The final Nike/USA Lacrosse Division I Men’s Top 20 of the regular season does not reflect the seeding for the NCAA tournament.
They certainly don’t mirror the RPI, aside from Maryland occupying the No. 1 spot.
With only six teams reaching this point of the season with fewer than four losses (Georgetown, Jacksonville, Maryland, Rutgers, Saint Joseph’s and Virginia), it shouldn’t be a stunner that things still feel as muddled as they did a couple months ago.
For 18 teams, the postseason will have to sort things out — including who will be the team remembered as the 2022 champion.
Editor’s Note: The final Nike/USA Lacrosse Division I Men’s Top 20 of the season will publish June 6.
NIKE/USA LACROSSE
DIVISION I MEN’S TOP 20
May 9, 2022 |
W/L |
Prev |
Next |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Maryland |
14-0 |
1 |
5/15 vs. Vermont/Manhattan |
|
2 |
Georgetown |
15-1 |
2 |
5/15 vs. Delaware/Robert Morris |
|
3 |
Virginia |
11-3 |
4 |
5/14 at No. 9 Brown |
|
4 |
Rutgers |
13-3 |
3 |
5/15 vs. No. 17 Harvard |
|
5 |
Penn |
10-4 |
12 |
5/14 vs. No. 14 Richmond |
|
6 |
Notre Dame |
8-4 |
9 |
Season complete |
|
7 |
Yale |
11-4 |
6 |
5/14 vs. No. 20 Saint Joseph's |
|
8 |
Princeton |
9-4 |
11 |
5/14 vs. No. 15 Boston U |
|
9 |
Brown |
10-5 |
5 |
5/14 vs. No. 3 Virginia |
|
10 |
Ohio State |
10-5 |
8 |
5/15 at No. 12 Cornell |
|
11 |
Jacksonville |
14-3 |
7 |
Season complete |
|
12 |
Cornell |
11-4 |
10 |
5/15 vs. No. 10 Ohio State |
|
13 |
Duke |
11-6 |
13 |
Season complete |
|
14 |
Richmond |
11-4 |
18 |
5/14 at No. 5 Penn |
|
15 |
Boston U |
12-4 |
19 |
5/14 at No. 8 Princeton |
|
16 |
Army |
12-4 |
15 |
Season complete |
|
17 |
Harvard |
8-4 |
16 |
5/15 at No. 4 Rutgers |
|
18 |
North Carolina |
8-6 |
17 |
Season complete |
|
19 |
Denver |
9-6 |
14 |
Season complete |
|
20 |
Saint Joseph's |
14-3 |
20 |
5/14 at No. 7 Yale |
Also considered (alphabetical order): Delaware (11-5), Lehigh (8-7), Loyola (8-8), Navy (9-6), Vermont (11-6), Villanova (9-6)
Nike/USA Lacrosse Rankings
Division I Men | Division I Women
Division II Men | Division II Women
Division III Men | Division III Women
HOT
Penn (+7)
The Quakers will haul a six-game winning streak into the NCAA tournament after blitzing Brown and Yale in the Ivy playoff. Patrick Burkinshaw made 36 saves on the weekend for Penn, which won the Ivy tournament for the third time.
What stands out about the Quakers’ recent burst is their first 11 games were decided by a combined 21 goals. Their last three victories? By a total of 20 goals. Penn has figured things out at the right time and warrants its leap up the board.
Boston University (+4)
The Terriers will make their first NCAA tournament appearance in program history after beating Lehigh and Army at home to claim the Patriot League tournament. It is a significant step forward for a program with a history of strong starts followed by April fades.
Boston U. played only two NCAA tournament teams this season, falling to Yale and Princeton in the same week while dealing with injury issues at the wrong time. The Terriers were blitzed by Yale but held up well until the fourth quarter at Princeton. They’ll be on the road for their first NCAA experience this weekend.
Richmond (+4)
The Spiders have won five in a row, including a 10-9 defeat of Jacksonville in the Southern Conference title game. Richmond already has a noteworthy victory this season, an upset of Virginia at home.
Just as Jacksonville would have been a dangerous first-round opponent, the same is true of Dan Chemotti’s Spiders. Luke Frankeny had three goals in Saturday’s title game as Richmond clinched its fourth NCAA tournament berth.
NOT
Denver (-5)
The Pioneers tumble in part because of other teams winning at least once (Army, Boston U. and Richmond) and in part because of their own semifinal exit in the Big East tournament.
The 15-14 loss to Villanova ends a season in which the Pioneers had the occasional promising moment (a victory at Ohio State) and didn’t suffer any inexplicable stumbles. Yet they never got much traction against high-end teams, either. The six losses are Denver’s most since going 9-7 in 2012.
Brown (-4)
The Bears dip after losing in the Ivy semis to Penn. The Quakers, Notre Dame and Yale all passed Brown in part because of some notable victories. Princeton noses back ahead because it would be difficult to logically leave the Tigers behind a team it thumped so decisively on the road a little more than a month ago.
In any case, Brown was unranked in early April. It is heading to the NCAA tournament now. It’s been quite the late-season burst for Bruno, even if the conference tournament didn’t go as it would have liked.
Jacksonville (-4)
The most difficult team to accurately gauge all season was the Dolphins. They beat Duke and Denver early in the season, and accordingly were kept ahead of both of them while they racked up lopsided victories against largely overmatched teams.
It was challenging to fight the inertia of bumping Jacksonville up over the last two months, but there was never much reason to drop the Dolphins since an early March loss to Utah. Yes, a nine-game winning streak included victories over teams that wound up with RPIs of 55, 57, 63, 68 (twice), 72 and 73 (out of 73). But they also clubbed those teams decisively.
Jacksonville’s SoCon title game loss to Richmond cost it a trip to the NCAA tournament. But its overall body of work is still good. It still belongs ahead of Duke and Denver in this rundown. And it is probably the early favorite in a different league next year as it moves its men’s lacrosse program into the Atlantic Sun.