Polls for Mar 3: Media #11 / Coaches #11

[OrangeXtreme]

Maryland is No. 1.

The Terps went to Atlanta, put in a gritty an exciting effort to top the back-to-back defending champions in front of 10,137 fans, and is No. 1 in the KANE Men’s DI Media Poll for Week 4.

It’s the first time Maryland is in the top spot since the final poll of 2022, a season in which they went 18-0.

The Terps are 5-0 with a run of impressive wins: Syracuse, Princeton and Notre Dame.

March is when the poll typically shakes around. It was about this time last year the poll’s top spot changed hands back and forth with Notre Dame, Duke, Denver and Army all holding No. 1 over the span of five weeks. In 2024, it was Virginia until Week 6 when Notre Dame took over, then Duke.

The Irish remain right behind after the narrow loss, and Cornell comes in at the 3 spot after surviving a trip to Richmond. Princeton went down to the Triangle and beat Duke and North Carolina in the span of less than three days; that puts them up to No. 4.

Army is at 5 and remains unbeaten and is staring at a run of Patriot League games.

Elsewhere in the poll: Colgate (14) and Ohio State (15) keep inching upward, as does 5-0 Fairfield (17). Navy (19) is back in after beating Boston U, and Virginia remains in the Top 20 but just barely after a narrow win vs. Johns Hopkins.

The full KANE Men's DI Media Poll is here.

Rank	Team	Points	Prev
1	Maryland (5 - 0)	520 (26)	2
2	Notre Dame (3 - 1)	480	1
3	Cornell (4 - 0)	468	3
4	Princeton (3 - 1)	438	8
5	Army (5 - 0)	403	5
7	Johns Hopkins (5 - 1)	375	6
11	Syracuse (4 - 2)	245	11

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[OrangeXtreme]

13) Syracuse

A bounce-back win in Utah with an extended road trip may have been what the doctor ordered after a forgettable loss to Harvard. An 11-1 halftime lead shows readiness.

Wyatt Hottle filled in for Jackson Birtwhistle, who’s out for the remainder of the spring with an injury. Hottle can dodge, which is a plus. Fourteen different members of the roster scored. Owen Hiltz has been money on the EMO, and FOGO John Mullen is doing his job at an elite pace—he had 18 ground balls in the loss to Harvard. Tricky to rank the Orange with losses to Maryland and Harvard. Their wins are over Jacksonville, Vermont, Towson, and Utah. Quite honestly, those won’t carry weight on Selection Sunday. So there is massive work to be done.

That starts on Sunday, where their passing offense should give the Blue Jays’ slide-happy defense fits. Orange host the Jays at 2 p.m. on ESPNU.

 

[Shrmdougluvr]

to get into the tournament I think we have to beat Colgate and win 4 of 6 against the ACC plus JHU and Cornell.

 

[CuseAlum87]

to get into the tournament I think we have to beat Colgate and win 4 of 6 against the ACC plus JHU and Cornell.

And, hope Harvard doesn't falter making that loss even worse. The Orange control their own destiny but the margin for error is small.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

to get into the tournament I think we have to beat Colgate and win 4 of 6 against the ACC plus JHU and Cornell.

If we can't win 6-7 more games this season, we don't deserve the tournament.

 

[JeremyCuse]

If we can't win 6-7 more games this season, we don't deserve the tournament.

Yup, even if SU had beaten Harvard I am not sure it would have moved the needle all that much to be honest. Harvard's remaining OOC schedule is pretty light beyond Michigan who they play this weekend. Would be a good sign if they could win that game.

The other 4 wins are essentially meaningless. Towson and Utah have 1 win each though both should get on a roll in conference. Jax and Utah play in the same awful conference so again your not getting much there but again both should run the table besides playing each other. Vermont has Umass this week and then Princeton later this year.

The Bottom line for SU is having the following big money games left - Hopkins, Colgate, Cornell, UNC, ND, and i'll throw Duke in here. OF those 6 games SU probably needs to win at least 3 and then obviously beat Manhattan and UVA (which won't be an easy feat). Then probably grab at least 1 ACC tourney win. The obvious games that would be huge would be Cornell and Hopkins, OOC games against two very good programs. Hard to see how SU could make the tourney without at least a split.

 

[cuselaxss26]

Think the ultimate question or most priority is how can they play a high level second half. If they can do that have chance to win all those games. Gait mention this in presser so clearly knows it’s issue but haven’t seen what his solution or plan is to fix it. Luckily mullen has been over 50% so far giving us many chances. But don’t mean certain matchup doesn’t go well n have ball lesss then what’s offense look like.

Think is most def coaching (making zero or barely any adjustments) n think little bit of conditioning. Also little concern with gait keep saying we have chances (yes we have) just not burying them. Have fear he isn’t tweaking much or making adjustments as much cause he assumes those shots will start falling. But either way need to bury solid looks specially on scent goalie we will see this weekend. Stout can get hott n def don’t want that to happen. Unc seem to score good amount of mid range n outside rips , which open middle up to then started taking those looks.

We gotta be able to score other then inside looks. Also can we please stop forcing or trying to feed crease with 5seconds left on shot clock , n just roll ball to corner n set up the ride. Watch few times shot clock down to mere seconds n trying to feed crease. Joey did it least 2-3 times which one was fast restart. Haven’t got burned yet on doing that but i’m sure we will. If 10seconds left in shot clock n nothing is there throw it to back corner n get ready to ride. We have to be way smarter then we been, def have the guys with high lax IQ.