I guess it's time to get this thread started.

Where: Federal Way
Who: Fightin Texas Aggies
When: 3/22-3/24

The Aggies may get overshadowed by Louisville (if they're prepared right) but I think we may finish the weekend as the 2nd tier team that surprises the most people.

Couple the short entry lists with the fact that we have all our playmakers there and we have the potential for tons of unseeded individual scorers.

Not to mention some of the teams that historically beat us (not by much, I might add); Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia, are way down this season.

id be very interested to see how the psych sheet scores...*cough*blastoff*cough...

i haven't studied it too in depth, but smarter is right, pretty much all the key players at the meet, and more individual potential points than i can ever remember having.

gonna be a fun meet to watch, especially considering the guys didnt really have to endure any extra relay last chance weekend swims after conference. gave them another full week to focus on the big show.

Top 10-2012 perhaps??? Gig Em!

http://swimswam.com/2012/03/scoring-the-2012-mens-ncaa-championship-psych-sheets/

Since you asked ;-).

Obviously, there's a few caveats. Texas is obviously WAY better than seed.

ALso, as pointed out above, with the cut line being so low...going to be a lot of opportunities for new people to score. Whoever swims well at this meet will score well, regardless of seed.

Edit: Well that sounded stupid, didn't it? Too early...

[This message has been edited by AGBlastoff (edited 3/20/2012 9:27a).]

"Whoever swims well at this meet will swim well."

I called up one of my sources this morning and he confirmed this to be true.

I think Ags are going to JUST miss the top 10. Louisville is going to be the fly in the ointment. They're taking 13 to the meet, which nobody saw coming at the beginning of the year. Plus no Grant on the platform will hurt too.

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think Ags are going to JUST miss the top 10. Louisville is going to be the fly in the ointment. They're taking 13 to the meet, which nobody saw coming at the beginning of the year. Plus no Grant on the platform will hurt too.

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AGBlastoff- Has the Louisville program passed Kentucky's program?

Assuming that's a serious question...

Yeah, by far. Kentucky had that one good year in 2010, and hasn't been near that level since. Louisville's men have been good for about two years now, and their women are finally coming around two.

They have three slam-dunk A-finals swims (100/200 breaststroke, 200 free). Plus a whole lot of other B-final types. All 5 relays invited. Much deeper team than they've been before.

They started with the breaststrokers, and by recruiting a bunch of Portugese, Brazilians. Now they're sort of coming back home to American recruits.

Serious question. Just haven't kept up with Kentucky or Louisville other than basketball.

Local coach swam for Kentucky about 20 years ago. I heard him talking about the program (during SECs) and he was not happy with the recruiting or the state of the program.

Louisville has definitely become a legit program. Man I'm excited for this meet!

Yeah, Kentucky's got one guy who could be really good, but is coming off of injury. They didn't do a good job of leveraging their big season into big recruiting.

Going to be a good, good meet. A lot of people unhappy about the lower cutline...but at the same time, it gives the meet a different affect. You wouldn't want it every year, but it sort of makes it a big-name meet. Everyone who's at this meet is there with a definite purpose, not just for the experience. There's nobody who qualified #30 and knows they'll be done after prelims.

Everyone there is within a tenth or two of making a final in some race.

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They didn't do a good job of leveraging their big season into big recruiting.

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This. ^

plus I know 3 guys who swim/swam there and whenever I spoke to them, the in-team and team-coach dynamics seemed really unhealthy.
Just seems like it all went downhill at exactly the wrong moment.

@Blastoff - any idea why Grant isn't doing the platform? and are you sure he isn't? that does leave us with a points dip which I wasn't factoring in.

The surprise team for me looking over the psych sheets is Florida State. Didn't expect them to have as many swimmers/potential scorers as they do. Haven't paid them much attention for a good few years....

Australian trials are next week and doing tower isn't exactly easy on the body.

Divers usually train the tower just two times a week. Even on those days, they do relatively few dives off the 10M, perhaps as few as 2-3. They will do dives from the lower platforms (3, 5, and 7.5M). Each dive from 10M involves a 30 MPH impact to the water and divers feel it the next day.

I assume that's right. Aussie trials are the first week of April.

By rule, if you don't at least attempt to dive an event at zones, you can't do it at NCAA's (though, once you're qualified you can dive any event that you've at least attempted). That's sort of diving's equivalent of the B-time for bonus entries.

All things considered, I think the cut line this year is bad for men's NCAA swimming. This is a sport under constant threat. The most vulnerable teams are those without a regular or strong presence at the NCAAs. Over-emphasizing relay swimmers deemphasizes the individual near the A cut swimming for teams without great depth.

It might make the meet exciting, but only slighly more than normal. It has to be hugely disappointing to some very fast swimmers (and their coaches) that train for four years and can't get to the big dance because a less fast kid punches his ticket via a relay.

