I saw a preview of top 25 teams in NCAA D1 Men's Soccer for this season. Pitt not to be seen or mentioned. I thought we had that program going good? What happened? I don't expect Final Four every season, but once he had some success, I thought sustaining Top 25 status was achievable. Especially since other Top 25 schools are like University of Seattle, Western Michigan, University of Portland, etc....can't we even hold off schools like that?
OT: Pitt Men's Soccer
- Thread starter Pitt_Boss
- Start date
It’s likely because Jay Vidovich turns over the roster completely with players from Europe and no one knows what this current squad will be.
It’s like the transfer portal in basketball but on steroids.
What FK said.
Jay doesn't really recruit American HS kids so he typically doesn't have those 4 year Americans that a UVa, Duke, ND, Stanford, etc has. He recruits Europe and that worked exceptionally well for awhile but last year, his Euro class turned out to be underwhelming so we dont return any big name players. He has another big Euro haul coming in but obviously nobody knows who these guys are so you cant really rank them. He also has a Kentucky transfer coming in who was the leading scorer for the #1 team in the nation 2 years ago.
My prediction is that they are a Sweet 16 team.
But look at the ACC in the preseason coaches poll national rankings ...
1) Clemson: 4X (& defending & 2021) national champion
2) Notre Dame: 1X national champion
5) Stanford: 3X national champion
6) UNC: 2X national champion
10) SMU
13) UVA: 7X national champion
15) Wake Forest: 1X national champion (under Jay Vidovich)
20) Duke: 1X national champion
24) Louisville
25) Syracuse: 1X (2022) national champion
NCAA DI Mens Rankings – National | United Soccer Coaches
unitedsoccercoaches.org
10 of 15 ACC teams in the top 25; the last three national titles. That is sick. Pitt may need to be a top 25 team just to finish in the top 2/3rds of the conference.
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pittdan77
Athletic Director
Hard fall for a program that was christened the Alabama of college soccer.
Wow, I actually hadn't noticed thatBut look at the ACC in the preseason coaches poll national rankings ...
1) Clemson: 4X (& defending & 2021) national champion
2) Notre Dame: 1X national champion
5) Stanford: 3X national champion
6) UNC: 2X national champion
10) SMU
13) UVA: 7X national champion
15) Wake Forest: 1X national champion (under Jay Vidovich)
20) Duke: 1X national champion
24) Louisville
25) Syracuse: 1X (2022) national champion
NCAA DI Mens Rankings – National | United Soccer Coaches
10 of 15 ACC teams in the top 25; the last three national titles. That is sick. Pitt may need to be a top 25 team just to finish in the top 2/3rds of the conference.
They really just need to finish at .500 to get into the tournament. If they are in it, they can win it. Of course I said that last year and they lost 1st Round but that was a weak class of Euros. Hopefully, this class is better.
It goes to show you the type of program he has built when a bad season is losing in the 1st Round.
Them getting into the tourney last season was a joke. Of course my opinion is unpopular to some reading this, but I equate it to a bad 5-13 B1G tOSU hoop team being in consideration for a tourney bid. You want to make the tourney, win more of the games you scheduled.
ACC men's and women's soccer are the 2 best NCAA sports league by a million miles. I mean both leagues may legitimately have 15 of the best 25 teams at any given time. Its completely insane. So I think Pitt absolutely deserved a bid last year. Comparing ACC soccer to the next best league is like comparing SEC football to the MAC. Nobody is close. Just get to .500 and they deserve to go.
I guess that's good as Akron is a perennial power though not sure how they are supposed to be this year. For Pitt, with all these new guys every year, it takes them some time to gel and coaches always complain about this but the NCAA only gives them like 2 weeks of practice before the regular season starts.
About these Euro guys? If they were really good in Europe, wouldn't they just go pro there at 16, I mean soccer snobs even in the USA say that good players shouldn't waste their time with college ball? Just curious.
The point would be that one year you hit the lotto and it's the right guys from Europe and you win. It's not about developing players or college education
They were essentially a blue blood that has been in a bit of a down cycle by their standards.
Not good enough for europe but then come over here, get an education and if they excel could find their way to MLS or USL.
The point would be that one year you hit the lotto and it's the right guys from Europe and you win. It's not about developing players or college education
Exactly. Why even have a team if it's new guys every year? Defeats the entire point of college. I expect this now from football, but not the other sports. College sports are ruined.
They don't have a completely new team from Europe every year. They recruit new guys from Europe, in the same way that other schools recruit new guys here in the States.
For example, Felipe Mercado is a grad student (although he's from Colombia, not Europe). He has a Pitt degree. Albert Thorsen is in his second year here. Guilherme Feitosa is in his fourth season here. Casper Grening is in his first year at Pitt, but this is his fourth year of college soccer, he's no different than any other transfer looking to move up to a better program in a better league. Mateo Maillefaud is in his third year playing for Pitt. I could keep going, but hopefully you get the point.
They are not bringing in a completely new team from Europe every year. They recruit Europe hard, and bring in young guys from Europe that they hope are going to be good enough to play here for four years.
What Joe said. Pitt probably does have more turnover than most other programs but its not Kentucky Basketball. This is due to bringing in Euros who already have been in college in Europe while playing in their pro academy. So sometimes they come over as an upperclassmen. Sometimes they come over as a frosh and don't work out. Jasper Loffeslend came over as a grad student, who had given up his dream of pro soccer and turned down an offer at KPMG for Katz Business School + Pitt soccer and is now in MLS.
