[DenverCard]

Although unrelated to the rankings, there was an ominous development late in the game against UCSB two nights ago.  Zach Ryan, last year's leading scorer and Pac-12 player of the year, injured his shoulder. He fell, but it looked to me like something went awry as he was being held by his defender just before he fell.  He was in a lot of pain lying on the ground after whatever happened.  The sequence of events looked to me like he might have dislocated his shoulder, but there was no point that the trainer appeared to reduce it, and by the time he was upright, he looked to be in much less pain.  The shoulder was immobilized with a tight wrap, under which was affixed a bag of ice, and he was on the sidelines when the game ended.  Looking for prognostic indicators in what I observed, but it's ambiguity city.

The team seems really deep in midfielders and defenders, but only four forwards (for three positions) have played much this year, one of whom is of course Ryan.  And another of the four is a high energy guy who puts pressure on the opposing defenders, but appears a bit lacking in ball skills (and in confidence when he possess the ball).   On a couple of occasions in the game, he had the ball in a position in which he should have attacked the defender to make him commit, but instead, he gave the ball to a teammate too early.  So the loss of Ryan would be doubly difficult -- he's one of Stanford's two big threats to score (along with Ousseni Bouda), and it appears that there is a significant fall-off in moving down the depth chart.

[DenverCard]

Although unrelated to the rankings, there was an ominous development late in the game against UCSB two nights ago.  Zach Ryan, last year's leading scorer and Pac-12 player of the year, injured his shoulder. He fell, but it looked to me like something went awry as he was being held by his defender just before he fell.  He was in a lot of pain lying on the ground after whatever happened.  The sequence of events looked to me like he might have dislocated his shoulder, but there was no point that the trainer appeared to reduce it, and by the time he was upright, he looked to be in much less pain.  The shoulder was immobilized with a tight wrap, under which was affixed a bag of ice, and he was on the sidelines when the game ended.  Looking for prognostic indicators in what I observed, but it's ambiguity city.

The team seems really deep in midfielders and defenders, but only four forwards (for three positions) have played much this year, one of whom is of course Ryan.  And another of the four is a high energy guy who puts pressure on the opposing defenders, but appears a bit lacking in ball skills (and in confidence when he possess the ball).   On a couple of occasions in the game, he had the ball in a position in which he should have attacked the defender to make him commit, but instead, he gave the ball to a teammate too early.  So the loss of Ryan would be doubly difficult -- he's one of Stanford's two big threats to score (along with Ousseni Bouda), and it appears that there is a significant fall-off in moving down the depth chart.