FanLax Forum Poll

[joewillie78]

My Top 20 after 2/23/2020

1. Yale
2. PSU
3. Syracuse
4. Notre Dame
5. Virginia
6. Penn
7. North Carolina
8. Maryland
9. Cornell
10. Georgetown
11.Duke
12. Princeton
13. Loyola
14. Denver
15. OSU
16. Army
17. Hobart
18. Villanova
19. Lehigh
20. JHU

GOBIGRED
Joewillie78

[Wheels]

Some great games this weekend. The more sure I am about this, the less sure I become!

1) Yale - Big road win. Still not sure if I saw 2 really good teams play in State College or just 2 good teams. Still, big win for Yale.
2) Syracuse - Keeps chugging along. Can win in different ways. Can play at different speeds. Their goalie is pretty darn good.
3) UNC - Jumped them up here because their offense is so good. Their schedule is still...um...anyway...
4) Notre Dame - Nice win over a good Richmond team. Big game this weekend in College Park.
5) Penn St - Why they slide early to everyone, I have no idea.
6) UVA - When they don't win face-offs, their defense doesn't look like it's built to handle it.
7) Maryland - Throwing the ball away more than Terrapin football QBs do.
8) Penn - nice bounce back against Duke without Handley. Lulley is a beast.
9) Georgetown - Playing really well on both ends of the field.
10) Cornell - As schedule toughens, we'll know more.
11) Princeton - Great win. Their FOGO could be the missing piece to them making the NCAAT.
12) Loyola - Can win ugly. That's underrated!
13) Ohio State - Nice road win.
14) Duke - Hard to get a read on this team.
15) Hobart - Love their offense.
16) St. Joe's - Putting together a nice early season. Nice win against UD.
17) Denver - Good against bad opponents.
18) Delaware - Surprising loss against St. Joe's. Bounced back for a win this weekend.
19) Army - Good wins. Not a bad loss against Cuse. Marist just rolled them, though.
20) Lehigh - Good against not so good competition but hung in there against UVA.
21) Villanova - Has anyone played a tougher schedule? Took it Maryland on Tuesday.
22) Holy Cross - Gotta give them some love. They're playing well early.
23) Dartmouth - Why not? 2-0...let's do this!
24) Bucknell - Tough loss at home against OSU.
25) Marist - What a win against a good Army team.

[Dip&Dunk]

If you don’t have Hop in the top 12 you clearly don’t understand how strength of schedule works. Plus I mean the Big Ten. That’s right, I said it, the Big Ten. I mean even Michigan will be a final four player any day now.

Coach’s poll had them at 15 before this loss. Guess they don’t understand SoS either.

[joatmon]

Some great games this weekend. The more sure I am about this, the less sure I become!

Love your refreshingly original picks and enjoy your pithy reasoning. Keep at it. I'll look forward to next week's version

[Mr3Putt]

Cornell is the best offense in lacrosse currently. Should be at least -8 or higher

[Chousnake]

If you don’t have Hop in the top 12 you clearly don’t understand how strength of schedule works. Plus I mean the Big Ten. That’s right, I said it, the Big Ten. I mean even Michigan will be a final four player any day now.

I hope this is sarcastic. Otherwise, here we go again! Let's give Hopkins props (and a bid) for supposed "good losses" again, for the 20th year in a row (or something like that). It's a little early to argue SOS, isn't it? And the Big Ten is not looking so big the past two weeks and either is the SOS. Can we let the season play out some? Right now, though, the Big Ten looks pretty inferior. PSU just lost to Yale for the third time in a calendar year. Maryland escaped twice with miraculous come backs only to be taken down by 'Nova. Michigan lost to two very mediocre programs and has played 4 cupcakes. Rutgers got undressed by Army, who lost to Marist. OSU lost to UMass, who got pasted by Army and lost to Harvard. Hopkins has one win against winless Towson. The B10 is 14-8 with one win against a current top 10 team - Md over Penn. I'm not sure JHU is top 25 now, let alone top 12. Enough with this already. Let's see JHU with some quality win before we anoint them again with a high ranking for impressive array of losses.

[HopFan16]

19) Army - Good wins.

Were they that good? NJIT is barely a D1 team and both the Rutgers and UMass wins don't seem as impressive now. I am likely to drop Army from my top 20, despite giving Cuse a battle in the Dome today. I just think we were a little too high on them out of the gate. I watched a good chunk of the Marist game—they looked rough. Unconvinced that offense will be consistent against real competition over the course of the season. Fortunately for them the rest of their schedule is not super daunting outside of matchups with Loyola and ND.

