Who will be the champs in the ACC come November? What teams will be a flop (if any)?...Start the debate...
I like that...but why? So many other great teams and Duke lost some key players and were a big disappointment in the NCAA's. They did win the ACC Tourney tho. They should have a good team, but will they win it? I dunno about that........
Are we talking regular season or tournament? I think UNC has to be the early favorite for the league, but once the tournament comes around it could very well be a complete tossup. All the teams will be established by then, whereas early on many squads will still be figuring out how to replace some parts. Hopefully all the teams in the league take care of business in non-conference games though. It would be amazing if we could actually improve on last year and somehow sneak everyone in! Not counting on that though...
UVA. This statement, of course, is not backed up by anything other than the fact that I went there. But UVA nonetheless. Go 'Hoos.
Top 3 Carolina- returning 10 starters but can they finally do something with all that talent Duke- trained in Germany of the summer......should get out to a fast start looked good in the game vs. UNCG (Grella extreamly talented) Clemson- Final 4 team with all-american keeper returning as well as Dane Richards up top.....sources tell me they are adding 2 Brazilians to the mix (21 year old freshmen) Middle 3 Maryland- NCAA champs (enough said) Virginia- as talented as anyone in the nation depending on which Virginia team shows up (Virginia 1 - Longwood 0) last year Wake Forest- not as loaded as usual, but are always a tough side to play against Bottom 3 Virginia Tech- a sleeper team with ACC rookie of the year Patrick Nyarko looking to make a name for himself in the national seen Boston College- Will the addition of the talented Charlie Davies be enough to help them get out of the bottom 3 NC State- Aaron King is gone......plain and simple The ACC is by far the best conference in the nation and with the exception of BC and NC State.......anyone could contend for the #1 spot * It's just too bad the ACC won't schedule UNCG anymore......props to Wake for at least having the baby makers to play us!
After the way they finished up the year, I think it would be a big mistake to sleep on Clemson. Granted, they have to replace Sturgis, a huge loss, but team is mostly intact and they add the PDL MVP. Plus, Trevor's teams are almost always better in the late fall than Septemer (of course, until last year, until the quarterfinals of the NCAAs). UVa brings back all but one starter from a very solid team. And said starter - Joe Vide - is replaced by arguably the best freshmen in the country. Cavs are stacked on paper, but they've been stacked on paper before and not gotten it done. They should be one of the top two programs in the ACC this year. But they should have won more ACC titles the past 10 years and gone to more Final Fours than they have, so we see what "should" gets you with UVa. I think Sasho Cirovski has evolved into one of the best, if not the best, coach in college soccer. But I think Maryland has just lost way too much from last year to contend in the deep ACC. OK, they can contend, I just don't think they're gonna win it all. Maybe if Rogers had come back, but not now. Way too many holes to replace. That said, they're gonna get their share of scalps this year, just not enough to win it all. North Carolina is talented and deep and they've added a lot of size in the new recruiting class to offset one of their major problems the past couple years. Like UVa, on paper they have a great team. And like UVa they've been good on paper a few times the past few years and, since their national title - still way more than UVa has gotten - they haven't met exepectations. If they don't win the title and/or make a strong run in the NCAAs, the more the 01 team looks like a fluke. And then there's Wake, which continues to crank out the MLS talent but has no trophies to show for it. How can a coach recruit so well and devleop talent so well and not win any frikkin' big games? Hard to pick Wake till they've proven they can win the ACC Tournament or get to a Final Four. State, Tech and BC have talent - BC damn sure will be better than last year and Davies is the kind of player who can carry a team in a three-game tournament - but they likely don't have the depth of horses to get it done this year. At the end of the day, Clemson, UNC and UVa are my frontrunners with the winner in Germantown likely being the team that doesn't have to face one of the other two in the semis.
