Cruising The Decks: Shakeout In SoCal

USC stands tall once again

Oct. 16, 2007

By Trevor Freeman

Special to CSTV.com


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

This weekend was water polo's version of "Shakeout Saturday". In Southern California, sixteen of the best teams in NCAA water polo converged for the prestigious SoCal Tournament. In the end, the USC Trojans would be the last team standing. With their win in this tournament, USC clearly established that they are the big dog in the park. We have devoted seven shots out of set to this tournament; however we take our first shot by discussing a key water polo issue with one of water polo's true gentlemen in referee Loren Bertocci. Loren Bertocci was one of water polo's preeminent referees as he officiated every single men's and women's NCAA Final Four from 1997-2004.

Eleven Shots Out Of Set

11. I got a chance to sit down with Loren Bertocci this week to discuss the refereeing issue that Eastern teams have had when they travel to California. For those of you unfamiliar with the issue at hand, some of the great East Coast teams and followers of Eastern water polo have left California and especially the Final Four very frustrated with the way the games are officiated. Two great examples are with the old powerhouse UMass teams and the St. Francis program. UMass had one of the great hole sets of our generation in Brian Stahl. However every time he stepped foot in California it was frustrating to watch referees call the ordinary foul quickly instead of letting Brian Stahl play his game. Stahl was great with the ball in his hand and did most of his damage when he got a chance to feel out his defender. Likewise, St. Francis has always seemed to get the short end of the stick from California referees. The Terriers play with a European style that always seems to draw a ton of whistles from West Coast referees.

In my conversation with Loren Bertocci, we discussed various ills with the refereeing of NCAA water polo. Before getting started, Loren Bertocci did let me know, that "he can't think of five times where a referee might have cheated a team out of the thousands of games he has refereed. The referees call the game fair." After saying that he discussed the process and where it is broken.

The three main water polo bodies in the NCAA are the MPSF, WWPA and CWPA (East). Each body has its own set of referees. Right off the bat, I think we can all see what the problem with that is. This means that you have referees doing the Final Four that may have only seen one set of teams. This problem gets even deeper when you consider the second issue pointed out to me. Most referees only do games in their own region. So now, not only do we have referees that only officiate games in their own conference but they are also only doing games in a certain region. So if you are a Southern California team in the MPSF or a New York area team in the CWPA, there is a very good chance you know who the officials are every time you play. This leads to coaches getting to know the referees doing their game and knowing exactly what they can get away with. On the flip side, referees become familiar with the players and also may give guys the benefit of the doubt because they have seen them before.

This isn't the biggest problem that Loren Bertocci pointed out to me, though. Apparently, there is no central grading system for all referees that do NCAA water polo games. That means you fall into the trap of each referee having his own style of refereeing instead of forcing a uniformed system from coast to coast. So, when a team like St. Francis shows up in California they are not only battling a high-powered squad but at the same time they are being forced to adjust to a referee who might be calling an entirely different game than they have seen all season. On the other end of the spectrum, the Mountain Pacific team who they are facing may well have had the referee officiate eight of their games prior to the contest and are comfortable with that official's style.

Three changes need to happen to improve the officiating of contests. First off, the NCAA needs to consolidate all of the referees under one umbrella. Then they need to establish firm guidelines and grade each referee based on those guidelines. Finally, the actual assignments of the referees must be linked to the grades that come from these guidelines. It is not good enough to simply assign referees locally, as convenient, or mostly (or worse, only) via the individual conference structure. If the teaching of referees is not closely linked to the grading of the referees, and more importantly, if the assigning of referees all season long is not linked to the same grading, the system will not work. Essentially, just do what the NFL, NBA and NHL already do. Finally, the NCAA needs to put in a rule that referees are only allowed to officiate a team twice per season. In order for the sport to grow, we need to make sure everything is being done in order to make for a first-class product.

