nortx9

Some other targets- Grayson County, Paris JC, and Navarro JC, Blinn JC. Blinn is a main feeder to A& M I believe, so that kind of a pipeline could be diverted if a coach were to be recruited to UNT. I would think for North Texas area, this would be a good strategy. Find a pipeline school to the big Texas BB programs and look for that coach with necessary successful background criteria (like pitcher development, more pitcher development), and established recruiting expertise for the NT area. Being familiar with the big programs from direct working relationships, not necessarily having led one, may yield a very good coach at a reasonable price for a start up program. Step up for the Coach, and a chance to build a program from ground up. I think that model works for the Texas area, maybe not everywhere. A good JC coach in my opinion is a good choice to build a program such as this. Basically, they are rebuilding every year due to MLB drafts, and JC transfers to D-I or other programs. They have to work pretty lean, and have to be pretty good at player development to sustain quality of play. A lot of good guys are buried in the JC ranks due to limited opportunities. A school like UNT adding a program smack in the middle of a recruiting hotbed does not come along everyday. Lots of possibilities!

..... or a really good coach with established ties to local club and HS recruiting!

......, while still paying for the old one......

Soccer won't sign until Feb 1...we have at least 4 very solid oral commits from top local club D-I programs, and possibly a couple of transfers the coaches are high on. We should increase our depth, speed and talent with this class. Very pleased with the 2007 class as it stands now, I have seen some of them play several times in past couple of months, and we have very solid players committing in the 2008 class as well! We should be positioned to remain at top of SBC for next few years, on paper at least......

I could agree. I am most encouraged that we battled back to put ourselves in a position to win conference tourney, and still earn a top 15 region finish. It was a great year. My only real gripe here is that if you look at strength of non-conf sched, MTSU record (and stats) was padded by teams like Mercer, Ala A & M, Jacks. St, Evansville, So.Miss., and Lipscomb!!..... Even with our Grambling blemish, they did win their conf....over Ala A&M and Jacks. St...... and while MTSU was playing these juggernauts, we were playing the CUSA, like Houston, SMU, and Southland Conf TexSt (lost in conf finals) and NWSt (last year South conf Champ). Head to head was a wash, although one might make the argument that the game situation at SBCT had a little more riding on it, and we did have a better goals against at 5-4 in two meetings. While we did lose twice to Denver, we got the priviledge of getting to play them twice too, and in the finals (which MTSU has never done I don't think). In conference play, we actually had a better showing, they lost in Denver 4-1. If they were going to allow a tie at 15 with UTEP, I think we should have been tied at 14 with MTSU, worst case. We are both better than UTEP! Great recruiting year coming in for UNT, and all three teams have their big guns coming back, so looking for another good run next year against both Denver and MTSU, and hopefully better respect for the SBC from the pollsters.

Denver at 5, 29th nationally MTSU at 14 UNT tied for 15 with UTEP Ended up right back where we started......guess we are still not better than MTSU.

I read the first sentence... "North Texas offensive coordinator Ramon Flanigan left the coaching box for the sideline on Saturday ...." and thought we had another issue on our hands. Then I realized everyone was safe, and we were talking football coaching strategy....whew!

I can't get past the spam to get to the sites! I get hit so many times I'm out of window space before I can read an article

Maybe that thing about moving the OC down to field level made everyone a little bit smarter. Ya think?

Here's another that got screwed.......welcome to the second place club. In Monday's biggest surprise, the NCAA women's soccer committee ignored the Ducks, turning out the Pac-10's second-place team for the first time in history. Coming off a weekend in which Oregon upset UCLA, 2-1, on Friday and dropped USC, 3-1, in the regular-season finale, the Duck contingent was stunned. USC and UCLA got in, and UCLA is a #2 seed and hosting....what a hose job this was! And there is nothing wrong with the selection process........

