Well, it was me who.posted the above. Certainly not my proudest moment to be sure. Yeah, I was.using this forum to vent. Not an excuse, but more of a.reason. I apologise for degrading the tone of this forum.
Impressed with the apology, Val. Glad you did that. That said, not sure how it matters though if someone wants harm to Pinto or Grayson Allen. Different sports, but come on folks - let’s be adults and responsible for what we post. Villains, studs, superior athletes, hated rivals .... it shouldn’t matter. Don’t use the anonymity of this Board to be irresponsible. I’m new to this but enjoy the dialog, challenges, and verbal fights. Let’s not degrade that.
I respect the hell out of someone who owns up to a mistake and apologizes. I have made much worse mistakes myself.
Is malicious intent even a factor? Players are called for fouls / given yellow cards ALL THE TIME without determining 'malicious intent'. I think Swanson was simply being diplomatic. Fouls / yellow cards are for inadvertent / reckless / dangerous contact, and sometimes not even called if advantage is retained, right?
To change the subject ... For people with airline miles on American and United, short-notice domestic round-trips are available for as little as 10,000 miles on American and 15,000 (I think) on United. In my case, Grand Junction, Colorado to Raleigh, North Carolina to watch the Buffs and Tar Heels was $717 minimum, which means I’d be watching it on line. But I got the round trip for 10,000 miles on American. Just a thought, for anybody who is far away from where your team is playing this weekend, and would like to support them in person but can’t or doesn’t want to pay the high short-notice airfare.
bummed out about UVA. This team was really good, prob the best they ever had and just when they had me sold... But you have to start asking questions. Is there another team out there that does less with so much talent? Maybe Penn State but even they atleast have a title to show for it
UVA was without its starting keeper and its best defensive player, and those absences were a big factor in the Virginia loss. The backup goalie for UVa, whom I think has played very little if at all, struggled--gave up two weak goals--but UVA did not play well in front of her. Indeed, it was an uncharacteristically poor defensive performance by the Cavs, who were on their back foot a lot in the first half and struggled with a physical Washington State team. That's not what you want when you've got an inexperienced keeper. The Cougars play very direct, and UVA's back line struggled to cope with the WSU long balls. Credit to Washington State--they played well, put a lot of pressure on the Cavs. And UVA picked a bad (cold) night to play its worst game of the year. I question why Swanson would play 3 in the back with an untested keeper and while missing your senior leader in the back, but he's had a lot of success playing that way and why change things now, I suppose. He also rested Jarrett, UVa's talented and speedy forward, for a fairly lengthy stretch in the 2nd half, I believe, and he now regret doing that. It was a game with a lot of action and quite exciting, but a very disappointing season-ending loss for a talented UVA squad.
Virginia did what they always do. have a fantastic year and then choke in the tournament. I understand they had the backup keeper in but if you are the #1 team in the country all year you should be able to shut Washington State down defensively to make the backup keeper a non factor. All in all it wasn't a good round for the ACC teams. Only 3 left
that game actually didn't surprise me. NC State has been playing really well down the stretch and Arkansas plays one of the ugliest brands of soccer you can play
So who chokes? Swanson? The players? both? I dont think its any of that. Players have ebbs and flows. Swanson's style and philosophy will never play well at NCAA time unless he has a special group of players and things line up right.
Once is an anomaly, like UNC taking an early exit a couple of years ago. Every year is a pattern. No one would suggest Steve is not a very good coach. He does struggle to peak his teams at NCAA tournament time. Some coaches seem to be able to do that, while others do not. FSU's T&F coach has been experiencing the same problems for years now.
I'm not sure I'd say that Swanson chokes. How many titles has Stanford won? When you get to 14 (16?) straight NCAA quarters, you are doing a lot right. You certainly can't afford to be bad defensively on a night when you've got a (shaky) backup keeper making a rare (first?) start. Washington State was quite physical and took UVA out of its normal game. You never want to give up an early goal to a visiting underdog team with some quality, as it gives that team a major boost of confidence. WSU has some players. I thought their midfielder, # 3, was especially good all night.
Re Virginia, they generally play weaker non-conference schedules than their main competitors at the top of the heap. Here are the average RPI ranks of teams' non-conference opponents over the last 5 years: Stanford: 63.6 North Carolina: 75.4 UCLA: 76.8 Florida State: 84.0 Virginia: 101.8 In 3 of the years, Virginia had the weakest non-conference schedule of all of these teams. In the other 2 years, it was next to last. Perhaps this is a factor.
BYU is very good at finishing their final third chances! They could give Stanford a run for their money.
When you play in one of the top conferences in the country, does out of conference really matter as much? Virginia is going to get tough games against North Carolina, FSU and others. So not sure non-conference is really the issue here. When it comes to injuries though, you can't really fault Swanson. I haven't followed Virginia closely over the years to say whether he "chokes" but last night's game isn't an example of him choking. Maybe he didn't make the necessary adjustments to ensure a victory, but again, injuries suck and while every team has to account for them, it does change the complexity of the game. So I am not sure it is fair to blame last night's loss solely on him.
FSU lost their starting keeper in the ACC final last year and had to play the rest of the way with a GK who barely played any minutes. It worked out okay for them
You could be right. But then again, you might not be. It's one thing to play very good opponents that you play year in and year out and sometimes twice in a year. It's a different thing to play very good opponents that are new to you. It just would be interesting to see Swanson set up non-conference schedules against more of the top teams that his players aren't familiar with.
I'm a fan from afar of the UVA program and style of play. I know they were missing their starting GKer. I believe there was another key defender missing. Injuries unfortunately are a part of the game. Come NCAA tourney time last year, we were down a starting GKer, a wide MFer and 2 key players lost before the season began, one of whom would have likely been a starter. Stanford had several key injuries last year; otherwise, they may have defended their CC crown. They are looking like a team that may make up for it this year. I might add, they are primed for next year as well. As to SOS, IMO Steve could be a bit more aggressive with his OOC scheduling, but that is splitting hairs. The ACC did them no favor, because they didn't play UNC in the regular season for the 2nd straight year. That's a head scratcher! I've watched UVA several times this year, and WSU discombobulated their defense like no other team. Bad time to have a bad game.
I find myself agreeing with a lot of the takes on here but sometimes disagreeing at the same time, which I know is odd and contradictory but honest. I agree with the coach's defenders when they basically say it is harsh to say he choked. It is a player's game and their performances are key to victory or defeat. However, the argument that he could have better adjusted the team to help the 2nd string GK also seems legit. If he gets credit for being #1 during the regular season he should take some criticism for the tournament performance. The scheduling arguments also seem to have merit in my thinking. The Ivory injury was obviously a major factor both on the field and in their minds. The 2nd string GK did not have a good outing. But that is a factor for almost all teams at some point in the season when key players are injured or missing. Top programs with deeper benches should perform better than mid and lower-tier programs when these types of things occur. The argument of FSU winning with a 2nd team keeper by itself is the survivorship bias we all are guilty of using at times. FSU winning is just evidence of the "possibility" of doing well, not the probability. We all point to the winners and forget about the losers. How many teams had injuries last year and didn't win? The point is that teams are considerably more likely to lose when key players don't play which we see at every level(rec, high school, college, pros.) This supports the coach to some degree in this case. Round and round my thinking (and/or feeling) goes.