Notre Dame 2024

[azim21]

I thought about bringing this point up a few weeks ago, and maybe it's a conversation for its own thread, but I really do not see any benefit to the ACC tourney for the 4 teams playing in it this year (Assuming UNC doesn't knock off Duke as I think they technically have a path where they could still make it in). ND, Duke, and Syracuse should all be locks for the NCAA tournament. Maybe there's a case UVA could be left out if they lose to ND this week and first round of ACC tourney (that'd be four straight losses to end the year), but the committee has them at #5 so I just don't see it happening. I can't imagine coaches will rest starters, but I just don't see any benefit whatsoever to winning the ACC tourney when there's no auto-bid. I guess seeding could be what's on the line (especially for UVA), but if I'm Corrigan and I win this weekend, I'd consider limiting the runs of the 1st line middies and starting attack as they should be a lock for that 1 seed. Just isn't worth the risk of injury when your goal is the National Championship, not the ACC tournament championship. Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way idk.

I will say from a fan's perspective, I love it and cannot wait for the ACC tournament. Going to be some awesome games!

Agree. Seeding is only thing at stake here. I think ideally, ND wins this week and then run everybody against UVA first round ACC and whatever happens, happens. Absolute worst case they fall to #2 seed in NCAA tourney.

I’ve heard Lynch had a head injury from Cornell game, I’m thinking he’ll likely dress. Hagstrom filled in nicely last week if not.

Also, hate to admit this, but I think that UVA team beats ND 7 out of 10 times last year. ND just got the one that counted.

That's good to hear Lynch should be back this weekend. I also hate to admit it but I agree, it really was Entenmann and Lynch playing out of their minds in the semifinal that was difference.

[wgdsr]

I thought about bringing this point up a few weeks ago, and maybe it's a conversation for its own thread, but I really do not see any benefit to the ACC tourney for the 4 teams playing in it this year (Assuming UNC doesn't knock off Duke as I think they technically have a path where they could still make it in). ND, Duke, and Syracuse should all be locks for the NCAA tournament. Maybe there's a case UVA could be left out if they lose to ND this week and first round of ACC tourney (that'd be four straight losses to end the year), but the committee has them at #5 so I just don't see it happening. I can't imagine coaches will rest starters, but I just don't see any benefit whatsoever to winning the ACC tourney when there's no auto-bid. I guess seeding could be what's on the line (especially for UVA), but if I'm Corrigan and I win this weekend, I'd consider limiting the runs of the 1st line middies and starting attack as they should be a lock for that 1 seed. Just isn't worth the risk of injury when your goal is the National Championship, not the ACC tournament championship. Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way idk.

I will say from a fan's perspective, I love it and cannot wait for the ACC tournament. Going to be some awesome games!

if we start talking about strawmen like injuries (or similarly, rest, etc.) as potential risks, then there's also the opposite of going into the nc$$'s on a streak, or feeling confidence and sharp vs taking a loss into the big dance, regardless of whether it was played as do or die.

and the seed path often can matter. especially as the nc$$ cares 1st about flights, and matching 1-16 later. the #1 seed usually gets the best road (duke and delaware last year notwithstanding).

[BigTurn]

I thought about bringing this point up a few weeks ago, and maybe it's a conversation for its own thread, but I really do not see any benefit to the ACC tourney for the 4 teams playing in it this year (Assuming UNC doesn't knock off Duke as I think they technically have a path where they could still make it in). ND, Duke, and Syracuse should all be locks for the NCAA tournament. Maybe there's a case UVA could be left out if they lose to ND this week and first round of ACC tourney (that'd be four straight losses to end the year), but the committee has them at #5 so I just don't see it happening. I can't imagine coaches will rest starters, but I just don't see any benefit whatsoever to winning the ACC tourney when there's no auto-bid. I guess seeding could be what's on the line (especially for UVA), but if I'm Corrigan and I win this weekend, I'd consider limiting the runs of the 1st line middies and starting attack as they should be a lock for that 1 seed. Just isn't worth the risk of injury when your goal is the National Championship, not the ACC tournament championship. Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way idk.

I will say from a fan's perspective, I love it and cannot wait for the ACC tournament. Going to be some awesome games!

if we start talking about strawmen like injuries (or similarly, rest, etc.) as potential risks, then there's also the opposite of going into the nc$$'s on a streak, or feeling confidence and sharp vs taking a loss into the big dance, regardless of whether it was played as do or die.

and the seed path often can matter. especially as the nc$$ cares 1st about flights, and matching 1-16 later. the #1 seed usually gets the best road (duke and delaware last year notwithstanding).

