2017 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season

2017 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season
2017 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Soccer
Duration	August 25, 2017 – November 12, 2017
Number of teams	8
2018 MLS SuperDraft
Top draft pick	Michael Nelson, SMU
Picked by	Houston Dynamo, 20th overall
Regular Season
Season champions	SMU
Runners-up	UCF
Top scorer	Matias Pyysalo, UCF (7 goals)
Tournament
Champions	SMU
Runners-up	UCF
Finals MVP	Offensive: Emil Cuello, SMU; Defensive: Jordan Cano, SMU
AAC men's soccer seasons
	← 2016 2018 →

2017 American Athletic Conference men's soccer standings
v t e	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
No. 8 SMU ‡	5	–	1	–	1	17	–	3	–	1
UCF	4	–	2	–	1	8	–	6	–	2
Connecticut	4	–	3	–	0	8	–	8	–	2
Temple	4	–	3	–	0	9	–	8	–	1
South Florida	3	–	2	–	2	6	–	6	–	4
Tulsa	3	–	4	–	0	6	–	8	–	1
Memphis	2	–	3	–	2	4	–	8	–	4
Cincinnati	0	–	7	–	0	7	–	9	–	1


‡ – 2017 American Tournament champion + – Invited to the 2017 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship As of December 13, 2017 Rankings from United Soccer Coaches

The 2017 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season was the 5th season of men's varsity soccer in the conference. The season began on August 25 and concluded on November 12, 2017.

Defending regular season champions, SMU, retained their title, and won the 2017 American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament. The Mustangs were the conference's sole berth in the NCAA Tournament,^[1] where they reached the round of 16. There, they lost to North Carolina.^[2]^[3]

Background

Head coaches

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Years at school	Overall record	Record at school	American record	NCAA Tournaments^[4]	NCAA College Cups^[4]	NCAA Titles^[4]
Cincinnati	Hylton Dayes	Wright State	18	229–229–62 (.500)	131–144–42 (.479)	7–27–4 (.237)	2	0	0
Connecticut	Ray Reid	Southern Connecticut	21	434–124–73 (.746)	288–107–58 (.700)	26–11–9 (.663)	16	2	1
Memphis	Richard Mulrooney	Memphis (asst.)	4	24–32–11 (.440)	24–32–11 (.440)	11–20–7 (.382)	0	0	0
SMU	Kevin Hudson	SMU (asst.)	3	38–14–6 (.707)	38–14–6 (.707)	14–5–3 (.705)	2	0	0
South Florida	Bob Butehorn	Florida Gulf Coast	1	135–100–31 (.566)	6–6–4 (.500)	3–3–2 (.500)	4	0	0
Temple	Dave MacWilliams	Philadelphia KiXX	18	140–161–34 (.469)	140–161–34 (.469)	12–19–7 (.408)	3	0	0
Tulsa	Tom McIntosh	Tulsa (asst.)	21	244–164–48 (.588)	244–164–48 (.588)	15–11–4 (.567)	10	0	0
UCF	Scott Calabrese	FIU	1	93–73–22 (.553)	8–6–2 (.563)	4–2–1 (.643)	3	0	0

Preseason

Recruiting

National Rankings
Team	CSN^[5]	TDS^[6]
Cincinnati	NR	NR
Connecticut	NR	17
Memphis	NR	NR
SMU	NR	NR
South Florida	NR	31
Temple	NR	NR
Tulsa	NR	NR
UCF	NR	NR

Preseason poll

	Team ranking	First place votes	Raw points
1.	Connecticut	4	45
2.	Tulsa	1	43
3.	South Florida	2	34
4.	UCF	0	29
5.	SMU	1	27
6.	Temple	0	20
7.	Cincinnati	0	18
8.	Memphis	0	8

Preseason All-AAC Teams

Honor	Recipient
Preseason Offensive Player of the Year	Matias Pyysalo, UCF
Preseason Defensive Player of the Year	Patrick Nielsen, Cincinnati
Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year	Michael Nelson, SMU

Preseason All-AAC Team

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	GK	USA	Michael Nelson (SMU)
—	DF	DEN	Patrick Nielsen (Cincinnati)
—	DF	USA	Jacob Hauser-Ramsey (Connecticut)
—	DF	USA	Dylan Greenberg (Connecticut)
—	DF	USA	Jordan Cano (SMU)
—	DF	USA	Zack Stavrou (Tulsa)
—	MF	USA	Jackson Morse (Memphis)


