Well, I know I at least have the Akron crew interested in this, so it won't be just me by my lonesome in this thread. Men's Soccer Preseason Poll ✅Match 1 🔜https://t.co/JJAwJYVSCY— BIG EAST Conference (@BIGEAST) August 19, 2024 Men's Soccer 8/19/2024 11:00:00 AM Akron and Georgetown Favored in BIG EAST Men’s Soccer Coaches’ Polls NEW YORK (Aug. 19, 2024) – Akron and Georgetown earned the top spots in their respective divisions, as the BIG EAST Conference announced the Preseason Coaches’ Poll and all-conference awards on Monday. Akron was selected by the league’s men’s soccer coaches to finish as the top team in the Midwest Division, while No. 16 Georgetown was unanimously selected to win the East Division. Butler’s Palmer Ault was voted BIG EAST Preseason Offensive Player of the Year for the second straight season, while Georgetown’s Maximus Jennings garnered the preseason Defensive Player of the Year award and Providence’s Lukas Burns earned the preseason accolade of Goalkeeper of the Year. Georgetown, the 2023 BIG EAST championship runner-up and East Division champion, topped the East Division preseason poll with 66 points and all 11 possible first-place votes. Providence followed suit with 55 points and the remaining first-place vote. In the Midwest Division, after joining the BIG EAST as an expansion team in 2023, Akron leads the way with 62 points and seven first-place votes. Receiving four-first place votes, the defending BIG EAST Tournament Champion and 2023 Midwest Division champion Xavier ranked second with 56 points, while Creighton received 50 points and the final first-place vote. Projected to finish third in the East Division, St. John’s received 42 points, while Connecticut ranks fourth with 38 points. Rounding out the East Division, Seton Hall ranks fifth with 28 points, while Villanova tallied 17 points. Following Akron, Xavier and Creighton, Butler checks in at fourth in the Midwest Division with 35 points. Rounding out the rankings, Marquette has been picked fifth with 25 points, while DePaul ranks sixth with 18 points.
Results from Week 1: St. Peter's 2 @ Villanova 2 Drexel 0 @ Marquette 2 Southern Indiana 1 @ Butler 2 Seton Hall 1 @ Florida International 0 Florida Atlantic 0 @ Creighton 0 St. John's 0 @ Rhode Island 2 Quinnipiac 0 @ Providence 2 Northern Kentucky 0 @ Xavier 0 Stonehill 0 @ UConn 6 Akron 0 @ Notre Dame 0 Georgetown 0 @ Pittsburgh 2 DePaul 4 @ Illinois-Chicago 3 Kind of an underwhelming first day. Best result is probably Akron getting a draw in South Bend, followed closely by Seton Hall going down to Miami and picking up a win. Georgetown's loss gave me flashbacks to 2022, when they were quite poor coming out of the gate, although that had a lot to do with poor goalkeeping that took awhile to shake out, which I don't think is the case here. That team started 1-4-2, but turned it around well enough to take home the Regular Season title and get themselves in the Big Dance. Hopefully they figure it out much quicker this time.
Correction: ND 1-1 AKR Still a draw. ND scored off somewhat questionable PK, whereas AKR scored in the run of play.
That's what I get for trusting the Big East's official scoreboard page...which is definitely being updated by some undergrad intern...
Matchday 2: Marist 1 @ Marquette 6 DePaul 1 @ Northwestern 2 Drake 3 @ Creighton 5 (a wild affair, but perhaps not even as wild as what happened with Drake against a Big East team on the women's side, where their 3 goals and Butler's 5 all came in the first half) Western Illinois 1 @ Butler 1 Villanova 2 @ Temple 3 Cal State Fullerton 1 @ Xavier 4 (the Titans actually had one more SOG than the Muskies, but the X defense looks sturdy so far) Ohio State 2 @ Akron 0 Stony Brook 1 @ St. John's 1 Georgetown 2 @ Maryland 0 (Wild second goal in this one, with a Maryland player asking his goalie to kick the ball out of bounds because he needed attention. The goalie does so... but the ref declines to stop play, perhaps because the player had not gone down yet, so Georgetown throws the ball in and initiates the play leading to the goal. Don't think I've ever seen that before.)
