What Happened Yesterday? 03.07.17

D1 Mens Lacrosse
Post Reply
User avatar
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2982
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2018 1:20 pm

What Happened Yesterday? 03.07.17

Post by admin »

POST: What Happened Yesterday? 03.07.17

Yesterday was, in theory, an astonishing day.  But, in reality, it was not.  This is what happened yesterday.

EXPECTED - Cornell 18 vs. Binghamton 2 - Binghamton is winless.
EXPECTED - VMI 8 vs. Wagner 9 - Two similarly talented teams.
EXPECTED - Saint Joseph's 7 vs. St. John's 12 - St. Josephs is win-less.
EXPECTED - Georgetown 13 vs. Marist 6 - Marist has one win over a win-less team and they've lost to Bucknell, Colgate, Maryland, Drexel, and a weak Air Force.
EXPECTED - Manhattan 5 vs. Virginia 8 - UVA is a good team and Manhattan is not.
EXPECTED - Penn State 16 vs. Furman 5 - Furman is better than their record shows but they are still win-less.
EXPECTED - Princeton 15 vs. NJIT 8 - NJIT is win-less.
EXPECTED - UMass 8 vs. Albany 19 - Albany is a good team and UMass is not.

ALMOST INTERESTING - Navy 3 vs. Penn 11 - After Penn's theoretical slip-up vs. Penn State, people were unsure whether the Penn who lost to Penn State, which may prove to be less of a shocking loss as the season progresses, was going to show-up against Navy or the Penn that beat Duke.  The answer was the Penn that beat Duke.  As the season progresses and we discover where Penn State falls within the grand scheme of things, the answer may very well be the Penn that beat Duke and lost to Penn State.  i.e. Penn State is better than people think. 
ALMOST INTERESTING - Providence 11 vs. UMass Lowell 12 - This game was a little, but not overly, surprising.  Providence had beaten a couple teams that, by the numbers, were better than UMass-Lowell but not substantially better.
ALMOST INTERESTING - Hobart 12 vs. Colgate 11 - Hobart's only win was against Binghamton, which made them look weak, but they also didn't have any terrible losses.  Hobart was still a bit an unknown.  Today we know that Hobart, Cornell, and Colgate are extremely similar in terms of the level of talent of their teams.
ALMOST INTERESTING - Fairfield 9 vs. Quinnipiac 6 - Fairfield's biggest win before beating Quinnipiac was over a win-less St. Josephs.  With this said, their losses were not terrible losses.  Fairfield had lost to  UVM, Rutgers, Hartford, and Stony Brook.  In other words, Fairfield's talent level was somewhere between one of the worst teams in D1 Lacrosse and Hartford/Stony Brook.  Alternatively, Quinnipiac had beaten... Brown.  So when Fairfield beat Quinnipiac, people were surprised but besides the Brown win, Quinnipiac had beaten the win-less NJIT and lost to UVM and UMass-Lowell.  Bottom-line, Quinnipiac wasn't that good, Fairfield wasn't that bad, and nobody was surprised by either. 

BEING UNDEFEATED DOESN'T MEAN YOU'RE GOOD - Delaware 8 vs. Mercer 10 - People were flummoxed by Delaware's loss because most people don't even know what state Mercer is in let alone their level of talent and, before they were beaten by an undefeated Villanova, Delaware was also undefeated.  Though undefeated, Delaware's wins were over NJIT, Mt. St. Marys, and Monmouth.  Delaware being undefeated was irrelevant.  Delaware being better than NJIT, Mt. St. Marys, Monmouth, and nothing more is extremely relevant.  And, if Mercer beat NJIT, Mt. St. Marys or Monmouth, nobody would flinch.  The moral of the story is, Don't be fooled by the shiny, undefeated label.
BEING UNDEFEATED DOESN'T MEAN YOU'RE GOOD - Villanova 9 vs. Brown 12 - Villanova was undefeated including beating an undefeated Delaware.  Brown's only win was over a weak Stony Brook and they had lost to Rutgers and... Quinnipiac.  (See #4 directly above.)  Brown lost to Quinnipiac but that loss was one game.  Alternatively, though undefeated (See #1 directly above), Villanova's wins were over, a struggling at the time, PSU, Yale, Hofstra, Drexel, and Delaware. Though good, these are not powerhouse teams.  Brown's win and Villanova's loss were important outcomes for both, but based on each team's wins and losses before this match-up, this was not as big an upset as people want to believe.  Like PSU upsetting Penn, this Brown win may prove to not be an upset at all.

No games today.  But more games on Thursday, Friday, Saturday...   These are This Week's Games.
Post Reply

Return to “D1 MENS LACROSSE”