Well well well. Would you look at what we’ve got here. Another week of college lacrosse down and another week with a #1 at the top of the polls. While almost nothing about the 2017 NCAA DI Lacrosse season has made any sense, at least there is one consistent we can all hang on to. If you are ranked #1 in any of the polls in any given week, you are going to lose. North Carolina. Denver. Notre Dame. Maryland. Rutgers. Penn State. There have been 9 weeks of college lacrosse action this year and we’ve already seen 7 teams at that #1 spot with Syracuse taking it over this week.

Let’s take a quick look at how the rest of the rankings shaped up for this weekend even though, per usual, they will mean absolutely nothing come next week.

Rankings

Cuse gets on top of the polls after having last weekend off while Maryland took down #1 Penn State at home. Hofstra jumps up to #2 after remaining the only unbeaten team in the country. Quick little sidenote about Hofstra. They are 10-0. 5 of their wins have come down to the final score 11-9 and one more of those wins was an 11-10 win over Providence. They’ve scored 11 goals 6 times, 10 goals twice, a 9-goal performance against St John’s and then a 20-goal outlier against NJIT. If you want to take down the Pride and give them their first loss of the season, all you have to do is score 12 times. Easier said than done but that’s the number you have to get to.

Maryland is looking more like a Final Four team now after handing Penn State their first loss of the season. Things were getting a little fucky for the Terps earlier in the year when they dropped that overtime loss to Villanova right after a 1-goal loss to Notre Dame. But they’re 4-0 since with wins over reigning champs UNC, #1 Penn State and #6 Albany on Wednesday. That game came down to the wire but it was Maryland’s offense dissecting the balls off of Albany’s D to squeak out the 12-11 win on the road.

Matt Rambo stepping in from 13. You might want to get out to his hands. He’s been known to score a few of those goals before.

Out of a timeout. Razor pick. Hit the roll off guy. A pick up top with the pick man down cutting, naked as a newborn on the crease. It just can’t be that easy if you’re Albany’s defense.

Point man slides up to 14-yards to stop a pole while there’s no rotation on the back side. I love Albany. I think everybody at this point knows that the Danes are my squad. But Maryland didn’t win this game as much as Albany’s defense lost it for themselves.

Denver made light work out of Villanova. Notre Dame dropped to Duke as the Blue Devils look like they’re already playing May lacrosse. Army still has to close out their Patriot League schedule with Navy and Loyola but they are a 2-goal loss to Rutgers away from being a top 3 team in the country. UNC beat Virginia to remain undefeated on the road while trash as hell at home. I think we’re finally starting to figure out which teams are for real good and which teams are fake good. The rankings are still a mess but teams are at least starting to separate themselves.

What’s On Tap?

#8 Army @ Navy | Saturday, 12pm CBS Sports| Line: Army -2.5

You think I’m going to pick against Army after they won the Army-Navy game for the first time since 2001? Get the hell outta here. This is Army’s year. They’ve had 2 close games heading into this one with an 11-10 win over Bucknell and and 11-10 win over BU. Before that they had a 10-8 win over Colgate so they haven’t been blowing teams away. But they are the only team this year to be on the winning side of a 1-goal game against Syracuse and they are #2 in terms of goal differential in the country with a +5.1 rating. Navy just isn’t that strong if we’re being perfectly honest. They’ve dealt with some injuries all season long but at 5-7 with 4 losses in the Patriot league already, their season is over. It’s the last game on the schedule for them and obviously they’ll be looking to go out with something to be proud about. And clearly they’d want to get a little revenge for the football game in December. But Army is too good to let this one go. It’ll be a battle and must watch tv. But I’d put my money on Army covering.

#18 Virginia @ #9 Duke | Saturday, 1pm | Line: Duke -1.5

Right now I have Duke as a Final Four team. In ACC play they have an overtime loss to Cuse, a 12-8 win over UNC and an 11-8 win over Notre Dame. Virginia hasn’t won an ACC game since 2014 and are 2-15 in the conference over the past 4 years. This is their last ACC game of the season and I don’t see that trend ending this year. Virginia scores a shit ton of goals per game and have the most goals in D1 lacrosse right now. But they also give up a shit ton as well. Unless Virginia is the only team who has a shutdown answer for Guterding and Bruckner, Duke continues to climb up the rankings and Lars Tiffany’s first year in Virginia ends out of the top 20.