I agree with the above that Cornell is worthy of a top 6-8 slot—they've played decent (not great) competition but have looked absolutely dominant. Petrakis (71%) was the missing link for them at the faceoff dot. What a world of difference from last year.

I hope this is sarcastic.

It was. Relax.

[oldbartman]

While I appreciate the votes for the Statesmen, I will reserve my judgement until AFTER Cuse. If we win, yes. If it's a repeat of last years devastation, we're not worthy.. Somewhere in between, win the rest of our games and then let the chips fall where they may. Our offense is definitely top 20. Our D needs to stop the rest of our schedule to be considered real.

[Farfromgeneva]

While I appreciate the votes for the Statesmen, I will reserve my judgement until AFTER Cuse. If we win, yes. If it's a repeat of last years devastation, we're not worthy.. Somewhere in between, win the rest of our games and then let the chips fall where they may. Our offense is definitely top 20. Our D needs to stop the rest of our schedule to be considered real.

Come on OBM, you know we’re no competition for Syracuse. All smoke and mirrors and they shouldn’t even really practice this week, just meditate. They will steamroll is no problem. Trust me Syracuse players and coaches, you don’t even have to prepare for Friday night other than the post game parties. Seriously, you will barely need to show up.

[Ketch]

While I appreciate the votes for the Statesmen, I will reserve my judgement until AFTER Cuse. If we win, yes. If it's a repeat of last years devastation, we're not worthy.. Somewhere in between, win the rest of our games and then let the chips fall where they may. Our offense is definitely top 20. Our D needs to stop the rest of our schedule to be considered real.

Come on OBM, you know we’re no competition for Syracuse. All smoke and mirrors and they shouldn’t even really practice this week, just meditate. They will steamroll is no problem. Trust me Syracuse players and coaches, you don’t even have to prepare for Friday night other than the post game parties. Seriously, you will barely need to show up.

Can‘t tell if you‘re being facetious or not, but we are no competition for Syracuse. Our run and gun offense will play right into their strength. We‘ll attack, they‘ll stop us and turn things into a fast break drill going the other way. 17 or 18 to 10. We might match up with some other top teams, but not with Syracuse. Brace yourself. It‘s not going to be pretty.

[Farfromgeneva]

Yes and no. I’m not feeling good at all even though I look at the top 20 and think there’s plenty of teams we can run with and even beat this year, but matchup specific. And I don’t see the bloodlust passion in our guys yet to want it enough even though Cuse beat us like a red headed step child last year.

Maybe if they read all this and got drunk as hell third night who knows. So just hoping I can talk a few of their guys into doing keg stands the night before not worrying about us.

[Wheels]

Were they that good? NJIT is barely a D1 team and both the Rutgers and UMass wins don't seem as impressive now. I am likely to drop Army from my top 20, despite giving Cuse a battle in the Dome today. I just think we were a little too high on them out of the gate. I watched a good chunk of the Marist game—they looked rough. Unconvinced that offense will be consistent against real competition over the course of the season. Fortunately for them the rest of their schedule is not super daunting outside of matchups with Loyola and ND.

How many really good wins have we seen this year? 4? Ranking the bottom end of a Top 25 is dodgy.

Ivy League way up. Big Ten way down. ACC steady.

[Antonio114]

19) Army - Good wins.

Were they that good? NJIT is barely a D1 team and both the Rutgers and UMass wins don't seem as impressive now. I am likely to drop Army from my top 20, despite giving Cuse a battle in the Dome today. I just think we were a little too high on them out of the gate. I watched a good chunk of the Marist game—they looked rough. Unconvinced that offense will be consistent against real competition over the course of the season. Fortunately for them the rest of their schedule is not super daunting outside of matchups with Loyola and ND.

I agree with the above that Cornell is worthy of a top 6-8 slot—they've played decent (not great) competition but have looked absolutely dominant. Petrakis (71%) was the missing link for them at the faceoff dot. What a world of difference from last year.

I hope this is sarcastic.

It was. Relax.

They completely crushed Rutgers who went on to barely lose to Loyola. Not sure how a one goal loss to Loyola makes that win less impressive. They also destroyed UMass who went on to beat Ohio State on the road and they probably aren't terrible. Of course UMass just lost to Harvard but we don't know much about them. At this point I think you still have to value the fact they absolutely eviscerated two teams who don't completely suck.

[Farfromgeneva]

My Top 20 after 2/23/2020

1. Yale
2. PSU
3. Syracuse
4. Notre Dame
5. Virginia
6. Penn
7. North Carolina
8. Maryland
9. Cornell
10. Georgetown
11.Duke
12. Princeton
13. Loyola
14. Denver
15. OSU
16. Army
17. Hobart
18. Villanova
19. Lehigh
20. JHU

GOBIGRED
Joewillie78

Looks pretty good though honestly as much as I love my team (hobart) this year the only way they end up that high absent beating either Cuse or Cornell (not very likely both look like top 5-8 this year) is if they roll the rest of their schedule and roll a play in and look good in rd 1 and finish 15-3.

