Hop has not been good on faceoffs this year. I love this matchup.
Duke @ Hop, 2:30 p.m. Saturday
Hop has not been good on faceoffs this year. I love this matchup.
Towson @ Penn State and Yale @ Cuse completes the bracket.
We are underrated pretty badly, but we have a very, very, very winnable road game with Hopkins. Duke is more on par with the top 4 seeds from what I've seen, but the computers rule this sport. Unlike last year, we didn't have multiple wins v. the top of the field. You had to know before the season that the Big 10 would distort the computer rankings. Duke isn't going to play Big 10 teams in February, will never play Maryland, and Hopkins would not if we asked.
For the second year in a row, Duke was 1 spot ahead of UNC and was given the bus trip instead of the flight. Albany is a whole lot better than Marquette.
I assume we are in Delaware over NYC in an attempt to sell tickets.
What happened to Jake Seau? Has he been injured again this year? I know he missed pretty much all of last year with an injury.
I agree. Ten years ago Hop is the last team I would have wanted to see in Duke's draw. But this could be a lot worse, given we didn't get a seed. A little surprised Hop got the sixth seed, since even by the criteria of the committee, their resume is only the tiniest bit better than Duke's--two of our ranked wins--UNC and Loyola--are the same. Each team has a top 5 win--PSU for Hop and ND for Duke--and each has another top 20 win (besides Loyola)--BU for Duke and the admittedly "better" Rutgers for Hop. Both teams lost in OT to Syracuse. Hop is 8-6 and barely beat UVA in overtime.
OSU Loyola winner will be tough if we get there but, for sure, I'd rather have to beat one of them (and Hop) to get to Memorial Day weekend than face Md, Albany (a weirdly undervalued team) or even UNC again.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Plus the game is a half mile from my home. Looking forward to cheering on the devils.
An important goal for this game: keep the infernal Hopkins band quiet. Having sadly been present for a couple of Final 4 Duke losses to Hop, at one of which I was seated unfortunately close to said band, I hope never to hear that annoying little song they play after every goal again.
Not a first round matchup, but our 2014 tilt in the NCAAT quarterfinal was also a great win for the good guys.
(Sidebar: if you haven't watched that whole video, you should. Great detail on the 2014 squad that went back-to-back. A lot of speed and heart in that group.)
Didn't take long for the coaching carousel to start spinning. Matt Kerwick is out at Cornell.
Let's play like we did ND @ Duke, the first one. I was at that blowout. Lots of fun.