If the Selection Committee has taught us anything over the years, it’s that the eye test doesn’t matter. Selection is driven by metrics.

For this exercise, let’s pick on Georgetown.

The 6-0 Hoyas enter the week as one of five remaining unbeaten teams in Division I. But Georgetown’s schedule holds up like yours truly in water … and I can’t swim.

Three of Georgetown’s wins have come against Lafayette (0-6), Towson (0-6) and Bellarmine (2-6). The Hoyas’ “best” wins to date are against UMBC (4-1) and Fairfield (4-2). But if you put your nose closer to the bowl, the flavor fades altogether.

Fairfield has feasted on the likes of Quinnipiac, LIU and Merrimack, the first year D-I program. Those teams are a combined 2-16. UMBC’s four wins are against Mount St Mary’s (3-4), Sacred Heart (1-5), Towson (0-6) and High Point (2-6).

Allow the Georgetown chorus a moment to yell across the Key Bridge.

“We’re 6-0! Have you watched us play?” or, “Hater. The author must have gone to Syracuse.”

Choose your own truth, but accept the reality that Georgetown has looked flat out dominant in its six wins. If you apply past as prologue, the Hoyas have won the Big East tournament two years in a row. Jake Carraway anchors a supremely talented offense. The defense has been stingy, and Kevin Warne’s one of the best coaches in America.

There’s one problem. None of that matters. The committee has shown time and again that “how you play” and “how you look” amounts to less than a hastily constructed pocket square.

No one does the cutting edge of high fashion like @QKessenich pic.twitter.com/9tP3fbyCBq

— Anish Shroff (@AnishESPN) February 25, 2020

Strength of schedule — or lack thereof — matters. Quality wins matter. Georgetown has neither of those. The reality is Penn (1-3) has a better at-large resume right now than Georgetown. The Hoyas’ at-large chances boil down to how they play in four games. It starts Saturday when Georgetown visits North Carolina. The Hoyas close out March with a home game against Denver. April offers two more chances with a mid-week tilt against Loyola (April 7) before a weekend tilt at a suddenly surging Villanova. If the Hoyas don’t make up enough ground in those games, it’s automatic qualifier or bust. Eye test be damned.

That’s why Denver’s road win at Notre Dame carries so much weight. The Pioneers had already lost to Duke and North Carolina. A Notre Dame loss would have given Denver almost no margin for error in league play. But the win against the Irish gives Bill Tierney’s squad a deposit slip for May. It could end up being the difference between having an at-large berth to fall back on or needing the AQ. It also gives teams like Villanova and Georgetown a bump should they beat Denver in league games.

It’s still March, but here’s some food for thought for the coming week:

What if Notre Dame Loses to Ohio State Tonight?

Notre Dame’s best win would be Richmond. Before you say, “the Spiders almost beat Maryland and Duke,” remember this: The committee will give you the Dr. Evil “zip it” treatment.

That doesn’t matter when it comes to selection. Richmond is a quality opponent and is the current favorite in the SoCon. But should Notre Dame fall to Ohio State, the Irish resume would lack “big wins” — at least for now.

What if Virginia Falls to Maryland This Weekend?

Despite a pair of stumbles to Princeton and Brown, the defending champ aces the eye test. It’s a roster loaded with talent, but what matters is who you beat. Virginia’s best wins would be Lehigh and Loyola. The Greyhounds’ track record and 4-2 record may tell you, “Hey that’s a solid win, right?” But look at who Loyola has beaten — Johns Hopkins (1-5), Rutgers (2-4), Towson (0-6) and Lafayette (0-6). Lehigh’s 5-1 record is buoyed by wins against second-year program Utah (3-3), VMI (0-4), NJIT (1-6), Navy (3-2) and Holy Cross (4-3). A win against the Terps would add needed polish to the resume.

What if UNC Falls to Georgetown?

The Big East would then look like a potential two- or three-bid league with Villanova, Denver and Georgetown all in the mix. Georgetown’s at-large chances improve exponentially as well, barring no surprising losses.

Meanwhile, ACC play now turns into a game of musical chairs. At the start of the season, it was reasonable to think everybody had a seat. Now, it’s almost certain one ACC team will get left out, and possibly more than one. Outside of a Denver win, North Carolina’s schedule strength doesn’t hold up. Duke also clings to a Denver win. The ACC counted on league games and league wins providing a lift to SOS and RPI, but that bounce is somewhat negated when those teams stumble in the key non-conference games that shape conference strength.

The Ivy League’s combined 9-2 record vs the ACC and Big Ten bode well for later in the season. Brown and Princeton took down Virginia. The Tigers also subdued Johns Hopkins and Rutgers. Penn dropped Duke. Cornell scored wins against Ohio State and Penn State. Yale owns wins against Penn State and Michigan. The Ivy League can legitimately send four teams to the NCAA tournament.

