Farfromgeneva wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 12:18 pm
blue angels wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 11:14 am
pcowlax wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 10:47 am
Bluecollar wrote: ↑Sun Aug 07, 2022 11:08 pm
1. Georgetown
2. Notre Dame
3. UVA
4. Maryland
5. Cornell
6. Rutgers
7. Penn
8. Princeton
9. Yale
10. Duke
11. Ohio State
Georgetown gained a lot and Maryland lost a lot. But for my money, until MD loses I can't have them this low and until G'Town does anything at all in the tournament or even gets a few top 10 regular season wins in a season I can't have them this high.
I would probably rank the teams in your top 3 a little lower, and perhaps, not in the same order. Maryland, until defeated, should start at #1 over the field regardless of their graduation losses. I do agree with you on Georgetown even with the portal additions. Didn't they sustain some significant graduation losses including the top goalie and an AA pole in Gibson Smith? Not sure who else.......Most of these polls appear based primarily on last season and aren't evaluating the impact of graduation losses and only somewhat on additions. Delaware is a notable omission who I believe returns much of their team intact.
Hinks will buffer the loss of McElroy. Not sure if they have an answer for Smith yet. Forde IX makes up for Watson and then some IMO. Mini us supplements some
Other offensive losses.
I think that on offense the grad transfers plus some talented incoming middies will cover the departing players. On defense Hincks/Scharfenberg is a solid goalie duo, and Tominovich on close defense is very good and played well as a freshman when Smith was injured. The loss of Geddes and Mazzone in the D midfield is a real issue. GU needs a second LSM and another SSDM, and the latter assumes that Hess will play D again. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
All of the above being said, the overarching issue is gaining the mental and physical toughness to break through to the highest level. GU upgraded the schedule this past year but usual playoff teams in Denver, Loyola, ND, and Hopkins were down last year, so these wins in retrospect not as meaningful as in the past. Second, the bottom 3 in the BE have been subpar the past few years. So I think it is premature at best to rank GU at the very top until/unless it has this breakthrough.