The Sunday Slide: April 30, 2023

So, here we are — the final edition of The Sunday Slide in 2023.

Don’t worry. There’s plenty more content to come from our team throughout May. That would be irresponsible of us to leave you all high and dry during May Madness, after all. The Sunday Slide served as fun regular season content to help recap the long weekends from top to bottom. With fewer teams alive at this point in the spring, it’s time to provide more targeted analysis.

But I digress. What would this column be without some reactions? How’s this for one — Boston College appears ready for yet another for another run to the NCAA championship game. A few weeks ago, that might not have seemed as likely. It’s not that the Eagles were a bad team. Far from it. But BC wasn’t looking at all like the BC we’re seeing right now. The Eagles are the hottest team in women’s lacrosse and ACC tournament champions for the first time.

It seems like Boston College can win any type of game right now. The Eagles are chameleons, capable of playing up-tempo or slow and can persevere in grind-it-out games, back and forth boxing matches or low-scoring defensive stalemates. That’s a tough team to beat this time of year.

The ACC tournament is always unpredictable, and this doesn’t mean the other beasts of the conference — namely Syracuse and North Carolina — can’t still make runs. But lookout, world, because here comes Boston College … again.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS & FUN WITH NUMBERS

Combined this time!

Who’s going to spoil things for hopeful teams on the bubble? There’s a bid thief or two every year, after all. Could it be Rutgers? The Scarlet Knights are back to .500 at 8-8 and probably need to win the Big Ten tournament to make the NCAA tournament. That seemed implausible a month ago. But Rutgers looks pretty good right now.

Rutgers’ opponent in the semifinals? That would be Maryland. The Terps doubled up Rutgers 16-8 on March 18, but as we’ve established, Rutgers looks like it’s peaking at the correct time. Does that mean the Scarlet Knights have enough to top Maryland? We’ll find out Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern.

At least so far, there haven’t been many end-of-season surprises. Some close games fun finishes, sure, but nothing that completely strikes me as difficult to imagine. With so many postseason tournaments continuing Thursday, that’s when things should start getting interesting.

Less Random Observation, more Random Reminder: Make sure you’re sticking with usalaxmagazine.com this week, as we’ll have brackets on brackets on brackets with updated projections multiple times before Selection Sunday’s actual bracket reveal.

14 • Automatic qualifiers that will be handed out before Selection Sunday. Boston College already nabbed the ACC’s meaning there will be 15 total AQs. Fourteen other teams will hope to earn at-large berths.

17-0 • Denver finished its regular season undefeated for the first time in program history after dispatching Marquette. Will the two Big East foes meet again in the conference tournament?

43 • Combined goals in Holy Cross’ 22-21 win over Bucknell. There were eight hat tricks in the game. Somewhat surprisingly, nobody had more than six points (a total that four players, two for each side, achieved).

191 • Career goals for Cassidy Spilis, a new Rutgers program record. The dynamic midfielder set the record with her 188th career score. Spilis has one remaining season of eligibility, too.

202 • Career goals for Isabella Peterson, a new James Madison program record. A redshirt-junior, Peterson can create a larger cushion with another year in 2024.

370 • Career draw controls for Richmond’s Arden Tierney — a new program record. Tierney became No. 1 with her 363rd draw control.

417 • Career draw controls for Loyola’s Jillian Wilson — a new program record. Wilson needed 414 to pass Livy Rosenzweig, her former teammate and current Loyola volunteer assistant.