Spicewood - I have to agree with you on that. I've never understood the reasoning behind why they take so many for the women's and so little for the men. (yeah, yeah, title XI, whatever.) STILL doesn't make sense, this is a championship, not a program. Equal numbers at something like this is not 250 Vs. 325 (or whatever it currently is)

Anyway, besides that, I'm just surprised they did this in an Olympic year. The field is weaker already due to guys red-shirting or not fully resting due to OT's or delaying entering college to focus on this year first.

I know some might say, "well, then it's to ensure the competitiveness of the meet" : but it's always been about numbers every other year so it shouldn't suddenly change. Every sport has highs and lows. We're told it's a numbers game every year and get used to certain numbers for the cut, it shouldn't suddenly change due to a slightly lower year.

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(yeah, yeah, title XI, whatever.)

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WHAT?!?! There's another sexist bit of legislation discriminating against Men?!?! I thought Title IX was bad, but this Title XI sounds rough...hope the likes of Men's Swimming can withstand such brutal legislative whiplash!

Side note: Call me crazy, but I see a Top 10 finish in the very near (within the next week) future...

For your convenience:

Championship links page

Live Results

Dive meets link page

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 3/22/2012 9:55a).]

thanks Spice! i was just about to ask someone for that

Here's a link that includes links for prelims sessions, Thursday Finals sessions.

http://swimswam.com/2012/03/2012-mens-ncaa-championships-viewing-guide/

stupid pacific time zone making us watch the meet at weird hours...

The live video is almost unwatchable. Their camera seems unable to deal with the light.

So far it looks like their meet console operator is equally inept as the one that ran Big12s in Missouri.

Ags 200 free relay 14th fastest in prelims.

facebook seems to be the best source for gathering "live" results unfortunately...

Dalton's 50 (school record) a positive in 19.44. Troskot 18th in 50, small negative - big drop from Big 12's, but another tenth puts him in scoring. 200 free Relay, about right.

Overall, solid prelims session (medley yet to come).

[This message has been edited by AGBlastoff (edited 3/22/2012 2:46p).]

medley not bad, but probably not what they were hoping for/needed. still have the potential for both relays and dalton to win the B heat and get a good chunk of points on day one, not to mention whatever grant can pull in.

Wow, this almost looks like a make or break night already... A lot hinges on the position of those relays tonight.

The B final 2 free relay is close going in, whoever wants it the most will take that.

The B final 4 med relay doesn't have as much depth behind us to lose spots, but jumping a few spots up seems a tougher challenge.

That was a great swim from Dalton, especially after a slow start. Be great to see him win that B final tonight, it's the 50 free so anyone's race really.

Hopefully Grant gets done what he usually does and Haden gets himself into scoring position.

A decent morning for the Ags, having one of those relays or Dalton in the A final would've been a great lock & could've been points we wouldn't have necessarily had to work for/defend tonight.
BUT the opportunities to position themselves well are still there. Can't wait for tonight!!!

Very impressed with Dalton's swim (and him in general). Nice to see Troskot well below 20. But it takes 19.5 or so to do anything now.

Nel is well postioned to make the A final (1 dive remaining). The usual guys at the top (Livinston, Bonuchi). Hayden's 6th dive was not good so he is a bit vulnerable for the consolation final.

Jones is 15th overall, picks up 2 points.

Dunno if anyone noticed it in the splits. But that swim by Mark Weber to anchor Fl. State just stood out to me.
A guy who did 19.90 this morning in the individual 50 put up an 18.83 with a .22 reaction time....

I think Weber went an 18.9 in the morning, but anyway you put it that is flying!

Disappointing 50 free final. Nobody under 19. Only two under 19.4.

Cal shocks the hell out of everybody and has a big lead after day 1. Ags sit 10th as Ohio State is fading - both teams supposed to have big day 2's.

None of the times last night were particularly special. Lots of finals times slower than prelims. David Nolan didn't show that he is the next Phelps.

Livingston's dives much have been spectacular last night. He crushed the field. Three dives scored 80+ points.

Nice 400 MR swim by our boys.

Livingston made the fewest mistakes, and at this level, that's what matters.

Good day coming up. Nolan's going to be much better in the 100 back from what we saw (he took that IM out in a freaking 46.0). Cal has a bazillion points to score today - Shields double, Gydesen double, Shiels in BOTH relays...Texas needs to do HUGE damage in the 200 free, or this will be over by the 800 free relay.

AgBlastoff - I don't mean to be argumentative. But any dive that scores 8 or above is more than a dive without mistakes. Those are just really good dives. Consistency is critical in diving - he only had one mediocre dive. But he was #1 on 4 of 6 dives. I counted 17 scores of 9 or above on his dives. He was consistently excellent. Ipsen of Stanford was the only one in range last night.

If the diving event were 200 free, Livingston won by two body lengths.

I agree with you that Texas needs to make its move today. Anxious to see what Dax can do in the 200. Although he is a sip, I'd like to see him in London this summer.

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 3/23/2012 10:59a).]