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Messages - blue_jays

#1
Central Region / Re: BB: MWC: Midwest Conference
July 12, 2023, 11:11:28 AM
UChicago pitching ace Drew Bryan is transferring to D1 East Carolina University.
https://twitter.com/DrewBryan18/status/1676927263491739649
#2
Men's soccer / Re: Coaching Carousel
June 07, 2023, 11:49:22 PM
Quote from: Kuiper on June 07, 2023, 06:14:34 PM
Quote from: blue_jays on June 07, 2023, 05:22:26 PM
UChicago is open again, Sitch jumping to D1
https://athletics.uchicago.edu/sports/msoc/2022-23/releases/20230607hu06bg

Wow! Talking about leaving while on top. 

Chicago is still strong and has lots of talent, but this was always going to a challenging year for the coach to replace Griffin and Wada and motivate the players to avoid the post-championship hangover.  it will be interesting to see if they will try to hire a new coach now or just name Mauro interim for the fall season to allow a full search.  He's been an assistant at a variety of stops, but never a head coach in college.

While losing the 2 best defenders in school history will hurt, their replacements (D1 transfer and Gomas) are the best possible scenario. Also people overlook Moonesinghe, but he was outstanding playing alongside those guys and made a huge leap in 2022.
Considering that it's already summer, I'd make Mauro the interim this year and do the coach search after the season. IMO he's top notch, let's see what he can do in the lead chair. UChicago's last 2 hires were internal people (Flinn and Sitch) who know how to recruit to UChicago (one of the toughest schools in the nation to get into). Both were home run hires, because they knew what kind of players they needed to play their possession-based, highly-technical brand of soccer.
#3
Men's soccer / Re: Coaching Carousel
June 07, 2023, 05:22:26 PM
#4
Men's soccer / Re: 2023-24 Schedules
May 31, 2023, 04:02:50 PM
Quote from: Kuiper on May 26, 2023, 05:12:51 PM
University of Chicago released its schedule and they definitely aren't coasting after their national championship.

https://athletics.uchicago.edu/sports/msoc/2023-24/schedule

Starting the season at St. Olaf and at Gustavus Adolphus (in a rematch of last year's NCAA QFs), hosting Wisconsin Eau-Claire a week later, going on the road for games at North Park and Hope, and finally hosting Calvin three days before they start UAA play with Rochester.  We'll know pretty quickly whether their defense has adjusted to the departures of Wada and Gillespie (assuming they aren't staying for a Covid year), although I heard through the grapevine that they have a big time D1 CB grad transfer coming on board.


No surprise on the SOS, UChicago has been aggressively scheduling a top 5-10 slate since the Mike Babst days. They want to be ready for NCAAs even if it means they take some lumps along the way.
Gillespie and Wada are graduating and heading off into the work world, so the next group of guys like Gomas, Moonesinghe and the D1 transfer will be relied upon defensively. What Gillespie and Wada accomplished during their time was pretty remarkable. Playing the toughest teams in the nation year in and year out, the Maroons won 82.3 percent of their games with a defense that recorded more shutouts (36) than goals allowed (35). The team's GAA in that time: 0.64, 0.47, and 0.47.
#5
Quote from: WUPHF on May 18, 2023, 06:07:38 PM
I honestly have no idea why the game would suddenly become no longer a priority for the Maroons, but the rivalry was rather lopsided so that may explain it.

Or maybe they did not like the fact that Washington University ended up in the far better conference.

I also have no idea why Chicago would rather play Concordia or Claremont Mudd Scripps but to each his own.

There are reasons beyond W/L, and a WashU supporter might not like them. But I don't see it changing in the near future.
#6
Quote from: WUPHF on May 08, 2023, 08:13:44 PM
Admittedly, I have no idea why the game was not scheduled this season, but one might assume it was a decision by Chicago as the new coaching staff had no prior connections to the UAA.

I do agree on the everything else you said.

I do hope they get it scheduled again sooner or later.

Doubtful that the UC-WashU game will brought back. With only one non-con game on the schedule, the Maroons are more interested in finding different opponents from other regions, such as CMS or MIT. The WashU game is no longer a priority. Also, that decision was made before the coaching staff change.
#7
Quote from: Gregory Sager on May 08, 2023, 06:16:53 PM
If I was a Wash U fan, I would use this to its fullest advantage on those occasions in other sports in which the Bears will actually play the U of C.

