Men's Soccer - Did we make the tourney? (nm)

[Box and Won]

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[DeSmetBilliken]

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[aj_arete]

and it's for the same reason mid-major teams with sterling conference records didn't make it in college basketball. You need to BOTH schedule challenging teams and beat a few of them. I think it was the right decision.

College soccer experts, how many teams make the tournament each year?

[aj_arete]

They've been ranked #1 or #2 most of the year and only HAVE 1 loss, but still only got a #9 seed.

[SLUBALLS]

I wonder what the soccer gods at SLU are thinking now that we haven't made the tourney two years in a row now? I want to say the tourney includes 48 teams but something tells me that was expanded recently.

[gister]

It is 48 teams.

[TheA_Bomb]

I'm dissappointed, Soccer was the one sport we dominated in now we haven't made the tourney 2 years in a row! We've had some early exits since 98 (I believe that was the year) final 4 run. Yes I know that we have lost great players early to the Pros but that is part of it. You got to account for that type of thing. tsuegnekillib said that players win not systems, I disagree it is a combination of both. I hope our young team can pull it together next year and bring back the dominance.

[slufanskip]

We will be ok ... we need to fill in a few holes, but we still have some good players. Hopefully Grazier will be back. I understand from SLUBALLS we have a big time forward coming from one of the STL schools. We don't lose much and hopefully having Disbennet back next year will be a big help.

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[courtside]

Well,

As I said, nothing surprises me in NCAA soccer. I have glanced at the brackets a few times, and sure there are places where SLU couple and should have gotten in over some others. People on here know I am pretty objective and am in no way a sour grapes person when it comes to this. Those are just facts.

With that said, SLU certainly didn't help their own cause. Hosting the conference tourney and having to go to pk's twice against solid but nothing special teams wasn't a strong result. I will be the first person to say upsets occur all the time in conference tourneys just like other sports.

Is it too late to not join the A-10? Maybe SLU can play soccer in another conference? If you win a share of your reg season title(and techincally beating the other two, you win it), and losing in pk's in your conference tourney title game,...and you can't get in? This of course was the concern going into the A-10.

And yes as I stressed pre-season, the early non-conference games are everything...SLU had 4-5 big ones early in back to back weekends....I guarantee you, if they beat ND instead of losing in 2 ot...ND is out and SLU is in, or they both are in...that is just one example...

Pre-season, SLU was not ranked, with some of it having to do with last year's season. So it was imperative to get results early on. SLU hammered SMU at a time when everybody else did. They did tie IU 1-1 a good result, but losing to Tulsa and ND hurt them. Tulsa and ND faded. Speaking of SMU, goes to show you how much more the NCAA thinks of the new C-USA than the A-10. I also think the NCAA was looking for SLU to dominate the A-10, and they had to fight and scratch in most A-10 games, and this was somewhat surprising.

Realistically they could or should have gotten in, and played either a play in game, winning and losing to a top ranked fie second round, or losing first round. It wasn't as if they were going far, but you never know once you get in.

As for the recruit mentioned...are you talking about the Holmes kid from Priory? Nice story for Priory, winning state small schools undefeated, etc...I know some sour grapes folks cried they played a soft schedule.(this means they didn't play any large school powers and take their lumps like a Trinity does, etc...) but they won every game they played, first school in MO soccer history at any level. Holmes finished with 43 goals. The positive is he has played recently with Scott Gallagher the past few years...the negative..his high school competition was not top notch, ....their coach seemed even surprised at how much he improved his senior year...prior to that ...he was looking at Loyal Chi, UIC, etc...not exactly strong soccer schools. He verbaled to SLU last week. You may be talking of someone else I hope. To be honest I am just uncertain if he can play at the big time D-1 level. Maybe he can...I'll have to talk with some old Gallagher friends and see what is up with him. ..at least it's a forward...lol. It is a solid commitment, but I wouldn't even begin to expect results from him until junior year. It would be a pleasant surprise to get more than that.

Oh, btw ...last year's MO plyer of the year, couldn't even start most of the season at non NCAA team Stanford, although played a lot. What I am saying is there are hits and misses everywhere, and very few kids can come in and make an immediate impact. SLU didn't have any this year, Dado and Sweetin included.