Big Ten Sees Big Upsets, UNC & Duke Split ACC – DI Rundown Week 12

This was a week of some WILD upsets (see: Big Ten). It made the top 20 get a little crazy, but we’re getting to the time of year where a loss means your season is done. A win doesn’t mean you keep playing, but you can only control what you can control. Teams with their backs against the wall are trying to play their way into the NCAA Tournament.

Some conference tournaments started while others will be taking place this week. This was also a really big week for rescheduled games, as a total of nine games were played after previously being postponed. This also allowed our total rate of games played to crack 90% for the first time this year.

Now, onto the rundown!

Big Ten Sees Big Upsets, UNC & Duke Split ACC – DI Rundown Week 12

Scoreboard

Tuesday

Hobart 9 v Wagner 8

Bryant 20 v LIU 17

Wednesday

Denver 11 v Villanova 10

Albany 14 v Vermont 16

Thursday

Georgetown 9 v Loyola 11

Friday

Wagner 7 v Saint Joseph’s 14

Fairfield 14 v Hofstra 18

UMass 6 v Delaware 9

Marquette 15 v St. John’s 14

Detroit 8 v St. Bonaventure 11

Siena 11 v Monmouth 12

Colgate 11 v Army 13

Marist 13 v Canisius 14

Saturday

UMBC 14 v NJIT 6

Robert Morris 16 v Utah 12

Stony Brook 13 v Vermont 14

Jacksonville 11 v High Point 16

Drexel 12 v Towson 11

Lehigh 8 v Villanova 16

Air Force 9 v Richmond 8

Cleveland St. 14 v VMI 11

Sacred Heart 12 v Hobart 14

Johns Hopkins 15 v Penn State 7

Michigan 15 v Ohio State 11

Navy 14 v Lafayette 10

Mercer 8 v Bellarmine 11

Syracuse 8 v Notre Dame 22

Sunday

Duke 12 v North Carolina 15

Binghamton 11 v UMass-Lowell 9

Conference Comparison

This is the section of the rundown to keep track of how conferences are doing against each other. Intra-conference games are not part of the records below.

*2021 Independents: Utah, Robert Morris, Cleveland State, Hampton (2021 season is suspended)

The only two non-conference games of the week were Cleveland St. v VMI and Lehigh v Villanova, which didn’t do anything to the overall standings. There are not too many more games taking place before the NCAA tournament starts, so the standings you see above are pretty set.

Conference Standings & Tournaments

ACC

There will be no ACC Men’s Lacrosse Championship this season (regular-season champion will be the official ACC champion).

With UNC topping Duke on Sunday, the two become co-champions of the ACC this year. In a wild, competitive year, it’s pretty remarkable that two teams in the five-team league wind up splitting the title. With only a Syracuse v Robert Morris game left, the ACC is mostly looking forward to Selection Sunday to see if all five will make it into the NCAA Tournament field. With their gaudy combined non-conference record in mind, odds are in their (Syracuse’s) favor.

Big Ten

*Clinched Regular Season Title

The Big Ten Tournament got off with a bang! With Maryland and Rutgers having byes, the other four teams faced off, with the lower seeded teams (Michigan and Johns Hopkins) both winning and moving on. For Ohio State and Penn State, it likely means their seasons is done. Sitting at 4-7 with no wins over Rutgers or Maryland is a tall order for the selection committee.

CAA

Championship: May 6 & 8, 2021 – Hofstra University/Hempstead, New York – Top 4 teams

With Towson losing this past weekend, its postseason hopes went with it. UMass and Hofstra locked up the final two spots. In an odd twist, the Minutemen get the third seed despite an overall losing record (remember their early season scheduling issues), which I believe is due to them have the edge over Hofstra on points in them splitting their head-to-head matchups. We also get the chance to see the lowest-seeded team host the tournament.

Big East

Championship: May 6 & 8, 2021 – Providence, Rhode Island – Top 4 teams

Technically, Denver and Georgetown split the regular season title, but Denver gets the edge for actual seeding determination. Providence had one really ugly game against the Pios earlier in the season but looked more promising the second time around. The same can definitely be said for Georgetown and Villanova. ‘Nova was on the wrong side of one of the most lopsided scores of the season to start the year but has looked like a Big East contender as of late.

Patriot

*Clinched Playoff

!Clinched Division

Championship: Top 3 teams from each division, hosted by Lehigh.

