The first round of the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Tournament did not disappoint. While weather impacted some games, it was a great weekend with the sport. Lets get into five takeaways from the first round.
1. Chalk it Up
The leadup to round one suggested the possibility for an unusual NCAA tournament. Of the seeded teams (the top eight), six entered the NCAA tournament coming off a loss. Only Notre Dame (first seed) and Georgetown (eighth seed) won the week prior.
Given that the scenario and the obvious correlation with the unseeded teams (which consisted primarily of Automatic Qualifiers), many thought that we were going to see some upsets. St. Joe’s, Michigan, and Princeton were trendy picks.
All of the upsets lost as the top eight seeds won. By my count, it was the first time that the first round has gone completely chalk since 2004.
However, that year it was the four seed Syracuse Orange who rode the play of Tewaaraton winner Mikey Powell to the title.
As a quick aside, that year’s Syracuse team was the four seed but finished with just two losses. This year, Duke is the two seed with five losses. The increased parity at the top of Division I (which is exacerbated by RPI pressures and more difficult strength of schedule) is an interesting development in NCAA lacrosse.
Regardless, the higher seeds won this weekend. But as 2004 taught us, that may not continue.
2. Cormier Sits Atop the Throne
Forget a short list. Forget Mount Rushmore.
This weekend, Payton Cormier graduated from one of, to the greatest goal scorer in the history of NCAA Men’s lacrosse. With an 8 goal performance against a tough St. Joe’s team, he broke the record of 221 career goals.
Previous record owner Mac O’Keefe was quick to credit Cormier on his accomplishment, a very cool gesture.
Ironically, Izzy Scane of Northwestern broke the same record on the women’s side, and Charlotte North was likewise classy in her congratulations. Credit to all four on their ridiculous careers.
Cormier has time to keep going too. UVA silenced the haters this weekend. If you were drafting players for this coming this weekend, how high would Cormier and Shellenberger be? Whatever that answer is, it’s unusually high for a six seed.
Congrats PC. Don’t get complacent now though. Stay hot!
3. Send Out Your Best!
One of the most positive signs of the weekend was the Syracuse offence and the 20-piece combo meal that they put on Towson. Obviously there are strength of schedule differences, but Towson entered the game with one of the best statistical defences in the country.
Syracuse got after them. Everyone got in on the scoring.
The most important factor was the play of Joey Spallina, who finished with 4 goals and 4 assists. Spallina was slightly quieter in the second half of the year. He was great against Cornell and North Carolina, but was blanked against Virginia and didn’t score against Duke or Hobart.
But after 4 goals in the ACC tournament against Duke and the 8 points in round one, he’s humming now.
Syracuse got 9 goals from their starting attack, 5 from their first midfield, 4 from their second midfield, and 2 from non-offensive personnel. As a sidenote, technically Jake Stevens is a second line guy, playing his offensive reps with Luke Rhoa and Jackson Birtwistle. Is he the best second line middie ever?
Probably.
Meanwhile, Denver’s defence entered the weekend as a top three scoring defence and could be higher when the numbers update today (Towson was number one). They held a white-hot michigan club scoreless for 18 minutes. This will be an awesome battle between two excellent units.
4. Duke Fans Should be Pumped
If you’re a Blue Devils fan, this was what you wanted to see. The Devils flexed their muscle and ran past the Utes in what became the widest margin of victory on the weekend.
The most positive sign for Duke was their assist total of 14. The Devils finished with the fourth best offence in the country but sit 12th in assists. Even when they are playing well, the assists don’t necessarily follow. In their ACC tournament victory over Syracuse, they put 18 goals on the Orange, just 7 were assisted. They had 6 assists on 12 goals at UNC, 6 assists on 18 goals over UVA, 6 assists on 12 goals against Notre Dame, and 5 assists on 11 goals against BU.
Some of their explosion on the weekend can be chalked up to bad off-ball D by Utah. They lost Dyson Williams several times, which is unacceptable for a player of his skill level. And Duke also scored several transition goals, which was a source of many assists. Duke won’t and shouldn’t care about either asterisk. Finding Williams and running on teams will both be huge in their title run.
The assists and offensive execution offer a great antidote to Coach Tillman and the Terps. Logic would suggest sliding quick to a low-assist team, but they will have something recent to think about. Defensive transition will be equally important.
And likewise, the huge day for Josh Zawada further complicates the decision over what to do with Ajax Zappitello. The obvious matchup is O’Neill, but might it be more important to shut down Zawada? He’s got 17 more assists than O’Neill, and is one of only 3 Devils with more than 10 helpers. The Terps have decisions to make.
5. Potential Nirvana for the Attendance Crowd
Final four attendance has been the topic of much conversation over the last several years, and this year is shaping up to be a massive crowd.
For a tournament in Philly, the possibility of a Notre Dame, Maryland, Syracuse, Hopkins final four would probably be the ideal scenario remaining. It’s hard to overstate what a Hopkins vs Maryland game would draw on that stage, especially for the Hopkins fanbase eager to get back to Memorial Day weekend.
Meanwhile, Cuse has probably the biggest fanbase in the sport, and one within a reasonable distance of Philly. It would also be the Orange’s first return back to the big dance since 2013.
Notre Dame is arguably the biggest brand in college athletics. They could play a game on the moon and the Irish fans would figure it out. Even if they aren’t lacrosse fans, the Irish will come out out for a title run.
Obviously the other teams have major fan bases as well. Virginia is close to Philly, as is Georgetown. Duke fans are experienced final four attendees. Denver has people all over North America.
But I don’t think it’s controversial to suggest that the combination of prominent brands returning to the biggest stage (either back to back or first time in a while) would be a significant boon to the sport’s final weekend.
If I wanted to nit-pick, I would have the women’s final in Baltimore, or somewhere closer to Philly (the women’s bracket end in Cary, North Carolina). Enough fans would travel between the two.
Any way you slice it, there are juicy storylines and fun programs. Anecdotally, lacrosse is in a surge. A huge final four attendance figure would be nice to back it up.