NCAA Week Two Preview: Virginia, Duke, Notre Dame in Action

NCAA week two is upon us. Well it's week one for a lot of teams and a few teams already have two games in. This week we will get to see more of the Top Ten play and a few games will be on ESPNU or ESPN3. Week 1 showed us that the talent collection in Chapel Hill is as advertised and that Duke might be as good as many people think they are. Also Michigan played its first D1 game and was competitive up till the 4th quarter. But now we move into week 2 and my top 5 games of the week.

#1 Tie
Albany @ Syracuse
Denver @ Ohio State

Both these games are big for all the teams involved. Albany and the Thompson family have the best shot in years to beat a Syracuse team that is rebuilding like no other team in the country. Albany will rely on Miles, Ty, and Lyle Thompson to score but also has returning leading scorer Joe Resetarits to get to the goal in key situations. Syracuse returns a strong attack unit with Tommy Palasek and Tim Desko both returning and former attackmen Jojo Marasco moving to the midfield. Syracuse must replace its goalie, LPM, top cover defender and entire starting midfield. While they have talent it might take a few games for it all to come together.
Denver returns there entire offense and starting goalie from a team that surprised the whole lacrosse world and then proved they belonged by taking team USA into over time a few weeks ago with an offense that dazzles. Mark Mathews is an early POY candidate and deservingly so. He may just be the best player in the country but wasn't as well know before last season. Last year Ohio State was a young team on the verge, Finishing 8-8 and returning a large portion of there starters. When Ohio State plays well Logan Schuss plays well. He is the catalyst that makes there team go. To beat Denver, Ohio State will need to play more like the team that beat North Carolina last year and less like the team that Denver thumped at the end of last season.
My Picks: Syracuse and Denver, Proven commodities over potential.

#2 Bucknell @ UMass
A tough loss last week for Bucknell will have them hungry for a win this week. Umass had a huge win and Will Manny showed that this year he will be the star of Umass offense with 9 points on 7 goals and 2 assists. Bucknell is missing Charlie Streep bad, they won all the stat battles in the Delaware game but were unable to close out the game in overtime. Sophomore attack man Todd Heritage had a big game but Bucknell will need a few more players to step up in order to justify the #15 ranking they received. If Manny can play like that all season and Art Kell can step up Umass might be dangerous. The rest of the CAA will take notice very quickly.
My pick: Umass, Manny wont get 9 points again but he will draw enough attention to allow his team mates to do some damage.

#3 Virginia @ Drexel
The Defending champs are not going easy with the start of there title defense. Mark Manos G Drexel has the potential to be a All American goalie, but to be an All American you have to come up big in the big games and while championships are not won in February, Manos having a big game against Virginia would make voters take notice. Robert Church is the scoring threat and ball carrier for Drexel. On the opposite side Steele Stanwick will show why he was the Tewaaraton winner last year. Virginia is replacing a lot of leadership especially on the defensive end but they have enough returning in Stanwick, Chris Bocklet, and Colin Briggs to be the early favorite to win it all again this year.
My pick: Virginia, Stanwick and Bocklet will score enough to keep Virginias inexperienced defense out of trouble.

#4 Delaware @ Loyola
Delaware rolled over Detroit Mercy and then beat a very good Bucknell team in OT. If Delaware wins this one they will be a fast riser when the first Top 20 poll comes out. Loyola will enter the game with high expectations for this with a lot of returning players. Mike Sawyer will carry the offense and which ever of the goalies, Jack Runkei or Mike Bonitatibus will have an experienced defense in front of him.
Sophmore middie Danny Keane has been a revelation for Delaware with 7 goals in their 2 games, but the star so far has been Grant Kaleikau who has 12 points with 4 goals and 8 assists. Delaware's win over Bucknell may have been simply because they had a game in before the game or because Bucknell was missing Charlie Streep either way a win is a win.
My Pick: Delaware, Ride the hot streak.

Game of the Week: Duke @ Notre Dame
Offense vs. Defense. Must be some bad blood between these two teams as they keep finding ways to end each others seasons, Duke more often ending ND. Duke comes in with an impressive win against an out manned Rutgers team. A game in which there midfield talent really shined and proved that they might just be the best midfield unit in college lacrosse. Duke can and will shoot the ball, they have the team speed and talent to get to 5 and 5 and rip shots, They took 51 against Rutgers. The only stat from Dukes opening game that concerned me was Goalie play and 42% saves. Teams that are going to go the distance don't have substandard goalie play. Jordan Wolf who was held without a goal in the last game will be a key.
Notre Dame comes into this season with some holes to fill and some questions. The only thing we know for sure is that ND will be hard to score on. There defense has seen there GAA drop in each of the last 4 seasons. The biggest question mark is who is going to score? If Norte Dames two NCAA tournament games last year where any indication Westy Hopkins is going to break out. Watch for Freshman Coner Doyle to be a big contributor.
My Pick: Duke, ND just has to many questions and that Duke midfield is so so good.