The regular season wrapped up this past weekend, and with it goes the seasons of Bucknell and Lafayette. Now, it’s onto the Patriot League Championship. Lehigh is the heavy favorite even after losing this weekend to Villanova. It will await the winner of Navy and Loyola. Army will have the winner of Colgate and BU, and the Black Knights only outlasted the Raiders by two a week ago. Things could get interesting. In fact, they probably will.

SoCon

*Clinched Playoff

Championship: May 5 & 7, 2021 – Richmond, Virginia – Top 4 teams

Last week, the final spot in the tournament was down to Mercer and Air Force. Mercer lost to Bellarmine, while Air Force casually upset Richmond. As their reward, the Falcons get to face the Spiders again for the chance to play more games. High Point and Jacksonville will be the other SoCon Tournament game, which is another rematch from this past weekend, won by the Panthers.

NEC

*Clinched Playoff

Championship: Four-team, single-elimination NEC Championship will take place at the high seed on May 6 & 8.

Bryant, Merrimack, and Hobart had the chance for the final two spots. Merrimack wound up having to watch from afar in a bye week as Hobart and Bryant took home some wins. We now look forward to the NEC Championship, where Saint Joseph’s has its undefeated league record on the line.

MAAC

Championship: May 5 & 8, Top 4 teams. All games are hosted by each matchup’s highest seed. 

The league’s quarterfinal games happened this past weekend, with St. Bonaventure taking the headlines with the biggest upset, topping Detroit. Canisius also had a big win over Marist, and while it was not an upset in terms of seeding, it was still a big one for the Griffs.

America East

Championship: May 6 & 8, 2021 – No. 1 seed is host – Top 4 teams

What a difference a week makes. Vermont wasn’t even talking about the postseason a week ago, and now it shares a regular season title with UMBC while the Retrievers will host the conference tourney. This sets up a rock fight of a tournament where truly any of the four teams could win it. This likely isn’t a two-bid league for NCAAs, so winning is everything.

DI Independent

With no conference tournament for those without a conference, Utah and Cleveland State are officially done unless they can get a last-minute game scheduled. Robert Morris was able to get a late add to the schedule with Syracuse, a date previously held by Utah.

Ivy League

They’re playing, so we might as well add them!

Dartmouth had a win this week, topping DII St. Anselm, 20-6. There is still an outside chance that another game gets scheduled, but as of now, it looks like these are the four Ivy league games we’ll get in 2021.

Reschedule Tracker

I’ll be using this section to keep track of which games are postponed or canceled as the season goes on as that information will easily get lost in the shuffle. Every season always has a few games postponed or canceled due to weather or travel issues, but as you’ll see below, this season is already going to be quite a bit different.

Also note: the “Games Scheduled” will include new games added, which may make the percentages look different compared to the missed games listed below. For example: Colgate and Robert Morris both had games canceled, so they played each other, meaning there are two games cancelled but one game played as scheduled.

Games scheduled: 379

Games played: 343 (90.5%)

Games played as scheduled: 313 (82.6%)

This Week’s Games

Tuesday

Colgate v Boston U (Patriot First Round – North)

Navy v Loyola (Patriot First Round – South)

Wednesday

Canisius v Manhattan (MAAC Semifinals)

St. Bonaventure v Monmouth (MAAC Semifinals)

Saint Joseph’s v LIU (NEC Semifinals)

Hobart v Bryant (NEC Semifinals)

Richmond v Air Force (SoCon Semifinals)

High Point v Jacksonville (SoCon Semifinals)

Thursday

Johns Hopkins v Rutgers (Big Ten Semifinals)

Michigan v Maryland (Big Ten Semifinals)

UMBC v Albany (America East Semifinals)

Vermont v Stony Brook (America East Semifinals)

Delaware v Hofstra (CAA Semifinals)

Drexel v UMass (CAA Semifinals)

Denver v Providence (Big East Semifinals)

Georgetown v Villanova (Big East Semifinals)

Friday

Wagner v Mount St. Mary’s

Syracuse v Robert Morris

Patriot North First Round Winner v Lehigh

Patriot South First Round Winner v Army

SoCon Final

Saturday

Big Ten Final

NEC Final

America East Final

CAA Final

Big East Final

Sunday

Patriot Final

What to Watch

Everything? I think everything is the answer. We’re talking playoff lacrosse pretty much across the board here. Teams are playing for their postseason lives, there will be upsets, and there will be last-second goals. Starting on Tuesday, nearly every game you turn on matters.

Catch Up on the DI Rundown

This is the 13th DI Rundown of the season. If you want to see what you missed earlier in the campaign, you’ve come to the right place.

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