The regular season has wrapped up which means its time for post season breakdowns, which we love!
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Iām surprised this hasnāt been brought up yet. I watched the conference tournament breakdown and was honestly shocked and disappointed with Wes when he was talking about Stanford. He goes on about the āholy trinityā of Gheorghe, Forer, and Balogh, but fails to even mention Di Martire, who was an All-MPSF first-team selection ahead of Forer and Balogh. These teams are picked by the coaches, and that tells you a lot about who they value the most.
In one of the episodes, Di Martire was basically glossed over like heās just another body in the water. For the record, I have zero connection to him personally, but itās crazy. Di Martire has over 50 goals, and his playmaking and defense are a huge reason Stanford has had the success itās had this year. If you take him out of this Stanford team, theyāre almost certainly not playing in the NCAA tournament this weekend. This is not meant to discredit the others: Balogh is undoubtedly one of the best shooters in the country, Gheorghe has been the best center in America, and Forer has been lights out offensively, but glossing over Di Martire is a crime. I recommend rewatching some of their games from this year. His impact is incredible on both ends of the pool.
This is 100 percent spot on! For weeks now, a few of us on this message board have been singing Di Martireās praises and saying that he was the MVP of Stanford this year. For him to not even be mentioned in multiple WPW podcasts is curious. Feels like weāre right back to where we were when the season started and the infamous āBest of the Bestā list was released!
Stanford has not updated its stats on their website since they were 5ā0, and Iām not sure how accurate the 6-8 stats are, considering there are some discrepancies between 6-8 and USCās published stats. However, I think the point of what I said has nothing to do with stats. Anyone who watches the games knows how important G.P. is to what Stanford is doing, even if he doesnāt have as many goals as his teammates.
The stats donāt say it all and Di Martire is a big reason for Stanfordās success. However, I wouldnāt blame Wes like that. He does an incredible job with all of his coverage and he was covering games at Air Force all weekend. He knows how good of a player Di Martire is and itās very hard to give praise to all people. I mean there are several guys on Stanford who do not fill the stat sheet but are vital to Flackās system. This actually happens on several teams. I believe it is an honest mistake. A bigger issue I would say is that other conferences and teams that are not the ābig 4ā should be given the same coverage, which I think Wes has been trying to do. That is important if we want to grow the sport
@anon39560856I guarantee you that there are several players who have a big impact on their respective teams that did not earn an award or were mentioned who will be crucial to their teamās success in the NCAA tournament. It is toxic to call out Wes over one specific player. You could go down the list for many teams and the most dangerous teams have several weapons.
Di Martireās stats through November 22 (as shown on the MPSF website)
Goals - 53. No 6 in the MPSF (excluding the non-California MPSF schools).
Points - 90. No. 5 in the MPSF (excluding the non-California MPSF schools).
Steals - 35. No. 1 in the MPSF (excluding the non-California MPSF schools).
After Temkin, I think Di Martire is Stanfordās most important player. Itās no surprise MPSF coaches choose him to be on the All-MPSF first team. Botond is on the second team; Forer is on the honorable-mention team.
Btw, has anyone been able to figure out if this is Di Martireās final year of eligibility, or does he have one more?
He was such a key pickup by Flacks this year. A very experienced, veteran presence on a team that is otherwise very young in most positions (aside from goalie). One of the things the stats donāt show is just how often Di Martireās goals/assists/steals came in key moments when Stanford absolutely needed someone to step up and make a play. Time and time again, it was Di Martire getting it done.
Scary to think how good some of the past few Bruins teams would have been if heād stayed/hadnāt gotten injured.
I donāt have any confirmed intel on if this is his last year, but I do think he has one remaining year of eligibility. NCAA rules state that every player has four seasons of eligibility and they have five years to use it. However, there are exceptions.
Di Martire didnāt play in 2020 due to ānot [being] allowed to travel to the United States due to COVID-19 restrictions,ā according to the UCLA website. This wouldnāt count towards the five years and it was also the Covid year. He played in 2021 & 2022 so his five years begins in 2021. Theoretically, heād have five years until 2025 to play four seasons. However, in 2023, he had to take a medical redshirt, which also should not count towards the five years if I understand the rules correctly. He took 2024 off which I believe would count towards the five years, but this wouldnāt matter as heād still have his fourth and fifth year in 2025 and 2026 respectively.
