Potential New Top 20

[Farfromgeneva]

The case will be they played tough in their loss to awesome Hobart after Tuesday so given they stayed on the field they should be at least 16-17!

Seriously it’s Ierlan, Kirst and a fairly strong FO situation along with some depth at midfield. Not sure that gets them inside top 8-10 but too 15-17 anyways.

[joewillie78]

Here's mine:
1. Maryland
2. Georgetown
3. Virginia
4. Rutgers
5. Notre Dame
6. Yale
7. Duke
8. North Carolina
9. Cornell
10. John's Hopkins
11. Syracuse
12. Ohio State
13. Penn
14. Brown
15. Vermont
16. Jacksonville
17. Delaware
18. Hobart
19. Stony Brook
20. Army
21. Bucknell
22. Michigan
23. Denver
24. Navy
25. Princeton

GOBIGRED
Joewillie78

Out of curiosity, what’s the case for Cornell? Who is back from 2020 and who is gone? I have been wondering about them. I like Lombardi and Piatelli and the chippy defender.

This is interesting as this question comes after my last week's poll and I just posted my new poll where I now have them #6.
Attack: Piatelli, Long, Kirst (scary good attack)
Middies: Blake, Lombardi, Kelleher, Coyle etc. (Deep and talented.
Close: Doria, Jacobs, Adler, Fields etc(Deep with Adler being a true shutdown)
Goalie: lerlan ( stopping almost 70% and giving up 6.5 goals/game
DM: Bardwell etc are ballhawk vacuums
Fogo: Petrakis getting better every week.

#6 may be a bit high but this is a pretty deep and balanced bunch.

Tuesday is another test against a solid well rested Hobart team.
GOBIGRED
Joewillie78

[Typical Lax Dad]

Here's mine:
1. Maryland
2. Georgetown
3. Virginia
4. Rutgers
5. Notre Dame
6. Yale
7. Duke
8. North Carolina
9. Cornell
10. John's Hopkins
11. Syracuse
12. Ohio State
13. Penn
14. Brown
15. Vermont
16. Jacksonville
17. Delaware
18. Hobart
19. Stony Brook
20. Army
21. Bucknell
22. Michigan
23. Denver
24. Navy
25. Princeton

GOBIGRED
Joewillie78

Out of curiosity, what’s the case for Cornell? Who is back from 2020 and who is gone? I have been wondering about them. I like Lombardi and Piatelli and the chippy defender.

This is interesting as this question comes after my last week's poll and I just posted my new poll where I now have them #6.
Attack: Piatelli, Long, Kirst (scary good attack)
Middies: Blake, Lombardi, Kelleher, Coyle etc. (Deep and talented.
Close: Doria, Jacobs, Adler, Fields etc(Deep with Adler being a true shutdown)
Goalie: lerlan ( stopping almost 70% and giving up 6.5 goals/game
DM: Bardwell etc are ballhawk vacuums
Fogo: Petrakis getting better every week.

#6 may be a bit high but this is a pretty deep and balanced bunch.

Tuesday is another test against a solid well rested Hobart team.
GOBIGRED
Joewillie78

Thanks. I don’t know a lot about Cornell. A bit of a mystery. Piatelli and Long are good. Doria is/was good for one cheap penalty a game but you need tone setters like that. He could play for me.

[rolldodge]

Georgetown. 3-0 Hopkins, Penn, Notre Dame. Are they the best team in the country? Don't know yet, but they have the best wins so far

Ohio State. 4-0 Detroit Mercy, Cleveland State, North Carolina, Harvard. UNC win puts them here.

Jacksonville. 5-1 Duke, Mercer, Marquette, Denver, Air Force. L to Hopkins. Nice wins versus Duke and Denver

Rutgers. 5-0 LIU, Marist, St Johns, Army, Loyola. Army win puts them here

Maryland. 4-0 High Point, Loyola, Syracuse, Princeton[/i]. Will move up, but Princeton best win.

Virginia. 4-0 Air Force, High Point, Towson, Syracuse. They will move up, but no top 20 wins yet

UNC. 4-1 Richmond. Colgate, Brown, Hopkins. L to Ohio State Hopkins and Brown solid wins

Hopkins. 3-2 Jacksonville, Towson, Loyola. L to UNC, Georgetown. Overrated here, but Jacksonville win gets them here.

Penn. 1-1 Duke. L to GTown

Duke. 5-2 Robert Morris, Vermont, Manhattan, Delaware L to Penn, Jacksonville

Delaware. 4-1 NJIT, MSM, St Josephs, Monmouth. L to Duke

Cornell. 2-0 UAlbany, Lehigh Undefeated but still untested

Hobart. 2-0 Canisius, Lehigh. Undefeated

Boston U. 3-0 Merrimack, Bryant, UMASS Undefeated. Decisive win over a UMass team that almost beat Army

Army. 3-1 UMASS, Sienna, NJIT. L to Rutgers

Bucknell. 4-0 Mercer, Robert Morris, St Johns, Marist. Undefeated

Stony brook. 4-0 Fairfield, Robert Morris, St Johns, LIU. Undefeated

Yale. 1-1 Villanova. L to Penn State.