I had to go look out of curiosity, a #3/4 seed has won 3 of the last 4, and the #1 seed has won 3x in the past decade. That was Maryland twice and Duke in ‘14. The last time a #2 seed won was 2009.

[wgdsr]

I thought about bringing this point up a few weeks ago, and maybe it's a conversation for its own thread, but I really do not see any benefit to the ACC tourney for the 4 teams playing in it this year (Assuming UNC doesn't knock off Duke as I think they technically have a path where they could still make it in). ND, Duke, and Syracuse should all be locks for the NCAA tournament. Maybe there's a case UVA could be left out if they lose to ND this week and first round of ACC tourney (that'd be four straight losses to end the year), but the committee has them at #5 so I just don't see it happening. I can't imagine coaches will rest starters, but I just don't see any benefit whatsoever to winning the ACC tourney when there's no auto-bid. I guess seeding could be what's on the line (especially for UVA), but if I'm Corrigan and I win this weekend, I'd consider limiting the runs of the 1st line middies and starting attack as they should be a lock for that 1 seed. Just isn't worth the risk of injury when your goal is the National Championship, not the ACC tournament championship. Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way idk.

I will say from a fan's perspective, I love it and cannot wait for the ACC tournament. Going to be some awesome games!

if we start talking about strawmen like injuries (or similarly, rest, etc.) as potential risks, then there's also the opposite of going into the nc$$'s on a streak, or feeling confidence and sharp vs taking a loss into the big dance, regardless of whether it was played as do or die.

and the seed path often can matter. especially as the nc$$ cares 1st about flights, and matching 1-16 later. the #1 seed usually gets the best road (duke and delaware last year notwithstanding).

I had to go look out of curiosity, a #3/4 seed has won 3 of the last 4, and the #1 seed has won 3x in the past decade. That was Maryland twice and Duke in ‘14. The last time a #2 seed won was 2009.

sounds like you want to be the 1 seed! as 3 out of 10 is pretty good and likely on the lower end of history, and 2, 3 , 4 looks pretty random. and there's some other seeds and unseeded champs as well.

winning your last game leading into... 4x in the last decade a champ took a loss into the tourney. doesn't sound debilitating and of course it's not. with stats, you can do anything, tho. take a larger sample size, and going back another 25 years, only once did a champ take a loss into the tournament (with abstentia/idk on p'ton 94), and more than occasionally it was a good to great winning streak.

obviously, the main thing is a team needs to play well and win 4. my thought is that however "easy" you can make one of those 4 is mission 1. there's enough depth out there that after that, you best have your a game.

[JoeMauer89]

I thought about bringing this point up a few weeks ago, and maybe it's a conversation for its own thread, but I really do not see any benefit to the ACC tourney for the 4 teams playing in it this year (Assuming UNC doesn't knock off Duke as I think they technically have a path where they could still make it in). ND, Duke, and Syracuse should all be locks for the NCAA tournament. Maybe there's a case UVA could be left out if they lose to ND this week and first round of ACC tourney (that'd be four straight losses to end the year), but the committee has them at #5 so I just don't see it happening. I can't imagine coaches will rest starters, but I just don't see any benefit whatsoever to winning the ACC tourney when there's no auto-bid. I guess seeding could be what's on the line (especially for UVA), but if I'm Corrigan and I win this weekend, I'd consider limiting the runs of the 1st line middies and starting attack as they should be a lock for that 1 seed. Just isn't worth the risk of injury when your goal is the National Championship, not the ACC tournament championship. Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way idk.

I will say from a fan's perspective, I love it and cannot wait for the ACC tournament. Going to be some awesome games!

if we start talking about strawmen like injuries (or similarly, rest, etc.) as potential risks, then there's also the opposite of going into the nc$$'s on a streak, or feeling confidence and sharp vs taking a loss into the big dance, regardless of whether it was played as do or die.

and the seed path often can matter. especially as the nc$$ cares 1st about flights, and matching 1-16 later. the #1 seed usually gets the best road (duke and delaware last year notwithstanding).

