May Madness will determine NCAA men’s lacrosse field

As the athletics director at Fairfield University, Gene Doris has a full-time job. He’s going to put in a little overtime this weekend as chair of the NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse committee.

“What’s really different this year is how little separation there is,” Doris says. “Even in separating those top layers, the difference is minuscule. It’s not just splitting hairs between the top two.”That group has the unenviable task of not only choosing the 18 participants in the upcoming NCAA tournament, but also of seeding the field for what might be the most wide-open quest for the title in recent memory.

Here’s what we do know. Two of the 10 conferences with automatic qualification have already held their tournaments, so Atlantic Coast Conference champion Syracuse and Patriot League winner Loyola (Md.) can breathe easier this weekend. Where they’ll be playing and whom they’ll face in the opening round will be determined by a whole lot of other results yet to come in this weekend that features eight other conference tournaments.

“There are a lot of people who can play their way in this weekend,” Doris says. “That certainly creates a lot of excitement. That’s great for the sport, but that’s a lot for us to look at.”

As often seen in March during basketball conference championship week, there are several conferences that have the potential to create a lot of volatility — May Madness, if you like.

One such source of chaos could be the Big Ten tournament, which gets underway in Baltimore Thursday. Top-seeded Maryland was the No. 1 team in the committee rankings released a week ago. But the Terrapins are anything but a lock to claim the league’s automatic spot considering their semifinal opponent, Penn State, took them to overtime less than a month ago. The Nittany Lions and Terrapins will face off at Homewood Field in Baltimore first at 5:30 p.m., with predetermined host and second-seeded Johns Hopkins taking on No. 3 Rutgers at 8. Both contests can be seen on BTN.

Penn State, in fact, might be the most intriguing fourth seed taking part in any of this weekend’s postseason events. The Nittany Lions’ three conference losses at the hands of the teams seeded ahead of them all came by one-goal margins. Two of those, Maryland and Hopkins, were in overtime. But the Nittany Lions’ 8-6 overall record also features a win against Denver, something no other team in the country has on its resume.

“We can’t think about what we might have done,” PSU coach Jeff Tambroni says. “The reality is any time spent thinking about that is wasted time. We’ve really just tried to stay positive and hope we continue to gain experience. That’s what we’ve tried to stress.”

At least the Nittany Lions were able to get a positive result heading into the tournament. They concluded the regular campaign with a 14-9 win at Michigan to assure themselves a berth in this tournament — some bonus lacrosse, as Tambroni terms it.

“Whoever coined the phrase there’s no such thing as a moral victory was certainly right,” he says. “The difference in that locker room between losing a game in overtime against one of the best teams in the country and just getting a win against any team in the country is huge. Whether it’s happiness or momentum or whatever you want to call it, it’s like no other feeling. It made a big difference in our preparation this week.”

It would be ideal, of course, for Penn State to secure two wins and claim the automatic bid, removing themselves from the crowded at-large pool altogether. But one victory against the Terrapins should put them in the equation.

“It would boost our chance,” Tambroni says. “It would give us two top-five wins, which is something no one else has. We might be able to separate ourselves in that regard. But we understand that we had a few other losses in there, albeit earlier in the season, that might not help us. It all depends who we might be butting up against in that discussion.”

Did we mention the committee has a tough job this week? Other potential sites that could cause the deck to be shuffled are the Big East Tournament in Denver, the Ivy League tourney hosted by Brown in Providence, and the America East champion at regular-season top finisher Albany. The Pioneers, Bears and Great Danes were all in the top five of the last set of committee’s rankings released last week. But any upsets in those tournaments could mix up the at-large field as well as have an impact on the play-in slots that will go to the four lowest-ranked automatic qualifiers.

“That’s another separation point that’s hard to determine right now,” Doris says. “We can’t really anticipate where those four lowest AQ’s are going to come from.”

Then there are still a few contests involving teams whose conference tournaments were already completed, most notably Army’s Sunday date at Notre Dame. The Black Knights came up short against Loyola in the Patriot finale but avenged an earlier setback against Navy to get there. But Notre Dame won’t be feeling charitable. The Fighting Irish, ranked first in the polls and in the committee standings earlier, suddenly find themselves on a two-game losing streak after losing late leads against North Carolina in the regular-season finale and Duke in the ACC tournament semifinal round.

“Absolutely, we’ll be looking at that game and all of those match-ups over the weekend,” Doris says. “They’re all going to affect the RPI and the schedule strength. That’s going to be a major factor.”