A recurring theme on this board is that seniors often play a big role in a team's success. In this thread, I'll try to look at a few recent top teams to see how true that is. If there's a common profile, maybe that'll help us identify this year's top contenders. For starters ... 2005 NCAA Finalists Maryland (Champion) Five senior starters: Burch, Bertz, Dello Russo Garey, Lancos; also, GK Salvati began the year as a starter. New Mexico (Runner-Up) Six senior starters: Ashwill, Brown, Moss, Rowland, Watson, Wootton; also, Hanna and Bagwell each started 9 of their 23 games.
2004 NCAA Finalists Indiana (Champion) Two senior starters: Nolly, O'Rourke; Yates was a top sub, Ambersley a fourth-year junior UCSB (Runner-Up on PKs) Six senior starters: Apilado, Bly, Jones, Kennedy, Lochhead, McAthy
2003 NCAA Finalists Indiana (Champion) Two senior starters: Dias, Shinabarger; Nolly a fourth-year junior St. John's (Runner-Up) Five senior starters: Gaudette, O'Neill, Rodriguez, Salinno, Wingert 2002 NCAA Finalists UCLA (Champion) Four senior starters: Frazelle, Futagaki, Pierce, Thompson; Chadd Davis played regularly and started five games ... lots of juniors. Stanford (Runner-Up) Five senior starters: Dunivant, Geiger, Graham, Levesque, Maliza; GK Terris began year as starter Thus far, those two IU teams look to be the exceptions ... the other top teams have been pretty heavy on veterans.
2001 NCAA Finalists North Carolina (Champion) Four senior starters: D.Jackson, Leitch, Ueltschey, Yamauchi Indiana (Runner-Up) Three(?) senior starters: Hammer, Rife, Rogers In recent years, IU -- the team that made winning with veterans famous -- seems to have been the one team that's won without them.
2000 NCAA Finalists UConn (Champion) Four senior starters: Lewis, Rahim, Vargas, Zieky; four other seniors, not sure how regularly they played Creighton (Runner-Up) Five senior starters: Hammett, Henning, Mintah, Mullan, Reddington
1999 NCAA Finalists IU (Champion) Four senior starters: Fadeski, Korol, Lavrinenko, BJ Snow; GK Hannig was a fourth-year junior Santa Clara (Runner-Up) Seven(?) senior starters: Callahan, Denton, Eyre, Percell, Rodopoulous, Roxas, Smith
1998 NCAA Finalists IU (Champion) Three senior starters: Alavanja, DiGuardi, Parrish Stanford (Runner-Up) Five senior starters: Clark, Elliott, Gaw, Jones, Siegman; also, Sauer was a regular sub and the team's #2 scorer. When most programs reach the final, they have a strong senior class; when IU reaches the final, I guess it's just being IU.
2003 NCAA Finalists St. John's (Runner-Up) Four senior starters: O'Neill, Rodriguez, Salinno, Wingert; GK Gaudette was a red-shirt junior I received a correction here (thx) ... St. John's had incorrectly listed Gaudette as a senior on their roster and media guide. (When looking for background on Gaudette, I read that Chris Leidner would've been another senior starter on this team but sat out as an injury redshirt.)
Your research may indicate that college teams would be better off bypassing the highly publicized national pool players who leave after a year or two and focus on the just as good but less publized players who probably would complete their college programs. Of course you have to look a little harder to find these less publicized players but the results are probably worth the extra work and time spent recruiting.
Nice thread. If there's time and inclination, we could start looking at the non-finalist Final Four participants as well.
Yeah ... between transfers, duds, and pro departures, top-25 recruits aren't worth a huge investment. Increasingly, I'm convinced that there are a lot more Chris Rolfes to be found. After all, big-name prospects are mostly drawn from big clubs, but the primary reason big clubs are good is their depth, not because their individuals are so much better. Considering how many low-visibility clubs exist, some of them certainly have good prospects, so I very much agree ... legwork will be rewarded. BTW, Maryland has only two seniors this year (both red-shirts), and while they do have some great young talent, it'll be interesting to see whether they can sustain their run of success.
Senior leadership is one of many reasons SLU will be a force in 2006. SLU will have 7 Seniors in 2006 and one Red Shirt Junior (Brian Grazier). 5 or so of the Seniors will be 4 year starters. 4 Year Starter Senior Midfielder and Hermann Candidate John DiRaimondo. 4 Year Starter Senior Midfielder Alex Matteson. 4 Year Starter Senior Back Mo Benne. 4 Year Starter Senior Midfielder Casey Spiess. Part time Starter Senior Back Dan Guffey. Part time Starter Senior Back Jason Vilmer. Transfer from U-Mass Senior Keeper Nick Billman. Red Shirt Junior 3 Year Starter Brian Grazier.