Continuing College Turmoil: NCAA D1 Rundown

This week we saw more college turmoil when it comes to D1 men’s lacrosse. We saw more overtime games, more upsets, and just more great college lacrosse. There were some great individual player performances, and the question of “which conference is best?” is getting more and more difficult to answer each week. Looks like PARITY continues to be real! And Top 20 voting continues to be difficult!

Without any further ado, it’s time for your weekly NCAA D1 Rundown Report!

College Turmoil – Weekly Scoreboard

Monday

2 Manhattan vs. North Carolina 18
10 Princeton vs. Rutgers 7

Tuesday

8 Bucknell vs. Villanova 12
5 VMI vs. Monmouth 17
11 Wagner vs. UMass Lowell 12
5 Colgate vs. Cornell 6
7 Canisius vs. Hobart 8 2OT
8 Marist vs. Hartford 11
9 Ohio State vs. Towson 10 OT
13 Stony Brook vs. Hofstra 5

Wednesday

10 Maryland vs. Albany 7

Friday

16 Rutgers vs. NJIT 3

Saturday

16 Albany vs. Stony Brook 10
16 Army vs. Holy Cross 7
7 Colgate vs. Fairfield 12
4 Hampton vs. Ohio Valley 16
9 Jacksonville vs. Bellarmine 10
9 Penn State vs. Massachusetts 11
5 Quinnipiac vs. Marquette 11
15 Towson vs. Furman 6
16 Binghamton vs. UMBC 10
13 Bucknell vs. Boston U. 6
9 Cornell vs. Yale 15
15 Denver vs. Ohio State 6
13 Drexel vs. St. John’s 4
20 Duke vs. Georgetown 6
8 Harvard vs. Brown 11
6 Lafayette vs. Lehigh 11
13 Mercer vs. VMI 2
12 Michigan vs. Dartmouth 13
8 Monmouth vs. Marist 9
10 Navy vs. Loyola 9
10 Princeton vs. Penn 20
12 Providence vs. Hofstra 7
12 Robert Morris vs. Sacred Heart 7
9 Siena vs. Canisius 12
8 UMass Lowell vs. Hartford 9 3OT
9 Wagner vs. Hobart 10 3OT
13 Air Force vs. High Point 4
3 Manhattan vs. Detroit 9
12 Saint Joseph’s vs. Delaware 7
11 Johns Hopkins vs. Syracuse 10 OT
8 Notre Dame vs. Virginia 7 OT
15 North Carolina vs. Richmond 6

The D1 Stat Freaks

Freak of the week: Larken Kemp from Brown is on this list a lot, but he had the stat line that blew my mind the most. The LSM recorded seven ground balls and a crazy five caused turnovers against a quality opponent in Harvard. That’s just silly. Watch the video above. Silly.

Offense: 7 or greater

Yale’s Ben Reevs 4G,3A vs. Cornell
Army’s Cole Johnson 4G, 4A vs. Holy Cross
Duke’s jack Bruckner 5G, 2A vs. Georgetown
Penn’s Nik Doktor 1G, 5A vs. Princeton
North Carolina’s Chris Cloutier 4G, 3A vs. Richmond

Defense:  combined 7 or more

PSU’s James Burke 6GB, 1CT vs. UMASS
Brown’s Alec Tulett 7GB, 1CT vs. Harvard
Brown’s Larken Kemp 7GB, 5CT vs. Harvard
Harvard’s Walter Kirby 5GB, 2 CT vs. Brown
Harvard’s Bobby Duvnjak 5GB, 5CT vs. Brown
Yale’s Christopher Keating 8GB, 2CT vs. Cornell
Stony Brook’s Ryland Rees 1G, 1A, 3GB, 3CT vs. Albany
Bellarmine’s Taylor Stuart 1G, 1A, 8GB, 1CT vs. Jacksonville
Marquette’s Jacob Richard 6GB, 1CT vs. Quinnipiac
St. Johns’ Thomas Marron 6GB, 1CT vs. Drexel
Lehigh’s Tripp Telesco 3GB, 4CT vs. Lafayette
Lafayette’s Erik Cannon 4GB, 3CT vs. Lehigh
Robert Morris’ Zac Christianson 4GB, 3CT vs. Sacred Heart
BU’s Greg Wozniak 8GB, 1CT vs. Bucknell
Bucknell’s Alex Spring 5GB, 2CT vs. Villanova
Villanova’s Jake Foccaro 1G, 5GB, 3CT vs. Bucknell <—He doesn’t just score!
Villanova’s John Moderski 8GB, 1CT vs. Bucknell
Rutgers’ Michael Rexrode 5GB, 4CT vs. NJIT
Rutgers’ Zack Franckowiak 8GB vs. NJIT
UNC’s Luke Goldstock 2G, 2A, 4GB, 3A vs. Manhattan
Providence’s Jimmy Cunningham 4GB, 3CT vs. Hofstra
Hartford’s Zach Elkinson 8GB vs. UMass-Lowell
Hartford’s Dylan Protesto 7GB vs. UMass-Lowell
UMass-Lowell’s Ryder Lessing 5G, 3A vs. Hartford
UMass-Lowell’s Seaon Tyrrell 2G, 2A, 6GB, 1CT vs. Hartford
Hobart’s Christopher Willman 1G, 5A, 2CT vs. Wagner

