The NCAA Lacrosse Tournament Is Set And The Selection Committee Opted For Pure Chaos
I know this phrase gets thrown around out there too much and it's probably been dead since 2011. But what a time to be alive.
The year is 2022. The NCAA Lacrosse Tournament is set. It features an undefeated Maryland team with the 1-seed. 6 (SIX!!!!!) teams from the Ivy League, with 5 of those teams hosting a 1st round game as a top 8 seed. 3 teams from the Big Ten. A bunch of teams that won their conference tournament. And then we get to the ACC. The granddaddy of all college lacrosse conferences. Virginia. Duke. Syracuse. UNC. Notre Dame. Lacrosse in May is synonymous with all those schools. So how many of them got into the tourney?
3? 4? 5?
Just one. The 2x defending National Champion Virginia Cavaliers. And they have to go on the road to Brown in the first round. The same Brown University that Virginia head coach Lars Tiffany left after bringing Brown to the Final Four in 2016.
Now here's the thing. It was a down year in the ACC. Syracuse was terrible. North Carolina was just Chris Gray and 8 other guys trying to stay afloat this season. Duke lost to Jacksonville and Loyola. So for the first time ever, playing an in-conference schedule in the ACC didn't really boost your resume when it came time for the tournament selection. But just how in the fuck do you get 6 Ivy League teams in and then leave Notre Dame, who just went on a 6-game win streak to close out the year as ACC Co-Champions, at home?
Rutgers played 2 games against Maryland this year and got spanked by a combined 18 goals, yet they're the 6th best team in the nation according to the selection committee? And then Ohio State, who lost twice to that Rutgers team this year, gets invited to the dance as well? I mean yeah, Ohio State beat Notre Dame head-to-head in March but still. You have 3 teams from the Big Ten in the tournament with Rutgers and Ohio State losing to Maryland by a combined 25 goals in 3 games. And only one ACC team. It's shocking. It's wild. It's downright lunacy. But again, the selection committee don't give a shit.
So last night we recorded immediately after the selection show wrapped up to give our reactions to an astonishing tournament reveal, as well as give out our final four predictions. The least you can do for Doogs right now is give it a listen, a subscribe, a comment and a nice little rating. The biggest Notre Dame lacrosse fan you'll ever know can use the positive vibes right now.
Listen to S5E15 of The Crease Dive here on Apple
Listen to S5E15 of The Crease Dive here on Spotify
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