Does Notre Dame Repeat As Champions?

[gymman1031]

I made a poll awhile ago asking the same question. And a large majority of people said no. I wouldn't be surprised if that has changed.

[BigTurn]

Deepest and most talented team in the country. The only team that will beat ND is ND.

[The Orfling]

I made a poll awhile ago asking the same question. And a large majority of people said no. I wouldn't be surprised if that has changed.

I think I voted “no” before (always choose the field) but voted yes. With the #1 seed they’ll have a glide path to Memorial Day and they’re the most complete and consistent team.

[flyerfan17]

Who's beating them ?

[DocBarrister]

Deepest and most talented team in the country. The only team that will beat ND is ND.

Does ND have any weaknesses?

One of the best goalies.

Tough defense.

Best EMO.

Excellent FO crew.

Best ride there is.

Dynamic O with great dodging, shooting, passing, and offball movement.

Great on gbs.

Did I miss anything?

Still, repeating is tough.

Any team beating ND will need the best game of their collective lives.

DocBarrister

[BigTurn]

Deepest and most talented team in the country. The only team that will beat ND is ND.

Does ND have any weaknesses?

One of the best goalies.

Tough defense.

Best EMO.

Excellent FO crew.

Best ride there is.

Dynamic O with great dodging, shooting, passing, and offball movement.

Great on gbs.

Did I miss anything?

Still, repeating is tough.

Any team beating ND will need the best game of their collective lives.

DocBarrister

Being the best team does not guarantee a ring.

[Laxguy703]

Deepest and most talented team in the country. The only team that will beat ND is ND.

Does ND have any weaknesses?

One of the best goalies.

Tough defense.

Best EMO.

Excellent FO crew.

Best ride there is.

Dynamic O with great dodging, shooting, passing, and offball movement.

Great on gbs.

Did I miss anything?

Still, repeating is tough.

Any team beating ND will need the best game of their collective lives.

DocBarrister

Being the best team does not guarantee a ring.

Doesn’t guarantee anything but more often than not the best team does win the ring.

[molo]

Only overconfidence could bring them down. They have no discernible weaknesses and today’s blowout allowed them to display their depth. They have proven to be far superior to the rest of the ACC. I don’t see see them losing to a Big 10 team. Could the young Princeton team—who has improved as the season has progressed unlike some of the ACC teams who have stagnated or regressed—challenge them? They appear ready to take the NC in a fashion like Maryland did in 2022, when Princeton and Cornell made them work in the final four.

[Lager]

As a Cornell fan, I honestly thought ND wasn't that amazing. But it's hard to argue with some of ND's other results, and I find myself scratching my head trying to rectify the Cornell-ND game against the rest of ND's glimmering resume. I would not have thought the ND team I watched was capable of beating a hot Duke team by 10 goals. Do I think Cornell could beat a hot Duke team by 10 goals? No
Do I think Cornell was better than ND on that day and should have beat them? Yes
And I'm not afraid to admit when Cornell just gets flat out beat. Penn did it to them twice this year.
Perhaps Cornell was simply a bad match up for ND. Because even if Cornell was in the NCAA field, ND would still have a much better shot than Cornell at running the table to a natty title.

[wahoomurf]

Deepest and most talented team in the country. The only team that will beat ND is ND.

Does ND have any weaknesses?

One of the best goalies.

Tough defense.

Best EMO.

Excellent FO crew.

Best ride there is.

Dynamic O with great dodging, shooting, passing, and offball movement.

Great on gbs.

Did I miss anything?

Still, repeating is tough.

Any team beating ND will need the best game of their collective lives.

DocBarrister

A bang on assessment. One other thing I would add...depth.

[BigTurn]

As a Cornell fan, I honestly thought ND wasn't that amazing. But it's hard to argue with some of ND's other results, and I find myself scratching my head trying to rectify the Cornell-ND game against the rest of ND's glimmering resume. I would not have thought the ND team I watched was capable of beating a hot Duke team by 10 goals. Do I think Cornell could beat a hot Duke team by 10 goals? No
Do I think Cornell was better than ND on that day and should have beat them? Yes
And I'm not afraid to admit when Cornell just gets flat out beat. Penn did it to them twice this year.
Perhaps Cornell was simply a bad match up for ND. Because even if Cornell was in the NCAA field, ND would still have a much better shot than Cornell at running the table to a natty title.