Notre Dame. 1-1 Detroit Mercy, L to Georgetown. Will move up, but no top wins yet.

Princeton 2-1 Monmouth, Binghamton, L to Maryland

Richmond 2-1 Marist, Towson. L to UNC

Villanova 2-1 Penn State Fairfield L to Yale

St Josephs 3-1 Penn staste St Bonnies Providencve. L to Delaware

Denver. 3-2 Utah, Air Force, Cansius. L to Duke, Jacksonville

Michigan 5-0 Bellarmine, Detroit Mercy, Holy cross, Canisus, Cleveland State. Undefeated record gets them the last spot



Also considered:
Penn State. 2-3 Lafayette, Yale. L to Villanova, Vermont, St Josephs
Utah 2-1 Vermont, Marquette, L to Denver
Brown 2-1 Quinn, Vermont, L to UNC
UMass 1-2
Lehigh 1-2
Vermont 1-3 Penn State. L to Duke, Utah, Brown
Syracuse. 1-2 Holy Cross, L to Maryland, Virginia
Harvard 1-1 NJIT L to Ohio State

[Farfromgeneva]

There’s a quiet nod by Cuse fans.

Wonder if Brown or even PSU belong instead of Denver based on wins.

[rolldodge]

There’s a quiet nod by Cuse fans.

Wonder if Brown or even PSU belong instead of Denver based on wins.

For Brown, I think the Denver Utah win is better than their Vermont win. PSU is interesting. Hard to put a team with losing record in there. Yale is hard to judge yet. But could make a good case to give them that last spot over Michigan.

[Farfromgeneva]

I’m not dying on that denver hill. Just shocked they don’t look like a top 20 team right now.

For PSU that Laf win is looking better than it did in week one as Lafayette has been a pleasant surprise.

[10stone5]

The new media poll is up,

still no love for Hobart

[rolldodge]

The new media poll is up,

still no love for Hobart

Replace Syracuse with Hobart, and move Michigan down a bit and its a pretty reasonable poll.

[Farfromgeneva]

The new media poll is up,

still no love for Hobart

Probably would’ve been in if they had played and beat Gate on Friday but that’s how the media poll rolls-happy IL did a feature piece on a couple of our guys.

Maybe a good thing for the squad, at Cornell tomorrow and at the Dome on Sat so opportunities. Let’s see how they fare against Cornell at Shoellkopf tomorrow. Of course if they split the narrative will be the team they beat sucks this year.

Jax at 8 is fair but wild.

[MDlaxfan76]

Why is beating Duke and Denver particularly notable at this point? More meaningful than beating Syracuse?

We really don't have a clue who the top 10 will be other than some of the unbeatens. Some good guesses, sure, but I'm not ready to just assume that sort of ordering until a bunch more games have been played...in March, not February.

That said, no issue with the current top 10 having potential, just not the ordering until more is proven.

I guess that's the nature of such early season polls.

[Turnandrake]

Loyola still ranked in some polls????0-3

[Farfromgeneva]

Why is beating Duke and Denver particularly notable at this point? More meaningful than beating Syracuse?

We really don't have a clue who the top 10 will be other than some of the unbeatens. Some good guesses, sure, but I'm not ready to just assume that sort of ordering until a bunch more games have been played...in March, not February.

That said, no issue with the current top 10 having potential, just not the ordering until more is proven.

I guess that's the nature of such early season polls.

Duke has also beaten denver in its 5 wins vs Cuse’s 1 win vs Holy Cross who’s fighting St Johns, Bellarmine and Hampton at the bottom of D1. Throw in wins over RoMo, UVM and Delaware and that’s at least some wins of consequence.

Right now, today, Syracuse hasn’t shown anything. Their next four are: Army (Tues), Hobart (Sat) then Hop & Stonybrook. If they win 3/4, even 2/4 then they have a resume .

[Farfromgeneva]

Loyola still ranked in some polls????0-3

Laxmagazine had Lehigh over Hobart after they lost HTH the following day.

[Farfromgeneva]

https://www.usalaxmagazine.com/college/ ... ens-top-20

[rolldodge]

Why is beating Duke and Denver particularly notable at this point? More meaningful than beating Syracuse?

We really don't have a clue who the top 10 will be other than some of the unbeatens. Some good guesses, sure, but I'm not ready to just assume that sort of ordering until a bunch more games have been played...in March, not February.

That said, no issue with the current top 10 having potential, just not the ordering until more is proven.

I guess that's the nature of such early season polls.

