TOWSON FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

[LILax]

It’s tough to figure out what is going to happen when the Hens meet up with the Towson Tigers this Friday evening at the Tub in Newark. Delaware has absolutely nothing to gain in this game unless they consider winning the CAA regular season for the fourth consecutive year something. I am not sure I do. It was pretty awful when the Hens won the regular season title in ’21 only to lose the first round to Hofstra by a goal. Total gut punch.

Anyway, the Hens gain no advantage by winning this game. Ever since they decided to move out of the CAA for football, the lacrosse team has been eliminated from hosting the CAA tourney for the next two years. Can’t wait for them to be fully rid of this small-minded conference. Although I am not convinced that their new conference will be any better.

The Delaware vs Towson matchup looks to be an extremely competitive game on paper. Both teams are undefeated in conference and the cumulative scoring versus the six CAA teams is Delaware (94-43 or +51 goals) and Towson (94-44, +50 goals). Towson has the 8th ranked scoring offense (14.46 goals per game) and Delaware has the 13th ranked offense (13.25 goals per game). Towson leapfrogged the Hens to become the #2 ranked scoring defense (8.54) after holding Monmouth to 2 goals last week, and Delaware is a hundredth of a point behind as the #3 ranked scoring defense (8.55). But the game is not played on paper and it is virtually impossible to imagine what each of these coaches want to show in this game when the two teams are on a collision course to meet up again eight days later @Towson. Motivation for this game is unknown. If the Hens win Friday night it will be the third time in four years that they would have won the conference and were screwed out of hosting the tournament. Bizarre.

What to expect from Towson
The Tigers are led on offense by Nick DeMaio (26G 36A) who is the most improved player in the conference. DeMaio was a prolific goal scorer from the high lefty wing with a shoot-first mentality over the last two years with the Tigers. His volume of shooting led to a less-than-stellar shooting percentage. This year DeMaio has transformed into the quarterback at attack and spends most of his time behind the net finding open snipers. But he is also shooting at a 38% success rate. The best part is that he has tons of great shooters on his squad. Slick lefty sophomore Mikey Weisshaar has 37 goals on 35% shooting along with 17 assists. He is complemented on the other wing by the huge righty sophomore Joaquin Villagomez (6’6” 220lbs) who has 26 goals as a primarily off-ball shooter at attack. They’ve also have a couple sneaky off-ball guys in Bode Maurer (21 goals) and Alex Roussel (12G 8A) who always find open seams inside to snipe at an extremely high percentage 47% and 53% respectively. The offense is helped by the possession advantage the Tigers have with Matt Constantinides winning 58% of their faceoffs.

Stony Brook and Fairfield did the best in limiting this prolific offense by playing man-to-man defense with limited slides and mixing it up with a zone from time to time. Towson does not have great one-on-one dodgers but they always seem to find the open man. Stony Brook played a very physical game against the Tigers and limited them to just 9 goals. Not sure what we will see from Coach DeLuca’s defense, but the Hens generally play straight up man-to-man with aggressive blind slides.

The defense is led by 6’5” Colby Barsz, the most dependable defender in the CAA, who has amassed 21 GBs and 17 caused turnovers this year. He has a lot of help in the caused turnover department with the extremely athletic LSM Sam Morin (38 GBs, 17CTs), SSDM Reese Potter (38GBs, 12CTs), Joe Petro (32GBs, 14CTs), Elijah Smith (24GBs, 9CTs) and Connor Spagnoli (28GBs, 12CTs). That’s a lot of ball hawking and not surprising that the Tigers are the #5 team in caused turnovers with 10.69 per game. The defense is backed up by goaltender Luke Downs who gives up just 8.8 goals a game with a .548 save percentage.

What can the Hens do to slay the Tigers?
The Hens will need to stay close in the possession battle. Constantinides is an excellent fogo who is helped tremendously by great wing play. OJ Morris and company will need to keep the Tigers to their average of 58%. If the Hens can win 42% of the faceoffs without their top LSM Joe Speers, they will have a chance to make this game competitive. I would not be surprised to see DeLuca put Mike Robinson on the wings for some of these draws since he is a GB machine.