I'll float another one for you... if you ever watch womens soccer on FSC, have you ever seen a Sunbelt conference game or a CUSA or WAC, or a SWAC, or a Atl Sun game, (and I bet they never called Rick to see if he wanted one televised either)....no, all there ever is ACC, SEC, Big East and Pac 10......there is something to be said for big schools/big conf and alum, etc, etc ad nauseum....but I personally think as far as soccer goes, people watch it whether it is Grambling or North Carolina..... Isn't it interesting that out of the ones who are on TV (hint: someone, spelled N-C-A-A or F-S-C or E-S-P-N) is making money) SEC gets 5, ACC gets 7, and Pac 10 gets 4, Big East gets 7 and 4 of those get to host first/sec round games! That is 23 of the at large berths that went to these schools...some are very deserving, but some are there because of the conference, and probably will not survive any longer than UNT or MTSU would. Given that many schools classify themselves as non-revenue soccer programs, why is the NCAA not willing to limit teams from a conference, and allow other programs to grow by gaining the exposure that currently is monopolized by the bigger conferences? There has to be a greenback in these decisions somewhere, even with soccer.... too bad.

Unfortunately some of these actually won their conference so they got in by virtue of that route.....now if you really want a laugher of a regional, A & M plays Grambling, who won their conf, and McNeese plays SMU, all at College Station. McNesse won their conference. I'm looking for a scoring record to fall in that A & M Grambling game..... On the other hand, if you play in the SEC and ACC, there is no incentive whatsover to even PLAY the tournament, because nearly everyone who made it to those tournaments got in regardless of how they finished, check that out. ACC got SEVEN.......This at large system needs to be changed. Their is no reward for teams who make their finals and don't win, while others just need to be in their tourney, not win it, not even win a game, and they are in......

Maybe... they get Kentucky first in Colorado, a tough draw they won their conf in a mild upset I think. Kentucky beat Tennessee twice, once in season and in conf semis. Had a tough schedule too against a lot of regional and national ranked teams. If Denver does win they probably get #4 bracket seed Colorado who plays Colo College. Pretty good team there could upset Colorado, although will take a perfect performance. CC did beat SMU in semis of CUSA, but was up and down near end of season, lost in finals of CUSA. I hope they do well, will give more cred to our conference. I know there are several teams in this tourney that are not as good as UNT or even MTSU. I would like to see them in final against Colorado, and give them a good run in that final. Would be huge for the conference, we need more consideration for at large berths.

That is really, really good. Hope they have continued success for Fall, may help the recruit process for openings in Spring?

Agreed, no one in conference did well against ranked teams, or big conference teams. Denver had a good week early in year tied Vandy, beat Ole Miss (who was overrated all year), beat Clemson, Nevada LV in OT,but got beat by Colorado too. MTSU lost to Vandy in OT and Tennessee. We lost to Nebraska and USC, tied SMU. Not a real strong showing with the big guys. Think it will hurt us and MTSU for any bid. MTSU schedule was so weak, they should not be too concerned with moving on. We stand a better chance with our non-conf schedule and results. I still think Grambling haunted us all year, relative to standings.

Never got off the bus, played from behind for 88 1/2 minutes. Had we have played this one close I think we might have had a case to make for a bid. This was so ugly both teams had their starters out and emptied the benches for the last 17 minutes of the game. 4 goals in less than one hour of play. And the bad part was that the first three goals were defendable shots, we just did not succeed at defending the goal. I will be real surprised if we see the field again this season in NCAA.

I got some sleep, so now here is just how much we dominated. over 21 games mtsu avg 21 shots per game and over 50% (11.5pg) were on goal. We held them to 13, and only 3 were on goal (23%), almost half as many shots as game avg and half as many on goal. Slavonik WAS awesome. Grogan was avg 3.5 shots per game, and had 2 (one came on header off of a corner in second half). Was avg 2.21 points per game, had zero. Threlkeld was reinjured minutes after a desperate 2nd half appearance (1.67ppg), Morgan (2.53 ppg) held to 2 pts, and Grogan (2.21 ppg) at zero equaled nearly 4.5 ppg reduction!! And, Ellis only had to make 2 saves!! Against the 3rd ranked offense in the nation! We also tripled the goals allowed per game by MTSU (was 1.13 gpg) with three goals. I'm sorry, I just don't see how "luck" played into this as Coach Groden seemed to suggest. I believe it was a good old fashion butt whippin.....

