Polls (3/7/22): Media #17 / Coaches #18 | Syracusefan.com

Polls (3/7/22): Media #17 / Coaches #18

OrangeXtreme

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Maryland is still No. 1, though it continues to be a small gap between the Terps and defending champion Virginia at No. 2.

That will be decided at least by March 19, when the two teams meet in a national championship rematch at Audi Field in Washington, D.C.


The real intrigue in the poll is elsewhere, though, particularly with the Ivy League. Cornell and Princeton continue to rise after beating previously unbeaten teams this weekend. The Big Red are at No. 4, while the Tigers are at 7. Penn stands pat after holding off Penn State’s upset bid.

Yale slipped a spot to No. 14 after a close encounter with UMass. New to the poll this week is Brown. The Bears are at 4-1, held with North Carolina and put up 22 goals in a win over Providence after close wins vs. Villanova and Vermont.

Utah comes in at No. 18 after beating Jacksonville on Sunday evening. That was the highest-ranked win in program history. The Dolphins slipped back to 15.

Boston U (16) and Michigan (13) are teams that continue to rise and remain undefeated.

Rutgers is at No. 3 after holding off Stony Brook.

Check out the full Top 20 of the Men's DI Media Poll here.

1. Maryland (15)
2. Virginia (7)
3. Rutgers
4. Cornell
5. Penn

17. Syracuse
 
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14: Syracuse (2-3)​

#HHH hit a wall in the fourth quarter against Army, struggling to finish the marathon as a 13-12 lead dissolved into a 17-13 loss. Back-to-back seasons have seen Army celebrate in the Carrier Dome. SU isn’t deep. Were they tired? Sloppy turnovers set the table for the Cadet victory. Owen Seebold was a major bright spot. Jakob Phaup did a terrific job winning face-offs. Appears that SU has two capable goalies in Bobby Gavin and Harrison Thompson.

Zone offense needs work, SU spun their wheels against the Army zone, couldn’t generate easy inside looks and took some savable shots from the perimeter which swung the confidence meter in Army’s favor. Syracuse had just three assisted goals. Defensive turnovers, poor clearing, simple errors, are caused by lack of communication, fatigue and focus. Fatigue makes cowards of us all. Compounding mistakes spun this game out of control.

Syracuse saw their 6-3 lead diminish quickly into a 6-6 tie against Hobart on Sunday afternoon. The Kraus-Simmons Trophy on the line for the 107th time. Penalties hurt the Orange. Tucker Dordevic had four goals in the first half. He and Brendan Curry would combine for ten goals. Jakob Phaup gave SU a significant possession advantage in a Dome 18-16 win that was far from a defensive clinic.

Orange visit Charm City on Sunday at 4pm (ESPNU) to play Hopkins in a big game for both programs that need to be .500 for NCAA inclusion. Paul Carcaterra and I have the call from historic Homewood Field.
 
I think it is sort of interesting comparing Michigan and Rutgers in the mathematical ranking and RPI.

Rutgers (6-0) has played a fair number of decent opponents, including Army, but beaten them by small margins, and thus has a #20 mathematical ranking, which takes into account score margins. On the other hand, having played a number of decent opponents and being 6-0, Rutgers RPI stands at #7 .671, approximately the same as UVa at #6. RPI taking into account only wins and losses and not margin of victory.

Meanwhile, Michigan (7-0) who has played a lot of weak opponents, except for Delaware, but beaten most of them by large margins, has a mathematical ranking at #8. But their RPI which only looks at wins and losses is out at #34 at .510. Beating Delaware actually pushed Michigan above .500 RPI for the season.

Each of these rankings has their flaws, but Rutgers' poor mathematical ranking does tend to support my underlying belief, based on their narrow wins like Stony Brook this past weekend, that they are not anywhere near to being the #3 team. Michigan's poor RPI tends to indicate that they haven't really played anyone much yet.

 
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18. Syracuse I expected Cuse to start 1-3 and, as I’ve written and said multiple times, the Orange's performance vs. Maryland exceeded the expectations I had for them in the preseason (which is why they broke into my Top 20 and have stayed here since).

I expected the Orange to beat Hobart (though the performance on Sunday didn’t inspire a ton of confidence, that, as mentioned above, probably has more to do with how good Hobart is).

Now, Syracuse is 2-3 going into what I think will be their most important game of the year. Dave Pietramala’s return to Homewood Field will be electric for a lot of obvious reasons, but for me, it’ll be a bellwether of the remainder of the Orange’s season. 3-3, on a three-game win streak with Stony Brook, then Duke coming to the Dome and a trip to South Bend on the heels of that? Let’s go.

On the other hand, 2-4, coming off of a disappointing and emotional loss to a not-that-great Hopkins team with Duke and Notre Dame on the horizon?

Those are two very different scenarios to take them into early April.
 
I agree with the coaches poll in the sense that I think Georgetown should be higher than Penn right now. I also think they've still been more impressive than Rutgers based on who they've beaten.
 
I think it is sort of interesting comparing Michigan and Rutgers in the mathematical ranking and RPI.

Rutgers (6-0) has played a fair number of decent opponents, including Army, but beaten them by small margins, and thus has a #20 mathematical ranking, which takes into account score margins. On the other hand, having played a number of decent opponents and being 6-0, Rutgers RPI stands at #7 .671, approximately the same as UVa at #6. RPI taking into account only wins and losses and not margin of victory.

Meanwhile, Michigan (7-0) who has played a lot of weak opponents, except for Delaware, but beaten most of them by large margins, has a mathematical ranking at #8. But their RPI which only looks at wins and losses is out at #34 at .510. Beating Delaware actually pushed Michigan above .500 RPI for the season.

Each of these rankings has their flaws, but Rutgers' poor mathematical ranking does tend to support my underlying belief, based on their narrow wins like Stony Brook this past weekend, that they are not anywhere near to being the #3 team. Michigan's poor RPI tends to indicate that they haven't really played anyone much yet.

it does make you wonder.. just look at OSU/Cornell. OSU is ahead of them but cornell beat them and has played a harder schedule.
 
it does make you wonder.. just look at OSU/Cornell. OSU is ahead of them but cornell beat them and has played a harder schedule.
It is a power ranking, so OSU beating UNC by 12 is pretty powerful. It also adds in something for home or away and the UNC result was away. Further losing to Cornell by 3 at Cornell was not a particularly bad result for OSU.
OSU beat the weak teams on its schedule #60 Detroit Mercy by 11 and #48 Cleveland State by 9, so those results don't hurt OSU significantly.
So in the end, I think it is the big win over UNC which probably gets OSU in front of Cornell.

It is still pretty early, so the mathematical rankings probably have a pretty large variance.

Also, a weak schedule doesn't necessarily hurt you, as long as you beat the weak teams by a large margin - like Michigan has.
 

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