http://www.secsports.com/article/13410596/sec-soccer-coaches-preseason-poll Since the conference predictions thread got a lot of SEC commentary this thread should be fun. I did pick Texas A&M to finish 7th, but that was before I did research on their incoming recruiting class and now I definitely believe they'll finish top 5 at least.
And since we are just 11 days from the start of the regular season, here are the match ups during the first weekend of matches: Friday August 21st: Auburn @ UC-Irvine Florida @ UCF Georgia @ High Point Lipscomb @ Tennessee Northeastern @ South Carolina Ole Miss @ Florida Gulf Coast TCU @ Missouri Washington @ Kentucky Alabama @ Memphis Miami (OH) @ Vanderbilt South Alabama @ Mississippi State Stephen F. Austin @ Arkansas Texas A&M @ Rice LSU @ Oregon Sunday August 23rd: Florida @ Ohio State Boise State @ Ole Miss Georgia Southern @ Tennessee Vanderbilt @ Cincinnati Auburn @ Long Beach State Murray State @ Mississippi State SMU @ Missouri TCU @ Arkansas Georgia @ Wake Forest Northwestern State @ Texas A&M Oklahoma @ South Carolina San Diego State @ Kentucky Troy @ Alabama
I think Chris Henderson's (he of the allwhitekit blog and the new hero site) twitter is fascinating in its depth. This is what he's projecting for SEC standings for 2015: Chris projects 7 or 8 teams from the SEC in the NCAA Tournament.
Hero Sports stated that "The Gamecocks gave up a lot of goals last season, in fact the most in SEC play." That's just wrong. Prior to their thrashing at the hands of FSU, they had only given up 13 goals. Even after that, they still led the SEC in goals against with 18. Next came Florida and Alabama at 20, followed by all the rest. Stats: http://assets.espn.go.com/sec/soccer/cwsoc/stats/2014/statistics.pdf
A down year for Texas A&M is finishing 3rd in their conference. Only once since 1996 have they finished worse than that. I think they'll finish 3rd this year, or 4th at worse. The beginning of the year will be rough, but they'll get better every game.
Prior to SEC they play Florida State and a bunch of mediocre teams. Before starting conference play against Florida, they have Rice, Northwestern State, UC Irvine, Florida Atlantic, FLORIDA STATE, and Abilene Christian. I think the beginning of the year looks pretty manageable to me. They should be 5-1 before conferenc play with plenty of time to work out any bugs.
The beginning of the year is definitely manageable. They're going to look rough doing it though. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't win all 5 of those games either.
If they don't they may, in fact, be in for a tough go. In past years, they would destroy all of these weaklings. Carolina is a real wild card for me in the SEC. They seem to be in the mix every year, but every time I watch them, it isn't a very pretty brand of soccer. Whatever works, I guess; the results speak for themselves and have for a while now. Can't see them finishing 6th.
In an exhibition match yesterday in Los Angeles (played with 3 x 30-minute periods): UCLA 0, Missouri 0.
Bad news for Tennessee...Hannah Wilkinson tore her ACL in their exhibition against Clemson and will be out for the 2015 season.
Will she be able to red-shirt and come back for the 2016 season? And will she be back in time for the 2016 Olympics, which start on Aug. 3, 2016 ???
Yes to both since an ACL tear generally takes 9 months to a year to fully heal and regain playing fitness. (Some have come back sooner, but that is rare.)
Wasn't Wilkinson having trouble with her knee brace last year while playing for Tennessee? I'm wondering if she ditched the knee brace this past week, and if so, that could have cost her? The knee brace doesn't guarantee prevention, but it certainly helps your odds in preventing a knee injury.
I was under the impression she had missed a year due to injury already---this would have been her redshirt Sr season?
I don't know this situation, but in somc cases the NCAA grants a 6th year of eligibility, if the 2 years lost were both due to injury(medical harship), and not just convenience (development time).
The SEC has always received more selections than deserved and their many, high percentage first round bow outs prove my point.
How many of the Elite Eight from last year were from the SEC? What is with all the SEC bashing? Sure the bottom teams suck. Kind of like every other conference. But Florida, A&M, South Carolina, Auburn, Arkansas, Kentucky, Ole Miss and Missouri are all pretty solid. Even LSU is having a decent season.
Pretty sure the SEC went 7-1 last year in 1st round. 1 A&m final 4 2 UF Elite 8 3. UK Sweet 16 4. Missouri beat KU 3-1 and lost to UW 2-1 5. USC Elite 8 6. Auburn beat FGCU 1-0. Lost to Texas Tech 7. Didn't make it 8. UGA lost to UCF 2-1 9. Arkansas beat OU and lost to Stanford 1-0
This year I doubt the SEC will get more than 5 teams in. Texas A&M, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina are locks unless the wheels fall off. Auburn and Arkansas need to get a quality win in league play.
Well the wheel may have started to fall off. Missouri has a long way to go after the lose to a predicted last place bigten team Indiana. And with Florida losing to a middle to bottom of the pack Ohio State team, SEC fans will be pulling for Ohio State to run the table.