D1 Men Rankings

[livelovelax]

HUH? Rutgers has two straight top ten wins.

[Wheels]

Anyone starting to wonder if the team defenses of these ACC teams might be average? We won't know until tournament time (or what Notre Dame does against them) if the offenses can hold up against good defensive units while then holding opponents to lower scores. My only data points are that Army and Loyola seem to have slowed down either Syracuse's or UVA's (or both) a little bit.

[wgdsr]

obviously, none of this matters... unless, in a covid-limited non-conference year... we get some bastardization of the nc$$ selection process. and the b1g's ears just perked up.

This is going to be an interesting year. IMHO, the NCAA selection committee will have a very hard time and some good teams are going to be snubbed. They will basically be making a subjective decision on how many teams in the ACC, B1G, Big East, and Patriot league to pick based on complete bias.

but they don't have to have a hard time. they can simply order pizza and go on rpi lines, like they did the last 2 or 3 years of selection.

if they break from that, some mid-majors are going to get hosed (looking at you, du). throwing a bone to a p5 is gonna look really squirrelly.

and check out the resumes of some of the folks that serve on the selection committee. if you want an assoc ad from a mid-west non-lax school that coached softball 10 years ago picking squads... then it should be interesting.

[xxxxxxx]

Richmond at 1-2 with losses to two good teams but a one goal win over Towson?
UMass at 0-0 and have not played any lacrosse in a month?
Penn State 0-2 didn't look like a top 20 team to me on Friday?

These are the ones that look suspect to me.

[rolldodge]

Richmond at 1-2 with losses to two good teams but a one goal win over Towson?
UMass at 0-0 and have not played any lacrosse in a month?
Penn State 0-2 didn't look like a top 20 team to me on Friday?

These are the ones that look suspect to me.

.

Agree.

[DMac]

Anyone starting to wonder if the team defenses of these ACC teams might be average?

Nope.

[rolldodge]

Anyone starting to wonder if the team defenses of these ACC teams might be average?

Nope.

I think it’s a fair question, from what I’ve seen. So much hype about all the superstar offensive transfers that everyone forgot you need a defense too. The only defenses that have really impressed me so far are Maryland and Georgetown.

[HopFan16]

I think it's already pretty clear some ACC teams have average defenses but in this era of lacrosse if you score 20 every game it doesn't really matter. You can win with an average defense. It's an offensive game. Gotta score.

[rolldodge]

I think it's already pretty clear some ACC teams have average defenses but in this era of lacrosse if you score 20 every game it doesn't really matter. You can win with an average defense. It's an offensive game. Gotta score.

You are not going to score 20 against a great defense.

[DMac]

Anyone starting to wonder if the team defenses of these ACC teams might be average?

Nope.

I think it’s a fair question, from what I’ve seen. So much hype about all the superstar offensive transfers that everyone forgot you need a defense too. The only defenses that have really impressed me so far are Maryland and Georgetown.

Sure, it's a fair question but don't forget you're barely into March and only a couple of games in for some teams. Cuse D, for example, didn't look much like the same D that played in the first game this past Saturday.

[rolldodge]

Anyone starting to wonder if the team defenses of these ACC teams might be average?

Nope.

I think it’s a fair question, from what I’ve seen. So much hype about all the superstar offensive transfers that everyone forgot you need a defense too. The only defenses that have really impressed me so far are Maryland and Georgetown.

Sure, it's a fair question but don't forget you're barely into March and only a couple of games in for some teams. Cuse D, for example, didn't look much like the same D that played in the first game this past Saturday.

I thought their goalie played very well but their defense was average against Virginia.

[DMac]

GK was huge but we saw it differently, I guess. That's a potent O Virginia has, the Cuse D held them to 3 goals in the second half, played very tough, made everything difficult for them. We'll see how it all plays out.

[Nassaufan]

How can any poll include teams with no games three weeks into the season?

