UC Davis beat Long Beach 11:9. Aaron Wilson was in goal for Long Beach.
UCLA is up 14 to 10 over Pepperdine after 3, but they are still not looking like that dominant team that most were expecting. Ryder Dodd has 7 goals so far, but their goalie play has been inconsistent and they are not getting much our of center. Chase Dodd is not suited up.
18-12 final. Dodd ended up with 8 and Tierney added 4 goals for UCLA. Csapo had 4 for Pepperdine. Tausher was in goal for UCLA in the second half.
Cal continues to struggle. They lost in their own pool 12 to 9 to Long Beach.
The Pepperdine team has some good talent and good shooters. They are terrible at defense. Hips are constantly down and it looks like they always take an extra second to react. On top of that, a lot of their breakdowns come from unorganized offense. Someone will take a shot that the others were not expecting too many times and give up a counter goal. Many of UCLA’s goals came from Pepperdine mistakes. Not to take anything away from UCLA, they look better than Pepperdine and more organized, but Pep can be better than that. Also, pep has great shooters when they get on their legs and off of their backs. At this level it is annoying to watch some of these players still fail to get on their legs to make simple passes. Also, the goalies are constantly out of position and their hands go too deep. Tausher looked better than Griggs though in both categories.
I think top to bottom water polo talent is better than ever, but they seem more undisciplined when it comes to decision-making and doing the little details like getting on their legs.
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UCLA up on Princeton 8-5 at half. Not a great defensive game by Princeton at all so far, are they missing any players this game?
Past half way of season and thought I would throw out a hypothetical situation out here and get some of the pundits thoughts. I see a path where the big 3 (Stanford, UCLA, and USC) all have two losses at the end of the season (including MPSF tournament). I also see a path where UOP goes undefeated. They still have a big matchup vs Fordham (also undefeated) but assume they win that in this scenario.
Do they have the strenght of schedule and the right to a number one seed. And, furthermore, could Fordham (if they only have 1 loss) have the right and schedule to support a top 3 seed below the MPSF tournament winner?
If so this could make the tournament very interesting and some tough games with traditional top teams in first round.
Thoughts?
FWIW: My guess is that the MPSF winner would be 1, UOP would be 2, MPSF runner up 3, Fordham 4 (if one loss) and MPSF 3 has 4 losses 5th ranking.
I disagree with your take. Not playing any Big 4 schools is gonna hurt Pacific a lot.
Should Pacific go undefeated, I see their ceiling being a 3-seed. I don’t see a world where the committee would give them a spot over UCLA and Stanford, especially if both teams continue to beat USC.
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I would agree with Norcal Dad on this one.
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It does make sense that UOP has very little shot at the #2 seed
Can someone outline the ‘at large’ qualifications/senarios for the tournament. Some of the announcers on the Cal vs LB game commented that LB would not be able qualify for that bid as they had lost a conference game.
Based on schedule of teams left its hard to imagine at large will be anything but an MPSF team.
Does anyone here actually know the selection criteria? This is an ncaa sport and water polo follows ncaa selection rules like other sports. It’s not a popularity contest and that I know is a fact.
Here it is:
The first set of criteria used is:
-W/L record
-Strength of Schedule
-Eligibility of student-athletes (i.e. think of the Kenyon Martin situation in NCAA basketball when he suffered a season ending injury the week prior to the NCAA tournament and Cincinnati was downgraded on the seed line)
The next set of primary criteria then used is:
-Head to head
-Results versus common opponents
-Late season performance
-RPI (i.e. power ranking)
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Here are the current RPI rankings. Pacific has the top spot. The MPSF having 5 of the 12 worst RPI teams in the country in their conference probably hurts their scores.
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Win loss record and strength of schedule are the most important. While UOP may benefit from an undefeated season, their SOS will be poor. There was a season when Obert was there when they were ranked #2 in the polls and didn’t get an at large bid because they skipped the MPSF in season tournament.
The impression I got this year wasn’t that UOP was skipping anyone or any tournament. Coach Graham made it sound like the Big 4 were refusing to play UOP, and he didn’t sound happy about that.
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Well maybe he should have played in the MPSF tournament then. Nobody to blame but himself
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It wouldn’t hurt it.
From the site, the RPI is calculated using a team’s winning percentage, the winning percentage of their opponents, and the winning percentage of their opponents’ opponents. The strength of schedule (SOS) accounts for 75% of the RPI calculation. The SOS is made up of the opponents’ winning percentage (2/3) and the winning percentage of their opponents’ opponents (1/3).
Princeton on a 4 game west coast mid week trip - Pepperdine - USC - UOP - Cal.
Yup. RPI has been heavily criticized by multiple NCAA sports due to schedule manipulation and lack of margin, among other issues. Basketball got rid of it years ago in favor of a system that resembles WP’s current polls - assuming coaches are factoring in common opponents and margin of victory.
Will seeding make a big difference this year with so many good men’s teams? The first seed has the huge advantage. The rest look to be a crap shoot.
Balance could be brought to the tournament by keeping the old structure, having a 8/9 play-in (instead of the old east play in), and three at large bids like the women do. Men’s water polo is the only sport where a 3rd ranked team could miss the playoffs. It’s best for the sport to allow for a most competitive final four. Playoff expansion has happened across many sports. Maybe in 2025?
While we’re at it, the new (former volleyball) CEO should try to get one or two top mid-season men’s and women’s matchups on ESPNU etc on an off (mainstream) sports night in '25-'26, as women’s volleyball does now.
Interesting, thanks for the link.
Princeton beat Pepperdine 12-11. I couldn’t find the replay on Overnght. Was anyone able to watch the game?
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