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Livin’ On A Prayer – D1 Lacrosse Poll

Connor is off playing “Mr. Grow The Game” in the Czech Republic this week. Rather than cast his votes without watching a second of NCAA lacrosse, he is taking this week off. Unfortunately for you, that means that only my votes and commentary are what you will see this week. It could be worse, but I doubt it.

This week did not see a lot of major movement in my top 20. Everyone not named Maryland in my top 10 won. Even Maryland lost to another top 10 team. Then everyone from 11 through 17 all lost. What I’m basically saying is that I’m a lacrosse genius and my poll is PERFECTION. OK, not really. What it really means is that most of the top 10 played weaker teams and took home relatively easy wins, or at least won games they were favored in. 11-17 lost to some of the top 10 team and dropped a few more questionable ones. So, just as every week, I still have no idea what I’m talking about. But I’ve made it this far, so let’s keep moving forward!

In this particular case, forward now means conference tournament time. While some conferences like the Ivy already have seedings determined, they are not quite ready for the tournament yet. Others like the ACC and Patriot will play their tournaments next week, then have the informal ACC/Patriot Challenge weekend while everyone else figures out their automatic qualifiers. We are truly into the part of the year where every game matters. Every. Game. Matters.

Now onto my actual votes, this is actually a good time to explain my thinking behind how I am ranking teams again. I don’t sit down each week and think who my favorites are to win the championship. But at this point, the top 5 teams all have a realistic shot at being in the Championship Weekend festivities. What I really look for is who have you beat, who have you lost to, and how does that compare to others? If there are head to head tiebreakers to separate some teams, I will use those, but sparingly. After taking all of this into account, I toss in a big old dose of subjectivity. On that cheery note, onto the votes!

This week’s format is my team’s rank, followed by the team, their ranking Last Week, and then my comments.

1 Syracuse LW: 1 What is driving people crazy about Syracuse is not that they are winning games. It is that they are winning games by a goal. If they had this record and all their wins were by five or six, this is a different conversation. What continues to impress me about this team, though is that they win games while playing some really bad lacrosse. Saturday was exhibit L in that argument. Bad play after bad play, but they just keep winning.

2 Notre Dame LW: 3 The Irish withstood some great plays by North Carolina, but still came away with the win. UNC really pushed them and were able to steal a couple of goals in quick transition. Notre Dame was much better in the settled situations, though. Sergio was doing Sergio things and made the Tar Heels pay a few time for leaving him open. Notre Dame is not playing as well as they have in the past, but they’re well positioned to make some noise in May.

3 Denver LW: 4 Providence well poised to make life difficult to Denver. Their defense has been playing well and their offense has been able to score goals when needed. Denver holding them to just two goals was a new level, though. This was actually the fewest goals scored in the Chris Gabrielli era in Providence. With just one game left in conference, Denver should finish the regular season once again undefeated in the Big East.

4 Maryland LW: 2 I really could not knock Maryland too much for an overtime loss to Ohio State. They had just come off a triple overtime win against Rutgers and a one goal game against Albany. Sure, they’re good enough to win another close one, but Syracuse is currently consuming nearly all of the “consecutive one goal game” mojo in the lacrosse world right now.

5 Duke LW: 5 Marquette made this game against Duke interesting, but the Blue Devils pulled things together in time to get a nice, healthy win. Even though I have them behind Notre Dame and Syracuse, I really like the Blue Devils heading into the ACC tournament. Being at home will give them a little extra boost that they may need.

6 Albany LW: 6 Albany beat Binghamton to make it clear that they still run the conference. Then they saw Yale who will be their toughest opponent until the NCAA tournament starts. They still don’t have a good schedule to hang their hat on and their best games are just close losses. Still, do not make the mistake of underestimating this team. Whether it’s in the first round or a possible quarterfinal, this is a tough draw for anyone.

7 Hopkins LW: 7 Hopkins beat on Michigan as if they were trying to make it clear to anyone that would listen that the Wolverines are more “pretender” than contender after their great early season run. That leaves the Jays with just one loss heading into their trophy game with Maryland, which will help sort out the conference tournament seedings.

