2023 NCAA Tournament

[Gray Fox]

The NESCAC should be a top 2 league in division III.  I don't find it particularly noteworthy that it is.  They have inherent recruiting advantages over most of division III.  You still have to win the games, but the ceiling is always going to be higher than 95% of division III.  Same applies to the UAA.   

What advantages?  If you read the football boards, they all claim they can't get good players past admissions.

[stlawus]

That's certainly one way to spin it and not the fact that they are not NCAA tournament eligible and have to fill out rosters of 50+ where it takes more than one talented player to win.

The advantages are pretty obvious.  National recruiting footprint and allure due to the prestige of the institutions.  Being located in the literal back yards of the country's top prep schools exacerbates this dynamic.   This is why I hold programs like Ohio Wesleyan, Kenyon, Oneonta, Cortland etc in the highest regard.  Year in year out these programs field extremely competitive teams despite having regional footprints and no top 10 or 20 academic rankings.  All superb universities, but lack the endowment figures that the NESCACs have which exceed the GDP of island nations.     Again, you still have to win the games, and the NESCACs do that which is to their full credit. It's not like you can just plug anyone in to lead those programs and they'd have success overnight.  I just find it tedious that we have to pretend like this is something not expected.

[College Soccer Observer]

The NESCAC should be a top 2 league in division III.  I don't find it particularly noteworthy that it is.  They have inherent recruiting advantages over most of division III.  You still have to win the games, but the ceiling is always going to be higher than 95% of division III.  Same applies to the UAA.   

The recruiting stuff cuts both ways.  Yes the schools are attractive and academically prestigious.  However, there is an academic standard that they do not deviate from much.  At Middlebury, for example, the women's sports of field hockey, ice hockey, and lacrosse have been dominant.  Part of that is the New England Prep school milieu that they can draw from.  When I asked a couple of men's sports coaches at Midd why the women's teams have been so successful, the response was basically that high school girls are often more academically focused than boys are as HS freshmen.  The girls tend not to have the C's on their transcript that some high school boys wind up with.  For many of the NESCACs, a C on the transcript is a barrier to getting the student admitted.  So yes, the schools are attractive, but they cannot and do not get every single talented athlete admitted to the schools.

[stlawus]

The NESCAC should be a top 2 league in division III.  I don't find it particularly noteworthy that it is.  They have inherent recruiting advantages over most of division III.  You still have to win the games, but the ceiling is always going to be higher than 95% of division III.  Same applies to the UAA.   

The recruiting stuff cuts both ways.  Yes the schools are attractive and academically prestigious.  However, there is an academic standard that they do not deviate from much.  At Middlebury, for example, the women's sports of field hockey, ice hockey, and lacrosse have been dominant.  Part of that is the New England Prep school milieu that they can draw from.  When I asked a couple of men's sports coaches at Midd why the women's teams have been so successful, the response was basically that high school girls are often more academically focused than boys are as HS freshmen.  The girls tend not to have the C's on their transcript that some high school boys wind up with.  For many of the NESCACs, a C on the transcript is a barrier to getting the student admitted.  So yes, the schools are attractive, but they cannot and do not get every single talented athlete admitted to the schools.

The NESCAC soccer teams heavily recruit from the NEPSAC and prep schools around the country.   If you go through their rosters you'll find that most are players that went to rigorous prep schools or highly rated public schools.   This is not unique to the NESCAC, but the recruiting pool for other schools is nowhere near as immense.  Can't get this kid in from Brewster?  Oh well we'll just work on the one from South Kent.  He's going to a rival team? Oh that's fine we'll go after the kid from the Bay Area.   The 2nd tier of schools either have to work extreme recruiting magic or take the leftovers that weren't pursued.

[d4_Pace]

Do we have to wait for D4_pace and Northman to chime in or are we good to move on from the NESCAC fluffing?

I feel sufficiently fluffed! I do find the NESCAC collective outrage entertaining. I root for the other NESCAC teams to lose in the first round as hard as I can.

[flyingdutchman]

Came here to check on thoughts for the eventual winner of this thing.  Think I'll just stick to my instincts based on my limited time here: Nobody Ever Should Challenge Aforementioned Conference.

I haven't watched much of the bottom bracket, but I like Mary Washington and Middlebury up top to make the final 4.  For rounding sake I'll take ONU and Calvin?  And Mary Washington as the 2023 champion.