First game of the season was a sold out, standing room only 2-0 victory over #16 Georgetown.
Pitt men's soccer knocks off No. 16 Georgetown, 2-0, in season opener
Planning to write off the Pitt Panthers men’s soccer team? Not so fast. Entering the season unranked for the first time since 2019, Pitt Men’s Soccer opened their 2024 campaign with a 2-0 shutout of No. 16 Georgetown, riding a strong defensive performance in front of goalkeeper Cabral Carter and...
pittsburghsoccernow.com
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From unranked to #3 in the nation. Bizarre to say the least.
NCAA DI Mens Rankings – National | United Soccer Coaches
unitedsoccercoaches.org
From unranked to #3 in the nation. Bizarre to say the least.
NCAA DI Mens Rankings – National | United Soccer Coaches
And not just unranked, we didn't even get a vote in the preseason poll.
And St. Louis goes from not getting any votes to 6th. I guess it's more likely to see something like that when there are only eight voters in a poll.
First game of the season was a sold out, standing room only 2-0 victory over #16 Georgetown.
Pitt men's soccer knocks off No. 16 Georgetown, 2-0, in season opener
Planning to write off the Pitt Panthers men’s soccer team? Not so fast. Entering the season unranked for the first time since 2019, Pitt Men’s Soccer opened their 2024 campaign with a 2-0 shutout of No. 16 Georgetown, riding a strong defensive performance in front of goalkeeper Cabral Carter and...
Looks like he got the right European kickers this year.
When you are a good coach and know talent, you can beat anyone.
From unranked to #3 in the nation. Bizarre to say the least.
NCAA DI Mens Rankings – National | United Soccer Coaches
Bama
All kidding aside…you don’t shoot up the polls like that without a built in bias that favors the coach and program. If Pat Narduzzi was not receiving votes and then beat a top 25 team week one…he still wouldn’t even see the top 25 himself until being 4-0 after week 4.
Yea. Its hard to understand. Its the coaches' poll, right? My guess is maybe the Gtown coach talked or texted with some of his buddies, who have votes and told them that Pitt dominated them.
Pitt didnt look great against Mercyhurst, however. Yea, won 2-0 and had 2 goals overruled and Mercyhurst parked the bus but it wasn't an onslaught of scoring chances. Was really impressed with Mercyhurst. New D1 program but went 14-3-1 last year in D2 and started 10 foreign players. The announcer said they had a 58 player roster. Seems like they take soccer seriously up there so I wouldn't be surprised if they won the NEC this year (picked 5th preseason) and win it most years.
Its nice to have another fairly local D1 program for some of these SW PA kids, especially boys, to aspire to. Beadling, Century, Riverhounds, etc pump out the F1 girls but for the boys its crickets. The other sports are just such huge draws for boys. Anecdotal point: my son's former teammate, who maybe could have developed into a D1 soccer player just quit the sport to focus on basketball. The kid is good at basketball but he's is, without a doubt, going to go no higher than D3 as a 6'0 (based on parents heigts) below the rim guard. He'll average 12 PPG one day in the WPIAL. Congrats on that.
The D2 schools carry those large rosters. I suspect that will start to change now that they are D1.
David Day, the analyst and former LaRoche coach wondered if they had a reserve team. He said he used to at LaRoche. I guess I dont understand putting in that much effort into a college sport, which takes so much time away from studying, if you are going to be on a D2 JV team, essentially. I bet the foreign kids are on varsity and the American kids from the pay for pay clubs are on JV.
Kids just want to play and be a part of something. And in some cases can play their way into a role and receive some money down the road. Most are on that reserve squad and then many of them quit once they see the writing on the wall. I’ve always said, if you want to play in college, there’s a spot for you somewhere. And I’ve seen plenty of JV HS type players who couldn’t carve out a role in HS varsity carve out roles in D2 and D3.
Repeating what's already stated (cuz why not?), it's pretty amazing to go from unranked to #3 based on essentially one win, even in a niche sport. Did like some voters just forget to put us on their first ballots? Were they sending a message? Who knows, but giving me hope for something to follow on the side...
Maybe they were told to rank resumes, not teams? Like in college football, if Akron wins at Ohio State Saturday, they'd have the best resume through Week 1 so shouldn't they be #1?
There are only eight voters in the soccer poll. So it is a lot easier for there to be big movement from one week to the next.
Two years ago (iirc) the Duquesne men kept getting votes in the poll, no matter what their results were that week. They were even in the top 25 a couple of weeks. I am firmly convinced that there was one, and only one, coach, perhaps even their own, who voted for them almost every week. They don't release the individual votes, so there is no way to know that, but it was just fishy that they would get a handful of voting points one week, and then lose to someone during the week, and still get basically the same number of points the following week.
I remember unranked Pitt pulled off a huge upset over #25 Duquesne a few years ago.
The eight voters in the soccer coach's poll each represent a region of the country. The regions frequently don't make a lot of sense, because they are conference based and geographically conferences make less and less sense these days. But the eight voters in the men's poll are from the following schools:
William & Mary
Marist
Cal Fullerton
Bowling Green
Albany
Virginia Tech
Marshall
Oral Roberts
The women's coaches are from:
Mississippi
Clemson
Xavier
TCU
Michigan
Utah
Rice
South Dakota
William & Mary
Marist
Cal Fullerton
Bowling Green
Albany
Virginia Tech
Marshall
Oral Roberts
The women's coaches are from:
Mississippi
Clemson
Xavier
TCU
Michigan
Utah
Rice
South Dakota
