Not sure what happened last week, but Maryland finished the regular/B1G season at 4-3-1, with games at Rutgers and at Indiana canceled. Now it's on to the B1G tournament, #4 Maryland hosting #5 Rutgers on Saturday (7th), the winner to play at #1 Indiana or (less likely) at home v #8 Northwestern on Wednesday (14th). The final is scheduled for Saturday (17th)
Maryland advanced over Rutgers, 5-4 on PKs, after drawing 1-1. Game summary here: https://umterps.com/news/2021/4/10/mens-soccer-terps-and-rutgers.aspx Points of interest (if only to me): Attendance: 250 {That's a lot of family members.} "The Scarlet Knights took the lead in the 75th minute on a fantastic scissor-kick volley goal from Ola Maeland. Junior Justin Gielen came up with some brilliance of his home to even the match. The Edgewater, Md., native let fly from 30 yards out and curled it into the side netting." {83rd minute - cutting things pretty close} Next up: @ Indiana tomorrow (Wed 4/14) - Go Terps!
Indiana 2-0 Maryland - not great. An Indiana surprise would have been nice. The B1G only played intraconference games this season, so I'm not sure how the B1G teams will be evaluated in terms of the NCAA tournament, which will have fewer teams this year. Indiana, Penn State and Michigan all have superior B1G claims, obviously, with Maryland a clear 4th, having just pipped Rutgers on PKs. Normally the ACC would flood the tournament, but ... only Clemson and Wake Forest (Atlantic), plus Pitt and (marginally) North Carolina (Coastal), have staked a claim to be selected. No other ACC team has a record over .500 - extraordinary! Anyway, I don't think Maryland can complain if excluded this year - unless teams of lesser quality are included. An easy team to compare fortunes with will be Virginia (7-8-1 overall, 2-4-0 ACC, on a 3-game losing streak); or even Notre Dame (8-9-0, 1-5-0 ACC, 4-game losing streak).
Fair enough evaluation. With a reduced field and the COVID scheduling challenges, this is going to be a weird year. I haven't really looked at the numbers, but my instincts say not likely for MD to get in this year. Fair IU-MD result.
So, Maryland threaded the needle and slipped into the NCAA tournament. I like to think they got in because of my respectful, soft-sell approach. The team needs to focus on one game at a time, but that won't stop me from peeking ahead. 1) R32 v Missouri State 2) R16 v Washington (7th seed) or Grand Canyon 3) Quarterfinal v Pittsburgh (2nd) or James Madison (or UCF/BG/Monmouth) College Cup 4) Semifinal v Indiana (3rd) or Seton Hall (6th) or ... 5) Final v Clemson (1st), Stanford (4th), Wake Forest (5th) or Georgetown (8th) or ... Now that we're in, I think the par result would be beating MS but losing to Washington - so losing in the first round will be disappointing, but advancing beyond the second round will be (far) exceeding expectations.
Sometimes it pays to not play. A loss to IU in the regular season would have eliminated the Terps. A smart, but not sure ethical, decision by Sasho to not play.