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	MF	USA	Ricardo Gomez (South Florida)
—	MF	ESP	Mauro Cichero (SMU)
—	MF	FIN	Matias Pyysalo (UCF)
—	FW	SEN	Abdou Mbacke Thiam (Connecticut)
—	FW	USA	Garrett McLaughlin (SMU)
—	FW	FIN	Joonas Jokinen (Temple)
—	FW	USA	Juan Sánchez (Tulsa)

Regular season

Rankings

**Legend**
		Increase in ranking
		Decrease in ranking
		Not ranked previous week
UCS		United Soccer Coaches poll
TDS		Top Drawer Soccer poll

		Pre	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Wk 15	Wk 16	Final
Cincinnati	UCS
Cincinnati	TDS
Connecticut	UCS	24	RV							RV
Connecticut	TDS	RV								25
Memphis	UCS
Memphis	TDS
SMU	UCS		RV	RV	RV	19	RV	25	17	14	12	13	11	10	10	10	10	8
SMU	TDS								24	14	10	7	7	6	6	6	10	10
South Florida	UCS
South Florida	TDS
Temple	UCS
Temple	TDS
Tulsa	UCS				20
Tulsa	TDS
UCF	UCS
UCF	TDS

Sources: TopDrawer Soccer,^[7] United Soccer Coaches^[8]

Postseason

AAC Tournament

Semifinals			Finals

1	SMU	4

4	Temple	0
			1	SMU	2

			2	UCF	1
2	UCF	1

3	Connecticut	0

NCAA Tournament

Seed	Region	School	1st Round	2nd Round	3rd Round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Championship
—	Chapel Hill	SMU	W, 2–0 vs. Central Arkansas – (Dallas)	W, 2–1 ^2OT vs. No. 14 Georgetown – (Washington, D.C.)	L, 0–2 vs. No. 3 North Carolina – (Cary)

Records against other conferences

Conference	Record^[9]
Atlantic 10	1–2–0
ACC	0–5–1
Atlantic Sun	5–1–1
Big East	3–4–2
Big South Conference	1–0–0
Big Ten	1–1–1
Big West	1–0–0
CAA	3–1–1
Conference USA	2–4–0
Horizon	4–2–1
Ivy	3–1–0
MAAC	1–3–0
Mid-American	1–2–1
Missouri Valley	2–1–0
Pac-12	1–1–0
Patriot	1–0–0
Southland	1–0–0
Summit	3–0–0
West Coast	3–0–0
WAC	0–0–1
Total	37–27–10

Awards

Regular season awards

Players of the Week

Week	Offensive			Defensive			Goalkeeper		Rookie			Ref.
Week	Player	Position	Team	Player	Position	Team	Player	Team	Player	Position	Team	Ref.
August 28	Mauro Cichero	MF	SMU	Malik Suleman	MF	Cincinnati	Noah Lawrence	Cincinnati	Darryn Commissiong	MF	Cincinnati
September 4	Garrett McLaughlin	FW	SMU	Nkosi Burgess	DF	Connecticut	Scott Levene	Connecticut	Adrian Billhardt	FW	South Florida
September 11	Rollie Rocha	MF	Tulsa	Jonathan Dean	DF	UCF	Marcel Da Silva	Tulsa	Luke Biasi	MF	Memphis
September 18	Sean Clarke	MF	Cincinnati	Jordan Cano	DF	SMU	Pearce Skinner	Cincinnati	Sean Clarke	MF	Cincinnati
September 25	Abdou Mbacke Thiam	FW	Connecticut	Gustavo Vargas	DF	Tulsa	Scott Levene	Connecticut	Chris Mikus	MF	Memphis
October 2	Alan Camacho Soto	FW	Temple	Jared Rice	DF	SMU	Scott Levene	Connecticut	Alan Camacho Soto	FW	Temple
October 9	Ricardo Gomez	MF	South Florida	Jake Hauser-Ramsey	DF	Connecticut	Scott Levene	Connecticut	Jackson Brady	DF	Memphis
October 16	Matias Pyysalo	MF	UCF	Jake Hauser-Ramsey	DF	Connecticut	Michael Nelson	SMU	Josh Burnett	MF	Connecticut
October 23	Cal Jennings	FW	UCF	Jordan Cano	DF	SMU	Michael Nelson	SMU	Alan Camacho Soto	FW	Temple
October 30	Matias Pyysalo	MF	UCF	Andreas Steinegar	DF	UCF	Christian Knight	South Florida	Brantley Bice	FW	Memphis
November 2	Garrett McLaughlin	FW	SMU	Jordan Cano	DF	SMU	Michael Nelson	SMU	Chase Bromstedt	MF	Tulsa

