Interesting schedule from UNC to say the least. As noted by NYC seems like a definite change up from their previous schedules with more lower level teams. They do play Hop, Princeton, Penn and Army but it does feel like they are missing another upper tier type of game. The Wagner, Hofstra and SB games being away is clearly a recruiting tool with so many LI and NY guys on the UNC roster but man is that a bizarre stretch especially playing Mercer and Fairfield to start the year and then seeing High Point in late March. Both UNC and Rutgers would have been better off agreeing to play this year as both really seem to need another marquee type of matchup.
That stretch against the three Long Island based teams is very weird. Are they just going to stay up there the entire time? Is that Spring Break? I don't fully get it. They do get all of their difficult games at home, outside of conference games against Notre Dame and Virginia.
As a Syracuse fan, shouldn't be criticizing another teams home and away split, but UNC seems to have a ton of home games each year. In '22 10 of their 14 games were home. They must be just slightly behind SU in terms of home games.
Terps also have the B10 tournament, so 1 or 2 more games before NCAAsMaryland Schedule
2/3 at Richmond
2/10 Loyola
2/17 at Syracuse
2/24 Princeton
3/3 at Notre Dame
3/9 Brown
3/16 Virginia
3/23 at Michigan
3/31 at Penn State
4/6 Ohio State
4/13 Rutgers
4/20 at Johns Hopkins
Only 12 games and zero breathers.
This seems like an incredibly weak schedule for a team with Duke's talent. Having zero Big 10 teams is a bad look.
NC is a horrible place for the tournament the women’s Tournament last year and the NCAA tournament were dress like an empty seat days. Meanwhile the year before when the women’s NCAA tournament was at Hopkins it was sold out
Extremely weak, wow.
More ways to approach a schedule than the MD and Hop method. They are probably confident they can win out or close to it with their out of conference matchups. Maybe they will regret not having one more difficult OOC opponent after the inevitable February Duke loss. Just looked at their old schedules and Duke has lost to a non-tourney team in February 5 of the last 6 seasons! It is the most true stereotype in the sport. But even then it is hard to see this team losing enough games to be stressing during the tourney selection. Not many total cupcakes on there besides Bellarmine and Providence.
Only reason for more of a challenge would be if they see that as a way of getting the team into a high gear come tournament time. As far as making the tournament and getting a high seed, I see no reason for concern if you are a Duke fan. Basically the same schedule as last season and they had no trouble at all even with the Jacksonville loss. Also for whatever reason they never play a big 10 team in the regular season. Like ever. With the conference as quality as it is now, a full ACC schedule plus ACC tourney is more than enough to get a team into gear for the playoffs, and get a playoff worthy resume.They do play Penn, Princeton, Loyola and Denver but no B10 teams, G-town or Yale (Cornell's schedule is already loaded) or even Hop is a red flag to me. Dukes a deep team with an S ton of seniors and 5th years, they should be playing a little more of a challenge OOC. Even a match up with Rutty would have made more sense then Boston late in the year or Providence.
rutgers was 1 and 4 in conference last year and i'm not sure they'll fare better this year. and may not get a win or 2 ooc that they did in 2023.They do play Penn, Princeton, Loyola and Denver but no B10 teams, G-town or Yale (Cornell's schedule is already loaded) or even Hop is a red flag to me. Dukes a deep team with an S ton of seniors and 5th years, they should be playing a little more of a challenge OOC. Even a match up with Rutty would have made more sense then Boston late in the year or Providence.
Only reason for more of a challenge would be if they see that as a way of getting the team into a high gear come tournament time. As far as making the tournament and getting a high seed, I see no reason for concern if you are a Duke fan. Basically the same schedule as last season and they had no trouble at all even with the Jacksonville loss. Also for whatever reason they never play a big 10 team in the regular season. Like ever. With the conference as quality as it is now, a full ACC schedule plus ACC tourney is more than enough to get a team into gear for the playoffs, and get a playoff worthy resume.
rutgers was 1 and 4 in conference last year and i'm not sure they'll fare better this year. and may not get a win or 2 ooc that they did in 2023.
boston's been running the patriot the last couple years as much as anyone. they lose at least their goalie and best ssdm and 1 top scorer, but bring back largely everyone else, all the poles, in a very experienced roster. including the 1st team lsm (not easy to do being from bu). if they have a goalie, they'll be a very tough out.
It comes down to how you think you will do in ACC play I guess. I think we need some of those tougher games since we may not fare well in the UVA ND and Duke matchups this year. With our OOC we have more ways to get there than just beating one of those teams. We can go 0-3 in that stretch and still have a shot if we beat UNC and win at least a couple of Hop MD Cornell Army. If we knock off one of those three top ACC teams we can afford some losses against those other top OOC teams.I don' think there's any reason for Concern if your a Duke fan (not sure where that came from) but in O'Neil's final season with a team loaded with 5th years you would think Duke would play a much more commanding schedule at least in the OOC. Duke's not gonna lose many games with that roster but it's hard to sit here and say teams need to really schedule well OOC including ourselves and then give Duke a pass when they have no elite tams OOC save for maybe a young Princeton team or maybe Penn. Why bother scheduling Maryland or Cornell if your Syracuse in the future, just play Jaxville and St. Joes