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America East in Last: Ryan’s Rundown Week 9

Conference battles are definitely heating up and more teams are getting into “must win” territory as they are starting to see their postseason hopes slipping away. So who’s doing well, and who’s not?

Scoreboard


Tuesday

Stony Brook 14 v Dartmouth 13 (America East v Ivy)

Marist 7 v Princeton 18 (MAAC v Ivy)

Yale 22 v Boston U 15 (Ivy v Patriot)

Thursday

Syracuse 12 v Albany 14 (ACC v America East)

Friday

VMI 5 v High Point 16 (SoCon v SoCon)

Michigan 8 v Penn State 9 (Big Ten v Big Ten)

Saturday

Georgetown 15 v Providence 5 (Big East v Big East)

Albany 7 v UMBC 16 (America East v America East)

Air Force 13 v Detroit Mercy 4 (ASUN v ASUN)

Bellarmine 9 v Robert Morris 12 (ASUN v ASUN)

Bryant 10 v Saint Joseph’s 11 (NEC v NEC)

Yale 23 v Dartmouth 6 (Ivy v Ivy)

Hofstra 12 v Delaware 11 (CAA v CAA)

Denver 12 v Villanova 10 (Big East v Big East)

Fairfield 18 v Drexel 19 (CAA v CAA)

Hampton 6 v Mercer 22 (SoCon v SoCon)

Wagner 3 v Hobart 12 (NEC v NEC)

Richmond 11 v Jacksonville 13 (SoCon v SoCon)

Johns Hopkins 10 v Ohio State 12 (Big Ten v Big Ten)

Loyola 18 v Navy 7 (Patriot v Patriot)

Manhattan 8 v Siena 7 (MAAC v MAAC)

Marquette 23 v St. John’s 13 (Big East v Big East)

NJIT 12 v Stony Brook 20 (America East v America East)

Brown 12 v Penn 10 (Ivy v Ivy)

Boston U 7 v Princeton 12 (Patriot v Ivy)

UMass 9 v Towson 12 (CAA v CAA)

Vermont 23 v UMass-Lowell 9 (America East v America East)

Colgate 11 v Army 13 (Patriot v Patriot)

Utah 15 v Cleveland State 11 (ASUN v ASUN)

Monmouth 3 v St. Bonaventure 6 (MAAC v MAAC)

Harvard 9 v Cornell 17 (Ivy v Ivy)

Lafayette 21 v Holy Cross 11 (Patriot v Patriot)

Quinnipiac 15 v Canisius 10 (MAAC v MAAC)

Merrimack 11 v Sacred Heart 8 (NEC v NEC)

LIU 14 v Mount St Mary’s 10 (NEC v NEC)

North Carolina 4 v Virginia 11 (ACC v ACC)

Notre Dame 16 v Duke 15 (ACC v ACC)

Sunday

Bucknell 12 v Lehigh 13 (Patriot v Patriot)

Rutgers 9 v Maryland 17 (Big Ten v Big Ten)

My Top 20


Since transparency is a good thing, here’s my Inside Lacrosse Media Poll ballot for this week:

  1. Maryland
  2. Georgetown
  3. Yale
  4. Cornell
  5. Princeton
  6. Notre Dame
  7. Virginia
  8. Rutgers
  9. Jacksonville
  10. Ohio State
  11. Penn
  12. Army
  13. Harvard
  14. Denver
  15. UNC
  16. Boston U
  17. Utah
  18. Duke
  19. High Point
  20. Villanova

At this point in the season, my Top 20 has become pretty consistent. There are very few teams being added or dropped week to week and there were actually none this week. For the most part, teams are losing games I expect them to and winning the ones they should as well. I’ve also been struggling on where to classify a team like Saint Joseph’s. Their record is great, but the schedule is not. For me, it basically comes down to them or Utah for a spot in the Top 20. In my mind, Utah still gets the nod for their win over Jacksonville and “good” losses. If the Utes keep up their winning ways, I see no reason to drop them.

Conference Comparison


This is the section of the rundown to keep track of how conferences are doing against each other. This year we actually don’t have any teams playing as independents, which is a huge step forward. The big reason I keep track of this is it helps roughly gauge how many teams from each conference to expect in the NCAA tournament at the end of the season. Unless you’re in the top 3 of conferences, you’re probably only sending one team. There are some rare exceptions, but it does help to be aware of what’s going on once everyone switches to conference games and beat eachother up.

