Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Inside Lacrosse Poll for this week...I am starting to think the Big 10 Womens lacrosse is as overrated as their men's basketball counterparts. Except for Michigna in Men's hoops the others were seemigly overrated as they beat each other up during the regular season. Except for Northwestern in the womens lacrosse are the Big 10's really good?? Maryland at 5-2 as number 9? They will more than likely be 5-3 after this afternoon. Michigan and Penn State at 14 & 15 respectively, both with 3-4 records. Then you have Ohio State at 19 with a 2-7 record.

In normal years a teams record is not necessarily an indication of how a team stacks up in women’s lacrosse. There is such a wide spread of the top and bottom and everyone in between that you can’t use a teams record to judge them. This year it’s even worse. In most years Northwestern and Maryland are Top 10 even Top 5, Penn State is Top 20 just about every year, Hopkins is always competitive and in the Top 20 or (others receiving votes) from time to time and Michigan has improved in recent years. The Big Ten is a very competitive conference. The top 3 or 4 teams in any given year are generally legit.

Obviously Northwestern the best in the Big 10 this year, all others are competitive with each other and look very good. Teams are athletic and very solid, it's a shame they can not play outside competition. We will have to wait and see what happens in the NCAA Tournament. As far as Big Men's Basketball goes... I think maybe 8 teams made the tournament, some were upset by lower seeded teams and some upset higher seeded teams... not really a good comparison with women's lacrosse .

So.. the big 10 teams all play each other and are competitive with each other excluding NU. Got that. So what makes you say they are all good. Maybe they are competitive with each other is that they are not very good. You seemed to argue both sides saying they don’t play out of conference but they must be good???

I would agree that the Big Ten teams all look pretty good. Traditionally The Big Ten is the number 2 conference in terms of depth. Maryland, Northwestern, Penn State and Hopkins all excellent programs and would be considered by most to Top 20 Programs (Maryland & Northwestern Top 10 Programs) Ohio State and Rutgers have had some competitive teams as well.
Looking back as far as 2010 Penn State finished in the Top 20 in 9 out of the 10 years. In four of those year PSU finished in the Top 10 ( three years in Top 5) and they went to the Final Four twice in that time period. I don’t think anyone needs a history lesson on Maryland or Northwestern... Hopkins finished the season in the Top 20 five times in that time period plus 3 Top 25 finishes so they were considered Top 25 in 8 of the past 10 full seasons of play.... 2010 - 2019.
Do you really believe that all of these programs have just fallen apart and that they are no longer competitive with the rest of the women’s DI lacrosse teams? No, I would say they are all competitive all might be Top 20. The Big 10 hurt themselves by not allowing their teams to compete outside of the conference.

These are great details but going back 11 years is too far back. I agree the Big Ten is a very good conference but you can agrue that if we go back to 2017 when most of this years true seniors came into their programs you would see not so great statistics. Johns Hopkins is 2-4 right now in an only Big ten schedule. In the Covid shortened season they were 4-3 with a loss to Hofstra. In 2019 they were 10-8 with 3 of those losses to non Big Ten teams. In 2018 they were 10-9 with 4 of those losses to non Big Ten teams. So in more recent times they are an OK team.

Penn State is 3-5 right now in 2021 Big Ten only schedule. In the Covid shortened 2020 season they were 5-2 with both losses to non Big Ten teams. In 2019 they were 8-9 with 5 losses to non Big Ten teams. In 2018 they were 10-10 with 5 losses to non Big Ten teams. 2017 they were very good at 17-4 and made the final four. Again, they are a good team but have struggled the pas few years as has Hopkins.

I am not sayng they all fell apart but I also do not understand how teams like Rutgers and Ohio State became such formidable opponents in a year. Not playing outside your conference hurst like you said. Ohio State is 2-7 and is 19th in the Country? In the stats above almost half of all the losses over the years were to non Big Ten teams. The point of my original post was really to spell out the fact that it is hard to judge a teams true nationa standings when they only play in conference games...I in no way meant to disparage the teams or their conference.