Remember last year when it looked like the old regime of NCAA Lacrosse was beginning to crack and all that new blood was starting to seep through? Teams like Ohio State and Denver made the tournament, other middling programs were making the leap and we were on the road to making NCAA Lacrosse a true national sport?
Yeah...not so much. Check out the latest Bracketology for this year's tournament and you'll see some extremely familiar faces up top. #1 Virginia, #2 Princeton, #3 Syracuse and #4 Johns Hopkins. Ohio State and Denver? Probably not even going to make the tournament this year. The only one of the Old Guard Five to not be among the top seeds, Maryland, is still looking at an at-large bid as well. It's business as usual in NCAA lacrosse, not that it's a terrible thing, but...you know.
By the way, LOVE that Hopkins is a 4-seed with a 5-4 record while Notre Dame is 10-0 and looking at a 7-seed. Yes, Hopkins schedule is tougher than Notre Dame's but still, that's a little TOO weighted towards SOS. At the end of the day, neither team has beaten a Top Five team and Hopkins has only one more Top Ten win than ND. In you're comparing wins against Top 20 programs, they're tied. Lame, people-who-decide-NCAA-lacrosse-polls, lame.
As for the #3 Orange, they're getting ready for tomorrow night's match-up with #20 Albany. The Danes are 6-4 and on the outside looking in of the NCAA Tourney. A win tomorrow night will go a long way for them. The Orange can do something special as well with a win:
The Orange can pick up its 10th win of the 2009 campaign Friday against Albany. Should Syracuse emerge victorious it would mark the 41st time in school history the Orange has posted double-digit victories in a season. Syracuse has won at least 10 games in eight of head coach John Desko’s first 10 seasons and 19 of the last 21 years dating back to the 1988 national championship season.
The Orange are 6-0 all-time against Albany.