ACC
#1- Virginia Cavaliers
I know its a huge leap I’m taking by putting the defending champs as my pick to win the conference again but sue me. Yes they lose some huge pieces in Connors, Dox, and Laviano but you cant help but love what that weirdo Lars has left in the cupboard. The old vet Matt Moore comes back for a GA year to help keep that unreal attack line together. One of my way to early Tewaaraton award finalist has to be Connor Shellenberger. He can do it himself off the dribble and slide to early? Tape to Tape going to his home boy inside Cormier, or over the top to one of the million shooters Virginia has. My biggest reason to have the Cavs repeat this year is based on the most important position in the game, the face off. The long island legend Petey Lasalla is back and ready to continue to torment teams not willing to slide to him off the draw. This kids ability to win the draw consistently and ether score himself or keep the ball with this offense is going to be hard to beat.
#2 UNC Tar Heals
This one pains me to put them this high because I hate them (for literally no reason). This one is pretty simple to break down. Yes Breschi brings in a top 5 recruiting class every year so that helps. The biggest reason is My way to early Tewaaraton winner Chris Grey. What cant this kid do? Score, feed, ride, this kids the ultimate grinder who works his bag off on top of being one of the most skilled players in the country. I truly think Grey can carry this team to a ACC championship appearance solo. A nice piece of the puzzle that will help UNC get there is one of the best goalies in the country, Collin Krieg.
#3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
As a defensive guy I love to watch ND grind out a 5-3 win against anybody. The defense is as consistent as Carc mentioning Yorktown, or Quint telling you how many times he was a 4 time All American. The reason I am putting this paint drying boring team over Duke and Cuse or should I say two reasons is #50 and #51. Alert the media there is a Kavanagh wearing #50 again at ND, PRAISE TOUCHDOWN JESUS! Mr. no pull out aka Mr, Kavanagh has blessed the lacrosse world yet again with another legend in South Bend. Pat sparked ND’s offense last year on his way to being names a Tewaaraton finalist. The only thing better then one Kavanagh has to be two right?
#4 Duke Blue Devils
I think Dino gets back to his old ways after graduating 75 seniors/transfers last year. I think we get the Duke drops a game in February to Bobby Mo and the world starts to panic. Not like his coaching style hasn’t worked out for Dino in the past I just thing they aren’t as talented as they have been in years past. When I say not as talented don’t get me wrong there a top 5-10 team in the country I just don’t think they have a Chris Grey to carry the team or a consistent unit like NDs defense or Cavs offense. O’neil is a freak but still think he is a year away before he can single handily sets the NCAA on fire. What the hell do I know anyway ill probably be eating my words when Dino and O’neil raise another trophy on memorial day.
#5 Syracuse Orange
Similar to UNC I’ve hated Syracuse for literally no reason my whole life. I liked Desko but when they fired him and hired Gary I dropped all my hatred and became A big orange guy, hiring my boy Petro didn’t hurt either. With that being said I just don’t think Cuse has the roster to really compete against these all star teams in this conference. There defense was shaky and losing Porter hurts big time. Owen Hiltz is a STUD and cant wait to watch this kid ball this year. With out some help from that top midfield line from last year he might be doing a lot of the work himself. That is until next year when him and Spalina will make D coordinators lose sleep.
America East
#1 Vermont
You have to love what the coaching staff has done over the last few years at Vermont. Coming off there conference championship win last year I think the Catamounts are confident to do it again this year.
#2 Stony Brook
I’m a huge fan of Coach Gilardi and what he’s done in his short tenure as the head coach for my hometown Sea wolves. He’s bringing his state school tough nose kid mentality he had with his Towson teams and bringing it here. I don’t think they have the talent yet to take down a solid roster like Vermont but give it a few more recruiting classes and I think SBU could be as good as they were in the Rick Sowell days.
#3 Albany
It was a magical decade long run of having Albany be Americas team. Led by the Thomson, Blaze, Ierlan, Fields, and the beauty himself Scotty Marr. The talent just isn’t there anymore unfortunately for the Great Danes. They will still compete for the conference championship for a long time because of there ability to recruit in state. I think Vermont and Stony Brook will have a good hold of the conference until the next Lyle Thompson comes to Albany.
#4 UMBC
The killer bees have lost there leader to Hopkins but they still have that killer mind set. A similar style of play like ND minus the ability to recruit top 100 players. There defense will continue to play well but the rest of the line up will need to do its part to try and get back to the #1 seed they earned last year.
#5 Bing
I’m a big upstate guy but Bing hasn’t put together a competent roster in forever. Ill always root for the bearcats but for the foreseeable future there isn’t much to cheer for.
#6 UMass Lowell
Not good
#7 NJIT
Terrible
ASUN
#1 Air Force
#2 Robert Morris
#3 Utah
#4 Detroit Mercy
#5 Bellarmine
#6 Cleveland State
Not much to say about this conference besides it sucks. Air force should run away with it unless those dirty bags at Bobby Mo can figure out a way to play a complete game. Utah is still building, with Holman Sr. gone I think will only help the program grow after hearing some horror story from past Utah recruits. Until then I think its Air force running away with it.
Big East
#1 Denver
#2 Georgetown
#3 Villanova
#4 Marquette
#5 Providence
#6 St. Johns
Georgetown has built quite the roster over the years and even after losing a player like Danny Bucaro they kept moving forward. Now after losing Jake Carraway how will GTown respond? I think they’ll be juts fine. The rest of the conference is decent but none that really stand a chance to rise to the top like they have in years past. Coach T and the Pios with a little help from the left over Yale Bulldogs should have an easy way to the NCAA tourney.