8 Penn State LW: 8 Penn State walked into Sunday night ready for a great battle in front of a big home crowd. While their crows was certainly happy at the end of it all, this was not like the triple overtime game from a week ago. Penn State got up early and never looked back. It was a much needed win after their two game skid against Maryland and Hopkins. With just Michigan left, Penn State is sitting in a good spot heading into the postseason.

9 Ohio State LW: 10 I moved Ohio State up a spot for beating Maryland, but just like I did not drop Maryland far for losing, I didn’t bring OSU too high after the win. OK, the real reason is that everyone in front of Ohio State also won. Want to complain about it? Have them win the Big Ten tournament. They’ll skyrocket in the polls if that happens.

https://www.facebook.com/OhioStateMensLacrosse/videos/1152505581526765/

10 Hofstra LW: 9 The Pride bounced back from their Drexel loss by almost doubling up UMASS. Despite their weak schedule, Hofstra is looking great for an at-large bid if they are not able to beat out Towson for the AQ. But first things first, they face Towson in their final regular season game next week. That is some must see TV.

11 Richmond LW: 12 Richmond lost and moved up?! Yes. Yes they did. Given the off situation this week of a ton of people losing and that are all grouped together, it was going to happen. Rutgers’ loss was way better than Richmond’s loss, but having lost four of their last five does not give me that much more confidence in them. The Spiders on the other hand can shrug this one off pretty easily. They have known for weeks that only an AQ will get them in to the conference tournament, so a loss here is not too big of a deal. If they correct it in the conference tournament, they’ll be fine.

12 Rutgers LW: 13 Like I just mentioned, Rutgers has lost four of their last 5, only have a win over Michigan, and still have Ohio State next. It is not too different from what they did a year ago. They had some earlier losses a year ago, but then alternated wins and losses to end the season and were left out of the NCAA field. Losing next week may repeat that fate. It is amazing to think that just a few weeks ago this was the #1 team in the country.

13 Loyola LW: 19 Loyola scored a huge win over Army which gives them the top seed heading into the Patriot tournament. They are still just 8-5, but their losses are much better than Army’s. Before this game, I would have thought the Patriot was a virtual coin flip. Now, it’s Loyola’s to lose.

14 Army LW: 11 Army now has a two game skid heading into the Patriot tournament, where pretty much anything can happen. Early in the season, Army was playing some fantastic lacrosse. Unfortunately, they are starting to fade. They could have a reasonable chance at an at-large bid if they lose in the Patriot final, but that is not something they should plan on.

15 Towson LW: 14 Towson had their first league slip-up, and it came at a bad time. Fairfield has really been giving everyone trouble this season, but have not been able to get major wins when needed. This finally was one. Towson can either use this loss as well-timed motivation, or watch the NCAA tournament with the rest of us. Should be interesting.

16 Yale LW: 15 Yale lost a tough one to Albany, and it was a game they should have won. Now all that is left is the Ivy tournament, where they are the top seed and host. Penn snagged the fourth seen, so that is who the Elis will see first. When they met back in April, Yale won be only two points, so this will not be a cake walk.

17  Princeton LW: 18 Princeton locked up the number two seed in the Ivy tournament and will face Brown. That was not close in their first meeting, which turned into a 21-11 win for the Tigers. As inconsistent as Brown has been, Princeton is lock step with them. They have a very real shot at winning their league’s AQ, but their only good win all season is over Hopkins. That is not good for their NCAA hopes.

18 Villanova LW: 20 Villanova might be having one of the best late season runs in the country. Outside of their loss to Denver, they haven’t lost since March 4th. This week, it was St. John’s who they absolutely buried under 15 goals. Providence next week should be a rather epic battle before the Big Easy tournament.

19 Boston LW: UR I brought BU back into the fold this week after a win over Loyola week ago and they beat their in-state rival Holy Cross this week. The two schools have a budding rivalry that is great for both programs. BU is closer to Harvard (significantly), but having the weight of a league match makes the Holy Cross game just that much more important.

20 UNC LW: 16 1 point loss to ND In all honesty, UNC should not be ranked right now. They have a losing record and are going to be blasting Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer” all week during practice. They will be paired up with Syracuse and need to win there just to be eligible for the NCAA tournament. Even just being eligible is going to be a stretch. The defending champs are not in a good spot right now.

Dropped: Providence

Also considering: Not that many others, to be honest. There are just a ton of bad resumes out there.