Rutgers' NCAA Case Even Better than Last Season

Rutgers coach Brian Brecht is in position to lobby for an NCAA tournament at-large bid for the second consecutive year.

By the numbers, the Scarlet Knights’ case is better this year — and Brecht knows it.

The Scarlet Knights (10-4) completed the regular season with a 12-11 defeat of Ohio State on Kieran Mullins’ overtime goal. It was an exceptional final impression for a team that will not play in this week’s Big Ten tournament.

A year ago, Rutgers looked the part and reached the Big Ten title game. But it also had an RPI of 20 and the No. 22 strength of schedule — figures that ultimately outweighed a pair of victories over Johns Hopkins.

“I certainly felt like we had a pretty good resume at the end with the 10 wins, 11 if you count the [Big Ten tournament] win over Hopkins,” Brecht said. “If you objectively look at our body of work this year and our body of work last year, not only do we have better wins, but the schedule is better and the teams we have played have performed better.”

The Scarlet Knights enter the week at No. 12 in the RPI and No. 10 in the strength of schedule metric the NCAA selection committee utilizes. It also owns victories over Army, Brown and Princeton and certainly would welcome success from any of those teams this week. Army plays host to Notre Dame, while Brown and Princeton meet in the Ivy League semifinals.

While Rutgers has reason to root against chaos (namely a loss by Denver in the Big East tournament), its resume gives it a much better shot at a Selection Sunday to savor this time around.

“All those numbers, they can only get better. They’re not getting worse,” Brecht said. “When the four Big Ten teams in the tournament play on Thursday and Saturday, our RPI and strength of schedule are only going to tick up.”

Tar Heels’ last-second surge

North Carolina upended Syracuse and Notre Dame in the ACC tournament, a season-saving feat that all but ensures the defending national champions will return to the postseason this month.

The Tar Heels (8-7) were more competitive in April than earlier in the season, leading Duke, Syracuse and Notre Dame in the fourth quarter before falling to all of them. Coach Joe Breschi saw an increased commitment to individual improvement after a blistering March 25 loss to Maryland.

In Breschi’s mind, the root of Carolina’s early headaches were threefold.

“A complacency —‘Hey, we’ve already done that and been there’ — might have had a little to do with it,” Breschi said. “There’s the fact our target was a little bigger. Everybody gets excited to play the national champs. So the target’s bigger, there’s a bit of complacency and we had some younger guys in key roles. We were inconsistent.”

The emergence of freshman midfielders to stabilize that unit have helped. Tanner Cook has eight goals and two assists in the last five games. William Perry had two goals and an assist in the ACC title game against Notre Dame. Justin Anderson has scored in four of the last five games.

There’s also progress at the defensive end, where the Tar Heels held Syracuse to four goals in the first half on Friday and then stymied Notre Dame for much of the day. They also got a lift from goalie Brian Balkam, who was yanked in the fourth quarter against Syracuse but made eight saves in the first half against Notre Dame.

“We met Saturday as a team before we did treatment and stretching, and I said in front of everyone that Brian Balkam is our man,” Breschi said. “Like any time if a guy struggles or has a tough time, the next guy has to be ready. But make no mistake, Brian Balkam is our guy.”

Vikings’ D-I breakthrough

Cleveland State capped its first year of lacrosse with a performance that could provide a lift well into the offseason.

The Vikings (5-9) earned their first victory over a Division I team on Saturday, thumping Detroit 13-6 behind three goals apiece from freshmen Stephen Masi and Nick Wendel and freshman goalie Caleb Espinoza’s 13 saves.

“The kids stayed committed and stayed true to their purpose and why they wanted to be here throughout,” coach Dylan Sheridan said. “To me, that was going to be a challenge given of schedule. I knew it would be difficult to come up with wins. They never lost their focus or commitment level, and they were able to get the payoff at the end.”

Cleveland State played as an independent, winning its four games against non-Division I competition. Ultimately, fielding a roster of almost entirely freshmen meant this year was about creating a sustainable foundation for the program.

The Vikings’ biggest long-term priority, finding a conference and gaining access to the NCAA tournament, is obvious enough. But they have some intrigue as a team in a growing lacrosse market. Cleveland State sold out its first four home games, engaging with the Ohio City Lacrosse Initiative and the Urban Community School to generate local enthusiasm for the program.

Sheridan said the Vikings will again face Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State and participate in the Pioneer Classic at Denver next season. A visit from Duke is another highlight in 2018 as Cleveland State continues its growth.

“The potential here is limitless in terms of dedicating time and effort,” Sheridan said. “There was so much we had to work on. Now, our kids know what the expectations are.”

Terps back on schedule

Maryland didn’t need much time to remove any drama from its rivalry rout of Johns Hopkins on Saturday, scoring the first eight goals in a 12-5 triumph.

It was as energized as the Terrapins (10-3) have looked since an April 8 defeat of Penn State, and for good reason. That game was the beginning of a stretch of three games in nine days, with visits to Albany and Rutgers following. Maryland won both of those, the latter in triple overtime, but then fell by a goal at Ohio State on a shortened week without attackman Colin Heacock.

“We’ve been just kind of managing,” coach John Tillman said. “I felt like we’ve been a little lethargic, and this week we went hard for two hours every day. The kids loved it, it was upbeat and competitive but it really got us playing at a faster pace.”

Maryland has another abbreviated week as it heads into the Big Ten tournament, but so do the other three teams in the event. The Terps tightened up plenty against Hopkins, looking a step faster than the Blue Jays throughout the first half.

One area remains a concern: Faceoffs, where the Terps are just 35 of 101 (34.7 percent) over their last four games.

“If we don’t keep working at that, this will just be kind of a short-term success,” Tillman said.

First-timers on deck?

This week’s conference tournaments feature six programs in the hunt for the first NCAA bid in their respective histories.

The best bet of the bunch is probably Metro Atlantic regular season champion Monmouth (12-3), which owns a nine-game winning streak and went undefeated in league play. The Hawks are in their fourth season and will open the MAAC tournament against Detroit.

Both the Northeast (Robert Morris and Sacred Heart) and Southern (Furman and Jacksonville) feature a pair of teams seeking their NCAA trip, while Binghamton will attempt to earn its first NCAA invitation in this week’s America East tournament.

Familiar foes

It’s a rite of early May: Drexel and Towson meeting in the semifinals of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament.

Thursday will mark the fifth consecutive season the teams will play on the opening day of their conference tournament. Not only that, but the winner in each of the last four years --- Towson in 2012, 2015 and 2016, Drexel in 2014 --- went on to earn the CAA’s automatic bid.