Postseason awards

All-AAC awards and teams

Award	Recipient(s)
2017 AAC Men's Soccer Individual Awards^[9]
Offensive Player of the Year	Matias Pyysalo, UCF
Defensive Player of the Year	Jordan Cano, SMU
Goalkeeper of the Year	Michael Nelson, SMU
Rookie of the Year	Adrian Billhardt, South Florida
Coach of the Year	Kevin Hudson, SMU
Academic Excellent Team	Memphis
Team Fair Play Award	UCF

First Team	Second Team	Rookie Team
2017 AAC Men's Soccer All-Conference Teams^[9]
Cal Jennings, F, So., UCF Matias Pyysalo, M/F, Sr., UCF Yoni Sorokin, M, Fr., UCF Jacob Hauser-Ramsey, B, Jr., UConn Abdou Mbacke Thiam, F, Jr., UConn Adrian Billhardt, F, Fr., USF Ricardo Gomez, M, Sr., USF Jordan Cano, B, Sr., SMU Mauro Cichero, M, Sr., SMU Garrett McLaughlin, F, So., SMU Michael Nelson, GK, R-Sr., SMU Divin Fula Luzolo, B, Sr., Temple	Hattabiou Barry, M, Fr., UCF Louis Perez, M, Fr., UCF Andreas Steineger, B, Jr., UCF David Sanz, M, So., Cincinnati Dylan Greenberg, B, R-Sr., UConn Scott Levene, GK, R-Sr., UConn Ben Roberts, B, So., Memphis David Zalzman, M, Jr., Memphis Jared Rice, B/M, Sr., SMU Alan Camacho Soto, F, Fr., Temple Thibault Candia, F, So., Temple Rollie Rocha, M, Sr., Tulsa	Hattabiou Barry, M, UCF Louis Perez, M, UCF Yoni Sorokin, M, UCF Josh Burnett, M, UConn Blaise N’Gague, M, UConn Adrian Billhardt, F, USF Josue Monge, M, USF Talen Maples, B, SMU Alan Camacho Soto, F, Temple Darri Sigthorsson, B, Temple Joe Ruiz, M, Tulsa

All-Americans

College Soccer News

Three players in the conference were named All-Americans by CollegeSoccerNews.com.^[10]

Mauro Cichero, SMU — 1st Team All-American
Michael Nelson, SMU — 1st Team All-American
Jordan Cano, SMU — 3rd Team All-American

United Soccer Coaches

Three players in the conference were named All-Americans by United Soccer Coaches.^[11]

Mauro Cichero, SMU — 1st Team All-American
Jordan Cano, SMU — 3rd Team All-American
Garrett McLaughlin, SMU — 3rd Team All-American

MLS SuperDraft

Two players from the conference were selected in the 2018 MLS SuperDraft. This included Michael Nelson and Mauro Cichero, both of SMU.^[12]

Total picks by school

Team	Round 1	Round 2	Total
Cincinnati	0	0	0
Connecticut	0	0	0
Memphis	0	0	0
SMU	1	1	2
South Florida	0	0	0
Temple	0	0	0
Tulsa	0	0	0
UCF	0	0	0

List of selections

Round	Pick #	MLS team	Player	Position	College	Other	Ref.
1	20	Houston Dynamo	Michael Nelson	GK	SMU		^[13]
2	29	FC Dallas	Mauro Cichero	FW	SMU		^[14]

Homegrown contracts

Original MLS team	Player	Position	College	Notes	Ref.
FC Dallas	Jordan Cano	Defender	SMU	2017 AAC Defender of the Year	^[15]

References

^ Grosbard, Adam (November 22, 2017). "What to look for in SMU men's soccer's NCAA tournament matchup with North Carolina". The Dallas Morning News. A. H. Belo Corporation. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
^ "North Carolina Tar Heels vs. SMU Mustangs - Match Summary". ESPN FC. ESPN, Inc. November 25, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
^ Hilburn-Trenkle, Chris (November 26, 2017). "UNC men's soccer advances to Elite Eight with win over SMU, 2-0". The Daily Tar Heel. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c "NCAA Men's Soccer Championship Brackets" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. ncaa.org. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
^ "2017 Team Recruiting Classes". College Soccer News. March 3, 2017. Archived from the original on July 21, 2017. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
^ Clark, Travis (July 10, 2017). "2017 Boys Recruiting Rankings: July update". Top Drawer Soccer. Retrieved July 12, 2017.
^ "College Soccer National Rankings". TopDrawer Soccer. June 12, 2017.
^ "NCAA DI Men's National Rankings". National Soccer Coaches Association of America. June 12, 2017. Archived from the original on September 14, 2016. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c "American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Report - Final Release" (PDF). theamerican.org. American Athletic Conference. December 18, 2017. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
^ "College Soccer News 2017 All-America Teams". collegesoccernews.com. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
^ "NCAA DI Men's All-America Teams Announced by United Soccer Coaches". unitedsoccercoaches.com. United Soccer Coaches. Archived from the original on June 24, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
^ "2018 MLS SuperDraft Tracker". mlssoccer.com. Major League Soccer. January 19, 2018. Archived from the original on January 19, 2018. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
^ Roepken, Corey (January 19, 2018). "Dynamo draft pick Michael Nelson gets shot with hometown team". Houston Chronicle. Hearst Corporation. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
^ Epperley, Drew (January 19, 2018). "MLS Draft 2018: FC Dallas selects two in second round". Big D Soccer. SB Nation. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
^ "FC Dallas signs SMU's Jordan Cano". The Dallas Morning News. A. H. Belo Corporation. January 11, 2018. Retrieved January 25, 2018.