I had to go look out of curiosity, a #3/4 seed has won 3 of the last 4, and the #1 seed has won 3x in the past decade. That was Maryland twice and Duke in ‘14. The last time a #2 seed won was 2009.

sounds like you want to be the 1 seed! as 3 out of 10 is pretty good and likely on the lower end of history, and 2, 3 , 4 looks pretty random. and there's some other seeds and unseeded champs as well.

winning your last game leading into... 4x in the last decade a champ took a loss into the tourney. doesn't sound debilitating and of course it's not. with stats, you can do anything, tho. take a larger sample size, and going back another 25 years, only once did a champ take a loss into the tournament (with abstentia/idk on p'ton 94), and more than occasionally it was a good to great winning streak.

obviously, the main thing is a team needs to play well and win 4. my thought is that however "easy" you can make one of those 4 is mission 1. there's enough depth out there that after that, you best have your a game.

wgdsr,

Princeton beat Duke 8-7 in the last game of their 1994 season, looks that number stays at 1 going back another 25 years! Good stuff!

Joe

[cmbtp88]

I thought about bringing this point up a few weeks ago, and maybe it's a conversation for its own thread, but I really do not see any benefit to the ACC tourney for the 4 teams playing in it this year (Assuming UNC doesn't knock off Duke as I think they technically have a path where they could still make it in). ND, Duke, and Syracuse should all be locks for the NCAA tournament. Maybe there's a case UVA could be left out if they lose to ND this week and first round of ACC tourney (that'd be four straight losses to end the year), but the committee has them at #5 so I just don't see it happening. I can't imagine coaches will rest starters, but I just don't see any benefit whatsoever to winning the ACC tourney when there's no auto-bid. I guess seeding could be what's on the line (especially for UVA), but if I'm Corrigan and I win this weekend, I'd consider limiting the runs of the 1st line middies and starting attack as they should be a lock for that 1 seed. Just isn't worth the risk of injury when your goal is the National Championship, not the ACC tournament championship. Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way idk.

I will say from a fan's perspective, I love it and cannot wait for the ACC tournament. Going to be some awesome games!

Pretty Funny, we should be the last team to be worrying about injuries from playing in the ACC tournament. We have played 5 less games than SYR, 4 less games than Duke, 3 less games than UNC and UVA, we started playing 2 weeks after pretty much every other D1 team in the country. We only played 2 out of conference games of substance, Maryland and Cornell. GT don't know what to say about that one. We should be able to handle 2 ACC tournament games. If everyone in the ACC and Big 10 scheduled the way we did this year there would be many lower rated teams that would never have the opportunity to get games against top competition. We sand bagged a very lite schedule this year and it worked, be grateful for that. I agree, ACC tourney should be great this year, there won't be any easy games there!

[NYlax222]

some sandbag schedule. Of the 10 teams behind them in the polls, they played/will play 6, 3 in ACC, 3 out. They scheduled presumed favorites in each of Ivy, Big Ten, and Big East. Assuming they play two games in ACC tourney, they will have played 8 games vs. the 10 teams behind them in polls, and 6 games vs. Teams currently ranked 2nd - 7th. Don't think they need to apologize for this schedule.

[cmbtp88]

some sandbag schedule. Of the 10 teams behind them in the polls, they played/will play 6, 3 in ACC, 3 out. They scheduled presumed favorites in each of Ivy, Big Ten, and Big East. Assuming they play two games in ACC tourney, they will have played 8 games vs. the 10 teams behind them in polls, and 6 games vs. Teams currently ranked 2nd - 7th. Don't think they need to apologize for this schedule.

and so will have every other ACC team right....i'm not saying who we did play was not a difficult group of teams...i'm saying that we shouldn't be worried about playing 2 ACC tournament games given we have played less games than every top 10 team out there...we are playing well, and are probably healthier than most of the ACC or top other teams out there...thats good....sand bag wasn't referring to strength of teams we played but that we played less games, many ACC teams played 2 games in a week 2 or 3 times during their season, whether those teams are lower ranked teams or not, it takes a toll injury and fatigue wise i'm sure. all i'm saying

[azim21]

I thought about bringing this point up a few weeks ago, and maybe it's a conversation for its own thread, but I really do not see any benefit to the ACC tourney for the 4 teams playing in it this year (Assuming UNC doesn't knock off Duke as I think they technically have a path where they could still make it in). ND, Duke, and Syracuse should all be locks for the NCAA tournament. Maybe there's a case UVA could be left out if they lose to ND this week and first round of ACC tourney (that'd be four straight losses to end the year), but the committee has them at #5 so I just don't see it happening. I can't imagine coaches will rest starters, but I just don't see any benefit whatsoever to winning the ACC tourney when there's no auto-bid. I guess seeding could be what's on the line (especially for UVA), but if I'm Corrigan and I win this weekend, I'd consider limiting the runs of the 1st line middies and starting attack as they should be a lock for that 1 seed. Just isn't worth the risk of injury when your goal is the National Championship, not the ACC tournament championship. Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way idk.