The Hens will need to have a great defensive performance from Matt Montgomery who will try to slow down DeMaio from X. I would expect this to be a very physical confrontation. The Tigers have great outside shooting, however, Hen’s tender Kevin Ellington is pretty great at stopping outside shots. He is currently the #1 goalie in the nation with an eye-popping .615 save percentage. The Hens will need to limit turnovers and shoot at a higher percentage than they have in recent weeks. I think this is going to be a10-9 type of game. First team to 10 will probably win.

The Hens will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of their first NCAA quarterfinal team from 1984 that succumbed to an all-time great Hopkins team. I know some of these animals. If the squad on the field plays anything like that team, I feel pretty good about their chances of winning Friday evening. Can’t wait.

[Hengrad07]

It’s tough to figure out what is going to happen when the Hens meet up with the Towson Tigers this Friday evening at the Tub in Newark. Delaware has absolutely nothing to gain in this game unless they consider winning the CAA regular season for the fourth consecutive year something. I am not sure I do. It was pretty awful when the Hens won the regular season title in ’21 only to lose the first round to Hofstra by a goal. Total gut punch.

Anyway, the Hens gain no advantage by winning this game. Ever since they decided to move out of the CAA for football, the lacrosse team has been eliminated from hosting the CAA tourney for the next two years. Can’t wait for them to be fully rid of this small-minded conference. Although I am not convinced that their new conference will be any better.

The Delaware vs Towson matchup looks to be an extremely competitive game on paper. Both teams are undefeated in conference and the cumulative scoring versus the six CAA teams is Delaware (94-43 or +51 goals) and Towson (94-44, +50 goals). Towson has the 8th ranked scoring offense (14.46 goals per game) and Delaware has the 13th ranked offense (13.25 goals per game). Towson leapfrogged the Hens to become the #2 ranked scoring defense (8.54) after holding Monmouth to 2 goals last week, and Delaware is a hundredth of a point behind as the #3 ranked scoring defense (8.55). But the game is not played on paper and it is virtually impossible to imagine what each of these coaches want to show in this game when the two teams are on a collision course to meet up again eight days later @Towson. Motivation for this game is unknown. If the Hens win Friday night it will be the third time in four years that they would have won the conference and were screwed out of hosting the tournament. Bizarre.

What to expect from Towson
The Tigers are led on offense by Nick DeMaio (26G 36A) who is the most improved player in the conference. DeMaio was a prolific goal scorer from the high lefty wing with a shoot-first mentality over the last two years with the Tigers. His volume of shooting led to a less-than-stellar shooting percentage. This year DeMaio has transformed into the quarterback at attack and spends most of his time behind the net finding open snipers. But he is also shooting at a 38% success rate. The best part is that he has tons of great shooters on his squad. Slick lefty sophomore Mikey Weisshaar has 37 goals on 35% shooting along with 17 assists. He is complemented on the other wing by the huge righty sophomore Joaquin Villagomez (6’6” 220lbs) who has 26 goals as a primarily off-ball shooter at attack. They’ve also have a couple sneaky off-ball guys in Bode Maurer (21 goals) and Alex Roussel (12G 8A) who always find open seams inside to snipe at an extremely high percentage 47% and 53% respectively. The offense is helped by the possession advantage the Tigers have with Matt Constantinides winning 58% of their faceoffs.

Stony Brook and Fairfield did the best in limiting this prolific offense by playing man-to-man defense with limited slides and mixing it up with a zone from time to time. Towson does not have great one-on-one dodgers but they always seem to find the open man. Stony Brook played a very physical game against the Tigers and limited them to just 9 goals. Not sure what we will see from Coach DeLuca’s defense, but the Hens generally play straight up man-to-man with aggressive blind slides.