Big Ten
#1 Maryland
No surprise here as Maryland will wipe the floor with the Big Ten again. Coach Tillman just keeps reloading year after year not ever really skipping a beat. Closing out my way to early Tewaaraton finalist is the new #1 Logan Wisnauskas. Big Groot is a force to be reckoned with and will lead these Terps back to the playoffs for another title run.
#2 Rutgers
Transfer U is back at it again with another solid team. They lost a ton of fire power from the oldest roster in the history of college lacrosse last year but it seems they have re loaded again.
#3 Johns Hopkins
Will Millimans first class/ transfers work out with players like Epstein and DeSimone? This team could easily be dead last in the conference but college lacrosse is juts more fun when Hopkins is good so suck it.
#4 Ohio State
I really don’t know what to think about Ohio State this year. After losing Terefanko and Leclaire who seemed to be there for a century this team lost its best players. I fell like they have a more well rounded roster then Penn State and definitely Michigan can put together.
#5 Penn State
There was a huge drop off after Penn State lost Grant Ament. Now to lose the number one goal scorer in NCAA history I see another drop off for the Nittany Lions.
#6 Michigan
It makes zero sense to me how a school like Michigan hasn’t been able to build a solid program. How the hell do you not get a recruit to come to the Michigan Ohio State football game for there over night. YOU COULD HAVE THE TOP 50 RECRUITS IN THE COUNTRY COMMIT IF YOU DID THIS!!!
CAA
#1 Delaware
#2 Hofstra
#3 UMass
#4 Drexel
#5 Towson
#6 Fairfield
This conference is a blood bath for the most average teams in the country. Coach Deluca is obviously a great coach so you can only expect Delaware to keep climbing the ladder. For now The Blue Hens are stuck in middle man hell. Sure some of these teams have made some great runs in the playoffs over the last 20 years but besides Umass none of it is consistent. Fairfield would get smoked if they got kicked to the liberty league and had to face RIT Ithaca and St. Lawrence. Drexel reminds me of an east coast Bobby Mo with some Canadian spin to there offense but not a great roster over all. Mark your calendar for Seth to have 3 below average years then boom have a player of the year and win the conference out of no where. After his son graduating I think the Pride are heading down the dark path again. As for UMass how can you not love Coach Cannella. His team is always tough as nails and if you don’t come prepared can beat any team in the country.
Ivy League
#1 Yale
#2 Cornell
#3 Penn
#4 Princeton
#5 Harvard
#6 Brown
#7 Dartmouth
Since we haven’t really seen the Ivy’s plays in 2 years its hard to rank this conference. Yale was dominant before they had to shut down the shop and Andy Shay is an absolute beauty of a coach so I have to lean on that. A Teat less Cornell will be weird to see but again led by a few studs in Connor Buczek and Jordan Stevens I’m all in on the Big Red. Realistically Yale Penn Princeton and Cornell could all be interchangeable leaving Dartmouth Brown and Harvard on the outs of the conference playoffs.
MAAC
#1 Marist
#2 Monmouth
#3 Quinnipiac
#4 Canisius
#5 Siena
#6 St. Bonaventure
Marist, if there President lets them play similar to St. Josephs has pulled away talent wise from most of the conference. I put Canisius 4th just because I see there name and think of the time they won the conference and got smoked by Loyola in the first round. Siena and St. Bonaventure should be sent to the moon. I will not say one bad thing about Quinnipiac because I’m still afraid Alex Zomerfeld will hit me with a shot like he did in practice in high school.
NEC
#1 St. Josephs
#2 Bryant
#3 LIU
#4 Hobart
#5 Merrimack
#6 Sacred Heart
#7 Mount St. Marys
#8 Wagner
The NEC and ASUN conference should be relegated minus St Josephs down to D2 for a few years to figure it the fuck out. Why LIU and Merrimack left to go get stomped on is beyond me (thanks a lot Debbie DeJong). My old stomping grounds at LIU is interesting with one of the best Goalies in the country along with my home town boy Richie LaCalandra. I think these two can drag LIU into some wins but not enough to make a run. The Pressler effect will always be there as long as Coach P is in Rhode Island. You will always have to bring your A game against those guys. St Josephs the past few years has done some great recruiting and pulled away from the rest of the conference.
Patriot League
#1 Lehigh
#2 Army
#3 Loyola
#4 Navy
#5 Boston U
#6 Bucknell
#7 Colgate
#8 Holy Cross
#9 Lafayette
This is a total conference ranking fuck the north and south division. I’m not not going to go with the legend Kevin Cassese to win the conference. (As you can see I have a home town bias) like a bunch of the other conferences this one is very top heavy. BU can maybe make a push for the #4 spot but besides that this conference is a 4 horse race. Don’t sleep on a holy cross future, coach Reppert brings a winning mentality and it’s infectious.
SOCON
#1 Richmond
#2 High Point
#3 Jacksonville
#4 Mercer
#5 VMI
#6 Hampton
5 and 6 speak for themselves, fighting for there lives to pull one off a win against a Cleveland state or Lafayette. Mercer is scrappy but so inconsistent, beat Air Force and barley squeak by Cleveland state. Galloway is slowly but surely building something but there just not there yet. My boy Coach Perzinski will have that defense rolling but will still need some next level recruits to compete with the big boys. The master of chaos Asher Nolting is back to give defense nightmares. High point also has one of the best all names teams (Dick, Rider, Nolting) not kidding check them out. Richmond has proven to have one of the best defense year in and year out. Coach Richardson has done a fantastic job either zone or man to man they can frustrate offenses and most importantly turn them over. I would not be surprised at all if we have the same out come as last year with HP and Richmond in the final and HP pulling the upset.
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