With college sports fans looking to fill the void left by March Madness, lacrosse prognosticators have readily swooped in to try their hand at bracketology.
The Terps readily admits to postseason aspirations that include a trip to M&T Bank Stadium in May. But they, like many teams, have taken up the “one game at a time” mantra, trying to stay focused on the present.
That doesn’t stop others from looking ahead, though – even if the start of the NCAA Tournament is still five weeks away.
Patrick Stevens, a former college sports reporter for the Washington Times who now writes the blog D1scourse about Washington-area college sports, just posted his first stab at the inexact science yesterday. While he calls the effort “utter guesswork,” there is a method to the madness – it’s no surprise that No. 1 Virginia and No. 2 North Carolina are also one-two in his seeding.
Fans of the No. 5 Terps should be happy to see them with a No. 4 seed, hopping over Princeton, No. 4 in the media poll, though that may not be a shock in the local-leaning blog. At the sixth slot in Stevens’ bracket, Duke is the lowest ACC squad. The Terps’ strong conference competition could counteract the fact that none of their other opponents are in this predicted tournament field.
Inside Lacrosse also put out a midseason bracket last week that listed the Terps as a four seed, though that was before their loss to the Cavaliers. But Inside Lacrosse’s midseason bracketology has been a better predictor of teams receiving a tournament berth rather than specific seeding. Last season’s earliest bracket had 14-of-16 teams in the final bracket, but just two in the right spot.
While Matt Danowski, a lacrosse analyst for CBS College Sports and former All-American attackman at Duke, did not try to fill a whole postseason bracket, he did give the his picks for the Final Four on Baltimore Sun’s college lacrosse blog, Faceoff. He guessed that either the Terps or Blue Devils would join the Cavaliers, Tar Heels and Syracuse Orangemen in the semifinals.
But the Terps said they will not let the outside pressure or hype get to them.
“Each week, each team wants to beat us,” said Joe Cummings, who plays as both attackman and midfielder. “And so it’s our job. We have to take care of business. So we’re taking this game as the championship game. We’re concentrating on this game, and then after we take care of it we’ll concentrate on the next game.”
Kate Yanchulis is the Terrapin men’s lacrosse team beat writer for The Diamondback. She can be reached at kyanchulisdbk@gmail.com.