The defense is led by 6’5” Colby Barsz, the most dependable defender in the CAA, who has amassed 21 GBs and 17 caused turnovers this year. He has a lot of help in the caused turnover department with the extremely athletic LSM Sam Morin (38 GBs, 17CTs), SSDM Reese Potter (38GBs, 12CTs), Joe Petro (32GBs, 14CTs), Elijah Smith (24GBs, 9CTs) and Connor Spagnoli (28GBs, 12CTs). That’s a lot of ball hawking and not surprising that the Tigers are the #5 team in caused turnovers with 10.69 per game. The defense is backed up by goaltender Luke Downs who gives up just 8.8 goals a game with a .548 save percentage.

What can the Hens do to slay the Tigers?
The Hens will need to stay close in the possession battle. Constantinides is an excellent fogo who is helped tremendously by great wing play. OJ Morris and company will need to keep the Tigers to their average of 58%. If the Hens can win 42% of the faceoffs without their top LSM Joe Speers, they will have a chance to make this game competitive. I would not be surprised to see DeLuca put Mike Robinson on the wings for some of these draws since he is a GB machine.

The Hens will need to have a great defensive performance from Matt Montgomery who will try to slow down DeMaio from X. I would expect this to be a very physical confrontation. The Tigers have great outside shooting, however, Hen’s tender Kevin Ellington is pretty great at stopping outside shots. He is currently the #1 goalie in the nation with an eye-popping .615 save percentage. The Hens will need to limit turnovers and shoot at a higher percentage than they have in recent weeks. I think this is going to be a10-9 type of game. First team to 10 will probably win.

The Hens will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of their first NCAA quarterfinal team from 1984 that succumbed to an all-time great Hopkins team. I know some of these animals. If the squad on the field plays anything like that team, I feel pretty good about their chances of winning Friday evening. Can’t wait.

What lax conference is worse than the CAA?

[UDHoops]

Look out for our podcast episode tomorrow morning with Head Coach Ben DeLuca. Will post the link in here.

[77HEN]

Although the Hens handled Fairfield easily at 14-6 a couple of weeks ago, it could be good to get the #1 seed and avoid them in the first game. Then again, if Stony gets in, they could be more of a challenge for the Hens.

[LILax]

It’s tough to figure out what is going to happen when the Hens meet up with the Towson Tigers this Friday evening at the Tub in Newark. Delaware has absolutely nothing to gain in this game unless they consider winning the CAA regular season for the fourth consecutive year something. I am not sure I do. It was pretty awful when the Hens won the regular season title in ’21 only to lose the first round to Hofstra by a goal. Total gut punch.

Anyway, the Hens gain no advantage by winning this game. Ever since they decided to move out of the CAA for football, the lacrosse team has been eliminated from hosting the CAA tourney for the next two years. Can’t wait for them to be fully rid of this small-minded conference. Although I am not convinced that their new conference will be any better.

The Delaware vs Towson matchup looks to be an extremely competitive game on paper. Both teams are undefeated in conference and the cumulative scoring versus the six CAA teams is Delaware (94-43 or +51 goals) and Towson (94-44, +50 goals). Towson has the 8th ranked scoring offense (14.46 goals per game) and Delaware has the 13th ranked offense (13.25 goals per game). Towson leapfrogged the Hens to become the #2 ranked scoring defense (8.54) after holding Monmouth to 2 goals last week, and Delaware is a hundredth of a point behind as the #3 ranked scoring defense (8.55). But the game is not played on paper and it is virtually impossible to imagine what each of these coaches want to show in this game when the two teams are on a collision course to meet up again eight days later @Towson. Motivation for this game is unknown. If the Hens win Friday night it will be the third time in four years that they would have won the conference and were screwed out of hosting the tournament. Bizarre.