Faceoffs: greater than 70%

Cornell’s Dom Massimillian 10/14 vs. Colgate
UVA’s Jason Murphy 14/17 vs. Notre Dame
Maryland’s Austin Henningsen 16/20 with 10GB vs. Albany
Army’s Dan Grabher 11/12, 1G, 1A, 7GB vs. Holy Cross
Bellarmine’s Connor Harryman 15/21, 7GB, 1G vs. Jacksonville
Marquette’s Zachary Melillo 14/19 vs. Quinnipiac
Binghamton’s Dan  Mazurek 19/26, 14GB, 1CT, 1A vs. UMBC
Duke’s Kyle Rowe 19/23, 14GB, 1G vs. Georgetown
Towson’s Alec Burckley 14/20, 2A vs. Furman
Ohio State’s 16/22, 12 GB vs. Towson
Detroit’s Ben Gjokaj 12/16 vs. Manhattan
UNC’s Stephen Kelly 17/23 vs. Richmond
UNC’s Stephen Kelly 16/16, 1G vs. Manhattan – PERFECTION!
Monmouth’s Keegan Teluk 15/18, 8GB vs. Marist
Hartford’s Dylan Protesto 17/22, 1G vs. Marist
Umass-Lowell’s Will Puduski 7GB. 1CT, 1/1FO vs. Wagner

Goalies:  greater than 70%

Cornell’s Brennan Donville 14/19 vs. Colgate
Drexel’s Jimmy Joe Granito 16/20 vs. St. John’s
Duke’s Danny Fowler 9/12 vs. Georgetown
Robert Morris’ Alex Heger 10/13 vs. Sacred Heart
Air Force’s Doug Gouchoe 11/14 vs. High Point
Bucknell’s Christian Klipstein 14/20 vs. BU
Rutgers’ Kris Alleyne 7/8 vs. NJIT
Detroit’s Jason Weber 9/12 vs. Manhattan
Mercer’s Mike Nugent 9/9 vs. VMI
Stony Brook’s Zach Oliveri 8/11 vs. Hofstra

The Big Upsets and Surprises

• Hobart played five overtime periods between two games, and won them both.  The most shocking thing about their win over Canisius is that they recorded a grand total of 0 assists in that contest. That’s quite a rarity.
• Hopkins playing at home, without Coach Petro, in nasty weather, gave them a slight mental edge over Syracuse and I think that was the difference. Syracuse still has plenty to work on, but I don’t think this loss is too concerning. The focus areas of the team will remain the same. This win benefits Hopkins more than it hurts Syracuse at the moment.
• Brown’s win at Harvard is another one of those wins that is tightening their grip on the Ivies.  Their LSMs and faceoff unit is among the best in the country, even if they don’t get the initial win.
• Albany impressed me quite a bit with their win over Stony Brook. I was not very big on the Danes going into the year since I felt many people were underestimating the loss of Lyle and how the entire flow of the offense was disrupted. This win shows they still run their league.
• Navy’s win over Loyola is leaving the hounds scratching their heads and looking for answers. The hounds really need to get some solutions soon, since the Patriot League will not cater to them at all.
• Speaking of the Patriot League, Bucknell’s win over BU was a huge statement. I never know quite what to think of the Bison, but they’re going to put some real pressure on that conference this season. I don’t think they’ll win it outright, but I could see them in the 2-3 range for conference tourney seeding. BU needs to rebound from this loss quickly.
• Notre Dame’s overtime win against Virginia was a true thriller of a game. Neither team had an sort of lead to speak of all day. Notre Dame is still one of the best teams in the country and UVA now needs to win the rest of their ACC games to have a shot at making their conference tournament. They are already in “must win” territory and the first day of spring just arrived.
• Providence scored a win over Hofstra which is a strange case of simultaneously being a great win for Providence and a terrible loss for Hofstra. Hofstra had the entire NCAA on notice to start the season, but they area already starting to fade. They need to string some more wins together, and fast. Providence is really starting to improve at the right time as they gear up for Big East play, which is starting to look like one of the more interesting conferences out there.

Conference Comparison

The ACC took the top spot once again, but the Ivies are not far behind. I was recently asked which conference in the best, and I have to say, I lean towards the Ivies right now. Two undefeated team, and when you measure them up side by side against the ACC, you have 5th place teams of Cornell and Virginia. Cornell won that head to head matchup, which gives the slight advantage in their direction.

We’ll see if one of these conferences separates itself from the pack soon soon, but it’s interesting to note that there have only been THREE inter-conference games between the Ivy and ACC so far, and there is only one more (Syracuse vs Cornell) scheduled. This set up allows both conferences to stay comparable, so it’s going to make the at-large process interesting in the NCAA selection meetings!

The world of D1 men’s lacrosse is more unpredictable and interesting in 2016 than it has been in recent memory. The title is up for grabs… who’s taking it home?