P.S. – This was a really cool moment for Virginia and Zed Williams last week after dealing with such a shitty situation.

#5 Penn State @ #12 Hopkins | Saturday, 2pm ESPNU | Line: PSU -1

I’m still a big time believer in this Penn State team. The B1G clearly goes through Maryland and having to go up against the Terps down in College Park on a 70-degree Saturday is a tough order for anybody. As for this game against Hopkins, I think it’s a great opportunity for a young Penn State team to get their confidence back up after their first loss of the season. Hopkins is all over the place. Some days their hot, other days their cold, they don’t really have an identity as a team. They couldn’t keep up with Ohio State last week and it’ll most likely be the same story this week. Bounce back game for Penn State before closing out the season with Rutgers and Michigan. They are too good offensively for Hopkins to keep up with. They are too good at the faceoff X for Hopkins to get any extra possessions out of this game. Penn State shuts up the band and wins this one by 3 or more.

#1 Syracuse @ #17 UNC | Saturday, 4pm ESPNU | Line: Syracuse -2

Game of the week and now we have to see what trend holds up stronger. Either the trend of #1 teams getting beat week in and week out, or the trend of UNC being absolutely atrocious at home against Top 20 teams. Reminder: UNC has lost to Hopkins, Hofstra, Richmond, Maryland and Duke all at home. Their only home wins have come against Lehigh and Dartmouth. So now Syracuse heads down to Chapel Hill with a 1-goal loss to Army as their only loss on the season. The thing that scores me here is that they aren’t just winning games by 1-goal anymore. They’ve had layup games against Hobart and Cornell which they’ve won 17-11 and 15-8. Honestly… I liked Syracuse better when they had to grind their way through these games and get that gritty finish. Not sure how I feel about a Syracuse team that gets to rest their top guys in the 4th quarter. So we’ll see if they still have that grit left in them tomorrow at UNC. My gut feeling is that for the first time since about February, we’ll have a team go 2 weeks in a row as #1. But I like Cuse in a 1-goal game here.

The Other Guys: 

– Ohio State at Michigan. Another football rivalry turning itself into a lacrosse rivalry as well. Ohio State got a 3-point win over the Wolverines when they played in November. I think the lacrosse game ends up going the same way. Which means Michigan covers the +3.5 but Ohio State gets out of there with a 12-9 win.

– Loyola vs Boston University is an interesting matchup. Army is clearly the #1 team in the Patriot. Loyola and BU are fighting for that #2 spot. Loyola has good losses to Virginia and Hopkins. They got smoked by Duke. And then a bad double overtime loss to Bucknell. For a team that made it to Championship Weekend last year, they are on the outside looking in right now unless they close out their Patriot schedule with wins over BU and Army. Meanwhile, the Terriers got off to a 7-0 start this season but are 2-3 since with losses to Bucknell, Lehigh and Army. This game has more implications for the Greyhounds than it does for BU so expect Pat Spencer to go off for 7 points and the Hounds to cover.

– I’d want nothing more than a Philly school to head up to Long Island to hand Hofstra their first loss of the season. Unfortunately, I don’t think Drexel is the team to do that. Hofstra has Drexel, UMass and Towson left on their schedule. The only team who has a shot to knock off the Pride would be Towson. But they are only scoring 9.4 goals per game so far. Like I said, you have to hit 12 if you’re going to beat Hofstra.

Jordie’s Picks (4-0 last week, 20-6 overall)

Last week’s picks were Maryland -1.5 over Penn State, they won 15-11. Ohio State +1 over Hopkins, they won 13-9. Carolina +2.5 against Virginia, they won 15-12. And Duke +2.5 against Notre Dame, they won 11-8.  Pretty decent for a blogger. For this week we have…

• Army -2.5 over Navy
• Michigan +3.5 against Ohio State
• Duke -1.5 over Virginia
• Carolina +2 against Syracuse

Enjoy your Easter Sunday, everybody. And just remember while you’re searching for Easter eggs that we are celebrating a zombie.

@BarstoolJordie