Back in the preseason, the educated guess at a top five included (in order) Duke, Maryland, Denver, Albany and Yale.
With three weeks left in the regular season, the top five features (in order) Albany, Maryland, Duke, Denver and Yale.
Not much difference, huh? But it isn’t right to suggest little has happened this season.
Maryland has remained as steady as anyone, Denver’s Trevor Baptiste and Albany’s TD Ierlan are winning faceoffs at absurd rates, and a who’s who of established and rising stars (Princeton’s Michael Sowers, Albany’s Connor Fields, Cornell’s Jeff Teat, Loyola’s Pat Spencer, Duke’s Justin Guterding, Maryland’s Connor Kelly and Yale’s Ben Reeves) top the points per game list.
Yet none of those things are particularly surprising. Neither is Sure, some data points from single games have raised eyebrows (UMBC over Albany comes to mind), but it doesn’t feel like this season has sorted out much.
Fortunately for everyone, there’s still time — most notably three weekends in May — for that to happen.
Nike/US Lacrosse
Division I Men’s Top 20
April 16, 2018 |
W/L |
Prev |
Next |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Albany | 10-1 | 1 | 4/20 vs. Binghamton |
| 2 | Maryland | 10-1 | 2 | 4/22 vs. Ohio State |
| 3 | Duke | 11-2 | 3 | 4/20 vs. Marquette |
| 4 | Denver | 9-2 | 4 | 4/21 at Providence |
| 5 | Yale | 9-2 | 9 | 4/17 vs. Marist |
| 6 | Loyola | 9-3 | 8 | 4/20 vs. Army |
| 7 | Johns Hopkins | 8-3 | 5 | 4/21 at Michigan |
| 8 | Cornell | 9-3 | 12 | 4/21 vs. Brown |
| 9 | Rutgers | 8-4 | 7 | 4/22 vs. No. 12 Penn State |
| 10 | Syracuse | 7-4 | 6 | 4/21 vs. No. 15 Navy |
| 11 | Bucknell | 10-3 | 11 | 4/20 vs. No. 19 Lehigh |
| 12 | Penn State | 8-4 | 15 | 4/22 at No. 9 Rutgers |
| 13 | Notre Dame | 6-4 | 14 | 4/21 at North Carolina |
| 14 | Virginia | 9-4 | 10 | 4/21 vs. Vermont |
| 15 | Navy | 8-4 | 16 | 4/21 at No. 10 Syracuse |
| 16 | Georgetown | 8-4 | 18 | 4/21 vs. NJIT |
| 17 | Villanova | 8-4 | 13 | 4/21 at St. John's |
| 18 | UMass | 8-4 | 20 | 4/21 at Fairfield |
| 19 | Lehigh | 8-5 | 17 | 4/20 at No. 11 Bucknell |
| 20 | Penn | 6-6 | NR | 4/17 vs. Saint Joseph's |
Also considered (alphabetical order): Harvard, North Carolina, Ohio State, Princeton, Robert Morris, Vermont
Nike/US Lacrosse Rankings
Division I Men | Division I Women
Division II Men | Division II Women
Division III Men | Division III Women
HOT
Yale (+4)
A school-record 27 goals? Yeah, that works. Yale locked up the top seed in the Ivy League tournament with a 27-15 rout of Brown. Since a midweek loss to Bucknell, the Bulldogs have scored 44 goals in two games, or one roughly every 163 seconds. Not bad.
Yale gets three in a row at home (Marist, Albany and Harvard) before heading to New York for the Ivy tournament. The Bulldogs might not take 67 shots (or put 45 on cage) in a game again this season, but Saturday was a hint Yale is perfectly capable of thriving in an up-tempo game, if necessary.
Cornell (+4)
The Big Red ran their winning streak to six games, defeating Syracuse 13-8 in a midweek home game before knocking off Lehigh 12-10 on the road. Cornell’s offense continues to be both effective (double digit scoring in all but two games this season) and efficient; the Big Red shot 25 of 56 on the week.
It’s a little premature to suggest Cornell is locked into the NCAA tournament. But two things are clear enough. One, the victory over the Orange helped a bunch. And two, defeating Brown and Princeton the next two weeks would leave Cornell in fine shape for an at-large bid even with an Ivy League tournament loss so long as there wasn’t much chaos elsewhere.
NOT
Syracuse (-4)
What to do with the Orange, which is 4-0 against the ACC and 3-4 against everyone else this season? It’s a good question, though it’s hardly a vintage year for the ACC outside of Duke. That helps solve the conundrum.
Syracuse still warrants plenty of credit for winning at Duke. But it’s also fallen by four or more goals to Albany, Johns Hopkins, Rutgers and now Cornell, and it needed overtime in the Carrier Dome to turn back a North Carolina bunch that’s now dropped seven in a row. A placement at the bottom of the top 10 is fair for now.
Villanova (-4)
Since an impressive 5-0 start, the Wildcats are 3-4. And with a 4-0 mark in one-goal games (including three overtime triumphs), Villanova isn’t that far away from being a .500 team.
The Wildcats can still tie for second in the Big East regular season with victories over St. John’s and Providence and a reasonable amount of help (Denver beating Marquette). But Saturday’s 13-11 loss at home to Georgetown certainly didn’t help Villanova’s postseason prospects.
Virginia (-4)
Credit to the Cavaliers for nearly climbing out of a six-goal hole against Duke on Saturday. In the end, Duke put together a roughly 10-minute blitz spanning the third and fourth quarters to seal an 18-13 victory, but Virginia showed a fine amount of feistiness.
At the same time, Virginia is 1-4 against the teams slotted above them in this week’s rankings and 7-0 against everyone else. No. 14 is a fair placement, especially given the Cavaliers’ loss last month to a Notre Dame team sitting one spot above them.
IN
Penn
The Quakers are back at .500 and nose their way back into the top 20 with an 11-7 victory over Harvard. It also keeps Penn’s Ivy and NCAA tournament hopes alive, with only Saint Joseph’s and Dartmouth still to come in the regular season.
OUT
Harvard (previously No. 19)
The 7-4 Crimson has dropped three in a row, falling to Albany, Cornell and Penn on the road by an average of 5.3 goals. That’s enough bump Harvard out of the top 20 this week. It faces Princeton on Saturday before a trip to Yale to close the regular season.