Denver
Looking at the early schedule, the one game that sticks out more than the rest is #3 Duke vs. #1 Denver on February 14. Is Denver really the best team in the nation, and can they finally break through and go to the National Championship game? Can Duke fill the massive holes left by Jordan Wolf and Josh Dionne, and if so, do they have the ability to repeat? These are the questions we want answered. The game will be part of the second annual Cobb County Classic, and will also feature Syracuse vs. St. John’s.
Five years ago Bill Tierney shocked the lacrosse world by jumping ship at Princeton and heading west to the University of Denver. Since his arrival Denver has gone from a program that had never reached the NCAA Quarterfinals to a program that has made it to Championship Weekend three of the last four years.
Denver plays in the Big East, and is the easy pick for the league champion in a conference that features Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, and Villanova. So with a weak conference schedule, the Pioneers loaded up their non-conference schedule with four ranked opponents: #3 Duke, #6 North Carolina, #2 Notre Dame, and #15 Lehigh. I expect the Pioneers to make a clean sweep of its Big East schedule but will have trouble with Duke and Notre Dame.
Denver had one of the most high-powered offenses last year. The Pioneers came in third nationally in scoring margin, scoring offense and shot percentage and fourth nationally in points per game. Additionally, Denver gave up the fewest turnovers of any team. 2013 team leader in goals, Wesley Berg, returns as a first team pre-season all-American. However, Zach Miller might be more important to the Pioneers. As a freshman last year, he pulled in 38 goals and 19 assists and was one of the most accurate shooters in division I. In addition, Inside Lacrosse named Miller Freshman of the Year and the Steamburg, NY native made the Tewaaraton Award Nominee list. Jack Bobzien, another very accurate shooter, finished 2014 with 42 goals and 21 assists. As if these three were not enough, DU will add Maryland transfer Connor Cannizzaro. Last year’s ACC Freshman of the Year finished up with 26 goals and 8 assists. The biggest question for this offense is how will Coach Matt Brown fit all four into his system?
At midfield, DU returns standouts Erik Adamson and Tyler Pace. Adamson, another first-team preseason all-American, had 44 goals and 10 assists last year while Pace finished with 26 goals and 11 assists. At the face-off circle, junior Chris Hampton ended 2014 with a .524 face-off win percentage. Denver will need more from its face-off crew if it wants to return to Championship Weekend.
Ryan LaPlante will start in goal this year after splitting time with Jamie Faus last year. LaPlante was named an honorable mention on the pre-season All-American list, which may have been a stretch in my opinion. In 2014 LaPlante allowed 8.66 goals against average and had a .563 save percentage. These numbers are good enough to put LaPlante in the top thirteen nationally for both statistical categories. It’s not the statistics that worry me, it’s the amount of time he played; the senior stood in the crease for less than half of the total minutes for Denver. It will be interesting to see how he responds with double the minutes.
Toughest Schedule of 2015?
Without a doubt the ACC will continue to feature the best competition of any league in 2015. Although the Big 10 is a conference that is climbing, the ACC has won 12 of the last 15 National Championships. Therefore it may be no surprise that the toughest schedules come from the ACC, and it appears that the North Carolina Tar Heels may have the toughest road of any team. UNC will play #1 Denver, at #2 Notre Dame, #3 Duke, #4 Syracuse, #5 Johns Hopkins, #9 Maryland, at #10 Virginia, #11 Harvard, and #14 Bryant. In addition, UNC will play the top two teams in the Southern Conference (High Point and Richmond). I strongly suspect that during the regular season UNC will play all four teams that end up at the Championship Weekend.
So why did the Tar Heals commit to such a rigorous schedule? Think back to the end of last season, the bottom four ACC teams went through an agonizing waiting game to see how many ACC teams, if any, would be left out of the NCAA Tournament. Once we found out all of the ACC teams made the tournament, the biggest controversy became the seeding of Penn and UNC. The Committee seeded Penn #4 and left an unseeded UNC to play at #5 Denver. Penn ended up losing to an unseeded Drexel in the first round. Comparing UNC against Penn, UNC had more quality wins, quality losses, and head-to-head wins versus tournament teams. However, Penn had a higher RPI and SOS. It’s quite possible UNC wants to make sure this won’t happen again by shoring up that RPI and SOS.
Games of the Week
Week 1: High Point vs. Delaware
*first game of the season
*only game of week 1
Week 2: #7 Loyola vs. #10 Virginia
Week 3: #3 Duke vs. #1 Denver
*Cobb County Lacrosse Classic
*Syracuse vs. St. John’s will also be featured
Week 4: #6 North Carolina vs. #5 Johns Hopkins
Week 5: #14 Bryant vs. #14 Albany
Week 6: #1 Denver vs. #2 Notre Dame
Week 7: #4 Syracuse vs. #5 Johns Hopkins
Week 8: #4 Syracuse vs. #3 Duke
Week 9: #2 Notre Dame vs. #3 Syracuse
Week 10: #3 Duke vs. #2 Notre Dame
Week 11: #9 Maryland vs. #7 Loyola
Week 12: #4 Syracuse vs. Hobart
*will play for the Kraus-Simmons Trophy
Week 13: #9 Maryland vs. #5 Johns Hopkins
Week 14: #18 Army vs. #2 Notre Dame
Conference Championship Picks
ACC: Duke
America East: Albany
Big East: Denver
Big Ten: Johns Hopkins
Colonial: Drexel
Ivy: Harvard
Metro Atlantic: Siena
Northeast: Bryant
Patriot: Loyola
Southern: High Point
Tournament Picks
Obviously seeding will affect which teams make Championship Weekend but my top four teams to make the final four are:
Duke
Notre Dame
Denver
Johns Hopkins
National Champions: Duke
