This Week In College Lacrosse: Duke Sucks, Ivy League Intrigue, and More
Long-time readers of Barstool may have noticed that the past two years there’s been an annual preview post for the NCAA Lacrosse tournament the week before it starts. Because this has been one of the craziest and most unpredictable years in recent memory, I thought lax fans might appreciate the coverage to start coming a little early this to give the tournament the proper hype it deserves. I’ll try to do a weekly recap blog every Monday and Tuesday for the rest of the season summarizing what happened the previous weekend and previewing the week ahead, so the population of Stoolies who love lacrosse can be properly equipped to make some cash come tournament time (online books started taking action on the tournament last year). And to the people who don’t like lacrosse and complain about there being lacrosse blogs on Barstool, I hope the person who is imprisoning you, ties you a chair and forces you to read them is someday apprehended and brought to justice. Onto the blog.
Five Thoughts On The Past And Upcoming Week
This is the worst Duke team of the Danowski era and by far the most disappointing team of the season. Another sputtering offensive performance in the second half against Notre Dame dropped them to 7-6, and nothing short winning out the rest of the season and a strong performance in the ACC tournament will give the Blue Devils anything even close to an argument that they’re deserving of an NCAA tournament appearance. You can point to a number of problems for Duke’s disappointing season, but they all have the same root cause: lack of depth. Basically, Duke basically needs some combination of Myles Jones, Deemer Class, or Justin Guterding to be Superman to give them a shot against any quality team, and sometimes even that isn’t enough. And while you can’t blame Jones for Duke missing the tournament for the first time since the forfeited season, you can’t give the Tewaaraton to a player who doesn’t play in the postseason. That should be obvious but for some reason any criticism of Myles seems to be punishable by death in Lacrosse Twitter and media, so I still think it needs to be said.
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-Brown-Yale this weekend should be the second most telling game of the year after only Denver-Notre Dame. Brown dropping a game last week against Bryant was head-scratching, but they’re still the most dangerous team in the Ivy League: When their offense gets humming, it’s second only to Denver in the ability to score in bunches and deliver a death knell to reeling defenses. Yale’s defense is the more fundamentally sound of the two teams contrary to what their goal total stats might suggest, but goalie Phil Huffard can suffer huge bouts of inconsistency. Both teams should and do have championship aspirations for this year, but both are decidedly not battle tested. Whether they’re serious contenders or paper tigers better suited to running the score up on inferior squads can be better told after this week.
– Speaking of the Ivy League, it was time for Chris Bates to leave Princeton and I’m glad that ugly marriage is mercifully over. Since winning the conference four years ago, the Tigers have been dragging their feet relative to what their program expectations are, and a mental collapse or two on the field this year just made obvious what so many people knew, that it was time for a change for everybody involved. There are a lot of reasons beyond Chris Bates why Princeton doesn’t look like the old Princeton and probably never will, and they all stem from the fact that the current university administration doesn’t really give a shit about sports (less leniency getting guys with double-digit IQs from Long Island past admissions, alumni donations can’t be earmarked for a specific sport anymore, that sort of thing). And there’s a reason why the smartest guy in lacrosse, Bill Tierney, got out when he did. Princeton might never be PRINCETON again, but they can do better than slightly above .500. Best of luck to Bates.
– Navy v. Army figures to be one of the most entertaining games of the weekend: Two teams with legitimate playoff hopes who by the way happen to have perhaps the greatest rivalry in college sports. The only thing that sucks is that Army doesn’t play Air Force this year, who is also a Top 20 team. Brilliant idea alert: Have the three service academies play an annual weekend long Beanpot-esque tournament, with VMI as the fourth team in the role of ceremonial whipping boy. Name the trophy something cool like the Lieutenant General’s Cup, sell tickets, beer, custom camo merchandise, and donate the proceeds to a worthy military-related cause. If any of you are in event marketing and want to hire me, I can be bought for the right price.
-As of right now, it’s looking likely to be the third year of the past five where a non-traditional power will win the national championship. Maryland has the best chance of any team that’d be considered a historical powerhouse, but they’re a team that is desperate for a statement win. North Carolina looks increasingly dangerous, by the week but they’ll probably lose in the first weekend of the tournament in accordance to United States federal law. Syracuse could be dangerous, mostly because they have Dylan Donahue in his 9th year of his college lacrosse career and Syracuse only wins the tournament years when they aren’t supposed to, but I’m not ready to trust them late in games. If one of those teams don’t win it, then we’ll have another non-blue blood be crowned this year and be treated to more articles about the GROWTH OF THE GAME and announcers going WELL YA KNOW QUINT IT’S REALLY JUST SO GREAT FOR THE SPORT OF LACROSSE, because remember, nothing in lacrosse can ever be enjoyed without some reflection from some media member about what it MEANS for the BIG PICTURE of THE GAME.
Follow me on Twitter if you’re into lacrosse tweets and such @CharlieWisco . You can also follow my colleague and Barstool brother-in-arms @BarstoolJordie for additional coverage. Until next week.