As we talked about a few weeks earlier, teams change and evolve with the season. That absolutely matters for when you get into league tournaments or the NCAA tournament. But getting in requires winning games while evolving, too. Most of us who cover the sport deal in qualitative analysis, but the committee almost strictly deals in quantitative absolutes. The numbers don’t always tell the whole story, but again, that doesn’t matter.

DELETED SCENES

Sometimes it’s better to just eat the meal and avoid snooping around the kitchen. I’ll never forget the stunned and horrified look of visitors while I anchored a weekend sports segment at WSYR-TV in Syracuse some years ago.

It was a 100-degree summer day, and I had spent most of the afternoon shooting various events. Comfort counts while lugging around a television camera, so flip flops, cargo shorts and a polo shirt were the attire of choice that day. The rest of our sports department was off, so it was a solo operation on a busier-than-usual summer Saturday. I made it back to the station about 30 minutes before air. By the time I edited my footage and cleaned up my scripts, it was time to go on.

There was little time to change. I kept my cargo shorts and flip flops on while throwing on a clean white shirt (untucked), a plain tie and a blue blazer. I anchored the sports segment from behind a podium, so viewers could only see my torso. But the visitors watching from inside the studio were stunned.

“This guy is really doing the segment in cargo shorts and flip flops?” Welcome to the kitchen.

This past Saturday, I had the call for Syracuse-Johns Hopkins. It was my third game in three days in three different cities. Durham. Clemson. Baltimore. Here’s a peek into the kitchen.

Wednesday

9:30 p.m. — Fly from Charlotte, N.C., to Raleigh, N.C.
11:00 p.m. — Check into the hotel.
11:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. — Read over my notes for Thursday’s basketball game between North Carolina A&T and N.C. Central. Fell asleep to “Arrested Development” on Netflix.

Thursday

8:00 a.m. — Attend N.C. Central shoot around to talk to the head coach and players. Stock up on “5-hour energy” bottles from the bookstore across the street.
9:30 to 10:00 a.m. — Finalize game notes.
10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. — Watch the replay of the Clemson and Georgia Tech games from the previous night over brunch.
12:30 to 2:00 p.m. — Finalize notes for Friday’s basketball game between Georgia Tech and Clemson.
2:15 to 3:15 p.m. — Get a workout in. Go over my notes for the night’s game while on the treadmill. Multi-tasking.
3:15 to 4:00 p.m. — Power nap and a shower.
4:15 p.m. — Leave hotel for McDougald-McLendon arena in Durham, N.C.
4:45 p.m. — Arrive at the arena.
6:30 p.m. — Smash a C4 energy drink before the game and rehearse the game open.
7:00 to 9:00 p.m. — Call game between N.C. A&T and N.C. Central with Julianne Vianni. N.C. Central wins to claim the MEAC regular season title.
10:00 p.m. — Return to hotel and realize I haven’t had dinner. There’s an Arby’s next to the hotel. What a dilemma. Do you eat junk food on a day you worked out?
10:00 to 10:15 p.m. — Grab a pair of Clif Bars and a water from the hotel snack bar … and a bag of BBQ chips. I know, hypocrite.
10:15 to 11:30 p.m. — Read over notes for Saturday’s Syracuse-Johns Hopkins lacrosse game and Friday’s Georgia Tech-Clemson game.
11:30 p.m. — Sleep.

Friday

5:00 a.m. — Wake up and shower.
5:30 a.m. — Leave hotel for Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
8:10 a.m. — Arrive at Charlotte Douglas Airport.
8:30 to 9:00 a.m. — Conference call with Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala. He’s always honest and thoughtful with his answers. No BS. He tells us how his nephew Jack Hawley is seeing the field more this year and then delightfully added, “Jack seeing the field also means my sister will talk to me again.”
9:05 a.m. — Board connecting flight for Greenville-Spartanburg Airport (S.C.).
10:45 a.m. — Land in Greenville, S.C.
11:05 a.m. — Take a Lyft from Greenville to Clemson. My driver sees me using hand sanitizer. He laughs and lets me how the coronavirus isn’t real and part of a larger conspiracy. I think about asking a follow up. But it’s a solid hour from Greenville to Clemson so I settle on, “Mmm hmmm.”
12:00 p.m. — Arrive at hotel.
12:30 p.m. — Attend Georgia Tech shoot around and meet with players and coaches.
1:30 p.m. — Lunch with a friend who works for Clemson.
3:30 to 4:15 p.m. — Power nap.
5:30 p.m. — Arrive at Littlejohn Coliseum and meet with Clemson head coach Brad Brownell. Clemson is the UMass lacrosse of basketball. Some days it’s a five-star meal cooked by a Michelin chef. On other days, it’s food from a roadside diner with an 82 sanitation rating.
7:00 to 9:15 p.m. — Call the Georgia Tech-Clemson basketball game with Malcolm Huckaby. Clemson rallies from 11 down at halftime to take the lead, but Georgia Tech rallies late for a three-point win.
9:45 p.m. — Took a Lyft back home to Charlotte. Halfway through the ride, I realized my iPad is missing. Beautiful.
12:15 a.m. — Arrive home to Charlotte and pack for Saturday.
1:00 a.m. — Sleep.

