The upset of the weekend was Princeton over Cornell, at least in the way it impacts the Tigers' season. It may get the Tigers into the show if the polls indicate anything. The coaches' and IL polls now have Princeton at 10 and 11 respectively, while a team that pounded them 10-2 remains unranked. We don’t think Albany should be ranked either, by the way. But we put Princeton legitimately in a 14-17 range and just out of the postseason at-large scenario for now. I say for now because I think a Cornell loss to Brown this weekend and Princeton win over Brown next week would lift Princeton legitimately even with the Albany loss. But Princeton could lose to Dartmouth this weekend and that would not surprise me. It would help both Princeton and the pollsters if Albany won the CAA. :)

Most surprising this week, Bucknell may have played its way out of NCAA at-large consideration by posting two bad losses to Penn State and Colgate. Towson put emphasis on a pretty bad season with a 7-4 loss to Villanova. The true redemption for Towson would be a season-spoiling win over Hopkins, but I can't see it. 0-12 Marist beat Providence. Providence only lost to UNC by two.

Maryland and Cornell must have been scratching their heads this week. The Terps started the week 12th and the Big Red were 6th in the coaches' poll. Cornell lost to Princeton and Maryland beat Penn. The two are tied for 8th this week. Beating Penn moves a team up four places? Remember, if the Terps moved four spots, some coaches may have had them moving six spots, while some moved them only two, for example. We see the final result -- the average of the voting. Either way, that’s some big shuffling of some major teams, which indicates either serious rethinking or indecision generally.

I am not criticizing the voters themselves. Polls are, for the most part, terrible instruments. A great example was on display this weekend. ESPNU covered the Manhasset-Chaminade high school matchup as a part of the Jimmy Regan Tribute which included Duke against Army. Regan, who died in service to our country, played at Chaminade and Duke and was from Manhasset. The game was between the nationally second-ranked Manhasset and the 20th-ranked Chaminade and No. 20 just ripped No. 2. It was obvious that the barometer was WAY off.

High school polls are sillier than college polls and just play with the emotions of many younger kids and parents who don’t deserve it. Calling a team one of the best in the nation would suffice, unless we can really play it out, which I would prefer, but that can't happen.

I get e-mails all the time asking why this region or that state are so lame that they won’t participate in a national high school tournament or even games between the big Maryland and New York teams at the end of the season. The truth is that the high school year in Maryland ends a month before New York. A Long Island team is just finding out the state playoff schedule when the Maryland kids are at Beach Week "down the ocean."

The RRRR Men's Division I Lacrosse Rankings for April 21, 2008

1
Duke* 13-1

2
Syracuse 11-1

3
Virginia* 11-2
Maryland 8-4

5
Georgetown 8-3
North Carolina 8-4

7
UMBC 9-3
Ohio State 9-3
Johns Hopkins 5-5

10
Drexel 11-3
Notre Dame 9-2

11
Cornell 9-3
Loyola 7-4
Navy 9-4

14
Brown 10-2
Army 9-4
Princeton 7-4
Denver 9-6

18
Bucknell 9-4
Albany 6-7

20
Dartmouth 6-6
Hofstra 6-5
Stony Brook 7-4
Colgate 8-5
Penn 5-6

25
Harvard 5-7
Delaware 9-6
Massachusetts 5-6
Towson 4-8
Fairfield 4-8
Rutgers 5-6
Villanova 5-8
Hobart 6-5

See the full rankings at E-Lacrosse

* Duke players and a Virginia player were given extra eligibility by the NCAA, creating "super-seniors." In my opinion, this gives them an unfair advantage over all other contending teams in 2008.