LAXnews - College Beat 9 - Expect the Unexpected

jamesland - While some games went as expected this week, others did not.

Maryland over Towson was expected, but Hofstra over Hopkins was not. Cornell over Army was expected, but Georgetown over Syracuse was not. Umass over Harvard was expected, but Penn State over Dartmouth was not.

And what is up with Hopkins ? They look terrible so far.

Scores:

Maryland 9 Towson 6
Virginia 7 Princeton 6
Navy 9 Bucknell 5
Duke 9 Loyola 7
Cornell 12 Army 1
Umass 12 Harvard 7
Georgetown 10 Syracuse 8
Hofstra 11 Hopkins 6
Penn State 12 Dartmouth 11
Delaware 18 Albany 7
Fairfield 11 Rutgers 7
Notre Dame 9 Carolina 7
Penn 12 UMBC 11

The updated LAXnews Rankings:

1. Maryland (4-0) With Xander Ritz, Maxwell Ritz, Bill McGlone, Brendan Healy and Joe Walters, their offense tends to get the focus. But the reality is that the offense is putting up relatively normal numbers. The defense is winning the games for them?-they held Georgetown to 4 goals, Duke to 7 and Towson to 6. That, Lax fans, is about as good a defense as you can expect to see in Division 1.

2. Virginia (6-0) The Cavs have beaten Drexel, Denver, Stony Brook, VMI, Syracuse and Princeton. April 1, when they play at Maryland should be a great, great game.

3. Navy (4-0) A great start to season so far for the Midshipmen. Wins over St. Joes, Ohio State, Carolina and Bucknell are a good start and with Army doing so poorly, it looks like they will win the Patriot League.

4. Cornell (3-0) Beat Binghamton and Notre Dame and gave Army a smack down 13 to 1. The Big Red defense is unreal, better than Maryland's even, allowing an average of only 3.3 goals per game. Lehigh is next followed by Duke.

5. Duke (4-1) The Blue Devils have won big over Villanova, Butler, Bellarmine and Holy Cross, but they lost to Maryland and with the Loyola game so close, I am starting to have some doubts. They are good and should beat Carolina easily on 3/18. However, they still have Cornell, Hopkins a bunch of ACC games to play.

6. Princeton (2-1) Big win over Hopkins and a close loss to Virginia has them at #6.

7. UMass (3-0) Beat Hofstra, Yale and Harvard. Albany is next. Although they lost to Albany last year, I would not expect them to lose until at least April when they play G-town and Syracuse. If they win those, look out. UMass is way better than anyone gives then credit for being.

8. Syracuse (1-2) Beat Army, lost to Virginia and to G-town. I think their defense may have problems, though it is partly due to their run and gun style that they give up so many goals. Goalie, however, does not appear to be the problem--Peter Collucini had 15 saves vs. G-town and it looks like he will be the starter. Jake Myers would be a starter for a lot of teams. Hopkins is next.

9. Delaware (4-0) Beat Yale, Wagner, Rutgers and Albany. Georgetown next week should be a great match up.

10. Georgetown (2-1) Big win over Syracuse shows they are still capable of beating top 10 teams. Though their D is pretty good--held both Syracuse and Maryland to 10 goals--I am still not 100% sold on their offense. Delaware next.

11. Hopkins (2-2) What the heck is going on with the Blue Jays ? Their season consists of close wins over Albany and UMBC and bad losses to Princeton and Hofstra. In both of the losses, their offense was absolutely terrible, managing only 4 and 6 goals. The kicker is that 3 of the goals against Hofsta were in the last minute, when the game was basically over. It gets tougher for them when they face high scoring Syracuse and even higher scoring Virginia in the next two weeks. Hopkins better get their offense sorted out if they want to win those. Boy do they miss Kyle Harrison.

12. Notre Dame (2-1) Beat Penn State and Carolina but lost to Cornell. Villanova is next.

13. Hofstra (2-1) Big win over Hopkins shows they are for real this year. The UMass loss keeps them from being higher in the rankings.