Yes we should, and after watching both teams lastnight, I think we are on an upswing right now, and Denver appeared as flat as MTSU. Another thing I saw, may not mean much by Sat, but Hemmings left the game right after start of second half, not to return. She was taken down and appeared to hurt her shoulder in first half. She remained in game, but apparently could not play comfortably after starting 2nd half. They had their hands full with FAU, especially 2nd half, and I'm pretty sure she would have been out there if she could have. FAU was very dangerous all 2nd half, and Denver had 5 back most of 2nd half..... so, hate to wish that on anyone......except Denver or MUTS..... but it would be interesting for us if we could catch such a "break". Sat is a long time away with a trainer working on you 24-7, but even if she is healthy, I still like our chances after the last two emotional, dominating victories. We should"test" her durability early on though and see if she is willing to take a hard tackle.....

No, Not cleveland, but she is also doing very well and a great team leader, really putting her game together when we could use the extra push.

No, I do not think we will get in unless we win. SBC just has not had that benefit over the years. If any one can get in at-large based on conference record history, it would be UNT. I do think if we beat Denver, we may see two SBC teams in, since Denver is higher ranked. That is also why it is so absurd to think at this point, that MTSU will even get a second look for a bid. They never win conf, and they never get to tourney finals, much less no NCAA history. Can't see them in, and since we fell so far from preseason expectation, I do not see us getting there without an SBC championship. Remember, we were picked in preseason to win conf, and with that they had us at 52 or something in preseason NCAA bid rankings. Projected 52 AND AFTER winning the conference. Nothing has really changed for the conference except the order of finish, and it will actually look worse to the NCAA for the strength of the conference if we do beat Denver after coming from third seed and beating 2 and 1 along the way.

Send em some cheese to go with the whine..... Geez, look...they did not win the conference, and they did not win the tourney. I don't care what stats you got, they should not count squat, the team records in the clutch should, and they choked. Unless it is an NCAA pity party, they should be done until next August. This program has a history of disappearing in conference tourneys, unlike UNT. If we lose to Denver, we should have a better chance to get a birth before MUTS does. And if they do get one, we sure better have one in hand before they do.

To further..... Hedlund made a great coaching call and put Slavonik on Grogan for the match, frustrated her all night. Hurst played lights out on Morgan. They could not get free or find each other. Waters just had to patrol and support/cleanup. MTSU had to resort to sending midfielders forward to get numbers and that allowed us to control midfield and get the ball deep into their end. Morgans goal was a great shot with zero angle, not sure how it went in. Short of that, the offensive story of the night was the team wearingMean Green. And it has gone relatively unmentioned in the write ups, but Lundsford has been winning the midfield, and getting dangerous passes into the box. She has had two huge assists in two games. She placed the ball that Juett finished last night to put MG ahead for good, and tonight she had the assist to Cleveland that got us even at 1. And by the way I just have to say this..... MUTS F.O.Y was nowhere to be found in their biggest game of the year. Juett had a goal and assist......Ya think the SBC got it wrong?

Slammed the MUTS! 3-1 Scored three goals in the second half. Play Denver for all the marbles on SaT! Completely dominated this team tonight. Defense was best all year.

Neither can the Ragin Cajun website, who found the confusion worth mentioning.... The Freshman of the Year honor went to Middle Tennessee midfielder Mary Zapapas, even though she was on the all-league second team and another freshman, North Texas midfielder Kendall Juett, was picked on the first team.

Just another UNT snub ....my take is....... that statistically they were in a dead heat (and they were on many statistical levels), SBC did not want to set a precedence for Co-Award winners on FOY, and a coin was probably flipped, and one got to go to first team and one got FOY, everybody wins right?. Any other explanation can simply not be supported ......for either player. Not real sure how this works, but I believe coaches send in votes independently. After that, SBC panel decides ties I guess....I'm sure UNT will always get the political advantage on any tie.... BTW- Juett had two goals in the SBC tourney opener, Zapapas had one and had game winner. Both remain very close in their performances. Both should probably have been on First Team.