Graham Hays--October, 26

Graham Hays watched our games last weekend:

Maryland's win was the culmination of a weekend that leaves the ACC a postseason puzzle. With one more round of conference games to play in the regular season, Florida State controls its own destiny but will do so on the road against Maryland and Boston College. Just a point behind the Seminoles, North Carolina travels to Duke and Wake Forest. And Virginia, currently tied for third with Maryland and Wake Forest, might have the best route to the title, closing with cellar residents NC State and Clemson.

The picture is less muddled in the West Coast Conference, in part because there's no conference tournament to worry about, but also because Portland took care of business and staked its claim to the conference crown with road wins at San Diego and Santa Clara. With their two remaining games coming against Saint Mary's and San Francisco, currently at the bottom of the WCC standings, the Pilots are in position to enter the NCAA tournament at 19-1-0, their best since 2005's unbeaten season (when they were 18-0-1 entering the tournament).

Outside of a 3-1 win at California, all of Portland's signature wins -- at home against Oklahoma State and Texas A&M and on the road against San Diego and Santa Clara -- have come by the same 1-0 margin. All told, Portland has six 1-0 wins this season, and while the most important part of that combination is clearly the "win" part, it's still an eye-catching number for the Pilots. They had only two 1-0 wins all of last season, three in 2008 and four in 2007. Not since 2003 have they had more. Yet with all that said, if you took the opportunity to watch the weekend's pair of nationally televised games, you saw a team that still constructs a buildup as well [as] anyone.

For the entire article go to: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/columns/story?columnist=hays_graham&id=5727747

The link didn't lead me to the article, but I think the points are all right on. 19-1 is a fabulous record (assuming we end up there), but you have to worry about the lack of goals, and at the same time remember all those opponents' shots off the crossbar and post in those 1-0 wins. I worry that, during the playoffs, if the games are similar and if one or two of those near misses are an inch or two more accurate, the Pilots could be headed home early.

This team, though, does find a way to win, and hopefully that will continue. Maybe it's a case of playing to the level of the competition, but I really don't know that.

The Portland comments are further down teh article. Looks like an article about Hofstra but is about several topics...
Good reading... As long as the Pilots do not get over-confident, which I think is unlikely, they should easily win out...