Coach gotta let him cook.
Maybe Stanford DID make the right decision hiring Flacks!
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Can you shed any light on what occurred at 7ish minutes to play in the 4th?
There appeared to be an exclusion and Princeton called a :30 second timeout. Harvard made a case to the officials about something and after a long time and several consultations the clock was set back to 7:19, Harvard was given possession of the ball, the exclusion was erased and Princeton was given its timeout back.
I assume some sort of clock or table error, but the stream never made it clear.
Agree. He is as pure a shooter as I’ve seen n a long time. Effortless and he doesn’t even need to shoot hard he is so accurate. Special player
I couldn’t figure out why that happened as well. Princeton’s announcers and stream is the best out there so would have been nice if someone had run up to the announcers what happened.
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West Temkin has been standing on his head for Stanford. That first quarter he had against USC today was unreal. Kovacs is very good in his own right, but it seems like Dusty may have let the best goalie in the country leave Princeton this past summer. Shows a lot about Flacks that he was willing to pursue him this offseason even though he already had a young goalie coming off a good season, in Price. Now he just needs to prove he can keep the team firing on all cylinders for an entire season and postseason.
My take after the MPSF invite about UCLA being untouchable only lasted about 14 days. RB was right, this year is definitely anyone’s for the taking.
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Stanford definitely came out to play. Holding USC to 2 points for 3 quarters. CRAZY. Stanford goalie was just plain superior. His stats do not tell the whole story. His presence on the hoal forced USC into taking difficult shots at the goal resulting on many misses off the bar. They shoot the margins, but Stanford 1A isn’t giving many. Flacks also has his team controlling the ball on offense. Even though they lost a point on their 7 man offense, I respect Flacks for putting it put there. Come down the road when the NCAA title is on the line, experience with that in a real game counts for miles.
Also Stanford came out to play from the get go. They played 4 solid periods with very view mistakes. Great teamwork.
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I believe they tried. Hopefully next year
Across the divisions, it was a fascinating week in college water polo which is foreshadowing a season of unpredictability and intrigue.
Stanford decided it was their turn to be #1 after a strictly business trip to Los Angeles and we all know what happened. However, it feels important to look back to history as last year at this time, Stanford looked just as dominant as they do now. Nevertheless, the lack of production and volume seen out of Painter and Pittman could point to Flacks giving his best players rest which might be a volatile decision. Letting them rest too long may give them nerves when forced to make big plays late in the season. But if rest is what they need, giving other players a chance is working and creating confidence unseen in the NCAA by second line players. Further, what a weekend for Soren Jensen who has always been one of the best shooters and is thriving in Flack’s system when strategy is employed to give him open opportunities. Props to him for executing but Flacks is showing off his coaching talent.
The Cal Bears continued down their road of chaos with a weekend getaway to LA where they proved to the conference that they really did deserve that loss at UCI. While injury is hampering the team, there is no excuse for Cal to not being playing on caliber with top 4 teams. Using European Players for a decade is starting to come back and bite Kirk’s ass when players such as West Tempkin would rather go to Stanford and fight for playing time rather than take the open spot on a championship caliber team. However, Cal is Cal and I don’t see them not coming back next year, but the book is slowly closing on their chances for the first four peat in history. Their only hope now to even make the NCAA tournament seems like an MPSF tournament victory bid.
UCLA is littered with talent, but Adam Wright doesn’t seem to know how to put this team together. The Dodd brothers seem to be working their own magic with the expectation by the team that they will steamroll the league. However, they seem to be forgetting this is a team sport and other teams are developing strategies to counter the skill and athleticism of UCLA. Further, the Dodd brothers are looking tired and not for good reason. Non-stop training with the olympic team followed by a full season of Wright water polo is a recipe for fatigue, mentally and physically. I don’t know if the team is up for the task, but they are still a favorite in my book and other teams will need to keep bringing their A-game.
USC continues to look better than expected, I have little to say about them except at least they aren’t Cal… or the 2023 USC team.
Across the other teams in D1, it continues to be a crazy year filled with inconsistency across the board. However, this is the last year of the COVID year which I think has had two repercussions; First, there is talent across the board on all teams. Talented players are taking their chances with a fifth year which means many teams are better and more experienced than they should be. But second, taking time away from younger players is creating discouraging and confusing notions around team culture and hierarchy. True seniors and juniors feel displaced and many freshman and sophomores aren’t getting the development they need. Both of these factors are creating a reliance on better players to carry teams which results in less consistency but also higher ceilings for worse teams. However, this is merely a theory and subject to criticism.
In DIII, only three teams seem relevant but they are are proving their relevance. The CMS Stags appear the be the best team in the league with players such as Nick Kennedy, Luke Weigle, and Cristian Pang who all could’ve gone DI along with the presence of Greg Lonzo who was number two to Tony Acevedo back in the 90s and always has seen success in DIII. However, their loss against a mediocre Occidental team is worrisome but they came back by beating Air Force and killing Biola which shows they may be suffering by the same inconsistency as DI teams. Pomona-Pitzer is looking better than last year, especially with an east coast and midwest heavy team compared to other programs. However, Pomona-Pitzer has an amazing coaching staff with Alex Rodriguez and Alex La which may show why they are successful. Additionally, both Pomona-Pitzer and CMS have both been ranked in 2 of the past 3 years within in the top 20 of all teams showing DIII is much better than previous years. It is a hot debate but DIII may be receiving many DI players who don’t want to compete against a DI schedule with only 4 relevant teams and against Euros taking all the spots. The last relevant DIII team is Redlands which is not poaching DI players, but rather poaching the best talent across community colleges in the country. While their strategy is weak and their team culture is shallow, Redlands has a lot of unnoticed and experienced talent which have won in the past and are definitely in the competition.
