Lacrosse Bracket Reveal Thread- 9 ET WLAX, 9:30 Mens
Women's bracket reveal happening right now- I believe there's a very outside chance we make it, but it's probably not happening, especially with no big ten teams on the half of the bracket that was just revealed (and Maryland/NW being shoe-ins).
Men's in 15 or so minutes. Probably looking at the 7-10 seed overall. Hoping for a good draw- and I guess maybe Virginia as the top seed because we played them closer than Notre Dame?
Women get CMU, May 12, 7 PM ET, winner gets #1 Northwestern. Tough draw.
I wrongfully assumed the women's tourney was also 16 teams. Whoopsies!
I count 29?!?
Is there any rationale for the 29 women's teams - as well as for the play-in game for the men?
Just one comment about the brackets - and, I realize rankings play a role in the seeding - wouldn't it be better if they seeded teams from different conferences in different regions - so, teams from the same conference could actually meet in the final? There may be a geographic concern / factor to reduce travel, but - in the men's bracket, I'm not sure if two B1G teams could actually meet in the final - it seems like they'd knock each other out before getting there.
I guess technically, in the men's bracket - Johns Hopkins is a B1G team. Hopkins is the lone B1G team on one side of the bracket, while Michigan, PSU, and Maryland are on the other. And, PSU and Maryland are seeded in the same regional.
In the women's bracket - three B1G teams are in one regional - Northwestern, Michigan, and PSU, while two B1G teams are in another - Maryland and Hopkins. The other two regionals do not have any B1G teams. So, my thought would be - to seed B1G teams - or ACC teams - in as many regions as possible.
Both the men and women could have one B1G team in every region - if that was an objective of the NCAA.
And - for both lacrosse squads - Go Blue!
The only thing I read when trying to get what (rather minimal) information exists, is that they really try to limit air travel for the tournament. So they're likely putting teams that are close enough together in similar regions based on that- but yeah, frustrating from a conference perspective.
You're right about the seeding - that's very annoying. I was discouraged to see Maryland in Michigan's bracket. I guess the problem could've been that all the B1G teams were grouped so tightly in the 4-9 range? One thing to keep in mind, if you're a conspiracy theorist like me, is that the committee LOVES the ACC (except ND) and to a lesser extent the Ivies (I was shocked they picked a meh Yale team that had just been wiped out in the Ivy championship instead of a Denver team coached by Bill Tierney in his final season. Tierney is the Nick Saban/Coach K of the sport and Denver arguably had the better season). In most years it seems like they're trying to get as many ACC teams in the tournament and then Final 4 and championship as possible.
I was also wondering why there was such an odd # of teams in the women's bracket but I think there may be multiple play-in games? And byes and even double-byes? But I honestly don't know. But, GO LADIES AND GO BLUE!
Good perspective - and, Princeton was "only" up 16-4, mid way through the third quarter - and, finished with a 19-10 win over Yale.
The love for the Ivies and ACC seems to be a tradition.
Michigan men at Cornell, 2:30 ET Sunday.
This one is a tough one for me, as I used to live and teach in Ithaca and several of my former students moved up the hill and played for the Big Red after their Little Red days were done. But Go Blue!
Thanks to my buddy Andy for timing his sons Bar Mitzvah in Ithaca for next Saturday!
Also, the game will be televised on ESPNU, for those with a way to access it.
EDIT: Also also, looks like you may be able to stream it directly from the MGoBlue website:
And our MLAX team is loaded?
2023 Big Ten Men's Lacrosse All-Tournament Team
Michael Boehm, Michigan (MVP)
Bryce Clay, Michigan
Andrew Darby, Michigan
Hunter Taylor, Michigan
Jack Whitney, Michigan
Justin Wietfeldt, Michigan
Josh Zawada, Michigan
Braden Erksa, Maryland
Garrett Degnon, Johns Hopkins
Jake Morin, Penn State
Men face 8 seed Cornell, Sun 5/14 @ 2:30 PM ET. Duke is #1 overall, in this bracket.
Feels like a tough draw- but Cornell has a 10-6 loss to PSU and Duke played two close games with UVA which Michigan matched up pretty well with. Maryland being #4 Overall has to build some confidence
I feel like Michigan is the tough draw and none of the other teams are happy they have them in their bracket. Michigan is playing lights out and has nothing to lose. The other teams have far more pressure.
Committee thought the men's team was the best team they sent on the road. That close to a game in A2.
Stupid Marquette loss was the reason… we lost to them by 5 early in the season… Cornell blew them out by 10. Comparing records over the 2nd half of the season, we are head and shoulders above the big red.
I love this draw. Obviously I’d rather Michigan host Cornell, but if they can win I can’t wait to see them play Duke and knock them out of the tourney.
How does Michigan match up against Cornell? Seems like a winnable game based on overall record, but I admit I know very little about them except that their national runner-up team from last year was good defensively.
Duke has the nation’s best player in O’Neill, do they not? Not sure I’d want to line up against that guy in a playoff game, but so be it, let’s take it one game at a time…
Cornell is a good team to be sure. They had a tough schedule and played a lot of top teams well.
