Best Single Teams Since The Tournament Started In 1971 Who Didn't Win It All?

[Wheels]

2011 Terps,

Young, Reed, Catalino, Niko Amato and crew. Got outplayed by UVA in the "ship.

Joe

I'd put that more in the category of the UNC 2016 team that got hot at the right time. As far as Maryland goes, yes they were better than UVA during the season, but losing convincingly to Colgate right before the tournament disqualifies them from this "award".

Having been to so many of the Terp Memorial Day and weekend losses, this thread has me in the fetal position sucking my thumb....

[Gobigred]

1976 Maryland was the best non-champ ever: https://vault.si.com/vault/1976/06/07/b ... -the-terps

[Farfromgeneva]

Terps 87 is easily #1

Terps and Brown tied in 2016. MD was playing the best at the end of the year but they laid some turds earlier, and Brown was the best over the course of the season but their star was hobbled at the end

Seems like the 2005+ Duke teams that had the super-seniors should have won a few championships

Maryland was playing well at the end of the year. But we can't say they played their absolutely best. UNC, on the other-hand, totally peaked and was playing their best.

Can't argue with that, and of course the Heels are the deserving national champions. That's the beauty of a one-and-done tournament.

The case for Maryland 2016 on this list is that Maryland's offense by the end of the year was unbelievable from 1st line to 3rd and they were destroying teams easily. The first few (nervous or whatever) minutes of the National Championship game going down 4-0 instantly are what killed them, as they controlled the rest of the game until the late meltdown. But the easily could have blown their game to Brown as well, so who knows.

Maybe Cornell in the devastating loss to Syracuse? No idea what their season record was.

09 Cornell team was def a good team that just peaked at the right time....right up until the last 30 secs of the championship game.

Always thought '13 Cornell - Pannell's Tewaaraton year - was the best team in the country that year. They got royally hosed by the committee being unseeded....and absolutely destroyed two seeded teams in UMD and OSU anyway. Duke just scored one goal more in that wild F4 game.

Many Cornell fans think 2007 was the year and will still tell you how they got boned (kind of did) in the seeding leading to an easy path for Hop where Cornell had to play Albany and Duke before a theoretical title game where Hop got a average ND team in OT and then GTown and Urick way down and a surprise Del team who rode Alex Smith there.

But I wouldn’t want to pick at old wounds and draw out some of those folks thoughts on this or anything like that...

This is the lacrosse version of election denial.

Look, Cornell wasn’t going to beat Hopkins in the tournament in 2007. I have posted this conjecture multiple times, but here we go again ...

... the 2007 Johns Hopkins team beat four league champions to win the title:

(1) Notre Dame (GWLL Champs) - whine folks still crushed as a weak western conference rep back then
(2) Georgetown (ECAC Champs)
(3) Delaware (CAA Champs, and maybe the best Delaware team ever) - who was unseeded and beat unseeded UMBC who has upset Maryland in Rd 1.
(4) DUKE (ACC Champs, and maybe (or maybe not) Matt Danowski’s best team)

Four league champs, but neither the 2 or 7 seed ... and Hopkins mowed (except Notre Dame which took overtime and the one goal win vs Duke, so really half the games were not “mowings” by JHU, whom some would argue benefitted from an ability to jump the whistle on faceoff a in the SF and finals) them all down one at a time.

The Blue Jays were the best team in the nation that May (in one mans opinion that can never be proven in a single elimination tournament). No one was going to beat the Band of Brothers in that tournament.

DocBarrister

[tech37]

I liked that 1999 Loyola team as well.

That RS undefeated team was stacked... OShea, Shindler, Frye, Goettelmann, Haas, Battista, to name a few.

In Qtrs Hounds ran into a SU team, which had an unusually mediocre RS record. A week earlier, SU had avenged a RS 3OT loss to Princeton in the first round of Tourney and were clear underdogs in Qtrs. The Orange put together a near perfect game from what I remember and moved on to FF, leaving Hounds stunned. They then avenged another RS loss to an excellent team, GTown in semis. Unfortunately for SU fans, Ryan Powell took a nasty body check that hurt his back in that game and was nowhere near 100% for the final. As it was, they kept things close. IMO, Powell doesn't get hurt, they beat UVa.

Conventional wisdom says, Loyola should have been champs that year.

[BH15]

Penn State 2019 was a good one. Rough start not winning FO's against Irelan down 10-2 after one. Outscored Yales 15-11 the rest of the way after they started winning some FO's.

