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UDPride

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  1. Why did the NCAA committee however place far greater emphasis on a smaller portion of the schedule? When comparing apples to apples in the A10, Charlotte fared much worse against the same teams. And despite unbalanced schedules, Dayton played SLU, Charlotte, and Bonnie, so they didn't catch a giant break by avoiding them all like Fordham did. It was a legitimate A10 regular season title. Im not discounting the non-conference, but the committee seems to be discounting the conference entirely. Its as if Charlotte was given a giant mulligan for 2 months of the season. Those early wins were nice, but at the end of the season they couldnt finish better than fifth place in a mediocre soccer league. There's just no way in Hades this league is good enough to send a 5th place team to the NCAAs. Not now. Not ever. You've got to at least HALFWAY show up for the league season. Second or third is even acceptable. Fifth is not acceptable. And if fifth IS acceptable, being sent home in the conference tourney quarterfinals by the 4th place teams is NOT. Dayton has played Akron before but not in 5-6 years. Ohio State will not play Dayton in the regular season. I agree our non-con was atrocious and the slow start (we had defensive assignment issues which were obviously corrected shortly thereafter), didnt help. I would think a committee would look at as many variables that were apples/apples comparisons however when evaluating teams. In a job that lacks so many of those fair comparisons, when you can use that apples/apples comparison, if offers distinct clarity. The league record and head-to-head do just that. And in those variables, Dayton owned Charlotte top to bottom. If Charlotte had so many great wins early on, isnt it even a larger indictment on how far they fell as the season progressed? Their trajectory got worse from beginning to end. Ironcally, heading into the A10 Final, Dayton was ranked in the NSCAA Top-25. The loss to SLU in the Final was like falling off the end of the earth for us.
  2. No doubt. The committee, as always, does very little research and bases it all on the RPI -- which in a sport where you can dominate and lose -- makes very little sense. Case in point, no one can argue with a straight face that Charlotte should have received an at-large bid while Dayton was left home. Charlotte was awarded a bid because of 90 minutes of brilliance against Wake Forest earlier in the year. Everything else they did (the other 90%), apparently did not count. The Niners had a poor last two months of the season -- including a very poor last two weeks. They finished FIFTH in the Atlantic10. Thats FIFTH. With a chance to redeem themselves in the A10 tourney to show they could return to proper form from way back in September, what do they do? The lose in the A10 Quarters to the 4th place team. So their A10 regular season was nothing impressive and their A10 tournament was a total dud. Instead, Dayton won the A10 season outright -- unshared and all to their lonesome. They beat St. Louis in the regular season and shellacked Charlotte 3-0 about three weeks ago. They also showed themselves well in the A10 tourney, reaching the finals as they should have. They also were playing their best soccer of the year unlike Charlotte who was playing their worst. The Flyers had won 14 of 15 matches heading into the A10 Championship game. Dayton's RPI was in the 70s, mostly from a weak non-con and the 0-3-1 start. But after that the rolled. I'm not against anyone making the argument that UD should have stayed home. They were squarely on the fence. But if Dayton stays home, Charlotte MUST stay home. What the committee basically said was: "Your conference means nothing, your postseason conference tourney means nothing, your head-to-head means nothing, and your last 10 games mean nothing. All that matters is if you had a signature non-con win and your RPI says you are as good or better than you really are." Well hell, what's left? That's 80% of your season right there. They can't have it both ways. You can't say the A10 is so abysmal that even the outright season champ and tourney runner-up is not good enough, but at the same time say the FIFTH PLACE team in that same conference IS because the league is so tough. Which is it? If the league is so weak, finishing FIFTH is an atrocity. If the league is that good, finishing FIRST should count even more. It all came down to RPI and nothing else. RPI in soccer is like RPI in a game of blackjack. In most other sports, when you dominate the play, you win comfortably. In soccer, you can dominate for a slew of games and never win one. Its like the committee didnt even crack a book open and do some minor research. Anyways, good luck to SLU and the FIFTH PLACE Charlotte Niners in the NCAA 1st Round.
