Liberty League

[stlawus]

This board would've been very boring over the years without the opinions poured into thoughts/observations about negative or controversial behavior seen in grainy/shaky livestream recordings.

Go check out the NESCAC thread for prime examples of this, most recently retreading the aftermath of the Middlebury-Amherst elite 8 game from 2023 (or 24).

Yeah, we're going to see different opinions and it can get heated. But self-censoring due to legal concerns... I don't think I've ever heard of someone suing something over their opinion/observations on a message board.

Coordinated and targeted character assassination, sure.

I'm paranoid, so sue me! (heh)  Well in any case, it looked like to me the RIT head coach shoved a UR player.  There was a scuffle after the game ended, so the very charitable reading of the situation was that he was trying to break something up, but to me it looked like he went right after a player not involved in anything and gave him a pretty good shove.  Maybe the UR player said something, but a coach that's been there as long as he has shouldn't be doing that to say the least.

[stlawus]

Extremely cynical game by SLU. Exceptionally poor game plan, which has come to be a typical thing whenever they play on the road at Ithaca which is already a difficult place to play.  Giving up a horrible goal with a 90 seconds left that would have all but solidified their spot in the standings.  The bad habits are creeping back in, and they need to desperately change their tactics on goal kicks and set pieces. When you're playing with a target on your back you cannot put pressure on yourself by giving in to a high press when you play every goal kick short. Well deserved equalizer in the end all things considered, but Ithaca still needs to get wins as 5 draws aren't going to get you a home game.  Ithaca also will lose their top scorer for their next game due to a 5th yellow card picked up today. They played desperate today needing a result and showed their quality, but they have to do that in every game.  Schedule eases up for them a bit, but there are no easy games in the Liberty League.

SLU have exceeded the 10 win threshold for NPI purposes now (ties count as half a win) so now they can start dropping games that do not help their NPI which will be a boost.  But every team is going to be gunning for them like today and they have to make adjustments.

[stlawus]

Rambling to myself a bit here, but been running some numbers on NPI. It sounds extremely obvious but LL tournament is going to prove massive for SLU and Hobart.  Hobart winning it all should lock in a top 8 protected seed.  If SLU doesn't drop a lot of points going forward they will be very close to top 8 if they don't win the LL tournament.  Hard to imagine saying that after last year. A win today would have done more heavy lifting, but ultimately a draw is still a fair result as Ithaca could have scored more.  Just hard not to get greedy as a fan after the season they've had so far! If Ithaca wins 3 more games in the league, they will be hovering above the cut line like they are now, but a bad loss could cost them.  League can definitely get 3 teams in, just have to see how it all turns out.

[kevdog]

Couldn't agree more. Weekday away games are tough and today SLU made it even tougher. They are lucky imo that they came away with a tie. The Bombers should have scored 3 more goals as guys would left unmarked on several situations. SLU really needs to get their CB back as he doesn't only provide physicality and height but also overall calmness back there. Hats off to the Bombers as they appeared to just want it more and it showed