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Article Upper Campus Rundown: Volleyball breaks records


I watched most of the 1st half until the WVU feed froze. Pitt is duplicating almost exactly its late season collapse of last season. Last season, injuries had a lot tonso to do with it. This season, though Kizza didn't play last night, which is obviously a huge loss, they haven't had as many injuries.

They didn't play terrible against WVU but just don't look like the same team. The WVU announcers and their broadcast was pretty good. They even film the game from the non-seating side so you get to see the crowd. Like Pitt, most broadcasts from NCAA soccer stadiums are filmed from the seating side because that's where the press box is but that makes a boring presentation for TV since there are typically no bleachers in the TV view. Anyway, WVU's announcers were very respectful to Pitt. They went on and on about the difficulty of the ACC and Pitt's OOC schedule, even saying Pitt should ease up on that next year (must read Joe's posts here).

Ironically, WVU's first goal was scored by a freshman from Chartiers Valley, which I am sure we didn't offer. We have players frim from all over the word, WVU gets a kid from down the street and make us pay. Sounds about right.

I saw we got a commit from Luke Mort from GCC. Is this a walk-on recruit? I dont think Vidovich has ever offered a WPIAL player
 

I watched most of the 1st half until the WVU feed froze. Pitt is duplicating almost exactly its late season collapse of last season. Last season, injuries had a lot tonso to do with it. This season, though Kizza didn't play last night, which is obviously a huge loss, they haven't had as many injuries.

They didn't play terrible against WVU but just don't look like the same team. The WVU announcers and their broadcast was pretty good. They even film the game from the non-seating side so you get to see the crowd. Like Pitt, most broadcasts from NCAA soccer stadiums are filmed from the seating side because that's where the press box is but that makes a boring presentation for TV since there are typically no bleachers in the TV view. Anyway, WVU's announcers were very respectful to Pitt. They went on and on about the difficulty of the ACC and Pitt's OOC schedule, even saying Pitt should ease up on that next year (must read Joe's posts here).

Ironically, WVU's first goal was scored by a freshman from Chartiers Valley, which I am sure we didn't offer. We have players frim from all over the word, WVU gets a kid from down the street and make us pay. Sounds about right.

I saw we got a commit from Luke Mort from GCC. Is this a walk-on recruit? I dont think Vidovich has ever offered a WPIAL player

Not sure what the deal is on Mort. The Tribune Review made it seem like he was an actual commitment.
 

I watched most of the 1st half until the WVU feed froze. Pitt is duplicating almost exactly its late season collapse of last season. Last season, injuries had a lot tonso to do with it. This season, though Kizza didn't play last night, which is obviously a huge loss, they haven't had as many injuries.

They didn't play terrible against WVU but just don't look like the same team. The WVU announcers and their broadcast was pretty good. They even film the game from the non-seating side so you get to see the crowd. Like Pitt, most broadcasts from NCAA soccer stadiums are filmed from the seating side because that's where the press box is but that makes a boring presentation for TV since there are typically no bleachers in the TV view. Anyway, WVU's announcers were very respectful to Pitt. They went on and on about the difficulty of the ACC and Pitt's OOC schedule, even saying Pitt should ease up on that next year (must read Joe's posts here).

Ironically, WVU's first goal was scored by a freshman from Chartiers Valley, which I am sure we didn't offer. We have players frim from all over the word, WVU gets a kid from down the street and make us pay. Sounds about right.

I saw we got a commit from Luke Mort from GCC. Is this a walk-on recruit? I dont think Vidovich has ever offered a WPIAL player

Not sure what the deal is on Mort. The Tribune Review made it seem like he was an actual commitment.

He could have "committed" but that doesn't mean Vidovich will give him a scholarship. We'll see if he signs an LOI, meaning he gets some form of a scholarship
 
He could have "committed" but that doesn't mean Vidovich will give him a scholarship. We'll see if he signs an LOI, meaning he gets some form of a scholarship
Have you seen all the local girls committing to pitt? There’s no way they are getting scholarships of any significance. Most of them aren’t even standouts on a local level. With the men’s side having less scholarship money to dole out, I can’t imagine a local kid getting anything from Jay. Unless he’s a freak recruit. I never heard of the kid from GCC, but he could be really good for all I know. But the Trib has no idea what they’re writing when it comes to soccer. They think that a kid scoring 5-6 goals a game vs Jeannette and Geibel is an accomplishment.
 
