Women's Soccer AAC Tournament

[BullyPulpit]

2 minutes ago, chapelbull said:

Why does the sport or gender matter?   It's a national championship tournament.  Why don't we deserve better?   Why do we just have to shut up and be happy we are in?    Saw something where this is the 3rd time in 5 years that a top 16 RPI USF team not only doesn't get a top 16 seed but has to play another top 20 team in the 1st round.   This is on the heels of WBB being underseeded as well.    The seedings matter.   While we are battling a tough Central Conn St  team, Tex A & M is resting and waiting to play us just a few days later.

I agree with you that USF typically gets screwed over in the seeding process, especially in the women's sports. Here, however, it is not as egregious as it seems. The RPI was not useable this year due to a lack of OOC games. Throwing that aside, I do think that USF was one of the top 20 teams in the nation and deserved a look at a top 16 seed. The Committee ultimately decided to place a heavier value on OOC performance this season to account for the lack of a useable RPI. 

As for saying that it doesn't matter and you should just play, that is a weak argument. In this tournament especially being in the top 16 matters tremendously. CCSU are not pushovers and the Bulls will have to fight to get to the second round. With that being said, I don't think USF's schedule warranted a top 16 seed. Their play on the field passed the eye test, but our only "good" victory this season came over Memphis. We tied a mediocre Florida team, beat a mediocre FAU team, tied a mediocre Cincy team, and then pounded them in the conference tournament. The ladies can prove that they were underseeded by making it to the Elite 8 and taking on UNC. This is college soccer and a fluky goal and bad luck can be the difference. Just have to go out there and control the play like we did in the AAC tournament. The Bulls dominated TOP against ECU and Cincy. Do the same in the next two games and we could really have a story developing. 

[NewEnglandBull]

10 minutes ago, chapelbull said:

Why does the sport or gender matter?   It's a national championship tournament.  Why don't we deserve better?   Why do we just have to shut up and be happy we are in?    Saw something where this is the 3rd time in 5 years that a top 16 RPI USF team not only doesn't get a top 16 seed but has to play another top 20 team in the 1st round.   This is on the heels of WBB being underseeded as well.    The seedings matter.   While we are battling a tough Central Conn St  team, Tex A & M is resting and waiting to play us just a few days later.

Good points all around Chapel. Although I stand by what I said earlier, it seems the issue is always with women’s sports. The NCAA seems more cost conscious for them than men’s sports when it comes to ncaa tournaments. Softball is a prime example, almost always they have to play UF or FSU. Come to think of it, the same is true for baseball as well. 

[chapelbull]

We can rationalize it all we want.   There are teams that received byes that did not outperform USF overall and it isn't the first time.  Obviously all they can do now is go out and win games, but it doesn't change the fact that they were underseeded AGAIN and thus have a tougher road than they should have

[chapelbull]

2 minutes ago, NewEnglandBull said:

Good points all around Chapel. Although I stand by what I said earlier, it seems the issue is always with women’s sports. The NCAA seems more cost conscious for them than men’s sports when it comes to ncaa tournaments. Softball is a prime example, almost always they have to play UF or FSU. Come to think of it, the same is true for baseball as well. 

All games are being played in NC and the WBB was all in San Antonio.   There were a couple nonP5's seeded this year so they obviously gave more consideration to those teams this year than most, but there should have been 1 more.   Like BP is saying, they are probably using the Cincy tie as the excuse, but we took care of business when it mattered and finished an undefeated season.

[CousinRicky]

20 minutes ago, chapelbull said:

All games are being played in NC and the WBB was all in San Antonio.   There were a couple nonP5's seeded this year so they obviously gave more consideration to those teams this year than most, but there should have been 1 more.   Like BP is saying, they are probably using the Cincy tie as the excuse, but we took care of business when it mattered and finished an undefeated season.

Okay. So show you belong and beat Cent Conn.  If you don't beat them maybe the seeding people were right. 

And I'm only arguing for discussion sake. I think we get screwed all the time. This year's WBB seemed more blatant than most but WBB seems to get it more than most - but could be because they are good more often than most other USF teams.

Going back a few years the M Golf team got a pretty fair seeding the year they made the final 8 IIRC.  

