Gameday 1 around the SBC #3 Kentucky 3 - Florida Gulf Coast 0 #11 Marshall 4 - Oakland 0 UCF 2 - #9 Clemson 1 WVU 3 - California Baptist 0 JMU 3 - Duquesne 1 ODU 2 - George Washington 2 South Carolina 1 - Campbell 1 Belmont 1 - Georgia State 0 Winthrop 2 - Coastal 0 ETSU 1 - Georgia Southern 0 Thought I'd try something different here with an SBC thread this year rather than a school specific thread. UCF, in their first game as a Sun Belt member, gets the win over #9 Clemson. #11 Marshall's Matthew Bell gets a hat trick against Horizon League contender Oakland. #3 Kentucky cruises in its opener vs FGCU. With Coastal and Georgia Southern expected to struggle this year, the only unexpected result (other than UCF's upset over Clemson) was Georgia State's loss to Belmont. I think this is going to be a fun year for the Sun Belt.
It's still early and these numbers are still prone to fluctuate wildly in the next few weeks, but through Matchday 2, the SBC is #1 in Conference RPI : http://rpiupdatemenssoccer.blogspot.com/search/label/Conference RPI Rank And JMU wakes up this morning #1 in RPI thanks to their 2 impressive wins over Duquesne and UCLA: https://rpiupdatemenssoccer.blogspot.com/2023/07/sun-belt-conference-standings.html CoachMaclid's SBC Matchday 2 Plays of the Week SBC OFFENSIVE PLAY OF MATCHDAY 2 JMU's Balint Kocso headers in a ball from outside the 18 for the game-winning goal vs UCLA. Start your morning off by taking a look at the game-winner from Balint Kocso last night!#GoDukes pic.twitter.com/82KSPcRXCC— JMU Men's Soccer (@JMUMSoccer) August 28, 2023 SBC DEFENSIVE PLAY OF THE MATCHDAY 2 UK's Max Miller places himself in support of his keeper to preserve the shutout. UK would find the game winner a few moments later. 80' | BIG save for Max Miller 🙀📺 https://t.co/v9HQkC3ReL 📊 https://t.co/E2vcIaDvfl #WeAreUK | #GBED pic.twitter.com/oMPg9oNuoX— Kentucky Men’s Soccer (@UKMensSoccer) August 29, 2023
𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗧 𝗘𝗠’.After a standout showing in week one of the 2023 season, #SunBeltMSOC sits second nationally with four teams ranked in the @UnitedCoaches Top-25. ☀️⚽ pic.twitter.com/TbqXiz5riS— Sun Belt (@SunBelt) August 29, 2023 Four Sun Belt Teams In The Top 25 #2 Kentucky #5 Marshall #14 UCF #17 JMU
For Sept 4, 2023 Top Drawer Top 25 #2 Marshall #9 Kentucky #17 UCF JMU not in their T25 https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-national-rankings/men For Sept 3, 2023 College Soccer News Top 30 #3 Marshall #5 Kentucky #8 UCF #20 JMU #30 WVU Five of nine Sun Belt programs in the College Soccer News Top 30 https://collegesoccernews.com/colle...0-national-poll-week-ending-september-3-2023/
Week 2 @UnitedCoaches Men's Rankings ⚽️ #NCAASoccer pic.twitter.com/PEyJKJ0ilA— NCAA Soccer (@NCAASoccer) September 5, 2023 On the Rise! ⬆️Up to No. 2 in the @unitedsoccercoaches DI Men’s Soccer National Rankings! #AllOrNothing // #WeAreMarshall pic.twitter.com/49yIJSpmMt— Marshall University Men's Soccer (@HerdMSoccer) September 5, 2023 Sept 5th 2023 United Soccer Coaches Poll (Sun Belt Teams) #2 Marshall #6 UCF #8 JMU #16 WVU #19 Kentucky Crazy that 30% of the Top 10 belongs to the Sun Belt.