What to expect from Towson
The Tigers are led on offense by Nick DeMaio (26G 36A) who is the most improved player in the conference. DeMaio was a prolific goal scorer from the high lefty wing with a shoot-first mentality over the last two years with the Tigers. His volume of shooting led to a less-than-stellar shooting percentage. This year DeMaio has transformed into the quarterback at attack and spends most of his time behind the net finding open snipers. But he is also shooting at a 38% success rate. The best part is that he has tons of great shooters on his squad. Slick lefty sophomore Mikey Weisshaar has 37 goals on 35% shooting along with 17 assists. He is complemented on the other wing by the huge righty sophomore Joaquin Villagomez (6’6” 220lbs) who has 26 goals as a primarily off-ball shooter at attack. They’ve also have a couple sneaky off-ball guys in Bode Maurer (21 goals) and Alex Roussel (12G 8A) who always find open seams inside to snipe at an extremely high percentage 47% and 53% respectively. The offense is helped by the possession advantage the Tigers have with Matt Constantinides winning 58% of their faceoffs.

Stony Brook and Fairfield did the best in limiting this prolific offense by playing man-to-man defense with limited slides and mixing it up with a zone from time to time. Towson does not have great one-on-one dodgers but they always seem to find the open man. Stony Brook played a very physical game against the Tigers and limited them to just 9 goals. Not sure what we will see from Coach DeLuca’s defense, but the Hens generally play straight up man-to-man with aggressive blind slides.

The defense is led by 6’5” Colby Barsz, the most dependable defender in the CAA, who has amassed 21 GBs and 17 caused turnovers this year. He has a lot of help in the caused turnover department with the extremely athletic LSM Sam Morin (38 GBs, 17CTs), SSDM Reese Potter (38GBs, 12CTs), Joe Petro (32GBs, 14CTs), Elijah Smith (24GBs, 9CTs) and Connor Spagnoli (28GBs, 12CTs). That’s a lot of ball hawking and not surprising that the Tigers are the #5 team in caused turnovers with 10.69 per game. The defense is backed up by goaltender Luke Downs who gives up just 8.8 goals a game with a .548 save percentage.

What can the Hens do to slay the Tigers?
The Hens will need to stay close in the possession battle. Constantinides is an excellent fogo who is helped tremendously by great wing play. OJ Morris and company will need to keep the Tigers to their average of 58%. If the Hens can win 42% of the faceoffs without their top LSM Joe Speers, they will have a chance to make this game competitive. I would not be surprised to see DeLuca put Mike Robinson on the wings for some of these draws since he is a GB machine.

The Hens will need to have a great defensive performance from Matt Montgomery who will try to slow down DeMaio from X. I would expect this to be a very physical confrontation. The Tigers have great outside shooting, however, Hen’s tender Kevin Ellington is pretty great at stopping outside shots. He is currently the #1 goalie in the nation with an eye-popping .615 save percentage. The Hens will need to limit turnovers and shoot at a higher percentage than they have in recent weeks. I think this is going to be a10-9 type of game. First team to 10 will probably win.

The Hens will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of their first NCAA quarterfinal team from 1984 that succumbed to an all-time great Hopkins team. I know some of these animals. If the squad on the field plays anything like that team, I feel pretty good about their chances of winning Friday evening. Can’t wait.

What lax conference is worse than the CAA?

The MAAC, ASUN and America East are all worse than the CAA.

The CAA has had two teams that have made the final four and five that have won NCAA tourney games (Delaware, Towson, Drexel, Stony Brook and Hofstra). No MAAC or ASUN has ever won an NCAA game and the only good teams in the America East are Bryant and Albany.

Nobody wants Delaware to join their conference. I would not be surprised to see them end up in the ASUN replacing Lindenwood. BLECH!!!

[Info Hound]

You may well be right, but I am hoping for the A10, which has only six teams

The CAA has had two teams that have made the final four and five that have won NCAA tourney games (Delaware, Towson, Drexel, Stony Brook and Hofstra). No MAAC or ASUN has ever won an NCAA game and the only good teams in the America East are Bryant and Albany.

Nobody wants Delaware to join their conference. I would not be surprised to see them end up in the ASUN replacing Lindenwood. BLECH!!!