[Tdemling6]

2010 Virginia. That semifinal against Duke was phenominal!

[TNLAX]

Let's go way back in the time machine. The 1981 UMASS team was ranked and seeded #4, but had to travel to Virginia for the first round game and lost in Charlottesville. Never knew why the higher seed had to travel to the lower seed. Any insight?

[ohmilax34]

2004 Navy. Matt Russell doesn't injure his shoulder mid-game and I think there's a different result. That aside, that 2004 Navy team was talented.

This needs a little addressing. Russell went out with eight minutes to go in the fourth, more like mid-fourth than mid-game. Don't think it much matters who is in the cage on the goals scored by Cuse from there on out as there are no gimmie cheap shots, every one of them would have required one heck of a save by any GK. Different result is highly debatable. Whether Navy was talented or not is not, this was an unbelievably hard fought and intense game played by two excellent teams.

DMac jumped in before I could to kinda set the record straight. Russell had 11 goals against in that game, and at most 6 saves, so he wasn't helping Navy much that day.

Something else I like to bring up with that '04 Syracuse team is their offensive efficiency in that game vs. Navy. 27 possessions and 14 goals.

[FannOLax]

Penn State 2019 was a good one. Rough start not winning FO's against Irelan down 10-2 after one. Outscored Yales 15-11 the rest of the way after they started winning some FO's.

Penn State 2019 is an interesting one: lost two games all season, both to Yale, thanks in large part to TD Ierlan dominating; in 2018, Penn State didn't make the Big 10 tourney or the NCAAs (Ament missed the season through injury). In 2019, PSU's offense was certainly a lot of fun to watch.

[a fan]

1985, and Larry Quinn.

Syracuse had three future HOF'ers on the field in Nelson, Curry, and Kotz.

Then Korrie, Kavanaugh, Printup, Tom Nelson, and one of their best defenses in AA's Desko, Sheehan, and ODonnell. All with Tom Nims and his 60%+ sv pcg backing them up.

Quinn held them to four goals. Unreal.


And I still don't know how those mid-90's Watson-era UVA teams didn't win one. And good call on 1999 Loyola.....

[ABV 8.3%]

....2001 Towson team

....2008 UMBC team, especially after losing it's first two regular season games, could have easily gone the path of continued 1 goal games, on its way to the championship, like UVA did.

2008....sounds about right. A team you beat, with a total of 5 losses, get a seed

ain't the rpi great

dig deep people....otherwize it IS just the usual pickles.

and don't get me started on how most leagues are one trick horses, (n$aa invites)
Towson or Lehigh could beat every "top" ooc team, and loose in the Colonial or Patriot league championship, they ain't getting an invite to "win it all". Plenty of teams that could have won it all, but , sorry, not the threads topic, they don't get an invite.

A loss is a loss. Just like herpes is herpes. Stop acting like it matters that it's ok that you caught herpes, from , say, Stephanie Seymour (ask me how I know , but NOT ok when you catch herpes from Rosanne Barr.

oh, well, I like pickels, back to Duke 1977 or Hopkins 2013......what's that, Gray ONLY got better when he starting playing games in the pretend league that IS the ACC . Boston isn't a college town anyway, certainly not a lacrosse town.

[DALaxDad]

If memory serves, Russell was injured prior to the finals, which is why the finals were so un-Russell like. A shoulder injury or some such. I think he reinjured it during the championship game and was unltimately subbed out.

[Farfromgeneva]

....2001 Towson team

....2008 UMBC team, especially after losing it's first two regular season games, could have easily gone the path of continued 1 goal games, on its way to the championship, like UVA did.

2008....sounds about right. A team you beat, with a total of 5 losses, get a seed

ain't the rpi great

dig deep people....otherwize it IS just the usual pickles.

and don't get me started on how most leagues are one trick horses, (n$aa invites)
Towson or Lehigh could beat every "top" ooc team, and loose in the Colonial or Patriot league championship, they ain't getting an invite to "win it all". Plenty of teams that could have won it all, but , sorry, not the threads topic, they don't get an invite.

A loss is a loss. Just like herpes is herpes. Stop acting like it matters that it's ok that you caught herpes, from , say, Stephanie Seymour (ask me how I know , but NOT ok when you catch herpes from Rosanne Barr.

oh, well, I like pickels, back to Duke 1977 or Hopkins 2013......what's that, Gray ONLY got better when he starting playing games in the pretend league that IS the ACC . Boston isn't a college town anyway, certainly not a lacrosse town.