[jrn19]

Division I Media Poll
Rank Team Points Prev
1 Duke (5 - 0) 442 (10) 1
2 North Carolina (5 - 0) 441 (9) 3
3 Maryland (2 - 0) 415 (2) 4
4 Georgetown (2 - 0) 367 (1) 5
5 Rutgers (2 - 0) 347 10
6 Syracuse (1 - 1) 339 (1) 9
7 Army (2 - 1) 331 7
8 Notre Dame (1 - 0) 310 8
9 Virginia (3 - 1) 301 2
10 Loyola (2 - 1) 241 12
11 Denver (4 - 2) 235 11
12 Ohio State (1 - 1) 198 6
13 Lehigh (1 - 0) 149 17
14 UMass (0 - 0) 133 14
15 Penn State (0 - 2) 130 13
16 Richmond (1 - 2) 95 18
17 Navy (2 - 0) 74 19
18 UAlbany (1 - 0) 67 20
19 High Point (1 - 2) 65 15
20 Hofstra (2 - 1) 48

• I do not get how Syracuse can be ranked ahead of Army 8 days after Army beat Syracuse at home. That makes zero sense.

• I was unfortunately right about Loyola being ranked ahead of Denver.

• I was going to put Hofstra at 20 in front of JHU, but their loss to St. Johns and St. Johns getting beat by Georgetown 19-1 made it really hard.

• Averaging Media input has issues when it comes to polls.

I’d rank army head of Cuse; but Virginia beat Army and then Army beat Syracuse and then Syracuse beat Virginia. Those 3 teams are a bit of a mess to figure out rankings wise

[Wheels]

I think it's already pretty clear some ACC teams have average defenses but in this era of lacrosse if you score 20 every game it doesn't really matter. You can win with an average defense. It's an offensive game. Gotta score.

With so many great offenses out there, it's hard to tell how much bad or average defense is abetting the scoring. I'm assuming ND will field a typically above average defense, so we'll see just how good those other ACC teams are. Few have been challenged by a good defense. Seeing what Georgetown is doing is more impressive than what UNC or Duke has done to date. Duke's ranking, IMO, is still about their preseason hype. UNC, OTOH, has been really good. Neither's defense has been tested. Neither has faced a good defense, either. Just hard to tell.

[jrn19]

GK was huge but we saw it differently, I guess. That's a potent O Virginia has, the Cuse D held them to 3 goals in the second half, played very tough, made everything difficult for them. We'll see how it all plays out.

Cuse D was dominant in the 4th quarter but through 3 quarters Virginia had 10 goals on 26 possessions. That’s a 38% offensive efficiency; which is higher than the offensive efficiency that Army had Cuse. Difference in the game was Cuse had 11 more possessions. Some of that was Cuse defense forcing turnovers and their attack rode very well. But it wasn’t an amazing defensive effort through 3 quarters. The fourth quarter though was obviously very strong

[jrn19]

I think it's already pretty clear some ACC teams have average defenses but in this era of lacrosse if you score 20 every game it doesn't really matter. You can win with an average defense. It's an offensive game. Gotta score.

With so many great offenses out there, it's hard to tell how much bad or average defense is abetting the scoring. I'm assuming ND will field a typically above average defense, so we'll see just how good those other ACC teams are. Few have been challenged by a good defense. Seeing what Georgetown is doing is more impressive than what UNC or Duke has done to date. Duke's ranking, IMO, is still about their preseason hype. UNC, OTOH, has been really good. Neither's defense has been tested. Neither has faced a good defense, either. Just hard to tell.

Duke’s defense has been pretty dominant. Obviously their quality of competition has been low but they’re in the same tier along with Maryland and Rutgers in terms of defensive efficiency. UNC’s hasn’t been great but also that offense looks better than Penn State’s a few years ago which was the best offense in 30 years.

[Farfromgeneva]

Richmond at 1-2 with losses to two good teams but a one goal win over Towson?
UMass at 0-0 and have not played any lacrosse in a month?
Penn State 0-2 didn't look like a top 20 team to me on Friday?

These are the ones that look suspect to me.

High Point is same as Richmond. Beat Robert Morris by a couple and lost to UNC twice, once competitive once not so much.

[bearlaxfan]

Looking at the D2/D3 transfers/postgrads who succeed in D1, not to mention success in PLL & (RIP)MLL, could be good chances (not commenting on propriety) for D1 midmajors to step up in the nat'l conversation if they commit some resources to scout (i.e. poach) the lower divisions.
Does this go on currently?

[rolldodge]

Seeing what Georgetown is doing is more impressive than what UNC or Duke has done to date.

IMHO, what Georgetown has done so far is the defensive equivalent of a UNC or a Duke having scored 30+ goals in multiple games against decent competition. Which is to say, I agree with you.