Editor’s Note: Guest post by Hayden King
Week 8 Recap
Best week of the year capped off with a 13-4 finish. Friday started off the week rough, going 0-3 on the day. I picked Virginia over Duke, Boston over Navy, and Jacksonville over Utah.
For Virginia over Duke, I’ll recap that in the Week 8 Games of the Week section because it was part of last week's parlay. To begin, let’s talk about Navy beating Boston.
Heading into last Friday, Boston was 7-1 while Navy was 4-6. I thought this would be an easy pick with Boston having wins over Harvard, Bucknell and UMass. Unfortunately, Navy showed up Friday with 3 guys netting hat tricks (Hewitt, Hovivian, and Tolker).
The Midshipmen beat Boston 10-8 for their best win of the season. Hopefully Navy can keep this momentum going to finish out the season.
Jacksonville losing to Utah shocked me. Jacksonville went into this game with their best win being over current #1 Duke in February. February Duke always drops some they shouldn’t but I thought Jacksonville had a good unit this year.
Utah has 4 games with 18 or more goals, and they obliterated Jacksonville’s defense Friday. The ASUN is shaping up to be one of the more competitive conferences in Division 1 lacrosse. Special shoutout to Utah Freshman Ryan Stines for his 5 goal performance.
My last loss of the week came from Michigan beating Maryland. Is Michigan good? I honestly don’t know. They got worked by Marquette earlier in the year, and have 4 losses on the season. However, they also now have high quality wins over Maryland and Delaware.
As for Maryland, I don’t even know what to think. They can beat anyone, but for some reason seem to drop one’s they should win, i.e. Michigan and Loyola. This could be a situation where teams are putting their best team forward against one of the best teams in the nation.
Whatever the case is, Maryland needs to tighten things up if they want to stay atop the rankings. They have now dropped to #5 in most polls.
Wins for the weekend were: Army, Cornell, Penn, Stony Brook, UMass, Harvard, Lehigh, Princeton, Saint Joseph’s, Notre Dame, Hopkins, and Penn State.
Week 8 Games of the Week (2-1)
Last week I decided to change the structure of my Games of the Week so it can be used as a parlay. I’ll be doing that again this week and hopefully we can net some favorable odds.
Alright, time to address my very wrong prediction of Virginia over Duke. This game provided the worst odds of the parlay at -245, meaning Virginia SHOULD beat Duke. I also mentioned in last weeks blog that Duke would have their strongest matchup yet.
I doubted Duke’s wins over Loyola and Penn. I should’ve paid more attention to their win over Saint Joseph’s. Duke looked VERY good on Friday, and man is that offense humming. I said at the beginning of the year they would be better without Montgomery, and I think that’s come true.
Congratulations to Duke for the win and cementing their spot atop the national rankings. I will not be betting against them any time soon. With a defense like this, I think they’ll beat Notre Dame as well when they match up this weekend.
I did have two wins on the week, which is something we’ll build on for Week 9. First up, I said to take Cornell +8 over Dartmouth. I said I’d take this game +10 if that’s what they set the odds at, and man was that a good call. Cornell beat the Big Green 22-11 to remain on top of the Ivy League.
I’ll be doing another spread pick this week. Always tough to predict, but with juggernauts like the Big Red, hopefully we can hammer out another spread to win the parlay. Thinking we may have another must-take spread when Cornell plays Harvard this weekend.
Finally, I took Penn State ML over Ohio State. The fact of the matter is I just don’t believe in Ohio State this year. I used both teams games vs. Cornell as a frame of reference, where PSU beat Cornell and Ohio State lost behind a bad defensive performance.
Well, history repeated itself and Ohio State’s defense got shelved on Sunday. Giving up 17 goals (tying their highest goals allowed), something is up with Ohio State. I don’t know if they don’t have the talent this year or what their issue is, but the B1G Ten continues to slip away.
Games of the Week: Week 9
As with last week, I’m putting a parlay together for my Games of the Week. Hoping it hits this week!
First up, I’m going to familiar territory and picking Cornell’s spread over Harvard. Right now that spread is set at 4.5 goals. Listen, this should be the easiest pick of the whole week at -110 odds.
Cornell beat Dartmouth last week by 10+, and Dartmouth beat Harvard two weeks ago. Honestly shocked to see the spread being this few goals!
Next up, I’m taking Michigan over Rutgers ML at +145. Michigan just beat Maryland, and Rutgers has two straight weeks of Big Ten losses to Hopkins and Ohio State. I don’t know why Michigan is an underdog in this line.
Both teams lost to Hopkins by 4, so this should be a close game. With that, after Michigan just upset Maryland this line is just too juicy not to take.
Finally, I’m taking Air Force over Bellarmine ML at -140. These two teams have faced off 12 times over their history, and Bellarmine has only won one of those matchups. When was that win? 2013.
I believe in history, and this line being at -140 is almost too good. Air Force has 3 quality wins over Denver, Colgate, and Bryant, who I think are all better than Bellarmine. These matchups have been close in the past, but I expect the Falcons to come out on top.
This parlay is sitting at +701. Bet 10$ for a payout of $80.18!
Bet responsibly, but I personally will be tossing a little more than 10$ on this one. Good luck everyone!
Picks
- Rutgers vs. Michigan (Friday)--Michigan
- North Carolina vs. Virginia (Friday)--UVA
- Loyola vs. Navy (Friday)--Loyola
- Ohio State vs. Maryland (Friday)--Maryland
- Richmond vs. UMass (Saturday)--UMass
- Bellarmine vs. Air Force (Saturday)--Air Force
- High Point vs. Hobart (Saturday)--High Point
- Princeton vs. Syracuse (Saturday)--Syracuse
- Harvard vs. Cornell (Saturday)--Cornell
- Yale vs. Dartmouth (Saturday)--Yale
- Bucknell vs. Lehigh (Saturday)--Lehigh
- Brown vs. Penn (Saturday)--Penn
- Robert Morris vs. Utah (Saturday)--Utah
- Denver vs. Villanova (Saturday)--Villanova
- Colgate vs. Army (Saturday)--Army
- Notre Dame vs. Duke (Saturday)--Duke
- Penn State vs. Johns Hopkins (Saturday)--Penn State
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