A) It's really early. Won't really have a sense of things for another 3-4 weeks and even then the picture will still be pretty blurry. B) The only poll that matters is the RPI. Currently (as of 12:01 on 9/7) in the RPI, 1. Central Florida 4. James Madison 7. Marshall 51. Kentucky 73. West Virginia C) The bottom of the Sun Belt will pull these RPI numbers down. South Carolina, Coastal Carolina and Georgia Southern, while likely to improve, are currently in the bottom half of the RPI. Playing those teams, even with wins, will hurt the good teams' RPI. D) It's early.
BTW, none of this is to suggest that there won't be good Sun Belt teams this year. Marshall is now a legit national power and off to a good start. JMU has been a good but not great program for most of the past 30 years. Kentucky has started sending guys to the pros regularly and UCF has been competitive, too. They could all be really good this year. But I don't think they're all gonna be in the top 20.
Unless they lose to or tie the bottom of the conference they could all stay in the Top 25. I do think Kentucky lost to much to stay afloat though. They were picked 1st in the Sun Belt because of last years play and not what they had coming back this year. Marshall has been in the Top 25 since Week 7 of 2019 and in the Top 15 since week 9 of that same year. I do think 4 can make the NCAAs and if everything breaks right 5 is possible. I really thought South Carolina would take a step forward this year, they had a top 25 recruiting class but that doesn't seem to be the case. They are now 0-3-1 with only one goal scored.
RPI really has no significance until midway through the season. You don't really play a team's RPI when you play against them. You play 66% of their record and 33% of their SOS. The easiest way to get a good RPI is to play teams with good records who play bad teams.
With most SBC teams only having 1 or 2 more OOC games remaining, the SBC is in GREAT position moving forward. As we sit, there are 3 teams in the Top 5 of RPI and 4 Teams in the Top 12. (#3 Marshall, #4 UCF, #5 WVU, #12 JMU). Kentucky and Georgia State are hanging within striking distance of at-large. Only South Carolina and Georgia Southern have losing records in the league, so almost everyone is bringing a solid OOC record into league play. I will vouch for JMU here. They were a really young team last year - but they had a phenomenal ending to their season. They got a huge upset over Marshall at Marshall, then won 5-0 against a Georgia State team that basically got knocked out of the NCAA tournament with that result, before losing to #1 Kentucky in the SBC championship game. JMU ended up one of the first few teams left out of the NCAA's last year. They return almost everyone this year and went defensive-focused with recruiting this year. I think JMU is a threat against ANY team in the nation this year and probably next.
A little something to make you smile this morning.... https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtE0w2vAHZh/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
The herd doing what they do‼️No. 2 @HerdMSoccer defeat JMU 3-1#NCAASoccer pic.twitter.com/63Bwy0tqrr— NCAA Soccer (@NCAASoccer) September 17, 2023 Say Hello to your new #1 come Tuesday. I have almost less respect for Paul Zazenski (JMU HC) than I do for Kevin Langan (Charlotte HC). His team is a bunch of thugs and floppers and that wasn't just the team doing it on their own, they've been taught to do that, coached even. They didn't flop as much in this match but a few days ago against UVA they done it so much in the box trying to get a PK somewhere at the end of the 1st the refs started to ignore them and let play go on.
I couldn't disagree more, I think Zazenski is doing a fantastic job with JMU right now and he has them playing toe-to-toe with the best in the country, and their gauntlet isn't done as they play at Georgetown next week. I respect what's he's building there in Harrisonburg. For the first half hour, they tried to pack their defensive third and look for counters. Once Marshall got ahead, they had to press the play and go physical or JMU was just going to get picked apart for the rest of the game. The final hour turned into a physical struggle with ALOT of cards, but this was two teams trying to win a significant contest. The second yellow on Bell was the only WTF call of the day - and will cost us the best player in college soccer not being on the pitch when we host #5 UCF this week. With Garcia-Pascual having missed the last two games due to an ankle injury, its time to see if the Herd really has championship depth having to rely on Aoumaich and Silva to generate the goals this coming week against a really strong UCF squad.
