2019 IL Face-Off Yearbook: Men's DI Top 25 | Syracusefan.com

2019 IL Face-Off Yearbook: Men's DI Top 25

OrangeXtreme

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11. Syracuse
The Orange went 8-7 with a really young group in 2018. Sophomore middies Tucker Dordevic, Brendan Curry, David Lipka and Dami Oladunmoye represent the future’s arriving, and junior middie Jamie Trimboli has star potential.
 
Hoping we finish better than 11 (obviously).

I’m stuck in the last 2 decades. I expect FF’s. Got to let go of that expectation.
 
Face-off's Top 12:
#1 Yale
#2 Duke
#3 Maryland
#4 Loyola
#5 Cornell
#6 Notre Dame
#7 Denver
#8 Virginia
#9 Hopkins
#10 PSU
#11 Syracuse
#12 Rutgers
with UNC at #16

slideshow:
2019 Face-Off Yearbook: Men's DI Top 25

I think I would put Duke at #1. Adding a top Face-off man is good for Yale, but does he replace Reeves?
Nice to see the Terps at #3, but the Terps have a lot of holes to fill. Perhaps partially respect for what Tillman has done recently.
Similarly, Virginia would appear to have more talent then Denver, but Tiffany vs Tierney. A little bit of "show me" first for the Wahoos.
 
Face-off's Top 12:
#1 Yale
#2 Duke
#3 Maryland
#4 Loyola
#5 Cornell
#6 Notre Dame
#7 Denver
#8 Virginia
#9 Hopkins
#10 PSU
#11 Syracuse
#12 Rutgers
with UNC at #16

slideshow:
2019 Face-Off Yearbook: Men's DI Top 25

I think I would put Duke at #1. Adding a top Face-off man is good for Yale, but does he replace Reeves?
Nice to see the Terps at #3, but the Terps have a lot of holes to fill. Perhaps partially respect for what Tillman has done recently.
Similarly, Virginia would appear to have more talent then Denver, but Tiffany vs Tierney. A little bit of "show me" first for the Wahoos.

Maryland seemed to (relatively) struggle with depth last year and that could get worse with the loss of Kelly and Rotanz. Also losing quite a bit on the defensive end according to IL's page on them. Dan Morris was also an absolute beast last year who will tough to replace. I would have them a little lower but not too much since Bubba Fairman was arguably the most promising freshman last year besides Tehoka, and Jared Bernhardt is arguably the best dodging attack in the nation. And as you mentioned Tillman has been absolutely killing it lately. I'd maybe put them at 5 or 6.
 
Hoping we finish better than 11 (obviously).

I’m stuck in the last 2 decades. I expect FF’s. Got to let go of that expectation.

No, you do not. Many younger players gained needed experience last year and team is improving . An appearance at Lincoln Financial Field over the next two years is possible , dates 5/25-27 in 2019 and 5/23-25 in 2020.
 
No, you do not. Many younger players gained needed experience last year and team is improving . An appearance at Lincoln Financial Field over the next two years is possible , dates 5/25-27 in 2019 and 5/23-25 in 2020.

I’ll gladly pick up what you are putting down.
 
These rankings are ... dumb. But only if you actually read them. If you take the UNC blurb at face value, for example, the Heels shouldn’t even be ranked in the top 25. And there are others that are just as poorly written or simply don’t match the ranking.

Maybe it’s just my general disdain for preseason rankings, but there is so little value to these. Let them play a game or two.
 
I have a sneaking suspicion that whoever wrote this thought Dami was an offensive middie and was too lazy to check. Just odd to have him listed with Curry Dordevic and Lipka instead of someone like Lucas Quinn. That would be par for the course for the effort put into these things.
 
Blindfolded and throwing darts at the blackboard with usual suspects. Here are my guesses that will both pain and amuse me come year end.

JHU
Loyola
Cornell
Yale
Duke
Denver
Virginia
Maryland
Notre Dame
Syracuse
Penn State
Lehigh
UNC
Ohio State
Georgetown
Rutgers
Penn
Albany
Princeton
Marquette
Navy
Villanova
Towson
Michigan
Colgate
 
Toss up between Denver at #7, Virginia #8 and Penn State at #10 as most over rated. Denver will rack up a lot of wins because the play a weak schedule, no team has done less with more talent than Virginia, and Penn State has had one meaningful win in the last 4 years.
 
