To drop Albany or not to drop Albany? That is the question.

Well, the answer here — for now, anyway — is no.

The Great Danes suffered their first loss of the season Friday, falling 11-7 at UMBC. They played without attackmen Connor Fields and Justin Reh, a mitigating factor but not one that entirely explained Albany’s lousy night.

(The best explanation was that UMBC was brilliant with its fundamentals and Albany simply wasn’t sharp, effectively negating TD Ierlan’s 19 of 21 night on faceoffs).

Still, does Albany belong below a Maryland team it beat on the road last month? Does one crummy performance warrant a knee-jerk rankings reaction?

Again, the response is no. The gap between Albany and Maryland isn’t large. But that head-to-head result means it still exists.

Nike/US Lacrosse
Division I Men’s Top 20

Also considered (alphabetical order): Brown, Harvard, Michigan, North Carolina, Penn, Robert Morris

HOT

Bucknell (+3)

The Bison were arguably the team of the week nationally, securing a 9-8 overtime victory at Yale on Wednesday’s thanks to Sean O’Brien’s game winner. Three days later, O’Brien had six goals and an assist as Bucknell scored the first 10 goals of a 14-9 rout of Mount St. Mary’s.

A four-game winning streak now includes defeats of Loyola and Yale, and Bucknell is two victories away from clinching at least a share of the Patriot League title. Two Bison victories coupled with a Navy loss at Army on Saturday would bring the conference tournament to Lewisburg at the end of the month.

NOT

Villanova (-5)

A 22-6 loss at home to anyone (even Denver on a career night from Trevor Baptiste) is going to leave a mark. Such is the case for the Wildcats, who rather incredibly have now been outscored on the season (122-120) despite an 8-3 record.

Villanova still owns some useful victories (Penn State and Yale) and is positioned to be the second-best team in the Big East. But on Friday night, the chasm between the Wildcats and the top spot couldn’t have been larger.

Yale (-4)

Here’s a fair question about Yale: What have the Bulldogs done this year? While they’ve knocked off a couple teams that would be in the NCAA tournament if it began today (Cornell and UMass), have a defense that’s held six of its last seven opponents to single digits and boast one of the nation’s top players in Ben Reeves (27 goals, 25 assists), their resume doesn’t overwhelm.

That said, Yale is still perfect in the Ivy League, bouncing back from a midweek loss to Bucknell to demolish Dartmouth. And after this week’s trip to Brown, the Bulldogs won’t play a true road game again before Selection Sunday. Even with a dip, this is still a team in good shape.

Notre Dame (-3)

Woof. The Fighting Irish’s 8-2 loss to Duke marked its worst offensive output since a 12-2 loss to Loyola on March 18, 2000. But perhaps more unsettling for Notre Dame was it forced Blue Devils goalie Danny Fowler to make only four saves on the day. Six shots on goal over 60 minutes is not a formula for success.

Kevin Corrigan’s team still owns quality RPI and strength of schedule numbers, but at 5-4 there’s no guarantee the Irish finish at .500 or better. With Marquette, North Carolina, the ACC tournament and Army still to come, there’s no gimmes on the horizon. The Irish’s offense misses injured attackman Brendan Gleason, who had 12 goals and seven assists before missing the last two contests.

IN

Navy

The Midshipmen opened the season 0-2, including a loss at Jacksonville, and faced the very real possibility of the year slipping away well before spring arrived. But Navy has since gone 7-2, including a 12-10 defeat of Colgate on Saturday.

That was the Mids’ regular season home finale, but they’ll have a chance to host the Patriot League tournament if they win Saturday at Army and Loyola trips up once in the next two weeks.

“If we’re fortunate enough to go up to West Point and win that game, the senior class would have won the Patriot League regular season three out of four years, or at least a part of it,” coach Rick Sowell said. “That’d be a nice feather in their cap, but I think in the big scheme of things, we want more.”

Vermont

The Catamounts return to the top 20 after winning their third in a row, a fine response to a lopsided loss to Albany last month. Vermont has defeated Binghamton, Hartford and UMass Lowell by an average of 4.7 goals the last three weekends, and remains on the fringes of the NCAA tournament conversation. The Catamounts’ big problem? Only one of their 10 victories (Quinnipiac) has come against a team with a winning record.

UMass

What a gutty victory for the Minutemen on Friday, scoring seven of the final nine goals in a 9-8 defeat of Delaware. Midfielder Jeff Trainor had three goals, while Noah Rak won 14 of 18 faceoffs.

UMass sits alone atop the Colonial standings, has won six in a row overall and has matched its largest victory total since its perfect regular season in 2012. The Minutemen can take a major step toward earning home field in the conference tournament with a victory over Towson this weekend.

OUT

Michigan (previously No. 17)

The Wolverines (7-4) have absorbed back-to-back eight-goal losses since the start of Big Ten play, and the luster of winning at Notre Dame last month has dimmed a bit as the Fighting Irish have unraveled. Michigan remains a program to monitor in the long term under first-year coach Kevin Conry, but a breakthrough first trip to the Big Ten tournament doesn’t look especially likely this spring.

Harvard (previously No. 18)

Two games into a critical five-game stretch to close out the regular season, and the Crimson is defining itself as a team that isn’t quite ready for NCAA tournament contention. Harvard has fallen at Albany (14-6) and Cornell (15-11), and now visits a desperate Penn team before finishing April against Princeton and Yale. The 7-3 record looks solid, but there’s plenty still to do for postseason purposes.

Penn (previously No. 19)

The Quakers can only live off a February defeat of Duke for so long. For the purposes of this weekly exercise, it came when they fell under .500 for the first time this season. Penn’s greatest strength is its defense, but three opponents in a row (Cornell, Yale and Brown) have reached double figures while dealing the Quakers losses. Penn will try to bounce back Saturday against Harvard.