Well it is certainly positive. If you had seen Kristo at the beginning of the season, you would have had serious questions about him being able to play at this level. Any word on whether Sweetin is red-shirting? McGinty is continually utilizing his freshmen like Hidalgo, Bryce, Lee, and Manning which is good for their experience. I'm tired of hoping but I do hope that we are seeing a foundation built for next year.
any comments... our old coach dd is now 6-1 in the big east after tying louisville on the weekend and now beating stjohns. not bad for a taking over a team that was doing pretty awful when he took over. Now he is doing extremely well in maybe one of the toughest conferences this yea after only 2 years...
I don't have feelings one way or the other about DD, but playing in the A10 is killing SLU's team. KILLING. IT. DD was wise to jump when he did, IMO, and the administration at that school is...well...umm...well...look at the entire department's results last year and finish that sentence for me.
Now lets not go ahead and crown him yet. They have had 2 good results recently but overall haven't played anyone in the big east worth anything. They also have losses to Iona, furman, and marquette on their resume to go along with a tie to Adelphi or something. The record looks good but dig a little deeper. No doubt the move has probably been great for DD. It has probably boosted his morale being in a new place back home. Towards the end at SLU he just gave up in recruiting, coaching, inspiring, and leading. Maybe he has got that back a little bit. But like I said dig a little deeper.
not crowning him, just pointing out some interesting facts...i took a look at that as well, some tough loses in their schedule as well but just maybe peaking at the right time and this is when u want big wins. the committee will look at wins towards the end of the season not at the beginning.....i wouldn't mind if we had a few big wins at this point of the year, tough tho with the a10
game vs dayton tonight. game 7 of the world series tonight. could see an all-time low for attendance at hermann
Well they have Charlotte on Saturday. Pretty much a must win game. 7th in the conference standings right now. Looks like my prediction of A10 Champs was pretty bad.
They're going to need a lot of luck to make the A10 tournament...something they haven't had a lot of this season. Some close games that could have been wins slipped away. A win on Saturday and wins/losses from some other teams is their only hope. As far as your prediction of A10 Champs, it wasn't a bad call. Injuries to Sweetin and Roach throughout the season hurt the offensive depth of the team, although Kristo stepped up the second half...I wish I could say the same for Adnan. It took awhile for MM to figure out the defense, but I think the line-up he is using now is better than the one he had early in the year. Chad should have been at centerback from the start...costly giveaways and mental lapses cost the team several wins...especially the early A10 games. Mags is a good fit at right back. The team is young, very young. It will be a long shot to make the A10 tourney which is extremely disappointing with it being at SLU. But hey, it aint over till the whistle blows. Good luck on Saturday!!!
Stinger, Any insight into why Adnan can't seem to get more regular time on the pitch? He's got a lot of skill, size, etc but he must be missing something fundamental to teh way McGinty wants forwards to play. Is he playing too selfish? Does he not make teh proper runs? Does he not defend well up top? What is the latest on Sweetin? Red-shirting?
Here is your insight, watch him play for 10 minutes. Sure he looks the part and everyone says he is fast but he has no idea how to play the game. Looks lost consistently on the field and is very lazy. It doesn't take a genius to see why he isn't playing.
Ouch, those are some harsh words, but true. Adnan has the physical attributes to be a great soccer player but his mental game is lacking...he does not have "soccer smarts" and his work ethic is terrible. He's had two years to make the adjustment from highschool to Division 1 and it's just not working. Standing around waiting for the ball is not going to help SLU score goals or increase your playing time. McGinty has given him many opportunities to prove himself but he has failed. As for Sweetin red-shirting, I don't know the answer to that question. He is certainly eligible for another year. Does Sweetin want to stay at SLU for a 5th year? Does MM want him for a 5th year? We'll have to wait and see.
Well the final whistle has blown. No A-10 tournament for the Bills. Can anyone say embarrassing? I guess it is time to look to next year. So they finish 6-10-1 and A10 Champs was not a bad call? They were never going to be A-10 champs. There is a saying - "If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, every day would be Christmas." What does it mean on the SLU web site when it says the A-10 conference will announce the brackets. Maybe they still have a chance? The A-10 doesn't want to have a team host the tournament when they are not in it. I am sure they didn't ever think that would happen when giving it to SLU. Since SLU isn't in it - those will be some well attended games.
mostly mediocre We're out. Duquesne and La Salle can secure 5th and 6th place with wins today. Conference ............... W-L-T-Pts. Charlotte... 6-1-2 -20 Fordham.... 6-2-0 -18 George W... 6-2-0 -18 Temple...... 5-3-0 -15 Xavier....... 4-3-2 -14 Duquesne... 4-3-1 -13 Dayton...... 4-4-1 -13 Saint Louis..4-5-0-12 La Salle..... 3-2-3 -12
From the outside, it's hard to see why the program needed so much righting. Donigan's teams won a lot of games, but McGinty has given them the worst two-year stretch in school history.