He could have "committed" but that doesn't mean Vidovich will give him a scholarship. We'll see if he signs an LOI, meaning he gets some form of a scholarship
Have you seen all the local girls committing to pitt? There’s no way they are getting scholarships of any significance. Most of them aren’t even standouts on a local level. With the men’s side having less scholarship money to dole out, I can’t imagine a local kid getting anything from Jay. Unless he’s a freak recruit. I never heard of the kid from GCC, but he could be really good for all I know. But the Trib has no idea what they’re writing when it comes to soccer. They think that a kid scoring 5-6 goals a game vs Jeannette and Geibel is an accomplishment.

I actually heard he committed from a friend of a friend. My thought was like "huh?" Sounded like they think its a big deal. I said its almost guaranteed for a walk-on spot, which is still good but I'd be stunned if we gave a kid from a small WPIAL school money
 
Have you seen all the local girls committing to pitt? There’s no way they are getting scholarships of any significance.


There's an odd thing going on with the women. Pitt used to rarely get local girls because the former coach thought that local girls should be willing to play for Pitt for a lot less scholarship money than other places were offering simply because Pitt was the local school. With the number of local players that went to other higher level women's programs that was obviously a strategy that didn't work out very well. But now they are getting all sorts of commitments from local girls, three from Norwin alone, and yet none of them seem to be top level players, and for the most part they weren't being recruiting by top level programs.

In short, what in the heck are they doing?
 
There's an odd thing going on with the women. Pitt used to rarely get local girls because the former coach thought that local girls should be willing to play for Pitt for a lot less scholarship money than other places were offering simply because Pitt was the local school. With the number of local players that went to other higher level women's programs that was obviously a strategy that didn't work out very well. But now they are getting all sorts of commitments from local girls, three from Norwin alone, and yet none of them seem to be top level players, and for the most part they weren't being recruiting by top level programs.

In short, what in the heck are they doing?


he has commitments from something like 35 players already over the next three years, and considering there is only what, 14 scholarships to give, they can't be getting any $. The one Norwin girl's mother works for Pitt, so she might not be getting any athletic money.
 
he has commitments from something like 35 players already over the next three years, and considering there is only what, 14 scholarships to give, they can't be getting any $. The one Norwin girl's mother works for Pitt, so she might not be getting any athletic money.

Soccer isn't a head count sport, right?. It's likely that some kids are getting a very small scholarship. Sometimes schools give a token scholarship so a kid can sign an NLI.
 
playing the hand they're dealt. if you can offer similar money to the comp, you aren't going to get the better players. simples.


If Pitt can’t out recruit schools unless they offer more money then they might as well quit now and save everyone the trouble.
 
If Pitt can’t out recruit schools unless they offer more money then they might as well quit now and save everyone the trouble.

not full scholarships, man. if your net at pitt is $15k/year versus $5k somewhere else, other stuff isn't going to matter that much.
 
not full scholarships, man.


Of course they aren't full scholarships. I know how they work. I have a niece that plays D1 soccer. You said that if you offer similar money you aren't going to get better players. A good coach can get players even if they aren't offering as much as some of the competition. If they couldn't they wouldn't have enough talent on the team to win.

Getting commitments from 35 girls (in only three classes) who are, for the most part, not being recruited by top level programs doesn't seem to be a formula for success. And that is way too many players to have on a team. Add in the fourth class and potentially a few redshirts and you are looking at a roster of 40-45 girls, maybe more. You can't run effective practices for 45 players at once. You just can't.
 
Of course they aren't full scholarships. I know how they work. I have a niece that plays D1 soccer. You said that if you offer similar money you aren't going to get better players. A good coach can get players even if they aren't offering as much as some of the competition. If they couldn't they wouldn't have enough talent on the team to win.

Getting commitments from 35 girls (in only three classes) who are, for the most part, not being recruited by top level programs doesn't seem to be a formula for success. And that is way too many players to have on a team. Add in the fourth class and potentially a few redshirts and you are looking at a roster of 40-45 girls, maybe more. You can't run effective practices for 45 players at once. You just can't.
Maybe he using the JM1 strategy of bringing in a ton of players and then trimming the roster. Those who stay will play was one of his quotes.
 
I dont know what they are doing but I'll just trust the guy for now. He has been a proven winner. He has to build a historically pretty shitty program from scratch.
 
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