[BullyPulpit]

23 minutes ago, chapelbull said:

We can rationalize it all we want.   There are teams that received byes that did not outperform USF overall and it isn't the first time.  Obviously all they can do now is go out and win games, but it doesn't change the fact that they were underseeded AGAIN and thus have a tougher road than they should have

It's not a rationalization, it is reality. They were definitely underseeded, I am not arguing that point at all. I just don't think our schedule warranted a top 16 seed. The Committee was tasked with an impossible job to try and fairly seed these teams. I think they did the best they could under the circumstances, but that is not to say that USF received a fair seed placement. I think we should have been around #19 or 20, which would have had us playing an easier team in the first round and a team like Clemson or Georgetown (who could both be better than Texas A&M) in the second round. The challenge with that, and where I say we may be better off, is that if you win your second round game, you then are likely facing what traditionally would have been a #1 seeded team, UCLA or TCU, in the round of 16. You are essentially trading the level of difficulty in winning your first round match for better odds of advancing deeper into the tournament. 

With all of that being said, I am excited to see what this team can do. I think we will dispatch CCSU with ease and then have an awesome match with Texas A&M. Win that and who knows. The exciting things about this team is that the two best players (GK Sydney Martinez and F Sydny Nasello) are both juniors and they have a really talented freshman in Vivianne Bessette, who is a great two-way player. Serita Thurton and Solveig Larsen are also a freshman that will likely be big contributors next year and beyond. CDSB has built a strong program here and I fully expect that USF will be a top 20 program for the foreseeable future.   

 

[NewEnglandBull]

25 minutes ago, BullyPulpit said:

It's not a rationalization, it is reality. They were definitely underseeded, I am not arguing that point at all. I just don't think our schedule warranted a top 16 seed. The Committee was tasked with an impossible job to try and fairly seed these teams. I think they did the best they could under the circumstances, but that is not to say that USF received a fair seed placement. I think we should have been around #19 or 20, which would have had us playing an easier team in the first round and a team like Clemson or Georgetown (who could both be better than Texas A&M) in the second round. The challenge with that, and where I say we may be better off, is that if you win your second round game, you then are likely facing what traditionally would have been a #1 seeded team, UCLA or TCU, in the round of 16. You are essentially trading the level of difficulty in winning your first round match for better odds of advancing deeper into the tournament. 

With all of that being said, I am excited to see what this team can do. I think we will dispatch CCSU with ease and then have an awesome match with Texas A&M. Win that and who knows. The exciting things about this team is that the two best players (GK Sydney Martinez and F Sydny Nasello) are both juniors and they have a really talented freshman in Vivianne Bessette, who is a great two-way player. Serita Thurton and Solveig Larsen are also a freshman that will likely be big contributors next year and beyond. CDSB has built a strong program here and I fully expect that USF will be a top 20 program for the foreseeable future.   

 

Out of all of USF athletics, including women’s basketball, this team has the best chance to be in the final four before the tournament begins. Not saying it’s going to happen but compared to what is on campus they are the best IMHO.

[chapelbull]

1 hour ago, CousinRicky said:

Okay. So show you belong and beat Cent Conn.  If you don't beat them maybe the seeding people were right. 

And I'm only arguing for discussion sake. I think we get screwed all the time. This year's WBB seemed more blatant than most but WBB seems to get it more than most - but could be because they are good more often than most other USF teams.

Going back a few years the M Golf team got a pretty fair seeding the year they made the final 8 IIRC.  

I appreciate that and don't mind the discussion at all.   I think it over simplifies it though to say just beat CC and show we belong.   We shouldn't have to keep beating teams to show we belong.    We showed we belong with our undefeated season and then run through the conference championship.   After the WBB snub, this crap is getting old.   It changes everything when you are this underseeded and have a much tougher path than you deserve.

[chapelbull]

1 hour ago, NewEnglandBull said:

Out of all of USF athletics, including women’s basketball, this team has the best chance to be in the final four before the tournament begins. Not saying it’s going to happen but compared to what is on campus they are the best IMHO.

Yes and the NCAA made sure to make it as tough as possible to get there.    The point made in the one statement I saw was how the NCAA mysteriously finds the top G5 teams and pit them in round 1 so they A) knock each other off and B) have to fight through the first round

[chapelbull]

And I just realized Vandy lost to Memphis at the end of March .... makes sense that they are the 16 seed and we are somewhere between 25-28 .... or maybe not