Just for the sake of fun arguments, I wonder about the following teams still: Loyola, Duke, Denver and OSU with bigger questions about the latter two. Denver seems hard to have in there except via reputation and Tierney at this point. OSU has a nice win over Bucknell but that loss to UMass is a harder hit with their loss to Harvard yesterday.

[calourie]

Dropped Army (7 to 19) and Delaware (15 to21) out of my top 15. Jumped on the Sowers train and moved Princeton (20 to 5,) and Ohio State (24 to 15) in. The other 13 at the top moved around according to whether they won or lost except for Penn who got caught in the "what to think about Duke" syndrome. I dropped Hopkins, Providence Bucknell, UMass and Brown out of my rankings from last week, and replaced them in the 16-25 range with St.Joeseph's, Marist, Villanova, Lehigh and Richmond. Lots of games coming up this coming week to broaden out the scope and sample size for further evaluation. Will be watching my #16 Hobart versus #3 Syracuse closely, among others.

[Farfromgeneva]

PTon at 5 may be aggressive but not going crazy about that now. Still think OSU is suspect and would replace Del w them (maybe not at 15 but in lost).

I hope Bart comes to play in this game which is probably far more important to us than Cuse. Could be any outcome will come down to faceoffs, wing play, goalie play and whether barts FR contributors show up or get deer in headlights. Part of Barts strength is their waves of midfielders who can ball, but that includes 3-4 FR and a couple of Sophs. If they show up fearless and rabid we have some small shot, if they come in timid and a little staged right, which is understandable, look out.

[ICGrad]

My top 20:

1. Yale: 'Nuff said
2. Penn State: Close loss to my #1 team, coupled with no one really stepping up to take their slot, means Penn State gets to hang here a while longer.
3. Syracuse: Nice gutsy win over an Army team coming off of Marist drubbing.
4. Notre Dame: Convincingly beat a solid Richmond team. Cleveland St win from last week looks a little better this week, too.
5. North Carolina: An Ivy with this schedule would be AQ or bust. Still, taking care of business, and solidly beat Hopkins.
6. Cornell: Untested but easily 3-0 with impressive offense; now the fun begins.
7. Princeton: Head-to-head has to count for something, especially this early in season, with such a small sample size - so they land here, in front of UVA. Hopkins/Rutgers/Penn/Yale are on deck, so we'll know soon enough if they belong here.
8. Maryland: Tough loss to a strong Villanova team and lost the opportunity to make up for it against Navy.
9. Virginia: No answer for Sowers. Probably dropping them too much but they should be 5-1 heading into mid-March matchup against Maryland.
10. Denver: Struggled to put away Cleveland St, but 2-0 on the week.
11. Loyola: Surprisingly tough game against Rutgers, despite pure domination at faceoff.
12. U Penn: Missing one of their best players, toughed it out against Duke anyways.
13. Georgetown: Hold serve with big win against Fairfield.
14. Ohio State: Nice win against Bucknell.
15. Duke: Plenty of time to right the ship, but injuries and two close early season losses. My highest-ranked 2-loss team.
16. Army: Put a scare into Syracuse but were (shockingly) dominated by Marist. Still, came into week with a good body of work.
17. Villanova: Great win against Maryland to anchor a two-win week.
18. Hobart: If they beat Syracuse then they'll get to stick around a while.
19. Harvard: 5 Ivies in my top 20? Hell, there would have been 6 if Brown hadn't lost to Stony Brook.
20. Lehigh: two-win week after playing Virginia tough in loss last week, though to be honest neither win was as convincing as expected. Even struggled to pull away from NJIT.

Dropped:
Air Force: Lost to Cleveland State and let St Bonny stick around for too long.
Delaware: Lost to St Joseph's.
Johns Hopkins: Meh
Brown: Surprising loss to Stony Brook.
Navy: Tough loss to Richmond.

Also considered: Dartmouth, St Joseph's Richmond, Bucknell

[Matnum PI]

Polls are due (Monday) at Midnight. The results will be posted on Tuesday by noon. If you want to become a Poll-er, just let us know.

[Kinduv]

i'm a P011-er,

[molo]

I took a page, partially maybe, out of fatty's book and rewarded, in many cases, wins over "quality losses," dropping PSU and UVA and rewarding the undefeated Ivy and ACC teams.