Think a few of us ND homers went back and forth with you on this a bit already, but that was a poor defensive showing for ND. Did Cornell have a lot to do with that? Absolutely, they had the second best offense in the country this year to my eye. I also agree Cornell probably should’ve even came away with that win. But if you watch ND this past weekend, they just played much better lacrosse in all phases.
Cornell was the one team I would not want to see again in the tournament, as I think they were amongst a small handful of real contenders. Matchups are definitely a thing in lacrosse, sometime a team just has your number, and that was Penn for the Big Red.

[coda]

Deepest and most talented team in the country. The only team that will beat ND is ND.

Does ND have any weaknesses?

One of the best goalies.

Tough defense.

Best EMO.

Excellent FO crew.

Best ride there is.

Dynamic O with great dodging, shooting, passing, and offball movement.

Great on gbs.

Did I miss anything?

Still, repeating is tough.

Any team beating ND will need the best game of their collective lives.

DocBarrister

Being the best team does not guarantee a ring.

It only takes an off day at Goalie or Fogo to put a NC at risk. Not to mention hitting a hot goalie. ND biggest advantage is depth though. They are running like 3 midfields, while most get nervous when their 2nd midfield comes in..

[stupefied]

Had voted NO earlier in season because hard to repeat and thought there would be several teams equally as strong including UVA and Duke who they just dismantled. Thought their d may have a hole or two but frosh Lyght has been tremendous as lead cover . Vets are well known and youngsters Lynch and Donovan have raised their games to elite . ND group while not on par with Terps 22 foursome is still excellent and the mf depth that we've recently have seen can make a difference if they go as deep as expected . Right now, Id say odds are better than 50-50 but as another said it only takes one bad day against a team playing well.

[Mr3Putt]

Is this a trick question? Of course they can. Who is better ?

[viho]

Probably.

Hope we get to see a Piseno-Kavanaugh match up along the way.

[random observer]

Only weakness I see is that they do seem to rely on their top two shorties quite a bit -- which can be an issue once the weather heats up in May (especially if they have to play two games in three days). That was what really put '22 Maryland over the top; beyond an insanely efficient offense, the top FOGO in D1, an AA caliber goalie, and no weak links at pole, they were throwing out four AA caliber SSDMs that consistently held strong against their matchups.

It's difficult to see a team that can beat ND when they're on their game given their depth, experience, and strengths all over the field. But I'd still take the field if I was betting man, simply because it's just so easy for a team to slip up. Even '22 Maryland needed McNaney to have the two best games of his career to survive their Final Four games.

ND's A game overwhelmed Duke and UVA this weekend, but they have been tested; the Cornell game has already been mentioned, but UVA also had a 4th quarter lead on them a week ago, and of course Georgetown took them down in Arlotta (I believe the way Georgetown slowed tempo with long possessions is a model other teams should follow). I think there is a little bit of prisoner of the moment when talking about this team, because while they are in a class of their own this year, I think it's a little premature to call them one of the best teams ever; better squads than them have slipped up in May. First one that comes to mind is 2008 Duke, who were absolutely loaded and steamrolled pretty much everyone on their schedule (except for, coincidentally, a loss to Georgetown). Other than the Georgetown game, only one other team played them within 4 goals right up until they got stopped cold by Hopkins in the Final Four (a Hopkins team that they had run off the field a month before).

[steel_hop]

They are head and shoulders the best team and seem to be really clicking.

I agree with the comment that they seem to rely a ton on only 2 shorties. That hasn't really hurt them to this point as they only played one real warm weather game - at Duke a few weeks ago, which was a pretty close game. The weather was quite mild this weekend. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.

Yes, it would be a major shock if they don't win it again. But, lots of great teams haven't won the title that they probably should have won. The opposing team has to really play well and ND needs to be off their game but it can happen.