman]

small quibble with 2021.  It was 4 in Elite 8, as Amherst beat Midd and Conn beat Tufts to advance to final four.

My bad...and a good save by a AA GK's Dad!

There certainly could be a couple of other errors, but what's weird is that 2021 was the only bracket I couldn't pull off the D3soccer.com site.

[coach analytics]

Sorry for the NESCAC only content but certainly relevant for the tournament discussion.


Big time Players

Big time players step it up in big time games.  The NESCAC is blessed with a lot of big time players.  I have looked at how the front four/top four scorers for each of the remaining teams have stepped up and produced in big time games.  I looked at the number of goals (not including the 12 yard charity stripe) and assists each player has produced in the big moments of the season - conference games, conference playoffs and NCAA games.

Middlebury has shown the most production, not surprising since they have set a program record for goals (maybe that was the motivation behind the early season blowouts where starters racked up big numbers).  My analysis also highlights that Conn has struggled a bit to produce against big time competition, although in fairness they had the toughest first weekend of NCAA games.

Here is the data (the first number is conference regular season, second number is conference and NCAA playoff production)

Middlebury
JSL 4 plus 4 = 8
Payne 4 plus 2 = 6
Randolph 6 plus 2  = 8
Nillson 6 plus 2 = 8

Tufts
Traynor- 5 plus 2 = 7
Feigin - 5 plus 1 = 6
Brady - 6 plus 1 = 7
Yanez - 2 plus 3 = 5

Amherst
Nuhu 4 plus 3 = 7
Ada 4 plus 0 = 4
Cubbedu 6 plus 0(hurt) = 6
Sung 5 plus 2 = 7

Conn
Creus 6 plus 1 =7
Scaffone 4 plus 0= 4
Spatz  3 plus 0 = 3
Pilson  3 plus 0 = 3

[Hopkins92]

Nice write-up... thanks. A quibble/question... This time of year, converting a PK is a MASSIVE amount of pressure on the kicker. I've said this many times, as a former goalie, I really didn't feel the pressure and put all of that energy on the kicker. Most goalies think this way. That's a time where I can actually "win" a game under the full spotlight.

[Another Mom]

A different son of mine was a GK and that's exactly what he said as well.

[coach analytics]

Nice write-up... thanks. A quibble/question... This time of year, converting a PK is a MASSIVE amount of pressure on the kicker. I've said this many times, as a former goalie, I really didn't feel the pressure and put all of that energy on the kicker. Most goalies think this way. That's a time where I can actually "win" a game under the full spotlight.

Definitely a fair perspective, I took out the PKs from conference games (it skews production massively) but not from playoff games.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Yes, definitely need to figure in GK.  Just counted and 9 games in the first 2 rounds were decided by pks or close to 19% of all games it was factor so far. That is a pretty big deal in sport with few statistics.  Son dealt with several pk shootouts throughout his time and the pressure is always, always on the pk taker on both teams. 192 square feet to put the ball in from 11m away. If on a good team, a keeper should only have to worry about saving one pk a shootout.  Coaches also make some bad decisions in pk shootouts.

[Freddyfud]

Can you guess the player's names/teams based on ca formula for BTPs above?

? plus 4 = 4 *
5 plus 4 = 9 **
15 plus 8 = 23

* team is independent so doesn't have any conference games or a tournament
** based on 4 conference games

[Dustin_Patrón]

Is there any talk around the Midd/Cort and Amherst/Occ games being played on the turf? I don't think the rain will be horrendous, but it doesn't take too much before that grass field turns into a mud slip n slide.

[College Soccer Observer]

Saw on Twitter the other day, so posting here for discussion purposes.
From College Soccer Truth@IMCollege Soccer
Top 16 seeds Men's D1 Tournament, percentage of players from outside the US.
1. Marshall 24/29 83%
2. Notre Dame 6/34 18%
3. UNC 9/36 25%
4. Georgetown 0/29 0%
5. WVU 15/29 52%
6. SMU 9/32 28%
7. UVA 8/36 22%
8. UNH 16/33 48%
9. Clemson 11/32 34%
10. WFU 5/33 15%
11. Portland 7/33 21%
12. UCF 20/29 69%
13. UCLA 4/26 15%
14. Hofstra 18/30 60%
15. Duke 6/32 19%
16. Stanford 5/29 17%

Top 16 Seeds 163/502 32%

Remaining NCAA Participants

San Diego 9/35 26%
Cal Baptist 12/27 44%
Missouri State 24/26 92%
Omaha 13/28 46%
Charlotte 10/28 36%
High Point 4/28 14%
Syracuse 15/34 44%
Boston 5/27 19%
Louisville 5/27 19%
Dayton 15/30 50%
Vermont 10/29 34%
Rider 10/29 34%
Loyola Marymount 8/30 27%
UCIrvine 3/28 11%
Pittsburgh 10/28 36%
JMU 9/30 30%
Memphis 13/28 46%
SIUE 12/26 46%
Bryant 20/54 37%
Yale 6/31 19%
Oregon State 13/29 45%
Seattle 15/30 50%
Denver 3/31 10%
Long Island 10/33 30%
FIU 23/27 85%
Mercer 1/29 3%
Indiana 4/32 13%
Lipscomb 12/30 40%
W. Michigan 4/31 13%
UWGB 12/30 40%
Xavier 8/30 27%
Kentucky 9/25 36%

Non Seeded Participants
327/960 34%

Total # of International players participating in 2023 NCAA tourney 490/1462=34%

Georgetown University is the only participant without an international player! Best of luck to all the teams playing.
Stats for D3 Tournament Sweet 16 from @WarriorSoc on Twitter
Montclair St 0/36 0%
Conn College 10/37 27%
Mary Washington 1/33 3%
Washington College 1/33 3%
Amherst College 10/28 36%
Occidental College 2/28 7%
Middlebury College 3/28 11%
Cortland St. 5/34 15%
St. Olaf 6/32 19%
Calvin College 1/28 4%
University of Chicago 3/31 10%
Wisconsin-Eau Claire 0/37 0%
Tufts 1/34 3%
Washington and Lee 3/30 10%
Ohio Northern 0/46 0%
Colorado College 0/29 0%

[SierraFD3soccer]

D2 is even worse. Just posted today. One team has 50% intl, but rosters 62 players. Just crazy and will only have more intl players especially since they are seeing results. 

Question will be, will we see the same trend in D3 over the next few years.  Also I'm guessing that the teams who have over 25% intl players, these players probably get 80%+ of the playing time and they sub far less than D3. That was the case with my son's team where his team was 35-40% intl. He often was 1 of 2 American starters.

Some D3 coaches are starting to sprinkle in intl players. I don't have an issue, but younger kids getting recruited have to know that the field is tilted against their success.  FYI these intl players did not play HS soccer. Pretty much does not exist.

[EnmoreCat]

Amhate I can deal with (sort of), whilst not Austhate specifically, this is another thing entirely.  I view this as at least partially cultural exchange, with benefits for both of our countries.

[Hopkins92]

Some of those D1 numbers are STUNNING. FIU and Marshall... Wow. I wonder how those kids react when the arrive on campus on the middle of freaking nowhere West byGod Virginia??! At least the FIU kids wind up in Miami.

[SierraFD3soccer]

D2 https://twitter.com/ImCollegeSoccer/status/1725492320185860196?t=wqFqYt5cFFVLjG5dMO4uIQ&s=19

D1. https://twitter.com/ImCollegeSoccer/status/1724853223939322330?t=v_0VCmOUPluH6IDllGTBvA&s=19