In conclusion, the water polo season is proving to be one hell of a year and I am excited to see how league play unfolds.
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I think your Covid year paragraph is thoughtful and not untrue.
If there’s one thing the Dodd brothers don’t do, it’s tire. Ryder scored 7 on Sunday. Chase will continue to do whatever it takes to make the team better, but scoring has never been the strongest part of his game.
I think losing one or two during the season will ultimately be good for a team with this level of talent. As long as Adam doesn’t break the spirit of some of the younger players, they continue to be the clear favorite if you ask me.
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East/West Coast parity continues to improve. While no knock on Tempkin as he is doing great this year, he transferred (allegedly) from Princeton because Kovacs beat him out for the starting position.
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I agree with much that is being said here. The COVID backlog and the upcoming roster size limits have created a giant logjam at many of the schools. There are a lot of great players who are either not going to get an offer or, if they do, will not get the playing time that would have in the past. It will be interesting to see how many players take advantage of the portal if they are not happy with their playing situation.
I watched the Stanford games on the Overnight stream. Again, I agree with everyong else. They look really cohesive. They are playing great defense and their goalie is the best that I have seen this year. Flacks definitely has the pieces to with a National Championship this year.
IMHO, UCLA has both the talent and the depth to still be the favorite, even if they are not gelling at this point. It will be on Wright to get this team to play to its potential. The UCLA women had similar depth this year. Despite being undefeated, they had some shaky games at the beginning of the year, but Wright was able to get peak at the end of the year, which has sometimes been UCLA’s achilles heel. I think that he will be able to do the same with the men by the time that the NCAA Tournament rolls around.
USC also has the pieces to make a run. They may not have the depth of UCLA, but their starting 7 are very solid.
I also wish that Pacific and Fordham had more games against the top teams, In any case, it is nice to see some other teams in the mix this year besides the usuals.
Looking forward to this year’s home stretch.
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Fordham, Harvard and Princeton are headed to California soon. I think they all play Pacific. The Princeton schedule is toughest. Hoping all games are streamed - including UCLA Princeton (which went to OT last time around).
Don’t know if Navy is travelling but among the exceptional players who are leading their teams this year, Black has been incredible as a soph.
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I don’t think that’s why Temkin left. The national team is calling and he “needed” to be on a big 4.
UCLA needs Mo and Leichety to be more aggressive. Those two need to be shooters as well as facilitators and they barely even looked at the goal when they had the ball against Stanford. With Stanford largely shutting down their centers, they had nothing on offense. They depend on exclusions more than anyone.
But as I said, the season starts at MPSF championship. I don’t think the smarter teams are showing a lot from the playbook at this point in the season. I stick by my UCLA v Stanford final prediction.
Updated Cutino favorites:
Ryder Dodd, Temkin, Pittman, Lopez
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I disagree with this assessment; Goalies outside the top-4 schools have played with the national team in the past 15 years such as Andy Stevens and Jack Turner. Further, I think this response ignores the fact that it is common knowledge Dusty wasn’t going to play Tempkin over Kovacs. As to why Dusty was so set on his shiny european goalie over Tempkin is a mystery only players at Princeton or Dusty himself could answer but Tempkin transferring was definitely based around playing time. Ultimately, if National Team is what is important for Tempkin, the biggest factors are Junior National team participation, which Tempkin has, and actually getting play time at his school, which is why he transferred.
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Perhaps you are right, the Dodds will likely never tire. But Dodd scoring 7 against Cal (mistake earlier) is not a good sign if you ask me. It either means:
A. Ryder feels the need to take matters into his own hands after a small loss against Stanford in an early season game by scoring 7 alone pointing to trust issues.
B. The UCLA roster outside of the Dodds isn’t up for the task and is getting lazy about individual opportunities and flowing everything through Ryder.
In either scenario, I agree UCLA is still the overwhelming favorite but cohesion will still be necessary to win against a strategic Stanford team or a fired-up USC team. Wright will need to coach like he did in the 2010s to get this team to a championship this year.
Agree to disagree. I don’t believe Turner was on the national team until after he graduated and he openly blames not being a Big 4 goalie as the reason he was not picked for the 2021 team (Which i completely disagree with). Every national team coach has their own demands. I’m not speculating here. Did playing time play a part in the decision? Sure, but that is not the full story
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Ryder should be shooting anytime he has an open shot. He is that good of a shooter. The drop to number 2 is far on that team. What they do need to do though is get a more balanced attack from both sides. Mo needs to shoot more (he’s too unselfish) or his man is just going to leave him open and dop on the center.
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