This Week In College Lacrosse: Tar Heels Comin' , Albany Comin' , Maryland Here To Stay And More

Another great week of college lacrosse as we can count the weeks until the NCAA tournament on one hand. Every bubble team is scrambling to make their case for an at-large bid and gearing up for the conference tournaments, as the powers try to keep the momentum of the season going without tipping their hand too much to the other favorites with their eyes on the hardware. Here’s what I made out of all of it:

North Carolina has looked increasingly dangerous the past few weeks, especially the offense, and now has the full attention of the lacrosse universe after a stunning comeback against #1 Notre Dame. UNC is capable of scoring in bunches and obviously with Breschi’s insane recruiting chops, has as much pound-for-pound raw talent on their team as anyone in the country. But it should be noted that–

Wait. I need everyone to quickly go open their freezer doors, blast their air conditioning, and splash some cold water on their face for the sizzling hot take I’m about to blast at you

Ready?

Ok here we go —

But it should be noted that with North Carolina’s stunning level of underachievement in the tournament for the past, oh two decades, that every Tar Heel team is guilty until proven innocent in the tournament. It’s just the fact. The furthest North Carolina has gotten in the tournament since their 1993 National Championship appearance has been the second round. Joe Breschi teams building hype in the regular season only for a massive playoff letdown has been something you could set your watch to your entire tenure. I wouldn’t be shocked if the Tar Heels were able to beat Syracuse, rip off a few wins in the ACC tournament, and get an at-large bid. I would be shocked, however, if they did anything meaningful with it. But hey, Villanova basketball won it all a few months ago, the Washington Capitals look great in the Stanley Cup Playoffs right now, and the Mets made the World Series last October, so maybe this is the year all traditional playoff losers turn it around this year.

*Remembers the Minnesota Vikings missed field goal against the Seahawks*

Ok maybe not all of them.

Albany’s win against an excellent Yale squad proved that even in the post-Thompson era, the Danes are here to stay. Connor Fields is the best player that people don’t talk about nearly enough, we’ve seen Blaze Rierdon capable of riding the type of hot hand that you need your goalie to be able to if you want to have a deep tournament run, and the team has the sort of loose, affable chemistry that makes you belive the moment won’t get too big for them when tens of thousands of people are screaming at them on a sweltering Philadelphia field in the fourth quarter. And as for the losing team, the Bulldogs, I find people saying they aren’t worthy of playoff berth to be ridiculous. Yes, their strength of schedule isn’t great and blowing two close games in a row isn’t the best look for them, I think even they would admit that. But if they win out the rest of their schedule and make it to the Ivy League championdship, which they should and I believe they will, they have proven to have the offensive firepower to steal tournament games. I think I speak for all lacrosse fans when I say I’d rather see the new kids on the block in New Haven try to prove themselves by outscoring everybody than the old boys club of the selection committee talk themselves into a Johns Hopkins team with zero great wins this season or god forbid fucking Duke. Speaking of…

A respectful moment of silence and a mournful song for the bit of hope ESPNU was holding that Marquette would be a playoff team and the patented GROWTH OF THE GAME segment they were going to do about how great the Eagles were for the sport of lacrosse in the Midwest.

Thank you.

Dylan Molloy will break Lyle Thompson’s season points record and deserves to be remembered forever for his legendary season, but Lyle Thompson is still better because Lyle Thompson is the greatest college lacrosse player of all-time. That is the end of my take and I hope you enjoyed it.

All year I have said Denver and Notre Dame are the two teams to beat in the tournament this year, but Maryland is making a strong case to be included in that group. Traditionally, Maryland is the anti-UNC, solid yet not spectacular regular seasons followed by being absolute fucking killers in the postseason. The fact Tillman has had to have his heart broken in Championship Weekend as many years as he has without getting the hardware is the biggest shame in the sport going right now, and it is my firm belief he and the lacrosse-mad state of Maryland deserve one soon. Maryland’s strength is in their balance, and I still feel there’s an insane run of dominance somewhere in Matt Rambo that he hasn’t fully shown us but is dying to show itself before his career is all said and done. Also, much like how all salmon must swim upstream to spawn, or all bears must hibernate for the winter, Maryland must have an attackman with luscious hair, incredible swagger, and fantastic hands who trots around the field doing nothing but scoring goals. I think all Terp alumni would be proud that mantle has been taken up by Colin Heacock, who might be the most Maryland Attackmen in the history of Maryland Attackmen. I might give out this award annually to one Maryland Attackmen who deserves it most and call it the Grant Catalino Award.

That’s it for me. But before I go, the people at LaxSportsNetwork.com were nice enough to have me on their live studio show last Friday, and they posted 8 minutes of the segment onto Youtube. I embedded it below. Also follow me on Twitter @CharlieWisco . Go Rams, Beat Darien.