Post by SoccerMom on Apr 19, 2017 12:29:36 GMT -5
Mallory Pugh is going pro. And even though the news itself is perhaps not an enormous surprise, the timing caught more than a few folks off guard.
The 2016 college season would’ve been Pugh’s freshman year at UCLA. For any normal player, it would’ve been, anyway. Instead, Pugh, the No. 1 recruit in the 2016 class and the 2015-16 TopDrawerSoccer.com Girls Player of the Year, spent the first half of the college season with the full USWNT at the Olympics and the second half gearing up for - and then playing in - the U20 World Cup. Along with a few other college-bound or college-playing national teamers, Pugh deferred her year. She’d start in 2017.
Pugh returned from U20 camp with affirmations that her UCLA career would indeed resume in earnest in 2017. But with the ratification of a new CBA for the USWNT in April, plans changed. And now, four months after Pugh was seemingly locked into at least her freshman year, she’s going pro. The question now is merely where.
This decision will obviously have an immediate knock-on effect for the 2017 college season and beyond. Here are three of those likely effects and implications.
UCLA’s attack got dimmer, but only slightly
In a lot of ways, UCLA needed Pugh. It needed her star to restore some luster to a program looking to make College Cup appearances as much of an annual occasion as its Pac-12 rivals to the north in Stanford(w). And it needed her to push back in an emphatic way on the noisy neighbors, USC(w), who just delivered UCLA’s worst nightmare by winning a national title while the Bruins didn’t get past the third round. Pugh was the biggest draw in college soccer in a generation, perhaps since Mia Hamm’s days, and UCLA just lost her.
Obviously, it’ll take its toll on the field, whether Pugh had played there or not. Nobody loses a full-fledged national team player and improves. But make no mistake, UCLA is still a College Cup contender in 2017. Full stop.
After a brutal eight-win 2015, UCLA returned to its winning ways with a 15-win 2016 that was a stepping stone in a few ways. Even without Pugh, the Bruins still add a consensus top three recruiting class this year, with Ashley Sanchez leading the way as the No. 1 player in the class. They’ll also welcome No. 7 Karina Rodriguez as well as Marley Canales, who deferred her freshman year with Pugh to play in the U20 World Cup last year. Canales was the No. 2 player in the 2016 class behind only Pugh.
Add that to the talent UCLA already had on campus (don’t forget about Jessie Fleming and the rest) and they’ll be immediate Pac-12 contenders. But...
The modern Pac-12 is a mini-NWSL
It’d be folly to think UCLA’s league rivals aren’t jumping for joy at the fact that they won’t have to game plan for Pugh this year or any other year. But there’s another program in particular unfazed by UCLA’s class sans Pugh, and that’s Stanford.
There’s perhaps one program in the entire country that can look at UCLA’s 2017 incoming group and think it did better, and that’s the Cardinal. Stanford’s hegemony in the conference at the moment is unchecked, and USC’s national title last year positions them in a place of prominence as well. UCLA is fighting both those stigmas in 2017, and they’re now doing it without Pugh. But there’s a reason that arms race is important, and it’s because Stanford is adding top 25 recruits at an even faster clip than UCLA. In fact, the Cardinal welcome, incredibly, three of the top four players in the 2017 class this fall.
One of those, Catarina Macario, could well be every bit the college player Sanchez will.
The fact is, in most any other conference UCLA could feel pretty good about losing Pugh and still being frontrunners for the league title. In the Pac-12, with a returning national champ, a two-time defending conference champ and a rising middle class featuring the likes of Colorado(w), Utah(w) and California(w), there are no foregone conclusions in the top half of the conference anymore. UCLA will still win a ton of games in 2017, but they just lost their ultimate silver bullet in Pugh.
Women’s college soccer lost a billboard star
The women’s college game, unlike the men’s, is a repository for the best and brightest college-aged players in the world. It’s still the top destination for highly prized internationals, and the path through college for domestic stars is real. If you’re 18 and hoping to crack the USWNT some day, there’s no question about your next steps. You go to college.
Pugh blew up that formula, and as a result the women’s college game lost its chance at a bonafide star out of the box at age 18 in a way it’s never had before. Pugh is a crossover talent, capable of bringing crowds out on her own, and she would’ve been a huge boon not just to UCLA but to the women’s game in general on the college level. Curious soccer fans who might’ve spent little time paying attention to the college game might’ve checked in where they otherwise wouldn’t have, just to see what Pugh was doing.
That’s a bummer, of course, even if for Pugh it was the proper course of action. In truth, she didn’t need the college game like more or less every other women’s player has. Adidas and Nike are both falling over themselves to obtain her endorsement, and she’ll probably have her pick of pro teams abroad if she decides the Washington Spirit is not the destination for her (and who could blame her). That shouldn’t dampen the relative disappointment that we won’t be seeing her in a UCLA uni for at least a year. Just to see what happens.
