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12-02-2013, 11:03 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-02-2013, 12:21 PM by
Viking_Guy.)
I watched most of the tourney games this past weekend (how many screens could I have on simultaneously became a question at points).
Stanford's biggest issue appears to be their relative weakness at 2 meters. They're essentially playing against the Serbian/Croatian youth system when they play USC and Vavic, and Pacific appears to have risen by pulling in the Hungarian youth system. In both cases, they have hulking brobdingnagian players inside, of the 6'4" - 6'5" 240 lbs variety who if American would've probably ended up linebackers or tight ends (can Dudchock swim?)
In both the semi and the final, Stanford got exclusion after exclusion called against them inside, and SC especially was able to score inside several times as their 2-meter man simply shrugged off his defender (or in one case, Stanford's defense didn't rotate fast enough after the exclusion and let him get the ball alone in front of the net).
Not sure if I know enough about WP to really understand everything going on, but the number of 6 on 5 opportunities Stanford gave up in the matches I watched suggested the above.
And yes, USC will definitely have an easier path to the final. They play either St. Francis (whom Stanford beat 17-1 earlier this year) or UCSD, who didn't play the Cardinal but lost to USC 17-5 and UCLA twice, 16-6 and 17-2. The new NCAA tournament (6 teams, with two play-in games) I believe was adopted because another automatic qualifier conference was added (the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, featuring such athletic powerhouses as Whittier, Pomona-Pitzer and the invincible California Insititute of Technology). Of course, none of that addresses the fact that no team from outside the MPSF has ever won the tournament (and I think non-MPSF teams had a record against the conference of something like 3 wins against 95 losses this season). It would probably be a better tourney if it went to 8, because UCLA being excluded in favor of teams it absolutely destroyed really makes it a bit of a mockery.
VG