Yeah, I thought McGinty was a good hire but I think he may have overdone it in trying to start from scratch. He seems to have given several freshmen a lot of minutes this year so he may be putting the nucleus he wants in place. But this may just be a situation of a coach and program not being the right fit. I mean, missing the A-10 tournament is pretty bad. It's not like the A10 is that good a conference. They MIGHT slip a second team into the NCAA Tournament but even if they do, this is still a pretty weak group so to miss the conference tournament is pretty bad. Somewhere in his padded cell SoccerTom is mumbling "I told you this would happen if you didn't hire a local..."
I disagree. I saw serious positives last night with SLU even with not making the A10 tourney....which yes sucks especially since we are hosting. I caught them at the beginning of the season, mid way through, and at the bitter end. The team was better, much better than we saw when the basically the same five freshman and two sophomores started the season against Akron, Indiana, and Louisville (exh). The freshman he recruited are a solid nucleus to build around. One of the best classes we've seen in awhile. Just to see how far we fell with players and depth....last night was senior night and of the five, only two - Alex Johnston and Beau bellomy - were four year players. The others were transfers. And Alex and Beau did not play a lot this past season. The boys competed very well last night. Charlotte was a serious load, very fast in the attack and very skilled. Kristo hit one of the sweetest half volleys I've seen in awhile after a failed direct kick. He did not play like freshman last night and earned my respect as well as Charlotte's. By the second half they were double teaming him so he wouldn't win long balls lofted to him. The kid is a load. Guys just bounce off of him. He's got decent skills for a big boy. Both of Charlotte's goals were scrambles in the box where it just fell to the right guy. Shackleford stood on his head with multiple point blank saves to keep SLU in it. Also, SLU got two horrible calls on them at the end....one missed corner kick after a Kristo shot went off the face of a Charlotte defender and then that same defender fell chasing kristo on a ball over the top and Kristo was called for a foul. One minute later and Charlotte gets their corner which led to the OT goal. Anyway, a rambling post, but I like what McGinty has pulled together with his freshman. I just hope we can secure some solid players around Lee, Bryce, Kristo, Manning, and Hidalgo.
^drinking the coolaid. Kristo shows promise, but the rest not so much. Definitely, no one with the quality of sweets. Defense got better last few games because Chad was finally put in the middle. Manning still passes the ball to the other team way too much. "Standing on head" not really when you never catch anything challenging and give up lots of rebounds including the final goal.
I think STL will do well this year. Considering my old assistant from Cincy (okeefe) is the coach there now. =) [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlAlTsTF_-k"]Marcus Alfonzo compilation - YouTube[/ame]
No Koolaid over here. Maybe Jameson whiskey. Your entitled to your opinion but I just disagree. It's tough to see SLU fall so far as to not qualify for the A10 tourney. No argument there. However, either one sees good things ahead if McGinty can develop his freshman and then also recruit additional quality guys or one thinks we're headed down the wrong path. We'll know when we get there. I tend to believe we will see SLU reclaim at least some of its respect it has lost.
Hey all, For grins I decided to check out the status of the board and the shape of the program. While I am as far removed from SLU and soccer as I have ever been I am watching in disbelieve as the program which I was proud to put high has sunkin to the lowest low. What the hell is going on over there in candy land?! The A-10 sucks on the best day and the billikens can't make it to the tourney?! Holy ISH! Somebody tell me where the hell we went wrong. And NO hiring local is not the answer. Today's game is more national than ever and it seems the recruiting pipelines of before have dried up. Come on Billikens!
Martin, glad to have you back. This post is one of the smartest things that you have said on here. If you look at the fall of SLU is seems very simple to me and it starts with one class. SLU for years consistently brought in good talent that always competed nationally. Recruiting might be the single greatest factor in college soccer because lets be honest the coaching is very sub par at the college level and typically you might get one player in a class that actually gets better throughout his career. Highly recruited players in the country are receiving better coaching before they even arrive at college most of the time. I am getting a little off my point to why i think SLU is so bad now. The class that started the downslide was the class that involved reeder, gaspo, tim ward and some other players that ended up being just as bad. Ward went pro and everyone else went to the bench. That was SLU's first real bad class that started everything. DD lost his desire or knowledge of how to recruit anything because the following classes seemed to get worse and worse. Eric Sweetin, Angus, patterson and so on was a great class and tim ream's class turned out good but after that you saw class after class of guys not just up to SLU standards but not even up to any division I soccer standards. You truly are only as good as your weekest link. When you only have 12 quality players on the roster and you want to scrimmage, what do you think that does to development. I constantly remember scrimmages where you have 7 future pros on one team and then a guy who didnt start for his high school team and goalie who toe poked goal kicks standing in goal. Word started to get out on DD and how poor SLU had become, anyone could play there and it just continued to regress. When you look at the robson, sweetin class, only 3 guys know how to play at all from the class that some people hailed as the next big deal. You have one player in roeckles class, and 2 in the freshman class that should even be stepping on the field at a top 50 program. When SLU was upset in the past they would typically dominate possession, now we have midfielders that do not even want the ball and when they actually have it lose it 50 percent of the time. There is a huge lack of talent on the SLU team and a lack of players that know how to play the game. That was long but in reality that is what happened to SLU. Quite honestly it is embarrassing for the alumni that played there and continue to try and support this program.