Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Duke is in the ACC so they have to play UNC and Syracuse and BC...
Northwestern and Penn were their Top 20 games... A lot of the other games esp. the last game they played against VCU are against unranked teams. Its kind of what ND did this year. It doesnt help to play an easier schedule when it comes to NCAAs'


Dukes schedule is far from easy. Other than the usual suspects (MD, UNC, NU, Syracuse, BC, Princeton, Virginia, Florida, PSU...) What teams play a tougher or equivalent schedule? Not many teams play the type of schedule That Duke plays.

Duke is an excellent program, easily one of the Top 20 Programs in the country.


They haven't been lately...


Yes, they have. Name 20 programs that have consistently done better over the past five years.


What are you looking at? What's your definition of lately? In the last four seasons Duke is 38-35 with ONE tournament appearance four years ago in which they won the first round game and got beat fairly easily in the second round, is this your idea of success? I would think even the Duke faithful wouldn't want to lower the bar to these levels. The game appears to be passing Kimel by, she has yet to figured out playing in the shot clock free movement era


Duke has finished the season ranked in the Top 20 in 8 of the past 10 years. They did not finish in the Top 20 in 2017 or 2018 but they were ranked 16th in the most recent coaches poll and will most likely be ranked in the final poll of the season this year. A teams record in Division I womens lacrosse is not an indication of where they fall in relation to the rest of the teams. Duke for example lost 8 games this year. They lost to current #2, #3 "twice", #4, #5, #6, #7 and #12 and they have a win over #7. Even if they finish the year ranked 20th that puts them ahead of 96 teams. Duke is absolutely one of the Top 20 Programs. The ACC is brutal and if you are off just a bit you will not win many games. In addition to their ACC schedule they played Penn and Northwestern that is a very difficult schedule.

Take a look at Villanova, a team with a record of 10 - 8 very similar to Duke's 11 -8. There is no comparison, Duke beat Villanova by 10 goals 19 -9 and it was never close as it was 8 -0 in the first eight minutes of the game. Villanova played three good teams, Duke, Navy, Princeton and none of the games were even close. Nova also lost to Georgetown and the game was never really in doubt. Similar record to Duke but they are not in the same ballpark as Duke.

Duke has lost its fair share of games in recent years but they are still one of the 20 or so best programs in Division I.

I would expect Duke to be Top 15 -20 again next year if not higher.