Monday May 3rd, 2021 8:00am
(Photo Notre Dame Athletics)
Conference tournaments take center stage this week as eight leagues will hand out AQs and a trip to May Madness. The NCAA Tournament will also welcome eight at-large selections. The ACC will grab five of the eight at-large bids. That leaves three open spots for teams that fail to capture their league crown. It’s as easy as 8-8-5-3. Runners-up with resumes from the Patriot, Big East and Big Ten are likely to receive those three last bids.
All the intrigue makes this week the most intense of the season, the moment of truth. Win and advance, lose and go home.
We were treated to a smorgasbord of television games, rivalry games and contests that had league-standing significance.
The ACC Thursday Night Thriller remains undefeated. Navy earned the Star in front of 5,000 fans in Annapolis. UMBC keeps winning overtime games. Otto bounced back in Charlottesville. The Drexel Dragons and Saint Joe’s Hawks have momentum in late April.
For some, this week is the last of the regular season. For others it s the chance to play for a conference automatic qualifier where every game has Game 7’ intensity and ramifications. Right now, there are roughly 45 teams in the hunt for the NCAA Tournament.
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5. Notre Dame Irish students and alums stand for the school fight song. Saturday afternoon they were dancing after an 18-11 victory over Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. St Patrick Kavanagh finished with nine points. He is playing himself into Tewaraaton conversation. The groundball and face-off stats tell the story, with Notre Dame holding a 45-20 edge in grounders while winning 23-of-32 face-offs. The rest takes care of itself. After a close home loss to Virginia last week, the Irish were ready to battle. This was the exact response you hope to see. Their EMO continues to percolate. Eric Dobson, Griffin Westlin and Will Yorke all stung corners. The FOGOs, defense and goaltending plus bench role players have Rudy dreaming of its first NCAA title.
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Monday March 15th, 2021 8:00am
We are living with postponements and programs in pause. We witnessed monster goal-scoring runs this week.
We were treated to a more robust slate of Sunday games because of on-campus social distancing and facility availability. I think that’s a longterm positive. Why stack all the games on Saturday? The game grows when teams play on Thursday night, Friday night and Sunday afternoon. Everybody can’t play Saturday at the same time.
Maryland, North Carolina and Johns Hopkins picked up marquee wins. Duke dominated. Lehigh is legit. Vermont and Delaware are surging. UMass made its belated debut.