10. Big weekend for Brown, as the Bears basically locked up at least second place in CWPA's Northern Divison. After a West Coast swing that saw them get drilled by Pepperdine and UCLA and lose a heartbreaker to Santa Clara, the Bears bounced back with wins over MIT, Fordham and Iona. Grant LeBeau was tremendous for the Bears over the weekend and really is a nice complement to Mike Gartner.

9. Navy beat Johns Hopkins and George Washington during the week and has now won nine out of its last ten games. Aaron Recko led the way as he scored seven goals in the two victories.

8. Keep an eye on Mercyhurst as they are quietly playing pretty good water polo right now. They have won five straight games and that includes a win over Gannon 16-9 which avenged a one-goal loss from earlier that week. The Lakers have some quality wins on their resume as they have beaten both Redlands and Iona. Juniors Andrew Schonhoff and Alex Perry can both put goals on the board against anybody. This is a team that could pull an upset at the CWPA's Southern Championships.

Our next seven shots will encompass the wild weekend of action at the SoCal Tournament.

7. Game of the weekend had to be Stanford stunning California 10-9 in overtime on Ryan Fortune's game-winner. Stanford's improvement from the beginning of the season has been noticeable. The Cardinal are getting contributions from a lot of different players and Sandy Hohener has been tremendous in the cage.

6. One of the happiest coaches to leave this tournament had to be Loyola Marymount's John Loughran. He may not admit it, but beating UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine is huge for the Lions. Goalie Andy Stevens is filling Ian Elliott's shoes very nicely. He recorded 42 saves over the tournament's four games.

5. You have to wonder what is wrong with Bucknell. The Bison have now lost six out of their last eight games. This includes losses to Redlands and Princeton, both of whom are teams that I thought Bucknell was better than. They also lost to Pacific over the weekend. This is a team that the Bison knocked off earlier this year with relative ease. If there was ever a time for a coach to hold a closed-door meeting and throw some furniture around, this is it.

4. Pepperdine had a nice run and the Waves' 8-7 win over Long Beach State establishes that they are the next best team after USC, Cal, Stanford and UCLA. The Waves dispatched Bucknell and Loyola Marymount en route to winning fifth place. The only negative for the Waves has to be the way they played in the first half against UCLA. Pepperdine fell behind 7-3 in route to losing 11-6. The Waves need their supporting players to step up in these bigger games when the other team is going out of their way to take Adam Hewko out of the game.

3. You have to tip your cap to Redlands coach Tom Whittemore for the way his team played on Sunday. After getting lambasted by a total margin of 38-3 by USC and UCSB on Saturday, he had the Bulldogs ready to play on Sunday. They were very impressive in knocking off Bucknell and Princeton. All-American Ryan Hall led the way with six goals on the tournament's second day. Goalie Teddy Trowbridge had nineteen saves in the two victories. I was very impressed with the way that Trowbridge was able to put Saturday's results in his rearview mirror. Plenty of goalies have gone into slumps after getting blitzed like he did.

2. St. Francis came within two goals of having a banner West Coast swing. The Terriers beat UC San Diego and Pomona-Pitzer, but lost to Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara by one goal each. In the game against Long Beach State, the Terriers lost on a 6-on-5 goal by Long Beach State's Justin Koeppen with 2:01 remaining in the game. Most people predicted this was the most evenly matched game of the first round and it turned out to be just that. In the UC Santa Barbara game, the Terriers scored three fourth quarter goals and almost rallied from being down 6-2 to tie the ballgame. It is probably for the best that they didn't come all the way back. The last thing UCSB supporters need to see is for their team to blow a four goal fourth quarter lead after having already watched the Gauchos suffer six of their eight losses by one goal (and another by two goals).

1. With this tournament championship, USC has officially put some separation between itself and California. The Trojans dominated Stanford in the championship game as they raced out to a 9-3 halftime lead and ended up winning 11-6. U.S. National Team member and California transfer Shea Buckner was tremendous as he notched four goals in the victory. This capped off a tournament that saw them also defeat Redlands and Loyola Marymount by a combined score of 30-4 on Saturday and then hold off UCLA 7-6 in the semifinals.