Duke has a win over Delaware (top 20). Denver has a win over Utah, arguably top 25. Both have winning records. Definitely more meaningful than beating Syracuse who has a win over Holy Cross (who has been blown out by everyone) and did not look particularly noteworthy against Maryland and Virginia.

Yes, this approach is highly volatile in the early season -- but it does help to challenge your own implicit biases about teams. Why not order them this way now and see how things play out, rather than make assumptions based on ???

I think this approach particularly helps in ranking teams 10-25. And really helps consider teams you might otherwise overlook, even if it may over rank some teams at the top. Also, its fun to see some new names in unexpected places.

[10stone5]

https://www.usalaxmagazine.com/college/ ... ens-top-20

There you go, some Hobart love from USA Lax.

And also, a lot of love for Jacksonville, rightfully so,
in all polls, top 10 in Media and USA Lax and I’d guess
also today’s FanLax poll.

[Farfromgeneva]

I don’t mind not being in for Cornell tomorrow. Helps to build a chip on the shoulder. I am not excited that Derrek Madonna will be out through Cornell and Cuse but it’s about league play anyway. Rankings are just gravy but won’t be as impactful for future recruiting as being able to finally throw scholarship dough around, maybe buy one or two kids that we missed on in the past.

[MDlaxfan76]

Why is beating Duke and Denver particularly notable at this point? More meaningful than beating Syracuse?

We really don't have a clue who the top 10 will be other than some of the unbeatens. Some good guesses, sure, but I'm not ready to just assume that sort of ordering until a bunch more games have been played...in March, not February.

That said, no issue with the current top 10 having potential, just not the ordering until more is proven.

I guess that's the nature of such early season polls.

Duke has a win over Delaware (top 20). Denver has a win over Utah, arguably top 25. Both have winning records. Definitely more meaningful than beating Syracuse who has a win over Holy Cross (who has been blown out by everyone) and did not look particularly noteworthy against Maryland and Virginia.

Yes, this approach is highly volatile in the early season -- but it does help to challenge your own implicit biases about teams. Why not order them this way now and see how things play out, rather than make assumptions based on ???

I think this approach particularly helps in ranking teams 10-25. And really helps consider teams you might otherwise overlook, even if it may over rank some teams at the top. Also, its fun to see some new names in unexpected places.

Fair enough, especially in the rankings below 10.

I just think that there's so little data that this is an exercise in mental masturb. But hey, that's simply a reality of early season polling and ranking. IMO.

Do we believe a handful of contests in February are actually very predictive or do we think that as teams settle into the season the best will find a way to coalesce at the top?

I tend to think the latter, but it's indeed fun to see some of the schools that haven't been in the mix be there now. And I'd be willing to bet that they're not flash in the pans, either and will , at a minimum be in the conversation down the stretch.

[rolldodge]

Why is beating Duke and Denver particularly notable at this point? More meaningful than beating Syracuse?

We really don't have a clue who the top 10 will be other than some of the unbeatens. Some good guesses, sure, but I'm not ready to just assume that sort of ordering until a bunch more games have been played...in March, not February.

That said, no issue with the current top 10 having potential, just not the ordering until more is proven.

I guess that's the nature of such early season polls.

Duke has a win over Delaware (top 20). Denver has a win over Utah, arguably top 25. Both have winning records. Definitely more meaningful than beating Syracuse who has a win over Holy Cross (who has been blown out by everyone) and did not look particularly noteworthy against Maryland and Virginia.

Yes, this approach is highly volatile in the early season -- but it does help to challenge your own implicit biases about teams. Why not order them this way now and see how things play out, rather than make assumptions based on ???

I think this approach particularly helps in ranking teams 10-25. And really helps consider teams you might otherwise overlook, even if it may over rank some teams at the top. Also, its fun to see some new names in unexpected places.

Fair enough, especially in the rankings below 10.

I just think that there's so little data that this is an exercise in mental masturb. But hey, that's simply a reality of early season polling and ranking. IMO.

Do we believe a handful of contests in February are actually very predictive or do we think that as teams settle into the season the best will find a way to coalesce at the top?

I tend to think the latter, but it's indeed fun to see some of the schools that haven't been in the mix be there now. And I'd be willing to bet that they're not flash in the pans, either and will , at a minimum be in the conversation down the stretch.

I also try to watch a lot of the games, so its not just based on box scores. Jacksonville beat Duke pretty decisively and then followed it up with a good win over Denver. Ohio State is undefeated and crushed UNC. I think that deserves recognition. Maryland and Virginia are good, but Loyola and Syracuse are down this year, so they are being hyped up beyond the results so far. For instance, Virginia did look good against Cuse, but if you watched closely, Cuse played terrible defense which made them look even better. However, Virginia's combination of goalie + faceoffs + offense is impressive and will most likely result in some very good Ws going forward.

Another team to watch out for is Boston U. They look like they could be legit.