The Sunday Slide: Feeling the Heat

Suddenly, we’ve reached the end of one season and the beginning of another — sorta.

This week, most teams in the Big Ten and ACC will play their final regular-season games. Their respective conference tournaments will take place next week. Remember that frigid February? Yeah, we’re long past that.

It’s time for the heat of the postseason.

Conference tournaments represent the final opportunities for bubble teams to state their cases. Inevitably, there will be teams that win their conference tournaments that we didn’t expect, further clouding the bubble picture.

We’re nearing the point at which every single game is “win and survive.” It all culminates in a Memorial Day weekend trip to Evanston, Ill.

I’ll be there. Will your favorite team?

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS

Who should be No. 1 on Monday? This is one of the more perplexing debates of the season. Northwestern has now taken down the undefeated No. 1 team twice in the span of a few weeks (first North Carolina and then Maryland on Thursday). That should make them the no-doubt No. 1, right?

Well, we also can’t look past an odd loss to Ohio State, the first of back-to-back losses in Evanston. The Syracuse loss, though, is more justifiable.

With three losses, it’ll be difficult for me to rank Northwestern No. 1. My choice would be North Carolina, which outside of its loss to Northwestern (by a goal, by the way), has been exceptional.

Syracuse-Notre Dame was easily the game of the year so far. The third and fourth overtimes were a helter-skelter mess of exhaustion and players trying to win the game for their team. But it was fun. And the officials let the players play.

Every time I watch Dan Guyette in goal, I come away impressed. Her ability to meet the moment and ignore the stakes makes her one of the best clutch goalies in the country. She made multiple overtime stops to keep Syracuse alive.

Navy sang second. After the blitz they unleased on Army in the second and third quarters, the Mids deserved to celebrate. Army remains dangerous and is far from out of the equation in May, though. This is looking like a three-bid situation for the Patriot League, which would be unprecedented.

Penn deserves some props. The Quakers have ridden the rollercoaster to a 6-6 season thus far, but that’s probably even better than anticipated. They have two seniors on the roster. That’s it. Yet they just beat Princeton, the Ivy League’s preseason favorite, and also boasts impressive wins over Harvard and Georgetown.

Stanford and Michigan have started to perplex me. Both teams have spent time in the top five. Yet both teams will enter their postseason having experienced two-game losing streaks — and each team suffered one head-scratching loss during that stretch (Stanford to Villanova and Michigan to Rutgers).

Should that impact your trust in them come May? It’s tough to say. Defense wins in May, and that’s what Michigan has. On the flip side, few teams have more offensive depth than Stanford.

FUN WITH NUMBERS

12 • Straight wins for Syracuse since its 0-3 start. There might not be another team in the country as comfortable in close games as Regy Thorpe and the Orange.

150 • Career wins for Allison Kwolek after Clemson throttled Duke 17-5.

6-7 (sorry) • Six goals for Fiona Allen and seven points for Kate Galica led Virginia to an upset win over Boston College. At 7-8, Virginia needs to beat Virginia Tech and win an ACC quarterfinal matchup to guarantee eligibility for the NCAA tournament.

400 • Career wins for Northwestern head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller after the Wildcats beat Penn State on Sunday. Her mentor, Cindy Timchal, reached the 600-win mark earlier this season.

2,798 • Fans in Annapolis on hand to witness Navy’s 14-8 win over Army.

3,575 • Fans in Syracuse to watch the longest game in Orange women’s lacrosse history. It was the fifth-largest crowd for the women’s team at Syracuse.