Polls for Mar 24: Media #8 / Coaches #8

[OrangeXtreme]

After an epic weekend of upsets and one-goal thrillers, five teams are receiving No. 1 votes in the KANE Men’s DI Media Poll.

Cornell has emerged from the chaos as the top-ranked team, surviving a weekend in which the previous Nos. 1, 2 and 3 teams all lost.


The Big Red (6-1) got another fantastic CJ Kirst performance to handle Yale, and they received most of first-place votes at the season’s mid-point. Four teams behind them have a case, though. No. 2 Maryland (7-1) lost to Michigan in triple-OT but has had the most complete résumé to date. Ohio State (9-1), after a season-opening loss, has been on fire and has taken down No. 1 and No. 2 teams, including Penn State on Sunday night.

Princeton (5-2) has two losses but is the most battle-tested, earning a win vs. Harvard on Saturday. North Carolina (7-1) only has a loss to the Tigers.

Michigan, Boston U and Denver all entered the poll after their upset wins.

Check out the full KANE Men's DI Media Poll here.

Rank	Team	Points	Prev
1	Cornell (6 - 1)	466 (17)	4
2	Maryland (7 - 1)	426 (1)	1
3	Ohio State (9 - 1)	423 (3)	9
4	Princeton (5 - 2)	415 (1)	6
5	North Carolina (7 - 1)	411 (2)	5
8	Syracuse (7 - 2)	310	10

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[OrangeXtreme]

6) Syracuse

A sluggish start on Tuesday saw the Orange trailing Manhattan 1-0 after 15 minutes. Jasper goalie Connor Hapward was a virtual brick wall. Syracuse responded with nine goals in the second quarter and finished with an 18-2 win, launching 71 shots. Joey Spallina had six points as 3,652 fans watched the Orange dominate the faceoff battle 21-2.

On Saturday, Syracuse started fast, scoring just five seconds in and building an 8-2 halftime lead over Colgate. Goalie Jimmy McCool was on fire. Spallina may have played his best career game—not because of his points, but because of his awareness. He scored on a restart with five seconds left in the third quarter, then added a crucial goal in the fourth to push the lead back to three. A 16-12 win over Colgate was a solid day for the Orange.

Syracuse must address poor clock management at the end of quarters and learn to play more complementary lacrosse. Decisions like shooting with 1:40 left on an unreleasable man-down penalty or wasting possessions after a faceoff win can be costly against teams like Notre Dame, Maryland, and Cornell. The details matter, especially in May.

#HHH takes on the Klockner grass next.

 

[DomeHolmes]

I think he has his rankings fairly accurate. The laziest ranking of the year in the top 20 was Penn State #2.

were it not for a gift four goals in the last two minutes due to an unreleasable by Cornell, Penn State is not even in the tournament now, with Maryland next.

 

[OrangeinBoston]

This year, there is absolutely no predicting which teams will end up in the Final Four. Before last weekend, I would have said Maryland and Cornell, maybe Army are shoe-ins. Now...not so much.

 

[FloridaCuse]

There are so so many top games to go who knows how it's going to end up, to even get in the tournament. The ball is in our hands with the schedule we have left. Big opportunity for us to make it a top tier season.

Such a contrast between Quint who has us at #6 and Terry Foy who voted us #13 in his media poll vote this week. Sometimes I wonder if TF does his choices by feel and bias rather than the facts. He also may be punishing us because he had us so high preseason and we lost 2 games. Ugh.

 

[PhatOrange]

What was up with that Penn State non goal call? How could they miss it?

In a short clip I saw I never saw the ball leave the goal.

 

[Powellfan]

There are so so many top games to go who knows how it's going to end up, to even get in the tournament. The ball is in our hands with the schedule we have left. Big opportunity for us to make it a top tier season.

Such a contrast between Quint who has us at #6 and Terry Foy who voted us #13 in his media poll vote this week. Sometimes I wonder if TF does his choices by feel and bias rather than the facts. He also may be punishing us because he had us so high preseason and we lost 2 games. Ugh.

I think the opposite is the case for Foy, he ties himself up in logic that he creates for himself. He has Syracuse at 13 because he has Harvard at 12, and Syracuse isn't allowed to be in front of Harvard because they lost to the Crimson. That's usually pretty sound logic, but it's hard to apply it to such an up and down year. I think SU is in the 8-9 range.

