I’m back bitches. The best season is upon us and I can’t wait to tell you all my stupid thoughts that will inevitably not come true. For the 6 people that will read this blog I promise to post more consistently then last year. Enough of the small talk, let’s get down to business.
ACC
#1- Virginia
#2- Duke
#3- Notre Dame
#4- Syracuse
#5- North Carolina
Hard not to put the Hoos back on top after another great year last year. Nunes is back in goal and Petey is back again to continue to smash the UVA face off record into oblivion. With the addition of guys like Terenzi and Jones on offense and defense the Cavaliers are primed to take the conference again.
My brain was telling me to take Notre Dame at 2 and Duke at 3 but I think a kid who just made team USA will make more of a difference then 2 Kavanagh (I totally won’t regret this decision in may). Notre Dame is still awesome and led by the best Goalie in the country. With that, a few Yale transfers and the 50, and 51 ND should still have a great year where they get back to the playoffs after their year hiatus.
I do openly hate UNC but I really think them and Cuse are playing in a different league then UVA, Duke, and ND. I don’t really know much about the UNC roster turnover except for them losing the best player in the country. I don’t see how they replace him and build off of a terrible year.
After maybe the worst season in Syracuse lacrosse history I do think the baby Orange will have a better year this year. The loss of Dordevic is huge but they do gain back Owen Hiltz to partner up with Joey Spallina. I don’t know how good they will actually be but it can’t be worse than last year…. right?
America East
#1- Vermont
#2- Bryant
#3- UMBC
#4- Albany
#5- Binghamton
#6- Merrimack
#7- Umass Lowell
#8- NJIT
Hello Bryant and Merrimack, Goodbye Stony Brook. What a disgrace the America East conference board members are for what they did to Stony Brook last year. This year the conference looks much different and I think Bryant has a chance to make an immediate impact.
Vermont has taken hold of this conference the last few years and I think will continue its run this year. They are coming off a year where they captured the conference title and more importantly got a playoff win. The sideline will look a little different after losing Coach Bernhardt as he goes back home to the Terps. Coach Feifs will want to start faster than he did last year but the Catamounts should be slated for another playoff run.
I think Bryant comes in and makes an immediate impact on the conference. Bryant will be most affected by the retirement of Coach Pressler. The cupboards aren’t bare though, coach Pressler had done a great job recruiting hard nosed kids to help his team win dozens of conference games in the CAA.
UMBC is a tough team that I feel is just always around at the end of the year. They never have a great record or even make a playoff run but when it comes to conference playoffs they always seem to be there.
Albany is the biggest question mark of the entire conference. A tournament championship appearance in 2020 and a pretty subpar year last year should have them trending down but its hard to count out Coach Marr. This year will tell a lot about where this program is heading.
Binghamton has me very confused after last year. They lost a game to Umass Lowell and then beat up on Albany and UMBC. The potential is there but until they can do it consistently I don’t think the Bearcats have what it takes to make a push for the title.
Merrimack is on my very short list of teams I despise and wish nothing but bad things to happen to. The jump to D1 has not been great for them and I’m glad to see LIU has had a little bit more success than them. I don’t know if this stat is out there but it looks like they had maybe the easiest strength of schedule last year and they beat the teams I would think they should beat and lost to the teams I thought they should have lost to. They are lucky they have 2 of the worst teams in Lacrosse history in their conference because I would have loved to have buried these guys more.
Coach Kelleher takes a step back and goes from a not good Manhattan program to one of the worst in the country. He seems like a great guy and I’ll be rooting for him but this will be a tough task.
As a Post kid I think it speaks volumes that a coach that was 1 goal away from making it to the conference finals leaves and goes to literally the worst team in division 1 men’s lacrosse is INSANE. I have an idea why and I will get into it later but it’s still insane. I don’t see much changing here any time soon.
ASUN
1- Jacksonville
2- Utah
3- Bobby Mo
4- Air Force
5-Mercer
6- Bellarmine
7- Detroit Mercy
8- Cleveland State
9- Queens
10- Lindenwood
Jacksonville will come in and dominate their new conference. Utah and Bobby Mo had one of the better conference championship games last year that Bobby Mo took home in an upset. Air force will sniff around and beat some of the lesser competition but I don’t think they make the playoffs. 5-8 are all in similar boats, they can beat each other and maybe even upset one team this year but there won’t be enough consecutive wins to get them to move on. I’m excited to see the new guys compete this year. This conference has a pretty obvious top dog and two pretty good teams in Utah and Bobby Mo. Besides them I think the new guys could come in and be successful pretty early. They weren’t national power houses in the division two level like LIU and Merrimack were so I think they will take some time to be competitive but I think there could be a good future for them in this conference.
