2011 NCAA Men’s LAX Tournament Bracket Projection from the Hokie Guru, Your Bureaucrat on Sports!!

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2011 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Tournament Bracket Projection

This is the first time the Guru has tried projecting all of the teams for the Men’s NCAA Division 1 Lacrosse tournament… have no fear… here it goes…

We have six teams that come from conferences who receive automatic bids and ten at-large candidates (you’ll see my commentary below on the potential field):

Automatic Bids

• Siena (Metro Atlantic) – One of the best offenses in the NCAA tournament… and one of the worst defenses. Save the auto-bid, Siena doesn’t see the tourney on its own accord.
• UMass (CAA) – Middle of the pack in every statistical category… has the feel of a team that would not be in the tournament if they do not win the CAA.
• Denver (ECAC) – This is a dangerous team that beat Duke… don’t sleep on the Pioneers… no one wants to meet them.
• Cornell (Ivy) – The only auto bid that will also be a #1 seed. The Big Red look good.
• Bucknell (Patriot) – The Bison are winners of their first NCAA lacrosse tournament bid in school history.
• Stony Brook (America East) – An intriguing match up to me, the sports fan, would be a first round crash with Syracuse… two New York teams going at it.

At Large Bids

• Syracuse – Top overall seed… and favorite to win the title.
• Notre Dame – Played great all year… and then met the Orange in NY. Your second #1 seed.
• Johns Hopkins – An old lacrosse power comes back… with a vengeance. Your third #1 seed.
• Maryland – Your ACC winner and a higher RPI than Notre Dame, but the Irish with a better profile.
• Duke – Coach John Danowski has done a good job getting this Duke team back to the tournament… lost a lot pieces… has a lot of young players… just not good enough on D… yet.
• North Carolina – Best turnover ratio in the country (they protect the ball)…. and way up there in assists. If the Heels were better on D, they would be national title contenders.
• Virginia – A team with high expectations… and faded fast… entire team wasn’t on the same page all year… but there’s still time to make a run, especially with the nation’s best offense.
• Villanova – The opposite of the Heels… a team that loves to force turnovers that lead to points. I’m impressed with the growth of this program.
• Hofstra – Maybe one of your last teams in… and they play the best overall defense… that can win you some games.
• Harvard – The Crimson really helped their chances by getting to the Ivy League finals.

Update 9:03 AM, 5/7/2011: @TheUVAFool makes a good point that the teams are seeded 1-8 and 8 teams are unseeded… the Guru know how the seeding works, but it’s easier to explain the casual reader that if you’re in seeds 1-4, you’re the best in the region that you are assigned to.

I’ll give you my pick on the Lacrosse Final Four next Saturday. Maybe the Guru will break your heart with his picks (hat tip: Taio Cruz featuring Ludacris).

Winning!!

In 13 days, the @HokieGuru graduates with a Master in Policy Management from Georgetown University. WOOO!!!!

Have a great weekend!!