We are around 40 days until the first games of the mens NCAA season. Starting thread.
Will the Bruins three-peat?
Can USC make the finals yet again?
Will a big four team get upset and by who?
Fordham edge into finals?
SJSU repeat their success?
Can Cal come together?
How will St Marys do in their first season?
What is the most unpredictable conference?
Conference reshuffles? Portal pickups ? 5th year transfer? And internationals galore. All that and more…
All great topics and all topics we will cover as we head into season in August!!!
The longevity of USC making it to the finals nearly every year for 20 years straight is pretty impressive. Their opponent changes but USC always finds a way to get there. Feels like USC lost a lot from last year while Cal/Stanford added a ton, and UCLA maintained, but USC seems to always figure it out.
I predict that Bernardo Herzer is going to have a monster season and bring Stanford back into the finals.
I would say USC will be stronger than last year. A huge goal scoring transfer right handed attacker will give them the top 1-2 on the left side in the country, and a top international lefty will help their right side big time, along with the top recruited center in Andersen, and a top center D from Spain.
I would personally rank USC improvement in roster only second to Stanfords incredible changes.
I like to see Cals recruiting class before making any predictions. But I’m confident Stanford and Cal will be better than last year. USC and UCLA are at minimum as good as last year. It should be another hard fought competitive season where any of the Big 4 can make the finals. Hard to see UCLA not making it to the final and nobody is better at peaking at the end of the season than USC.
Cal class via
Mason Netzer Newport
Iliad angelopollus Greece
Jaoa Pedro leme - Brazil
Amir Shafrir - Israel
Wyatt Williamson - Oaks Christen
Cal’s freshman center, Ilias Angelopoulus was a handful at the World Youth Champs in Portugal. He filled up the stat sheet and looks like a beast.
Looking forward to seeing him play. I don’t know how Cal does it, but they always find the most impressive Greek talent.
From what I can find the following will be at the Triton Invite last week of Aug.. Of note: USC has not published their schedule and Stanford opting to play at UCI Invite (UCI and Fullerton). Anyone know who else is going? Always a good start to the season.
UCLA, Cal, UCSD, Pepperdine , Long Beach, St Marys, CMS, George Washington
Davis will be on the East Coast at the end of August (playing Fordham, Brown, ?).
I see, CUI, Chapman, LMU, Stanford, GW, Biola, Redlands, Fullerton, UCI, Pomona Pitzer at UCI invite. Some warm up games for most teams.
Stanford plays UCI and GW only, LMU plays GW and Fullerton, UCI plays GW and Stanford. All other teams are D2 and D3, not saying the D1 teams get a free pass, will see how Pomona looks right away, They get LMU (who now has CUI’s goalie) and CUI on the 28th.
UCSB, La Verne, and Occidental will be at the Triton invite. If USC goes that would be 12 teams.
Question about rosters and practice. If the new roster limits are in place and no more redshirt available, what happens to players that are committed but put the team over the limit. My understanding is that they can not practice with the team?
I just looked at 2 teams in my area, Cal lists 24 returning players on its 26 roster, but has 5 committed on this board. Santa Clara lists 22 returning and 8 committed on this board.
How will this look for players over the limit? Or did programs just designate all of their athletes as DSA who would have been cut when limits were imposed in 2025 to permanently exempt all of their team at that time?
It looks like one team is fully taking advantage of the 5 in 5 court ruling for the Class of 26.
Cal has Albert Ponferrada, Marci Szatmary, Will Kelly, and Nik Mirkovic all listed on their 2026 roster.
The most surprising name on the roster, however, is Bende Pardi. He should have zero eligibility remaining, even with the new court ruling. He played two full seasons for SJST in 2021 and 2022, redshirted for Cal in 2023, and played full seasons in 24 and 25. Even under the new rules, his five-year window ended at the end of the 25 season.
i get the feeling they auto updated their roster but we will see tomorrow if you have a paid subscription to water polo Wednesday
anyone watch the painful MPSF thing yesterday? Did Cal talk roster on that?
Looks like they had time to manually update the 2026 coaching staff, so you’d hope they would’ve at least done the same manual update for the players too… but time will tell.
I don’t think the roster for Cal is fully updated for 2026.
If you look at the roster none of the incoming freshman are listed yet…