Saturday

5:30 a.m. — Wake up and shower.
6:15 a.m. — Leave for Charlotte Douglas Airport.
7:45 a.m. — Board flight for Washington-Dulles.
8:44 a.m. — Arrive at Washington Dulles (normally I’d fly into BWI, but that required getting on a 6 a.m. flight. I valued the extra hour of sleep). Get into a Lyft to head toward Homewood Field.
10:00 a.m. — Arrive at One World Cafe for brunch. Spinach feta omelet, blueberry pancakes and a bottomless cup of coffee. I filled up at least three times. I love this place. One of my favorite perks of doing games at Homewood.
11:15 a.m. — Walking toward Homewood Field, I run into Johns Hopkins super-fan Cornell Willis. As we outlined last week, as part of “SU Week” — Willis does not talk to anyone who has any ties to Syracuse University. Before I leave, I remind him I went to Syracuse. Whoops.
11:45 a.m. — Quint tells me how he just watched Contagion and Outbreak this past week. He seems mildly bothered that I’m not as fully freaked out as he is. I wish he could’ve met my Lyft driver from Friday.
12:55 p.m. — Quint scrambles to assemble a hand-crafted pocket square minutes before we go on the air. He settles on duck tape. I encourage him to sell his hand-crafted fashion items on Etsy. He brushes me off.
1:00 to 3:00 p.m. — Call Syracuse-Johns Hopkins lacrosse with Quint Kessenich. Syracuse looks every bit the part of a Championship Weekend team. No Nick Mellen. No Peter Dearth. No matter. The Orange race out to a 7-1 lead, and it was never really a game after that. The Bluejays need Joey Epstein to get healthy. He’s not close to 100 percent. A healthy Epstein will make a difference.
3:52 p.m. — An interesting find.

I checked into my hotel... and... umm... this was the robe in the closet. pic.twitter.com/gOjfDOhOtr

— Anish Shroff (@AnishESPN) March 7, 2020

5:00 p.m. — Dinner with friends in Baltimore. We run into the family of Syracuse midfielder Lucas Quinn. Good people. They brought their beautiful dog, too.
7:30 p.m. — Sleep.
9:15 p.m. — Wide awake. I start watch the replay of Villanova-Penn on my phone.
11:00 p.m. — Sleep kicks in for good this time.

Sunday

8:00 a.m. — My phone alarm sounds. I look at the hotel clock and it reads 7:00 a.m.. I’m cranky and confused. I swear I set my alarm for 8:00 a.m.. I check the phone. Daylight Savings. Gross.
11:18 a.m. — Board flight from BWI to Charlotte (home).
1:00 p.m. — Arrive back home.
3:00 p.m. — Round up the family to make the one-hour drive to Cornelius, N.C., to watch Penn State-Cornell as part of the Crown Lacrosse Classic.
4:00 to 6:00 p.m. — This was the game of the year. Strong crowd. Got to catch up with event organizer and former Nittany Lion Chris Schiller and former Syracuse All-American Jovan Miller. Cornell wins with two goals in the final minute. Cornell’s face-off man Angelo Petrakis scores the game winner. He could be this year’s Petey LaSalla.
8:00 p.m. — I begin to put together my top-20 ballot for the week. I’m torn on No. 1. Syracuse or Cornell? I hope I hit “Send” before I fell asleep.

Speaking of the ballot ... 

Anish's Top 10
(As of Monday, March 9)

1. Cornell (5-0)

Sunday’s game against Penn State was worthy of a Memorial Day weekend redux. Cornell’s half-field offense is a masterclass in movement and precision. Watching from field level, every player cuts and moves with purpose, and the ball rarely stops. The rules were simple on Sunday. The team that had the ball scored.

Cornell jumped out to a 12-3 lead. Penn State tied the score less than a minute into the fourth quarter. Jeff Teat, who was regarded as one of the best attackmen in college lacrosse a season ago, was an afterthought entering 2020. Let’s stop treating him like a late-90s version of Dr. Dre. Teat was spectacular on Sunday, and Cornell has dynamic pieces around him. Teams can’t just shut off Teat anymore.

Cornell won the faceoff battle in the first half. Angelo Petrakis was excellent at X. Expect more opportunities for him in the weeks to come. He and the rest of the face-off unit get a staunch test this weekend when Yale faceoff record-setter TD Ierlan comes to Ithaca.

