Way too early Final Four

[Farfromgeneva]

Where do you stand on ILs predictive ability for recruits?

I think that they’re not much better or worse than anyone else who engages in a similar exercise.

But you feel differently about the ability to rank teams accurately in preseason by these same people?

[nyjay]

Where do you stand on ILs predictive ability for recruits?

I think that they’re not much better or worse than anyone else who engages in a similar exercise.

But you feel differently about the ability to rank teams accurately in preseason by these same people?

You miss the point entirely. I wasn't commenting the "accuracy" of IL's preseason polls. I was using the preseason polls only as a proxy for conventional wisdom regarding the expectations for a team leading into a season. And I would think that, irrespective whether the preseason polls are actually "accurate" (which I don't know how you could ever determine, given that the winner of a particular game is not necessarily the "better" team, just the team that won on that particular day), preseason polls are a very good in judging what conventional wisdom EXPECTS a team to do in a given season. In fact, that's only thing they actually do. My initial point with Duke was that it seemed they had been underperforming recently relative to expectations, which I think can be judged in the way I did. Whether they are underperforming relative to their "true talent level" or some other way of determining how "inherently good" a team actually is, is a much more difficult thing because you can't really measure "true talent level" or how inherently good a team is.



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[DMV_Guy]

If I may, I’d like to throw Georgetown into the conversation here. They graduated a lot last year and started out sleepwalking, but the early struggles have galvanized this team and their depth is impressive. Defensively they have an established rope unit backstopped by an AA caliber freshman goalie. Offensively they’re much more balanced than last year and running two full midfield lines. Each week that Loyola loss looks worse and worse, but the Notre Dame win was not a fluke.

Coach Warne has done a remarkable job putting this team back in the national conversation. Admittedly, they have struggled to get over the hump in the playoffs, but I think this is the year they break through and we see them playing on Memorial Day weekend.

[runrussellrun]

If any year to invite FOUR Patriot league teams......THIS is the year. ACC can stuff it.

Invite Army & Navy....just because. (whatt are ya, a bunch of commies!

Easy to find another two. Very easy.