JMU flops flops and flops again. They done it so much in the box at UVA the refs started ignoring them and refused to stop and restart the game and just let it play on. They also took multiple cheap shots after the whistle yesterday evening. There is a fine line between being physical and being a thug, JMU plays thug ball and you can't convince me they don't. The only bad coaching move from Grassie this year was not taking Pinto, Bell, Duggan and Silva out of the game at the 70 min mark so they couldn't pick up a silly 2nd yellow that would turn red. At that point all Marshall had to do was play solid defense for the win. Pinto and Duggan are great on the back line but we are almost plug and play in the back.
𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗢 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗢𝗣.The top three teams in this week’s @UnitedCoaches Top 25 all hail from #SunBeltMSOC. ☀️⚽ pic.twitter.com/KxygBBqRRW— Sun Belt (@SunBelt) September 19, 2023 I would say this is a pretty historic day for the Sun Belt. I don't think they have ever had 3 teams occupy the 1 2 and 3 spots of any major poll, that's what happened though today when the United Soccer Coaches Poll dropped.
I'm not disputing what you saw when JMU played Marshall - I didn't see the match. In the JMU match against Gtown, I didn't noticed any extraordinary histrionics or theatrics - not more than any other team. Of course, every team has players who look to gain an advantage, in this case JMU #9 is the primary offender. Congrats for the 3 top spots. I'm not too surprised given the quality of the Sun Belt over the past 2 years.
Congrats to the Sun Belt and the Top 3 teams in this week's poll. Makes the conference much more exciting to watch. Hate that my Wildcats aren't helping raise the water level any longer. They are struggling to say the least. They seem to have a lot of individual talent on the team but up to this point haven't been able to put it all together for results. We'll see if there are any drastic adjustments to the game plan on Sunday vs. Old Dominion. Unfortunately, I think we're to that point...
I figured Kentucky would take a step back this year. When you lose 87% of your scoring in Bjorgolfsson, Damge and Evans and 3/4 of your back line its hard not to. I believe Cedergren is a good enough coach though not to stay down for long. The team Im most perplexed about is South Carolina. This is now Tony Annan 3rd season, with two top 25 recruiting classes I thought we would see a change in play this year instead it looks as if they are holding steady or moving backwards. At 2-3-1 they haven't shown me anything. The win over Kentucky most years would look good, this year not so much. Their only other win was a 4-0 win over second year DI Queens college
Going to be a CRAZY atmosphere at The Vet tomorrow night! Virgina Tech at Marshall Football sold out at noon on ESPN2! #3 UCF at #1 Marshall Soccer sold out at 7:15pm on ESPN+! WE ARE… SOLD OUT! 🤩Number 1 Fans in the Country! 💚 See you at The Vet tomorrow night as we take on #3 UCF! 🤘#AllOrNothing // #WeAreMarshall pic.twitter.com/xxug59k40K— Marshall University Men's Soccer (@HerdMSoccer) September 22, 2023
I don't think we will get 3,033 like we did against WV but with the overflow of the VA Tech game and STO already sold out I believe we can get 2500-2600 for the 3rd ranked team i the nation. At one time I thought we were very fortunate in 2017 when we were looking for a new coach to have Grassie still at UC. Then I started doing a little digging and most ADs just don't understand the hiring of soccer coaches or they just don't care. Since 2011 only 6 DII coaches have been hired as DI soccer coaches and two of those are Chris Grassie at Marshall and Dan Stratford at WVU. Most ADs for soccer, or rather men's soccer go for a fired/resigned HC or an asst at a DI program. That seems like an extremely lazy hiring process.
What a friggan STUPID boneheaded play by Porrta. Just gave the win away with less than a min to go in the game. From the line in The Mighty Ducks "Stupid Cake Eater" !!!!!
goal was called back for some reason. Anyone at the game know what the reason was? Looked like an error for Perrota and a clean tackle and finish for ucf. Watching online was hard to tell what the reason was for them calling the goal back