I thought for sure you’d be screaming about how Bucknell 96 was the greatest college team ever in the history for the 1000th time.

[pcowlax]

If memory serves, Russell was injured prior to the finals, which is why the finals were so un-Russell like. A shoulder injury or some such. I think he reinjured it during the championship game and was unltimately subbed out.

Russell played that game with a broken collarbone, clearly at much less than 100%.

[DMac]

All of which means that his coming out with eight minutes left in the fourth likely had little effect on the outcome of the game as was suggested it might have in the post that triggered this discussion.

[wrapcheque]

2004 Navy. Matt Russell doesn't injure his shoulder mid-game and I think there's a different result. That aside, that 2004 Navy team was talented.

Paid close attention to that team as it was Hobart's last year in the PL. Conference got three teams in that year - Navy, Army and Cornell.

How about 2020 Cornell? Could'a, would'a , should'a.
and when was Cornell ever in the PL? I was at that 2004 Final. Yes, no injury to Matt and ....??

[Farfromgeneva]

What the heck, meant Hobart and said Cornell. I must now gouge my eyes out for eternity. (We did beat Cornell at the end of the reg season that year only to lose to them in Rd 1)

[minkhoo]

Happy to show my age here. The answer to the question is the 1974 Washington & Lee Generals. 16-0 and #3 seeded heading into semifinals at Homewood, a game that very well could (should?) have been in Lexington as the Blue Jays had one blemish during the regular season to Maryland. Fantastic semifinal game resulted in a 11-10 Hopkins win. Nobody in W&L blue will ever believe that last Hopkins goal wasn't scored by a player in the crease (here's to you, the late, great Lax Fidelis).

Four HOF members were on that team, coached by HOF coach Jack Emmer.

[wgdsr]

I liked that 1999 Loyola team as well.

That RS undefeated team was stacked... OShea, Shindler, Frye, Goettelmann, Haas, Battista, to name a few.

In Qtrs Hounds ran into a SU team, which had an unusually mediocre RS record. A week earlier, SU had avenged a RS 3OT loss to Princeton in the first round of Tourney and were clear underdogs in Qtrs. The Orange put together a near perfect game from what I remember and moved on to FF, leaving Hounds stunned. They then avenged another RS loss to an excellent team, GTown in semis. Unfortunately for SU fans, Ryan Powell took a nasty body check that hurt his back in that game and was nowhere near 100% for the final. As it was, they kept things close. IMO, Powell doesn't get hurt, they beat UVa.

Conventional wisdom says, Loyola should have been champs that year.

it was 10 - 4 in the 4th quarter. cuse did go on a five goal run as uva let up, but hoos summarily pocketed 2 quick goals as syr shutoff and chased right after and it was over.

https://youtu.be/xqOuUebn5dI

powell looked good enough to dive, get hit and pop right up.

haha tech!

[tech37]

I liked that 1999 Loyola team as well.

That RS undefeated team was stacked... OShea, Shindler, Frye, Goettelmann, Haas, Battista, to name a few.

In Qtrs Hounds ran into a SU team, which had an unusually mediocre RS record. A week earlier, SU had avenged a RS 3OT loss to Princeton in the first round of Tourney and were clear underdogs in Qtrs. The Orange put together a near perfect game from what I remember and moved on to FF, leaving Hounds stunned. They then avenged another RS loss to an excellent team, GTown in semis. Unfortunately for SU fans, Ryan Powell took a nasty body check that hurt his back in that game and was nowhere near 100% for the final. As it was, they kept things close. IMO, Powell doesn't get hurt, they beat UVa.

Conventional wisdom says, Loyola should have been champs that year.

it was 10 - 4 in the 4th quarter. cuse did go on a five goal run as uva let up, but hoos summarily pocketed 2 quick goals as syr shutoff and chased right after and it was over.

https://youtu.be/xqOuUebn5dI

powell looked good enough to dive, get hit and pop right up.

haha tech!

ha ha is right... so UVa "let up?" Weak sauce there wgdsr.

Powell was not himself the entire game, missing on numerous opportunities he normally would have banked. Normally he would not have needed to dive, a step slower than usual...and nice hit as he's already on ground. Sheesh.

I'll give ya this... Connor Gill was pretty special all that weekend