First and second rounds were very entertaining and saw some great individual and team performances.  Wish I had a couple more monitors (maybe next year.)

While Mary Washington has probably had the best season on paper of all the remaining teams, I just don't think they have what it takes to win a national championship. When November comes, certain teams crumble, and others prevail. While they have all the pieces to win it all, something tells me they won't.

[PaulNewman]

Mary Wash crumbled last year all the way through Amherst and Bowdoin (at Amherst) into the Final Four.

[College Soccer Observer]

Mary Wash crumbled last year all the way through Amherst and Bowdoin (at Amherst) into the Final Four.

You beat me to it!

[PaulNewman]

Mary Wash crumbled last year all the way through Amherst and Bowdoin (at Amherst) into the Final Four.

You beat me to it!

LOL.  Best of luck to you and your son, CSO.  Would love to see Middlebury finish the deal.

I think I'm pulling for Midd, Montclair, St Olaf, and Ohio Northern.

[College Soccer Observer]

One game at a time.  Cortland is very tough.

[Kuiper]

This isn't a full preview of the Occidental @ Amherst Sweet Sixteen game, but since we have all week, I thought I would offer one bit of "it's a small world" color to the game that most people won't know about.  I'm putting it on the tournament thread and the Go WEST thread since the Amherst/NESCAC fans may not look in the Go WEST thread.

This is the first time Occidental and Amherst will ever play in men's soccer, but for a number of people, it will be a reunion.  Max Landa, Amherst's starting goalkeeper, is from Southern California and went to La Canada HS, Class of 2020.  Marcus Chmielewski, Occidental's starting striker also went to La Canada HS Class of 2020, as did Tyler Na-Nakornpanom, Occidental's backup striker, who was two years behind Max and Marcus.  Over their four years, Max and Marcus only lost two games in league and both were first team All-League their senior year, with Marcus named league MVP, while Tyler was an honorable mention that same year.  Here's a link to an article about the team:

https://www.latimes.com/socal/la-canada-valley-sun/sports/story/2020-03-25/la-canada-boys-soccer-standout-chmielewski-earns-league-mvp-honors

In addition, Max and Marcus were club teammates on LA Surf ECNL, which was coached by Rod Lafaurie, LA Surf's Director of Elite Programming and Occidental's head coach. 

I don't think any of them thought they would all reunite on a field in Western Masschusetts, but it should be cool to watch.

[Coach Jeff]

Thanks Kuiper..it is always good to get to know the teams as they move through the tournament.

[FanofNescac]

Jr. Oury Diane (Occidental) is a Conn College transfer. He's familiar with Amherst having played numerous times in his two seasons at Conn

[College Soccer Observer]

I think he is definitely familiar with the environment.  However, the game by game stats reveal that he did not appear in any game against Amherst in the 2021 or 2022 seasons, so he has not played in a game on that field against that opponent.

[Bucket]

This isn't a full preview of the Occidental @ Amherst Sweet Sixteen game, but since we have all week, I thought I would offer one bit of "it's a small world" color to the game that most people won't know about.  I'm putting it on the tournament thread and the Go WEST thread since the Amherst/NESCAC fans may not look in the Go WEST thread.

This is the first time Occidental and Amherst will ever play in men's soccer, but for a number of people, it will be a reunion.  Max Landa, Amherst's starting goalkeeper, is from Southern California and went to La Canada HS, Class of 2020.  Marcus Chmielewski, Occidental's starting striker also went to La Canada HS Class of 2020, as did Tyler Na-Nakornpanom, Occidental's backup striker, who was two years behind Max and Marcus.  Over their four years, Max and Marcus only lost two games in league and both were first team All-League their senior year, with Marcus named league MVP, while Tyler was an honorable mention that same year.  Here's a link to an article about the team:

https://www.latimes.com/socal/la-canada-valley-sun/sports/story/2020-03-25/la-canada-boys-soccer-standout-chmielewski-earns-league-mvp-honors

In addition, Max and Marcus were club teammates on LA Surf ECNL, which was coached by Rod Lafaurie, LA Surf's Director of Elite Programming and Occidental's head coach. 

I don't think any of them thought they would all reunite on a field in Western Masschusetts, but it should be cool to watch.

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.