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Message: [QUOTE="Zack80, post: 5142274, member: 1245"] Not a very good analogy. Maryland had been won the title in 2022 and had been undefeated, while Duke lost before the final four. In Inside Lacrosse's final media poll Duke finished #6. [Preseason predictors often give the previous year's champion a fair amount of slack.] Maryland in 2023 returned 5 All-Americans: Long, Makar, Zappitello, Wierman, and McNaney. Duke only returns 2: McAdorey and Aiden Maguire (ssdm). Besides Long, Maryland had a large group of nice offensive players appearing to be waiting their turn in 2022: Maltz, Brennan, Murphy, Malever, J.Koras, Kelly, and Spanos. I think you would have been better to just state your rationale. Something to the effect of: "There is a group of teams: Maryland,, Virginia, Notre Dame and Duke, that are regularly near the top, and along with their not feeling that strongly about teams ranked lower than 7, they gave Duke the benefit of the doubt." [/QUOTE]