You may well be right, but I am hopeful for the A10, which has only 6 teams. It would reunite us with St. Joes's and UMass, and include a UR team which would be a fun add. The other members are High Point, Hobart and St. Bonnie's. We would definitely strengthen that group.

We'll see.....

[Milehighbluehen]

It’s tough to figure out what is going to happen when the Hens meet up with the Towson Tigers this Friday evening at the Tub in Newark. Delaware has absolutely nothing to gain in this game unless they consider winning the CAA regular season for the fourth consecutive year something. I am not sure I do. It was pretty awful when the Hens won the regular season title in ’21 only to lose the first round to Hofstra by a goal. Total gut punch.

Anyway, the Hens gain no advantage by winning this game. Ever since they decided to move out of the CAA for football, the lacrosse team has been eliminated from hosting the CAA tourney for the next two years. Can’t wait for them to be fully rid of this small-minded conference. Although I am not convinced that their new conference will be any better.

The Delaware vs Towson matchup looks to be an extremely competitive game on paper. Both teams are undefeated in conference and the cumulative scoring versus the six CAA teams is Delaware (94-43 or +51 goals) and Towson (94-44, +50 goals). Towson has the 8th ranked scoring offense (14.46 goals per game) and Delaware has the 13th ranked offense (13.25 goals per game). Towson leapfrogged the Hens to become the #2 ranked scoring defense (8.54) after holding Monmouth to 2 goals last week, and Delaware is a hundredth of a point behind as the #3 ranked scoring defense (8.55). But the game is not played on paper and it is virtually impossible to imagine what each of these coaches want to show in this game when the two teams are on a collision course to meet up again eight days later @Towson. Motivation for this game is unknown. If the Hens win Friday night it will be the third time in four years that they would have won the conference and were screwed out of hosting the tournament. Bizarre.

What to expect from Towson
The Tigers are led on offense by Nick DeMaio (26G 36A) who is the most improved player in the conference. DeMaio was a prolific goal scorer from the high lefty wing with a shoot-first mentality over the last two years with the Tigers. His volume of shooting led to a less-than-stellar shooting percentage. This year DeMaio has transformed into the quarterback at attack and spends most of his time behind the net finding open snipers. But he is also shooting at a 38% success rate. The best part is that he has tons of great shooters on his squad. Slick lefty sophomore Mikey Weisshaar has 37 goals on 35% shooting along with 17 assists. He is complemented on the other wing by the huge righty sophomore Joaquin Villagomez (6’6” 220lbs) who has 26 goals as a primarily off-ball shooter at attack. They’ve also have a couple sneaky off-ball guys in Bode Maurer (21 goals) and Alex Roussel (12G 8A) who always find open seams inside to snipe at an extremely high percentage 47% and 53% respectively. The offense is helped by the possession advantage the Tigers have with Matt Constantinides winning 58% of their faceoffs.

Stony Brook and Fairfield did the best in limiting this prolific offense by playing man-to-man defense with limited slides and mixing it up with a zone from time to time. Towson does not have great one-on-one dodgers but they always seem to find the open man. Stony Brook played a very physical game against the Tigers and limited them to just 9 goals. Not sure what we will see from Coach DeLuca’s defense, but the Hens generally play straight up man-to-man with aggressive blind slides.

The defense is led by 6’5” Colby Barsz, the most dependable defender in the CAA, who has amassed 21 GBs and 17 caused turnovers this year. He has a lot of help in the caused turnover department with the extremely athletic LSM Sam Morin (38 GBs, 17CTs), SSDM Reese Potter (38GBs, 12CTs), Joe Petro (32GBs, 14CTs), Elijah Smith (24GBs, 9CTs) and Connor Spagnoli (28GBs, 12CTs). That’s a lot of ball hawking and not surprising that the Tigers are the #5 team in caused turnovers with 10.69 per game. The defense is backed up by goaltender Luke Downs who gives up just 8.8 goals a game with a .548 save percentage.

