Louisville remains #1; Michigan’s Saad POTW

Big East power Louisville remains at #1 in the TopDrawerSoccer.com Men’s Tournament 48 National Ranking after winning the Big East Tournament by defeating Notre Dame and Providence.

The Cardinals are one of just two undefeated programs in DI men’s soccer (Butler is the other), and now await confirmation of their status as a top seed in the NCAA Tournament. The field for the event will be announced Monday.

The Men’s Tournament 48 National Ranking is a running effort to project the 48-team NCAA Tournament field, including all automatic conference and at-large bids to the field. It is updated every Monday through the season. You can see the entire ranking here.

The ranking also attempts to integrate the RPI used so prominently by the NCAA in its tournament selection field. This week’s effort is therefore our final attempt to predict the field before it is officially announced Monday.

Meanwhile, Michigan forward Soony Saad has been named TopDrawerSoccer.com Player of the Week. Saad scored a goal in each of Michigan’s three Big 10 tournament wins, each of which was the match-winner as the Wolverines defeated Michigan State, Wisconsin and Penn State en route to the title.

With the award, Saad headlines this week’s TopDrawerSoccer.com Team of the Week.

The full TopDrawerSoccer.com Men's Team of the Week for Monday Nov. 8 through Sunday Nov. 14 is as follows.

GK: Justin Marshall, Xavier
D: Will Traynor, South Carolina
D: Ross Kelly, Coastal Carolina
M: Luis Silva, UC Santa Barbara
M: Alec Sundly, California
M: Matt Strine, UNC Greensboro
M: Nicolas Abrigo, William & Mary(m)
F: Soony Saad, Michigan
F: Jason Herrick, Maryland
F: Darren Mattocks, Akron
F: Colin Rolfe, Louisville

Player of the Week: Soony Saad, Michigan

The TopDrawerSoccer.com Team of the Week is chosen after consulting match reports from all DI matches played in the preceding week.