Seeing as i go to a Big East school i hav elimited exposure to ACC schools but having seen maryland and Virginia in this preseason i can defeinetly say it won't be maryland and it will very likely be Virginia. Virginia is very very talented. Based on past results you've got to see clemson, UNC, and Duke fighting UVA for the championship. I'm going with UVA for my pick just simply based on how impressed i was with them in preseason. The ACC is always loaded and this year is no exception.
If there was an ACC Reserves league I'd say UNC would take that. I was at the Blue-White game the other night and they've got over 30 players on the roster and it seemed to me that the two sides were pretty evenly matched. They are way deep with little appreciable dropoff in talent as you go down the roster.
I like Carolina. I think UVa and Duke will be right there -- for some reason I think UVa will close the season really strong. But start-to-finish, I like the Tar Heels. I think Hughes as a regular makes a difference.
Clemson did add a two Brazilians. Frederico Moojen, a foward and PDL MVP. He transfers in as a senior not as a freshman. Clesmon also added Paulo Bonfim from Sao Paulo, Brazil a D/M although I am not sure of his class, he is not on the roster yet. Here is a link to the Clesmon Soccer 06 Season Outlook: http://clemsontigers.cstv.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/082306aab.html
1) North Carolina 2) Clemson 3) Tie UVA, Maryland, Duke 6) Wake Forest 7) Virginia Tech 8) NC State 9) BC Every ACC team is impressive in one way or another.
The SLU teams of the past 2-3 seasons would be hard-pressed to make the Top 8 in the ACC. That's not smack, that's a fact. BC will turn it around. Too much talent on that team not to. Still, losing to BU is never a good sign, though you have to figure that game is much bigger for the Terriers than it is for the Eagles.
It will be either Maryland, North Carolina or UVA. Sasho is the best recruiter in the country and lets not forget that Seitz is still in goal and King the second leading scorer is still there.
There seem to be a minimum of 6 teams in the ACC that are top 15 / NCAA tournament type teams (MD, VA, DK, NC, WF, CL). There is a good chance the Virg. Tech is a 7th team deserving of that level of rating. Luck, officiating, scheduling, etc. will have as much to do with how these teams deal with each other and thus rank up at the end of the year. While there are differences in quality, none of these teams has shunned good out of conference teams in the scheduling process. My personal opinion is that the early prognosis is to give lots of credit to last years results, thus benefiting MD, VA, NC & DK. I believe that Wake will be higher later rather than earlier!
I saw VT play last week-end. Without Nyarko, they would finish at the bottom of the table (maybe not dead last but surely in the vicinity). If Nyarko stays healthy and gets fit, they be middle of the table. But I don't think they will be in top 15.
Huh? What?? SLU's team 3 years ago (2003) was among the nations top 4 or 5 teams in the country. Fact. Here is a link to the season ending ratings, http://www.soccerratings.com/M03D1.html Team Rank Games Won Lost Tied Rating SE Opp UCLA 1 23 20 2 1 1989 75 1709 Maryland 2 24 20 3 1 1927 72 1634 Wake Forest 3 20 15 5 0 1838 72 1665 Indiana 4 25 17 3 5 1834 61 1671 St. Louis U 5 21 15 4 2 1813 67 1633 SLU lost @ Maryland in the 2003 Quarter-Final NCAA Game. SLU defeated UVA @ UVA in 2003 and Clemson 2-0 @ UVA in 2003. So SLU was 2-0 in regular season match-ups vs. ACC teams. The fact is SLU would have been right @ or near the top of the ACC in 2003 based on actual results. Fact, in 2004 SLU toyed with UVA beating them 2-1. That was the only ACC team on their schedule in 2004. Had SLU not had pro defections, transfers and multiple injuries the last couple of seasons 2004-2005 SLU would have been among the nations powers. In 2006 SLU will be a power. Fact. Know it. Live it Learn it. Get your facts straight.
"Had SLU not had pro defections, transfers and multiple injuries the last couple of seasons 2004-2005 SLU would have been among the nations powers." Hope this doesn't happen to any other teams Tom....