Providence and Boston College tied 1-1 in the Monday matinee to Matchday 2 Matchday 3: Loyola Chicago 1 @ Creighton 1 DePaul 1 @ St. Thomas (MN) 1 UAlbany 1 @ Seton Hall 2 Providence 0 @ Hofstra 2 NJIT 1 @ UConn 2 Marshall 0 @ Xavier 2 Manhattan 1 @ St. John's 2 -- Villanova 0 @ Michigan State 1 UNC Greensboro 0 @ Georgetown 1 Akron 1 @ Western Michigan 1 Marquette 1 @ Yale 0 Oakland @ Butler - Rained Out
Butler won the Saturday continuation of the rainout, 2-1, over Oakland. Matchday 4: Sunday, September 1 Manhattan 0 @ Seton Hall 1 Duquesne 1 @ Xavier 0 (Pretty wild for the X to follow up a win over Marshall with a loss to the Dukes. "Xavier held a 13-2 advantage in shots and recorded five more shots on goal (6-1) than the Dukes. The Musketeers also took seven more corner kicks (9-2) and committed one less foul (11-10). Duquesne held a 6-1 advantage in yellow cards.") San Francisco 2 @ Creighton 4 LIU 0 @ UConn 0 UAlbany 0 @ St. John's 3 Labor Day Monday, September 2 Florida International 0 @ Georgetown 0 (Hoyas held the run of play but, unlike Seton Hall, could not put one past the Panthers' giant Dutchman goalkeeper, who made multiple key saves. FIU also ate two red cards.) Villanova 1 @ Western Michigan 5 Drake 2 @ DePaul 1 Providence 2 @ UMass 1 Cleveland State 3 @ Akron 3 (21-11 edge in shots for the Zips... starting 0-1-3 is not what they had in mind) Marquette 1 @ Wisconsin 2
I watched both the Akron CSU game and the Xavier Duquesne game. Akron seems out of sorts in the back. They want to possess, but struggle to build out of the back and can’t handle pressure well. Both Ohio State and CSU were able to turnover the back line and create key scoring opportunities. They controlled most of the game but seem to be sleeping in key moments. It’s been a weird start to the season for the Zips. As for Xavier, they dominated the Dukes, regularly having 10 men across midfield looking to score. The dukes dropped into a 5-4-1 low block from the kickoff and were rarely a threat. Xavier hit the woodwork once and the Dukes keeper stood on his head to make 2-3 other saves as well. Xavier got caught with their hand in the cookie jar with 10 minutes left, and a loose ball led to a counter opportunity giving the Dukes their lone goal. Give the Dukes credit, they defended well and executed their defensive scheme well. They were tough to break down. An unlucky result for Xavier, but that’s soccer.
Matchday 5: Wednesday, September 4 Indiana 1 @ Butler 1 (The Butler Bowl comes for us all) Thursday, September 5 Purdue Fort Wayne 0 @ Marquette 0 Bradley 2 @ Xavier 2 Friday, September 6 Cornell 2 @ Georgetown 2 Columbia 0 @ Seton Hall 2 VCU 0 @ Akron 4 (Zips are so back) UConn 2 @ Central Connecticut State 1 Rutgers 0 @ Providence 1 St. John's @ North Carolina 2 (Johnnies were 3 minutes away from stealing this one; they scored on their only 2 SOGs of the game) Denver 3 @ Creighton 1 10 matches, including some against very solid competition, and the only loss was Creighton. Not bad.
Just taking advantage of an opportunity to lean into the "It's so over/We are so back" meme when I can. It's one of my favorites. Non-con is the time to work things out. Still early.
Matchday 5 (the conclusion) Saturday, September 7 Lafayette 1 @ Villanova 1 Butler 2 @ Bowling Green 3 Matchday 6 Sunday, September 8 Wright State 1 @ DePaul 4 Xavier 1 @ Ohio State 3 Monday, September 9 Rhode Island 1 @ Providence 0 Marquette 0 @ Northwestern 1 Seton Hall 3 @ Rutgers 1 Georgetown 0 @ James Madison 1 IU Indianapolis 2 @ Akron 1 Siena 1 @ UConn 2 Creighton 1 @ Grand Canyon 0 Tuesday, September 10 Princeton 2 @ St. John's 1 Evansville 1 @ Butler 4 Lotta really underwhelming results here, folks
Matchday 7 Thursday, September 12 Edgewood 0 @ Marquette 1 (What the f*** is an Edgewood?) Friday, September 13 Mercyhurst 3 @ DePaul 2 (What the f*** is a DePaul?) Xavier 0 @ Siena 0 UConn 2 @ Dartmouth 1 Butler 0 @ Ohio State 1 Saturday, September 14 Long Island 2 @ Georgetown 2 (downside of the new sub rules - can't bring your offensive players back on in the 2nd half after you subbed them out to try to see out the game) Temple 1 @ Akron (not gonna try to steal the thunder of the Akron thread, but... has anyone tried turning the Zips off and turning them back on?) Harvard 2 @ Seton Hall 3 St. John's 1 @ Marshall 1 Providence 2 @ Bryant 1 Tulsa 0 @ Creighton 3 (If this Tulsa is anything like past editions, this is a huge result) Villanova 2 @ Fairleigh Dickinson 2 Matchday 7.5 Sunday, September 15 Marquette 0 @ Illinois-Chicago 2
Conference play kicks off this week. I’m excited to see how this one plays out. I think this year is as wide open as ever. There seems to be plenty of parity throughout the conference and several could play spoiler as well. The conference RPI is hovering around 3rd/4th overall and several of the schools have some nice results which could help position them for an at large bid provided they take care of business in the league. Last year was a bit of a down year and we only saw two teams in the post season. I feel like we could see 3 or more this year.