What can the Hens do to slay the Tigers?
The Hens will need to stay close in the possession battle. Constantinides is an excellent fogo who is helped tremendously by great wing play. OJ Morris and company will need to keep the Tigers to their average of 58%. If the Hens can win 42% of the faceoffs without their top LSM Joe Speers, they will have a chance to make this game competitive. I would not be surprised to see DeLuca put Mike Robinson on the wings for some of these draws since he is a GB machine.

The Hens will need to have a great defensive performance from Matt Montgomery who will try to slow down DeMaio from X. I would expect this to be a very physical confrontation. The Tigers have great outside shooting, however, Hen’s tender Kevin Ellington is pretty great at stopping outside shots. He is currently the #1 goalie in the nation with an eye-popping .615 save percentage. The Hens will need to limit turnovers and shoot at a higher percentage than they have in recent weeks. I think this is going to be a10-9 type of game. First team to 10 will probably win.

The Hens will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of their first NCAA quarterfinal team from 1984 that succumbed to an all-time great Hopkins team. I know some of these animals. If the squad on the field plays anything like that team, I feel pretty good about their chances of winning Friday evening. Can’t wait.

What lax conference is worse than the CAA?

The MAAC, ASUN and America East are all worse than the CAA.

The CAA has had two teams that have made the final four and five that have won NCAA tourney games (Delaware, Towson, Drexel, Stony Brook and Hofstra). No MAAC or ASUN has ever won an NCAA game and the only good teams in the America East are Bryant and Albany.

Nobody wants Delaware to join their conference. I would not be surprised to see them end up in the ASUN replacing Lindenwood. BLECH!!!

I agree that historically the CAA has better programs than some of those conferences but the CAA seems to be in the “play-in” game every year (recently). The ASUN hasn’t been around long but Utah had a better seed last year than I can remember a CAA champ receiving in any recent tournament.

A10 has to be the goal, it’s a legitimate two bid league with the addition of UD.

[UDHoops]

Look out for our podcast episode tomorrow morning with Head Coach Ben DeLuca. Will post the link in here.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4sEwg4 ... niaeuuChYw
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b ... 0653567317

About 28 minutes into the episode we kick off the interview. Lots of good nuggets from this season and this game

[bluehenbillk]

Why doesn’t the athletic administrators chase bigger affiliations for men’s lacrosse? ACC? Big Ten? Rawak came from the Big Ten…. Even the Big East would be a step up from the CAA.

[LILax]

Look out for our podcast episode tomorrow morning with Head Coach Ben DeLuca. Will post the link in here.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4sEwg4 ... niaeuuChYw
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b ... 0653567317

About 28 minutes into the episode we kick off the interview. Lots of good nuggets from this season and this game

Great job on the interview guys! I've been talking about the injuries this team has suffered all year. It is amazing how many freshman and sophs have stepped up. Keep up the good work.

[LILax]

What lax conference is worse than the CAA?

The MAAC, ASUN and America East are all worse than the CAA.

The CAA has had two teams that have made the final four and five that have won NCAA tourney games (Delaware, Towson, Drexel, Stony Brook and Hofstra). No MAAC or ASUN has ever won an NCAA game and the only good teams in the America East are Bryant and Albany.

Nobody wants Delaware to join their conference. I would not be surprised to see them end up in the ASUN replacing Lindenwood. BLECH!!!

I agree that historically the CAA has better programs than some of those conferences but the CAA seems to be in the “play-in” game every year (recently). The ASUN hasn’t been around long but Utah had a better seed last year than I can remember a CAA champ receiving in any recent tournament.

A10 has to be the goal, it’s a legitimate two bid league with the addition of UD.

Two things. Delaware playing in last year's play-in game was an absolute joke. Bryant, Utah and Richmond got absolutely smoked in the first round. Utah lost by 13 goals to Notre Dame (20-7), Bryant lost by 14 goals to a mediocre Hopkins teams (22-8) and Richmond lost to Virginia by 9 goals (17-8) all in non-competitive games from the whistle. Meanwhile, Delaware embarassed Marist in the play-in game 25-10 and took Duke (the eventual runner-up) to the last minute in an epic 12-11 battle. I am convinced that someone (or multiple people) on the NCAA committee have a vendetta against Coach DeLuca.