Maryland seemed to (relatively) struggle with depth last year and that could get worse with the loss of Kelly and Rotanz. Also losing quite a bit on the defensive end according to IL's page on them. Dan Morris was also an absolute beast last year who will tough to replace. I would have them a little lower but not too much since Bubba Fairman was arguably the most promising freshman last year besides Tehoka, and Jared Bernhardt is arguably the best dodging attack in the nation. And as you mentioned Tillman has been absolutely killing it lately. I'd maybe put them at 5 or 6.

I don't fully disagree with your putting Maryland at 5 or 6, but I would comment that the teams right behind the Terps at #3 don't look that strong and have their flaws also. Given Tillman's demonstrated ability to fill in holes and get the Terps into the final four, I would say that ranking the Terps at #3 or #4 was reasonable also.

One of the forgotten players at UMd is Logan Wisnauskus. 50 points as a freshman, 2nd best in Terps' history. Better than Joe Walters, Grant Catalino, Matt Rambo, or Connor Cannizzaro did as freshmen. Not as smooth or flashy as Fairman or Bernhardt, but he does get the job done.

The loss of Dan Morris at goalie does leave a question mark there. Given the tendency of defenders to bubble up as they mature, (so that a team normally has a number of seniors playing D), I think the Terps losses on the rest of the defense look sort of typical - one close defenseman, one LSM, and one ssdm. The Terps return starters Welding and Corley at close, a regular LSM Brozowski, and several ssdms who got regular minutes: O'Connell, Puglise and Harrison. The Terps also bring in a top d-recruit in Brett Makar.
 
Toss up between Denver at #7, Virginia #8 and Penn State at #10 as most over rated. Denver will rack up a lot of wins because the play a weak schedule, no team has done less with more talent than Virginia, and Penn State has had one meaningful win in the last 4 years.
I think UVa and PSU are ranked about right. Both return a lot of pretty good players.

PSU beat Hopkins last year, beat OSU in 2017 (NCAA semifinalist), beat Denver in 2016.
 
I don't fully disagree with your putting Maryland at 5 or 6, but I would comment that the teams right behind the Terps at #3 don't look that strong and have their flaws also. Given Tillman's demonstrated ability to fill in holes and get the Terps into the final four, I would say that ranking the Terps at #3 or #4 was reasonable also.

One of the forgotten players at UMd is Logan Wisnauskus. 50 points as a freshman, 2nd best in Terps' history. Better than Joe Walters, Grant Catalino, Matt Rambo, or Connor Cannizzaro did as freshmen. Not as smooth or flashy as Fairman or Bernhardt, but he does get the job done.

The loss of Dan Morris at goalie does leave a question mark there. Given the tendency of defenders to bubble up as they mature, (so that a team normally has a number of seniors playing D), I think the Terps losses on the rest of the defense look sort of typical - one close defenseman, one LSM, and one ssdm. The Terps return starters Welding and Corley at close, a regular LSM Brozowski, and several ssdms who got regular minutes: O'Connell, Puglise and Harrison. The Terps also bring in a top d-recruit in Brett Makar.

From what I saw of Wisnauskus he is a lot more than just an offball finisher around the crease. He had a lethal outside shot and also seemed capable of dodging to score especially against a smaller d pole or shorty. Not a bad passer either. Seeing him last year made me extra mad that Cuse red-shirted him as a freshman. Maybe he would have left anyway, but it seems like a dumb and costly error that they didn't give him some minutes. We will see if either him or Bernhardt can step up as a QB. I think every other team is just relieved that Kelly finally graduated.
 
Toss up between Denver at #7, Virginia #8 and Penn State at #10 as most over rated. Denver will rack up a lot of wins because the play a weak schedule, no team has done less with more talent than Virginia, and Penn State has had one meaningful win in the last 4 years.

Penn State is legit and I would say even better than UVA. They are like UVA in that they have a high powered offense with tons of weapons, but on top of that they also actually have a legit FOGO and goalie, pieces UVA hasn't had in what seems like decades.
 

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