Just in case folks weren’t tracking, at 5:30 the UVA women are taking on Clemson in the ACC tournament semi-finals. Should be available on the ACC network. Go Hoos!
(Also, if you haven’t been tracking, don’t bother checking in on our men’s team. They… well they didn’t have a great season. It’s also getting to the point where I’m starting to wonder - key word is starting - whether a coaching change is needed in the nearish future. Yes, I know, two natties and you should never let somebody go who achieves that. But we also did that with a play style that is somewhat outmoded and was even difficult to watch at the time, and we’ve not been up to our program’s standards recently. That said, would need to make sure it was more like our lacrosse transition than our women’s basketball transition away from a great coach, but I digress).
Do you think Chulis would be willing to make some significant changes to how we’re doing things? He’s been with the team so long as a part of the current coaching staff.
Anyway, the program probably isn’t at the point yet, but would love to hear your thoughts on it at some point.
Agree they wont make the move now but I know Chullis a little bit. Of course he would never really tell me but I know he would play differently Not sure he would recruit different though
I am really close with all the guys from my era who played soccer at UVa and they all feel the same about who should run the program. Not that they dont like the coach (who was their assistant and has had a huge career) just that some of them have had real success professionaly and some of them abroad.
That is true, and a very valid point. I just think we honestly haven’t been playing particularly well for a while. While advancing via parking the bus and taking it to penalties is certainly a valid strategy, and particularly for teams with less talent (which we shouldn’t be), I think we’re being passed by other programs. Really a question of whether we are OK surrendering the mountaintop as long as we are still in the upper echelon or whether we think we should still be dominant. Can see totally valid arguments on either side.
Agree. I mean other than Stanford, Indiana and Maryland (gag!) with 3 championship, only UVA and UNC (double gag!!) have 2 championships in the 2000s. So I think we would still be considered a blue blood of soccer.
I am hardly the world’s foremost expert on college soccer, so the only reason I feel comfortable engaging in this topic is that I am always right about everything but as a general rule of thumb if a coach makes the ncaa final he gets a pass for more than a couple years before we can say a change is needed. Especially if the guy has multiple titles to his credit. But like I said I’m not an expert.
All totally fair. Although I think Indiana is an interesting example. They’ve won the most titles out of that group I think. Borrowing from another poster’s points on other forums, Indiana faced some similar questions as we have. They replaced their all-time great coach with a seemingly good successor as we did with Arena. That successor did win a national championship, but the school felt the program wasn’t playing up to their standards or headed in a good direction, and they took the leap and replaced him. Obviously that worked out for them given their current run of success. Now there’s probably many other examples of something like that going poorly, but just pointing it out.
And look, we are definitely still a blue blood and things aren’t terrible. I just worry we’re a blue blood like UCLA was in basketball before last season/Cronin. Still pumping out some good finishes every few years, but when you actually watch the product, we’re playing a style of soccer that isn’t going to consistently keep us at the top and doesn’t match where the sport is headed. Plus we’ve had graduation rate issues in the past few years, which isn’t killer, but isn’t great.
All that said, folks can certainly push back. Should also point out we had a pretty young team this year. I’m just giving my own opinion and expressing trepidation about where I worry things are slowly heading. Will certainly be great if they prove me wrong.
That’s a great run by Hopkins, I thought she was going to get cut-off but she found an extra gear right at the end of the run. Perfect ball too, threaded the needle. Spaanstra-Ordonez-Hopkins seems like a pretty incredible front 3 at the college level.
Yay team…. Consistent performance in the national tournament is the hallmark of a national powerhouse.
The Hoos have made the sweet 16 in 16 of the last 17 years!!! Wow!