 

[DoctahLexus]

I think he has his rankings fairly accurate. The laziest ranking of the year in the top 20 was Penn State #2.

were it not for a gift four goals in the last two minutes due to an unreleasable by Cornell, Penn State is not even in the tournament now, with Maryland next.

Penn State was on the road and playing without most of their starting attack. That was an impressive win no matter what antics went down at the end.

 

[DomeHolmes]

Penn State was on the road and playing without most of their starting attack. That was an impressive win no matter what antics went down at the end.

I agree, all I’m saying is the difference between a number two ranking and maybe a number 12 or 13 ranking, is a brutal penalty with two minutes left in the game, swinging a game by four points. They are certainly in the mix with everybody else as a team to reckon with.

conversely, had we taken advantage of the late penalty versus Harvard half as effectively as they did, we would be Ranked #2 or #3 now.

its wide open this year

 

[DomeHolmes]

What was up with that Penn State non goal call? How could they miss it?

In a short clip I saw I never saw the ball leave the goal.

I saw it too. The ball hit the top post, went at least a foot into the goal, and then bounced out with backspin. There was absolutely ZERO doubt that it was a goal. If the refs had the same view that the TV broadcast had, there’s no way they could’ve screwed that up. If they reviewed it with that same view, they should all be fired.

we lost to Virginia a few years back where their goalie made a “save” where his stick was literally in the back of the net and pulled it out. No review back then, sad that it didnt matter now even when available.

 

[DoctahLexus]

What was up with that Penn State non goal call? How could they miss it?

In a short clip I saw I never saw the ball leave the goal.

Not sure how they missed that one, but on that subject, shout out to Gait for nailing the successful challenge on that one goal where the Colgate guy stepped in the crease as he was making the doorstep pass. The refs are actually able to overturn a call sometimes.

 

[Cuse All-In]

I cannot remember when the polls were this crazy. Really hard to know where things will fall out.
Fairfield being ranked where they are is ridiculous but typical treatment for undefeated teams and I think it's a PR exercise to try to make it look like there's parity.
Duke's ranking is questionable - they haven't been seriously tested.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[OrangeXtreme]

8. Syracuse (7 - 2)
Preseason: No. 2

No team is as much under the microscope as Syracuse.

They were the preseason No. 2 team, and for a few weeks — a businesslike loss to Maryland and a one-goal setback to Harvard— you would have thought the sky was falling.

They’ve responded by beating a couple ranked opponents in Johns Hopkins and Colgate in a four-game stretch.

Joey Spallina rose to the occasion with 11 points, and he and Owen Hiltz reached 200 career points on the same play. They own the No. 8 RPI.

In terms of ranking, they will be the underdog in three of their five remaining regular season games (Notre Dame, Cornell and North Carolina). None of their five games are easy, and that’s including Virginia on Saturday.

The expectation is to be at Championship Weekend. They’ve proven they have the talent, but they haven’t yet prove they will get there.
—MK

 

[DomeHolmes]

Harvard destroying BU. Probably a good result for us and a terrible result for the patriot league. It will be a one bid league .

 

[JeremyCuse]

Harvard destroying BU. Probably a good result for us and a terrible result for the patriot league. It will be a one bid league .

Definitely a good result for SU. Makes that loss look better and puts the Patriot at a one bid league assuming Army doesn't win out and then lose in the Patriot champ game in OT or something.

 

[DoctahLexus]

Definitely a good result for SU. Makes that loss look better and puts the Patriot at a one bid league assuming Army doesn't win out and then lose in the Patriot champ game in OT or something.

Very good chance Harvard ends the year with only one more loss. Ivy not that strong after Cornell and they have no other challenging out of conference games

 

[W'boro'Cuse315]

we lost to Virginia a few years back where their goalie made a “save” where his stick was literally in the back of the net and pulled it out. No review back then, sad that it didnt matter now even when available.

I think you’re referring to the ‘23 game vs ND in The Dome where Finn Thomson’s shot was saved but the goalie’s stick crossed well over the goal line while possessing the ball. The refs correctly called it a no goal & ND scored the final 9 goals to win handily. The below article references the rule.