Atlantic 10
1- Saint. Joseph’s
2- Richmond
3- Umass
4- High Point
5- Hobart
6- St. Bonaventure
None of these teams have the ability to be a Maryland or Virginia but they are all solid. I think these guys will beat the shit out of each other which will make this a hell of a conference playoff. I think Saint Josephs has so much returning and a lot more to prove after an awesome 2022. Richmond will be Richmond, a really well coached team that will beat all the teams they should beat and have an upset or two. If not for Saint Josephs I think they would take the conference.
Big East
1- Georgetown
2- Denver
3- Villanova
4- Marquette
5- Providence
6- St. Johns
The mighty Big East is very top heavy again this year. I would say Georgetown runs away with the crown this year but nobody runs away with anything from Coach Tierney especially for his last ride (A Tierney love post to come later). For that reason I think Georgetown will briskly walk away with the crown like I would right before I needed my inhaler. Until coach T is gone next year Denver is never out of it but the Pios have still never been the same since their 2015 championship. Villanova is a fun team that I think has a chance to take the number 2 spot over Denver but I can’t give them to them yet until they prove it. Marquette and Providence will compete for the slaughtering spot for who has to take the ass beating from Georgetown for the second time this year. Chris Buscemi is rolling over in his grave after last year’s piss poor performance. The Turri boys will need some time to revive this program.
Big Ten
1- Maryland
2- Rutgers
3- Ohio State
4- Johns Hopkins
5- Penn State
6- Michigan
Maryland is good and everybody else gets out of the way. Maryland has basically become Alabama Football, they don’t rebuild, they reload. I don’t know anything about their roster turnover except Wisnauskas but does it even matter? Coach Tillman just says next up and boom another Tewaaraton finalist. Rutgers will be nipping at their heels again but like Roy Jones Jr. I don’t know if these guys can be stopped. I’m more interested to see if Penn State can rebound off of whatever you want to call last year. Oneonta had a decent chance to beat them in the middle of the year last year. Hopkins is ranked above them strictly because I think John Crawly is the next Bill Tierney.
CAA
1- Delaware
2- Stony Brook
3- Towson
4- Fairfield
5- Hofstra
6- Drexel
7- Monmouth
8- Hampton
Delaware, like the cheese stands alone. I love Stony Brook and I think they will do well this year but Delaware is set up for success under coach Deluca especially with some of the fire power they bring back. The rest of the conference is so boring I don’t even feel like taking the time to write about them.
Ivy League
1- Cornell
2- Princeton
3- Yale
4- Brown
5- Penn
6- Harvard
7- Dartmouth
This league is becoming the Spiderman meme with the 6 head coaches just all pointing at each other. The league is a god damn blood bath and everybody should pray for Dartmouth. I mean 6 teams from one conference getting into the playoffs is insane. How do you strategize that as a coach? Do you go for it all and make the push to be the Ivy league champ, or have an insane year and miss the conference playoff to give yourself a bye week for the actual playoffs like Princeton did. I’m not even going to pretend like I will even come close to getting this league correct but how can you not put two final four teams at the top?
MAAC
1- Marist
2- Manhattan
3- LIU
4- Mount Saint Mary’s
5- Siena
6- Quinnipiac
7- Canisius
8- Wagner
9- Sacred Heart
10- VMI
The league is the biggest group of losers imaginable in one conference. I think Marist, Manhattan, and LIU are decent enough but the rest of this league is holy smokes. Except Dartmouth any other Ivy League team could beat this league’s all star team. I still can’t believe LIU went D1. It still pisses me off. After losing their coach to NJIT, Richie LaCalandra to THE Ohio State, and Will Mark to Syracuse it is going to be tough sledding for the Sharks this year. The administration at this school has made it impossible to truly be successful there. The worst thing they could have done was go D1 in the first place. I could go off for hours about this but that’s for another day. I’m a huge fan of Coach Levine, obviously I support my former team long island brother Troy Reh and I’m the biggest fan of Coach Hays. I think him and Crawley will be the next big thing in division 1 coaching. I think he has the work ethic and brains to become the next Coach Cassese.
Patriot League
1- BU
2- Lehigh
3- Army
4- Loyola
5- Navy
6- Bucknell
7- Colgate
8- Lafayette
9-Holy Cross
This league is broken up into 3 very distinct groups, great, ok , and dog shit. BU, Lehigh, Army, and Loyola could all go out and win a playoff game without anybody blinking an eye. Navy and Bucknell are just ok ya know what I mean? Like mom’s cooking on a Thursday when it’s been a long week and she’s not putting any love into it, it’s just ok. Colgate and Lafayette might not survive the MIAA Championship down in Baltimore. I have all the love and respect in the world for coach Reppert up at HC and for that reason I will say this. Holy Cross is a very nice team.
Off Ball 