(11-13-2011 01:49 AM)Mister Consistency Wrote:  

(11-11-2011 09:07 AM)OldGrayDog Wrote:  Thanks. Your post is very informative. I kind of wonder why UNF is so poor. It seems llike there are a lot of decent high school programs in NE Florida and at least one developmental club that gives players a chance to work on their game in the summer.

Part of it is coaching. Derek Marinatos was hired last December and, from what I understand, ran off most of the upperclassmen and fielded a bunch of local kids. That would help explain why the team played so poorly.

Another part of it is networking. If you can't get games against quality opposition or find good recruits, it's tough to build a strong program, even if you have a good coach. Calabrese has a great network in Texas that has produced five starters (Woodruff, Osorio, Westbrook, Doumbe, Fubara). He built a great set of contacts during his time as an assistant in the ACC that he has leveraged into games against VA Tech, Clemson, and Elmar Bolowich's North Carolina, among others. If he didn't have those contacts, we would be playing Big South schools in most of our non-conference games and travelling to bigger schools all the time.

Everything else is there for them: great weather year-round, good facilities, lots of Premier Development League teams in Florida and Georgia, but Marinatos is going to have his work cut out for him down there.

Thanks again. That explains a lot. I don't know very much about the fine points of soccer, but a coach can screw up a team in most sports if he/she is too eager for change. UNF does have nice facilities for athletics - part of being a relatively new school I guess. The golf complex is awesome with a four hole course, driving range, etc. and it's open to the public which has allowed it to become a revenue generator for athletics.

Watching Florida Gulf Coast today was like watching the Italian national team: lots of skill, lots of speed, good short passing, hogging the ball in the back end, diving like crazy and winning on a fluke goal.

I feel for the guys. They outplayed Gulf Coast, and outplayed them badly. Their goalkeeper stood on his head and kept them away. I had a sinking feeling going into this one that FGCU would win it, and they won it on a goal with 1:20 to go. Just... ####.

Just as a follow-up to my earlier bit on attendance, here are the top 20 teams from the regular season:

UC-Santa Barbara - 5,375
Maryland - 4,005
Akron - 3,543
UConn - 3,450
New Mexico - 3,388
Louisville - 3,364
Creighton - 3,298
Indiana - 2,322
Cal Poly - 2,140
Clemson - 2,111
Wake Forest - 2,007
St. Louis - 1,885
North Carolina - 1,681
Notre Dame - 1,586
Virginia - 1,570
Charlotte - 1,516
St. John's - 1,439
South Carolina - 1,360
UCLA - 1,223
West Virginia - 1,217

ETSU checks in with 736 (counting tournament games), up from 614 last year.