Big East Lacrosse Primer:
ND plays their first conference game today in probably the weakest Big East conference since its inception. The 8 team conference only features 1 top 20 team besides Notre Dame (Syracuse, #4) but has a bit more talent than meets the eye. Here's a breakdown of the teams in the order ND plays them:
Rutgers (2-6) - Simply put, a team that doesn't scare you in any one area. Not horrendous in any single facet of the game and they've played a number of close contests that they've come out on the wrong side of, but they're not really "good" at anything either. Only way we lose this game is if we have a serious let down after finishing our 6 game gauntlet and basically don't show up to play for 3Q. It would be shocking if Rutgers scored north of 7 goals on Notre Dame's defense.
St. John's (6-2) - A really schizophrenic team. Beat ND in the Big East tournament last year in a huge upset that cost us a top 2 seed. Losses on the year to Stony Brook and Syracuse only to go along with some pretty solid wins (Hofstra, Yale). When on their A game, their offense can be quite good. Kieran McArdle is a legit All-American at attack and this is the kind of team that can drop 10-15 goals regularly when they're clicking. Their defense is solid with a good goalie. This will be one of three Big east matchups ND has a realistic chance of losing and St. John's could enter the top 20 this week.
Marquette (2-3) - Record is probably an overstatement of their talent. The first year program most recently lost by 5 to St. Joe's and should be a walk over for ND. It would take an act of God to lose this game... we're so confident we moved it from a home game to a neutral site game in Chicago.
Providence (5-3) - The Friars started the season 5-0 before coming back down to earth. Blowout losses to Georgetown and Syracuse followed by a loss to Siena seems to indicate that this team isn't a serious contender. ND should likely win this game by a large margin.
Georgetown (3-5) - Georgetown has a new coach this year and has been pretty inconsistent. The occasional offensive outburst not withstanding, their offense has bene one of the worst in DI and their defense sometimes gets shelled for huge goal totals. Georgetown has some talent, but their overall product just isn't there.
Villanova (2-5) - I called them the best 1-5 team in the history of lacrosse heading into the Syracuse game, and now they're the best 2-5 team in the history of lacrosse after upsetting Syracuse. They played a gauntlet of teams to start the year that was only surpassed in difficulty by Notre Dame's gauntlet. They also have been mired with injuries. When clicking, their offense is unique and effective. They run a lot of motion and use ball movement to get guys open to score... if you aren't disciplined you can give up huge runs to this team in a matter of minutes. Their defense isn't a strong spot but it also isn't horrendous. This could be a tough game for ND, especially if Villanova comes into the contest hot and trying to play their way into the tournament via conference championship.
Syracuse (5-2) - The #4 team in the country is likely to move down after the Villanova loss. Expect ND to enter the finale against Syracuse 11-1 barring an upset by St. John's/Villanova and Syracuse to be 10-2 or 8-4 playing for a share of the Big East crown. Upcoming matches against Cornell and Princeton loom large for the Orange. Syracuse has some great 1v1 defenders and talent on offense. They have question marks at faceoff and in goal that continue to bite them. In their loss to Albany, they only made 7 saves on 23 shots on goal. In their loss to Villanova, they lost a whopping 22 of 24 faceoffs. Both losses were by a goal. They key to beating Syracuse is taking advantage of these weaknesses.
