http://unitedsoccercoaches.org/web/...NCAA_DI_WOMEN/web/rankings/ncaa/di_women.aspx Honestly, do they even try?! I get it, the basically follow the order of how teams finished last season, but this is just bad. WVU #1? No way. At best 8-12 range. USC, Gtown, S Carolina, uconn, Clemson, Minnesota and Nebraska took major hits with Sr losses that none of them can replace with incoming talent. Only USC has a legit chance at top 8 bcuz they're 3 stud freshmen to help w their losses. FSU, Duke and Notre Dame are grossly underrated
It is a ridiculous effort at rebranding the've done. And PENN ST ISN'T EVEN ON THERE! Them and Stanford should be 1 and 2. Lazy and poor.
Preseason poll. Who really cares. Means nothing. NSCAA poll has nothing to do with NCAA selection, etc. What matters will be in week 4 of the season when the NCAA RPI Ranking comes out.
Howdy folks. Lurked here a little but don't post often as while I'm a die hard Mountaineer fan I'm only a casual soccer fan...read, I watch all the games but am rather ignorant about soccer. I'm as shocked as anyone to see our preseason rank. Your statement though interests me. You say it's impossible that we are better than 8th. Why? Is there something about our roster, schedule or recruiting class that makes you say that? Is there a website that provides preseason analysis that led you to that conclusion? I've looked around but TDS is all I can find and they don't have any info up yet. Do you actually follow us enough to compare our team, schedule and recruiting class to the other 7 teams it's impossible for us to be better than? If so I'd genuinely love to hear your analysis. As I said I can't find much info out there. If not, aren't you doing the same thing they did, using reputation instead of analysis. No fair searching for info now that I've asked. Thanks in advance.
They lost two unbelievable players who will be difficult to replace. That alone impacts where they will likely stack up.
Fair point. They were good enough though that a pretty good player might have been sitting waiting their turn, no? Obviously still a subtraction in quality, unless Coach Izzo-Brown has another bottle of lightning in her recruiting class. As I said, I'm only a casual fan, which is why I asked if there was analysis that might help me know what to expect this year.
Keep in mind, I'm no expert and these are my opinions. (I think I'm mostly right though . I mainly look at TDS for recruiting and info. I base my predictions on how well a team did the previous year, who they lose, recruits they bring in to replace those lost from previous season, or did they have depth from previous season to counter the starters lost. With that said, WVU lost too much (Buchanan and Lawrence) to stay at the level they were at last year. Yes, they'll still be good, but they're recruits/transfers aren't great, and can't overcome what those two Sr's brought to the team. The level will surely drop as last year's performance was beyond amazing. (As a born and raised Canadian, I follow your team quite closely. It was still a gut punch, when my Dukies lost in the snow up there last year lol). If I follow my criteria, then I cannot see WVU better then the 8 or so teams I would place above them. (PSU, Stanford, Duke, UCLA, UNC, FSU, Virginia, Notre Dame and Texas AM). Of course, you can't always account for injuries, intangibles, and "lightning in a bottle. So WVU or some other team could have a crazy good overachieving season and win it all! It'll sure be fun to watch, and as you can tell from my blitzkrieg of posts lately, I'm antsy to get this season underway
Thanks for the reply mpr2477. Losing Buchanan and Lawrence is definitely going to be tough to overcome. That said, our recruits and transfers never seem to attract attention so who knows. In coach Izzo-Brown I trust. Interesting tidbit, WVU hired her to start our women's program with 1 year of coaching experience. What we will know, is where WVU stands rather early in the season though. We play @Georgetown, Virginia, PSU, and Duke (last year was at Duke) all in the first month. Coach has always scheduled tough, perhaps to make up for playing in the Big 12 and Big East. This is probably a crystal ball question, but as a Canadian who follows WVU, presumably because of our Canadian ladies, can you shed any light on her pipeline into Canada? I've asked on our sports message board several times and no one knows.
I read (just today somewhere) that Izzo-Brown said she got one recruit years ago (don't ask me who), from a close coaching connection she had, and it went from there. It's only 4.5 hours from Ontario, and the Canadian girls love the scenery. It worked out well for the first recruit, and word spread quickly amongst the Canadian players in eastern Canada. Hence grew the pipeline.
WVU has 9 returning starters. Buchanan and Lawerence missed quite a few games last season as they had National Team duty. I think WVU will do just fine this year and IMO desetves their ranking based on how they finished last year!
For sure they will be very good. I think they will be just a step down from last year. Top 25 for sure, not sure about top 8 but it is so tight between these elite programs you just never know. Anyone with thoughts about the quality of the Georgetown team this fall?
My thoughts on Gtown, is the same as WVU. Last year was just a ridiculously good year, it's hard to top that. They still have Rachel Corboz (who could end up winning mac hermann this year if she keeps last year's numbers up), but the 3 or 4 seniors they lost were excellent. And incoming freshmen aren't highly rated recruits to compensate for those seniors numbers. I think they'll be a top 15 team.
AllWhiteKit Preseason: 1. Penn State 2. Stanford 3. Florida State 4. North Carolina 5. UCLA 6. Duke 7. West Virginia 8. Northwestern 9. Rutgers 10. Georgetown 11. Texas A&M 12. BYU 13. Virginia 14. Notre Dame 15. NC State 16. Cal 17. Michigan 18. South Carolina 19. USC 20. Utah 21. Florida 22. Pepperdine 23. Colorado 24. Santa Clara 25. Arkansas Also considered: Auburn, DePaul, Long Beach St, Loyola Marymount, Northeastern, SMU, Texas Tech, UC Irvine, Vanderbilt