Doc_Lunchbox's Diagnosis: Week 2 Media Poll.

The number one things to remember about any rankings is that they are supposed to reflect where a team is at this point in time. There are some teams who people think belong in the top 20, but haven't lived up to the hype as of yet. Well with every team having played at this point we can't just gauge teams on potential anymore. We have to go based on results. Here's where I think the results stack up for week 2.

Some thoughts/reasons behind the rankings:

The Contenders

Denver: As stated previously, the defending champs deserve the benefit of the doubt until another team is more impressive. Beating a potent Duke team in a wild exchange of body blows proves that Denver deserves to remain at number one.

Syracuse: The Orange impressed in a win over a solid Albany team. People may quibble with me slotting the Orange over Notre Dame as this point, but we've got a larger sample from the Orange against both an unranked and a ranked team. For this voter, at this point of the season, Syracuse is more impressive.

Notre Dame: See, it's pointless to complain too much between the top few positions. The Domers beat a very good Georgetown team and were in control for the whole thing. Top 3 isn't anything to shake a stick at.

Maryland: The Terps dropped a few slots for me, although they're still in my top five. In the early going it looked like High Point might be in for an upset before the hardshells ultimately pulled away. Even if the end result was what we would expect, I feel comfortable with this ranking. That stumble early in the game cost the Terps, but it's not a major slide by any means.

Duke: The Blue Devils lose and move up, but I had them at #6 the past two polls. Losing by 2 goals in the fashion that they did to the #1 team (in my opinion) shows that this team remains a contender.

Tier 2

Loyola: The Hounds gutted out a third consecutive win over a talented Hopkins squad. Grant Limone played extremely well, and that offense has skill all over.

Yale: The Elis won handily and there's no reason to drop them at this point.

Brown: Bruno moves up one slot for me. Dylan Molloy continues to be a monster, and the Bears hit for 20 with 13 different goal scorers and 18 players getting on the score sheet.

Hopkins: One end of Charles Street has a sad panda right now, but that was a hard fought game against Loyola. Hop is still a dangerous team, perhaps not as solid of a contender as I originally thought but they still have plenty of time to prove me wrong.

North Carolina: The Heels got smoked by Hofstra, and by smoked I mean completely decimated. They're still in my top 10, but I seriously considered dropping them further. The next three games should tell us a lot more about this UNC team (@Hopkins, Denver, @UMASS).

Major Threats

Georgetown: Even in losing to Notre Dame the Hoyas moved up a slot in my poll. Albany's loss is partly responsible for that, but the boys from D.C. put up quite a fight against Notre Dame. That didn't go unnoticed.

Penn State: I've been cautious with the Nittany Lions thus far, but their close win over Cornell warranted bumping them up in my mind.

Albany: The Scoobies dropped their game to my #2 team, Syracuse. Obviously not the way they want to start the year, but it's not as though the talent isn't there. They're still (one of) the team(s) to beat in the America East.

Navy: It wasn't a pretty win, but it was a win nonetheless. Even so, only allowing 1 goal against Delaware means the Mids aren't dropping anchor in my poll.

Towson: The Mount gave Towson more than I thought they would, but still only 5 goals against is pretty impressive. The Tigers continue to ride their defense, and I'm cool with that.

The Back End

Stony Brook: The Seawolves light the lamp and light it often. I thought they would come out firing and they haven't disappointed thus far. For some reason Canadians have gravitated to Long Island over the years, and the crop on the 2016 roster is pretty, pretty impressive.

Marquette: 17-20 could have gone to any one of about 12-15 teams in my mind. I was high on Marquette coming into the season and they opened their season with a win. I'm not ready to drop them out of the top 20 yet.

Hofstra: The Pride went down to Tobacco Road and made the Heels bite the curb before giving them the jackboot of justice. The CAA is roaring early in this 2016 season.

Princeton: Beating up on NJIT isn't impressive, but how awesome is it to see a Gait in a box score again?!

Bucknell: A lot of different teams could fit in here, but the Bison are undefeated at 3-0 and that gives them the edge right now.

Also considered (in alphabetical order)

Any of these teams could slide into the back end of the poll right now, but as of right now they're on the outside looking in, in my opinion.

Air Force, Cornell, Harvard, Lehigh, Ohio State, Richmond, Rutgers, Villanova, Virginia