Cruising The Decks - Week 2

Rivalry between USC and Cal heats up at NorCal Invitational

Sept. 18, 2007

By Trevor Freeman

Special to CSTV.com


	Trevor Freeman Trevor Freeman covers Water Polo for CSTV.com. E-mail here!

The biggest weekend of the preseason is over and the national landscape is becoming clearer. USC and Cal staged the first of what should be multiple battles and it would come down to a game-winning penalty shot with five seconds left. That game was not the only classic of the week as there were three overtime games involving ranked teams. Never has an article written itself as easily as this one did. We could have expanded the first feature to "Twenty-Seven Shots out of Set" had we wanted.

Eleven Shots Out Of Set

11. If you ever wanted to see an example that there is life beyond the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation then follow Ryan Hall of Redlands. The Cal transfer was electric last season and has gotten off to a nice start in this campaign. The All-American gives Redlands a shot against any team they see in the WWPA.

10. All I know is this. I take issue with a Top 20 poll that would have Cal Baptist at No. 19 with Brown sitting on the sidelines unranked. I know the Lancers just beat Redlands and that they are a better team this year. However, there is nobody who can convince me that they are a tougher squad on paper than Brown. It took a 5-3 margin in the second half for Cal Baptist to beat Mercyhurst, 10-8. There is no doubt in my mind that Mike Gartner and Brown would put Mercyhurst away with more ease than that.

The Bears have started off the season 3-1 with their only loss being a close shave against St. Francis (N.Y.). I know Felix Mercado took over the program right before the season started. However, Mercado is an established name in the coaching business.

9. The best game not contested at the NorCal Invitational involved Bucknell, Princeton and sudden-death overtime on Friday night. Mark Masterson made a standing room only crowd of Bison ecstatic with a steal at midpool and a subsequent fast break, game-winning tally. Bucknell kept up their winning ways by defeating Johns Hopkins on Saturday and George Washington on Sunday.

8. An event college coaches and water polo aficionados are going to want to take notice of is Water Polo Planet's "Duel in The Pool." In 2005 and 2006, Water Polo Planet sponsored 15 high schoolers to play in tournaments in the United States. These 15 players include two of 2007's most dominant freshman in Cal's Brian Dudley and Loyola Marymount's Tibor Forai. Other players that participated were Iona's Emre Erdogan, Gannon's Darren Stone and Filip Kisdobranski of St. Francis.

Due to the success of the players involved, "Duel in the Pool" has been formed. In this, Water Polo Planet is going to take 100 men aged 22 and younger from Europe and the U.S. These kids will play for eight teams, each led by one elite U.S. Coach and one elite European Club coach. It will allow U.S. coaches to recruit European players and European club coaches to recruit U.S. players who want to play pro in Europe after college. The website for the event is www.duepool.com and you can see the bios of the Europeans who have been selected already. This will turn out to be the marquee recruiting event of the season. It is a must for every coach outside of California who is operating without the built-in talent pipeline.

7. Condolences go out to the family of David Pettigrew. A member of two CIF Championship teams at the nation's premier high school water polo power in Long Beach Wilson, he was found shot to death last week. Famous water polo alums of this high school include U.S. National team members Tony Azevedo (four-time Peter Cutino Award winner) and Adam Wright on the men's side and Maureen O'Toole on the women's side (O'Toole is generally regarded as the Babe Ruth of women's water polo).

(The next six observations will be about the NorCal Invitational which is, without a doubt, the biggest preseason tournament. Now the Cruise couldn't make it there, but we did have a few deckhands in attendance at both UC-Berkeley and Miramonte High.)

6. Pepperdine is looking more and more like a team that will challenge for a Final Four spot. They finished 3-1 and in fifth place at the NorCal Invitational with wins over UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis. The Waves only loss was to UCLA in overtime.

5. Stanford is a team that is hard to get a handle on. The Cardinal got a nice win against UC Irvine on the first day of the tournament but then got convincingly beat by both USC and UCLA. You get the sense that they could finish anywhere from as high as third to as low as eighth in the MPSF. A few people have noted to me that the Cardinal have seemed too willing to trade size for speed over the years.

4. The best high school water polo rivalry in Northern California involves Marin Catholic and Drake. I bring that up because alumni of the two high schools make up seven of the 22 players on UC Davis' roster and their two best in All-American driver Nick Arrigo and All-American goalie Mike McGee. The two of them led UC Davis to a ninth-place finish, which included wins over WWPA rivals Loyola Marymount and UC San Diego.

