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On the heels of its Conference USA tournament title, the SMU men's soccer team will open the NCAA tournament Sunday evening by hosting the winner of Big 10 champion Northwestern and 2011 national champion Akron. PonyFans.com visited with head coach Tim McClements, forward Ben Hill and midfielder Arthur Ivo to discuss the Ponies' run through the C-USA tournament and what to expect in their first NCAA game.

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Men's soccer to host Northwestern-Akron winner

How do we end up playing teams like Northwestern or Akron? Shouldn't teams that earn a first round bye get a team that backed in by winning a sub-par conference? Or at least have a Southland-type of team playing a major power like NW and Akron? The way it lines up now, we face a serious threat right from the start.

Go Mustangs

EP Pony Fan wrote:How do we end up playing teams like Northwestern or Akron? Shouldn't teams that earn a first round bye get a team that backed in by winning a sub-par conference? Or at least have a Southland-type of team playing a major power like NW and Akron? The way it lines up now, we face a serious threat right from the start.

All of the winners of weak conferences get eliminated in the first round in theory - they really should expand the field to 64 and get rid of the byes but that's Title IX crap...

While on paper you would think UAB got a "better" draw facing the winner of Furman/Charlotte - if you look at the RPI Charlotte is 17 and Furman is 33, while Akron is 30 and Northwestern is 34. It's just that the teams in our part of the bracket have bigger names.

Although, even though Akron has a relatively low RPI, they have been highly ranked this season, so that one may be a bit on the unfair or unlucky side.

And, to your point, in the NSCAA poll this week Akron is 10 (down from 7) and Northwestern is 16 (up from 25).

SMU is 19 after not being ranked last week.

I guess we will find out how accurate the RPI is!

That's an outrageous draw.

Tighten up the laces, guys, and give 'em hell.

Go Mustangs!

I suspect that part of it is winning the cusa tourny doesn't garner much respect..

GO PONIES!!!

redpony wrote:I suspect that part of it is winning the cusa tourny doesn't garner much respect..

GO PONIES!!!

It should though - look at the RPI. C-USA is easily the third best conference after the Big East and ACC.

The problem is the NCAA puts too much emphasis on RPI for their brackets, which unfortunately is both working for us this year with the 6 seed, and also working against us since our part of the bracket just happens to have two teams very highly ranked by the coaches even though their RPI is lower than you would expect.

Oh well, the whole point of this season was to be prepared to face anybody who came our way in the NCAA - so let's just lace up our boots and do it!

GO PONIES!

DanFreibergerForHeisman wrote:

redpony wrote:I suspect that part of it is winning the cusa tourny doesn't garner much respect..

GO PONIES!!!

It should though - look at the RPI. C-USA is easily the third best conference after the Big East and ACC.

The problem is the NCAA puts too much emphasis on RPI for their brackets, which unfortunately is both working for us this year with the 6 seed, and also working against us since our part of the bracket just happens to have two teams very highly ranked by the coaches even though their RPI is lower than you would expect.

Oh well, the whole point of this season was to be prepared to face anybody who came our way in the NCAA - so let's just lace up our boots and do it!

GO PONIES!

Yup, I was checking on the NCAA website and according to the coaches poll, Akron is ranked 10th and NW is ranked 16th (we're ranked 19th). That is probably the toughest draw for a team with a draw, but I like our chances having that bye and playing at home.

The good news will be that these are two physical teams that will beat on each other and then the winner gets a speedy Mustang team. If we can survive what will for sure be a first half attack, we should be able to have some openings in the second half.

Looking at Akron...they lost in the semifinals of the conference tourney to a 6-11-3 team in a shootout. That really sunk where they would be placed. Suprised though that Northwestern is having to travel to Akron even after winning the Big whatever.

Northwestern's web site says the game is available on a web stream from ncaa.com, but there is nothing currently listed on ncaa.com.

http://www.nusports.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/111411aaa.html

Hopefully it will be available, it should be a great game to watch even without the implications for SMU.

When you go to Northwestern's athletics web site you are also greeted by a splash saying "Chicago's College Team" - imagine that...

DanFreibergerForHeisman wrote:Northwestern's web site says the game is available on a web stream from ncaa.com, but there is nothing currently listed on ncaa.com.

http://www.nusports.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/111411aaa.html

Hopefully it will be available, it should be a great game to watch even without the implications for SMU.

When you go to Northwestern's athletics web site you are also greeted by a splash saying "Chicago's College Team" - imagine that...

Unfortunately it's technically true after University of Chicago left the Big 10. UoC left football in 1939 and it's funny that UoC still has 2 NCs and NW has none. For soccer, they're going to either lose to Akron first or if they advance to us.

Oh my - if Akron beats Northwestern I certainly hope our players watch this a few times before our game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIJ9_Ousn0s

Neither Akron or Northwestern are the boogie men people on this board make them out to be. As I recall we took Akron's best shot two years ago (with basically the same group that won it all last year) and lost on a questionable P.K. Northwestern won the Big 10, nothing more to really say there, it's the Big 10. This Akron team, while very good, doesn't have the same firepower up top like last year and they don't defend as well. I watched the Northwestern/Penn St. game and didn't see anything that should worry our guys. If the team plays the way they did in the conference championship game, I think they can get to the quarter finals again. The good news there would be they'll face UConn, a team they already faced once and played close.

Even Goal.com agrees that Akron isn't to be feared.

http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/2617/you ... irst-round