ConferenceRecord%This Week+/-
Ivy33-90.7863-1-0.004
Big Ten34-160.6800-00.000
ACC24-130.6490-1-0.018
Big East26-250.5100-00.000
CAA27-260.5090-00.000
Patriot24-240.5000-2-0.022
NEC22-260.4580-00.000
SoCon21-260.4470-00.000
ASUN19-300.3880-00.000
MAAC15-310.3260-1-0.007
America East14-330.2982-00.031

You know things are not going well for the America East when they can go 2-0 and still not make it out of last place. On the other hand, you have the Ivy League who just continues to improve, crossing the thirty win mark this past week and are still winning over 3/4 of their nonconference games. Things are definitely getting interesting in the middle, though. The Patriot dropping a pair of games to fall to an even .500 means you’re really looking more and more like most conference will be sending just one team to the postseason, thus increasing the chances that the Ivies send possibly a full handful. The Big Ten and ACC will send more than one team, but after them, not many conferences are making a strong case for anything but an automatic qualifier.

This Week’s Games


Tuesday

Cornell 16 @ Syracuse 15 (Ivy v ACC)

Tuesday

NJIT 11 @ Marist 12 (America East v MAAC)

Notre Dame 18 @ Marquette 8 (ACC v Big East)

Thursday

Virginia @ Duke (ACC v ACC)

Friday

High Point @ Hampton (SoCon v SoCon)

Saturday

Marquette @ Georgetown (Big East v Big East)

Vermont @ Albany (America East v America East)

Cleveland State @ Air Force (ASUN v ASUN)

Detroit @ Bellarmine (ASUN v ASUN)

Stony Brook @ Binghamton (America East v America East)

Sacred Heart @ Bryant (NEC v NEC)

Dartmouth @ Princeton (Ivy v Ivy)

Towson @ Delaware (CAA v CAA)

St. John’s @ Denver (Big East v Big East)

Drexel @ Hofstra (CAA v CAA)

Hobart @ Merrimack (NEC v NEC)

Jacksonville @ VMI (SoCon v SoCon)

Penn State @ Johns Hopkins (Big Ten v Big Ten)

Boston U @ Loyola (Patriot v Patriot)

Marist @ Manhattan (MAAC v MAAC)

Mercer @ Richmond (SoCon v SoCon)

Harvard @ Penn (Ivy v Ivy)

Providence @ Villanova (Big East v Big East)

Fairfield @ UMass (CAA v CAA)

Rutgers @ Michigan (Big Ten v Big Ten)

Army @ Cornell (Patriot v Ivy)

Robert Morris @ Utah (ASUN v ASUN)

Navy @ Lafayette (Patriot v Patriot)

Yale @ Brown (Ivy v Ivy)

St. Bonaventure @ Siena (MAAC v MAAC)

Mount St Marys @ Wagner (NEC v NEC)

Quinnipiac @ Virginia (MAAC v ACC)

UMBC @ UMass-Lowell (America East v America East)

Ohio State @ Maryland (Big Ten v Big Ten)

Syracuse @ North Carolina (ACC v ACC)

Saint Joseph’s @ LIU (NEC v NEC)

Canisius @ Monmouth (MAAC v MAAC)

Lehigh @ Colgate (Patriot v Patriot)

Sunday

Holy Cross @ Bucknell (Patriot v Patriot)

Jacksonville @ Hampton (SoCon v SoCon)

Games to Look Out For


In non-conference matchups, the best that I see this week is going to be Army visiting Cornell, which could be an incredible game. Cornell won a close one against Syracuse, but they should be a different team at home. The Gavin Adler vs Brendan Nichtern matchup is worth tuning in for.  In terms of the other games, the conference battles are hitting a tipping point as teams have chances at statement wins or defining losses.

Sneaky Good Matchups

Vermont @ Albany (America East v America East)

Towson @ Delaware (CAA v CAA)

Penn State @ Johns Hopkins (Big Ten v Big Ten)

Rutgers @ Michigan (Big Ten v Big Ten)

Syracuse @ North Carolina (ACC v ACC)

Not So Sneaky Matchups

Virginia @ Duke (ACC v ACC)

Ohio State @ Maryland (Big Ten v Big Ten)

Boston U @ Loyola (Patriot v Patriot)

Harvard @ Penn (Ivy v Ivy)

Army @ Cornell (Patriot v Ivy)

Yale @ Brown (Ivy v Ivy)