Fourth-quarter no-goal deflates Syracuse men’s lacrosse, kickstarts 9-goal closing run by Notre Dame for the win

The Orange played almost entirely defense in the game's final 12 minutes.

www.syracuse.com

 

[FloridaCuse]

I think you’re referring to the ‘23 game vs ND in The Dome where Finn Thomson’s shot was saved but the goalie’s stick crossed well over the goal line while possessing the ball. The refs correctly called it a no goal & ND scored the final 9 goals to win handily. The below article references the rule.

Fourth-quarter no-goal deflates Syracuse men’s lacrosse, kickstarts 9-goal closing run by Notre Dame for the win

The Orange played almost entirely defense in the game's final 12 minutes.

www.syracuse.com

I believe the lacrosse rule (at least the college lacrosse) is different than the rule in hockey. In hockey, if the goalie catches the puck in his glove and falls into the goal, it's a goal.

 

[DomeHolmes]

I think you’re referring to the ‘23 game vs ND in The Dome where Finn Thomson’s shot was saved but the goalie’s stick crossed well over the goal line while possessing the ball. The refs correctly called it a no goal & ND scored the final 9 goals to win handily. The below article references the rule.

Fourth-quarter no-goal deflates Syracuse men’s lacrosse, kickstarts 9-goal closing run by Notre Dame for the win

The Orange played almost entirely defense in the game's final 12 minutes.

www.syracuse.com

That was the game. thanks! I always thought the rule was if you saved it before it crossed the goal, the stick could go back into the goal, however, if the initial save was behind the goal then it was a goal. (Which, of course would almost be impossible to determine without replay) I’ve been watching Cuse lacrosse for years and both my kids played lacrosse and I have never seen a play like that before or since.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

RPI​

		Wins	Losses	RPI	Top 5 Wins	Top 10 Wins	Top 20 Wins	Non-Top 20 Ls	SOS Rank
1	Princeton	5	2	0.74845	3	4	5	0	1
2	Maryland	7	1	0.69044	1	4	4	0	3
3	North Carolina	7	1	0.6777	0	0	2	0	9
4	Penn State	6	2	0.64831	0	1	1	0	13
5	Duke	8	2	0.64651	0	1	3	1	12
6	Cornell	6	1	0.64445	1	2	2	0	6
7	Notre Dame	4	2	0.64418	0	0	1	0	10
8	Harvard	6	2	0.64408	0	1	3	1	4
9	Syracuse	7	2	0.63454	0	0	1	0	15
10	Richmond	6	3	0.61051	0	0	0	0	19
11	Ohio State	9	1	0.60959	1	2	2	1	37
12	Army	7	1	0.59799	0	0	2	0	32
13	Michigan	5	4	0.59651	1	1	1	0	14
14	Fairfield	9	0	0.59519	0	0	0	0	59
15	Saint Joseph's	7	2	0.59484	0	0	1	1	28
16	Johns Hopkins	6	3	0.59401	0	0	0	0	11
17	Dartmouth	7	1	0.59296	0	0	0	0	35
18	Boston U	7	2	0.58577	0	0	1	1	29
19	UMass	7	2	0.55658	0	0	2	1	48
20	Rutgers	5	5	0.55649	0	0	1	1	21
21	Virginia	5	4	0.55321	0	0	0	0	17
22	Penn	4	5	0.55226	0	0	0	1	20
23	Navy	6	3	0.55221	0	0	1	1	24
24	Towson	3	5	0.54859	0	0	0	2	16
25	Siena	4	4	0.54177	0	0	0	2	42
26	Vermont	3	4	0.53299	0	0	0	1	30
27	Colgate	5	4	0.53293	0	1	1	2	25
28	Jacksonville	5	3	0.52789	0	0	0	0	39

 

[DoctahLexus]

I agree, all I’m saying is the difference between a number two ranking and maybe a number 12 or 13 ranking, is a brutal penalty with two minutes left in the game, swinging a game by four points. They are certainly in the mix with everybody else as a team to reckon with.

conversely, had we taken advantage of the late penalty versus Harvard half as effectively as they did, we would be Ranked #2 or #3 now.

its wide open this year

Ok maybe you were on to something with Penn State