There is nothing better than playing the hypothetical game of buying or selling stock in Division 1 college lacrosse teams. Those preseason expectations should officially be out the window as every team has played enough games to showcase who they really are.
Even teams that may have had early-season success, whether through outright wins or close losses, seemingly become meaningless as the weeks go on. We are in the heat of conference play, with everyone looking to make a push toward conference and national tournaments.
This past weekend spoke volumes as to where certain teams lie in the landscape of Division 1 college lacrosse. My hypothetical list on whose stock I am buying and selling is purely subjective and my own opinion.
There’s not much data or analytics going into these decisions, as they are purely based on results and the overall eye test.
Notre Dame (5-2)
I was hesitant about Notre Dame coming into the season. They had lost so much talent coming off of back-to-back national championships, it didn’t seem like this team was going to operate at the same level.
A weak out-of-conference schedule and a close Georgetown win meant nothing to me. Once they then lost games to Ohio State and Maryland by one goal apiece, I was officially out on the Fighting Irish.
However, their last two games have been very eye-opening. A 19-7 win against Michigan followed up with a 14-7 win against Duke feels like the Irish have corrected their flaws following those two losses.
Conference play is going to be very interesting for Notre Dame. If they can escape conference play, who knows—they might even make it back to the Division 1 lacrosse Championship Weekend.
Michigan (6-4)
What an odd year it has been for the Wolverines. At the midway point of March, it seemed like the sky was falling. Losses to North Carolina, Duke, Harvard, and Notre Dame seemingly pulled down any hype the Wolverines may have had.
A 4-4 record felt ugly—that was until Michigan pulled off the triple-overtime win over Maryland followed up with a nice win over Johns Hopkins this past weekend.
Michigan always finds a way to get hot at the right times, and I would not count them out in any of their three remaining Big Ten games against Penn State, Rutgers, and Ohio State.
Remember, this is the team and coaching staff that shocked the world in back-to-back years winning Big Ten tournament championships. It seems like their four losses against quality opponents have truly shown the Wolverine coaching staff what needed to be fixed.
I truly believe Coach Conry has got the boys right for a late-season run. The Big Ten has proven to be a gauntlet, and it seems like Michigan is only going to add to that plate as the season goes on. I like the Wolverines in the later stretch of the season.
Harvard (7-2)
Harvard is back? It feels like for the past couple of years Harvard has been on the brink of a breakout season. They would pull out quality wins, pull an upset off here and there, but never really seemed to get over the hump.
As we enter May, the team currently holds a 7-2 record. An early-season loss to Colgate means nothing to me at this point, as Colgate pulls out one or two of these February upsets every year. A two-goal loss to Princeton definitely hurt, but it was not the end of the world.
This team holds some solid quality Division 1 lacrosse wins this season, such as Syracuse, Michigan, and Boston University.
I like the road ahead for Harvard featuring Dartmouth, Penn, Cornell, and Brown. It truly wouldn’t shock me at this point if Harvard was able to go 4-0 in this stretch and finish the regular season with an 11-2 record. At worst, they would be 10-3.
I like this Harvard squad and I’m all in for the remainder of the season. They have shown that they can hang with the Ivy League on a consistent basis, and that would be huge for tournament play.
With Yale and Penn both being down compared to years past, Harvard is truly an upset win away from making the Ivy League tournament championship. The Crimson being good is not only good for the Ivy League but for all of Division 1 lacrosse, as they have been a program that has been on the rise for a couple of years now and it would be nice to see that finally pay off.