Pugh’s decision plots an intriguing course for future teenage stars. Lindsey Horan, of course, skipped college to play at PSG, but it happens so rarely that you wonder if the new CBA will spring more of these moves. If that’s the case, women’s college coaches at elite institutions might have to start sweating out the commitments of their top recruit every few years. The floodgates certainly aren’t open, but they might’ve just cracked a little.
www.topdrawersoccer.com/article/?utm_campaign=buffer&utm_medium=social&articleId=41733&categoryId=26&utm_content=buffera9d21&utm_source=twitter.com
The 2016 college season would’ve been Pugh’s freshman year at UCLA. For any normal player, it would’ve been, anyway. Instead, Pugh, the No. 1 recruit in the 2016 class and the 2015-16 TopDrawerSoccer.com Girls Player of the Year, spent the first half of the college season with the full USWNT at the Olympics and the second half gearing up for - and then playing in - the U20 World Cup. Along with a few other college-bound or college-playing national teamers, Pugh deferred her year. She’d start in 2017.
Pugh returned from U20 camp with affirmations that her UCLA career would indeed resume in earnest in 2017. But with the ratification of a new CBA for the USWNT in April, plans changed. And now, four months after Pugh was seemingly locked into at least her freshman year, she’s going pro. The question now is merely where.
This decision will obviously have an immediate knock-on effect for the 2017 college season and beyond. Here are three of those likely effects and implications.
UCLA’s attack got dimmer, but only slightly
In a lot of ways, UCLA needed Pugh. It needed her star to restore some luster to a program looking to make College Cup appearances as much of an annual occasion as its Pac-12 rivals to the north in Stanford(w). And it needed her to push back in an emphatic way on the noisy neighbors, USC(w), who just delivered UCLA’s worst nightmare by winning a national title while the Bruins didn’t get past the third round. Pugh was the biggest draw in college soccer in a generation, perhaps since Mia Hamm’s days, and UCLA just lost her.
Obviously, it’ll take its toll on the field, whether Pugh had played there or not. Nobody loses a full-fledged national team player and improves. But make no mistake, UCLA is still a College Cup contender in 2017. Full stop.
After a brutal eight-win 2015, UCLA returned to its winning ways with a 15-win 2016 that was a stepping stone in a few ways. Even without Pugh, the Bruins still add a consensus top three recruiting class this year, with Ashley Sanchez leading the way as the No. 1 player in the class. They’ll also welcome No. 7 Karina Rodriguez as well as Marley Canales, who deferred her freshman year with Pugh to play in the U20 World Cup last year. Canales was the No. 2 player in the 2016 class behind only Pugh.
Add that to the talent UCLA already had on campus (don’t forget about Jessie Fleming and the rest) and they’ll be immediate Pac-12 contenders. But...
The modern Pac-12 is a mini-NWSL
It’d be folly to think UCLA’s league rivals aren’t jumping for joy at the fact that they won’t have to game plan for Pugh this year or any other year. But there’s another program in particular unfazed by UCLA’s class sans Pugh, and that’s Stanford.
There’s perhaps one program in the entire country that can look at UCLA’s 2017 incoming group and think it did better, and that’s the Cardinal. Stanford’s hegemony in the conference at the moment is unchecked, and USC’s national title last year positions them in a place of prominence as well. UCLA is fighting both those stigmas in 2017, and they’re now doing it without Pugh. But there’s a reason that arms race is important, and it’s because Stanford is adding top 25 recruits at an even faster clip than UCLA. In fact, the Cardinal welcome, incredibly, three of the top four players in the 2017 class this fall.
One of those, Catarina Macario, could well be every bit the college player Sanchez will.
The fact is, in most any other conference UCLA could feel pretty good about losing Pugh and still being frontrunners for the league title. In the Pac-12, with a returning national champ, a two-time defending conference champ and a rising middle class featuring the likes of Colorado(w), Utah(w) and California(w), there are no foregone conclusions in the top half of the conference anymore. UCLA will still win a ton of games in 2017, but they just lost their ultimate silver bullet in Pugh.
Women’s college soccer lost a billboard star
The women’s college game, unlike the men’s, is a repository for the best and brightest college-aged players in the world. It’s still the top destination for highly prized internationals, and the path through college for domestic stars is real. If you’re 18 and hoping to crack the USWNT some day, there’s no question about your next steps. You go to college.
Pugh blew up that formula, and as a result the women’s college game lost its chance at a bonafide star out of the box at age 18 in a way it’s never had before. Pugh is a crossover talent, capable of bringing crowds out on her own, and she would’ve been a huge boon not just to UCLA but to the women’s game in general on the college level. Curious soccer fans who might’ve spent little time paying attention to the college game might’ve checked in where they otherwise wouldn’t have, just to see what Pugh was doing.
That’s a bummer, of course, even if for Pugh it was the proper course of action. In truth, she didn’t need the college game like more or less every other women’s player has. Adidas and Nike are both falling over themselves to obtain her endorsement, and she’ll probably have her pick of pro teams abroad if she decides the Washington Spirit is not the destination for her (and who could blame her). That shouldn’t dampen the relative disappointment that we won’t be seeing her in a UCLA uni for at least a year. Just to see what happens.
Pugh’s decision plots an intriguing course for future teenage stars. Lindsey Horan, of course, skipped college to play at PSG, but it happens so rarely that you wonder if the new CBA will spring more of these moves. If that’s the case, women’s college coaches at elite institutions might have to start sweating out the commitments of their top recruit every few years. The floodgates certainly aren’t open, but they might’ve just cracked a little.
www.topdrawersoccer.com/article/?utm_campaign=buffer&utm_medium=social&articleId=41733&categoryId=26&utm_content=buffera9d21&utm_source=twitter.com