ESPN analyst Mark Dixon has covered several games this season, including No. 7 Maryland’s 15-13 victory over No. 9 Georgetown and No. 3 North Carolina’s 12-7 win against No. 19 UMBC. On Monday, he shared his thoughts on the first month of the lacrosse season.
Question: Which team has exceeded your expectations?
Mark Dixon: "The one team that has really jumped out to me is Maryland. It’s not so much that they beat Georgetown and they beat Duke, but it’s the way they’re playing right now. They’re playing a lot of guys, and I’m particularly impressed with the midfield. You lose three seniors, and [sophomore] Jake Bernhardt and [senior] Adam Sear have played well and [freshman] John Haus has been terrific. They’ve got guys stepping into the midfield, but I think more importantly, there’s the level of excitement that they have. Maryland has always been intense, but the excitement and passion that they’re playing with, I haven’t seen that in recent years. Against Georgetown when they were making that comeback [from a four-goal deficit], the sideline was going absolutely nuts. They were animated, they were excited, and Coach [Dave] Cottle was right in the middle of it all. He’s high-fiving, chest-bumping, leading the cheers, pumping his fist. They’re just a really excited bunch right now, so Maryland is a team that has exceeded my expectations. I also think Princeton has exceeded my expectations. When you look at the new coach [Chris Bates] who came from a very defensive-minded program at Drexel, you think, ‘OK, I think Princeton’s going to have some trouble scoring goals or at least emulating the success that they had a year ago.’ But they put up 17 against a very good Hofstra team and 11 against Johns Hopkins. So I think Princeton offensively has surprised me. Defensively, they’re surprising me, too, with the amount of goals that they’re giving up, but when you lose a guy like [sophomore defenseman] Chad Wiedmaier [who is recovering from knee surgery], I think you can expect the defense to take a little bit of a step back. But I would say that Maryland and Princeton are the two teams that have surprised me thus far."
Q: Which team has fallen short of your expectations?
MD: "Well, it’s got to be Duke, which was my preseason No. 1. The loss to Notre Dame, I actually picked them to lose that game in the Inside Lacrosse Pick ‘Em. I just thought it was a dangerous game, and the way Duke was playing in an overtime win against Bucknell, that really told me that these guys were ripe for the picking. Notre Dame is a very, very good team with a lot of good defensive players. But what’s been disappointing about Duke is the midfield production. When you look at guys like [senior] Steve Schoeffel, [sophomore] Justin Turri, [sophomore] Rob Rotanz, [senior] Will McKee, I thought there would be more production out of the midfield, and there hasn’t been. Look at North Carolina and [junior attackman] Billy Bitter. He’s not doing it all by himself this year. He can’t because [opponents] are keying on him too much. The guys who are taking pressure off of Bitter are midfielders like [senior] Sean DeLaney, [senior] Cryder DiPietro and [sophomore] Jimmy Dunster. Those are dangerous dodgers who are scoring and producing. So Duke has two losses. They had two losses at this time last year. But it’s really the midfield that is not getting the job done for the Blue Devils."
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