Player to Watch

Andy Stevens, Loyola Marymount: John Loughran has a knack for recruiting quality goaltenders. From Drew Lawrence at Queens College to Ian Elliott and Andy Stevens at Loyola Marymount, Loughran always seems to have a top-flight keeper. The redshirt freshman from Villa Park was outstanding at the SoCal Tournament. Currently a member of the United States Junior National team, Stevens along with fellow freshman Tibor Forai will have the Lions in the Final Four mix for years to come.

(Honorable Mention goes to Dragan Bakic of Pacific for dropping eight goals on UC San Diego in the 11th Place game. That is just a manly performance against a good team.)

Contest To Keep An Eye On

California is playing UCLA at UCLA on Saturday. For the Bruins to advance to that next level of true championship contender, they have to beat Cal at Rose Bowl Aquatic Center. UCLA lost to California at the SoCal Tournament in the third place game by an 8-7 margin. The game-winner came when Spencer Warden struck on a 6-on-5.

The Projected Final Four

1. USC (MPSF Representative)

2. California (at-large bid)

3. UC Davis (WWPA Representative)

4. Navy (CWPA/Eastern Representative)

Up until this week, I had California ranked higher than USC since Cal is the defending national champion. However, USC's domination this weekend combined with Cal's second loss drops the Golden Bears. I was willing to write off California's first loss of the season, which was to USC due to the slightly controversial ending. I can't overlook the Trojans anymore. The SoCal Tournament championship moves them into the top slot in my projected Final Four.

E-Mail of The Week

This week's e-mail of the week came from Scott who is a huge UC Santa Barbara fan. This is easily the most researched e-mail I have ever received. It was:

I love your column ....keep up the good work. Regarding your statement in week No. 6, "Tibor Forai may well be the most impressive freshman aside from Brian Dudley." This is probably true for WWPA, but have you yet seen UCSB freshman phenom Milos Golic? He joined the team a little late this season, but has quickly been integrated and is really lighting it up. He is now up to No. 6 on the 2007 MPSF MEN'S WATER POLO STATISTICS for Scoring.

Here are their numbers:

Milos Golic

Games Goals Assists Shots Shooting% Goals per game

14 32 20 71 45.1% 2.29

Tibor Forai

Games Goals Assists Shots Shooting% Goals per game

18 29 6 77 37.7% 1.6

And I don't think he has yet had the pleasure of playing any unranked teams (scoring hat tricks against the likes of UCI can't be easy). How about a little mention of Milos in one of your future columns? Thanks.

There is no doubt that Milos Golic is a force and he is only going to get better. An argument can easily be made that he is better than Forai as these statistics prove. I would still give the nod though to Forai and this is my argument. Tibor Forai is the Bobby DeNiro of Loyola Marymount. He is the main guy and has to do more in order for his team to be successful. This is evidenced by the fact that he leads the team in goals and shots taken. He also draws a ton of ejections. On the flip side, the Gauchos have players on the team that are as good or better than Golic. Miles Price and Ross Sinclair are both very experienced and talented players. Sinclair was an All-American last season and should make it again this season. Miles Price will challenge for All-America honors this season as well. Sophomore Zsombor Vincze was Honorable Mention All-MPSF last season and has improved off of that in his sophomore campaign. Vincze being named an All-American is not a far-fetched scenario. I thought enough of UCSB's starting seven at the beginning of the season that I named them my national sleeper, mainly because I thought they had tremendous balance.

Loyola Marymount has played eighteen games this season and seventeen have been against ranked teams. On the flip side, UCSB has played three unranked teams this year out of its 23 games. The teams matched up against each other this past weekend and Loyola Marymount won 5-4 with Forai putting up a hat trick while Golic was held scoreless. In the Gauchos defense, they had beaten the Lions two prior times this year.