Losing is contagious

[mustangbill67]

It will be interesting to see how recruiting goes this year for the top players in the country. We have held our own in the past and McClements has received a lot of credit, but it should be interesting nonetheless considering how poor the results were this season.

[817pony]

Why will no one answer my question about how many national championships SH has? Or my question about SMU losing in the Conference USA tournament to FIU last year?

[mustangbill67]

Why will no one answer my question about how many national championships SH has? Or my question about SMU losing in the Conference USA tournament to FIU last year?

OK I will bite. SMU did lose to FIU last year in the Conf. USA tournament but went to the Dance based on regular season record and strength of schedule. SH never won a national championship at SMU. However, his teams did go to the NCAA tournament in most years. In fact, over the past 9 years, his teams went to the tournament every year and progressed beyond the first round most years. This includes two quaterfinal appearances and two final four appearances (2000 and 2005). What is your point?

[817pony]

My point is that SH has been labeled as this amazing coach that did nothing but win. But he never won a national championship and he even lost conference tournament games, (FIU is no South Carolina btw) and guess what, he missed the NCAA tournament some years. No team will make it every year, teams will have down years where you lose players to injuries. This team not only had tons of injuries but last players to the MLS. SH had a team that was vastly more healthy last year and lost in the conference tournament to FIU and then lost early in the NCAA tournament.

[Horseshoe]

817, don't you know that bringing actual facts into this debate is just going to upset those pressing their own personal agendas?
As I recall, there were a lot of naysayers on here in past years complaining that even Saint Schellas took players who weren't ranked as highly as those signed by other schools.
Of course, he won a lot of games with those players that he — and Coach McClements and Coach Erwin — identified. The secret part of it all was that those players were healthy.

[pjpony]

No team will make it every year, teams will have down years where you lose players to injuries. This team not only had tons of injuries but last players to the MLS.

All this talk about injuries and players going pro early are just excuses. When you compare us to UCLA you have two traditional powerhouse teams that have a lot in common this year. UCLA had to struggle with an unusually high number of injuries early in the season creating players being put in positions that they were not accustomed to playing and only one returning starter from last year in the backline due to some seniors graduating and three serious stars in Zizzo, Beltran and Meyers going pro early. Nakazawa, their 2008 pre-season Hermann Award Candidate played in constant pain and in very few games due to back problems. There was a core group of freshmen that Coach Salcedo was forced to play due to his personnel issues. Yet UCLA never talked about excuses and managed to win the Pac-10 conference title this year and made the NCAA's for the 27th consecutive year.

McClements has lost as a HC at every D1 position he has held prior to coming here. He is a great recruiter, one of the best. You can't say that we don't have the depth to compete even with injuries because he's the one that recruited everyone. He can find the talent and it's what he should stick to. What he doesn't do well is develop his talent and win. This year he lost to 3 sub-100 teams. Our program took a nose-dive and we're out of the ncaa's by a long shot. He's an excellent assistant coach but not, not, not D1 HC material. The facts are all there in front of you. Why can't you see it?

SH had a team that was vastly more healthy last year and lost in the conference tournament to FIU and then lost early in the NCAA tournament.

SH made it to the postseason consistently which is what McClements had to do this year as a minimum. That and compare their career D1 HC win-loss-tie record and there is the answer to your riddle.

[pjpony]

It will be interesting to see how recruiting goes this year for the top players in the country. We have held our own in the past and McClements has received a lot of credit, but it should be interesting nonetheless considering how poor the results were this season.

I suspect that recruiting will continue to be excellent. McClements received a lot of credit which was due him as SH did not go to recruiting events. It's what McClements does best. He chats, he walks with a big swagger, he talks a big game, he puts a lot of pressure on the top recruits to sign (perhaps even to the point of being a bit of a bully) and he's very successful at it. He'll do fine in that department as his record indicates. That's what makes him a good assistant. There isn't a recruit that he has signed that isn't a top 20 player so regardless of injuries we should be able to beat all the programs ranked below 20-25. We don't have a sub-100 player on the roster so why are we losing to these teams. Driving our program to a top ranking in the country is beyond his ability. If he hasn't figured out by now how to win consistently at this level, with his vast coaching experience, then he never will. And at what cost do we let him keep trying. He knew he was on the hot seat and that he had to at least get into the ncaa's to keep his job. He knows what's coming soon.[/i]

[pony friend]

...and then there was McClements who was just sitting there on a platter playing politics with the search committee ...... I heard this was all orchestrated by McClements behind the scenes. I was told that his plan of action was to delay, delay, delay. ...

None of this could be further from the truth. There was no benefit to anyone to delay anything. The decision was made as soon as was possible, given the mandatory job posting criteria, etc. To assert that TM had the power to delay anything is ascribing more power to him than is factual.

Let's all just agree that everyone including the players, coaches, fans are disappointed in the season and move on. I don't want to "dis" any of the incoming class, but what do you think SH would say about them other than that they were "one of the strongest incoming classes?" I think it fair to say that each and every one of them are very promising, talented young men. But that doesn't equate to game-ready in season one. The mix on the team changed significantly from the roster to which these players were originally recruited. Top talent was lost. New talent is being developed.

Stop believing things that you "were told." Your sources gave you false information, and it's making you look like a lunatic. Settle down.

This team is in very capable hands when it comes to developing what we have. I hope that potential recruits are not scared off by all the negative rants thrown up here on this forum. That would be a shame. The fact is that SMU still has an excellent program. The disappointments this year will serve to improve them for the next.