External links

American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer

[smu_v_unc-1] Grosbard, Adam (November 22, 2017). "What to look for in SMU men's soccer's NCAA tournament matchup with North Carolina". The Dallas Morning News. A. H. Belo Corporation. Retrieved January 26, 2018.

[2] "North Carolina Tar Heels vs. SMU Mustangs - Match Summary". ESPN FC. ESPN, Inc. November 25, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2018.

[3] Hilburn-Trenkle, Chris (November 26, 2017). "UNC men's soccer advances to Elite Eight with win over SMU, 2-0". The Daily Tar Heel. Retrieved January 26, 2018.

[ncaa_brackets-4] "NCAA Men's Soccer Championship Brackets" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. ncaa.org. Retrieved July 17, 2017.

[CSN_March_2017-5] "2017 Team Recruiting Classes". College Soccer News. March 3, 2017. Archived from the original on July 21, 2017. Retrieved July 15, 2017.

[6] Clark, Travis (July 10, 2017). "2017 Boys Recruiting Rankings: July update". Top Drawer Soccer. Retrieved July 12, 2017.

[7] "College Soccer National Rankings". TopDrawer Soccer. June 12, 2017.

[8] "NCAA DI Men's National Rankings". National Soccer Coaches Association of America. June 12, 2017. Archived from the original on September 14, 2016. Retrieved January 26, 2018.

[end_of_season_awards-9] "American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Report - Final Release" (PDF). theamerican.org. American Athletic Conference. December 18, 2017. Retrieved January 25, 2018.

[10] "College Soccer News 2017 All-America Teams". collegesoccernews.com. Retrieved January 26, 2018.

[11] "NCAA DI Men's All-America Teams Announced by United Soccer Coaches". unitedsoccercoaches.com. United Soccer Coaches. Archived from the original on June 24, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.

[draft_results-12] "2018 MLS SuperDraft Tracker". mlssoccer.com. Major League Soccer. January 19, 2018. Archived from the original on January 19, 2018. Retrieved January 26, 2018.

[nelson_hou-13] Roepken, Corey (January 19, 2018). "Dynamo draft pick Michael Nelson gets shot with hometown team". Houston Chronicle. Hearst Corporation. Retrieved January 25, 2018.

[cichero_fcd-14] Epperley, Drew (January 19, 2018). "MLS Draft 2018: FC Dallas selects two in second round". Big D Soccer. SB Nation. Retrieved January 25, 2018.

[jordan_cano_fcd-15] "FC Dallas signs SMU's Jordan Cano". The Dallas Morning News. A. H. Belo Corporation. January 11, 2018. Retrieved January 25, 2018.

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v t e American Athletic Conference men's soccer
Teams	Charlotte 49ers Florida Atlantic Owls FIU Panthers Memphis Tigers South Florida Bulls Temple Owls Tulsa Golden Hurricane UAB Blazers
Championships	American Tournament
Awards	Player of the Year
Seasons	2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Tournament	2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Rivalries	War on I-4 (South Florida–UCF)

v t e 2017 NCAA Division I men's soccer season
Regular Season	America East American ACC Atlantic Sun Atlantic 10 Big East Big South Big Ten Big West Colonial Conference USA Horizon Ivy MAAC Mid-American Missouri Valley Northeast Pac-12 Patriot Southern Sun Belt Summit WAC West Coast
Tournaments	America East American ACC Atlantic Sun Atlantic 10 Big East Big South Big Ten Big West Colonial Conference USA Horizon MAAC Mid-American Missouri Valley Northeast Patriot Southern Sun Belt Summit WAC
National Tournaments	NCAA Final
Rankings	United Soccer Coaches Top 25 Poll