SAN ANTONIO --- My hotel here at the basketball Final Four has both ESPNU and CBS College Sports (the rechristened CSTV), so I've actually had the luxury of watching some lacrosse during some downtime here.
Got to see Maryland-Navy live on Friday night, and also watched snippets of Towson-Delaware and Duke-Hopkins to help get back into the swing of things upon returning to the area and diving into the middle of the lacrosse regular season.
Here's what I'm pretty sure of at this point: Duke is loaded. Syracuse is back. Virginia is steady.
And that's about it.
Oh, one other thing: Johns Hopkins just might be in some trouble, having lost five straight games.
Of course, the defending national champs could just knock off Maryland and Navy the next two weeks and be in fine shape to avoid missing the postseason for the first time since 1971.
It might seem too early for lacrosse bracketology, it's worth taking a very premature swing at projecting a 16-team field without travel restrictions. Those come later, especially once the teams out west sort themselves out:
(1) Duke vs. MAAC/Canisius
(8) PATRIOT/Navy vs. GWLL/Ohio State
(5) ECAC/Georgetown vs. Denver
(4) IVY/Cornell vs. CAA/Drexel
(3) Syracuse vs. Brown
(6) North Carolina vs. AMERICA EAST/UMBC
(7) Maryland vs. Notre Dame
(2) Virginia vs. Bucknell
And here's one man's ballot for the Inside Lacrosse top 20:
1. Duke (11-1)
2. Syracuse (8-1)
3. Virginia (10-1)
4. Georgetown (7-2)
5. Cornell (8-1)
6. Navy (9-2)
7. Maryland (7-3)
8. North Carolina (7-3)
9. UMBC (7-3)
10. Notre Dame (7-2)
11. Ohio State (7-3)
12. Johns Hopkins (3-5)
13. Drexel (9-2)
14. Denver (7-4)
15. Princeton (4-4)
16. Bucknell (8-2)
17. Brown (7-2)
18. Loyola (5-4)
19. Army (7-3)
20. Penn (5-3)
--- Patrick Stevens
Comments (2)
Looks on point to me. If Cuse can get past Cornell tomorrow, they should have the easy road to a #2/#3 seed.
Posted by NunesMagician | April 7, 2008 2:42 PM
First of all, that's a great website you've got. It's already tucked away in my bookmarks.
You'd think Cuse would be in great shape for a No. 2 or a No. 3, given their record and their remaining schedule (Rutgers, Albany, Massachusetts, Colgate) includes only one game they really might have any chance of losing --- and, really, the Orange should beat Albany.
But I think back to the committee's treatment of Cornell last year, when an unbeaten regular season earned the Big Red a No. 4 seed. So I wouldn't bet my house on it.
Seeding won't matter for the Cuse so long as they get to stay in upstate New York. A first-round game at home and a quarterfinal on the ancient turf at Cornell is the perfect recipe for a return to the final four.
Posted by Patrick Stevens | April 9, 2008 10:06 AM