Quarters: I think virtually everyone save Lucky Laxer picked Maryland to win the game with Denver, and LL has his reasons (and a case of beer). The undercard, Syracuse v. Northwestern, is the interesting game. I wish all these games, and this one in particular, could be on a neutral field. You make the last eight teams and have to travel to Evanston? College Park? Syracuse is 16-4 and seems to me to have earned the right to at least not travel to Chicagoland and play in the grim confines of Wildcat-Village. And Denver has to fly a thousand-plus miles to play the Terps. Is it any surprise that the Men's Division 1 quarterfinals are at neutral venues. I understand the reasoning; what other venue can be expected to pay for a women's lacrosse quarterfinal...unless the NCAA dips into the vast reserves of College-Athlete Generated Cash....admin wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2019 9:50 am We watch the film and have a pretty good idea how the story is going to end and then question whther there'll be a twist or turn and... We knew how the story was going to end. (Though we don't know the exact ending.) We knew it'd be UMD with SU or N'western (SU is better but N'western beat UMD) challenging them in the semis and BC on the other side being challenged by UNC. And it moves from there... That was the right story, it'll be the story, and I'm 100% OK with it because it's a good story.
For what it's worth, I think and hope that UMD and BC are in the final and... whoever wins, wins. That'll be the best story for D1 Women Lacrosse and, arguably, the best story in all lacrosse this spring.
Anyway, I think that almost all things are equal with the Syracuse-NU game, save for the venue. I picked Cuse in TOCTM, but I am not optimistic. So instead, we get Round III of Terp-Cat-2019. Which'll go to the Terps.
In the other side, I think Princeton will have to weather the storm that BC typically brings in the first 20 minutes; George will have to really compete at the draw and Princeton's circle players will have to play hard and well against Arsenault, Miller and Sam. I think the draw itself might be even: George is a fighting force and will compete with Apuzzo and Rietano. But BC has what I think is a clear the edge among circle players, particularly Arsenault, who is really a gifted athlete. On offense, Princeton may not be BC, but it has really good players in Sears, D'Orsi and George and decent contributors like Hallack, Mangan and Rogers; they need to be really smart and efficient all game long. But this is BC's game to win.
I think Carolina will kick UVA to the curb. Sorry about that UVA fans. Maybe if Campbell can keep them in it, and they value possession better than they normally do, UVA has a chance. But I'm not seeing it. Here again, is Lucky Laxer the only person in TOCTM to pick the Wahoos?