14. Dartmouth (2-2) Lost to Penn State in a mild upset. Airforce is next.

15. Denver (3-1) Lost to Virginia, but beat Manhattan, Carolina and Colgate. Next is Sacred Heart on Sunday, 3/12.

16. UMBC (2-2) Lost to Penn after playing Hopkins close.

17. Towson (1-2) While the Binghamton loss was a shock, the Maryland loss was not. Towson even played well against the Terps.

18. Fairfield (3-0) Beat Holy Cross, Dartmouth and Rutgers. Yale next.

19. Penn State (1-2) After losses to Notre Dame and Loyola to start the year, they beat Dartmouth 11 to 10. They may be getting past some of their injuries.

20. Loyola (2-2) Beat Penn State, Crushed Wagner and looked pretty darn good in a loss against Duke. The loss against Towson hurts them. I think their new coaching staff--Toomey, Benson and Dwan--is doing a good job.

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Binghamton and unexpected upsets

I called Binghamton head coach Ed Stephenson this week to congratulate him on the win over Towson last Saturday. Coach Stephenson was, of course, happy his team had won, saying it was the first win ever for the Binghamton program over a top 10 team. He credited the win to a strong overall team effort from his players and to some great goaltending. Binghamton was outshot 41 to 27, but still managed to win because goalie Kevin McKeown came up huge. It also helped that Binghamton got 3 man-up situations with the game on the line.

Coach Stephenson and I talked for a while, discussing among other things how a program that is only 5 years old got to the point where it could beat a traditional power like Towson.

Coach Stephenson told me that he thinks that there are more and more good players playing the game due to the growing number of high school teams. He also said that kids coming out of high school are more aware of the college programs and that they visit the schools earlier and earlier. This is helping the newer programs grow, and it should effect recruiting for all teams in the coming years.

What strikes me about the Binghamton win is that it is an upset win and not in the way that Princeton over Hopkins was an upset last week.

Here is what I am thinking? Princeton and Hopkins are both powerful programs. When one of them is ranked number 2--Hopkins at the time-- and the other is ranked number 10--Princeton at the time--and the number 10 team wins, we call it an upset. And it is an upset. It means the team that just won has reloaded and things have turned this year.

The Princeton over Hopkins upset, however, is very different from the Binghamton over Towson win. Like the Albany over UMass and Bucknell over Navy games last year, it is a newer or emerging program winning over a traditionally strong program.

Army barely getting by Holy Cross (11 to 10 in 2 OTs) and Army barely getting by Bucknell (9-8 in OT) last year are games that are of the same mold as well.

No disrespect intended to Holy Cross, Bucknell, Binghamton and Albany, when I call them non-traditional powers. They are. And when they win huge games it shows what they are capable of.

I think that as lacrosse continues to grow, we will see more and more of these types wins were emerging programs beat traditionally strong programs. I, for one, can not wait. It keeps the game interesting.

Like I said in the title of College Beat today: Expect the unexpected.

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Tewaarton Trophy Watch, Part 2

Kyle Harrison. Mikey Powell. Ryan Powell. Casey Powell. If you are a fan of college lacrosse, you already know what I am naming.

I am writing about the single player who stands above the rest of the class each year. That guy usually wins the Tewaarton Trophy--though looking back at lacrosse history, many of these types of guys played before there was such a trophy.

This year, it is not yet clear who the player is that stands above the others, though one may be emerging. I narrowed the field from 52 to 8 a couple of weeks ago and as of right now, I will go with Joe Walters of Maryland as the front runner. Joe is the only college player on Team USA. His team is number 1 in the country and with the goals he had today, his goal and point production is again solid for the fourth year in a row.

Thinking about the 2006 Tewaarton Trophy chase also got me thinking about what it would be like having all these great players going up against each other and who might come out as the best of the group.

The survey below gives you a chance to give your opinion.

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Survey

Who is the best of the all time greats ?

Jim Brown
Mike French
Sal Locassio
Dave Petro
Paul Gait
Gary Gait
Casey Powell
Ryan Powell
Mike Powell
Other

Answer in the next College Beat. Just kidding. Further debate next week, if necessary.