[Lax] Cornell up to 6th in USILA poll

[billhoward]

Could North Carolina (or Army?) be the lacrosse team's Michigan State if we get hammered in the  RPI calculations and don't make the playoffs or get a lousy seeding? But the best way would be to roll over Princeton Saturday. The home field advantage will help. Both teams are far better than a month ago.

April 18 USILA poll
No. Name Record (First place votes) Points Previous 
1 Johns Hopkins 9-0 (10) 200 1 
2 Duke 12-1 190 2 
3 Georgetown 8-2 173 5 
4  Virginia 9-2 167 3 
5 Navy 9-2 163 T6 
6 Cornell 7-2 150 8 
7 Tie  Army 9-2 136 4 
7 Tie  Syracuse 6-4 136 T6 
9 Massachusetts 8-2 116 10 
10 Maryland 5-5 111 9 
11 Dartmouth 5-3 91 11 
12 Bucknell 7-3 82 12 
13 Albany 8-3 67 13 
14 Towson 8-3 60 T16 
15 Fairfield 9-2 56 20 
16  Yale 7-2 52 18 
17 Hofstra 6-6 38 T16 
18 Brown 5-3 33 19 
19 Denver 6-4 25 15 
20 Notre Dame 6-4 20 14 
Others receiving votes (in order): Delaware 17, Hobart 7, Stony Brook 7, Penn State 2, North Carolina 1

[DeltaOne81]

Just FYI bill, a team's own RPI rating has absolutely nothing to do with them getting an at large NCAA bid. Welcome to the wacky world of NCAA lacrosse.

[ithacat]

[Q]DeltaOne81 Wrote:

 Just FYI bill, a team's own RPI rating has absolutely nothing to do with them getting an at large NCAA bid. Welcome to the wacky world of NCAA lacrosse.[/q]

Are you sure... B-]
http://www.laxpower.com/update04/binmen/ncaa01.php

 

[DeltaOne81]

Well, okay, I was referring to reality instead of theory Let me explain.

First note that those 3 'primary' criteria are ordered, not done at the same time. So only if there's a tie in #1 do they move to #2. And only with a tie in #1 and #2 do they move to #3.

So, look at that first criteria... record against 1-5, 6-10, and 11-15 in the RPI. We'll call this quality wins. We beat Syracuse, ND, and Yale, currently making us 1-0-2 in those 3 categories. Notre Dame, despite being #14 in RPI, hasn't beaten any of the top 15, so they're 0-0-0 and undoubtedly out of the tournament. Navy beat Maryland, Amry, and NC, for 1-1-1.

First, there is nothing to specify the weighting between the 3, so the committee just uses whatever they want. I think we can bet the 1-1-1 beats 1-0-2. But what about 0-1-1 vs. 1-0-0? 0-1-1 versus 0-0-3?  The committee will do what they please, using the requisite smoke and mirrors and not bothering to make a tie. Don't believe me? Someone from eLynah managed to prove one year that the lax committee did something that was inconsistent with any possible set of fixed weights for the 3 sections of 'quality wins'. They broke math in order to pick who they wanted. So they just do what they please.

Only if there's an exact tie in this criteria do they move to the second criteria. And I think you can tell that the odds of there happening to be a tie at the critical juncture is fairly small. In fact, in the several years I've followed NCAA lax, it hasn't happen. I'd bet that someone with a longer frame of reference can agree that it rarely happens and I wouldn't be surprised if it never does.

That said, the second criteria is the Strength of Schedule based on the top 10 teams you've faced. It doesn't say how to calculate it or anythng, well, useful. Even if it did, SoS can easily be carried to the 4th decimal, or, heck, beyond. A tie in the top 10 teams you faced? Unless all cosmic forces aligned and they happened to be the same exact 10 teams (in a 12ish game schedule, do any teams even share 10 opponents this year?) then the committee, once again calling on their good friends smoke and mirrors, will select a winner here.

So, as I said, a team's own RPI rating has nothing to do with them making the NCAAs. But you had to make me go about it the long way

[KeithK]

...and as I think every year when this comes up - with all of its flaws thank god for PWR!!!

[Hillel Hoffmann]

Q: Given that Matt McMonagle hasn't quite been as good as he was late last year, how has Cornell survived another disastrous season at the faceoff X?

A: The strong play of their defensive midfield, especially Mike Pisco (LS) and Dave Bush (SS). Along with Cameron Marchant, they've also been behind CU's newfound transition offense.

There's a nice article in today's Sun about Bush and Pisco. Edit: Oops, I forgot the link: http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/04/19/426496bf8ac0d

Bush + Pisco = Iggulden

[profudge]

Interesting local kid doing well in lax land at Navy,  from Binghamton Press and Sun Bulletin sports section today:

[Q]Nick Mirabito (Chenango Forks) scored two goals to lift the sixth-ranked Naval Academy men's lacrosse team to a 12-9 victory over No. 4-ranked Army. Next up for Mirabito and the Midshipmen is a Saturday afternoon game against top-ranked Johns Hopkins, a team Navy hasn't defeated since 1974.[/Q]