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Polls.
The good people at Inside Lacrosse, Lacrosse Magazine and USILA released their polls yesterday. If you missed it, our man, @Doc_Lunchbox, dropped his weekly polls post on Monday as well. Here is mine:
I welcome judgement. pic.twitter.com/uM97z8p9NY
— blank (@Eri_Barrister) February 28, 2016
Aggregation coming up shortly.
Bragging Rights.
- ACC. Except for UVA's loss to High Point on February 23rd, the conference swept its other games last week. Notre Dame and Syracuse stay unbeaten, while UVA and North Carolina handled Penn and Hopkins, respectively. Additionally, Duke had a great game against Jacksonville on Saturday and then turned around and throttled Mercer last night. The ACC had a really strong week and remains the best conference in D1 in 2016.
- RUTGERS! The 3-0 Scarlet Knights are off to a great start. After dispatching a tough Fairfield quad, Rutgers found itself in the top 20 of all three major polls.
- Yale and Brown. While it was an up and down weekend for the conference as a whole, the two preseason favorites are still undefeated after taking care of two quality opponents on Saturday. The Elis defended New Haven well in a revenge game against the Terps, while Brown took its powerful offense on the road and beat a very hungry Stony Book team in NY.
- Overtime Lacrosse. Saturday had several thrilling OT games. Colgate stunned Bucknell in an early Patriot League battle. The Pride protected the Island against a determined Princeton team. Additionally, both Boston U and Harvard were able to gut out major wins against Navy and UMass, respectively.
- Villanova. Wow. I had faith that the Cats were good, I just didn't know they were 19-9 winners over Penn State in State College sort of good. Stand up, Mr. (Jake) Froccaro!
Back Then.
Here is what my Top 20 looked like on February 22nd and how it looks today. Bolded teams won this past weekend, while italicized teams lost. UVA
Rank | February 22, 2016 | March 1, 2016 |
1 | Denver | Denver |
2 | Notre Dame | Notre Dame |
3 | Maryland | Syracuse |
4 | Syracuse | Loyola |
5 | Loyola | Yale |
6 | Duke | Duke |
7 | Yale | Brown |
8 | Brown | Marylnd |
9 | Johns Hopkins | Towson |
10 | Towson | North Carolina |
11 | North Carolina | Hofstra |
12 | Navy | Johns Hopkins |
13 | Georgetown | Albany |
14 | UVA | Ohio State |
15 | Penn State | Harvard |
16 | Albany | Boston U. |
17 | Ohio State | Rutgers |
18 | Stony Brook | Villanova |
19 | Bucknell | Georgetown |
20 | Hofstra | Stony Brook |
Quick Hot Takes
- Dropped out. Navy, Penn State, UVA, and Bucknell didn't make the cut this week. It wasn't so much punishing those teams, as it was that other teams merited attention. If there is an Eri Doctrine it's that I try to reward winning. Nevertheless, this is more "see you soon" than "goodbye forever," as all the recently departed have opportunities to climb back on the guest list this week. However, for right now they had to make way and let others have their week in the sun.
- Hold on, don't go just yet. I thought Georgetown and Stony Brook earned the right to stay another week. I am not going to fault Georgetown too much for playing tough early games on the road. However, it doesn't get any easier for the Hoyas as they travel to Hofstra this weekend after playing Mount St. Mary's today.
I didn't think losing to Brown by 2 points was a reason to drop Stony Brook out of the top 20. I know the Eri Doctrine says reward winning, but Section 2 says,its my list so let 'em hateblogger prerogative can overrule Section 1. I think the Seawolves are good and not having seen Marquette play yet helped to give the edge to Stony Brook this week.
Stuff I want to talk to Ryan about tonight.
- Towson. Are the Tigers underrated?
- Harvard's OT winners and is Yale the 3rd best team in D1?
- RRRRUUUUTTTTGGGGEEEERRRRSSSSSS!!
- The Patriot League. With 9 teams in the conference and an earlier start to their conference schedule will the Patriot League cannibalize itself out of multiple at-large bids?
#PatriotLeagueLacrosse2016 pic.twitter.com/POpqaXl8lU
— blank (@Eri_Barrister) February 27, 2016