[EastStang]

Even the negative rants should not scare off players. Players want to come to a program where winning is expected and losing is not an option. At least they should know that there are some passionate fans out there which is a rarity in college soccer. That said, let's all hope that this season was the perfect storm: (1) Late coaching change. (2) Star player leaves in summer for MLS. (3) Injuries to key upper classmen and (4) Learning curve for inexperienced freshmen who had unexpectedly more playing time. Coach McClements is the coach and I support him. He knows that seasons like this one cannot be the norm. I suspect that next year, you'll see a better team that will go places.

[gk00dad]

Well while going through the post mortem with several of the players after the S. Carolina game I learned a few things. First that there is plenty of blame to go around. But before I get into that there's something that was really obvious to me that a lot of people have missed. If this was such a horrible coaching job the whole season, why was this team's away form better than any of the past three teams that SMU has fielded? Think about it. This team went 7-2-1 on the road, beating teams that were ranked along the way. A horrible coach would have dropped the away games especially against ranked opponents and mabye had a decent home record.
That said coach panicked after the Tulsa game. Some of the panick was due to injuries and a lot of it had to do with trust. He did not trust his younger players, who by the way, played well for the most part considering what they were thrown into early in the year. He did not trust his back up goalkeepers because even though there was an obvious confidence problem with the keeper's home form after Tulsa he did not pull him for a backup and force him to step up his game. And he did not trust his senior leaders to run things on the pitch for better or worse.

From the players perspective they should have been allowed to play their style of game which is slow down and speed up using the midfield and ball control to open up defenses. Coach "post Tulsa" started having them run constantly on and off the ball at an uptempo pace for which they were not prepared to do becaused thats not how they worked in training. Case in point would be the last S. Carolina game. Even before they were scored on they got out of their rythm started to get exposed. The sad thing is SMU was having better of the possesion during that period. But they weren't playing fast enough or so coach thought. The first goal just made the situation worse and caused the second. the third goal was a pure howler by the keeper who at that point was just having Tulsa flashbacks.

The players though have the the ultimate responsibilty for what goes on on the pitch and they for the most part understand that they need to work twice as hard during the off season to come back stronger and better than this season. They know that they are the ones that have to score the goals and make the saves. And to a man they are all ready to come back and make you fans proud again next year.

Oh, and don't worry about recruiting. I hear there is some talent coming in next year. My only wish is that they recruit a big target player to go along with all of the speed they seem to get every year.

So was this a total botch job by the coach? maybe, maybe not. If you consider what was in the cupboard once the injury bug hit, (redpony, non contact acl injuries cannot be prevented by training, obviously your not a Dr. so don't play one on the message boards. stick to what you know FAN) the fact that the youngsters had to learn how to adjust on the fly, because let's face it the 2006 team facing the same adversity with injuries adjusted well but that was an older, by class, more experienced team at the time. And the fact that some of the problems with play were self inflicted by both the coach and players. it was a bad season by standards but not the end of the world.

Personally, I still think the live sacrifice or exorcism need to be performed on the home pitch before next season starts. You know just in case...

[redpony]

(redpony, non contact acl injuries cannot be prevented by training, obviously your not a Dr. so don't play one

Please show the post that I made which gave you the impression that I was a doctor or gave any kind of a medical opinion. I do not believe that I have posted any comments regarding 'non contact acl injuries'. You are correct- I am just a fan who wants SMU soccer to remain the very best.

GO PONIES!!!

[EastStang]

Personally, I still think the live sacrifice or exorcism need to be performed on the home pitch before next season starts. You know just in case...

[gk00dad]

Redpony I owe you an apology. That rant should have been directed at pjpony.
BTW I do have a dog in the fight and trust me if I thought that TM was horrible or my son thought that he was horrible he would have been asking for a transfer right after the last whistle blew. I have dealt with bad coaches before both in club and high school level. In fact there are two club coached that walk the other way when they see me. As much as I am a fan (I bleed Arsenal red) I'm still pragmatic in looking at the facts. Did this year suck? Hell yes, I had to sit through this train wreck. Just like I sat through the great regular seasons last year and the year before just to watch those teams bring a gas can to the pitch during the tourney. Do I think that the coach has to take some of the blame? once again yes, but so does every one of the players, especially mine, that walked out on that pitch this year.
I also believe the players when they say they are embaressed by their play and vow to make it right next year and that they hold themselves accountable for this season.
Looking at everything that wrong and right this season I really feel we were a two and out team in the tourney. I do believe though, that if they pull this thing together they are going to be a very strong team with a rather large chip on their shoulders (some of that put there by us fans) next year.

[mustangbill67]

Redpony I owe you an apology. That rant should have been directed at pjpony.
BTW I do have a dog in the fight and trust me if I thought that TM was horrible or my son thought that he was horrible he would have been asking for a transfer right after the last whistle blew. I have dealt with bad coaches before both in club and high school level. In fact there are two club coached that walk the other way when they see me. As much as I am a fan (I bleed Arsenal red) I'm still pragmatic in looking at the facts. Did this year suck? Hell yes, I had to sit through this train wreck. Just like I sat through the great regular seasons last year and the year before just to watch those teams bring a gas can to the pitch during the tourney. Do I think that the coach has to take some of the blame? once again yes, but so does every one of the players, especially mine, that walked out on that pitch this year.
I also believe the players when they say they are embaressed by their play and vow to make it right next year and that they hold themselves accountable for this season.
Looking at everything that wrong and right this season I really feel we were a two and out team in the tourney. I do believe though, that if they pull this thing together they are going to be a very strong team with a rather large chip on their shoulders (some of that put there by us fans) next year.

I hope you are right and this season was just an unfortunate aberration. There will be some great ;players returning next year including your son and hopefully we will also have another top 10 recruiting class. It is pointless to obcess at what could have been. The future is now and it looks bright but it is up to both the coaches and the players to get the job done. Looking forward to signing day and spring ball.