Agreed, if deliberate, but a regular-season win (v Indiana) would (presumably) have helped bolster Maryland's very thin resume. 4 Wins v Wisconsin, @ Michigan, v Michigan State, @ Northwestern 2 Draws v Penn State, v Rutgers (MD advancing on PKs) 4 Losses @ Penn State, v Ohio State, @ Rutgers, @ Indiana 2 Canceled v Rutgers, @ Indiana Only the win @ Michigan appears to be a 'good win,' and of course now significant, likely the reason* Maryland slipped in and Michigan did not. Also, a regular-season loss v Indiana would have seriously damaged Maryland's chances, true, but not completely eliminated them. The B1G tournament was still to follow, and a couple of tournament wins might have put Maryland back into contention (as tournament finalists, with a win/advancing draw @ Penn State or @ Indiana along the way). An unlikely B1G tournament win would have meant automatic qualification. Likely you know more than I do about the canceled game(s), but from what I remember the explanation (re Indiana) was curious, though expressly not Covid-related. Do we know why Maryland did not play? ++++++++++++ * or at least the justification
Re the UMD v. IU game that was not played, here is what the MD soccer website said about the matter: "COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The Maryland men's soccer match with Indiana scheduled for Sunday, April 4 in Bloomington has been canceled. On the recommendation of its medical staff, Maryland made the decision to not play the game due to lack of healthy players available to compete, unrelated to COVID-19 positives. The decision was supported by Indiana and the Big Ten Conference ... "
... the can of worms got opened when Rutgers opted out of two games because GK was injured. So MD invokes the same "covid" rule. Most likely, MD loses to IU at IU, would then have to play Rutgers at Rutgers. Not sure I san any scenario where that would improve their record from what it is. IU got to clinch the championship without playing MD since Penn State also opted out of two games on the road vs. Michigan and on the road vs. Indiana. MD DEFINITELY benefitted from not playing IU, that is indisputable. Interestingly (or not coincidentally) the five games canceled in the Big Ten this year were all road games.
Re Penn State's games v. IU and Michigan being canceled back in early March, these were the release from Penn State on those games being called off ... MEN'S SOCCER GAME AT INDIANA POSTPONED Penn State men's soccer's game at Indiana scheduled for Sunday, March 7 has been postponed due to positive COVID-19 results among Penn State's Tier 1 personnel ... Date: March 5, 2021 MEN’S SOCCER GAME AT MICHIGAN POSTPONED Penn State men's soccer's game at Michigan scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed due to positive COVID-19 results among Penn State's Tier 1 personnel. ... Date: March 2, 2021 ----------------------- MD had said their cancelation was "unrelated to COVID-19 positives."
To me, the type of chicanery described above is disgusting. If a team has COVID problems, that's one thing but to just not play tougher teams to only play the weaker teams makes this already farcical situation a full-blown mockery. Since I don't have first hand knowledge that we fully understand the complete story - I'm not accusing any specific team - but as a general principle. Pretty poor in my opinion. EDIT: To Clarify my response was to CollegeSoccer post (Bhoy, you snuck in while I was typing).
Yea, hard to know what exactly is going on with some of this. Not sure but seems that before COVID, I don't think a team could say that we couldn't play because too many of the players were injured or sick or whatever, and not get hit with a forfeit. Of course, perhaps once teams had to miss games because of COVID, then it seemed easier or somehow fair to also allow other reasons too for games being just canceled instead of forfeited. Here is what Rutgers released about their two canceled games (no specific mention of injuries): Men's Soccer Game at Ohio State Postponed The Rutgers men's soccer game at Ohio State, scheduled for Saturday, March 27 has been postponed due to matters unrelated to positive COVID cases. The decision not to travel to Ohio State was supported by the Big Ten Conference, and was made out of an abundance of caution surrounding the health and safety of the participants. Rutgers men’s soccer game at Maryland Postponed The Rutgers men's soccer game at Maryland, scheduled for Tuesday, March 23 has been postponed due to matters unrelated to positive COVID cases. The decision not to travel to Maryland was made by Rutgers Athletics and supported by the Big Ten Conference. Perhaps interesting to note that for the OSU game Rutgers mentioned "an abundance of caution" as one of the reasons for the game not being played, whereas with the MD game "caution" was not mentioned at all. (At least the Penn State statements were consistent. ) Also perhaps interesting to note that the MD statement about the IU game not happening is the only such statement that pointed out that the opponent, IU in this case, had "supported" the decision not to play the game as scheduled.
It's likely that IU agreed as a matter of self-interest, since we then backed into the regular season title. If we had lost, PSU would have won the title because of the "pts per game" scoring that was adopted by the B1G.
Such a shame that Maryland get in in this year. Incredible program overall, but I think their name and the pull that Sasho has on the national scene gets them in.