  3. Question. Do you guys think Dayton is in the NCAAs without winning the final? Currently 14-4-1, outright A10 regular season title, beat SLU and Charlotte in regular season, winners of 14 of last 15 matches, and ranked #21 in the NSCAA. All sounds good on paper, but I dont think they make it without earning the auto bid. RPI is not great (mostly from weak non-con), only 48 teams make it, and the inherent bias from being in the A10. If our RPI wasn't so suspect, Id like our chances since we did win the league to ourselves, and we're HOT HOT HOT over the last 2 months. Committee seems to just look at the RPI ranking and pick em'. No real research and due diligence involved. What will be interesting is will they take Charlotte. Yeah, Charlotte beat Wake, but look at what they've done since. They finished FIFTH in the conference and didn't even make the finals. Their RPI is VERY strong however. So the question is, who better deserves to go? I dont think you could make a strong case for Charlotte over Dayton when Dayton beat them 3-0 head to head and finished four spots ahead of them in the A10 regular season -- let alone going further in the A10 Tourney. Plus UD has been on fire for 2 months and Charlotte has basically spit the bit in the last 3 weeks. I think SLU probably needs to get the auto bid.
  4. It was one of those situations where the referee had two clear cut options: let the advantage play and not bring the ball back if the challenge fizzles because it was directly inside the box toward the near post and whatever happened was going to have to stand, or not take the chance and call the PK. The referee really had no middle ground to let it ride out and make a more studied call were it somewhere in the midfield. It happened so fast at a spot on the field where a decision one way or the other had to be made in a split second. Basically UD played a through ball to the left near post to a guy making a run inside the box. The UD attacker took the ball directly on goal and was about 10 yards out at the left post with only the keeper to beat and a defender behind him. With his last dribble touch, he pushed the ball maybe 2-3 yards out in front of him. With the ball no longer directly on his foot, an SLU defender chopped him down with a leg in front of his stride. The SLU keeper was not going to get the ball. The UD guy was either going to get it put a point blank shot on goal that was likely going to find the net or it was going to roll past the endline. From my vantage point, Obviously the referee decided the defender impeded a chance good enough to award a PK. The UD player WAS going straight at the near post from 10yds out, so its not like he was running away or at a goofy angle. I called it a "somewhat favorable" call because I've seen fouls in the box that were 10x worse and not called and some that were 10x softer with a guy with his back to the goal at the corner of the 18 and the zebra points to the PK hash. You just never know with these clowns. I consider any PK favorable. It really could have gone either way. The SLU coach didnt get tossed right after the call. I think UD cashed in on the PK and Donigan lost his wad and either kicked or threw something against the plexiglass bubble the teams sit inside and if you've ever heard those get wacked or punched it sounds like a lightning crack. So he was going pretty ape on the sideline as the teams were returning for the re-start and that's what did him in. The thing that got SLU was the through ball really caught them off guard and the defender was in a spot where he had to do something rather significant. He couldnt take the chance the UD guy wouldnt get to his last dribble. The Flyers set-up on that sequence was very good. Dayton manufactured the circumstances to get a PK call so it wasn't a matter of the call coming from left field. The Bills were caught very flat-footed on the sequence and I think if they had held their shape a bit better and challenged from a better angle, they would have gotten the benefit of the doubt rather than UD. That as much as anything probably led to the whistle.
  5. If I understand the current standings, UD men earned the #1 seed tonight with the 4-0 win over Xavier, no matter how they do against Bonnie (make-up snow game). In watching UD/SLU last weekend, I thought the teams were evenly matched. There is so much parity in men's college soccer (unlike women's). Recruiting rankings aren't worth the paper they are printed on. Dayton clobbered UMass in the field of play 2-3 seasons ago in the A10 tourney but lost in PKs. It was a freight train kind of domination. UMass ends up going to the College Cup. Watching UD beat XU 4-0 tonight, even two-win Xavier had some decent skills. The difference between a 14-3-3 team and a 8-9-3 team is razor thin anymore. All in the subtle details. Xavier was up 2-0 on Charlotte a few days ago. Very few upsets in men's soccer anymore. The old days of dominating the game like you did are over just like UCLA basketball or any other team will never win 10 titles in 11 seasons. Winning in soccer has as much to do with chemistry and work ethic and coaching as it does raw talent. On the women's side, raw talent is usually enough. The one thing you do have going for you is tradition and facilities. Those are tangible items you can sell over other programs. Id like to see Dayton turn their complex into a full-fledged stadium with dedicated seating and press facilities. Surprised by the UD/SLU women's score. We have a killer defense but can struggle mightily offensively. I think we're in the NCAAs tho no matter what happens in the final. Ive seen every UD mens and women soccer home game since 1999 except 3. I can appreciate your interest in the game. A10 is not a bad conference. We just need Richmond and URI to get back to where they were 7-8 years ago. UD, SLU, Charlotte are decent every year. UMass can be. Duquesne was a couple years ago.
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