2. Syracuse (5-0) 

Where have all the one-goal games gone? Syracuse has won games by seven, 13, eight and six. A two-goal win against Army has been the season’s only close call.

Syracuse has elite players at every level and reinforcements are coming. All-American defenseman Nick Mellen should return for the ACC opener at Duke in two weeks. Peter Dearth, one of the top shorties in D-I, didn’t play on Saturday, but his injury isn’t considered serious. Goalie Drake Porter has played like an All-American.

The Orange trumpet the nation’s best midfield, a more than competent faceoff unit, a crafty scorer in Chase Scanlan and the Orange own the middle of the field. The challenge now is to handle the road. Saturday’s game marked the first of three straight road games (and five of the next six).

3. Princeton (5-0)

Syracuse’s first midfield gets all the buzz, but Princeton’s unit averages better than six goals per game. Connor McCarthy, Alex Vardaro and Alex Slusher combined for seven goals against Rutgers. This team has much more than just Michael Sowers (who only had five points on Saturday). Princeton’s Ivy League slate begins this weekend with a home game against Penn. Road games against Yale and Brown follow. The Bears knocked off Virginia on Sunday. The Ivy League is THE conference right now.

4. Penn State (4-2)

Context is important when assessing Penn State’s loss to Cornell. The Nittany Lions played without starting defensemen Nick Cardile and Brayden Peck. The reconfigured defense was no match for Cornell’s dynamic offense. Penn State has won just 41 percent of its faceoffs in the last three games against Yale, Penn and Cornell. The good news is that all three games were still winnable. The bad news is that Penn State finished 1-2 against the Ivy trio and could’ve been 0-3. Faceoffs are something to watch going forward. Grant Ament and the offense spent most of the first half waiting and watching. That’s how you slow down this offense. Play “make it, take it” lacrosse.

5. North Carolina (6-0)

We know Carolina can score. Opposing goalies have only stopped 40 percent of shots against the Tar Heels. Only Penn State, Cornell and Princeton have a higher team shooting percentage than UNC (39 percent). But outside of one road game against Denver, this team hasn’t really been tested. That starts to change this weekend when UNC clashes with Georgetown in a battle of unbeatens. Maryland visits the Southern Part of Heaven the following week.

6. Maryland (5-1)

The Terps nearly let a big lead slip away before holding off Albany 14-13. Maryland hasn’t played its best yet, but results supersede optics in the eyes of the selection committee. Wins against Penn and Notre Dame will go a long way. I wonder how Maryland fans will react this weekend when Virginia comes to College Park as the “defending champs.” 

Virginia shot vs. Maryland appears to hit crossbar, but refs call it a goal. Game tied at 12 with under 2 minutes to play.

If Virginia wins this game... #NCAALAX pic.twitter.com/9Zs72e9oMw

— Kevin Boilard (@247KevinBoilard) May 18, 2019

7. Yale (3-1)

After flattening Michigan in California, Yale prepares for the rigors of the Ivy League. A visit to Cornell is followed by home games against Penn and Princeton. Battle Royale. Don’t underestimate the return of Jack Starr in goal. He was injured to begin the season but came off the bench in the loss to UMass and made his first start of the season against Michigan. Starr started the past two years and provides a veteran presence on the back end of the defense.

8. Duke (5-2)

We’ve seen this movie more times than Carc has seen Johnny Dangerously. We’re fargin serious. Duke starts slow. Duke gets written off. Duke figures it out. Duke is once again fargin dangerous. No one has won more games as a D-I head coach than John Danowski. That’s not by accident. Freshman Dyson Williams brings a different element to this offense with his creativity. Williams has tallied 15 goals in his last three games ... on 20 shots!

9. Denver (4-2)

Denver has hit the pipe 15 times this season. That’s just in there for cheap laughs. The Pioneers got a much-needed marquee win against Notre Dame. Ethan Walker continues to put up big numbers (four goals, two assists against Notre Dame). Jack Thompson made 12 saves in the win. It’s his job to lose. The Pioneers are searching for some consistency inside the crease. Denver has started three goalies this season and played five altogether.

10. Georgetown (6-0)

Villanova would be here if not for a Sunday meltdown against Drexel. Virginia and Penn merited consideration, too. We addressed Georgetown’s puffed up record at length earlier. But every weekly poll is a hodgepodge of metrics and eye test (which voters can and do apply). But if the Hoyas are really as good as their record, shouldn’t they be obliterating lesser competition? Well, they have been doing just that. Consider this a placeholder ranking. We’ll know more about Georgetown after this weekend’s game against UNC. Georgetown slots in at No. 10 by default ... “The two sweetest words in the English language.”