Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
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.


Let me start by saying Duke is a to 20 program at this point but are close to being moved out. Duke plays a difficult schedule strictly as a result of being in the ACC and more than 20 other teams play a more difficult non conference schedule. To say they are a definite top 20 any of the last 3 seasons is ill informed at best. The thing is its Duke University so honestly they should be much more competitive than they are. Not sure what the problem is down there but I have heard the excuse that the standards of getting into the school make recruiting the best athletes difficult , I just don't buy that. I do think being in such close proximity to UNC may hurt them .


*********

Scheduling out of conference games is not so simple. Duke plays a very difficult conference schedule and this year they had Penn and Northwestern out of conference. Their schedule is difficult enough as is. If Georgetown did not upset Denver and win their conference championship Duke would have been in the NCAA Tournament. Admission standards at Duke are more difficult than most schools but they have "slots" and there are many great players that have the grades and test scores to get into Duke as a recruited athlete. Duke's proximity to UNC does not hurt them in any way.

Coaching is the biggest issue at Duke. One aspect of coaching is recruiting and Duke fell behind during the heyday of early recruiting. They brought in some great recruits but they missed on others because other schools were more aggressive. Missing on one or two studs per year will hurt especially when playing the schedule that Duke plays.

There is no question that Duke is one of the Top 20 Programs. They have had 2 maybe 3 down years (for Duke) but they will be back fighting to be in the Top 10 -15 consistently going forward.

Michigan is the only non traditional power that I see moving into the 15 - 20 programs that are able to be competitive every year.



Agree that Duke has been hurt by their own recruiting policies. That may be the degree of difficulty to get in, being reluctant to chase early recruits, and bit of a snooty attitude to only go after Duke camp groupies. I think this new “no contact” until the shotgun start Sept1st is really going to shake up the quality of all schools incoming recruiting classes. Some will definitely benefit, while other will be hurt.