After all, this can easily be spun as a case of the Maroons ducking Wash U on the high-profile stage of the gridiron. Evading your sworn rival like that is fuel for scorn and the heaping of abuse. This could be an unexpected means to ratchet up the rivalry; Wash U fans accusing the Maroons of being too afraid to play them in football anymore, and Chicago fans, required by the iron bonds of conference affiliation in most sports to have to share space with Bears fans in a sporting venue, forced to come up with some sort of riposte to the accusation.

Sometimes the sweetest victory is when your opponent runs away without a fight ... because you get to hold it over his head when you inevitably cross paths the next time.

WashU can spin it however they like, but it won't carry over to taunting in other sports. Does the basketball team really care enough to mention it during their annual games? What does it matter, those athletes aren't on the team and it isn't their problem. They're focused on the game at hand, the football team isn't their concern. And even if it was mentioned, UChicago would just give a shrug.
You can ask Pat Bloom why he ended the baseball series with UChicago after 2017. He won't give the real reason.
#8
Multi-Regional Topics / Re: 2023 NCAA Tournament
March 04, 2023, 12:23:06 AM
Quote from: Ralph Turner on March 03, 2023, 07:49:26 PM
Quote from: Ralph Turner on March 03, 2023, 07:34:05 PM
Quote from: FCGrizzliesGrad on March 03, 2023, 06:43:11 PM
Biggest upset so far today. Lancaster Bible 67 NYU 64
Tied at 61, LBC hit a 3 with less than a minute left, NYU tied it again with 37 seconds left, but LBC hit the game winning 3 with 6 seconds left and NYU couldn't answer.
Is not that the D-3 equivalent of a D-1 Power 5 conference team losing to, for example, the Summit League AQ winner?

Quote from: SpringSt7 on March 03, 2023, 07:38:09 PM
Yes, but there is a big range in seeding amongst Power 5 teams. It would be like Clemson or Northwestern losing, not Kansas or Duke. Not to mention, Oral Roberts in the Summit League is pretty good this year  ;)

Exactly. I wondered if NYU, from the very elite UAA and the sport journalism megahub of New York City, underestimated that tiny Bible college from rural Pennsylvania.

I mean... NYU wasn't some great team. They were .500 in conference and cleaned up in the non-con because that's what they always do. Playing Helen Keller's School For the Blind will get you easy wins, but that's about it. NYU did look much improved this year and had a legit squad of players, unlike the past 5-6 years of teams. But the UAA was overrated this year at the top. It's the deepest the league might have ever been, but the top was very spongy and prone to losing. These current UAA squads don't hold a candle to the power teams of past years in the league.
#9
Seeing Rochester sputter out of the tournament should surprise no one. I know the criteria dictated that they get chosen to the NCAAs, but that team looked mediocre for 5 straight weeks and it showed in the results. SOS isn't everything, and Rochester didn't pass the eye test IMO.
#10
Multi-Regional Topics / Re: Pool C
February 21, 2023, 12:08:36 PM
Quote from: nescac1 on February 21, 2023, 07:58:48 AM
I think it depends on how you define "merit."  By the NCAA's criteria, which is all that matters on selection Sunday, Rochester has (with one more win) clearly done enough to merit a selection.  But will there be teams who are playing better now, and have been playing much better over the course of the last month, that will be left out in favor of Rochester?  Certainly.  Rochester is 4-6 in its last 10 games, with four losses by 14 points or more.  They lost by 16 to UAA last place team UChicago and barely beat UChicago in overtime.  They only have one win by more than four points since January 15.  in sum, for over a month now, they've lost a majority of games, the games they have lost they have tended to lose by a lot, and the games they have won have been generally very close.  Sure, they are in a great league, but it's not the only great league out there.  They just haven't been playing at a tournament-caliber level since the first half of January. 

Is any of this relevant to the NCAA criteria?  Not even one iota - so by the standards of the selection committee, Rochester will be a "deserving" team if they are selected.  Heck, like any Pool C selection, they could even win a game or two in the tourney.
But there is going to be some team that suffered an early hiccup or two way back in in November who has been crushing it for nearly all of the last two months who is going to be left out, and it's a bummer that the criteria doesn't account for improvement over the course of a season in any way at all, in the event that a red-hot team suffers one late stumble in a conference tournament.  (Not saying it's an easy fix!). 