Second, the A10 makes the most sense. They might be looking for a replacement for UMass who is leaving the conference to play football in the MAC (I think). It would be funny if UMass ended up back in the CAA as an affiliate member, although I highly doubt it. The Big10 is not looking for another team, they have the perfect conference size with one affiliate (Johns Hopkins). The Big East is also not looking for another member with just one affiliate member (Denver). However, there has been a LOT of chatter about the ACC adding another team in order to get one automatic bid and bring more interest to its regular season championship. It will take an act of god for the ACC conference ADs and Presidents to agree on an affiliate member. Years back when Johns Hopkins was considered for that affiliate spot for lacrosse one ACC president said that "Hopkins will raise an ACC Championship banner over my dead body." The vote was denied.

[UDHoops]

Look out for our podcast episode tomorrow morning with Head Coach Ben DeLuca. Will post the link in here.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4sEwg4 ... niaeuuChYw
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b ... 0653567317

About 28 minutes into the episode we kick off the interview. Lots of good nuggets from this season and this game

Great job on the interview guys! I've been talking about the injuries this team has suffered all year. It is amazing how many freshman and sophs have stepped up. Keep up the good work.

You too. I love reading your analysis. Would love to connect about getting you on soon to talk more deeply about the Hens because you know them better than me!

[77HEN]

The MAAC, ASUN and America East are all worse than the CAA.

The CAA has had two teams that have made the final four and five that have won NCAA tourney games (Delaware, Towson, Drexel, Stony Brook and Hofstra). No MAAC or ASUN has ever won an NCAA game and the only good teams in the America East are Bryant and Albany.

Nobody wants Delaware to join their conference. I would not be surprised to see them end up in the ASUN replacing Lindenwood. BLECH!!!

I agree that historically the CAA has better programs than some of those conferences but the CAA seems to be in the “play-in” game every year (recently). The ASUN hasn’t been around long but Utah had a better seed last year than I can remember a CAA champ receiving in any recent tournament.

A10 has to be the goal, it’s a legitimate two bid league with the addition of UD.

Two things. Delaware playing in last year's play-in game was an absolute joke. Bryant, Utah and Richmond got absolutely smoked in the first round. Utah lost by 13 goals to Notre Dame (20-7), Bryant lost by 14 goals to a mediocre Hopkins teams (22-8) and Richmond lost to Virginia by 9 goals (17-8) all in non-competitive games from the whistle. Meanwhile, Delaware embarassed Marist in the play-in game 25-10 and took Duke (the eventual runner-up) to the last minute in an epic 12-11 battle. I am convinced that someone (or multiple people) on the NCAA committee have a vendetta against Coach DeLuca.

Second, the A10 makes the most sense. They might be looking for a replacement for UMass who is leaving the conference to play football in the MAC (I think). It would be funny if UMass ended up back in the CAA as an affiliate member, although I highly doubt it. The Big10 is not looking for another team, they have the perfect conference size with one affiliate (Johns Hopkins). The Big East is also not looking for another member with just one affiliate member (Denver). However, there has been a LOT of chatter about the ACC adding another team in order to get one automatic bid and bring more interest to its regular season championship. It will take an act of god for the ACC conference ADs and Presidents to agree on an affiliate member. Years back when Johns Hopkins was considered for that affiliate spot for lacrosse one ACC president said that "Hopkins will raise an ACC Championship banner over my dead body." The vote was denied.

Mens Lacrosse is absolutely the best program in the UD AD. Only Field Hockey could challenge for that status (and they have no home yet either). Would be a travesty and a serious failure by the AD if a proper home is not found for the team.

[dchen]

Would the A10 deny affiliate status to UMass, a charter member, but admit Delaware as an affiliate? It is already a conference with two affiliates: Hobart and High Point.

[BlueHenBill]

I beieve that the A10 will keep UMass Men's Lax as an affiliate and will not add UD.