Contrarian
Picks Five bold predictions that go against the grain
1
THE SHOT CLOCK WILL BE MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
The UWLX provided a preview. The 90-second clock made play faster, but seldom expired. A similar response became apparent during college fall ball. “It hasn‘t really affected anything,” Maryland coach Cathy Reese said. “It‘s just keeping tabs on possession.” Ninety seconds may seem short, but in game time, that‘s a lot of time.
2
OREGON WILL BE THE NCAA’S MOST IMPROVED TEAM.
The Ducks barely finished above .500 and
went 4-5 in the MPSF. Expect new coach Katrina Dowd to get much more out of them this year. Dowd has five NCAA championship rings — three as a player at Northwestern and two as an assistant at North Carolina — and is already talking about Pac-12 and NCAA titles at Oregon. Seeing what Lindsey Munday (USC), Angela McMahon (UMass) and Ann Elliott (Colorado) have achieved has us very much believing the Kelly Amonte Hiller coaching tree.
3
THE ACC WILL BE LOCKED OUT OF THE FINAL FOUR.
Thanks to Maryland’s pre-Big Ten dynasty and Virginia and North Carolina’s consistency, at least one ACC team has advanced to the NCAA semifinals every year since 1990. Coaches are calling for a down year for the most powerful conference in lacrosse. The streak will end with a quarterfinal upset of our preseason No. 1 Tar Heels.
4
ONE OF NORTHWESTERN’S CANADIANS WILL BE A TEWAARATON FINALIST.
The obvious choice is Selena Lasota, but some coaches are so high on freshman Megan Kinna, they already have her in the conversation. If the Wildcats rediscover a winning formula with their northern exposure (Danita Stroup also is Canadian), one of these players will get serious buzz. Only two Canadian women, Crysti Foote (Notre Dame) and Dana Dobbie (Maryland), have ever been finalists. No Canadian, male or female, has ever won the award.
5 USC WILL WIN IT ALL.
Michaela Michael, USC‘s first All- American, will be its first Tewaaraton finalist. She leads a strong senior class, and the talent trickles down to the incoming freshmen, which features the nation‘s top recruit and U.S. U19 silver medalist Kerrigan Miller. The Trojans were undefeated before bowing at Syracuse in overtime in the NCAA quarterfinals. That lone loss just added fuel to the fire for 2017, when the NCAA title will land on the West Coast.
42 US LACROSSE MAGAZINE February 2017
DIVISION I WOMEN
USlacrosse.org
NCAA PREVIEW
©TWITTER (KD); ©MATT CASHORE; ©LANCE KING (SL); ©DIRK DEWACHTER (MM)
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