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Message: [QUOTE="OrangeXtreme, post: 1784758, member: 41"] [B][URL="http://laxmagazine.com/college_men/DI/2015-16/news/060916_early_2017_rankings_md1_no_10-6"]Early 2017 Rankings: Nos. 10-6 (MD1)[/URL][/B] [B] [/B] [I][B]No. 10 ALBANY[/B] 2016 record: 12-4 (6-0 America East) Last seen: Dropping back-to-back tournament games, falling to Hartford in a conference tournament shocker before being overtaken by Syracuse in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Senior starts lost: 46 of 160 (28.8 percent) Senior scoring departing: 49 of 341 points (14.4 percent) Initial forecast: This much seems certain --- the Great Danes will score, they'll be fun to watch and they'll probably be the class of the America East so long as they don't get demolished at the faceoff X. In other words, just a normal year for Scott Marr's team. In its four losses, Albany won just 31.8 percent of its draws (27 of 85); the rest of the time, it was a perfectly solid 54.5 percent. The Great Danes will return plenty of knowns on offense, from Connor Fields to Seth Oakes to Justin Reh, and a close defense that shaved a few points off its opponents' shooting percentage returns intact. The underrated John Maloney graduates, leaving Albany without its best midfielder, and there will be a big hole in the cage with third team All-America pick Blaze Riorden's departure. Yet things went quite well in the first year post-Lyle Thompson, and Albany is a candidate to do even more damage next year. If the Great Danes can find steady goalie play, they'll be a final four sleeper in 2017. [B]No. 9 DUKE[/B] 2016 record: 11-8 (2-2 Atlantic Coast) Last seen: Getting steamrolled at Loyola on the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, the Blue Devils' second consecutive exit after a decade as a Memorial Day weekend regular Senior starts lost: 91 of 190 (47.9 percent) Senior scoring departing: 240 of 408 points (58.8 percent) Initial forecast: Not to put too fine a point on it, but what exactly are the Blue Devils going to do in the midfield next year? No one rode their first midfield harder than Duke this spring, and the presence of seniors Deemer Class and Myles Jones had plenty to do with that ongoing decision. So, too, did the lack of developed options behind them, and the Blue Devils will need an accelerated learning curve from some younger offensive options if Jack Bruckner and Justin Guterding are going to receive much help. Brad Smith was solid on Duke's seldom-used second midfield line, but it's telling that faceoff man Kyle Rowe (two goals, two assists) will be the Blue Devils' fourth-leading returning scorer. There's also the matter of the defense, which showed some improvement in the final month of the regular season only to get torched at Loyola in the tournament. With the offense likely needing some time to establish an identity, Duke might ask more of its defense in 2017 than at any point in John Danowski's tenure in Durham. It needs to be up to the task.[/I] [I][B]No. 7 SYRACUSE[/B] 2016 record: 12-5 (2-2 Atlantic Coast) Last seen: Taking every easy-to-stop outside look it could while getting carved up on the defensive end in a 13-7 quarterfinal loss to Maryland, leaving the Orange at home during Memorial Day weekend for the sixth time in seven years. Senior starts lost: 91 of 170 (53.5 percent) Senior scoring departing: 133 of 331 points (40.2 percent) Initial forecast: Syracuse lost three overtime games, but also got run out of the Carrier Dome by Notre Dame. It wasn't particularly effective against Maryland, but it joined 2011 Duke as the only teams to claim two victories against the eventual NCAA tournament champions (those Blue Devils were also, coincidentally, bounced from the postseason by Maryland). It started the season with questions about offense, but it was the defense that was last to come around. In short, the Orange just went through quite the zigzagging season. It's hard enough to make sense of it, let alone try to figure what's to come next year. Expect the usual cutthroat, Darwinian competition for playing time on offense, where midfielders Nick Mariano and Sergio Salcido will head into the season as the biggest and most capable knowns. But as has been the case the last three years, can Syracuse do enough to stop good teams? The Orange's defense played better in front of goalie Evan Molloy than Warren Hill, though Molloy did more than his share to help, too. If the Orange solve that end of the field, they'll contend for a title. And if they don't --- and they really haven't for a while, now --- the quarterfinals could again prove to be the ceiling.[/I] [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?