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He might be national coach of the year with the turnaround this year. As for how far we go in the tourney, that's always a dice roll. Refs put their whistles in their pockets in the tourney and injuries become a factor. I remember our final four run when we met Maryland in the semi-finals. They flat out manhandled us. Our smaller faster skill players were simply knocked to the pitch. Maryland had a great team that year, but skill yields to thuggery in the tourney. Look back at our tourney losses under Schellas. UCSB - no real skill, just physicality. St. John's - fouled with impunity. Also there are a ton of 1-0 games and luck has a lot to do with 1-0 games. So, making the tourney is great and any wins in the tourney are gravy.

I disagree, at least a little, about the past tournaments. St. John's came in like a bunch of linebackers and physically beat the Mustangs around, but UCSB — which went on to win the national championship the year it beat SMU — had some exceptionally skilled players. The Gauchos played more physically than we did, especially the midfielder who marked Bruno Guarda right out of the game, but they had some very talented players, too.

Another great hire by Steve O!

PonyPride wrote:I disagree, at least a little, about the past tournaments. St. John's came in like a bunch of linebackers and physically beat the Mustangs around, but UCSB — which went on to win the national championship the year it beat SMU — had some exceptionally skilled players. The Gauchos played more physically than we did, especially the midfielder who marked Bruno Guarda right out of the game, but they had some very talented players, too.

I went to that St Johns game and think that they were alot of Jamaicans that played for them and they were huge guys ( the football team would have loved to have had some of those guys)and also looked older than the Stangs.

in the last couple of years at least, SMU soccer seems to have struggled against big physical teams. I saw the game in Columbia a couple of years ago and SC had a big physical bunch that put it on us that day