In the water... MWP at conf. champ semis 11AM Sat -
M T - 11-17-2018
We've had enough fire and air! Time for some water....
The men's water polo team faces UCLA in the MPSF championship semifinals at 11AM Saturday morning at USC.
Quote:MPSF TV will provide a live stream of the games. To access the live stream log on to https://mpsports.org/watch. Live will also available for all the games on USC's MPSF Championship Central page.
The other semifinal will be USC vs Cal at 1PM.
The 3rd place game will be Sunday at 11AM, with the championship game at 1PM. (These will be on PAC-12 networks)
Games last about 1 hour. If you're late tuning in, you can miss a lot.
Although Stanford is seeded #1, they lost to UCLA earlier in the year. The top 4 teams are all neck-and-neck this year. It is anyone's tournament, with the winner having the best path to the NCAA Championship. It is likely the #2 and #3 teams in this tourney will have to face each other at the NCAA championships (at Stanford, Dec 1 & 2) before playing (probably) this tourney's winner in the NCAA Championship match.
The #1, #2, #3 finishers in this tourney are not automatically seeded in that same order at NCAAs, but since it has been close this year, I think it likely. At most 3 teams from the MPSF conference will go to the NCAAs. They will play other teams there, but the chances are good that the championship match will be between two MPSF teams.
This year's Big 4 results (not necessarily in order):
Stanford 13, USC 11
Stanford 8, UCLA 7
UCLA 12, Cal 11
USC 13, Cal 6
USC 10, Stanford 9
Cal 9, UCLA 7
UCLA 10, Stanford 8
USC 13, Cal 7
Stanford 12, Cal 11 OT
USC 12, UCLA 11
UCSB played some tight games against those 4 teams.
RE: In the water... MWP at conf. champ semis 11AM Sat -
2006alum - 11-17-2018
Thanks for the lowdown. Somehow I still don't understand the seeding here. According to the list of head-to-head games, USC went 4-1 against the other three, Stanford went 3-2, UCLA went 2-3, and Cal went 1-4. And USC and Stanford split their head-to-heads, as did Cal and UCLA. And yet Stanford is seeded above USC, and Cal above UCLA? Were there some weird results in games outside these four that altered the pecking order? It ironically doesn't matter insofar as even if seeded based on head-to-heads, it'd be USC vs. Cal and Stanford vs. UCLA, but this does seem a bit odd to me.
stanfordmatt -
StanfordMatt - 11-17-2018
Stanford’s loss to USC came at the MPSF Invite Tournament and so did not count towards conference standings. In conference games, we beat USC and Cal and lost to UCLA to finish 2-1. USC also finished 2-1 while UCLA and Cal each finished 1-2. Our win over USC in the game that counted for MPSF standings gave us the tiebreaker and the #1 seed.
RE: In the water... MWP at conf. champ semis 11AM Sat -
BostonCard - 11-17-2018
[tweet]https://twitter.com/mpsfmenswp/status/1063885336449695749?s=21[/tweet]
We are up 9-7 with 4 minutes to go.
BC
We win! 9-7 final score.
http://www.thefosh.net/livestats.php?gameid=6085
BC
RE: In the water... MWP at conf. champ semis 11AM Sat -
unclechuck - 11-17-2018
Yippee!
Revenge Tour win #1
RE: In the water... MWP at conf. champ semis 11AM Sat -
Griffins78 - 11-17-2018
Cal beats USC 10-9!
RE: In the water... MWP at conf. champ semis 11AM Sat -
M T - 11-17-2018
(11-17-2018, 03:30 PM)Griffins78 Wrote: Cal beats USC 10-9!
Astounding! I considered USC the toughest team to beat.
If Stanford wins the championship, it will be seeded #1.
If Cal were to win, I think they'd likely be seeded #1, but possibly #2.
This means that either UCLA or USC will not be in the NCAA championships as I can't see the exclusion of Cal (and certainly not Stanford) no matter what happens tomorrow.
This shows just how much parity there is among these 4 teams.
Go Stanford!
RE: In the water... MWP at conf. champ semis 11AM Sat -
StanfordMatt - 11-17-2018
I think Cal needs to win tomorrow in order to feel good about their chances of making the NCAA Tournament. Beating USC today obviously helps but they were the lowest ranked of the Big 4 entering the weekend and the only one to have lost to a non-Big 4 team all year (Harvard on 9/15). I feel pretty good about Stanford and USC making the tournament regardless of what happens tomorrow but obviously beating Cal will make the path to a national title much easier for us by claiming the top seed and avoiding another Big 4 opponent in the semis. MT is right that the parity among all four this year is as close as any I remember. If Stanford and USC both win tomorrow, I sure wouldn't want to have to be the judge deciding who gets the 3rd MPSF spot between UCLA and Cal.
Champ. game on PAC-12 1PM Sunday -
M T - 11-18-2018
It looks like the Stanford-Ohio State WBB game is being replaced by the MPSF MWP championship game on PAC-12 network.
RE: In the water... MWP at conf. champ semis 11AM Sat -
Embo - 11-18-2018
Stanford 12 Dirty Golden Bares 10
On the Pac 12 Network. My subscription was worth it.
RE: In the water... MWP at conf. champ semis 11AM Sat -
M T - 11-18-2018
21-2 Stanford will clearly have the #1 seed at the national championships at home Dec 1-2.
The question is who will be the other two from MPSF. 19-6 Cal, which beat USC yesterday but had 6 losses? 28-4 USC, which lost its last 2, after a really good season? 22-5 UCLA, which beat USC today?
My guess is what I said before ... the #1, #2, #3 teams from the MPSF tourney will be #1, #2, #3. That leaves USC out.
RE: In the water... MWP at conf. champ semis 11AM Sat -
StanfordMatt - 11-19-2018
NCAA seeds have been announced as follows:
1. Stanford
2. USC
3. UCLA
4. UC San Diego
Long Beach State was the surprise winner out of the Golden Coast Conference over Pacific (UC Santa Barbara didn't participate in the conference tournament due to self-imposed sanctions) and will face Pomona-Pitzer in a play-in game for the right to play UCSD. We'll meet the winner of that game in the semifinals on Dec. 1.
The bottom half of the draw is much more loaded as UCLA and USC will have to battle through one another to reach the finals (assuming the Bruins handle the winner of Princeton/George Washington).
Mildly surprising to not only see USC in the field but as the #2 seed. Clearly, the committee put more stock in the regular season than results from the MPSF Tournament. What's good for the Trojan was not good for the Golden Bear.
https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/print/waterpolo-men/nc/2018
RE: In the water... MWP at conf. champ semis 11AM Sat -
Spiny_Norman - 11-19-2018
Stanford has not played in the finals since 2008. And has not won since 2002.
I hope that all Cardboarders in the Stanford area will get out and support the team in the NCAAs in two weekends. Stanford is favorably positioned as the #1 seed and has beaten both SC and UCLA this season. This could be epic.
RE: In the water... MWP at conf. champ semis 11AM Sat -
BobK - 11-19-2018
I bought my tickets.
Also NCAA women’s volleyball at Stanford that weekend