That being said, more than a few people have told me that UC Davis tends to play scared against "name" schools. The way they have gotten absolutely shellacked twice by Pepperdine and once by Cal is evidence of that. A team with their talent should be able to play a close game with Pepperdine and be in position for a smash and grab job should a few breaks go their way.

3. Long Beach State looked like a team that could scare somebody in the Mountain Pacific as they were strong in finishing seventh place. They defeated UCSB in the seventh-place game and also scored a 9-6 victory over an always tough UC San Diego team. Their losses in the tournament were both respectable as they were defeated by UC Irvine, 12-9, and USC, 10-5. The Irvine loss was due to Irvine putting up a five-spot in the fourth quarter. In the loss to USC, the quality depth of the Trojans wore out the 49ers.

Jeff Greenwood of the 49ers is somebody to keep an eye on (and trust me you can't miss him). The 6-foot-8, 225-pound sophomore hole set will get the 49ers to a Final Four before his collegiate career is finished.

2. UCLA clearly established that they are the team most likely to prevent a USC-California NCAA championship rematch. The Bruins finished third with their only loss coming to Cal, 10-8, on Sunday morning. The Bruins rebounded from that defeat by taking down Stanford,13-9, in the third-place game. What makes UCLA so dangerous in a tournament setting is their depth. Eleven different Bruins scored in the games against Cal and Stanford.

1. Cal and USC staged the first of what should be a few epic struggles. Game ball goes to Gabor Sarusi of USC for notching a big three goals, including the game-winning five-meter penalty shot with five seconds left. The awarding of this penalty shot, which led to USC's victory, should only add fuel to this rivalry's fire. Instead of criticizing the referees, which is what a few people did on my voicemail, I will say this: I have never been a fan of having an officiated call decide a game. Be it football, basketball or water polo, I prefer to see contests decided by the players competing.

Player to Watch

Tim Hutten, UC Irvine: Hutten scored 15 goals at the NorCal Invitational and solidified his standing as one of the favorites for the Peter Cutino Award. In my opinion, Hutten is the most dominating player in the country. A member of the U.S. National Team, Hutten is virtually unguardable one-on-one.

Contest To Keep An Eye On

UC Santa Cruz is hosting "Slugfest," which could be an interesting little tournament. Entrants include Fordham, Redlands, Santa Clara, La Verne, Whittier, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and the host school. Just a compelling mix of teams nipping around in the bottom half of the Top 20. This is just a hunch, but I think whoever wins this tournament will not only do a lot for their team's confidence but also propel themselves into that coveted category of dark horse.

Two other games with national implications will be occurring in Southern California. USC and Pepperdine are getting it on at McDonald's Swim Stadium. Watching Adam Hewko wrestle everybody USC is going to send at him will be interesting. UCLA meets UC Irvine in a nice test for both squads. UC Irvine lacks depth so they have problems when they have to play multiple games in one day. I bring that up because their matchup with UCLA is not in tournament play, so the Anteaters' lack of depth should not be a factor in this matchup.

The Projected Final Four

1. California (MPSF Representative)

2. USC (at-large bid)

3. Bucknell (Eastern Representative)

4. UC Davis (WWPA Representative)

E-Mail of The Week

The first "E-Mail of The Week" came from Denny. It was, "I just read your first installment of the CSTV water polo article. Great job, keep up the good work. I am an UMass grad, before Brian Stahl's time, but the UMass reference definitely brought a smile to my face."

No problem Denny. I would be remiss if I did not talk about how big a tragedy it was that the UMass water polo program was dropped in 2002. The Minutemen were the East Coast's preeminent water polo program and a yearly Final Four contender. Along with the aforementioned Brian Stahl, who was the best player in the school's history (along with Pennsylvania high school water polo history), there were a lot of great UMass players whose contributions and tradition were ignored. This included Puerto Rican stars Luis Limardo, Alex Mujica, Richard Huntley and Gaby Marrero along with Pat Kain and the late Greg Menton. You just wish that UMass would have spared this program the axe as it was one that brought the school praise from every player on the East Coast. From Fordham to Harvard to Johns Hopkins, we all held that program in reverence. It is just sad their athletic director didn't value its winning tradition.