And Greek Tragedy, reasonable minds can differ.  I do think that a team that starts 17-0 and 0-8 should be considered behind a team with a roughly comparable resume than a team that wins its last 17 games.  That's part of the reason league tourneys matter so disproportionately, right, to account for teams that have emerged late in the year!  If other things are roughly equal, I think a tournament selecting the best teams in the country should try to include the teams that are playing the best brand of basketball at the time of the tournament - who have shown improvement over the course of the season and are playing their best hoops in February as opposed to November.  I'd rather coaches have the flexibility to experiment early in the season and have an early loss or two not completely doom them late in the year when maybe the team has made it all come together.

Agreed on all points. Obviously what you've done lately doesn't play into selection criteria. But if Rochester came to the table and there's an equally deserving team they're up against for the last selection, I'm taking the other team. That doesn't mean Rochester wouldn't win a game or two in the NCAAs, basketball is a game of matchups after all. But they've fallen on their face so hard for the last month, I wouldn't select them. You gotta win games, and that's something they haven't been doing, regardless of their RROs and SOS.
#11
Multi-Regional Topics / Re: Pool C
February 21, 2023, 02:04:46 AM
After watching Rochester and Emory play this month, neither team is deserving of an NCAA spot. Emory may scrape in but they don't pass the eye test, especially after going 2-5 in their last 7.
I don't get the infatuation with Rochester at all, they've been flat out bad lately, and how a team finishes should matter. They're 2-4 in their last 6, including a 16-point loss at UChicago. Their 7 losses in the UAA have come by an average of 12.7 points.
#12
Quote from: Gregory Sager on February 17, 2023, 12:56:10 PM
Quote from: iwu70 on February 17, 2023, 10:42:52 AM
Congrats to Bosco on his Cheeseheadland Hall of Fame honor. 

We've been over this before, Mark.

This is Bosco:



This is Bosko:



And this is Bosco On Bosko

#13
UChicago played its best game of the season today, while Rochester is reeling and looked nothing like a nationally-ranked team. The Maroons had been playing close with everyone in the conference and should have won both games last weekend, frankly. Everything came together today and the hosts were in control throughout. Seems like WashU should be favored to win the league.
#14
Quote from: WUPHF on January 29, 2023, 08:36:30 PM
Quote from: blue_jays on January 29, 2023, 07:15:40 PM
UAA looking overrated right now, these top teams don't actually look that impressive. At the turn, UChicago should have beaten Emory and Brandeis and probably Rochester as well. The only team that has looked like a legit top team against the Maroons was WashU. The Maroons are playing pretty well all told, which is why they keep finding themselves going down to the last minute in low-scoring affairs against almost everyone in the league. But I have yet to see a team that I'd be scared of in the postseason. The league has a lot of parity, but no Final 4 contenders.

I am not sure what it means to be overrated in 2022-2023.

The computers all have the UAA as the best league in Division III thanks to the depth (no league comes close top to bottom) but the top is arguably not as high as usual.

I know Rochester was seen as a potential Final Four team but they have faltered even at full strength.

I guess it all comes down to what you are looking for when you evaluate a league.

The UAA parity is why it's rated high, as there are no bad teams and a majority of good-to-very-good teams. But there are no "great" teams in this bunch, and the top contenders I've seen look shaky. The star power is not there either, no dominating players that we're used to seeing (I'd say Spencer Freedman is the best I've seen so far). So I say overrated because just being a balanced league doesn't mean postseason success. The UAA has underperformed in the tournament as of late compared to expectations. Sure, at least 1 team will get to Sweet 16 probably due to the bracket playing to their favor. But I don't see deep runs in the cards.
#15
UAA looking overrated right now, these top teams don't actually look that impressive. At the turn, UChicago should have beaten Emory and Brandeis and probably Rochester as well. The only team that has looked like a legit top team against the Maroons was WashU. The Maroons are playing pretty well all told, which is why they keep finding themselves going down to the last minute in low-scoring affairs against almost everyone in the league. But I have yet to see a team that I'd be scared of in the postseason. The league has a lot of parity, but no Final 4 contenders.