Lacrosse Fun Factors: April 9 and 10, 2011

It's a big, big weekend around the world of big time college lacrosse. And it's just not a big weekend because big teams are going big against each other in big games.

Big.

We're square in the middle of conference play and the schedule features some huge intraconference games with mega implications.  In the Patriot League, Bucknell (currently undefeated in the conference) heads to West Point to face a pissed-off Army squad that suffered its first league loss last week to Colgate.  The Cadets need the win to get themselves into a positive tie-breaker situation; the Bison are looking to keep its unblemished record, well, unblemished.

The Big Red, led by the nation's most valuable offensive player, ride east to Cambridge for a battle against Harvard.  Cornell is currently unbeaten in the Ivy and if the Crimson upset them, they'd likely be tied with Pennsylvania (a team it holds a tie-breaker against) atop the league.  Mega implications there, especially when you consider that a potentially 1-2 Harvard team would still need to play the Quakers and Yale this season.

North Carolina-Virginia has all the hype and it should hopefully deliver.  The most interesting game involving an ACC team this weekend, though, is probably Denver-Duke happening on Long Island (huh?). Just how good are the Pioneers?  We'll find out.

With respect to some games that just missed the cut:

• Dartmouth at Yale: 4.1973 (7th).  Every Ivy League game is important as the loser has to consume the winner's wine and cheese platter that has been sitting out since before the opening face-off.
• Delaware at Villanova: 4.0724 (9th).  There aren't too many teams that are hotter than the Blue Hens right now.  It'll be fun to see if their hectic style can fluster the Wildcats.

Let's go ahead and rank 'em for the weekend:

What's your feeling on the games this weekend?  Looking forward to anything else?  Leave 'em in the comments below.