However, the fact cannot be ignored that UM absolutely smoked Maryland on Saturday. While the PSU win was notable for the team holding on in a close game (which has been really hard for them to do in past years), Saturday's a** kicking was a different beast entirely. Yes MD is a young team and didn't play great, but that was a game UM won on their terms.
If they play the way they did in that game they can hold their own against anyone imo.
The best comp I can think of is some of the basketball years where the team was talented but didn't put it together until the end of the season and then ran the table in the B1G tournament, blowing out good MSU and Wisconsin teams along the way.
I realize that there is more to seeding than this, but it seems hard to seed a team that you beat twice in basically home games who only has 1 more overall win than you higher than you.
Being defending champs carries some weight, plus their tournament history, I suppose.
Resume plays a part too. Michigan lost to Marquette and squeaked by Hofstra. Lost all their non-conference games of note.
Michigan boasts two wins over Maryland and a win over PSU, but Maryland doesn’t have a bad loss and beat Richmond, Syracuse, Virginia, Princeton and lost in OT to ND. Plus went 2-0 against Rutgers and beat Johns Hopkins in the B1G semis. Maryland is 6th in RPI while Michigan is 12th.
Lax is more like football than hoopsert to selection/seeding; fewer games which elevates importance of big wins (and bad losses…..)
Seeing Utah in the bracket is the most random thing I’ve ever seen.
They're a new(ish) program! I think they started Div. 1 play only about 2-3 years ago(?). The fact they made their first tournament is also huge for the sport. They're the westernmost team to ever qualify for the men's tournament. GO UTES!!
The program is growing up in a hurry. This will be invaluable experience to continue to build the program.
The draw isn't great, but what's important for Michigan is they made the next step as a program which is a good thing. Just get NCAA experience and use that to propel them as a program. They really need the NCAA tourney appearance
The guys on ESPN were very high on Michigan.
Said "Michigan is bigger than lacrosse" and that it was a huge deal that they were building a program.
Then they called Michigan Lacrosse "an impending death star" speculating they'd be a powerhouse very shortly.
It was great.
When Ross donated the Athletic Campus - or, the additional buildings / facilities which define the "South South State Street" today - it seemed the facilities were such that Michigan would be competitive in every varsity sport it participated in. Lacrosse fits this definition.
I don't follow lacrosse closely - but, for those that do - is it accurate to say that Michigan is peaking, and - playing their best this time of year? The weekend's games - against PSU and Maryland - especially, a VERY solid game against Maryland on Saturday could bode well for the team in the NCAA.
Go Blue!
When watching the PSU, but especially the MD game, the image that came to mind was that scene near the end of Top Gun when Iceman is yelling "engage, Maverick!" and all of a sudden he went nuts on a bunch of MIGs.
So yeah, I think the B1G tournament bodes well for them this year.
They have elite scorers, some really good assistants, and a head coach who has the respect of the players.
Sometimes the hump can be mental, and narratives established before players even hit campus can (I suspect) weigh on them.
There were some high profile transfers out of the program, including this year, which makes the "those who stay...." motto even more resonant.
I know that there was a lot of uncertainty about things before the tournament run which I hope has abated now.
As for the program going forward, strong academics and alumni networks go a long way to influence recruits along with success on the field. Since UM has had the former in spades, now that the latter is occurring I think that the future is very bright, though I would note that lax recruiting is a bit like hockey (with long lag times) so it might be a cycle or two before you see some of the current success paying dividends on that front.
Does anybody know why the men's bracket has 17 teams who make it? Seems random.
I think it's like how they used to have 65 bids for bball.
There are 9 autobids (ACC does NOT get one because it only has 5 teams-part of the reason Hopkins is in the B1G) and a lot of those conferences are a bit weaker. Not positive why they settled on the fact that there's one play-in game, but yeah, I assume it's a pseudo bid for an ACC team.
One play in game - Duke gets winner of Delaware and Marist. Actually, if I'm Duke, I'm not that thrilled with the prospect of playing Delaware who've won 7 of their last 8 and knocked #2 seed G'town out of the tournament last year. If I'm Delaware I'm also annoyed I'm in the play-in game at all - it seemed like Utah, Bryant and Richmond were better choices for the play-in.
All around, the seedings just seem...weird to me. But I think they'll produce great games. I feel like ND got hosed with the #3 seed- they lost to Virginia twice but those were their only 2 losses- and they absolutely crushed Duke, who also lost to Jacksonville early on. And yet Duke gets the #1. But, for Michigan's sake it's better they're not on ND's line, I think they're the best team in the tournament. Maryland is probably not thrilled with a first round matchup against Army and then a qf matchup with either Princeton or Penn State. And it seems like the committee hooked Virginia up with a cake walk to the Final 4.
In other news: final polls are out today and Michigan finished #8, right ahead of Cornell at #9.
I believe the NCAA's rule of thumb is 25% participation in the NCAA tournament for all sports and at least 50% of teams should be non-AQs. I think there's 75 teams and 8 AQs so I can see how they landed on 18, but I don't know why it rolled back to 17 for this season
High above Cayuga's waters,
there's the most god-awful smell.
Some say it's Cayuga's waters.
Others say, Cornell.
Go Blue!