Quint Kessenich: Early look at 2013 title contenders
We're only a couple of weeks into the men's lacrosse season, but it's never too early to peek ahead to Memorial Day. No. 1 Loyola, No. 3 Maryland and No. 5 Johns Hopkins are among the early contenders to hoist the national championship trophy — with 13 long weeks still to go. Here's a team-by-team look at the favorites (with odds in parentheses):
—By Quint Kessenich, For The Baltimore Sun
—By Quint Kessenich, For The Baltimore Sun
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Loyola (5-2)
The 2012 national champion Greyhounds were 18-1 last season and return eight of 10 starters for coach Charley Toomey. Their transition offense and stingy half-field defense set them apart. How do the 'Hounds react to the pressure and expectations of winning the school's first NCAA title?
Strength: Attackmen Mike Sawyer and Justin Ward (Old Mill) form a potent one-two punch. Defensive midfielders Scott Ratliff, Josh Hawkins and Pat Laconi might be the nation's best trio at that spot. Weakness: Faceoffs. Blake Burkhardt and Brendan Donovan (Loyola) are untested. X-factor: Loyola's previous offensive coordinator, Dan Chemotti, is now the head coach at Richmond. Dave Metzbower calls the shots now. |
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trebort49 at 7:25 AM February 22, 2013
Quint: This "early look" essentially is worthless because you talk more or less about the history of these teams, which tells us next to nothing about how they'll play this year, and because of the great unknown for all of them, which is how they will adjust to the new rules. Why not write a column (blog) analyzing each team and, in doing so, talk about what you saw during fall ball? You write that ND's weakness is the lack of offense. That's not what I saw last weekend when they came out of locker room firing bullets past Puke's goalies and rang up 13 goals against the Blue Devil defense. I know that one game doth not a season make, but have the first games cause you to reassess your "early look?"
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