11.19.2007 11:01 am

NCAA talk

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

SLU’s early exit from the Atlantic 10 tournament - losing on PKs in the semifinals to Charlotte after playing to a scoreless tie — won’t jeopardize the team’s NCAA hopes, but it could jeopardize a first-round bye.

The NCAA will announce the field today between 4:30 and 5 on ESPNews. SLU was 21st in the NCAA’s last RPI, released before the conference tournament, and a tie with the No. 82 team won’t help. The top 16 teams in the field get the first round off, and it looks like SLU would be right on the cusp. They’re a healthy 7-1-1 on the road and have a good strength of schedule. (They beat Indiana, which is ranked No. 3 and tied No. 19 SMU on the road.) The RPI isn’t the only thing the committee looks at, and SLU’s top-notch facility and ability to host a match will also work in its favor. But if they do get a first-round bye, I would expect them to be close to No. 16.

If they don’t get a first-round bye, they would start at home, most likely on Friday because the basketball team plays Saturday. And if they win that one, their second game would be on the road. If they do get a first-round bye, they would start at home in the second round on Nov. 28.

This was the second time in three years SLU had been knocked from the A-10 tournament on PKs. And despite being the dominant team in the league in the regular season, SLU can’t win the A-10. (UMass, which beat SLU in the regular season, beat Charlotte Sunday for the A-10 title and an NCAA spot.)

In projecting the NCAA at-large field, Paul Kennedy at Soccer America sees Midwest teams Creighton, SMU, Northwestern, Indiana, Michigan State, DePaul, Louisville and Notre Dame getting in. Getting automatic berths were Illinois-Chicago, Oakland, Tulsa, Bradley and Akron. Owing to the regionality of the NCAA soccer tournament, you can figure some of the unranked teams among that group — UIC, Oakland, DePaul, Bradley or Louisville — being an early round opponent for SLU.

On a separate note, Brad Davis (who introduced himself as “Brad Davis, St. Louis University, 24 credits” in the ABC pregame introductions) had an excellent MLS Cup on Sunday. Soccer America rated him a 7 (out of 10), the highest rating anyone got in the game. Good performances in big games are the things that get you called back in to the national team.

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Blog Comments: Rules of the Road

I am not sure how SLU goes from being 21 in RPI BEFORE the tournament to a top 16 seed AFTER the tournament. Yeah, SLU may have had some non-RPI factors (like winning a bunch of games in a row and some nice wins earlier in the season) in their favor at one point but the biggest non-RPI factor now is that they lost to Charlotte. That means they will be playing on the road when it counts. It may be reasonable to expect the play-in game to be at home.

That said, this teams style (that is, it is more important to look good and display technical skills than actually win games) is actually more suited to the underdog role. So bring on the highest seeds early!

— kwyjibo

1:11 pm November 19th, 2007

Last year, SLU got a No. 11 seed, which was better than their RPI at the time. (I don’t have that number in front of me, but their final RPI (which reflects the loss to Northwestern) was No. 19. (Northwestern finished with a higher RPI than SLU had.) And SLU came in off a loss to Rhode Island in the conference tournament last year. So there is the potential for them to be several slots higher than their RPI. I don’t konw if they can make up that many spots, however.

I should also say that there was a feeling last year that the SLU men and women got home matches so the NCAA could test drive some things for the College Cup. That, of course, is not in play this year.

— Tom Timmermann

1:23 pm November 19th, 2007