I will say from a fan's perspective, I love it and cannot wait for the ACC tournament. Going to be some awesome games!

Pretty Funny, we should be the last team to be worrying about injuries from playing in the ACC tournament. We have played 5 less games than SYR, 4 less games than Duke, 3 less games than UNC and UVA, we started playing 2 weeks after pretty much every other D1 team in the country. We only played 2 out of conference games of substance, Maryland and Cornell. GT don't know what to say about that one. We should be able to handle 2 ACC tournament games. If everyone in the ACC and Big 10 scheduled the way we did this year there would be many lower rated teams that would never have the opportunity to get games against top competition. We sand bagged a very lite schedule this year and it worked, be grateful for that. I agree, ACC tourney should be great this year, there won't be any easy games there!

You know what you're right. They scheduled so few games anticipating this ACC tournament would give them two additional games. So I guess I was too short sighted, they probably will play as normal. It's also a good test for what memorial day weekend will be like.

In terms of a "sand bad schedule", outside of the first 2 games, they played some of the top teams in the country. (albeit I thought Marquette would be better this year) It's not their fault there's not many teams close by them for them to add to their schedule. Nor is it their fault Ohio State and Michigan are having down years. It's by no means a "sandbag schedule" just because they didn't play 5 extra games against teams nearby who they would have probably beaten by 10 goals. I mean would you really think their schedule is all that much better if they also played Bellarmine, Detroit Mercy, and Lindenwood? Most of those extra games teams like Duke, Syracuse, and UVA have are teams nearby who can play a midweek game against and not miss classes. Notre Dame doesn't really have that option without adding unnecessary games. Also I've said in this thread before you would think money isn't a factor, but it could be a consideration when it comes to out of conference games and travel costs.

[The Orfling]

This is a strategy (not many games, load up on ACC games and watch your RPI skyrocket) that almost always works for ND. The one time it backfired was in 2022 when the ACC was weaker than usual so playing Syracuse and UNC and Duke twice didn’t given ND the RPI turbocharge it normally would. But in a year like this when the ACC with the exception of UNC (which is okay, not terrible) is amazing, this strategy works extremely well and the ACC teams will be able to maximize their seeding in the tournament. Plus probably there’s still a lot of spring in the legs for the boys from South Bend! They’ll be a very tough out.

[cmbtp88]

This is a strategy (not many games, load up on ACC games and watch your RPI skyrocket) that almost always works for ND. The one time it backfired was in 2022 when the ACC was weaker than usual so playing Syracuse and UNC and Duke twice didn’t given ND the RPI turbocharge it normally would. But in a year like this when the ACC with the exception of UNC (which is okay, not terrible) is amazing, this strategy works extremely well and the ACC teams will be able to maximize their seeding in the tournament. Plus probably there’s still a lot of spring in the legs for the boys from South Bend! They’ll be a very tough out.

Well said, much better than I was able to put forth in my comment. I think playing less games is probably a smart idea for these coaches. Injury can play a big part on how many seasons go for these teams, even as deep as they are. I don't buy ND is too far away to have out of conference games like every other team whether during the week or on weekends. Hobart going to UVA or Duke or UNC is not any different than Hobart going to South Bend....hope your right about the south bend boys....

[NYlax222]

CMBT: thanks, i get your point. Given relatively few games, even with ACC tourney, shouldn't be issue for Irish. I think NCAAs will be fantastic - so many teams truly competitive, but, as objectively as one can be, believe ND most complete.

[BigTurn]

Lyght draws Shelly. Interesting

[BigTurn]

Making Nunes look like a brick wall right now. Split faceoffs and shoot better and the Irish are in a good spot.

[Hooz123]

I’m really starting to question Lars’ ability to coach lacrosse.

[Hooz123]

UVA makes stupid passes constantly. Just shoot the ball you knuckle draggers.

[BigTurn]

Not the cleanest game from either team. This is a slugfest.

[DocBarrister]

The Notre Dame ride is something else.

DocBarrister

[Finster]

I’m really starting to question Lars’ ability to coach lacrosse.

He’s a strange guy. Every time UVA loses a heartbreaking game, Lars gets in front of a camera and says:

“My men fought just like the Iroquois, both teams. We did the legacy proud. What a great sport. Really proud of both teams”.

Ok. That’s great, but sometimes when a team fumbles away a win, the kids need to hear a little tough love. Not that they made the Iroquois proud.

[BigTurn]

I cannot wait for April 27. That's all.

Was certainly a good game. Enjoy the course next weekend.