Conference Matchday 1 of 8 Friday, September 20 UConn 3 @ DePaul 2 (The Huskies went 5-0-1 to start the season, but against weak competition, with their lone tie coming against their best opponent in LIU. A big question that remains to be answered - how good are they, really?) Marquette 3 @ Villanova 2 (Gonna be a tough season for both of these squads, from the looks of it. Credit to Marquette, I guess, for bouncing back after their nightmarish result against UIC) Butler 3 @ Akron 4 (Osama bin Laden is dead and the Akron Zips are alive!) St. John's 0 @ Xavier 1 (At this point, have to think the X-Men are the favorites to win the West) Seton Hall 0 @ Providence 1 (3 shots, 1 on goal, is not gonna get it done, Pirates. Not against Lukas Burns) Georgetown 1 @ Creighton 0 (Entertaining affair, with the Bluejays making a strong push late and the Hoyas battening down the hatches. Creighton once again seems very mercurial - low floor, high ceiling, and you don't know what you're going to get until they step onto the pitch)
Matchday 9 Tuesday, September 24 Princeton 0 @ Georgetown 2 (Hoyas scored in the first minute of the game and the last minute of the game...don't see that too often) UPenn 2 @ Villanova 2 (This is actually a very good result for Wildcats, as Nick Mantegna would put it) Lehigh 0 @ Seton Hall 2 Penn State 2 @ St. John's 1 Wright State 3 @ Butler 2 (What the hell happened here, Butler?) Fairfield 0 @ UConn 0 Evansville 0 @ Xavier 2 Saint Francis 0 @ Akron 8 (..........) DePaul 3 @ Loyola Chicago 1
Conference Matchday 2 of 8 Saturday, September 28 Akron 1 @ Georgetown 0 (Big statement win from the Zips. Hoyas will feel like they had more and better looks, but Akron's keeper played excellent and the 10 players in the field played with an elite level of defensive commitment - and I don't mean in a damning-with-faint-praise sense that implies they were turtling, not at all) Xavier 0 @ DePaul 0 (That result is one the Muskies will probably come to regret) Creighton 2 @ Providence 2 (Hoyas happy to see the Friars dropping points here) Villanova 1 @ St. John's 2 (Cats look cooked) Seton Hall 0 @ UConn 0 (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V: Hoyas happy to see the Huskies dropping points here) Butler 0 @ Marquette 2 (Bulldogs digging themselves into a standing hole here)
Matchday 9.5 Tuesday, October 1 Creighton 0 @ Missouri State 1 Conference Matchday 3 of 8 Friday, October 4 Providence 0 @ Georgetown 3 (Payback for Fall 2021! Friars' stay in the Top 25 appears it will be short-lived) UConn 3 @ Villanova 0 (The Wildcats were 1-8-7 last year and might actually be worse this year. Need a to make some upgrades, starting with their youth rec league bleachers) Marquette 0 @ Seton Hall 1 (Don't look now, Pirates are 8-1-1) St. John's 2 @ Butler 1 (A down year in Indy, from the looks of it) Xavier 0 @ Akron 1 (Akron cements themselves as the team to beat in the Big East) DePaul 2 @ Creighton 0 (If you haven't done so already, please watch the game highlights posted on the Creighton website...which, by the way, great job by their SID for doing that. Creighton outshot DePaul 23-4 and had 14 corners to 0. Just unreal. I dunno if Johnny Torres is a drinking man, but that match would have me deep in the cups).